The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Major shake-up in Religare Promoters Malvinder, Shivinder quit posts to focus on healthcare business Sunil Godhwani appointed CMD, Sachindra Nath CEO New Delhi, April 6 Religare Enterprises today said its top-level management was revamped with a new chairman and CEO after its promoters Malvinder Mohan Singh and his younger brother Shivinder Mohan Singh voluntarily exited the board to devote more time to their healthcare business. Malvinder has relinquished his position as chairman of the firm, while Shivinder has quit as director. It has appointed Sunil Godhwani as chairman and managing director, while Sachindra Nath will be the new chief executive of the financial services firm. Speaking to reporters while making the announcement, Malvinder said the step was taken with a view to segregating the management from ownership and thereby creating value for shareholders. "Shivinder and I will continue to focus on building a global healthcare delivery business for ourself...," he said. Asked if their exit from the board indicate their plan to sell off the firm, Malvinder said, "Nothing like that...In fact, we are willing to increase our stake in Religare Enterprises." He also announced the induction of Religare chief operating officer Shachindra Nath and chief financial officer Anil Saxena on the board. Three more members with global experience in asset management, investment and commercial banking would be inducted later, he added. As per the arrangement announced today, Malvinder said he would focus on global healthcare opportunities and associate more closely with the recently acquired Parkway Holdings in his capacity as its chairman. "My focus will be driven on the international aspect of the healthcare side and for Fortis, we will use Parkway as a vehicle for international growth," he said. On the other hand, Shivinder, who is the managing director of Fortis, will focus on the board to make Fortis Healthcare a world-class institute. Last month, Fortis had acquired 23.9 per cent stake in the Singapore-based healthcare firm Parkway for $ 685 million as part of its efforts to expand its operations in Asia and the Middle East. The deal is the largest acquisition made by an Indian healthcare services firm so far. As part of the deal, Fortis got four seats on the Parkway board. Malvinder, who is the group chairman of Fortis, is slated to become the chairman of the Parkway board. When queried whether the company is interested in buying a stake in the domestic low-cost carrier SpiceJet, the Singh brothers declined to comment. — PTI
	Surcharge on VAT Haryana’s apathy costs traders crores Ruchika M. Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 6 What does the government do after it fails to issue a notification for implementing surcharge on VAT from the date it had announced earlier? Simple, it notifies the Act retrospectively. In its annual state budget, the Haryana government had imposed a surcharge of 0.25-0.70 per cent on VAT. This was to come into effect from April 1. But the notification could not be issued before April 1 or even four days later. The notification was issued late last evening with retrospective effect from April 2. This means that businessmen and traders will now have to pay this surcharge on VAT for goods sold between April 2 and 5 without having collected this surcharge from the end users. Though small traders and businessmen will not be affected much, the large businesses, including shopping mall owners in the state, will have to pay crores from their pocket as surcharge on VAT for these three days (April 2-5). Sources informed TNS that the notification was delayed because of a three-day holidays in the state from April 2. However, a senior government official said the delay was a result of the Governor not being able to sign the notification on account of his ill health. “The moment the notification was signed by the Governor, we uploaded it on the official website of the excise department. Moreover, the announcement for the surcharge had already been made earlier,” reasoned a senior excise official. The traders and businessmen are up in arms against this notification coming into effect retrospectively. “No thought whatsoever has been given by the government on how this surcharge will be collected by the traders from their customers. For a fault committed by the government, why should we have to pay from our own pocket,” said Arun Aggarwal, a steel trader from Bhiwani. A petroleum dealer at Panchkula said he would now suffer a loss of Rs 5,000 per day (for three days from April 2-5) as he had not collected surcharge from his customers. “With the surcharge, the petrol price is up by Rs 0.39 per litre and diesel by Rs 0.14 per litre. Now, all 1,000 petrol outlets in the state will have to bear this additional burden,” he rued.
	Godrej now in Indonesia New Delhi, April 6 Godrej Consumer Products today said it would acquire the Indonesia-based insecticides maker Megasari Makmur Group and its distribution company for an undisclosed amount, its second acquisitions within a month. “The Megasari Group provides us a strong platform to establish a significant foothold in Indonesia, which is among the largest consumer markets in Asia,” Godrej chairman Adi Godrej said in a statement. Godrej said the acquisition would help to strengthen its presence in Asia, Africa and Latin America through three core categories - home care, personal wash and hair care. Besides, it will also provide a platform for launching home care and personal care products from the Godrej stable in Indonesia, the company chairman added. “Over the last few years, we have been following a very disciplined and focused approach to identify acquisitions that represent a strong fit with our business, both strategically and operationally,” Godrej said. Last month, GCPL had announced acquisition of Nigeria’s personal care brand Tura as part of its strategy to enter Nigeria and other West African markets. The Megasari acquisition is the fourth one by the company in the past two years, after Rapidol and Kinky in South Africa and Tura in Nigeria. — PTI
	E&Y adviser for Unitech demerger plan Mumbai, April 6 Unitech today said it had appointed Ernst & Young and two other advisers for exploring opportunities for potential restructuring of its businesses to unlock value for shareholders. Further, the company's board of directors had constituted a “restructuring committee” for evaluating opportunities for "potential merger of subsidiaries, demerger and other forms of restructuring, or acquisition, or spin-off with the ultimate object of enhancing and unlocking shareholders' value." The board has appointed Ernst & Young, S R Batliboi & Co and Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co as advisers. — PTI
	3G bidders’ nod to e-auction Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 6 As the Department of Telecom (DoT) today held a meeting with the prospective bidders for the 3G spectrum, the telecom operators participating in the auction have endorsed the online mechanism designed by N M Rothschild. The process designed by the company virtually eliminates any scope for unrealistic bid. Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla and Home Secretary G K Pillai were at the meeting which also had TRAI chairman J S Sarma, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, Pratyush Sinha, CVC, and Sam Pitroda, adviser, infrastructure to the Prime Minister, attending it. DoT member (finance) Vijaylaxmi Gupta, telecom secretary P J Thomas and a host of officials from the department were also present. Nine telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Telecom and Idea Cellular, are in the final list of bidders for three-four slots of 5MHz of 3G spectrum, while there are 11 bidders for two slots of BWA. The process of e-auction allows applicants to bid from their computers. The reserve price for a pan-India 3G licence is Rs 3,500 crore while that of BWA is Rs 1,750 crore. The e-auction process, the first of its kind in the world, is slated for April 9. Reports said as per the mechansim designed by Rothschild, the price of spectrum will escalate gradually after every round depending upon the demand and number of blocks available in each of the 22 service areas, one of the leading operators said. The price would be increased by a maximum of up to 10 per cent of the reserve price in each circle in a round depending upon the demand. If there are six bidders for three slots in the opening round, the auctioneer (Rothschild) would escalate the price by 10 per cent in round two and invite fresh bids and if only five bidders remain, the price would further go up by 5 per cent in the round three and so on. In case demand and supply is same, the price will go up by only 1 per cent in the following round and if the number of bidders are less than the number of blocks on sale, the price will remain unchanged. All operators have been provided the necessary software and they can participate in the process from any corner of the world and no bidder can find out about whom they are up against. The 3G spectrum will allow not only high-speed multi-media services but also high-speed data transfer, besides providing the subscribers with host of other options which are not available on mobile phones now.
	Wimax guns for Qualcomm Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 6 Days before the auction for the BWA spectrum allegations of possible spectrum hoarding have emerged against one of the companies which has put in the bid. Wimax Forum, a body representing Wimax players has made allegations against global equipment maker Qualcomm that it has intentions of hoarding spectrum and slowing broadband growth in India. Wimax Forum Chairman CS Rao said Qualcomm had possible intentions of hoarding spectrum should it win the spectrum in the forthcoming auction. The auction for BWA spectrum is due on April 11. Making the allegation Rao further said this would in turn slowdown the broadband growth in India as TD LTE (technology being promoted by Qualcomm) is not ready and “does not have a single commercial roll out anywhere in the world”. Players like Qualcomm have put in bids for BWA spectrum, which is generally used for offering Wimax services that enables fixed or fully mobile internet access, for rolling out another competing technology - TD LTE. TD-LTE (Long Term Evolution), is beyond third generation mobile broadband standard and is usually also referred to as 4G. Meanwhile, Qualcomm President India & South Asia, Kanwalinder Singh told a news agency, “In India, 3G have already trounced Wimax in the race for mobile broadband. LTE, a compatible evolution of 3G...the 3G and LTE ecosystem is particularly compatible with India’s need for affordable mobile broadband.” He said, “Wimax will be a stranded investment due to lack of interoperability with 3G and existing wireless technologies, where as TD-LTE offers a seamless mobile broadband experience to consumers and protects operator investment in 3G.” There were similar allegations against Ericsson. Rao said, “Ercisson wants this country to continue using 3G for their selfish corporate gains and they do not have the national interest of national broadband proliferation through Wimax.”
	Corporate News Jindal Power arranges Rs 10,057 cr for plant New Delhi, April 6 Jindal Power today said it had tied up Rs 10,057 crore debt from a group of lenders led by the State Bank of India to part-finance its about Rs 13,400 crore power plant in Chhattisgarh. "A consortium of 23 lenders led by the State Bank of India sanctioned rupee term debt of Rs 10,057 crore on March 26, 2010, to Jindal Power for its 2,400 MW power project being implemented at Raigarh in Chhattisgarh," the firm said in a statement here. Suzlon bags project Suzlon Energy today said it had bagged a contract from Gujarat State Fertilisers & Chemicals (GSFC) for setting up a wind energy project in Gujarat.The company has bagged a repeat order from GSFC for setting up, operating and maintaining an 18 MW project at Adodar in Porbandar district of Gujarat, Suzlon Energy said. The project, GSFC's third with Suzlon, is scheduled for commissioning by June 2010, it said. The company, however, has not given any financial details of the project. NTPC to build N-plants The NPCIL-NTPC joint venture company is expected to build two 700 MW nuclear power plants at a site identified by the Deparment of Atomic Energy (DAE). "One of the sites identified by the DAE for 2x700 MW plant will go to the NPCIL-NTPC joint venture company," DAE Secretary Srikumar Banerjee told reporters on the sidelines of the India Energy Congress here today. Rs 235 cr deal for Punj Lloyd Punj Lloyd today said it had bagged two orders worth Rs 235 crore for a processing unit and setting up offsite facilities at Mangalore refinery. The company received an order from Engineers India Ltd for construction of the petro-fluid catalytic cracking unit of MRPL, Punj Lloyd said in a statement. The second order, received from MRPL, pertains to erection of structures and commissioning of pumps and vessels at the refinery's offsite facility. With these contracts, the order book of Punj Lloyd Group on consolidated basis has gone up to Rs 25,973 crore. — PTI