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VW seeks more concessions from Andhra Pradesh
Rupee falls sharply by 28 paise
India gets first air ambulance
TCS wins $847 m BPO deal in UK
Hyundai rolls out 2,00,000th export car
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Exports to Mexico to cross $1 billion
Zafirovski is Nortel CEO
Tycoons meet Left leaders
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VW seeks more concessions from Andhra Pradesh
Hyderabad, October 18 After the fiasco of its senior official misappropriating Rs 11 crore extracted from the AP Government, VW had sent a delegation from Germany last week, which held detailed discussions with the
government. The negotiations spread over two days from October 14 do not seem to have yielded any results, as VW representatives left without giving any commitment. During these closed-door deliberations, VW had changed tack and put forth a series of new demands and sought more concessions for the proposed plant, putting the state in a fix. The increasing list of demands has left even Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy annoyed, who said that VW was trying to pit one state against another in an attempt to extract more concessions.” They are asking for a lot more concessions than indicated earlier”, he said. While the site for the facility was almost decided at Visakhapatnma earlier, VW wanted to look at alternative sites in the latest round of negotiations. They indicated Tada in Nellore district, which is close to Chennai, as a probable site. VW,
apparently, was intent on using the facilities available at Chennai, including the proximity to auto ancillary units in and around the Tamil Nadu capital. While the state had already offered 350 acres of
land, one rupee rebate on every unit of power, sales tax deferment for 18 years and provision of water at Rs 10 per thousand litres, VW has now put forth more demands, including the incentives under SEZ, more concessions in central taxes and an increase in the government stake in the venture. ”We have already agreed to provide benefits to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore directly and indirectly, but they want concessions worth another Rs 1,000 crore, state government officials said. The Chief Minister, however, wanted a detailed project report in place before his government could commit more concessions or incentives. Despite the veiled threat of VW that neighbouring Tamil Nadu was keen on its project, AP officials maintain that the TN Government would not be able to provide so much land close to Chennai.
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Rupee falls sharply by 28 paise
Mumbai, October 18 The rupee touched an 11-month low today under pressure from the US dollar. ‘’A strong dollar has put pressure on the rupee. Besides current account deficit and higher crude oil prices were not helping
the domestic currency,’’ a forex expert said. Higher crude oil price at $ 63.86 per barrel in the New York mercantile exchange (NYMEX), as compared to $ 62-62 per barrel a week ago, has been a cause of worry for the Indian currency as the country’s import of crude oil has been drying up the dollar from the market. Earlier, the rupee fell below the 45-level against the US dollar soon after opening six paise lower at 44.9400/9600 from Monday’s close of
44.8800/8900.— UNI
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Kingfisher eyes stake in Air Sahara
New Delhi, October 18 While there was speculation that Jet Airways was interested in picking stake in Air Sahara, Vijay Mallya said here today that his airline was definitely interested in picking stake. The admission by the liquor baron has brought about excitement in the aviation circles. On the other hand, Jet Airways chief Naresh Goyal said he was not interested in picking any stake in Air Sahara. Mr Goyal said that he had no interest in Air Sahara. “It (reports on this) is wrong....we have enough on our platter to handle,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a CII interaction with International Air Transport Association (IATA) chief Giovanni Bisignani. Reports had earlier suggested that Jet Airways was in negotiations with Air Sahara to buy a controlling stake. But the Kingfisher Airlines chief said he was “certainly interested” in looking at the proposal, which closes on October 30. “Air Sahara is raising equity. There is an information memorandum prepared by the Ernst and Young. Obviously, we are ones among many who are interested. We are studying the memorandum,” he said, adding it was a specifically structured memorandum that was “clear on the mandate”. Quoting the information memorandum, Mallya said it had specifically defined an amount of $100 million, which was to be raised by Air Sahara for its expansion plans. However, an Air Sahara spokesperson refused to comment on the matter. Incidentally, Air Sahara is also facing investigations from the DGCA for the recent episode of one its aircraft overshooting the runway in Mumbai when one of its pilots was flying the aircraft on a boarding pass. Mr Mallya also announced that Kingfisher Airlines would launch operations on Category 2 and 2A routes from “this winter”. Under the Civil Aviation Regulations, all airlines have to mandatorily operate on socially-important routes like North-east (NE) and Jammu and Kashmir, which may not be commercially viable, in order to get permission to fly abroad. On the DGCA directive to the airline on non-fulfilment of criteria on operations to socially important routes like NE, Mr Mallya said: “There has been a marginal shortfall. The Indian Airlines (from which it was purchasing the rights) had reported a marginal shortfall. We have bought the rights from Air Deccan now.”
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India gets first air ambulance
New Delhi, October 18 The Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC) today signed an agreement with Deccan Aviation, which operates the budget carrier Air Deccan, to launch ‘Air Rescue One,’ the country’s first dedicated air ambulance that is equipped to deliver critical care to patients even at 10,000 ft in the sky. While Deccan Aviation would provide eight helicopters and two fixed-wing aircraft, besides full logistical and ground support, EHIRC would be responsible for total medical rescue operation and equipment. “It is going to be a concerted effort from two leaders in the field of medical evacuation services,” Deccan Aviation Managing Director Capt Gopinath told reporters here. But the cost of the service, pegged at Rs 45,000-50,000 for an hour’s flight and Rs 30,000 as fixed medical charges, is currently out of reach of the common man. However, Mr Gopinath said he was in talks with a general insurance firm to work out a policy to cover air ambulance costs, which would drastically reduce the costs. “Once the policy is in place, the premium would work out to be as low as Rs 2,000 making it affordable to the common man,” he said. “As the number of policies increase, the premium cost would drop further...we are looking at Rs 1,000 mark,” EHIRC Executive Director Naresh Trehan said. While EHIRC has been chartering aircraft to ferry patients from distant locations for several years now, it has been an ad hoc effort that consumes a lot of time and money. Dr Trehan said earlier a lot of time used to be wasted in finding an aircraft and getting necessary clearances and hoped that with Air Rescue One in place, their response time would be much quicker. Mr Gopinath said he was also talking to the Civil Aviation Ministry to permit construction of a helipad near the hospital in the national capital to enable quick transfer of the patient, as landing at the airport would mean losing crucial time. The ambulance would carry a medical crew comprising of a cardiologist, trained anaesthetist/critical care expert, ICU nurse and a cardiac surgeon (as and when required). Under the agreement signed by the two sides, the air ambulance service would cater to all Fortis Healthcare institutions, including EHIRC, Fortis Healthcare chairman Harpal Singh said.
— PTI
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TCS wins $847 m BPO deal in UK
New Delhi, October 18 TCS plans to set up a subsidiary in Britain specialising in BPO for life and pension businesses for taking over the UK company. The deal will be executed over 12 years, a company spokesperson said. The revenues from the deal would start flowing from the next quarter. Under the deal, TCS will take over the entire business processes of Pearl. TCS said its agreement with Pearl will mean that a TCS subsidiary, to be set up at Peterborough, will employ about 950 of Pearl’s current 1,100 staff, with nearly 150 staying with the British company. TCS’ subsidiary will specialise in BPO for life and pension businesses, starting with Pearl Group’s closed books portfolio. “This deal validates our strategy of pioneering the next generation of Business Process Outsourcing opportunities,” TCS CEO S. Ramadorai said on the deal.
Ratan Tata
Mumbai: Coinciding with the roll-out of mega investment plans in the telecom business, slated to touch $7.5 billion by 2007, Tata Group Chief Ratan Tata today took charge as Chairman of the group’s privately held company Tata Tele-Services Ltd. Signalling that he would lead from the front the telecom businesses, in which the group is the single largest private investor, Ratan Tata accepted the TTSL Board’s offer to become Chairman after the incumbent Firdose Vandrewala quit, a company spokesman said after the Board meeting. The development comes within months of the group deciding to increase the retirement age for the directors of the group company to 75, making Ratan Tata, 67, eligible to continue as head of the largest private corporate entity till 2012.
— PTI
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Hyundai rolls out 2,00,000th export car
Chennai, October 18 HMI President B.V.R.Subbu said: “The success of our exports is a clear endorsement of the high quality standards of our cars. With increasing acceptance of our cars in the world’s important markets, we plan to increase the number of countries as well as the models we export over the next few years.” He said HMI, India’s largest exporter of cars, had achieved this distinction in less than six years, after the first car rolled out of Hyundai’ Irrungattukottai plant in Tamil Nadu in December, 1999. This is the fastest 200,000th export car rollout by any manufacturer in India, he claimed. The first milestone of one lakh cars was achieved in four years and 10 months (by October 2004) by HMI. The HMI achieved 95 per cent growth in the fiscal year 2004-05 over the fiscal 2003-04. In the first five months of the current fiscal year (2005-06), HMI has achieved 45 per cent growth over the previous year. Hyundai exports Santro Xing, called the “Atos Prime” in overseas markets, and Accent to over 60 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. PTI adds: Hyundai Motors India Ltd has started work on its $ 550-600 million expansion programme at its Chennai facility and the new plant would commence production from the July-September quarter of 2007, Mr B.V.R. Subbu said. M Subbu said Hyundai Motors India would unveil its new model in the ‘C’ segment during July-August next year. About the proposed new model, Mr Subbu said it would be slotted between the Accent and Elantra models. About other new launches, Mr Subbu said the company planned to launch Grandeur, but no time frame had been set. “We will launch Grandeur in India but when I don’t know.”
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Govt declares banking public utility service
New Delhi, October 18 The Security Printing Press at Hyderabad has also been declared a public utility service for six months. Separate notifications to this effect were issued by the Union Labour and Employment Ministry, an official press not said. The employees in these two industries would now be required to give six weeks’ notice to their employer before proceeding on a strike so that conciliatory proceedings could be started. Strikes are banned during the period of conciliatory proceedings and seven days after their completion, the press note added.
— PTI
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Exports to Mexico to cross $1 billion
New Delhi, October 18 The 20-member Mexican delegation for the Joint Commission meeting would be led by Ms. Lourdes Aranda Bezaury, Vice -Minister for Foreign Affairs, while the Indian delegation would be led by Minister of State for External Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh. Mexico has emerged as the largest destination for India’s exports to Latin America.
— TNS
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Zafirovski is Nortel CEO
Chandigarh, October 18 "Mike Zafirovski has the kind of proven, team-building leadership that has seen him create significant new value during his career in two of the world's most important global corporations," said Mr Harry J. Pearce, Chairman of the Nortel Board. Mr Zafirovski (51) has a 30-year career of leadership with two of the world's high-profile corporate innovators, General Electric and Motorola.
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Tycoons meet Left leaders New Delhi, October 18 Business tycoon Paul, Steel baron Mittal and Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani met the CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat and politburo member Sitaram Yechury separately to ascertain their view on certain policy issues and projects in West Bengal. While Mukesh Ambani met the CPM leaders at the party headquarters here yesterday, Mittal and Paul met them last week, sources added. The sources said the industrial leaders did not get into any specifics of the projects or quantum of investment but generally expressed their business plans in the country. Communist leaders downplayed the meeting by stating that party was the third largest in the Lok Sabha and in a democracy anyone can meet party leaders.
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LIC launches “Jeevan Plus”
ICICI Bank starts “Vyapar mela” Corrugated packaging industry hit CanInfrastructure Fund launched Pre-paid voucher for Himachal Oil prices VeriSign’s buy GM agreement Reliance Info Spencer in North Royal Orchid Essar stake |
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