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India
Inc. team meets PM ahead of US visit
New Delhi: Ten top captains of the industry, including
Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani and Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw,
today met Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, ahead of his
forthcoming US visit.
They were seeking guidance on the issues they would raise
during the meeting of the Chief Executive Conference,
where the PM is slated to announce setting up of an Indo-US
CEO Forum.
Sanjay Baru, media advisor to the PM, told reporters after
the hour-long meeting that the meeting discussed issues
that the forum would focus on. "The leaders of the
Indian industry told the PM that there was a unique opportunity
for India. At the moment India is in the eye of the world,
and boardrooms across the world, particularly in the US,
are looking at India very seriously. This was a unique
opportunity for India to walk its way in the international
market to attract more investment," he said.
Other issues that came up during the interaction included
a larger role for India in the international market and
domestic companies making their presence felt in the US,
Dr Baru said, adding that the idea was to use business
as a bridge between India and the US.
"The PM has repeatedly said that India needs at least
$150 billion of investment in the next 10 years, particularly
in the infrastructure sector. We have had major investment
announcements in the recent past such as Posco investment
in Orissa or the Japanese decision to invest in Railways.
But the idea is to step up the rate of investment in the
Indian economy," he pointed out.
With regard to the Dabhol issue, he said its resolution
was a positive development and would give an indication
that India was serious about addressing issues that have
been hurdles in Indo-US bilateral trade.
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Infosys
Consulting steps up hiring abroad
New Delhi: Infosys
Consulting intends to hire another 1,000 professionals
in China and at least 400 in the US and Europe.
The global consulting arm of Infosys Technologies said
it plans to expand business in China and add 1000 consulting
professionals in the next few quarters, while people in
the US and Europe will be hired over a period of one-and-a-half
years.
Infosys will invest $5 million in its Chinese operations,
and it has already pumped in about $1 million.
Infosys Technologies chief executive officer, president
and managing director Nandan Nilekani said, "Infosys
Consulting has helped us win and run enterprise change
programmes that go beyond technology implementation. With
the innovation in business, we are changing the architecture
of the existing business models."
"Currently, we have 120 people who were recruited
on the basis of their industry expertise and innovative
thinking. We will hire more in the next few quarters and
will have 500 professionals by March 2007," said
Nilekani.
Nilekani said, for every one consultant added at Infosys
Consultancy, which is primarily an offshore operation,
four jobs are created at Infosys Technologies worldwide.
Infosys Consulting Inc chief executive officer and managing
director Stephen Pratt said, "We combine world-class
business consulting with a global delivery model. This
approach results in a saving of more than 35 per cent
in the existing projects."
Pratt said, "The profession of consulting has strayed
from its heritage of rigorous business analysis. We are
bringing it back the Infosys way."
The company currently offers consulting services to 36
clients, including nine fortune 500 companies. Five of
Infosys Technologies' clients billed more than $50 million
each during the last four quarters.
"In the next few years, we hope to have more such
clients and perhaps a few entries in the more than $100-million
category" said Pratt.
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Tata
Steel rules out revision in prices
Mumbai: Tata
Steel has ruled out revision in prices under long-term
contracts, even though global prices are likely to rise
"slightly" in the coming months.
"There will be not be any change in the long-term
prices and we intend to keep them the present level,"
Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman said.
The industry expects a slight rise in global steel prices,
which should register a slight rise in the next couple
of months and register an increase in demand at 4.5 per
cent to 5 per cent. As for the demand for steel in India,
it is slated to grow at around 7 per cent to 8 per cent.
Talking on the expansion plans of Tata Steel, he said
that Jamshedpur plant capacity, which was to be increased
to 7.4 million tonnes, is on line and would be completed
by 2008.
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Hyundai
overtakes Tata in the passenger car market
Mumbai: Hyundai
Motor India Ltd has pipped Tata
Motors to become the second biggest player in the
passenger car market, for the first quarter of 2005-06.
Hyundai sold 37,735 cars in the first three months of
the fiscal 2005-06, as against 33,848 units sold by Tata
Motors in the same period. However, Tata Motors also sold
7,343 utility vehicles (UV) in the said period, as against
523 UVs by Hyundai, making it the second biggest maker
of passenger vehicles.
Just last year, for the same period, Tata Motors had pushed
Hyundai to the third place in passenger car sales. Powered
by the overwhelming response to its Swift, market leader
Maruti sold 99,184 passenger cars for the first quarter
of the year, apart from the utility vehicles sold.
The bookings for Swift have crossed the 20,000 mark now
and the company is able to produce only around 5000 units
per month. This has resulted in a waiting period of close
to six months for the buyers of Swift.
Honda Siel India, riding on the success of its mid size
sedan, City, has maintained its fourth position, selling
10,494 cars in the said quarter.
Despite the launch of Ford Fusion six months back, Ford
India's sales fell to 4,366 units in the first quarter.
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A
V Birla group may pick up stake in
biotech unit
Mumbai:
According
to market sources, the A
V Birla group is all set to make an entry into the
lifesciences business and is close to acquiring a stake
in the biotech arm of Ahmedabad based, Intas Pharmaceuticals.
Intas
Pharmaceuticals is a privately held Ahmedabad based company
with estimated sales of about Rs150 crore. In the pharma
space, it specialises in cancer related and neurology
drugs. The biotech division has some first generation
biotech products like vaccines and anti-cancer drugs such
as Interferons.
Two
brothers, Binish Chudgar and Urmi Chudgar, manage the
two divisions separately.
Industry
sources say Intas' Pharmaceuticals arm will continue as
a separate entity, whereas the AV Birla group will buy
a stake in the biotech arm.
Spokespersons of both companies have declined to comment
on the matter.
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Tata
Coffee buys out six estates from
Tata Tea
Bangalore:
Tata Coffee has acquired six estates, one coffee and five
tea, in South India for Rs55 crore from Tata
Tea Limited.
According to M H Ashraff, managing director, Tata Coffee,
of the six estates five are located in Tamil Nadu and
one in Kerala. The combined production from these estates
is pegged at six million kgs.
With the acquisition, the number of coffee estates owned
by Tata Coffee has gone up to 30, and that of tea estates
to three. Apart from coffee and tea, pepper and cardamom
are also grown as inter-crops in many of its company owned
estates.
The company also cures its own coffee and sells instant
coffee, both in local and overseas markets.
Malabar Monsoon, Nugget Extra Bold and Robusta Kappi Royale
are three of the prominent specialty grades of Indian
coffee, which Tata Coffee grows and processes.
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Hindustan
Times launches edition in Mumbai
Mumbai:
The Hindustan Times has started publishing a Mumbai
edition Thursday, challenging its 167-year-old rival,
The Times of India, for a share of the $180 million
in print advertising generated annually by the commercial
capital of India.
The Times dominates the Mumbai newspaper market with a
circulation of 550,000 copies.
Mumbai has a 16 percent share of the $1.1 billion-a-year
national market for print advertising, according to TAM
India, a media researcher. The market may expand as companies
target a younger, more literate and affluent generation
of Indians joining the work force in services such as
call-centers and software production.
Companies are increasingly pitching their products at
younger consumers to tap demand from the 540 million Indians
the 2001 census estimated are below the age of 24.
HT Media, which publishes The Hindustan Times, has invested
about 500 million rupees, or $12 million, to publish its
Mumbai edition, according to a prospectus the company
filed in April for the sale of 6.9 million shares.
The Hindustan Times is the largest-selling newspaper in
the capital, New Delhi, with an average daily circulation
of 1.07 million copies between January and July 2004,
according to the prospectus, which cited figures from
the Audit Bureau of Circulation, an independent assessor
for the publishing industry.
The Times of India sold an average of 925,000 copies daily
in the capital city during the same period, said the filing
for the prospectus by HT Media, which is 15.83 percent
owned by Henderson Asia Pacific Equity Partners of Britain
and 7.06 percent held by Citicorp International Finance.
The
Hindustan Times is being sold at an inaugural price of
2.50 rupees in Mumbai; The Times of India has a cover
price of 4 rupees.
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USTR
accuses VSNL of impeding competition
New Delhi: The US has accused Tata group company VSNL
of impeding competition for American companies in the
bandwidth market by resorting to unacceptable pricing
mechanism.
In a communication to the regulator TRAI, the US trade
representative office said VSNL was creating obstacles
to competitive pricing of bandwidth, a charge that VSNL
has refuted.
Identifying access to submarine cable landing stations
controlled by VSNL as a ''serious problem'', an USTR official
welcomed TRAI's initiative to develop policies to ensure
that problems related to access to submarine cable systems
do not impede the competitive supply of global communication
capacity both into and out of India.
USTR's comments coincides with Reliance Infocomm's demand
for creating regulatory intervention in the bandwidth
market accusing VSNL of killing competition and charging
discriminatory prices.
VSNL officials said its prices are driven by commercial
considerations and are not discriminatory. Cable landing
station is not an isolated facility rather an integral
part of a submarine cable system and their operations
are governed by multilateral agreements, which prohibits
anti-competitive and discriminatory practices.
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IFC
to pick up stake in Apollo Hospitals
Chennai:
The
International Finance Corporation,
the private equity arm of the World
Bank, is expected to pick up equity stake in Apollo
Hospitals Enterprise Ltd to the tune of $20 million (Rs90
crore).
Apollo is currently raising about $70 million (Rs315 crore)
for its expansion programmes, which includes consolidation
opportunities in India as well as ventures abroad.
IFC's investment will support these programmes.
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BEML
mulling production of heavy-duty dumpers
Bangalore: Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) is contemplating
a project to manufacture heavy-duty dumpers in the range
of 50 to 250 tonnes for long haul demand. The plan stems
from the improved connectivity of highways under the Golden
Quadrilateral programme and an expected increase in demand
for heavier materials movements across the country.
BEML was in talks with a few parties for a technical collaboration
and hoped to arrive at a decision by the end of this year,
BEML officials said.
BEML, which recently announced its decision to raise Rs400
crore through an initial public offering, was also aiming
to broad-base its activities by increasingly involving
as a turnkey player in the metro rail projects. The IPO,
which was subject to statutory clearances, would be aimed
at funding capital expansion and for metro rail projects.
BEML manufactures rail coaches for the Delhi metro rail
project and hopes to utilise the capacity for supplying
coaches to other metro projects in the country. BEML was
in race for a metro rail project in Mumbai and was a consortium
partner along Siemens, L&T and Gammon for the project.
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Corporate
Results: CMC, iGATE Global
CMC Q1 net dips
CMC
Ltd on Thursday reported a dip in its profit after
tax at Rs15.33 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005,
compared with Rs17.82 crore for the quarter ended June
30, 2004.
The total revenues of the company increased by 10.7 per
cent to Rs204.51 crore (Rs184.78 crore).
iGATE Global net profit falls to
Rs.1.4 crore
iGATE Global Solutions said on Thursday that its net profit
for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 fell by 37 per cent
to Rs1.4 crore, over the previous quarter's Rs2.24 crore.
However revenues grew marginally by 1.3 per cent during
the quarter to Rs147.49 crore from Rs145.57 crore in the
previous quarter.
On a year-on-year basis, net profits for the June quarter
this year were sharply higher. iGATE had reported a net
profit of Rs11 lakh on revenues of Rs141.56 crore in June
quarter last fiscal.
The company added 11 new clients during the quarter of
which nine are in the Global 1000 space, Murthy said.
The offshore billing rates were up by 3.5 per cent during
the quarter and the offshore efforts increased to around
67 per cent.
iGATE has inducted Karl Heinz Achinger, former board member
of DaimlerChrysler Services AG onto the iGATE Global Solutions
board.
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