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Saturday,
August 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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To take action against Ranbaxy for ‘using stolen bacteria’ Banking through mobile
phone Samsung
opens DigitAllhome
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No bank rate cut for
now: RBI Mumbai, August 23 The RBI is not contemplating an immediate cut in the bank rate and the repo rate, and felt the drought will not have an impact on inflation. “We are not contemplating a cut today or next week”, RBI Governor Bimal Jalan told newspersons on the sidelines of a function to distribute RBI Rajbhasha Shield here. PM’s plan to save power New Delhi, August 23
LG files suit against
Whirlpool
SRF Poly buyback plan
from Aug 30
Beer
better than milk
Post offices, Rlys to
distribute coins
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To
take action against Ranbaxy for ‘using stolen bacteria’ London, August 23 GSK has also asked the U.S. government to bar No.3 European drug maker Novartis from importing generic versions of Augmentin into the US after they went on sale this summer. ‘’We have reason to believe they use the stolen strain of bacteria that is a trade secret owned by GSK,’’ a GSK spokesman said. The lawsuits are part of GSK’s fierce legal battle to fend off challenges to Augmentin, the company’s second-biggest selling product, which lost U.S. patent protection in May. The launch of a cheap generic form of Augmentin is expected to slice into profits and GSK shares have fallen over 20 per cent this year, partly on concerns about such competition. While legal battles over patents are commonplace in the drug industry, claims of stolen trade secrets are more unusual and more difficult to prove, industry analysts said. GSK compared its trade secret for one of the main ingredients of Augmentin to the secret formula for Coca Cola. GSK said while patents have a finite life, trade secrets go on forever. In its lawsuit GSK says the generic version of Augmentin sold by Geneva Pharmaceuticals, a unit of Novartis, uses a type of bacteria the company developed in the 1980s to produce a main ingredient for Augmentin. The bacteria was stolen by a former GSK employee. The GSK lawsuit does not accuse Novartis or any other maker of an Augmentin copy of being involved in the theft. In a statement, Novartis said: ‘’We are confident that the lawsuit will show Novartis companies acted in a legally and ethically correct manner.’’ GSK issued lawsuits in a district court in Broomfield, Colorado, against Novartis and its Geneva and Biochemie units. The company has asked the United States’ International Trade Commission to block imports of the drug. GSK is also taking legal action in a Philadelphia County court against India’s Ranbaxy Laboratories and Teva Pharmaceuticals of Israel. The two companies have yet to launch their generic versions of Augmentin but GSK said it had evidence they also used the stolen bacteria. An official for Ranbaxy in the United States declined to comment on the GSK lawsuit. Officials for Teva in Israel and the United States were not immediately available for comment.
Reuters
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Banking through mobile phone Bangalore, August 23 The two-way text messaging system technology allows consumers to submit requests and get answers from the bank on their mobile phones about banking transactions like clearance of cheques or credit card balances. The technology has been developed by Unimobile, which provides global messaging solutions for enterprise and telecom operators. It is a division of the Nasdaq-listed Electronics for Imaging (EFI) that does imaging solutions for network printing. "We are right now in the final stages of negotiations with a major Indian bank whose name we will be able to announce shortly. We have brought in scalability, reliability and a secure platform for enterprises who want to communicate with their employees or consumers," Vasudev Bhandarkar, Vice-President and General Manager, EFI Unimobile division, told IANS. Currently, cellular operators in India are only able to send billing statements of post-paid mobile users or in the case of pre-paid mobile users, details of the balance are made available over the wireless device. The interactive messaging solutions of Unimobile, which was acquired by EFI in May, 2002, have been bought by Virgin Mobile, USA, for integration into its new, "teen-oriented wireless phone service". It is said to be the first company in the USA to offer services exclusively focused on the youth market. The solutions have several features, including web content delivery, two-way text messaging, downloadable custom ring tones and a "balance query feature for up to the minute account information. We are in talks with several other leading cellular companies in the region to offer these features to their subscribers," said Bhandarkar. "The advantage of adopting these solutions is that the banks or financial institutions save a lot on mailing bank statements or bank notices. On an average of Rs. 5 per notice, one bank was spending Rs. 20 million or Rs. 30 million on mailing notices. With this technology, it will spend Rs.100,000 or Rs. 200,000 annually," said Bhandarkar. Unimobile, set up in 1996 by entrepreneurs with venture funding, was acquired by EFI for $2.5 million in May 2002. Since then, the parent company has pumped in a little less than $1.5 million.
IANS
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Samsung opens DigitAllhome Chandigarh, August 23 The Samsung DigitAllhome which is the company’s second DigitAllhome in the country, was inaugurated by Mr
S. S. Lee, Managing Director, Samsung India, Mr R. Zutshi, Vice-President sales, Samsung India, and Mr
M. B. Lee, Vice-President (Marketing), Samsung India, in the presence of Mr Neeraj Sethi, Assistant-General Manager (Sales), Samsung India, Mr Ashok Dhawan, Managing Director of Dee Kay Vision Private Limited, owner of the Samsung DigitAllhome, and other senior functionaries of the company. Mr Zutshi, said, “The Samsung DigitAllhome goes beyond the concept of a Digital Plaza by having a more interactive environment and a more lifestyle orientation in the display so that the customer can actually visualise Samsung products in his /her home settings.” Thus, the company’s efforts in creating a modern kitchen in the Samsung DigitAllhome or creating a home theatre experience in a living room set up using Samsung Projection TVs and DVD player. The Samsung DigitAllhome showcases the entire Samsung Digital product portfolio: Plasma Televisions, DVD Players, Projection Televisions, ‘Plano’ digital flat televisions and the entire portfolio of home appliances, including high-end side-by-side refrigerators. |
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No bank rate cut for now: RBI Mumbai, August 23 “We are not contemplating a cut today or next week”, RBI Governor Bimal Jalan told newspersons on the sidelines of a function to distribute RBI Rajbhasha Shield here. Asked if any reduction was planned before October, when the mid-term review of credit policy takes place, he said “I do not know, no comments”. Even on the repo rate cut, the Governor said “there is no such proposal right now”. In the credit and monetary policy announced in April, the RBI had said it may cut the bank rate up to 50 basis points depending on the monetary development, but no timing had been fixed. On the effect of drought on inflation, Jalan said “not really, and it (concern) is not in monetary sense. We expect the inflation to remain benign”. Referring to the recent gain of the rupee vis-a-vis the dollar he said “things are okay”. Jalan said the RBI would continue with its stance on a softer interest rate bias. The situation in India and the USA was different and whatever action would be taken, would depend on the situation in the country. On liquidity overhang in the market, the RBI Governor said demand was weak and also external situation was good with inflow of dollar. “In totality, if one looks at demand plus supply, there was no liquidity problem”, he added. The RBI would like to have easy liquidity in the market. On auctions of government stocks, he said when necessary the apex bank would look at open market operations and take
developments also. PTI
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PM’s plan to save power New Delhi, August 23 Inaugurating the International Conference on Strategies for Energy Conservation in the new millennium, he said to make a beginning in the direction, energy audits would be carried out at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and also north and south blocks of the Central Secretariat. The action plan provides a 10-point strategy for demand side management (DSM) which includes setting up of DSM cell in electric utilities in at least five states by September and capacity building of DSM cell staff by the end of this year. “I call on all government organisations to reduce their energy consumption by 30 per cent and we also look forward to energy savings of 20 per cent from the private sector in the next five years”, he said.
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LG files suit against Whirlpool
New Delhi, August 23 The fresh case comes in the wake of two separate cases filed by WIL and Godrej earlier this year in which they have alleged that LG has misled its consumers by overstating capacity of three models of its frost-free refrigerators. All the three cases will now come up for hearing on September 18.
PTI
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SRF Poly buyback plan from Aug 30 New Delhi, August 23 The buyback, which will remain open till October 29 this year or till the time the company has bought back just below 25 per cent of its equity, is priced at Rs 21 per share. At present, the aggregate shareholding of the promoter group, directors of promoters (where the promoter is a company), and of the persons who are in control of the company as well as persons acting in concert is 16,89,652 equity shares or 26.19 per cent of paid-up equity of SRF Polymers. The buyback has been announced after the company’s Board of Directors approved the scheme on August 6. It envisages purchase of up to 16,13,000 equity shares of SRF Polymers by the company from the open market. ITC buys Nepal firm ITC Limited today announced that it has acquired Nepal-based Surya Tobacco Company after its equity holding in the company went up to 59 per cent from 49 per cent. In a statement, the company said it had acquired another 56,000 ordinary shares of Surya Nepal, a company incorporated under the laws of Nepal, increasing the holding in the company to 59 per cent.
PTI, UNI
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Beer better than milk New Delhi, August 23 "It's a common misconception that beer is fattening. The average bottle of beer has no fat and contains only 280 calories. Against this, 650 ml of apple juice contains 364 calories while the same amount of milk contains 442 calories and cola 229 calories," said Gordon Den, technical director of South African Breweries (SAB), at an interactive session on the art of brewing here.
IANS
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Post offices, Rlys to distribute coins
New Delhi “We are planning to distribute coins through post offices. We are talking to the Chief Post Master General in this regard,” a senior RBI official said here today.
PTI Govt invites bids for Nalco sale
NEW DELHI: Government today invited initial bids for the sale of 29.15 per cent stake to a strategic partner along with management control in National Aluminium Company (Nalco). Prospective bidders are required to submit an expression of interest by September 16, official sources said.
PTI Add-life to launch Viagra version
MUMBAI: Add-life is the latest to join the select group of companies producing indigenous versions, of Viagra. In a press note Add-life claimed that it had successfully developed a new bulk drug product named Addegra” to address the issue of sexual stimulation among males. The company, which is currently under the process of appointing franchisees across the country, will shortly launch the product in the market.
UNI Toshiba laptop unit for China
BEIJING: Japanese computer giant, Toshiba, has laid the foundation for the world’s largest laptop production base in Hangzhou, the capital of east China’s Zheijiang province. The site for the project is located in the Zhejing Hangzhou Export Processing Zone, a media report said today. Toshiba will invest seven billion yen in the project which is expected to be completed by next April, it said.
PTI SA food supermarkets for India
DURBAN: With India having very few food retailers and the government allowing partnerships with foreign stakeholders, South Africa’s largest food retailer, Shoprite Holdings, has decided to open food supermarkets in the country.
PTI
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Scheme for SSIs Bharti’s plea MatrixOne India Gold falls Steel output up Customer care Electrolux plan Hummingbird PNB Housing |
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