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CORPORATE NEWS
US technology
prize for Haren Gandhi Indian Airlines
adds new routes Cipla, Ranbaxy
AIDS drugs for Africa Maruti, Indica
top J D Power survey |
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8 large, medium
industrial units set up in Haryana 18 Indian firms
on Forbes list High deficit
limits India’s ratings, says Fitch
New flight from
Delhi to London
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NIIT net zooms 178 pc
New Delhi, October 24 The operating profit during the quarter also rose 121 per cent to Rs 24.1 crore, while the global revenue increased 12 per cent at Rs 271.4 crore. IT services contributed Rs 141.4 crore and learning business contributed Rs 123.6 crore. NIIT Ltd also registered a jump of 347 per cent during the quarter to touch Rs 5.9 crore, compared to Rs 1.31 crore in the corresponding period previous year. Meanwhile, the company’s Board of Directors has approved the proposal to carve out its global software solutions business into a separate company, Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman of NIIT, told reporters here. As a listed company focused on IT services business, NIIT Technologies would have greater flexibility as well as acquisition currency to create innovative strategic alliances, he added. The company is also planning to add 500 seats to its software capacity taking it to 2,279 professionals. Castrol net falls
Castrol India today reported a 27.04 per cent drop in its net profit during the quarter ended September 30, 2003, to Rs 28.6 crore from Rs 39.2 crore posted in the same period of the previous year. However, sales and income from operations rose to Rs 333.4 crore during the reporting quarter over Rs 322.1 crore in the corresponding period of the earlier fiscal, a company release said here.
Glenmark net up
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has posted a higher net profit of Rs 14.39 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2003, as against Rs 11.78 crore in the same period last year. The sales and operating income for the reporting quarter was up at Rs 105.59 crore as against Rs 100.33 crore in the July-September, 2003, a company press release said here today. The net profit and sales for the six months ended September, 2003, stood at Rs 18.27 crore (Rs 14.83 crore in H1 of last fiscal) and Rs 163.66 crore (Rs 147.71 crore), it said.
Kelvinator loses
Electrolux Kelvinator (EKL) has accumulated losses in excess of networth and hinged its hopes on the proposed rights issue of Rs 200 crore to make the networth positive. The company Board of Directors has noted that the accumulated losses of the company as on September 30, 2003, have exceeded the networth of the company. The board took into account the impending rights issue and AB Electrolux’s commitment to support the rights issue by subscribing to the unsubscribed portion of the rights offer beyond its entitlement in the event of other shareholders of the company do not subscribe to their entitlement.
Balaji Tele net dips
Balaji Telefilms Ltd has posted a lower net profit of Rs 14.23 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2003, compared to Rs 15.28 crore of the previous year. The company’s board has recommended an interim dividend of Rs 2 per share (100 per cent on equity share of paid-up value of Rs 2) for the six-month period ended September 30, Balaji Telefilms informed the BSE.
— PTI, UNI
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US technology prize for Haren Gandhi Washington, October 24 According to the citation, Dr Gandhi has been acknowledged as the pioneer of the industry. The award is the highest honour bestowed upon America’s leading innovators by the US President. The citation for Dr Gandhi says he has pioneered the American automotive industry’s judicious use of precious metals, including conservation measures such as the recycling of spent converters and technological advances in precious metal utilisation. Dr Gandhi has also conducted pioneering research in the areas of three-way catalysts (TWC), catalysts for alternative fuels, oxygen storage components in TWCs, poisoning of automotive catalysts, and novel catalyst formulation strategies. His work has resulted in more than 70 technical publications and over 40 US patents in automotive exhaust catalysis and related areas.
— ANI |
Indian Airlines adds new routes New Delhi, October 24 The new link will be on the Chennai Visakhapatnam-Raipur-Delhi sectors, with the operation of four flights a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays with a Boeing 737 aircraft. IA will also restart its Dornier service on the Goa-Agatti-Goa sector thrice-a-week flights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Ahead of the winter schedule, the airline has started a new link on Jaipur-Delhi-Bangkok-Singapore sector with two flights a week on Wednesdays and Sundays. It is also increasing its flights on the Mumbai-Hyderabad-Mumbai sectors to 28 a week from 21 earlier, thus providing an additional 1,2000 seats, an IA statement has said. More than 1,000 seats will also be made available through increased frequencies of its Boeing 737 operations on the Mumbai-Vadodara-Mumbai sector. On the Delhi-Chennai route, the airline will offer over 1,000 seats more by ramping up its weekly flights to 28 from 21 now. It will also offer a daily flight on the Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar-Delhi sector as against the existing four flights a week. The carrier has also
restructured some of the routes resulting in additional capacity. With daily terminator flights on the Delhi-Vadodara, Delhi-Ahmedabad and Delhi-Bhubaneshwar sectors as well as increased frequencies on the Leh-Jammu/Leh-Srinagar sectors, the airline will offer more seats on these routes. On the Delhi-Nagpur sector, there will be four weekly flights apart from three flights a week on the Delhi-Raipur-Nagpur-Delhi route, thus providing more capacity. IA said the change in schedule was intended to give a boost to domestic tourism and also help sustain the popular response to its holiday packages. The Flyaway Packages are now available from various stations on the airline network to Andaman, Assam, West Bengal, Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh till March 31,
2004. — PTI |
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Cipla, Ranbaxy AIDS drugs for Africa
New York, October 24 Announcing the agreement, which will benefits thousands of people in the poverty-ridden nations, Clinton said it would now be easier to make life-savings drugs to be widely available to people with AIDS in the developing world. The agreement covers anti-retroviral drugs
(ARVs) which will be delivered to people in Africa and the Caribbean where the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS initiative is working with governments and organisations to set up countrywide integrated care, treatment and prevention programmes. Under the agreement, the price of one of the commonly used triple drug therapy combinations will be substantially reduced to less than $ 140 per person per year. That translates into a cost of just 36-to-38 cents per person per day.
— PTI |
Maruti, Indica top J D Power survey New Delhi, October 24 The annual study, in its seventh year, ranked Fiat as the most improved brand with significant improvements in all five parameters measured — problems experienced, service adviser, service performance, service timing and facility appearance. ‘’Maruti demonstrates a well-rounded performance with industry-best scores on all five factors that determine service satisfaction,’’ India Country Manager of J D Power Asia Pacific Mohit Arora said. The industry average score remained unchanged over last year and the study found that for nine of the 10 makes ranked, customers reported a greater number of repair problems in 2003. The survey revealed Tata Motors had made significant gains, consistently improving its score and rankings over the past three years. “Tata Indica performs best in the study in terms of operating costs, followed by Toyota
Qualis,’’ the survey found out. — UNI |
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8 large, medium industrial units set up in Haryana
Chandigarh, October 24 Stating this here today, a spokesman of the Haryana Industries Department said 42 small-scale units have also been set up during last month raising the total number of such units set up during the year to 206. Out of eight large and medium units, four units have been set up in Gurgaon, three in Sonepat and one in Panipat. He said apart from large and medium industries, the handicrafts sector was also being developed in Haryana. The spokesman said with a view to developing the handloom sector, the state government was annually sponsoring five students for three years diploma course in handloom technology at Jodhpur.
— PTI |
| 18 Indian firms on Forbes list
New York, October 24 The magazine specially takes note of the Indian entrepreneurship in the tight world market, pointing out that the number of Indian companies has gone up to 18 this year from 13 last year and 10 a year earlier. On this year’s list are Wipro, Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers and Rolta India Dr Reddy’s Labs, Ipca Laboratories, Nicholas Piramal, Sun Pharmaceutical,— Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce, - Cosmo Films and Essel Propack. Zee Films, Asian Paints, Bharat Forge (metal fabricators), Graphite India and Indo Gulf (Fertilizers) also find place on the coveted list. Forbes pays tribute to the initiatives taken by Essel Propack which has a become a major player in the laminated tube markets, selling 3.5 billion tubes a year and is supplying the product to multinationals. Every third laminated tube sold worldwide is made by Essel and its Vice- Chairman Ashok Geol is quoted as saying that the company plans to make that every second tube. The article profiles the aggressive policies followed by the company to make it a world player despite all odds. The magazine says India is a special case as it has some “pretty big fish” swimming among the 200. Two software titans, Infosys and Wipro, were earlier this year on the magazine’s big-company A-list as their market capitalization is in excess of $5 billion . Looking beyond these behemoths, Forbes says, are companies like Zee Telefilms which runs a Bollywood studio and a cable TV operation. Its films may have higher profile internationally but the magazine quotes lead manager of Price International Discovery Fund T Rowe as saying it is other half of the company that needs to be watched. The Indian contingent, it writes, covers a broad industrial range from software and entertainment industries to widget-makers like Bharat Forge, Essel Propack and Graphite India, pharmaceutical that include Dr Reddy’s Labs and financials such a HDFC Bank. The magazine notes that Dr Reddy Labs spent 8 per cent of sales on research and development last year and this year, the target is 10 per cent. The 200 successful companies were drawn from among 19,000 publicly traded concerns with annual sales below $ 1 billion. The magazine screened out most corporations that did not have operating margins of at least 5 per cent in the latest year and average equity return of at least 5 per cent over the past five years.
— PTI |
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High deficit limits India’s ratings, says Fitch New Delhi, October 24 The agency said despite improved agricultural production and a rise in domestic demand that have bolstered the Indian economy outlook in the current year, high fiscal deficit remains a roadblock in upgrading the country’s ratings. Fitch intends to commence its annual review of India’s sovereign ratings next month. The review will take a look at the improving external accounts, including a surprisingly strong foreign exchange reserve and good performance on service exports,” said Brian Coulton, head (Asia Sovereign Ratings) of Fitch. “The review will also focus on progress made on the fiscal consolidation front that continues to constrain the rating,” Coulton told IANS in an e-mailed response from Hong Kong. “Extremely high (Central and state) government fiscal deficits of close to 10 per cent of GDP, chronically low tax revenue and rising government debt levels continue to constrain sovereign ratings,” he added. The government plans to restrict fiscal deficit in 2003-04 to 5.6 per cent.
— IANS
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New flight from Delhi to London
New Delhi, October 24 This takes the total number of flights between the two cities by the airline to three each week. The non-stop day-time service will leave New Delhi at 2 pm to reach London at 5.40 pm. The new flight is in code-share agreement with Air-India, said Virgin Atlantic’s General Manager for India operations Andrew Fyfe. The airline will now fly from here on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
— UNI
Connect cuts ISD rates by 70 pc
Chandigarh: Connect has announced a bonanza for its subscribers across Punjab. All ISD calls made from Connect phones to the USA, Europe and Canada will now cost 70 per cent less from October 25 to November 22. All calls to the USA, Canada and Europe (except UK) will now cost Rs 9.6 a minute down from Rs 24 per minute. Calls to the UK will cost Rs 7.20 per minute. The pulse rate for the UK will be 10 seconds while that for the USA, Canada and other European countries will be 7.5 seconds.
— TNS
Microsoft profit at $2.6 billion
Redmond: Microsoft said it posted a profit of $ 2.61 billion in the quarter to September 30 as revenues grew 6 per cent $ 8.22 billion. The fiscal first quarter earnings for the world’s largest software firm, amounting to 30 cents per share, excluding special items, were roughly in line with Wall Street estimates while revenue growth was better than expected. Microsoft, which recently stopped providing stock options and adjusted its earnings to show expenses of stock grants, increased profits from last year’s level of 2.04 billion after revisions.
— AFP
Insurance firm nets Rs 135 cr
Amritsar: National Insurance company has gained net profit of Rs 135.65 crore for 2002-03 against a loss of Rs 94.34 crore in the previous year, said Mr Harkanwal Singh Wadhwa, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of National Insurance Company Limited here today. He said the company had achieved a growth rate of 21 per cent, which was the highest among the four PSU insurers. He said the company had increased its premium base to Rs 2,870 crore during the current year from Rs 2,365 crore in 2001-02 thereby doubling the premium accretion from that of the previous year.
— OC
Toshiba in black on chip demand
Tokyo: Toshiba Corp said on Friday it swung into profit in the latest quarter as booming demand for memory chips used in digital cameras made up for slack sales of notebook computers. Japan’s biggest semiconductor company said group net profit totalled 4.67 billion yen ($43 million) for the three months to September 30, the second quarter of the business year, versus a loss of 7.61 billion yen in the same period last year. Revenues rose 3 per cent to 1.49 trillion yen.
— Reuters
TouchTel ISD calls cheaper
New Delhi: TouchTel today announced up to 70 per cent reduction in international long distance tariffs for calls to the UK, USA and Europe. The festival offer will be effective till November 25. TouchTel’s Delhi customers will be able to make calls to the UK, USA and Europe at Rs 14.40 per minute as against the existing Rs 24 per minute, a company statement said here. Similarly, TouchTel’s Haryana customers will be able to make calls to the UK at the rate of Rs 7.20 per minute and to Europe, the USA and Canada at Rs 9.60 per minute.
— PTI
Concorde takes off last flight
AboaRd Concorde: Concorde, the world’s only supersonic airliner, took off from New York today for its last passenger flight and roared off into aviation history. The sleek, needle-nosed plane, conceived more than 40 years ago when supersonic airlines were thought to be the future of flight, streaked away from John F Kennedy airport and climbed towards the edge of space, where it accelerated to twice the speed of sound. The plane is due to land shortly before 1500 GMT at London’s Heathrow airport where thousands of people are expected to cram vantage points and approach roads to see the sun set on a unique era in the history of flight.
— Reuters
Inflation falls below 5 pc
New Delhi: The wholesale prices-based inflation rate slid below 5 per cent mark at 4.95 per cent during the week ended October 11, down 0.13 per cent against 5.08 per cent during the previous period. The rate came down despite coke prices shooting up by 12 per cent and electricity tariffs rising by 2 per cent.
— UNI |
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