Tata Chem lines up plans for biofuel, fresh produce
Mumbai: Tata Chemicals Ltd, has lined up a $1 billion (Rs4,100 crore) investment over the next two-three years, and will likely foray into bio-diesel, fresh fruit and vegetable production and distribution as part of its expansion strategy.

Talking about its expansion plans, Tata Chemicals' managing director Homi R Khusrokhan said the company has set up jatropha cultivation in five regions of the country for production of bio-diesel.

Besides, it also plans to cultivate sorghum for the production of ethanol, and it would set up a plant with an investment of Rs40-50 crore in eastern Maharashtra. According to Khusrokahan, once the model is successful, it will be replicated elsewhere in the country for large-scale manufacture of ethanol for blending with petrol. He also said tahat each plant would take 15-18 months to set up.
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Emaar MGF mall to dwarf DLF's Gurgaon facility
Dubai: Emaar MGF is planning to build India's largest mall, and is likely to announce details over the next six months. The mall is likely to match the world's largest mall, which is spread over 5.8 million sq ft, and is being built by the company's partner, Emaar, in Dubai.

Within the country, the largest mall so far announced is DLF's Mall of India, which is to be built along NH-8 in Gurgaon, and will be spread over 3.6 million sq. ft.

The company is also planning to bring in the first Giorgio Armani luxury hotel in India over the next four years.

Over the coming 12 months, the company may also go in for an IPO. It has also received got in principle approvals for 9-10 smaller SEZs across the country, which may receive immediate focus in preference to the larger ones, which ar still caught up in government policy revisions.
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RPG Retail targets Rs1,500-cr turnover, to launch 2,000 stores by 2009
Kolkata: RPG Retail expects to achieve a growth in revenue of nearly 150 per cent during the current fiscal, with a turnover of Rs1,500 crore as compared to Rs600 crore last year.

According to Sanjiv Goenka, vice-chairman, RPG Enterprises, the company has aggressive expansion plans, both organic and inorganic. It expects to invest nearly Rs1,200 crore in 2,000 new stores across India by 2009.

The investment will be mostly funded from internal accruals. RPG Retail also plans to raise capital in the "next two to four quarters" to fund its expansion plans, Goenka said.

Over the coming seven days, the company plans to launch 40 Spencer's stores in the country. Spencer's currently has 175 outlets in the country, across 30 cities, comprising 10 hypermarkets, six supermarkets, three Fresh, 25 Express and 131 Dailies.

Beside Spencer's RPG Retail also owns retail chain stores, including Music World, Books and Beyond and RPG Cellucom.
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ITI seeks Qualcomm licence for manufacture of CDMA wireless sets
New Delhi: ITI Ltd is in discussions with US-based Qualcomm for obtaining a licence to manufacture CDMA-based fixed wireless terminals, as well as for its chipsets. This would enable it to get into component level manufacturing, according to the Department of Telecom.

ITI's move to approach Qualcomm is interesting in the light of the fact that Punjab-based HFCL had also taken a licence from Qualcomm for producing CDMA mobile handsets. Nine months after grant of licence, HFCL is yet to start manufacture.

If successful, ITI could become the first company to set up local manufacturing for CDMA devices.

The move is part of ITI's strategy to foray into production of equipment based on newer technologies. The company is also discussing a possible partnership with CDoT-Alcatel Research Centre in Chennai for manufacturing WiMax consumer premise equipment and network gear on a transfer-of-technology basis.

ITI had earlier entered into a similar partnership with Alcatel for manufacturing GSM-based mobile equipment. It also has an agreement with Tekelec for next-generation switches, and ZTE for supply of CDMA equipment.

ITI has an agreement with Kyocera of Japan for field trial of wireless broadband equipment, iBurst, which enables broadband Internet on mobile devices in a wide area network.

The State-owned company has six manufacturing plants in Bangalore, Mankapur, Rae Bareli, Naini, Palakkad and Srinagar.

Most of the equipment manufactured by ITI is supplied to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and other Government agencies, including the defence services and railways.
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Sun Micro's new Rs75,000 server to tap SME segment
Chennai: Sun Microsystems has launched a server, priced at Rs75,000 which will allow it to tap the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are likely to adopt IT in a big way.

The Rs75,000 server, the first sub-Rs1 lakh server from Sun Microsystems, has provisions to have a web server, application server and an operating system, according to MB Sam, director, marketing, Sun Microsystems India.

The AMD-based server will be enough for an SME with revenue of around Rs50 crore. It has a storage space of over 450 GB, enough to have applications like web and mail, and business applications like mini ERP (enterprise resource planning) or mini CRM (customer relationship management) software, Sam said.

The US-based Sun Microsystems, a $13-billion company, provides network computing infrastructure solutions that include computer systems (hardware and software), data management, support services and educational services.
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