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Cairn Energy pursuing expansion of Rajasthan resource base; in talks with MRPL
London: Cairn Energy Plc has said that it is pursuing its goal of adding to the Rajasthan resource base through an active exploration and appraisal campaign.

A company statement said that discussions are on-going with Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, which is the appointed nominee to take delivery of the Rajasthan crude.

According to the statement, the evaluation of the northern fields, Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya in Rajasthan is now moving to a phase of detailed analysis of the potential for any additions to the volumetric and reserve base.

Cairn also said that drilling at the N-R-4 Discovery, west of the Vijaya and Vandana fields, encountered a number of oil bearing horizons, in similar units to those seen at Vijaya and Vandana.

Based on this well and an appraisal well (N-R-5) together with 3D seismic mapping, the oil in place for the N-R-4 discovery is initially estimated at 100-400 million barrels gross, the group said.

The company also said its GS-V-1 Gas and Condensate Discovery in the Greater Saraswati area will require appraisal drilling but the initial gas in place estimates for the GS-V-1 discovery are in the 20-30 billion cubic feet gross range.
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Satyam sells Sify to Infinity
Chennai: Satyam has offloaded its entire 31.61 per cent stake in Internet and E-commerce services company, Sify to Infinity Capital Ventures LP for US$62.62mn.

Infinity Capital is controlled by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Raju Vegesna. Infinity has acquired a 40 per cent stake in the company.

The company has sold off its existing holding of 11,182,600 equity shares of Rs10 each, represented by American depository shares (ADS), of Nasdaq-listed Sify to Infinity, the company informed the BSE.

The sale was concluded at a price of US$5.60 per ADS and DSP Merrill Lynch was the advisor to Satyam Computer. With this transaction, Satyam has ceased to be a shareholder in Sify.

ICICI Securities was the arranger to Sify's sponsored ADS programme.

The sell-off is in line with Satyam's objective to emerge as a pure play IT services and solutions company.
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GE to reinvest proceeds from Dabhol settlement
New Delhi: After its Dabhol-related disputes with the Government of India, the Maharashtra Government and the Indian lenders to Dabhol were comprehensively settled, GE plans to return the full amount of US$145mn it received in the form of investments with its key customers through the India Development Fund (IDF). The IDF is part of GE's strategy to more than triple its revenues in India in three years, from US$0.8bn in 2004 to US$3bn by 2008.

At the time of launching IDF, Scott R. Bayman, president and CEO, GE in India, said, "The India Development Fund is a reaffirmation of our commitment to India as we reinvest the money received in settlement of our claims related to the Dabhol Power Project."

Bayman said, "The India Development Fund allows us to make investments in projects developed by GE's strategic customers as we deepen and broaden our relationships with them. The businesses that make up GE Infrastructure are particularly well suited to support the growth of our customers and India."
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Ugam Solutions opens another center in Mumbai
Mumbai: Ugam Solutions has opened another international centre for research and analytics in Mumbai and has launched two new service offerings to complete the entire value chain for market research.

The company, which provides research and analytical services to global corporations, has invested US$3.2mn on the new facility spread over 32,000 sq. ft located at Prism Towers, Mindspace, Malad.

With the new center, Ugam Solutions will increase its capacity to over 1,000 people from the current 425 people at its existing facility at Mahalaxmi in Mumbai.
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Thomson broadens base in Asia, looks at Bollywood for growth
Mumbai: French electronics company Thomson SA is looking at post-production, cable television distribution and digital cinema as areas of potential growth in India. Apart from marketing television sets the company also provides services, systems and technology for content creators and distributors.

Olivier Lafaye, Thomson's president for Asia said "Emerging markets like India and China will be key in our future development from Hollywood to Bollywood and Chinawood," on the sidelines of a conference organised by the International Finance Corporation.

The company is in talks with Indian companies for potential joint ventures or acquisitions,' he said.
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Petronet seeks equity in Ratnagiri Gas and Power
New Delhi: Petronet LNG is seeking equity in Ratnagiri Gas and Power, a joint venture between NTPC and GAIL, for restarting the Dabhol Power Plant, and sourcing LNG to the plant.

Petronet is in talks with RasGas of Qatar and Petronas of Malaysia for sourcing 1.2 to 1.5 million tonne of LNG annually to fire the 2,184 MW power plant, highly placed sources said.

Qatar has offered to give six cargos of LNG in 2006, which would be used to start electricity generation from the 744 MW phase-I of the plant.

A meeting was held at the Cabinet Secretariat yesterday in the presence of NTPC, GAIL and major lenders to Dabhol Power project. The Government of India seems keen to rope in Petronet LNG for completing the 85 per cent complete LNG regasification and storage facility at Dabhol in Maharashtra.
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Sundram Fasteners to acquire German co. Peiner
Mumbai: Sundram Fasteners has announced that it is planning to acquire the entire stake in Peiner, a subsidiary of German company Textron Deutschland Beteilingungs GmbH.

The deal is subject to approval of German Government authorities under German Cartel Regulations, the company informed the NSE.

ICICI Securities is the advisor to the company on this transaction.

Peiner manufactures fastener products catering to the automobile, industrial and construction sectors.
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Tata Steel floats joint venture with BlueScope
New Delhi: Tata Steel is floating a 50:50 joint venture with global steel giant BlueScope Steel to produce zinc and aluminum metallic coated, painted and roll formed steel products.

The proposed joint venture agreement entails an investment of Rs900 crore for construction of modern metallic coating and painting facility in Jamshedpur.

The new JV, which would be based in Pune would assume ownership and responsibility for the development of three roll forming and PEB (pre-engineered buildings) manufacturing facilities of BlueScope Steel at Pune, Chennai and New Delhi.

The ownership would be ex tended to BlueScope's roll formed businesses in Sri Lanka and would provide PEB and other building solutions and broaden its business base across India and South Asia.
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Brazilian bus maker Marcopolo seeks tie ups in India
Mumbai: Brazilian bus maker Marcopolo SA wants to set up a joint venture with an Indian firm to make buses for India and other Asian countries. The company is in talks with several major Indian chassis makers and will finalise a deal soon.

Marcopolo was set up in 1949 in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and makes commercial buses and bus bodies. The company started exporting buses to neighbouring Uruguay in 1961, then to other South American countries, Portugal and South Africa.

The company is now looking at India, China and rest of Asia.

In India Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland have more than three quarters of India's Rs2,25, 000 crore bus and truck market. In recent times Sweden's Volvo, which makes premium buses for private transport firms has entered the country.
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Tata Motors receives CII-Exim Bank Business Excellence award
Bangalore: The Commercial Vehicles Business Unit (CVBU) of Tata Motors has won the prestigious CII-Exim Bank Award for Business Excellence 2005 at the 13th Quality Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry Institute of Quality here.

In the last 12 years, there have been only four winners for this award and the last winner of this award was Infosys Technologies in 2002.

According to CII the award process is very rigorous, supported by a pool of more than 250 qualified assessors drawn from senior business management professionals from industry. A team of qualified assessors assesses the applicant organisations investing about 1,000 man-hours for each applicant organisation against the Business Excellence Model, developed by European Foundation for Quality Management.

Six organisations were recognised for "Significant Achievement." These include BHEL (Haridwar and Tiruchirappali units), Jay Bharat Maruti, New Delhi, JSW Steel, Bellary, L & T Ltd., ECC Division, Chennai and National Capital Power Station, Dadri, NTPC.

Thirty two organisations were recognised for "Strong Commitment to Excel".
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W3C opens office in India
New Delhi: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has opened an office in India.
This office will be the first one in the country and 15th worldwide.

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C director and inventor of the World Wide Web, in an online message, said India is very exciting place for IT. He also expressed happiness over the launch of W3C office in India.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was created by Tim Berners-Lee and others as an international body dedicated to building consensus around web technologies.

Brajesh kumar, secretary, department of information technology has said that India would have 100 million internet users and 20 million broadband connections by 2008-2010. He was speaking at the International Conference and Workshop on Web Technologies organised by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing(C-DAC) and the launch of W3C office in India.
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