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Nod to fleet expansion plan
No deal against farmers’ interest at WTO, assures Nath
DLF withdraws demand of concessions on Amritsar SEZ
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Maruti may up prices
ING Vysya Life opens office in Jalandhar
Government assures SEZ status for auto companies
PVR plans multiplex in Ludhiana
Corporate
News
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Nod to fleet expansion plan
Bangalore, December 7 Disclosing this here today on the sidelines of the Aerodrome, 2005 international exhibition-cum-seminar, Union Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad said Indian Airlines had finalised the contract document after holding talks with Airbus team. He said the proposal would be placed before the Union Cabinet shortly for final approval. Mr Prasad said the first batch of aircraft would be delivered by the end of 2006. He also disclosed that the proposal to buy 28 Boeing planes would also be shortly placed before the Union Cabinet for approval. Besides this, the Centre is also processing the case for a new international airport in Mumbai, which is expected to come up some distance away from the city and will be a larger project than the present airport. Mr Prasad said few sites had also been identified for the project for which a separate bid would be invited. Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Ministry is also going through the process of modernising and upgrading the present airports at Mumbai and New Delhi at a cost of Rs 16,000 crore. This will be done through private participation with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) having 26 per cent equity in the project. He said the modernisation work would begin by March, 2006 and six consortiums had been selected for the work. He said the six consortiums, all of whom were Indian, had submitted bids for the works in collaboration with a foreign partner, who were operating an international airport. He said the consortiums, who had bid for the Mumbai airport were Reliance, Sterlite group, DS Consortium, GVK group, SL Group and GMR group. He said all except GVK had also bid for the modernisation of Delhi airport. Karnataka Industries Minister PGR Sidhia, while speaking on the occasion, said work on the International airport project in Bangalore had already been started and two more airports were coming up at Hassan and Gulbarga. He said the airports at Belgaum and Hubli would also be expanded. The president of Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies and Industries (SIATI), Dr C.G. Krishnadas Nair, while speaking at the inaugural function of the Aerodrome India, 2005, said there was a tremendous potential for growth in the civil aviation sector in India. He disclosed that though the country had 300 airports, only one third of them were operational.
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Gates to invest $1.7 b
New Delhi, December 7 Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates said the amount is to be deployed across
select focus areas in line with Microsoft’s strategic vision for India and
would also be spent in making the country a major hub of Microsoft’s research,
product and application development, services and technical support for both
global and domestic companies. The investment will be used in other areas as well, including intensifying efforts for creating a digitally inclusive society, strengthening the local knowledge economy and increasing geographical and enterprise reach across the country, Mr Gates told newspersons. “We
have 4,000 professionals in India today, we will increase it to 7,000
over the next three to four years,” Bill Gates said. “We created
the fourth research centre in India. We have one each in Europe China
and the US. We said that there will be low-cost computers and this will
lead the way to make breakthroughs,” he said. Microsoft depends heavily on the cheap software skills in India. The company has long viewed India, a country of 1 billion people with a robust economy, as a potentially huge market. The company today signed two agreements with the Indian government on cyber security and launching a competitive enhancement programme for small and medium enterprises in the Indian manufacturing sector. For these two MoUs, the company will set up two innovation centres in the country. Meanwhile, Bill Gates met Reliance Infocomm chief Anil Ambani and discussed cooperation between the two companies on next-generation Internet Protocol (IP)-based television services in India. “I
had a chance to meet Anil Ambani today. We will now help them in rolling
out broadband services... he has a strategy in place and we will play a
key role in helping them,” Mr Gates said after the meeting. Reliance
Infocomm had signed an agreement with Microsoft in October 2003 for rolling out IPTV in India. “We
are putting renewed energy into the (IPTV) tie-up,” Gates said. Reliance Infocomm and Microsoft had agreed three years ago to work together to jointly create, test and deliver IPTV services based on an IPTV solution being developed by Microsoft TV. The
solution would enable web surfing, e-mailing, online gaming with
multiple players and allow users to access numerous channels over
Reliance’s broadband network On his fourth trip to the nation, Gates is scheduled to meet senior Indian government officials, business leaders, and programmers and take stock of a $400 million investment program the company announced for India three years ago.
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No deal against farmers’ interest at WTO,
New Delhi, December 7 It, however, expressed doubts whether an agreement would be possible at the meet in view of wide differences among different blocks of the WTO members. "If Hong Kong has to end without an agreement so be it. If we can't make them (developed countries) agree, believe me, we will also not agree. India will carry on even after Hong Kong... And the interest of country's 650 million farmers will be protected," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told Parliament winding up discussion on WTO negotiations. "We will not compromise whatever we may get in goods or services for the sake of our 650 million farmers," he said adding agriculture remained the most structurally flawed part of global trade and WTO. He, however, said if there was no convergence ahead of the WTO Ministerial meeting beginning December 13, it was because of India and other developing countries not willing to accept current imbalances in agriculture. "Until specific commitments are made by developed countries when export subsidies will be phased out in its entirety and domestic support eliminated, there will be no agreement," he said. While protecting food and livelihood concerns of country's farmers, he said the government also wanted to secure their future interests by ensuring developed nations gave fair market access. Meanwhile, reports emanating from Geneva said the WTO members have confirmed their support for a provisional 2003 accord that allowed poor countries to import generic drugs to treat infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.
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DLF withdraws demand of concessions
Chandigarh, December 7 A high-level meeting between the DLF officials and senior officials of the Punjab Government was convened today. The outcome was that the state and the DLF would be arriving at agreement to execute the SEZ as planned, official in Punjab Government confirmed. DLF had won a bid to construct the SEZ on behalf of the state government. The
Punjab Government had reportedly told DLF that it would have to go in
for fresh bidding and tendering process as no new concessions could be
granted once the bid had been finalised. Officials in Punjab confirmed
the development but refused the divulge details of the agreement saying,
“let it be finalised”. The officials confirmed that the development
“was positive in nature”. Sources have confirmed that the DLF had been told categorically that concession would mean inviting all other bidders with new conditions. DLF had raised the issue of cost of land being very high. The Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, had been informed about the fresh demands made by the DLF and officials had explained to him that either the demands be withdrawn or fresh tenders be invited. The CM is said to have been categorical in not allowing any concession at this stage.
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Maruti may up prices
New Delhi, December 7 Due to increase in freight costs, the company has decided to pass on the
burden to its consumers. The revision would come into effect from January 2006
after the company’s second budget meeting, dealer sources in the know of
things said here today.
— PTI
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ING Vysya Life opens office in Jalandhar
Jalandhar, December 7 Mr Coster was in town to participate in the opening of the company's Jalandhar office at the GT Road here today. Talking to reporters here, Mr Coster said the present market share of the LIC, which had enjoyed monopoly prior to the opening of insurance sector to private players in the country in 2001, had come down to 75 per cent of the total life insurance business. He
said the LIC had been losing over half per cent (0.5 per cent) of its
market share to private companies every month and this trend might
continue. Mr Coster said the growing insurance market had vast growth
potential in India and it is expected that by next four decades the
market would achieve 400 per cent growth. — UNI
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Government assures SEZ status for auto companies
New Delhi, December 7 "We realise the tremendous opportunities in auto sector. The government is committed to take all steps to encourage auto firms invest in setting up testing centres and manufacturing plants," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said at the 10th Asia-Pacific Automotive Industry roundtable here. Mr Nath said a lot of auto firms have evinced interest in setting up Special Economic Zones and the ministry was considering their applications. Emphasising that India provided a level-playing field to both domestic and foreign companies, he said the government was aware that tax policies "sometimes put auto companies at a disadvantage... we are looking at this issue."
Fiat to invest
Beleaguered carmaker Fiat today said it would be sourcing components worth $10 million from India in 2006, which is expected to increase further in the coming years, and make significant investments for reviving the company. This was disclosed by newly-appointed Managing Director of Fiat's India subsidiary De Filippis Giovanni here. The company has said it will resume production of cars like Palio, Petra and the Adventure at Kurla from January 2006. The company has plans to introduce new models in India in the coming time, as the company works on a revival strategy in the market, he added.
Toyota plant
Global auto giant Toyota is looking to set up a gearbox manufacturing plant in India to serve the Asian
market. This was revealed by Mr Kamal Nath here today. "The Toyota chairman met me a few days ago and said the company was looking at setting up a gearbox manufacturing plant in India to serve the whole of Asian region," Nath said.
Tata Motors
Tata Motors today said it would
double the number of technical centres for product development.
"Currently, we have six technical centres, three in India and one
each in South Korea, Spain and the UK. We are now looking at
increasing the number of such centres to about 12 of them," Tata
Motors Managing Director Ravikanth said at the Asia- Pacific
Automotive Industry round table here. — PTI
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PVR plans multiplex in Ludhiana
New Delhi, December 7 To finance the expansion plans the company is bringing out at initial public offer (IPO) of 7.7 million shares of Rs 10 each for cash within a price band of Rs 200 and Rs 240 to be later determined through book building process. The issue will open tomorrow and will close on December 14, 2005. “Under
the expansion plan, the company will launch 18 multiplexes with 82
screens by 2008. Of these, five multiplexes will be in Mumbai and two
low-priced ticket multiplexes in Aurangabad and Latur,” PVR Limited
Managing Director Ajjay Bijli said here after announcing company’s
forthcoming IPO. The remaining multiplexes would be set up at Hyderabad,
Delhi, Gurgaon, Lucknow, Chennai and Latur, he said.
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Corporate News
Mumbai, December 7 The company has financed the acquisition through the $80.5 million it had recently raised via Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds. With this acquisition, its total soda ash capacity globally would increase by 3 lakh MTPA to 9 lakh MTPA. In addition to acquiring this plant, GHCL and its subsidiary have also entered into an MoU to acquire majority stake in another soda ash plant in Romania.
SAIL’s Rs
11,000-cr plan
As part of its Rs 35,000 crore mega growth plan, state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) would pump in Rs 11,000 crore to increase production capacity of its three production units in West Bengal including Durgapur steel plant and Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO). The
company has decided to invest Rs 11,000 crore in the next five to six
years to jack up the hot metal production capacity of DSP from the
present level of two million tonne to 3.2 m.t by 2011-12 while IISCO’s
capacity would go up to 2.5 mt by 2011-12 from the existing 0.8 mt,
SAIL sources here told PTI. SAIL’s corporate plan envisaged
raising its total hot metal capacity from the current level of 14 mt
to 22.5 mt by 2011- 12.
Fagioli to set up base
Italian firm Fagioli, specialising in worldwide heavy lifting and transportation services for civil, offshore, power and petrochemical industries, plans to invest $3 million in India to set up equipment base at Kandla Export Promotion Zone, the company said today. “The
demand for alternative lifting is growing in India and currently the
market size is pegged at around Rs 40 crore. In order to cater to this
increasing demand, the Fagioli group has decided to set up its
equipment base in the Kandla Export Promotion Zone in India,” Les J
Brown, Managing Director, Fagioli PSC Limited, UK said in a press
note. “The demand for alternative lifting goes hand-in-hand with
demand for conventional crane lifting. Currently 80 per cent of the
jobs are carried out by cranes and the balance 20 per cent through
alternate lifting,” Brown said.
Cognizant to invest $76 m
IT giant Cognizant would be investing around $76 million across its centres in different cities of India. “The
fund will be used to build up 9000 square feet of office space across
the cities, including the 1000 square feet training academy in Chennai
and the rest for the development centre,” Cognizant president and
CEO Lakshmi Narayan told reporters here today. The company is in a
major expansion mode and increasing its global manpower from 15,300 in
2004 to 23,500 in 2005. “Out of this 70 per cent is in India,” he
said. In Kolkata, in 2005 the company has already recruited 1000 professionals taking to the total strength to 3,200 in the city. The company is also planning to acquire 10-15 acres of additional land in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) area in West Bengal.
KEC bags export orders
Power transmission and engineering company KEC International Limited (KEC) today said it has secured new orders worth Rs 339 crore from Afghanistan and Ethiopia. The Rs 204 crore Afghanistan project, it said, include supply and construction of 220 KV double circuit transmission lines from Kabul to Salang Tunnel over a distance of 95 km and Salang Tunnel to Phul-e-Khumri over a distance of 107 km. Awarded by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), the project would be executed over the next 36 months, the company said in a release here. The
Rs 135 crore Ethiopia project, placed by the Ethiopian Electric Power
Corporation (EEPCO) for supply and construction of 400 KV single
circuit and 230 KV double circuit transmission line totalling over 234
kms under the Gilgel Gibe II Power Transmission Project, is aimed at
satisfying the growing demand for electricity in Ethiopia.
— Agencies
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