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Report:
Indian investment in the UK up 30 per cent for 2004-05
Bangalore: Investment from Indian businesses into
the UK jumped nearly 30 percent during the 2004-5 fiscal
year, reaching a record level, a UK Trade & Investment
review report of 2004-5 says.
The rise demonstrates the UK's position as the leading
investment location in Europe for businesses from India,
one of the world's fastest growing economies. The UK is
experiencing strong interest from Indian investors because
there is a growing awareness of the country as an ideal
place for dynamic Indian businesses to grasp new opportunities,
technologies and markets in an open and cost-effective
environment, the report said. Globalisation and recognition
of the UK as an ideal high-technology location for dynamic
companies is driving Indian investments.
"As the Indian economy continues to grow we have
been able to attract investments from across a broad range
of sectors, while ICT remains strong we have also had
significant wins in food and beverages, pharmaceuticals
and engineering segments," the review notes.
As per the investment review report, Indian companies
invested in 36 new projects into the UK in the year 2004-05,
up from 28 the previous year. This is nearly a 30 per
cent increase and the highest ever-Indian investment inflow
into the UK. Investments from India have been rising over
the past five years, up from 21 in 2000-01.
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TCS
selected for critical JV with Chinese govt. agency
New Delhi: Tata Consultancy Services has been selected
to partner the National Development and Reforms Commission,
an arm of the Chinese government, in a crucial joint venture,
which aims to cater to the software as well as IT enabled
service needs, including business process outsourcing,
of China, the APAC region and the international market.
An announcement in this respect may be made today.
By
gaining the contract, TCS may well have pipped Wipro,
Infosys and Satyam to the post. The partnership is valuable
not only because of the scale of the assignment but also
because it gives the chosen firm a strong foothold in
the Chinese government machinery.
Industry sources in India say that the Indian partner
will also work at developing the IT service infrastructure
in China and guide the Chinese government on how to go
about it, making the contract a really lucrative one.
The Chinese government decided to rope in an Indian partner
to take advantage of processes like SEI-CMM Level 5 as
well as the ability to undertake large-scale projects.
The deal is been seen as an extension of Chinese premiere
Wen Jiabao visit to Bangalore in April earlier this year,
during which Jiabao had commented that India's software
prowess and China's hardware expertise, if brought together,
could help both countries scale greater heights.
About 18 Indian companies including TCS, Infosys, Wipro
and others have already set up shop in China, employing
about 2000 people. Nasscom chairman S Ramadorai has said
he expects the number to double to 4,000 by the end of
this year.
China's software market was worth 220 billion yuan ($26.5
billion) last year, accounting for 3 per cent of the global
market. Its export volume last year, estimated at $2.8
billion, was only about a tenth of India's.
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Nirma
Chemical buys out Saurashtra Chemicals for Rs.350 crore
Ahmedabad: In a deal set to catapult Ahmedabad-based
FMCG major Nirma as the largest soda ash manufacturer
in the country, group company Nirma Chemical Works Ltd
is learnt to have shelled out a little over Rs350 crore
to acquire ailing S K Birla group company Saurashtra Chemicals
Ltd (SCL).
The
deal has been struck for the enterprise value of SCL,
including all its liabilities. This means that in addition
to picking up 32.2% of the paid-up equity capital of SCL,
Nirma has also paid for its secured and working capital
debt running into Rs300 crore and preference shares. Almost
80% of the deal amount would go towards repaying lenders
like ICICI Bank, IDBI, IFCI, Uco Bank, State Bank of Saurashtra.
The
acquisition followed a bidding process put in place by
the Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Ltd (ARCIL),
which declared Nirma as the best expressor after an executive
committee of directors meet on June 27, 2005.
Following
this, Nirma will also be making an open offer to SCL shareholders
under Sebi takeover regulations to pick up a controlling
stake in the company.
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Reliance
Infocomm deploys high capacity gateway
Pune: Reliance Infocomm Ltd has deployed a 60,000
port media gateway for its international long distance
(ILD) VoIP traffic.
With
the new, IP telephony, it is able to compress voice which
doubles the efficiency of the network. Reliance Infocomm
runs live traffic over 10 media gateways in New York,
Los Angeles, London and Hong Kong, which land in Indian
cities.
With
the new media gateway, it will be able to optimise its
resources, getting more traffic for lower cost, due to
the higher compression possible. Reliance Infocomm has
been using the media gateway, having finally cleared its
acceptance, following comprehensive tests.
Compan
officials said that while voice can be compressed to one-tenth,
data can be compressed to just one-fourth. The media gateway
identifies the traffic, whether it is voice or data, and
compresses accordingly. The solution can be used for its
domestic long distance traffic as well.
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Satyam
and Pegasystems extend BPM alliance to Asia
New Delhi: Satyam Computer Services Ltd and Pegasystems,
provider of software to automate complex, changing business
processes, have announced the extension of their successful
North American Business Process Management (BPM) partnership
into Asia.
According to a press release, this partnership, to cover
joint business development, consulting and solutions delivery,
expands their two-year North American partnership to the
Asian market. To date Satyam and Pegasystems have collaborated
at global energy, financial services, insurance and manufacturing
companies, delivering millions in return on investment
for their shared customers by closing the execution gap
and enabling unparalleled business agility.
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Xerox
India enters new product categories
Bangalore: Xerox India has announced plans to expand
its presence in new product categories of the Indian market.
As part of this endeavor, Xerox will enter new product
categories, such as projectors and scanners. Initially,
Xerox is launching six scanners and two projectors in
the country.
The new products launched by Xerox are a part of its New
Office Group. This would offer a range of black and white
and color document management products including printers,
copiers, advanced MFDs, faxes, and office supplies such
as paper and consumables. The New Office Group has identified
'MFD adoption', 'Color Everywhere' and 'Two-Tier' distribution
model as the key business priorities for 2005.
To create an effective national channel network, Xerox
had recently implemented its 'two-tier' distribution model
in India and has signed five partnerships recently with
Redington and Ingram Micro as its national distributors;
and with Salora International, Micromax and Ansatta as
its regional distributors. Xerox India has also partnered
with ACCEL ICIM and Godrej Prima as its service partners
and with eSys Information Technologies as its supplies
distributor.
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TRAI
directs telecom firms to come clean on tariffs
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(Trai) has asked operators to provide customers with details
of their tariff plans within a week of activating the
service. The regulator has also directed the operators
to intimate any changes in tariff of the chosen package
in writing to subscribers.
Trai has issued these orders after receiving complaints
from consumers regarding inconsistencies in billing by
operators.
Subscribers said while taking new connections through
franchisees/agents of telecom companies, they were promised
a lower tariff for calls and certain facilities like caller
line identification and free roaming. However, when they
received their bills, they were charged at a higher rate
and had to pay for services that were not mentioned in
the chosen package.
Trai has also pulled up telecom operators for not adhering
to its directions issued early last month to make available
tariff brochures at retail outlets with complete details
of plans and financial implications for various usage
slabs.
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Patel
Engg. bags NHAI projects
Mumbai:
Patel Engineering has bagged a large order from NHAI winning
three contracts from the National Highways Authority of
India (NHAI) worth Rs361 crore.
The
projects involve widening and strengthening of national
highways.
The company has been awarded the Rs224 crore project for
the four-laning and strengthening of NH-7 from Madurai
to Kanyakumari.
It has also been awarded a Rs238.72 crore project for
widening and strengthening of existing section of NH-
37 from two-lane to four-lane from Nagaon to Dharmatul
and four-laning of Nagaon Bypass on the East West Corridor
under Phase - II program of NHDP.
Both
these projects will be executed with a joint venture partner.
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Ircon
and Malaysian company tie up for monorail projects
New Delhi: Ircon International, the construction arm
of Indian Railways, has joined hands with a Malaysian
company, M-Trans Holdings, to work together for planning
and constructing monorail projects in various cities of
India.
The tie-up has been named as the IRCON-M-Trans Joint Venture.
M-Trans Holdings has commissioned the working monorail
project of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. It recently bagged
a monorail contract worth $1.2 billion in South Korea.
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Akamai's
Indian operations to play key role
Bangalore: Akamai Technologies, the $200 million global
service provider for accelerating content and business
processes online, has stated that its Indian operations
will play a key role in R&D, customer service and
support, besides global sales and marketing.
Companies such as rediff.com and bbcworld.com deploy Akamai
solutions to enable a surer, faster and secure access
to their sites.
The company is helped in this effort by its recent acquisition
of Speedera Networks for approximately $130 million in
a total stock deal. Speedera Networks had almost all its
development base in Bangalore and presently employs close
to 60 professionals.
Akamai has stated that its solutions provide businesses
with a distributed platform for accessing web computing
and capacity on demand worldwide.
According to the company, a new generation of online customers
ranging from individuals to enterprises, now expect rich
content and interactive communication to be an integral
part of their everyday commercial experience.
According to IDC, the entire online spending could reach
$316 billion by 2010 and Akamai is targeting this rapidly
emerging market for broadband commerce and the exchange
and consumption of information, data and entertainment.
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