COMPANIES
Government
approves $4.20 per mBtu price for RIL gas
Mumbai: The government has agreed to Reliance
Industries' pricing formula for the gas it plans to
produce from July next year, but with some modifications.
The
empowered group of ministers (EGoM) headed by external affairs minister Pranab
Mukerjee has set the price at $4.20 per mBtu, 8.32 per cent lower than what Reliance
proposed in May.
At
the prevailing rupee-dollar rate the gas price works out to Rs172.20 per mBtu.
Reliance is
expected to start production of gas from July 2008.
The
group of ministers decided that the price formula submitted by Reliance Industries
Limited (RIL) and Niko Resources Limited (NRL) may be accepted with some modifications,
an official statement of the ministry of petroleum and natural gas said.
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Maxis
denies plans to exit Aircel
Mumbai: Malaysian cellular phone firm
Maxis Communications Bhd has denied news reports of a planned exit from India's
Aircel.
Clarifying
to a news item in The Times of India of September 12, 2007, titled "Is Maxis
planning to exit Aircel?", Maxis said:
"This
report is speculative, having no basis whatsoever. No representative or executive
from either Aircel or Maxis have been in any discussion with Reliance about this
matter."
"Maxis
Communications is committed to the Indian telecommunications market as a long-term
investor. Together with the Apollo Group, our Indian partner, Maxis is accelerating
investments in network infrastructure to further develop Aircel as a strong Pan-Indian
operator," it added.
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Apollo,
Deccan Aviation plan air ambulance service
Mumabi: Apollo Hospitals
Enterprises has entered into an agreement with Deccan Aviation to launch air ambulance
service from Bangalore.
The
service would link the New Apollo Hospitals on Bannerghatta Road, a 250-bed multi-specialty
tertiary care unit, a joint statement said.
The
services are being provided by helicopters and Deccan Aviation is providing the
entire logistical support.
"As
air evacuations can be expensive, we are in talks with insurance companies to
include air evacuation in medical insurance policies so we can extend this to
everyone who may need the service," Dr Umapathy Panyala, COO of New Apollo
Hospitals, said in a statement.
Apollo
air ambulance will provide state-of-the-art advanced life support equipment on
board its aircraft, it added.
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HCL
Infosystems to open 100 career development centers
Mumbai: HCL
Infosystems will open 100 more career development centres across the country within
a year, in a bid to bridge the gap between demand and supply of skilled professionals
in IT sector.
"We
will be opening 100 more such centres in the country which will involve the enrollment
of 60,000-70,000 students within next 12 months," Rajendra Kumar, executive
vice president of the $2.7-billion HCL Infosystems, said after launching its 31st
centre.
The
company has enrolled 5,000-6,000 students in these centres.
"It is estimated
that there is an annual demand of around 2 lakh networking professionals in the
country while the supply is limited to about 60 per cent of the demand,"
he added.
By
2010, he said, there would be a demand for 2.3 million professionals in the country.
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GENERAL
Rats
damage over 17 lakh tonnes of food grain in Punjab
Mumbai: Rats
destroy over 17 lakh tonnes of staple and other crops in Punjab every year, posing
a serious threat.
"Rodents,
which are a serious problem for the farming sector, damage 4 per cent, 3.7 per
cent and 11 per cent of wheat, rice and sugarcane output respectively in a year
in Punjab," said H S Sehgal, head, department of zoology, Punjab Agricultural
University (PAU).
Rats
destroy almost 5.87 lakh tones of wheat, 3.86 lakh tones of rice and 7.21 lakh
tones of sugarcane while contaminating the crop with their feces, urine and fur,
he said.
PAU
has devised three measures of controlling rats under an All India Network Project
(AINP), which include environmental sanitation, rat proofing and destroying them.
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