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Deccan Chronicle Holdings pick up 67 percent stake in Asian Age
Bangalore: Vijay Mallya, the maverick chairman of liquor group United Breweries has almost exited from Asian Age by selling off 23 per cent of his stake in the Asian Age Holdings.

Mallya who held a 33 per cent stake in the newspaper is now left with a 10 per cent stake.

Mallya's stake in the UB Group was held through UB Holdings and McDowell's. While UB's stake has been sold off McDowell's stake has not.
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I-flex acquires stake in Canadian company Castek
New Delhi: I-flex Solutions has established an equity financing arrangement with Toronto-based provider of insurance systems for global property & casualty (P&C) insurance, Castek Software Inc according to which I-flex has become the largest shareholder in the Canadian company.

R Ravisankar, CEO, international operations and business development of I-flex, has joined Castek's board of directors.
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Zee gets into gaming
Essel group has launched an interactive gaming channel called Play TV, in which viewers can participate in various games live on air.

PlayTV will have games, contests and bidding, chat and dating shows. A contest can have participation by the audience through mobile phones. Questions will be asked based on visuals aired in the channel and viewers can participate by sending SMSs. Participants can also bid using mobile phones.

The channel will also have gaming formats that will allow participants to be online and play in groups. The channel will have a mix of shows produced in India as well as shows acquired and based on international formats.

Globally, the gaming industry is worth $30 billion. The Indian gaming industry is projected to be about $1 billion at present and is expected to see double digit growth, according to various estimates.

Television industry experts also point out that the launch of channels in the genre of gaming is imperative with the launch of alternate television distribution systems like direct to home (DTH) and broadband.
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Leela in Rs 120 crore deal for former ITDC property
The Leela group of Hotels is acquiring a five star property in Kovalam earlier held by ITDC for Rs120 crore from a Gulf-based non-resident Indian who runs it under the Meridien brand name.

The property may require some amount to be spent on for refurbishment. Leela group will have 4 hotels in South India by 2008. By next year Leela will five hotels including a 65 all suite boutique hotel that will be ready by 2006 in Udaipur.

The Leela group has raised Rs350 crore through a mix of financing options including FCCB (foreign currency convertible bonds), ADRs and equity to finance its acquisition drive.
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Honda Civic may hit Indian roads next year
New Delhi: Honda is likely to roll out its international bestseller, the Honda Civic, a premium mid-size sedan, next year for the Indian market and is at present in the process of tying up with local vendors for manufacturing the car.

Honda Civic will compete with the Toyota Corolla and the Hyundai Elantra and will be priced in the Rs9-10 lakh range.

Honda Siel which City (its highest selling model), the Accord and the sports utility vehicle CR-V have seen very successful in the Indian since it began commercial production in December 1997.

The company saw a 73 per cent jump in sales in the last fiscal, at 37,480 cars, compared with 21,703 cars in 2003-04 with the Honda City accounting for the bulk of the growth.

To meet growing demand, the company is currently working on a plan to increase capacity from 30,000 units per annum to 50,000 units before the end of 2005 through expansion of the existing plant.
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Bajaj Auto to launch Avenger soon
Bajaj Auto has started work on its much-awaited cruiser, the Avenger, which will be launched by Rahul Bajaj on June 10, his birthday. The bike will be available in showrooms from the June 11.

After this the company plans to initiate its foray into retailing through Bajaj Probiking, branded boutique stores for its premium motorcycles.

The Avenger is in the same league as the company's Eliminator model (now phased out) but will have Pulsar's 180cc DTS-I engine and a reworked frame designed to give it a better drive.

Also unlike the Eliminator, which had a Rs90,000-price tag, the Avenger will be priced at a more affordable Rs60,000.

The company hopes to sell 3,000 units of the bike from August this year.
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Cranes acquires EMRC's Indian operations
Cranes Software International has acquired the Indian operations of Engineering Mechanics Research Corporation (EMRC) for about $1.5 million.

This will provide Cranes an opportunity to diversify into an expanded market in the scientific and engineering software, specifically in the engineering services domain.

EMRC is the developer of the NISA suite of products and provides consulting services and customised software in the field of computer-aided engineering.

Cranes also plans to acquire the US arm of EMRC for which it is awaiting some statutory clearances.
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Nasscom for closer ties with Australia
New Delhi: The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has taken an IT trade delegation to Australia to explore alliances in the IT sector.

The Indian delegation's visit coincides with CeBIT, the largest ICT event in Australia.

Ganesh Natarajan of Zensar Techonlogies will lead the Indian delegation and Indian companies such as Concen Tek Pvt Ltd, Nucleus Software, Prologic First India Pvt Ltd, HCL Technologies (Australia) Pty Ltd, Elitecore Technologies Ltd and Pramati Technologies Ltd are participating in the initiative.

At present India's software exports to Australia is around $105 million.
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