Tata Motors launches new buses
Mumbai: Tata Motors has launched 19 bus models under two brands, Globus and Starbus.

The company feels that the bus transport system has huge potential in India, which has not been fully realised. Buses account for less than 15 per cent of commercial vehicles sold in India, compared to nearly 50 per cent in China and 40 per cent in Russia. Similar growth is also expected to be in several other countries.
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Fresenius Kabi to make India its sourcing centre
New Delhi: India will soon become one of the biggest sourcing centres for German healthcare company Fresenius Kabi AG.

The company's wholly-owned subsidiary is upgrading its manufacturing facilities to the European Good Manufacturing Practice (EU GMP) standards.

Rakesh Bhargava, managing director and CEO, Fresenius Kabi India said the parent company would make fresh investments to upgrade the manufacturing facility at Ranjangaon, near Pune.

The company hopes to get approvals from the EU regulators by the end of the year which will enable it to service many countries in Europe, Australia as well as in the Asia-Pacific region. Later it hopes to get approvals for the US markets as well.

The company manufactures parenterals (drugs administered by injection under or through one or more layers of skin or mucous membrane) and markets blood replacement products, clinical nutrition, intravenous fluids and infusion devices in India.
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Zydus to foray into US markets with generic drugs
Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila has entered into a tie up with Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Generics, a unit of Tyco Healthcare, to market generics in the US market.

According to the agreement Zydus Cadila's US subsidiary, Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc, and Mallinckrodt, generics products will be developed and registered by the American subsidiary of the Indian company.

The drugs would be manufactured at Ahmedabad at Zydus Cadila's facility. The partnership between the two companies would initially be for five years but may be extended by mutual consent, a press release issued by the company stated.
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SAIL to invest Rs4,500 cr to modernize Rourkela plant
Kolkata: Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has planned investments of Rs4,500 crore over the next seven years to trim operations at the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP).

SAIL has identified a number of projects and construction has begun on a number of these. SAIL aims at increasing RSP's annual hot metal production from 1.9 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 3 mtpa. Subsequently, the crude steel production will increase to 2.9 mtpa and finished steel production to 2.8 mtpa. The focus of the expansion programme is to improve the hot metal production facility of RSP.

At present, RSP has four old blast furnaces with high cost of hot metal production by industry standards. To reduce this cost, RSP is revamping its fourth blast furnace at a cost of Rs120 crore.

The plant is already revamping its first coke oven battery at a cost of Rs120 crore and would be modernising its ERW pipe plant at a cost of Rs80 crore. The slag granulation unit along with the first blast furnace is also being revamped for Rs14 crore.

RSP has planned a new sinter plant, a new plate mill and a new silicon steel mill. It would be rebuilding the coke oven battery for the fourth blast furnace and revamping the galvanising unit, the cold rolling mill and the tinplate line.
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Kinetic Motor ropes in HSBC Sec for recast
Mumbai: Pune-based scooter manufacturer, Kinetic Motor Company, has roped in HSBC Securities to advise it even as it is considering various options for the business of the company.

When contacted Sulajja Firodia Motwani, joint managing director, Kinetic Motor Company, said the company has been exploring and evaluating possibilities of strategic tie-ups or joint ventures and has been considering various options for short- and long-term financial resources from domestic or international markets at an appropriate time.

Kinetic's move comes at a time even as Hero Honda is planning to introduce a scooter in 2006 and the two-wheeler market is booming due to a soft interest rate regime and rising disposable incomes.
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TDSAT turns down Bharti's refund plea
New Delhi: Telecom tribunal TDSAT has dismissed Bharti's petition for refund of Rs135 crore it paid as licence fees for entry into basic services prior to the new uniform licencing regime introduced by the government.

Asked whether the company would challenge TDSAT's ruling in the Supreme Court, a Bharti spokesperson said the company was studying the judgment and after consulting with legal experts, it would decide its future course of action.

The government had approved the policy of Unified Access Service licence as per a decision of the Cabinet in October, 2003. The detailed guidelines envisaged "voluntary" migration of the existing Basic and Cellular Service Providers to UAS regime, DoT said.
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Godrej plans Rs700 crore investment in Gujarat
Ahmedabad: The Godrej group will invest over Rs700 crore in Gujarat in the next few years. It will invest Rs250 crore through its subsidiary Godrej Agrovet for cultivation and processing of palm oil in south Gujarat. The group will also invest substantially in chemicals, animal feed businesses and in various expansion programmes.

The company also plans to make substantial investments in the Aadhar project, a rural retail chain of stores.

Gujarat Agrovet, with a turnover of about Rs500 crore, is one of the largest marketers of cattle and poultry feed and the largest in plant growth promoters and urea coating agent in India.

Godrej is a leading manufacturer of surface-active agents, oleo chemicals and food products. The company employs more than 2,200 people and has four modern manufacturing facilities at Vikhroli in Mumbai, Valia in Gujarat, Mandideep in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Mysore.
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ONGC wins oil block in Nigeria
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has won the race for an oil block in Nigeria's joint development zone.

This will give ONGC Videsh Ltd's (OVL) the opportunity to debut in Nigeria, the world's eighth largest oil producer and a major oil supplier to Western Europe and the United States.

In December ONGC Videsh had entered into an agreement with Equator, the London Stock Exchange-listed oil and gas exploration company, to jointly bid for oil blocks in West Africa.

ONGC and Equator had placed bids for blocks 2 and 4, which are in the joint development zone. The zone is estimated to hold reserves of 11 billion barrels and when fully operational could yield up to 3 million barrels a day.
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Tata AutoComp enters into JV with Singapore firm
Mumbai: The auto componenent arm of the Tata group, Tata AutoComp Systems (TACO), has entered into a joint venture (JV) with Singapore-based terrestrial communications player, MobiApps to form a new company called TACO MobiApps Telesystem Ltd (TMT).

TACO will hold a majority stake of 58 per cent in the new JV while MobiApps will hold the remaining. MobiApps is among the leading providers of satellite and terrestrial communication based logistics and telematics technologies.

TACO, on its own, already offers a range of products and services in the field of auto components to automotive vehicle manufacturers.

According to company officials the objective of the JV will be to leverage the strengths of both the partners.

TACO officials said there was a high potential for improvement of fleet efficiencies through the use of VTS. Both TACO and MobiApps have the necessary technology, automotive domain experience and resources to address this need, they added.
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Indian PC market grows 34.4 per cent in 2004: Gartner
According to global research and analyst firm Gartner Inc, the Indian personal computer (PC) market posted a 34.4 per cent growth in 2004 and recorded the second highest shipments at 33.87 lakh in Asia-Pacific region.

According to a release by Gartner India, peaking business confidence-based on strong economic growth catalysed PC purchases in both consumer and corporate segments throughout 2004.

While on one hand desktops were finding new users in metro and upcountry markets, notebooks were selling remarkably well on convenience and mobility, the release said. The report said finance and banking, government and small and medium businesses (SMB) were the main drivers for the growth.

India recorded the second highest shipment in APAC market with a 34.4 per cent growth shipping over 33.87 lakh units, as against 25.21 lakh units shipped during the same period a year ago, it said. China topped the sector with shipments of around 1.49 crore units, even though it posted a growth rate of 14.9 per cent in the year.
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