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ONGC strikes gas off A.P. coast
Chennai: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has discovered gas in shallow waters off the Andhra Pradesh coast, and says that the possibility of oil being present was also likely.

The gas was discovered in the ninth well drilled in GS-15 prospect, 15 km off Amalapuram coast. The present discovery was made south-west of the Ravva gas field.

ONGC began drilling the well with a charter-hired rig called Aban-II on May 28, with a targeted depth of 2,500 metres. However, at a depth of 2,000 metres, the well `indicated a significant hydrocarbon column' between an interval of 1,684 metres and 1,760 metres. This hydrocarbon column was 45 metres tall.

An spokesman said that "while most of it is gas, the lower level indicates an oil leg." Oil found just below gas is called an `oil leg.'

Evaluation of the discovery was under way using latest three-dimension technology and an estimate of the quantity and quality of both oil and gas would be available in about a fortnight.
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Sundaram-Clayton inaugurates state of the art facility for braking systems
Chennai: Sundaram-Clayton, a joint venture between the TVS Group and WABCO, a leading global commercial vehicle control systems supplier, has inaugurated its new state-of-the-art facility to make air brake systems for commercial vehicles at Ambattur.

The new facility has been built at a cost of Rs58 crore.

Sundaram-Clayton officials said that the new unit would make compressors and valves and the like. The facility could be expanded later to make electronic anti-skid air brakes. The Ambattur unit could develop into a major export base for the company as the new facility was state-of-the-art not just in terms of manufacturing and process but also in terms of global safety standards.

WABCO is the vehicle control systems business of American Standard Companies, and is a leading producer of electronic braking, stability, suspension and transmission control systems for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. WABCO products are also increasingly used in luxury cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs).

Sundaram-Clayton was established in 1962 as a joint venture between TV Sundram Iyengar & Sons Limited (TVS) and Clayton Dewandre Holdings Limited. In 1977, WABCO acquired Clayton Dewandre. Today, WABCO owns more than 39 per cent of Sundaram-Clayton. Sundaram-Clayton develops and manufactures air brake components and systems and aluminium castings.
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IBM may hire 14,000 workers in India by year end
New York: According to a company document provided by a technology industry union, International Business Machines Corp., on the back of its plans to cut as many as 13,000 jobs in Europe and elsewhere, plans to hire 14,000 workers in India by the year end.

IBM will boost its staff in India by 58 percent to 38,196, according to a document pasted on the Seattle-based Alliance of Technology Workers union's Web site. An IBM worker e-mailed the slide to the group, union officials said. IBM spokespersons have declined to comment whether the document is genuine.

The Armonk, New York, based IBM, the world's biggest computer-services company sold its personal-computer unit and is shifting resources to faster- growing regions and businesses such as consulting and management services after profits missed analysts' estimates last quarter.

``We continue to have very strong growth in emerging countries,'' Barbini said. ``We want to take advantage of the growing scales and capabilities of the Indian marketplace, as well as growing scales around the globe.''

Sales in China, Russia, India and Brazil rose 18 percent to more than $1 billion in the first quarter, Barbini said. IBM had 23,000 workers in India at the end of 2004, making the company India's sixth-largest technology-industry employer, he said.

A third of IBM's workers there hold Ph.D.s and 60 percent are engineers. India is the world's second-most-populous country after China, with 1.08 billion people.
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RIL announces expansion plans
Mumbai: Reliance Industries Limited's refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat's Jamnagar district will more than double its current capacity from 27,000 tonnes per annum to 60,000 tonnes.

Reliance sources say construction work will start within the next three months. The entire process will be completed within two to three years.
Reliance's expansion drive comes at a time when India already has excess refining capacity. But Reliance plans to dominate the Indian refining industry well before demand picks up again.
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BSNL targets Rs.500 crore from content-based services
New Delhi: Eyeing Rs500 crore revenue from content-based value-added services this fiscal, public sector telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) has forayed into film-based content with the launch of a game, based on forthcoming movie `Sarkar', for its Cell One subscribers.

The content of `Sarkar', a Ram Gopal Varma film starring superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, is being provided by wireless solutions firm MAUJ, which has a tie-up with BSNL. BSNL earned Rs50 crore revenue from its content-based services last fiscal.

BSNL's content-based services include video on demand, interactive gaming, live and time shifted TV besides others. BSNL also announced that henceforth it would not charge a Rs.199 activation fee for GPRS connection, which gives subscribers access to faster data speeds.

BSNL's cellular service Cell One saw 78 per cent growth in subscribers last year.
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Hero Honda to invest Rs.500 crore over five years
Bangalore: Hero Honda plans to invest Rs500 crore over the next five years,and also set up its third manufacturing plant which will scale up its production capacity from the current three million a year.

The company is yet to decide on the location of the new plant, expected to be up by next year. Hero Honda Motors Ltd, officials said initially the company would be investing Rs300 crore for the plant.

Southern India accounts for 25 per cent of Hero Honda's sales and its vehicles currently are sourced from its two plants at Gurgaon and Daruhera in Haryana.

Speaking at the launch of the new model, Hero Honda Glamour, here on Friday, officials ruled out plans to set up a manufacturing plant overseas, saying that with a robust growth in the domestic market, there was no need to look outside the country. Hero Honda has, however, stepped up its efforts in the exports market.

The company says that its exports increased by 50 per cent last year, but did not give the figures.
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Frost & Sullivan: Business intelligence revenues to be $43mn by year end
Bangalore: Frost & Sullivan expects the Indian market for business intelligence (BI) applications to grow to $70 million by 2007, registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.4 per cent. A report released by Frost & Sullivan said the demand from IT, telecom and the BFSI segment, especially the PSU banks, would drive the growth for BI applications.

The report said data warehousing and reporting tools proved to be the most sought after applications by clients seeking business intelligence solutions. These tools contributed to about 70 per cent of the overall revenues generated by BI vendors in India in 2004.

In terms of adoption, the pharmaceutical vertical is the most mature with many large pharma companies having already implemented BI solutions. Key market drivers include the maturing of transaction systems such as ERP, competitive market pressures, increased product functionalities available with vendors and the need to comply with emerging standards such as Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley.

According to the report, clients prefer implementing BI solutions from a single vendor to using different BI vendors for specific tools.
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Satyam brand is worth over $1bn
Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services Ltd's brand value has already breached the $1-billion mark.

According to the company's latest annual statement, its brand value was computed at Rs4,662 crore or $ 1.06 billion. In order to compute the brand value, the previous two years' profits were considered at present value and weightage applied to arrive at profit. And five per cent of average capital employed was provided for non- branded purpose. While income tax at current rate was provided, brand multiple was based on internal evaluation.

The enterprise value or the market value of shares together with the debt outstanding was estimated at Rs13,416 crore, up from Rs6,749 crore in 2001 and Rs9,803 crore in 2004. The intangible asset of the company represents 86.81 per cent of its total assets in the form of human resources.

During the year, the company plans to focus on R&D particularly applied research in communication and computation areas.

Its Chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, said "the diversified business portfolio has reduced the revenue contribution from the top five customers to 27.7 per cent from 43.7 per cent. Similarly, revenue contribution from the top 10 customers has reduced to 41.5 per cent from 55.9 per cent. During the three-year period, revenue from Europe and rest of the world increased considerably from 23.5 per cent to 30.98 per cent."
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