Models display Canon's new digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera "Eos Kiss Digital X", equipped with a 10.1 mega-pixel CMOS image sensor with newly developed self-cleaning sensor unit using ultrasonic vibrations to shake off dust on the sensor at a company showroom in Tokyo on Thursday. Canon will put it on the market on September 8 with an estimated price of 90,000 yen ($780).— AFP

Centurion Bank hikes deposit rates 
Mumbai, August 24
The Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP) today hiked its deposit rates across specific tenures with effect from today.

HSIIDC raises term loan ceiling
Chandigarh, August 24
The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has decided to enhance the maximum exposure limit of financial assistance under its term loan scheme from Rs 10 crore to Rs 15 crore for all categories of loans. It has also decided to relax its policy relating to leasing of industrial plots and sheds in its industrial estates.

BPL to market Wi-Fi phones 
Kolkata, August 24
BPL Telecom plans to partner with Israel-based Tadiran Telecom to market its Wi-Fi handsets in the international market." We are looking for a tie-up with Tadiran Telecom for marketing Wi-Fi phones in the international market. The details are yet to be worked out,” BPL Telecom Associate Vice- President (sales and marketing) Ajit Mathew said.

WB Govt nod to HM 
Kolkata, August 24
Paving the way for the revival of the Uttarpara unit of Hindustan Motors, the West Bengal Cabinet today approved commercial utilisation of 314 acres of land belonging to it. The approval will enable Hindustan Motors to raise Rs 85 crore while the government will pump in an additional Rs 10 crore, Secretariat sources said.

An Eckerd drugstore outside of Fairfax, Virginia, in a file photo. Rite Aid on Thursday said it would buy the Brooks and Eckerd drugstore chains from Canada's Jean Coutu Group for about $2.6 billion in cash and stock. — Reuters

Apple to pay $100 m in settlement
San Francisco, August 24
Apple Computer Inc. said it would pay $100 million for a licence to use Creative Technology Ltd.'s patented technology in its iPod music player, settling all legal disputes between the two companies.

Caparo arm buys Steel Tubes of India
London, August 24
Caparo Engineering India Private Limited, a subsidiary of Caparo Group founded by NRI industrialist Lord Swaraj Paul, has acquired assets of Steel Tubes of India Limited, a Dewas-based company near Indore with an annual turnover of Rs 200 crore.

Samsung unveils 10 mega-pixel camera
New Delhi, August 24
Samsung India today launched its advanced 'NV' series of 10 mega- pixel digital still cameras (DSC), as well as its Q7 series of plasma TVs in the 42 and 50 inch screen size segments.

Jaguar XKR at the British International Motor Show in London on July 18, 2006. British construction company machinery group JCB said on Thursday it was interested in buying car-maker Jaguar from US owner Ford. — Reuters

REL starts work at Dadri project
New Delhi, August 24
Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Energy today started work at the project site of its ambitious 7,480 MW gas-fired Dadri power plant in Uttar Pradesh.

Tatas mull $25.8 billion investment
Mumbai, August 24
The Tata group plans to invest 1.20 trillion rupees ($25.8 billion) in the next three to five years in telecommunications, steel, chemicals, power and other industries, a group official said today.

Punj Lloyd JV with German firm
Mumbai, August 24
Punj Lloyd Ltd said today it was entering into a joint venture with Germany-based Kaefer GmbH. The company would hold 49 per cent in the joint venture while Kaefer would hold a 51 per cent stake, Punj Lloyd said.

PNB set to enter Pak
Mumbai, August 24
Punjab National Bank (PNB) is set to make a foray into Pakistan with a subsidiary titled 'PNB Pakistan' with an office in Islamabad.

Kuala Lumpur, August 24
ASEAN today demanded that India make further tariff concessions in its list of goods and services offered under a beleaguered Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) as the two sides agreed to resume FTA talks suspended by the 10-member grouping because of alleged lack of progress.

"They have to make further concessions, otherwise it will be a standstill," Ms Rafidah Aziz, Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister, said after the India-ASEAN Economic Ministers' consultations here.

Ms Rafidah, who co-chaired the talks with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, declared that the 10-member grouping has not given a deadline for the FTA negotiations.

Mr Nath said the meeting had been "constructive" and that "expedious efforts will be made" to get the India-ASEAN FTA negotiations moving.

In a bid to accelerate the slow moving ASEAN-India FTA talks, India last Friday offered new tariff concessions covering over 90 per cent of the grouping's exports to it.

India had revised its earlier tariff reductions offered for 69 per cent of the items, raising it to 94.6 per cent of the items. New Delhi also offered to substantially reduce import duty on some highly sensitive products which were of significant export interest to certain ASEAN members.

Meanwhile, India today strongly supported Japan's proposal for a pan-Asia trade block that will include 10 members of ASEAN and six other countries.

Apart from ASEAN members and India, the proposed FTA will include China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

"We strongly support it," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said after a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Toshihiro Nikai on the sidelines of the 38th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting (AEM) here.

The proposal for a 16-nation free trade zone has been mooted by Mr Nikai.

Mr Nath is in the Malaysian capital to attend the AEM — India Consultations.

He said New Delhi fully backed the Nikai initiative, which will result in huge economic gain for this part of the world.

Japan yesterday proposed the creation of a 16-nation pan-Asian FTA, including India, with economic activity worth $9 trillion. The proposed FTA will have a population of 3.1 billion people and a GDP of $10 trillion.

However, ASEAN felt that while studies for a single market in East Asia covering 16 countries was fine, what was more crucial was the pact between the grouping and Tokyo.

Only then, should the grouping clinch similar single markets with China and South Korea and thereafter bring in Australia, New Zealand and India, the ASEAN ministers felt.

Tokyo has said it will provide up to $100 million to fund efforts to set up a comprehensive economic partnership in East Asia, which could form the foundation of the East Asia FTA.

ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Mr Nikai clarified that Tokyo was not proposing the ASEAN plus 6 Free Trade Area to counter China's influence in the region.— PTI

New Delhi, August 24
Tata Group company VSNL today announced a significant reduction in prices for its international bandwidth products — international private leased circuits (IPLC) and Internet leased lines (ILL).

The global telecom major has reduced its IPLC prices in India by up to 25 per cent, effective from September and has also announced a reduction of its ILL tariffs by up to 40 per cent. These products are offered in India using VSNL’s global network that spans over 200,000 route kilometres, with 275 PoPs, connecting 200 countries.

The company said the price reduction is part of the Tata’s initiative to support and encourage the globalisation of India Inc. Demand for international connectivity has been rapidly growing with several Indian companies, led by Tata Group enterprises, investing overseas and India emerging as a favourite destination for FDI and FII inflows.

International connectivity is also an important driver for the growth of the fast growing IT, BPO and KPO sectors. The market for international and Internet bandwidth is expected to expand as the reduced prices will encourage demand from new customer segments like SMEs, smaller ISPs and academic institutions, it said.

VSNL also announced its intention, in partnership with leading carriers in the respective regions, to build two new submarine cable systems, one between India and Europe and the other intra-Asia. These multi-terabit capacity systems, incorporating state-of-the-art technologies, would interconnect with VSNL’s existing global network that has over 20 terabits of capacity.

The India-Europe cable would also provide connectivity to the Gulf region and the African continent, and supplement VSNL’s existing bandwidth capacity in several consortium cables in the region. The intra-Asia cable between Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan would enhance the link between VSNL’s Tata Indicom cable (Chennai-Singapore) and TGN Pacific (Japan-USA). The overall build cost of these two cable systems is expected to be in the range of $600 million.

“VSNL has always taken the lead in growing the Internet and international bandwidth market in India. We have invested over Rs 2,500 crore in expanding our global presence and connectivity in the past two years. We have regularly passed on the benefits of improved cost efficiencies and service quality to our customers,” said N Srinath, Executive Director, VSNL. 

New Delhi, August 24
The Union Cabinet tonight approved to amend the existing provisions of the State Bank of India Act, 1955, which would facilitate the bank to access the capital market for raising funds.

Briefing newspersons after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said the amendments would help the SBI to access the capital market for raising funds and for smooth functioning and better control so that the bank can discharge its functions more efficiently.

He said the SBI (Amendment) Bill will enable the SBI to attract a large number of small individual investors. The amendment Bill will be introduced in Parliament.

The Lok Sabha had yesterday approved by voice vote the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) and Financial Institutions Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2005, which gives greater flexibility to the Boards of public sector banks (PSBs) as also improve corporate governance standards.

The Bill, moved in the House by the Minister of State for Finance, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, was aimed at amending the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970, the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980, the State Bank of India Act, 1955, the State Bank (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959, the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961, the Export-Import Bank of India Act, 1981, and the National Housing Bank Act, 1987.

Among its other objectives, the Bill, as approved by the House, seeks to allow one to three shareholder Directors on the Board of nationalised banks on the basis of issued capital of the bank instead of one to six Directors as per existing provisions so as to provide for a more equitable representation on the Board of such banks on the basis of percentage of ownership; confer powers upon the RBI to appoint one or more additional Directors.

It also seeks to increase the number of whole-time Directors from two to four to have more functional Directors; enable the banks to transfer the unclaimed dividends for more than seven years to Investor Education and Protection Fund established by the Centre; and empower the Centre to supersede, on the recommendations of the RBI, the Board of any nationalised bank and constitute the financial restructuring authority and appoint a chief executive officer of such bank. 

New Delhi, August 24
Bharti Airtel has awarded Swedish telecom vendor Ericsson a $1 billion (about Rs 4500 crore) contract extending over three years, to cover expansion and upgrade of its GSM, GPRS network as well as managed services to increase network capacity and services footprint.

The contract will enable Bharti Airtel rapidly expand its mobile services footprint further and reach out to all towns and cities in 15 telecom circles in the country. The three-year service contract with Ericsson is towards the design, planning, supply and installation commissioning of Airtel networks in these circles, a Bharti statement said.

Last year, Bharti Airtel had signed a $250 million (Rs 1,075 crore) contract with Ericsson to set up and maintain Airtel’s cellular network in 3,000 towns and villages across the country. In 2004, they had signed a $400 million agreement for supply of the GSM network.

Ericsson will also upgrade the network with mobile softswitch (Media Gateway and MSC Servers), the solution that paves the way to an all-IP network. Bharti Airtel will be able to reduce the operational costs and introduce new services in a cost-efficient way.

The scope of the agreement extends to the 15 Airtel circles of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, UP (West), Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, UP (East), Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and the North-East.

Ericsson is a long-term Bharti partner, managing more than 70 per cent of its GSM/GPRS network in 15 regions in India.— PTI

New Delhi, August 24
India Inc continues to expand its wings to the foreign shores while riding high on the M&A wave, which has seen domestic companies executing about 80 cross-border deals worth over $6 billion (Rs 28,000 crore) since the beginning of this year.

The Tata Group has become the latest to join the ranks of eagles hunting on foreign grounds with a $677 million (over Rs 3,100 crore) acquisition of US-based Glaceau, which is being pegged as the largest -ever overseas buyout by an Indian company.

The deal outsizes the acquisition of German generic drug-maker Betapharm by domestic pharma giant Dr Reddy’s in February from US-based private equity firm 3i for $572 million (Rs 2,250 crore).

Tata’s acquisition of Glaceau, the maker of health drink vitaminwater, is the largest overseas acquisition by a private sector company in India so far in 2006 and only lags behind ONGC Videsh’s 15 per cent acquisition of Petrobras’ BC-10 block in Brazil for $1.4 billion.

According to Price-waterhouseCoopers, India Inc has recorded more mergers and acquisitions in the first half of 2006 as compared to the whole of 2005. India has surpassed China and South Korea to grab the third position in the Asia Pacific M&A league table and is lagging behind only Japan and Australia.

Indian companies struck M&A deals worth $25.6 billion in the first six months of 2006, up from $8 billion in the first half of 2005, and $23.6 billion for the entire 2005.

The country has also witnessed a sharp increase in the number of outbound deals this year, with 10 cross-border large-scale deals with a combined transaction value of $1.5 billion taking place in the month of June alone.

Nearly 76 cross-border deals worth nearly $5.2 billion were finalised in the first six months of 2006, with Europe accounting for more than half of the deals.

Besides Tata-Glaceau and Reddy’s-Betapharm deals, other major acquisition this year was India’s largest wind energy firm Suzlon Energy acquiring Belgium’s Hansen Transmission International for $324 million.

Earlier in March, pharma giant Ranbaxy also made a large foreign acquisition of $372 million , with buyout of a 96.8 per cent stake in Romania’s Terapia.

The largest ever acquisition by an India company abroad in the paper and pulp industry was made by Ballarpur Industries, which along with JP Morgan, acquired a 97.8 per cent stake in Malaysia’s Sabah Forest Industries for $261 million.

There have also been some relatively small acquisitions by the domestic IT firms with Wipro leading the race with its “string of pearls” approach for buying out foreign firms.

However, there have been a significant upswing in the country’s inbound M&A activities as well over the past few months. Some of the major acquisitions by foreign companies into the domestic firms this year include Hutchison Whampoa’s acquisition of a 5 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar for $580 million; acquisition of IT firm Mphasis BFL by Electronic Data Systems Corporation for $380 million and US major Chevron acquiring a 5 per cent stake in Reliance Petroleum.— PTI

New Delhi, August 24
Pune-based Kinetic Communication today formed a joint venture with Italy's Ducati Energia for production of auto-electrical components for two and three wheelers.

The 50:50 joint venture to be named Ducati Energia India Pvt Ltd will produce flywheel magnetos, CDI, ignition system, regulators and ECU for two and three-wheeled vehicles, the company said.

Ducati Energia has a call option to acquire the partner's 51 per cent in future, it added.

The company will set up its own manufacturing facility at Pune.

Kinetic Communications Managing Director Manish Motwani said the joint venture could tap a great opportunity for the Indian operation to be an outsourcing centre to supply to rest of the world. — PTI 

Mumbai, August 24
The Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP) today hiked its deposit rates across specific tenures with effect from today.

For deposits of one year to less than two years, the rate has been hiked from 7 per cent to 8 per cent while for senior citizens, it has been increased from 7.75 per cent to 8.75 per cent

For deposits of a tenure of 91 to 180 days and 181 to 364 days, the rates have been hiked from 6.1 per cent to 6.5 per cent and from 6.6 per cent to 7 per cent, respectively. For senior citizens, the rates in the above tenures have been raised from 6.85 per cent and 7.35 per cent to 7.25 per cent and 7.75 per cent effect from today t, respectively.

Similarly, for deposits of two to less than three years, the rate has been increased from 7 to 7.5 per cent while for senior citizens, it has been raised from 7.75 per cent to 8.25.— PTI

Chandigarh, August 24
The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has decided to enhance the maximum exposure limit of financial assistance under its term loan scheme from Rs 10 crore to Rs 15 crore for all categories of loans. It has also decided to relax its policy relating to leasing of industrial plots and sheds in its industrial estates.

Disclosing this here today, Mr Rajeev Arora, Managing Director of the corporation, said the decision had been taken to compete in the liberalised finance market and to have an optimum mix of small and big projects so that the credit risk was properly balanced. With the emergence of multinationals and large business houses, the minimum economic size of projects had increased, resulting in higher project cost and increased credit requirement.

Under the existing policy of the corporation, leasing or renting of 75 per cent of the building is allowed on payment of a nominal processing fee, if the allottee has remained in production for one year provided he retains 25 per cent of the premises for his own manufacturing activities. The existing policy also allows multiple leasing for the same plot in order to ensure optimum utilisation of the industrial land.

Under the new policy, the condition of remaining in production for one year has been relaxed. In cases where the allottee has implemented his own approved unit on the said plot, but could not continue the same due to any reasons, leasing will be permissible. This will be subject to condition that the allottee has achieved building construction coverage norms and there is no zoning violation.

In case of transfer of the industrial plot or shed, the transferee shall be eligible to further lease out the premises, provided the unit on the plot had been implemented by the allottee/ transferee/ lessee and one year has elapsed after implementation of the project. 

Kolkata, August 24
BPL Telecom plans to partner with Israel-based Tadiran Telecom to market its Wi-Fi handsets in the international market." We are looking for a tie-up with Tadiran Telecom for marketing Wi-Fi phones in the international market. The details are yet to be worked out,” BPL Telecom Associate Vice- President (sales and marketing) Ajit Mathew said.

Wi-Fi phones are both GSM and Wi-Fi enabled and would be available in the markets in the next six months, Mr Mathew said.— PTI

Kolkata, August 24
Paving the way for the revival of the Uttarpara unit of Hindustan Motors, the West Bengal Cabinet today approved commercial utilisation of 314 acres of land belonging to it. The approval will enable Hindustan Motors to raise Rs 85 crore while the government will pump in an additional Rs 10 crore, Secretariat sources said.

Earlier, Hindustan Motors had approached the state government for permission to commercially develop 314 acres of surplus land belonging to the 709- acre Uttarpara unit.

According to sources, IT parks, automobile ancillary units and real estate projects would be developed on the land.— PTI

New Delhi, August 24
Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Energy today started work at the project site of its ambitious 7,480 MW gas-fired Dadri power plant in Uttar Pradesh.

The company has acquired 2,100 acres for the project and will acquire another 250 acres shortly, a company spokesperson said here.

An inaugural ceremony was held to start construction activity for Reliance Energy Generating Ltd's 5,600 MW natural gas-based combined cycle power project at the proposed Dhirubhai Ambani Energy City in Dadri.

The first phase of 5,600 MW is slated to be completed by 2010, when the capacity would be increased to 7,480 MW. The project would cost more than Rs 20,000 crore.— PTI