ICICI Bank May Not Get Permission Soon For Singapore Entry

NEW DELHI: ICICI Bank and Singapore based United Overseas Bank, which had applied for approval to set up branches in Singapore and India respectively, unlikely to be allowed to do so in the near future. While both countries are likely to allow State Bank of India and Development Bank of Singapore to set up branches in each other''s land soon, the two other banks waiting in the queue will probably be ignored. The Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement (CECA), between India and Singapore, permits both countries to allow qualified full banking (QFB) to three banks each. In India, there is a single-banking licence which allows a foreign bank to conduct all operations.

Volvo Unit To Inaugurate Bus Body Facility On Jan 31

Bangalore: Volvo Bus Corporation, a group company of the Swedish Volvo Group, has declared the inauguration of its newly built bus body production facility here on Jan 31. The facility is an alliance between Volvo Bus Corporation and Jaico Automobiles of Bangalore. Volvo Bus has 70 per cent stake in the join venture, which had made an initial investment of Rs 80 crore. Volvo Bus Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the new joint venture, has also been identified as a sourcing hub for buses for South-East Asia, West Asia and African markets. The plant is expected to unveil 450 units this year and to realise its capacity of 1,000 units by 2010. Volvo India, a wholly owned subsidiary of leading manufacturers of trucks, buses and construction equipment, had already been producing bus chassis in its Bangalore facility. VBT will roll out a new version of Volvo 9400 inter-city buses in the first quarter of 2008 for the domestic and export markets. VBT expects to reach the full capacitor 1,000 buses by 2010.

BHEL Bhopal Reaches 2,500 Mw Capacity

Bhopal: The Bhopal unit of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has joined the majors of the hydro-turbine segment by reaching a 2,500-Mw capacity. Under its ambitious expansion plan, the Navaratna company on Han 30, began commercial production of its new hydro-block expansion unit. BHEL inaugurated the commencement of the production in the block christened as ''Swarna Jayanti Block''. The BHEL will now boast of an increased capacity of transformer production at 30,000 MVA per annum. The public sector giant, which has Rs 400-crore worth contracts from hydropower segment in hand, has infused Rs 180 crore in the block though the completion is behind schedule. The unit was scheduled to begin commercial production in October last year, but slow pace of civil work made the progress tardy.

Larsen & Toubro To Unveil Asset Management Company

Mumbai: Larsen and Toubro, is set to unveil an asset management company and has finalised US based Travelers as its alliance partner for its non-life insurance venture. The asset management company will be a 100 per cent-owned subsidiary of L&T for which it will be asking regulatory permission shortly. The general insurance company will be a 74:26 per cent joint venture between L&T and Travelers, which is the second largest underwriter of commercial property casualty insurance in the US. L&T, which is already present in the financial services space through its two non-banking finance companies L&T Finance and L&T infrastructure finance is also considering setting up special purpose vehicles (SPVs) for financing different projects in infrastructure and capital goods. Travelers has field offices in every US state, besides operations in the UK, Ireland and Canada.

TCS Arm Gets $200m Outsourcing Contract

Mumbai: Diligenta, the UK-based subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services, has secured a £100 million (over $200 million) deal to give business process outsourcing services to support the UK operations of the Canada-based Sun Life Financial (SLF). Diligenta has been working with SLF UK as preferred supplier since October 2007. In preparation for the natural end of its existing outsourcing pact, it undertook a detailed and thorough review of the BPO market in the UK and selected Diligenta for its cost guarantees, risk transfer capability and its commitment to match or exceed its service requirements.

Dish TV Joins Hand With Sony Pictures

New Delhi: Dish TV''s consumers can now get access to some of Sony Pictures blockbusters via the value-added service given by the DTH player. The company has joined hands with Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), the division of Sony Pictures Entertainment responsible for all television business outside of the US, to air the latter''s productions such as Spider-Man 3, Wind Chill, Black Book and Resident Evil: Extinction on Dish TV''s movie-on- demand segment. DTH association with Sony Pictures further strengthens its offering to its valued subscribers and our appeal amongst our target audiences.

SBH Unlikely To Slash Interest Rates

Hyderabad: State Bank of Hyderabad has no plans to slash interest rates in the aftermath of Credit Policy review by the Reserve Bank of India. They hoped a rate cut of at least 25 basis points by the RBI. The status quo maintained by the central bank in the Credit Policy will not permit any rate cut. On the RBI''s advice to monitor unhedged exposure to foreign currency.

Unitech To Divest To 50pc Stake To Telecom Ally

New Delhi: Unitech, which has purchased licences to offer telecom services in 22 circles in the country, will sell 10-50 per cent stake to a foreign company in its telecom services operations. The company is in negotiations with various foreign players for an equity alliance for the same. A lot of foreign companies already have alliances with Indian companies for various operations. As per existing norms, foreign direct investment of up to 74 per cent is allowed in telecom services. The company is yet to start negotiations with telecom equipment manufacturers though the official confirmed receiving queries from vendors. Unitech, which had applied for 22 circles via seven different companies, is among the nine new entrants that took the licences on Jan 10.

RINL Inks Mou With SAIL For Lime Stone

Visakhapatnam: The Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (the Vizag steel plant) and the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) have inked a memorandum of understanding here on Jan 29, for acquisition of high-grade lime stone in Oman. Both will be 50:50 associates in the venture. Lime stone is utilized as flux material to remove impurities in steel-making. Currently, the RINL is importing 3.5 lakh tonnes of high-grade lime stone annually.

Tata Consultancy Services Subsidiary Diligenta Wins £100 Million BPO Contract

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) has informed that Diligenta, a subsidiary of the Company, has won a contract to deliver Business Process Outsourcing services to support Sun Life Financial of Canada UKs (SLF UK) operations. The services, expected to commence in May 2008, are estimated to be worth £100 million (over USD200 million) over the life of the contract.

Diligenta has been working with SLF UK as preferred supplier since October 2007, following a competitive tender which came towards the natural end of SLF UKs existing outsourcing agreement. Diligenta will continue to run the operation in Basingstoke where SLF UKs Head Office is based.

The deal with SLF UK underlines the strength of TCSs Diligenta strategy, launched in 2006. Our vision was to establish a centre of excellence in the UK to capitalise on the growing BPO trend and to cultivate new opportunities in this sector, said A S Lakshminarayanan, vice-president and country head, TCS UK & Ireland. With the Sun Life Financial deal, Diligenta is moving into the second phase of its history, expanding its client base and UK market share and we are confident it heralds further growth for Diligenta.

Dillgenta is a UK-based, FSA regulated subsidiary of the Company. Since 2006, Diligenta has provided BPO services for the Pearl Group under a 12-year, £486 million contract to consolidate 11 financial and administrative systems onto a single platform.

Indian Economy Robust In Q3, Says RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the document ''Macroeconomic and Monetary Developments: Third Quarter Review 2007-08'' to serve as a backdrop to the Q3 review of the annual policy statement for 2007-08. According to the report, the Indian economy continued to exhibit robust growth during the second quarter (July-September) of 2007-08, though with some moderation. As per the estimates released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) in August 2007, real GDP growth was 8.9 per cent during the second quarter of 2007-08 as compared with 10.2 per cent during the same period in 2006-07.

While agriculture and allied activities recorded higher growth during the first half of 2007-08 over the corresponding period of the previous year, the growth of industrial and services sectors was somewhat lower than that during the first half of the previous year. During April-November 2007, the index of industrial production (IIP) rose by 9.2 per cent as compared with the increase of 10.9 per cent recorded during the corresponding period of the previous year.

The manufacturing sector registered a growth of 9.8 per cent during April-November 2007 as compared with 11.8 per cent during April-August 2006. Also, the infrastructure sector recorded a growth of six per cent as compared with 8.9 per cent a year ago, with all the sectors exhibiting growth rates lower than a year ago. The services sector continued to record double-digit growth (10.5 per cent) in April-September 2007. Leading indicators of service sector activity for April-October 2007 show that growth rates in revenue earning freight traffic of the railways, commercial vehicles production, new cell phone connections, passengers handled by civil aviation at domestic terminals, cement and steel moderated even though over a high base.

ICICI Suggests A ''Lock-It-Down Strategy'' For RSP Investors

ICICI advises in the face of volatile markets that some investors might want to consider locking down their RSPs with an alternative a tax eligible GIC that earns 4.65% interest no matter what the markets are doing. An RSP GIC can be a highly effective retirement product in the face of market volatility. Customers are offered one of the best rates in the market with ICICI''s RSP strategy, and unlike other financial institutions with too many products to choose from, ICICI makes it easy for investors with two clear cut options -the RSP eligible GIC and the RSP Savings Account. The ''Lock-it-Down Strategy'' is suggested for ICICI''s RSP-eligible GICs that allow investors to add a set amount of money to their retirement plan and receive 4.65% interest. With this strategy, customers are reaping the benefits of attractive rates, guaranteed return, and minimal investment for maximum security.

SKDRDP Joins Hand With ICICI Lombard General Insurance

Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) has joined hands with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited (ICICI-LGICL). The objective behind the tie-up is to implement its premier health hospitalization insurance for the year 2005 and 2006. The release further states that the insurance ''Sampoorna Suraksha'' got an outstanding response from stakeholders of the SKDRDP since its inception a year back. The ''Sampoorna Suraksha'' covers five members of a family, in which the total reimbursement of hospitalization expenses is upto Rs 25,000 on all the insured members. It also provides for death compensation, domiciliary treatment of the family stakeholder and accident compensation for the earning member of the family. The release stated that in the first year 54,000 families joined the programme by paying a premium of Rs 15.50 milion and in the first year itself the programme compensated 10,359 cases totalling a sum of Rs 30.97 milion.

BHEL, Trichy Secures Rs 15000cr Orders

Trichy: Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Trichy, has secured orders worth Rs 15,000 crore, its all-time high. BHEL, said the recent MoU with the TNEB for setting up two 800 Mw thermal power stations near Chennai had resulted in the power plant major bagging orders. The PSU was also increasing capacity addition and in the first phase, the manufacturing capacity was increased to 10,000 Mw. The second phase, which will see its capacity upgraded to 15,000 Mw per year, will be finished by March 2009. The ongoing second phase expansion at an investment of Rs 732 crore was the single largest investment in the history of BHEL, Trichy.

BSNL Cuts Leased Line Net Port Tariffs

New Delhi: In a move that will make domestic bandwidth cheaper Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has decided to decrease tariffs for leased line Internet ports by up to 33 per cent. Leased line Internet ports are primarily used by corporates, Internet service providers and IT-enabled service companies to link their various offices or clients. As per the revised plans, a 45 Mbps leased line will be available to a non-ISP entity for Rs 1.8 crore per annum from February 1 compared with Rs 2.7 crore, at present. A one Mbps line will cost Rs 4.25 lakh under the new scheme compared with Rs 7.1 lakh currently. ISPs will have to pay Rs 5.1 lakh for a one Mbps line compared with Rs 8.5 lakh, at present. While there is no change for the 64 Kbps and 128 Kbps categories, BSNL has reduced tariffs for 256 Kbps leased line from Rs 2.7 lakh per annum to Rs 2 lakh. BSNL is facing stiff competition from the private operators in the domestic leased line market, which may have triggered the rate cuts.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Receives US FDA Approval For Its State-Of-The-Art Semi-Solids Manufacturing

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd has announced that the Company has received US FDA approval for its state of the art semi-solids (ointments & creams) manufacturing plant at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. This is the third Glenmark manufacturing plant to have been approved by the US FDA. The Baddi plant recently received GMP approval from MHRA of UK, and from TPD, Canada. The US FDA approval will now enable Glenmark to enter the niche segment of semi-solid dosages in most of the regulated markets of the world.

These regulatory approvals in US and EU markets have opened huge opportunities for Glenmark in the topical range of products. Not many Indian Companies are currently tapping the topical segments in Generic market due to high cost of development which involves Clinical studies in target specific patients. With this, Glenmark envisages the launch of a basket of products in skin care / treatment in US and in EU markets.

Speaking on this development, Mr. Glenn Saldanha, CEO & MD, of the Company, said, The current GMP accreditation by US FDA for Baddi site is a significant milestone for Glenmark, since other plants of the Company at Ankleshwar and Goa are already approved by these agencies, reflecting International standards of Quality system at Glenmark.

Glenmarks facility at Baddi is fully commissioned with more than Rs 2300 Mn (>USD52Mn) worth of production coming from this facility. Baddi presently supplies Glenmarks Indian requirements and has produced batches for filing in the US and Europe. The Company expects the Baddi facility to break-even in its first two years of operation.

Glenmark has its formulations manufacturing facilities in Goa, Nasik, and Baddi in India, in Sao Paulo, Brazil and in Vysoke Myto, Czech Republic. The manufacturing facility at Goa is USFDA approved and produces solid orals, external ointments and capsules, for the regulated markets, while the facility at Nasik produces solid orals, liquid orals, external creams, powders and capsules for the regulated markets.

ICICI Pru Life Mulls More Alliances With Nbfcs

Visakhapatnam: ICICI Prudential Life insurance Company is eyeing for more partnership with NBFCs (non-banking financial companies) to increase its retail sales across the country. Of its total retail insurance business, about 35 per cent comes from banks and corporate agents. To maintain this growth, they are planning to join hands with a few reputed NBFCs. ICICI Prudential currently sells retail insurance policies via 15 banks and 10 corporate agents. The company recently tied up with three NBFCsto market its products. The company, which has been selling group insurance policies in metros, will now focus on non-metros. They are aiming several non-metros like Visakhapatnam, Pune and have identified clients in those cities, adding the company was targeting 35-40 per cent business from non-metros.

Tatas Likely To Give Nano Purchasers Finance Directly

Mumbai: Tata Motors is exploring the possibility of giving loans for the Nano either via Tata Motors Finance (TMFL), wholly owned subsidiary, or existing financing channels. This goes against the industry practice where hire-purchase deals are signed by dealers and not by manufacturers. Under its distribution strategy for the small car, Tata Motors has initiated discussions with leading vehicle loan providers in the country. This is in line with the existing financing options with a down payment and the rest in installments. The group''s priority is to provide financial support through TMFL. The Tatas are eyeing at forging an exclusive alliance for the Nano. Tata Motors does not want to share any information on financing of Nano at this stage. The profits from financing of the car will be lower than from normal cars. As the Nano is being targeted for the masses, the Tatas will offer financing options which will make them more affordable.

Transportation Issues Likely To Affect ONGC Tripura Power Project

Kolkata: Transportation of plant and machinery will hold the key for implementation of ONGC''s proposed 2X370 MW gas-based power station in Tripura. The issue may also affect the final cost of the ONGC Tripura power project. In November, ONGC had got bids only from BHEL and Alstom for the EPC contract. The company has aimed award of bids in April. Faced with physical constraints in moving the heavy power equipment via land and waterways within the national boundaries, the energy major has now planned to move the equipment via Bangladesh, which is easier, said than done. Though there is a transit treaty between the two nations, the route preferred by ONGC does not fall under the agreed pact, thereby, requiring special approvals from the Bangladesh Government and fresh negotiations between the nations. Each module of the 2X370 MW power station would weigh 280 tonnes.

BHEL To Develop Korba

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh government has called off the contract awarded to China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Company (CMEC) to establish 600MW thermal power plant in Korba district. Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) lost the bid to the Chinese company, which won the contract by quoting the lowest rate of Rs 3.61 crore. The decision to cancel the Letter of Intent (LoI) given to the CMEC was taken after a high level meeting, Chairman of Chhattisgarh State Electricity Board (CSEB) Rajib Ranjan said. CMEC could be blacklisted for the delay and refusal to take up the project. CSEB denied to consider CMEC''s proposal and invoked the bank guarantee of Rs 35 crore deposited as bid money. Instead of calling a fresh tender, the government decided to award the second lowest bidder of the project, BHEL. BHEL has earlier bagged the procurement and construction (EPC) contract for establishing two units of 250MW each at Korba (East) thermal power project (TPP).

Aviva Life Forges Alliance With Bank Of Rajasthan For Distribution

Aviva life insurance on Jan 24 signed an agreement with bank of Rajasthan to distribute its insurance products through the latter''s branches. With this tie-up, the insurer will have access to a customer base of 2.5 million across the country. Full range of products to be made available to bank''s customers through 463 bank branches across 300 cities, the statement said the insurance company has now increased its presence to more than 1,700 locations in the country with a potential customer base of 46 million (approx). Aviva life insurance is a 74:26 joint venture between Dabur and Aviva with the current paid-up capital of 758 crore.

TCS Bags $40-M New India Assurance Contract

Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services has got an over $40 million (Rs 160 crore) transformational engagement from New India Assurance for implementing its core insurance platform across the latter''s 1,100 branch network in the country. As part of the deal, the company will deploy and maintain its insurance suite, TCS BaNCS Insurance.

With about 1.5 crore policy holders in the country, New India Assurance is currently the largest non-life insurance company in India. Revenues from the deal will start kicking in for TCS from the current quarter itself. IT outsourcing is expected to make the insurance major more productive, so that it can take on increased competition in the space. Public sector non-life insurance companies have been steadily losing market share in the past few years. In 2006-07, the share dropped to 65 per cent, against 73 per cent in the previous year.

Even though margins in the domestic business have been a cause of concern for IT companies, perceptions of a global slowdown in discretionary spending coupled with the growing IT maturity in India have resulted in the domestic market gaining a lot of importance. According to a Gartner report, the domestic IT services market is pegged to grow to $10.73 billion by 2011 at a five-year CAGR of 23.2 per cent. Though Indian firms have been laggards in the domestic space, overseas IT companies such as IBM and Accenture have been picking large deals in India. TCS is now aggressively looking at the domestic IT space. TCS BaNCS Insurance is a part of TCS BaNCS, which was spun off in May last year as a dedicated product company within the TCS fold.

Britannia Plans To Foray Into New Overseas Markets

New Delhi: Britannia Industries is planning to spruce up its international presence by entering new markets. Additionally, Britannia plans to get into new geographies. The company has already acquired, in early 2007, 70 per cent stake in Dubai-based biscuit and wafer manufacturing company Strategic Food International (SFIC) and a significant stake in the Oman-based Al Sallan Food Industries. The two companies are key regional players in the biscuit and cookies segment in the Gulf Co-operation Council markets and export their products across the world. SFIC offers over 55 varieties of biscuits, wafers and cookies with a product range of over 55 variants marketed in 70 countries spread over 6 continents.

The company also formed a joint venture with the Khimji Ramdas Group, one of the largest business conglomerates in West Asia. Britannia hopes that this would help the company to grow its international footprint by leveraging on the complementary strengths of the partners. The company also plans to enhance synergies with its existing partners. Britannia also plans to focus on its dairy business, Britannia New Zealand Foods Company (BNZF), a joint venture with the Fonterra Co-operatives Group of New Zealand. BNZF has a diversified product portfolio covering cheese, skimmed milk powder, butter and ghee, and has a significant market presence in India as well. The company''s turnover in 2006-07 was Rs 2,200 crore with around 90-95 per cent coming from the domestic market.

Wipro Expands Products Portfolio

The tremors of the US economy are now being felt in back offices in India where outsourcing has certainly lost its sheen and that is why aggressive players like Wipro are now clicking on products to salvage depleting margins. Wipro is all set foray into products business by expanding its R&D arm, which will include conceptualising, designing, prototyping and even manufacturing.

The product business launch is expected in next 6 months and Wipro is already in talks with local manufacturers in Taiwan, Korea and India for manufacturing tie-ups on a revenue share basis. The pilot projects are already underway in Wipro''s Bangalore labs.

Infosys and TCS on their part are looking to build a stronger product portfolio. TCS, for instance, is looking to develop platform based BPO and Infosys looking to strengthening its core Internet Banking Software - Finacle through acquisitions. The race amongst the Indian IT companies to establish presence in the product space is quite understandable given the current margins in 30 per cent bracket is on its way down.

Globally the margins for IT services are between 10-12 per cent but the product companies clock between 25 and 35 per cent. But the products also come at a huge cost, significant R&D investments have to be made upfront and the revenues will only kick in 2 to 3 years horizon.

ING Vysya Life To Put In Rs 600 Cr By Dec 2009

ING Vysya life insurance has decided to make capital infusion of about Rs 600 crore by the end of next year to fund its expansion plan. ING Vysya will be hiking its paid-up capital by Rs 100 crore in the Jan-March quarter and by the end of 2009 it would go up to Rs 1,380 crore. At present, the company is capitalised at Rs 790 crore and it would go up to Rs 900 crore by March. The capital infusion would take care of solvency ratio arising out of new business that the company intends to achieve during the year.

During the year, the company would more than double its customer base by adding six lakh customers to 11.5 lakh. In the last six years of its operation, the company has been able to rope in 5.5 lakh customers. Bangalore-based company, which has market share of 1.2 per cent, expects the share to go up to 1.7 per cent by the end of 2008. By 2010, it expects to garner market share of three per cent

Intense Technologies Deploys The Ieccm Framwork At MTN Irancell

Intense Technologies Ltd has announced that it has won the MTN Irancell Customer Communication Management project. MTN Irancell (Teheran) will be using the Intense iECCM (intelligent Enterprise Customer Communication Management) Framework to substantially reduce its customer communication costs, build its brand image and enhance its customer intimacy levels.

The iECCM Framework is an integrated, intelligent Enterprise Customer CommunicationManagement offering that enables enterprises to strategically manage CustomerCommunication. It deploys Intense Bill Formatter, Intense Output Manager, Intense EBPP andIntense Self-care and is proven to operationally and strategically eliminate cost islands,enhance productivity and improve customer satisfaction levels.

Making this announcement Raghav Sahgal, CEO of Intense Technologies, said We are very excited at being selected by MTN Irancell and see this key project as a validation of the iECCM Frameworks technology edge and excellent value proposition across the Telecom vertical. Going forward, we hope to expand our relationship with the MTN Group, an established market leader in the African Telecom space.

The Company enjoys market leadership across the Telecom vertical in India and has a significant global Telecom clientele. This client acquisition will help Intense consolidate its position as the most preferred provider of intelligent Enterprise Customer Communication Management solutions to Telecom Companies.

MTN Irancell is a joint venture between the Iran Electronic Development Company (IEDC) and MTN International (Mauritius) Ltd.

Microsoft Buys 35-Pc Stake In Oxigen

New Delhi: Microsoft has bought a 35 per cent equity stake in mobile integrated platform provider Oxigen Services India. Oxigen is an electronic recharge and prepaid distribution brand. With this partnership, Oxigen expects to expand its business rapidly in the virtual payments and distribution space using Microsoft''s web and mobile-based technologies, as well as getting access to Microsoft''s advertising services, especially digital advertising. Microsoft will add strategic value to Oxigen''s business. Further the company will collaborate on a preferred partnership basis with Microsoft to drive services and products in developing economies and explore new business opportunities, within and outside the country.

Jet Airways Starts Two Flights To West Asia

Mumbai: Jet Airways has unveiled two new flights in the Kochi-Muscat and Mumbai-Doha routes. The airline will fly Boeing 737-800 aircrafts on these routes. The airline is already operating daily direct flights on the Kochi-Kuwait-Kochi, Kochi-Bahrain-Kochi, Mumbai-Bahrain-Mumbai and Delhi-Kuwait-Delhi routes.

At present, Jet Airways operates a fleet of 76 aircraft, which includes eight Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, seven Airbus A330-200 aircraft, 52 classic and next generation Boeing 737-400/700/800/900 aircraft and nine modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. With an average fleet age of 4.37 years, the airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleets in the world. It operates over 365 flights daily. Flights to 57 destinations span the length and breadth of India and beyond, including New York (both JFK and Newark) Toronto, Brussels, London(Heathrow), Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Kuwait and Bahrain. The airline plans to extend its international operations to other cities in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia in phases with the introduction of wide-body aircraft into its fleet.

TCS Forges Alliance With Sony

Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services has inked a multi-million dollar deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc (SPE) to develop and deploy Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions. This partnership help Sony and its customers to ensure better use of all its IT assets to advance their business goals, said a press release from TCS. Centred on the deployment of reusable and network-aware applications, the SOA framework leverages key business assets within and beyond enterprise boundaries, with interoperability, independent of platforms, languages and protocols.

ICICI Bank Likely To Mop Up $1 Billion In Unit''s Share Sale

ICICI Bank Ltd. plans to raise as much as $1 billion by selling a stake in its investment banking and securities unit in the next four months. ICICI Bank said Jan. 19 it planned to sell shares in its ICICI Securities Ltd. unit. The Mumbai-based bank also plans to monetize its investments in other units such as insurance joint ventures and asset management company.

The asset sales would help the bank raise funds for loans after lending grew 25 percent in the fiscal third quarter as companies borrowed more in an economy poised to expand at 9 percent for a third year. ICICI Bank has ``negligible'''' investments related to the U.S. subprime mortgages and the credit squeeze in global markets won''t slow the bank''s global expansion plans, said the source. The bank plans to expand its global assets as the domestic loan demand growth slows with rising prices and interest rates. ICICI Bank, which raised $10 billion last year in overseas debt, will also use its branches in the U.K. and Canada to boost funds.

HCL Technologies Partners With Visiprise To Provide Professional Services To Global Manufacturer In

HCL Technologies Ltd (HCL) has announced that the Company has entered into a global consulting partnership with Visiprise, Inc. for the Life Sciences industry, covering all aspects of the medical device manufacturing cycle. Visiprise provides manufacturing execution solutions (MES) that help global manufacturers to gain visibility into operations, achieve shop floor control and manage product and process traceability. The consulting agreement will include joint marketing, sales and pre-sales services and will result in the ability for seamless licensing, blueprinting, implementation, plant-business integration, roll out, support, upgrade / migration and instance consolidation services to manufacturers.

The strategic partnership will further strengthen HCLs position as Innovators / leaders in the Manufacturing IT landscape with initial focus on medical devices further expanding to Hitech, Aerospace, Auto and other discrete industries. Under this agreement Visiprise will also be training and certifying HCL consultants on Visiprise solutions.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Pradep Nair, VP, Global Life Sciences and Healthcare practice, of the Company said, With increasing global competition, it is imperative for manufacturers to innovate faster, cheaper, with sustained / better quality meeting stringent regulatory norms. Manufacturers are therefore making strategic investments in comprehensive IT solutions focused towards improving efficiency in the plant operations and Increasing collaboration between engineering, enterprise and plant functions as well as extended eco systems such as partners and suppliers. HCLs partnership with Visiprise is well poised in bringing about the transformational change in plant operations. We believe that Visiprises technology and strategic alignment with SAP and PLM vendors will help customers in seamless business integration from shop-floor to top-floor, which aligns well with HCLs focus towards Manufacturing IT solutions and services.

Nicholas Piramal Buys Pharmaceuticals Business Of Healthline Pvt Ltd, Bangalore

Nicholas Piramal India Ltd has informed that the Company and Healthline Pvt. Ltd (HLPL) on January 22, 2008, has announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for purchase of HLPLs Pharmaceuticals business by the Company for a consideration of Rs 150 million.

HLPL has a modern injectables manufacturing unit at Bangalore for small and large volume injectable products. The current facility was commissioned in 2004 and has a capacity of 10 million vials per annum on a single shift basis. The Company will invest additional resources at the facility to expand capacity and secure USFDA standards.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mr. Ajay Piramal, Chairman, of the Company said, NPIL is committed to expand its Custom Manufacturing offering to global customers. HLPL is a good asset, which will expand our high-end manufacturing solutions from India

Allegro Capital were HLPLs advisors on the transaction.

Tata Motors Signs Deal With Chrysler Electric Vehicle Unit

Tata Motors has inked a development contract with Chrysler''s electric vehicle unit Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) to develop and market an electric version of the Ace for sale in the US. The vehicle, that will mark the auto major''s entry into the US markets, will be exported as a completely built unit sans engine or gear box. The American counterpart, that already produces and sells a range of six NEVs, will fit it with the motor and controller, the sources said, adding that the branding details had not yet been worked out.

For Tata Motors, the electric Ace that requires no homologation, and attracts fewer regulations as it does not operate on highways and main roads will be a launch pad of sorts in a market where it currently has a no presence. Export of around 10,000 units is expected to begin by the year-end, and will be ramped up progressively to 50,000 units. The company that launched a passenger version of the Ace last year, manufactures it at both its plants in Pune and Pant Nagar. In addition to exports, the company is also examining the prospects of launching the electric Ace in the domestic market.

ICICI Bank Ties Up With UAE Xchange For Travel Card

ICICI Bank has joined hands with UAE Xchange to promote its Travel Card through the latter''s branches. The agreement was signed in Kochi recently. The tie up will now make available the travel cards at 206 UAE Xchange branches. Available in 6 currencies, including US dollars, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars, Swiss Francs, Euros and Pound Sterling, the ICICI Bank Travel Card offers an international traveller the widest choices. The ICICI Bank Travel Card has several unique features that cover every aspect of the trip from round-the-clock medical assistance to comprehensive travel and accident insurance.

BHEL Gets Rs 866-Cr Reliance Order

New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has received a Rs 866-crore order from Reliance Industries for setting up a 345-MW captive power plant in Maharashtra. This is the first commercial order on BHEL for an ''advanced-class Frame 9FA'' gas turbine and will open up a new line of business for the company. The project is being set up to meet power requirement of Reliance Retail and other ventures of Reliance Industries and is expandable to up to 1,000 MW. It is slated for completion in 26 months. BHEL''s scope of work in the project would include supply of the gas turbine generator set, one steam turbine generator set and one heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), besides civil works and select spares. The gas turbine generator would be manufactured at BHEL''s Hyderabad plant, while the HRSG at Tiruchi plant. Till now, the company has supplied and commissioned over 700 steam turbine and gas turbine-based plants in India and abroad.

Extend Insurance Coverage To AYUSH: Health Ministry

If the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has its way, the ambit of health insurance will be extended to those availing the Indian System of Medicines.At present, health insurance products offered by both private and public sector insurance firms target only those receiving allopathic treatment. In a bid to promote the Indian System of Medicines, the Health Ministry has requested the Union Finance Ministry to consider health insurance coverage for users of these medicines.

Confirming this, secretary to the Department of AYUSH Anita Das said that it would help a number of people, particularly the elderly, who use the Indian System of Medicines.Keeping in view the increasing elderly population, the AYUSH department now wants to concentrate on improving the health care delivery system for elderly people, and is launching a national campaign on Ayurveda for geriatric care on January 23.As per surveys, by the year 2050 adults older than 65 years will comprise one-fifth of the global population. In India, 3.8 percent of the population is above 65 years of age. According to an estimate, the likely number of elderly people in India by 2016 is around 113 million.

Chinese Insurer To Raise $22 Bn

Beijing: Ping An Insurance, China''s second-largest insurer, is looking at mobilizing nearly $22 billion to help fund aggressive foreign acquisition plans in the biggest-ever share sale in mainland China. The size of the share issue three times the amount the company raised in its initial public offering in Shanghai a year ago indicates that Chinese companies want the financial resources to acquire or buy into weakened western rivals, according to analysts and bankers. Many US and European financial services companies have seen their share prices tumble after billions of dollars in sub-prime-related losses. Ping An plans to issue 1.2 billion new shares to public and institutional investors in a secondary placement in Shanghai, raising more than $16 billion based on Friday''s closing price of Rmb98.21. The insurer, 16.8 per cent-owned by UK bank HSBC, also plans to sell up to $5.7 billion worth of Shanghai-traded six-year convertible bonds with detachable warrants, further diluting existing shareholders'' stakes. HSBC, which has already seen its stake diluted from 19.9 per cent at the IPO, said it could not participate in the A-share issue as it is restricted to domestic investors.

Ping An said proceeds from the fundraising will be used for acquisitions that are significantly beneficial to the group''s expansion strategies and operation efficiencies and compatible with its insurance, banking and asset management activities. The financial sector in the US and Europe has been depressed for a while now and this presents a buying opportunity for Chinese firms like Ping An, said Steven Sun, Asia-Pacific equity strategist at HSBC. Domestically I can''t see what sort of target they could buy besides a couple of medium-sized banks. Ping An''s proposed share and bond sale must still be approved by regulators and a two-thirds majority of shareholders at a meeting scheduled for March 5.

L&T Urban To Come Up With Township In Chennai

Chennai: L&T Urban Infrastructure Ltd, Dinesh Ranka Associates and Mauritius-based private equity fund Pragnya Fund 1 have joined hands to unveil an integrated township project off Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), the IT corridor of Chennai, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,200 crore. A special purpose vehicle, L&T South City Projects Ltd, in which L&T will have a 51 per cent stake with the other two companies holding 24.5 per cent each, has been floated for the purpose. The township, Eden Park, to come up near Sirusseri was unveiled on Jan 18.

Eden Park will be spread over 100 acres and developed in 4 to 5 phases. The first phase will have a built-up area of 1.08 million sft and is expected to be ready in 24-30 months. It will come up on a 14-acre site, have 656 apartment units, eight blocks of 14 floors each comprising two (1,280 sft) and three (1,680 sft)-bedroom as well as premium (1,935-1,980 sft) dwelling units. Other financial details and price range of the housing units were not disclosed. The project is being funded through a combination of debt and equity. The debt portion has already been tied up.

The township will have residential apartments, villas, schools, healthcare facilities and shopping spaces, said K Venkatesh, executive vice-president (developmental projects business), L&T. The presence of top IT and ITeS companies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Cognizant, Accenture and Satyam here has made OMR a sought-after destination for large residential projects over the last couple of year. The 22-km stretch of OMR, which will be employing close to 1.5 lakh people, has attracted local realty developers as well as large pan-India players DLF, Hiranandani, Puravankara to build large residential projects. About 10 more large integrated townships are being planned, besides 30-plus large residential projects, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, a real estate services and money management firm.

ICICI Lombard Plans To Expand Its Presence In Rural Sector

Mumbai: ICICI Lombard is looking at expanding its presence in the rural sector across the country with a focus on weather and cattle insurance. Last yearICICI Lombard had a rural market share of 8 per cent and it plans to increase it to 11 per cent in FY 08.

The company plans to expand by activating rural marketing channels across 800 towns, which include rural marketing agents and chains of rural retail outlets. The company in conjunction with the World Bank-pioneered weather insurance in the country to cover vagaries of the weather for a wide variety of crops to farmers. The claim settlement of weather insurance are determined by objective data capture by independent weather stations.

REL Mops Up $2 Bn From Convertible Warrants

Reliance Energy Ltd has allotted 43 million warrants convertible into equity shares to group company AAA Project Ventures Pvt Ltd, thereby raising Rs 78.35 billion. The company has already received the amount payable towards allotment, REL announced in Mumbai on Monday.

REL will raise an amount of about Rs 78.35 billion from this issue, which will increase its net worth from Rs 103.2 billion to Rs 181.5 billion. The promoters'' equity stake in REL will increase from 34.7 per cent to 44.4 per cent, it was stated. Part of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG), REL and its affiliates are engaged in several mega projects in power generation, transmission and distribution, as well as infrastructure development in areas such as highways, bridges, metro rail and real estate. A large number of new mega infrastructure projects are also soon being put to bid, to provide further impetus to the country''s rapidly accelerating economic growth.

RADAG currently has a market capitalisation of about Rs 3.4 trillion, net worth in excess of Rs 400 billion, cash flow of Rs 90 billion, net profit of Rs 50 billion and zero net debt. REL is ranked amongst India''s top 20 listed private companies in terms of all major financial parameters, including assets, sales, net worth, profits and market capitalisation.

Jet To Fly Daily To Doha, Muscat

Expanding its international network, private sector carrier Jet Airways announced the launch of its daily scheduled services to Muscat and Doha from Kozhikode on January 23. With the introduction of these flights, Kozhikode will be the second city in Kerala to be connected by Jet Airways'' international services to the Middle East.

It will simultaneously launch flights from Kochi to Muscat and from Mumbai to Doha. Jet already operates daily direct flights on the Kochi-Kuwait, Kochi-Bahrain, Mumbai-Bahrain and Delhi-Kuwait routes. Jet said it would serve these routes with its advanced Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Jet said its Kozhikode-Muscat flight would depart Kozhikode at 9.30 am and arrive at Muscat at 11.35 am On the way back, the flight would depart Muscat at 2.30 am and arrive at Kozhikode at 8.00 am. The Kozhikode-Doha flight will depart 8 pm and arrive at Doha at 10 pm. On the way back, the flight will leave Doha at 10 am and reach Kozhikode at 4.55 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. On Tuesdays and Saturdays the flight will leave Doha an hour later.

IBM Bags $150-M Bharti Airtel Contract

New Delhi: IBM has bagged a $150-million contract from Bharti Airtel to provide IT solutions and services to support broadcasting services such as DTH and IPTV.

Bharti had already outsourced its IT requirement for the telecom business and the new deal is aimed at providing a one-stop experience spanning mobile, PC and television. IBM will bring in its global expertise in areas including the telemedia business, distribution, enterprise segments and business resilience. The new agreement is estimated at $150 million. With its entry into the telemedia business of DTH and IPTV, Bharti Airtel will now provide the entire spectrum of services to its customers. IBM will implement IT systems that will enable Bharti to launch differentiated services in these new thrust areas.

Vijaya Bank Looks To Open Branches Overseas

Pudukottai (TN): Vijaya Bank is looking at opening branches in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Dubai, said the source. Vijaya Bank''s V-GenUth savings scheme, benefiting children aged one day and above, has been an attraction. So far, as many as 1,000 infants have been enrolled under the scheme. Education loans would be offered at a concession of 0.5 per cent from the prevailing rate, apart from free collection of cheques and demand draft gifted to the child up to Rs 25,000 per annum. An ATM card would be issued to the child member as an add-on facility. A full-fledged ATM card would be issued when the child becomes an adult at 18 years.

The total business of the bank, which stood at Rs 68,980 crore as of September 2007, has gone up to about Rs 71,000 crore in December 2007. The bank has planned to open branches at 15 places in Tamil Nadu by the end of the current financial year. The branches would come up at Ambattur, Tiruvanmiyur, Perambur, Madipakkam, Coimbatore (Tiruchi Road), Pattukottai, Kumbakonam, Devakottai, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Kancheepuram, Koothanallur, Mayiladuthurai, Chidambaram and Dharmapuri. The bank has opened ATMs at 205 places and 619 out of a total 1,008 branches offer core banking solution (CBS).

SBI Buys 7.8% Stake In ARSS Infrastructure

Bhubaneswar: The State Bank of India (SBI has bought 7.79 per cent equity in the Orissa-based ARSS Infrastructure Projects Limited. The deal was for 10 lakh shares out of the company''s total equity base of 1, 25, 54,000 shares of Rs 10 each. SBI is keen on acquiring more stakes but the company restricted it to 8 per cent as it intended to go for an initial public offer (IPO) soon. The company intends to dilute another 20-25 percent stake through the IPO, which is expected to hit the market towards the end of 2007-08 or in the first half of 2008-09, he added. ARSS Infrastructure is one of the largest infrastructure companies in the eastern zone and is engaged in the business of construction of railway lines, highways, irrigation and building projects. It has chalked out an expansion plan to enter new markets in India and abroad. The clients of the company include Ministry of Railways, Government of Orissa, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, Rail India Techno-Economic Services (RITES), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and National Highways among others.

ARSS has taken up Rs 100 crore Dosha-Gangapur new line in Rajasthan, Rs 100 crore Salem-Karur new line, Rs 110 crore railway siding project of NTPC-Ispat in Chhattisgarh, Rs 240 crore Cuttack-Paradip rigid pavement project, Rs 80 crore bus rapid transit system (BRTS) project of the Rajasthan government and improvement of four roads in Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs 190 crore. Moreover, the company along with its Indonesian firm PT Adhikarya, is executing 3 major rail projects in Orissa which include Cuttack-Barang (second line), Barang-Khurdha (third line) and Barang-Raja Athagarh (second line) at an estimated cost of about Rs 430 crore. Meanwhile, the company plans some infrastructure projects in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode and is in dialogue with various governments in this regard.

Aurobindo Pharma Receives Approval For Cefdinir Capsules

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd has announced that the Company has received an approval from the US Food & Drug Administration to market its 300mg Cefdinir Capsules in the US market. The drug falls under the Anti-bacterial segment and is a generic equivalent of Abbott Laboratories, OMNICEF®.Earlier, the Company also received the final approval for 125 mg/5 mL and 250 mg/5 mL oral suspension of this drug from the USFDA.This is Aurobindos 62nd ANDA approval from USFDA.

Temptation Foods Acquires Majority Stake In High Technology Consulting Company

Temptation Foods Ltd has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on January 18, 2008, inter alia, has decided to take 70% equity stake in Aptsource Software Pvt Ltd.

In this regard the Company has issued the following Press Release:

Temptation Foods Ltd on January 18, 2008 announced that the acquisition of a majority stake in Aptsource, a high end enterprise solution consulting organization engaged in the promotion of actionable intelligence over service oriented architecture to bridge the existing gap between business and system objectives, Keeping in line with its vision of creating value for its shareholders through innovative means, the Company has decided to invest in Aptsource Software Pvt Ltd, an organization that it is already partnering with for its Solution Blueprint.

Temptations Chairman and Managing Director, Vinit Kumar said, We strongly believe in creating long term value adding relationships. I am sure that Aptsource and its value added IP will find wide acceptance in the mid-range market in India as well as overseas in the near future. Further with this investment, TFL intends to capture terminal value for the large expenditure for modernization of Information System and Technology Management which would have been, otherwise, made for a cost center.

The Company looking to manage ifs phenomenal growth, views information management and technology as one critical success and differentiating factor and has laid out a plan far advanced systemic implementation. To this effect, 2 of TFLs senior management team will be on Aptsources Board as well. Aptsource believes in building an organization on the lines of Accenture wherein high end consulting is backed by technology that delivers tangible business results.

GAIL Eyes Operating Stake In Small Onshore Blocks

Kolkata: GAIL (India) Ltd may bid for operating stake in small onshore and shallow water blocks in NELP-VII. For the rest of the blocks on offer, especially those in deepwater, GAIL will bid for participatory stake in the consortium.

“We may bid for operating stake for the small blocks especially on-shore,” U.D. Choubey, Chairman and Managing Director, told newspersons here. GAIL has stakes in 29 oil and gas blocks in the country, out of which “six has proven reserves”.

On the company’s petrochemical facility at Pata in Uttar Pradesh, he said that GAIL had recently completed capacity expansion of the facility from 3,10,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 4,40,000 tpa through de-bottlenecking.

“We are now planning further expansion of the capacity to 5,00,000 tpa through some modifications at an estimated investment of Rs 100 crore,” Choubey said.

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Pata petrochemicals currently processes 12-13 million metric standard cubic metre of gas a day (mmscmd). Following the forthcoming capacity augmentation, the plant will consume approximately 15 mmscmd.

On meeting the additional requirement of Pata Petrochemicals, Choubey said that the company had LNG sourcing options from Shell (Hazira) and Petronet LNG. According to the available projection, GAIL would source 1-2 mmscmd from Shell Hazira.

On distribution of additional supplies available from Panna-Mukta-Tapti joint venture, he said that the gas would be marketed as per the guidelines set by the Union Government.

Choubey denied that GAIL’s control over marketing right of PMT gas led to short-supply of natural gas to industries based in Gujarat including those in power and fertiliser sector (like NTPC-Gandhar, Kribhco, IIFCO and others). “We are not aware of any such short-supply in Gujarat,” he added.

Commenting on the possibility of bonus issue, he said, “I cannot deny the fact that it is on our agenda. We are now taking initiative to increase the authorised share capital.”

HP Upbeat On Oil, Gas Sector With High Performance Solutions

Hyderabad: Technology major Hewlett-Packard is upbeat on the oil and gas sector with its consultancy and high performance computing solutions.

The requirement for high performance computing (HPC) solutions is poised for a quantum leap as exploration companies are trying to compress time and keep pace with new technologies for precision-driven predictions for oil and gas discovery and exploitation.

HPC environment is where clusters of computers or supercomputers are set up to improve processing efficiency and enhance productivity. These are ideal for data intensive applications.

The Director of Global Energy Industries, HP, M. Douglas Hansen, told Business Line that most oil exploration companies are now forced to think out of box, be innovative in the way they work.

Most oil companies are either upgrading their infrastructure or seeking flexible computing services that help manage their technology infrastructure. These could be through the likes of Schlumberger, Halliburton and Landmark among others, with all of whom HP works with HPC solutions, he said.

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“There is explosion of data, and this needs to be interpreted with other dimensions such a visual imaging and other elements. This is where HPC solutions make a difference,”. Hansen said.

New technologies

HP Labs is working on a host of new technologies in India, both within and through other players in the industry such as Nvidia. The effort is to bring in gaming-related technology solutions on to the HPC environment. So is the case with the virtual conferencing facility called Halo. Convergence and collaboration of all these technologies are helping companies better analyse data at a much faster pace, he explained.

The company platforms are deployed at HPCL, IOCL, ONGC and Oil India. These are very large scale deployments and the HP platforms deployed have been consistent in supporting business critical enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

“We are in discussions with the likes of ONGC to expand our relationship through consultancy services and also in providing HPC solutions for dimensional exploration-related work across the company data centres,” Hansen explained.

Demand up

The Country Manager, HPC Solutions Group, HP India, Faisal M. Paul, said that HP was associated in creating one of the world’s largest supercomputing environments at Tata’s research centre and the demand for HPC environment has increased.

As a part of these HPC solutions, HP has expanded its partnerships and work engagement with system integrators and independent software vendors, Paul explained.

M&M Financial To Raise Rs 414 Cr Through Pref Allotment

Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd announced on Saturday that it would be raising Rs 414.2 crore through a preferential allotment of 1.09-crore equity shares to two private equity funds at a price of Rs 380 per share. The price represents a premium of over 20% to today's closing price of Rs 315 per share.

The board of directors, which met on January 18, approved the issue of 70 lakh equity shares to funds managed by TPG Axon Capital (TAC) and 39 lakh equity shares to funds managed by Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) at a price of Rs 380 per share. With this investment, TAC and SCPE will own 7.22% and 4.02%, respectively, of the post issue equity capital of the company.

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Kotak Investment Bank was the exclusive financial advisor for the transaction.

Sunil Hitech Engineers Raises Rs 81 Cr

Sunil Hitech Engineers Ltd has raised Rs 81 crore from Qualified Institutional Players. A total of 22.50 lakh shares (face value of Rs 10) were placed with five foreign and domestic institutional investors at Rs 360 a share, the company informed the BSE. Avendus Capital was the sole global co-ordinator and lead manager to the QIP. Following the placement, the equity share capital of the company has increased to Rs 12.28 crore from Rs 10.03 crore and the market cap is aroun d Rs 374 crore.

C1FY08 To Witness An Increase In Loan Growth: ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank has syndicated the maximum amount of loans for Indian companies in 2007. They have increased from rank six to rank one and syndicated as much as over USD 3 billion of loans for Indian companies out of a total of USD 27 billion that was syndicated. Sonjoy Chatterjee, ED at Corporate & Global of ICICI Bank said loans and FCCBs would be comfortable instruments for people to access and the mid-market segment is accessing this a lot more.

ICICI Aims To Become Sri Lanka''s Top Foreign Bank

Colombo: ICICI Bank has aimed a balance sheet of over one billion dollars within the next 4-5 years as it mulls to become the top foreign bank in Sri Lanka. The bank is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission to develop the securitisation market. This year, other than branch expansion work, it is working with the Central Bank to introduce a Commodity Exchange Centre for commodities. The bank recently unveiled a special offer scheme of sanctioning a loan in two days for its customers in Sri Lanka. The bank is also giving early settlement of loans with a 100% interest rebate and minimal foreclosure charges.

Toyota All Set To Launch Low Cost Car

Bangalore: Toyota Motor Corporation is about to finish work on a low cost passenger car, which will be unveiled in markets. The low-priced car is also hoped to be unveiled in developed markets as well after launches in India, Russia, Brazil and China. The low cost car model is almost complete. The low priced car will not compete with the Rs 1 lakh Tata car but it is also hoped to be unveiled in developed markets as well. The low priced car will be unveiled in India initially followed by Russia, Brazil and China.

Toyota also mulls to unveil about five more cars, some of them on the Innova multi-purpose vehicle platform before 2015. By 2011, the company hoped to sell about 2.11 lakh cars in India and about 5 lakh cars by 2015. The Indian subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota-Kirloskar Motor Company is also set to post a 10-12 per cent increase in topline to about Rs 4,000 crore during 2007-08.

DLF Signs Mou With Gayatri For Infra Development

New Delhi: DLF inked a memorandum of understanding with the infrastructure company Gayatri Projects Ltd (GPL) to develop roads, highways and bridges across the country. With the joint venture, they expect to do projects worth Rs 5,000-10,000 crore in the next few years. This venture will help DLF to expand its presence beyond residential, commercial and retail projects. DLF-GPL will take part in the pre-qualification bids for the highway projects under the National Highway Development Programme in Maharashtra, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. Under the agreement, DLF-GPL will power their strengths to form special purpose vehicles for development of highways. DLF Laing O''Rourke, a joint venture between DLF and the UK-based Laing O''Rourke, will be contractors for the projects bagged by the newly formed alliance between DLF and Gayatri. GPL at present has projects worth over Rs 3,450 crore under construction in states like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Orissa.

GAIL Receives Board Approval For Dabhol-Bangalore Pipeline Project

Bangalore: The board of directors of GAIL (India) Ltd has given in-principle clearance for laying of the 730 km Dabhol-Bangalore gas pipeline. Depending on the source and customer alliance, the pipeline will be designed to carry 16 MMSCD (million standard cubic metres per day) of gas and will need an investment of Rs 2,500 crore. The project will be appraised/ updated in respect of investment, customer identification, routing of the pipeline and freezing the design parameters before final investment permission by the GAIL board. The route of the proposed pipeline is from R-LNG Terminal of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Ltd (RGPPL) at Dabhol in Maharashtra up to Bangalore. The pipeline will pass via Ratnagiri and Kolhapur districts of Maharashtra; and Belgaum, Dharwad, Haveri, Davangere, Chitradurga, Tumkur and Bangalore districts of Karnataka. GAIL will also be laying three pipelines to augment the capacities of Dahej - Vijaipur pipeline, Vijaipur - Dadri pipeline, Vijaipur - Auraiya - Jagdishpur pipeline with a carrying capacity of 74 MMSCMD.

Tata Steel Inks Agreement With Oman Co For Limestone

Mumbai: Tata Steel has concluded an alliance pact with the Al Bahja Group of Oman for the development of the Uyun limestone deposits at Salalah in the Sultanate of Oman. Tata Steel and Al Bahja Group, inked the joint venture agreement. Tata Steel will be holding 70 per cent stake in the existing company, named Al Rimal Mining LLC, via its subsidiary, TS Global Minerals Holdings Pte Ltd. The initial phase will comprise exploration and detailed feasibility studies. The project envisages mining of limestone in the Uyun region, which is said to have large deposits of the raw material.

ICICI Bank Sets Up Seventh Branch In Britain

ICICI, India''s largest private sector bank Jan 15, expanded its operations further by opening its seventh branch in Britain in Coventry, a town in the east Midlands with a large minority of Indian origin. The opening of the branch hosted by the mank''s UK managing director and chief executive Suvek Nambiar and Deepak Varghese, head of retail banking. As a result of being India''s largest private sector bank, they are able to ensure the success of the varied efforts of Coventry''s vibrant business community who are trying to tap the skills and potential of India. As a result of our commitment to offer groundbreaking competitive services, we enjoy an approximate 30 per cent market share in the India-to-UK money transfer corridor. Through its investment of capital, resources and skills, It aim to offer the residents of Coventry and surrounding areas the opportunity to share in the boom that India is currently experiencing.

LIC Plans To Build Up Realty Portfolio

New Delhi: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), India''s largest life insurance company, said it mulls to consolidate its real estate portfolio across the country. Expression of Interest is being called from professional consultancy organisations for consolidating our real estate portfolio, LIC said in an advertisement. The consultancy entails a feasibility study, including techno-economic viability assessment of expected growth potential and investment opportunities in sectors such as commercial, housing and retail for fresh acquisition. LIC is interested in buying properties in Tier I and Tier II cities for its own use and investment purposes. The insurer will develop unencumbered plots at Kolkata, Jaipur, Chennai, Kanpur and Ahmedabad.

LIC entered into the real estate business in 2005 in an attempt to get more returns from its properties. The last date for submission of bids is January 25. It achieved a solvency margin of 150 per cent as on March 31, 2007, by building reserves of Rs 36,472 crore. The state-run insurer targets to collect first premium income of Rs 52,000 crore this year compared with Rs 39,541 crore in 2006-07. It has aimed a total investment of Rs 1,17,000 crore for the current fiscal compared with Rs 90,000 crore last year.

NTPC Enters Into Power Tools Market

New Delhi: NTPC will diversify into equipment manufacturing, with the board giving the go ahead for an alliance with Bharat Forge, India''s largest forging company. NTPC is positioning itself in such a way that it becomes a source of raw materials used for making the equipment and for supplying the main equipment. The entry is a part of the company''s strategy to decrease the shortages of power equipment in the country, which is hampering the addition of power generation capacity in the country. NTPC, which has an installed capacity of 27,904 mw and produces one-third of the country''s electricity, mulls to increase its capacity to over 50,000 mw in the next five years. It is a challenging task when there is a severe shortage of all kind of equipment with BHEL, the country''s leading power equipment major, unable to meet the burgeoning demand.

HPCL, BPCL Plan To Set Up Sewage Treatment Plant

Mumbai: State-run oil companies Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) are planning to jointly establish a desalination plant in Mumbai to meet the necessity of raw water in their refineries. The two companies have commissioned a feasibility study from Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) for the project which is estimated to cost about Rs 300 crore. Though the cost has come down to about Rs 40-45 a litre, the companies stand to profit from making a one-time investment in the plant. BPCL and HPCL are in negotiations with Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation for building and running the plant.

Essar Oil Takes Over 50% In Kenya Petroleum

India''s petroleum major Essar Oil has made its first overseas acquisition in the refining sector in Kenya. Essar Energy Overseas Ltd, a subsidiary of the company, has entered into an agreement to acquire 50 per cent stake in Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd (KPRL), a four million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) refinery in Mombasa, Kenya. The government of Kenya holds the remaining 50 per cent of KPRL. This, the first international acquisition by Essar in the refining sector, fits Essar''s strategy of achieving refining capacity of one million barrels per day. Essar will acquire the stake from the existing shareholders Shell, Chevron and BR. Subject to certain conditions, the acquisition is expected to be completed in early 2008. Essar Oil said KPRL''s products are sold into the Kenyan market and exported to many neighbouring countries including Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

Tata-AIG Life Unveils Unit-Linked Policy

Tata-AIG Life Insurance Co Ltd, a joint venture between the Tata group and American International Group Inc (AIG), launched a unit-linked insurance plan called InvestAssure Flexi in Kolkata on Jan 15. Speaking at the national launch of the product, Tata-AIG Managing Director Trevor Bull said: InvestAssure Flexi would enable investors to manage their risk-return balance by providing them flexibility to customise their investment portfolio while providing inbuilt tailored protection. For a plan where 10 or more annual premiums are paid, the policy also offers a guaranteed bonus at maturity. The product also offers maturity till 80 years of age. Customers have the flexibility to choose the sum assured of up to 60 times the annual premium, he said, adding that customers can avail of this policy 30 days from birth till the age of 70 years.

SBI Mulls One-Man Branches To Attract Hnis

Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI), in an attempt to attract a larger chunk of the mass affluent and high net worth individuals (HNIs), plans to establish one-man branches and financial service centres (FSCs) in urban areas. The bank seeks to set up 1,000 one-man branches in residential areas to meet the banking requires of these categories virtually at their doorstep and also establish sales outlets, or FSCs, at places like shopping malls and market centres.

Of SBI''s 90 million retail customer base, only about 3 per cent are from the mass affluent and HNI segments. These will operate as sales outfits offering personal banking products, credit cards, remittance facilities, investment advisory services, including mutual funds and insurance, to walk-in customers. The centres will be connected to a liabilities processing centre and a central loan processing centre. The bank is in negotiations with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to secure clearance for opening the outlets. The bank also plans to convert its existing loss-making branches in metro and urban areas into lean branches providing only routine banking transactions.

HCL Technologies Launches SOA Competency Center For Retailers At NRF 2008

HCL Technologies Ltd on January 15, 2008 announced the launch of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) Competency Center for Retailers at this weeks National Retail Federation Convention. The competency center is designed to guide retailers in the areas of SOA tool selection, development methodology and project execution, leveraging an industry-specific set of services and the deep expertise of HCL team members in areas relevant to SOA and BPM.SOA and BPM testing are very complex, time-consuming processes due to inadequate, legacy homegrown frameworks, said Vikram Duvvoorl, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Middleware & SOA Practice, HCL Technologies. As they require a fresh perspective towards development, testing, security and other aspects of project life cycle, HCL has focused on accelerating the process for our retail customers through specific tools and technologies for testing and security for SOA applications.Specifically, one of HCLs solution frameworks, HCLs xFIT, addresses testing and security problems retailers will face when implementing SOA and BPM. With HCLs xFIT framework to manage and automate SOA and services testing, Companies can more easily develop, orchestrate and maintain distributed test cases. The framework offers multi-platform support (UNIX, LINUX, AIX and Windows), is lightweight and minimally intrusive, and is also easy to learn and deploy. Furthermore, HCLs xFIT provides Companies with the ability to easily run test cases on multiple Systems under Test (SUT) configurations, leading to significant time savings. HCLs xFIT was built by HCL to enable integration testing, and has been successfully deployed in many customer locations to date.

OM Metals Secures LOI For Slum Rehabilitation Project In Bandra, Mumbai

OM Metals Infraprojects Ltd has informed that Om Metals Consortium, a partnership concern, has secured LOI for an estimated Rs 600 crore slum rehabilitation project in Bandra Reclamation, Mumbai. The Company has 35% equity stake in the consortium. The project is expected to commence in the next 3-4 months, and will be completed over 3 years.

OM Metals is a fast emerging conglomerate, with business interests in Hydro Mechanical Engineering, Real Estate and Infrastructure projects. The Company is in the process of executing large size real estate projects, and has more than 5 million sq. ft of land under development.

In the Hydro Mechanical segment, the Company has an outstanding order book of Rs 740 cr, with order book to sales ratio of 8x. OM Metals has executed over 50 projects across 18 states of India and in Nepal, Bhutan and Vietnam, for clients like NTPC, NHPC etc.

OM Metals has a market capitalization of Rs 900 crore.

House Of Pearl To Acquire Simple Approach Limited - In Hong Kong

House of Pearl Fashions Ltd has announced that the Company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to acquire 75% stake in the Hong Kong-based marketing Company, Simple Approach Ltd.

The Company has been working at strengthening its distribution muscle in the overseas markets.

The acquisition will benefit the Company in expanding its customer base into high fashion mid market segment. Simple Approach is supplying to value and mid market retailers in the UK and the USA and will be clocking revenues of Rs 80 crores in the current financial year, which are expected to grow to Rs 100 crores in the FY 2008-09 and projected to grow to Rs 200 Crores by FY 2010-11.

This Company has an excellent customers base and very good design team. By leveraging the Companys sourcing capabilities it will be offer wider product ranges at very competitive prices and can easily achieve 25% annual growth in its business every year for next 3 years.

The Company is the only Company in this sector with presence in more than 10 countries and controls complete supply chain from design & development to delivery to the customers doorsteps.

The Company is looking at entering fashion retailing in India with plans of launching a German Brand Lerros.

Puravankara To Launch Rs 1,200+ Crores Prime Project In Chennai

Puravankara Projects Ltd has announced that the Company is to launch its mega housing project Purva Windermere at Pallikarnai, Lake District in Chennai with an estimated project cost of over Rs 1,200 crores.

The project Purva Windermere is surrounded by three lakes. Spread over 54 acres of land, the project would have 2,072 units of 2 & 3 bedroom flats. Purva Windermere would have the most modern amenities like Club House, Meditation/yoga squash court, indoor games ball, basket ball post, gymnasium, steam, sauna, Jacuzzi, Swimming pool, etc. It would also have provisions for super market, restaurants, beauty parlours for men and women, Outdoor childrens play area, well-lit landscape garden etc.

The developers are offering the project with world class finish like, high end bathroom fixtures, premium flooring, UPVC Windows and high end emulsion painting to name a few.

This unique residential project is close to Vellacheri, a prime location Within the heart of Chennai. The water table of the area is quite good - potable and sweet. Its not surprising if one calls Windermere as the lake district of Chennai.

Some of the salient features of the project are:-

a) Environmental Friendly project with greater emphasis laid on lighting and ventilation.

b) Energy saving through deployment of latest technology

c) Without compromising on providing amenities to the residents, the developers are providing 2 large club houses.

d) Keeping in mind the safety of the residents, the project is equipped with High Tech security system with CCTV Surveillance and Access Control.

The project is ideally located, as Guindy, OMR and Airport are all accessible within a 5km distance. The project is also close to other conveniences like schools, colleges, hospitals, supermarkets, and the city center. The famed IT corridor is in close proximity to the project.

Venus Remedies Inaugurates 6th & Last Phase Of Its Rs 150 Crore Expansion Project

Venus Remedies has Inaugurated the sixth and last phase of its Rs 150 crore expansion project, its state of the art and hi-tech and elaborate research facility, 'Venus medicine research centre' at its Baddi campus on 14 January 2008.

This new R&D centre, which has been set up with an investment of approx. Rs 250 million, is spread over 40,000 sq. feet built up area in the Baddi campus of the company.

The centre has 7 dedicated pilot plants, built as per latest international standards for conducting trial production of injections in super specialty segments and eight fully equipped laboratories to cater for all kinds of testing in-house. This R&D centre will further strengthen the research capabilities of the company and help in building a stronger pipe line of solutions for diseases for which there is no treatment as on date.

The company made this announcement during the trading hours today, 15 January 2008.

M&M To Ask Govt Support For Purchasers

New Delhi: Taking a cue from developed economies such as the US and Japan where consumers are provided income-tax benefits for buying hybrid vehicles, Mahindra & Mahindra has said that it will also ask Government support to unveil its Scorpio hybrid in the country. Like in the case of its environment-friendly three-wheelers which the Government incentivised, they will also ask their support closer to the launch of Scorpio hybrid in the country. M&M''s Scorpio hybrid will be unveiled in the domestic market in the next 15-18 months. Earlier in the case of three-wheelers, the Government waived off Rs 80,000 of the vehicle cost for consumers buying it. In the US, a benefit of around $10,000 is given to consumers on income-tax and similar benefits are being extended in Japan too.

Jet Airways Looks For Approval From China

Beijing: China and the US are set to be linked by an Indian carrier for the first time, if Jet Airways is approved by the Chinese authorities to fly its proposed Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route. This would also be the first direct flight link between the commercial capitals of India and China, two of the world''s fastest growing economies. Under a bilateral civil aviation pact inked in April 2005, during Chinese Premier, Mr Wen Jiabao''s visit to India, the airlines of both countries are permitted to operate up to 42 weekly flights between the two nations. However, while Chinese carriers already boast a combined 18 weekly flights, India''s Air India only runs four flights a week. During a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Jan 12 afternoon, the Commerce Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, brought up Jet''s case as a concern, arguing that Beijing should de-link it from the Great Wall Airline issue. In addition to daily flights between Mumbai and Shanghai, Jet also plans to link Beijing with Mumbai, as well as New Delhi.

GAIL Ties Up With ONGC To Mumbai Offshore Gas

New Delhi: GAIL (India) Ltd and ONGC are working out a commercial agreement to market gas from the latter''s marginal field in Mumbai offshore. GAIL expects to receive an additional 3-4 million standard cubic metre per day (mmscmd) of gas at a market-related price. Discussions are on with GAIL for marketing 3.2 mmscmd of gas from C-series field. The market price is at least 40-45 per cent more than the administered price decided by the Government. Since 2006-07, GAIL has been getting 4.8 mmscmd of gas from Panna-Mukta-Tapti field produced by the joint venture between Reliance Industries Ltd, ONGC and BG at $4.75 per mBtu. This gas from ONGC would help GAIL partially meet the deficit in demand and enhance the revenue of GAIL.

The fields are estimated to hold in-place reserves of 15.54 billion cubic metre of gas and 4.46 mcm of condensate. The estimated gas production from the field is more than 3 mmscmd. ONGC is investing about Rs 3,195 crore on developing this field. GAIL and ONGC have accorded on a joint-venture approach for monetising the gas reserves discovered by ONGC in Krishna Godavari and Mahanadi basins. It will synergise the production, transportation and distribution strengths of ONGC and GAIL.

Bajaj Auto To Unveil KTM Sport Bikes

New Delhi: Austria''s top sports bike maker KTM said its Indian partner Bajaj Auto is unveiling the bikes via a local assembly line. The locally built vehicles will be obtainable at cheaper and attractive price tags. Bajaj''s 690 Supermoto and 690 Duke would be assembled at the Chakan plant in Pune. The Pune-based auto company is also planning to build Ninja 250 bike, another high performance bike, with its long time collaborator Kawasaki. The alliance has also promised to work on joint platforms, which would be used for Indian and overseas market. The bike, despite being locally assembled, will be quite expensive for the Indian markets. The 690 Supermoto, 690 Duke and Ninja 250 would be brought to India as completely knocked down (CKD) or semi knocked down (SKD) kits.

Bajaj''s 690 Supermoto will be unveiled by the middle of this calender year, along with RC8 motorcycle, which would purely be an import. The Pune-based company bought 14.5 per cent direct stake in KTM through its 100 per cent Netherlands-based subsidiary Bajaj Auto International Holdings BV. The company has now hiked its stake to 20.89 per cent and Rajiv Bajaj has been inducted on the KTM board.

NALCO Inks $3.4 Bn Smelter Deal

National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco) signed a deal with the Indonesian government in Jakarta to set up a 500,000-tonne smelter and a 1,250-MW captive power plant in that country at a cost of $3.4 billion, the company said in Bhubaneswar. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed between B.L. Bagra, director, finance, NALCO, and H. Mahyuddin, vice-governor, South Sumatra Province, Indonesia.

The state-owned company plans to invest around $3.4 billion in this greenfield project, to be built in two phases. Besides Indonesia, NALCO is also exploring possibilities of setting up plants in Iran, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Closer home, NALCO is trying to set up an aluminium park for upstream and downstream industries in Angul in Orissa, as a joint venture with Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corp (IDCO). It is acquiring 500 acres for this purpose. NALCO and IDCO will jointly take care of infrastructure, communication and power supply.

Strengthening Ppps In Infrastructure

World-class infrastructure creates an enabling environment for growth. In India, there is now a considered response in the form of practical and creative solutions to infrastructure problems.

Over the last decade, infrastructure growth in India has been propelled by Central and State Governments and aided by a host of private investments from within and outside the country.

Today, governments have a greater need for capital for infrastructure, and private investors have a substantial amount of capital for investment.

The result has been a convergence of public need and private capital. More private capital is flowing into infrastructure, more public-private partnerships to build and operate infrastructure are being formed, and more private investment transactions in infrastructure are being finalised.

It is estimated that the infrastructure sector will require an investment of $320 billion during the next five years.

‘Facilitating PPPs for accelerated infrastructure development in India’, a report released by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance, and Asian Development Bank (ADB), highlights the Government’s commitment to raising the investment in infrastructure from 4.7 per cent of GDP to around 8 per cent.

Given the government’s limited resources, the emergence of Private-Public Partnerships (PPPs) is seen as a sustainable means to bridge the infrastructure funding gap. A PPP cell has been set up in the DEA to administer various proposals and coordinate activities to promote PPPs.

Mechanism

In general, the term PPP broadly means a partnership between the government and the private sector to come together for undertaking a specified project. The project would involve identifying sources for funding, designing, implementing, operating and managing the project.

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In some cases, part of the financing is undertaken by providing capital subsidy for the project, and is partly arranged by the private party with the operations being run jointly or under a contractual arrangement with any other party.

And in another form of financing, the entire capital investment is mobilised by the private sector on the basis of concession agreement signed with the government and levy of user charges to pay for such investment.

Typically, enterprises specialising in different areas form a consortium to bid for projects. For the execution of a project, consortium members form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to build and operate the asset. The SPV finances the construction of the asset/infrastructure facility through a combination of debt-equity, which is serviced from the revenue flows from the operation and maintenance of such facility.

Statistics

In India, PPPs are on the rise. According to the joint DEA-ADB report, as of December 2006, as many as 86 PPPs were awarded, with road and port projects dominating in both number and size. An estimated 500 PPP projects valued at Rs 34,000 crore are ‘assumed’ to in operation in 12 States and three central agencies.

The World Bank statistics show that during the 15-year period from 1990 as much as $51 billion of public and private investments were pumped into various projects. All this could not have been possible without the Government’s commitment to this model.

For instance, of late there has been more transparency in the entire process, negotiations have been replaced by competitive bidding, model concession agreements have been drawn up at least for highways and major ports, tariffs and user fees have been restructured in some instances.

PPPs can help address both national interest and that of the private sector. The PPP model is intended to allocate risk to the party best able to manage it at least cost.

Under most PPP projects, stronger incentives are provided to the parties for timely execution of services on a continuous basis.

Advantages

Furthermore, by transferring responsibility for providing public services to the private sector, government officials act as regulators and focus upon service planning and performance monitoring instead of the management of the day-to-day delivery of public services.

In addition, by exposing public services to competition, PPPs enable the cost of public services to be benchmarked against market standards to ensure that optimum value for money is achieved. PPPs often allow the public sector to translate upfront capital expenditure into a flow of ongoing service payments. This enables projects to proceed when the availability of public capital may be constrained because of budget constraints or other issues.

While there are significant advantages, it must also be recognised that attracting private capital through the PPPs or any other route is neither easy nor is it automatic. The need of the hour is to ensure that irrational policy measures do not take a toll on the pace of acceleration of reforms.

Key challenges

There is a dire need for standardisation and coordination which is required in different stages and sectors of infrastructural growth. Projects in various sectors, such as highways, ports, water, power, etc., are spread under the management and control of several ministries. This leads to lack of coordination between them. Standardisation is also a major issue which hinders day-to-day operations, as in the case of Central and State level agencies which use different formats, bidding procedures, agreements for same type of projects, making the situation more complex.

Government agencies need to adopt the best practices which have already been evolved in other sectors or by other agencies, thereby cutting down on time and cost inefficiencies in the project preparation and bidding process.

Though 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is permitted under the automatic route in various infrastructure sectors, the existing regulatory guidelines require SPVs established for infrastructure development to obtain prior approval of the Reserve Bank of India to raise External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) to finance rupee expenditure cost of such projects. Further, corporate law requires mandatory transfer to statutory reserves before declaration of any dividend, thus resulting in cash trap for investors.

To stimulate private sector investment in infrastructure sector, a 10-year tax holiday in the block of 15-20 years has been provided to the undertaking/enterprise which develops/operates/maintains specified infrastructure facilities. However, such undertakings/enterprises are subject to Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) on books profits adjusted for specified items, resulting in demand of higher grants from Government, lowering of IRR for the infrastructure project.

This is in contrast to non-levy of MAT on companies engaged in development of Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Accordingly, abolishment of MAT can provide further impetus to private sector investment. Also companies engaged in development of SEZs are exempted from levy of Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT). Similar exemption to infrastructure projects under the PPP model would help boost investment in this sector, as it helps in increasing the return on capital invested.

On the indirect tax front, Custom concessions have been provided in respect of power projects, roads, and ports.

Global lessons

The joint DEA-ADB Report states that India can learn lessons from Mexico, Chile, the US and the Philippines. Global lessons include: Need for detailed policy and planning; strategic planning and management which could include using external technical and financial advisers; optimum allocation of risks between parties; adequate protection to lenders against non-commercial risks relating to force majeure, regulatory changes, contract termination, etc; and avoiding renegotiations and midway changes to save costs and delays.

To encourage more PPPs in infrastructure projects the right institutional set-up must be created, best practices adopted in the project bidding and awarding process, tax inefficiencies must be removed and the regulatory structure liberalised to ensure smooth flow of international capital.

Rel Power Grey Prices Fall

The volatility in the market since last week is playing its part in the grey market too, where the Reliance Power is witnessing huge trading.

According to market players, the premium for RePL share in the grey market, which was trading in the range of Rs 410-425 a week back has dropped to Rs 350-360 on Friday.

Even the price for application worth Rs 1 lakh has come down from a high of Rs10000-10200 to Rs7000-7200 currently. This is despite the fact that investors are rushing to open demat accounts with brokerage houses and banks.

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Market players say the recent volatility in the secondary market is suddenly raising doubts in investors’ minds about the valuations of the company.

The grey market price of Rs800-825 is giving a market capitalisation of around Rs1,80,000 crore to a company with no installed capacity and business on cards. The issue is opening on January 15, 2008 and is expected to list on the bourses in early February.

The current issue price warrants investors’ attention, as the company will be commencing its first project in FY09-10. Out of total project size of 28200 MW, which the company is expecting to complete by 2016, only 6000-6500 MW of power generation is expected to be commissioned by 2011-12.

According to analysts, even if the company is able to generate power worth 6000-6500 MW by 2011-12, it will have revenues of little over Rs7600 crore. This will give an earning per share of around Rs10, which will translate into a price earnings ratio of 80 on market price of Rs800.

But all these are assumptions, taking into consideration listing price as per grey market and company’s capability to earn revenues four years down the line.

This is far too in excess of current price earnings ratio of around 28 of the country’s largest power generator, NTPC, which already has generation capacity of close to 27000 Mw.

L&T Construction Unit Bags Rs 3,500-Cr Orders

Larsen & Toubro's construction division has won projects worth Rs 3,500 crore, the bulk of the orders being for office and residential buildings in Mumbai. The business division has already bagged orders worth Rs 12,500 crore in the first nine months of the fiscal, the most prominent of them being the Mumbai International Airport Ltd project. The Mumbai orders for construction of offices and residential buildings cumulatively amount to Rs 2,000 crore, and are f rom Kingston Properties Pvt Ltd

Wockhardt To Demerge R&D Unit

Wockhardt is planning a proposal to demerge its research and development division. The board of the company will meet on January 18 to consider an in-principle approval to demerge its new chemical entities (NCE) and R&D operations, subject to the approval of shareholders and other regulatory authorities.

Bharati Shipyard To Build New Yard At Dabhol Port

Bharati Shipyard would be setting up a new shipbuilding yard at Usgaon near Dabhol port in Maharashtra, at an estimated cost of Rs 600 crore. The proposed yard, which will have the capacity to build up to 1-lakh DWT vessels in the first phase, is scheduled to be completed in two years. The yard would be spread over an area of 250 acres, of which Bharati has already acquired 180 acres.

ICICI, SBI Apply For Singapore QFB Licence

Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank have applied to the Monetary Authority of Singapore for a qualified full banking (QFB) licence. The regulator, in the meantime, is not expected to insist on a government guarantee from SBI for granting it approval to launch full-fledged banking operations in the South-East Asian country.

A QFB licence allows banks to access the retail market in Singapore. Under the approval, banks can set-up offices, automated teller machines (ATMs) and branches in 25 locations. Besides, banks can transact business in Singapore dollars. Under the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Singapore, MAS is prepared to offer three QFB licences to Indian banks that meet prudential criteria. According to the CECA, India had to give three Singapore banks free access to the Indian banking space. The CECA was implemented in 2005 and covers investment, trade in services and merchandise goods. Singapore banking major DBS Bank has two branches in India. The other two banks to be considered under the treaty are United Overseas Bank and Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had preferred to treat Temasek and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) as related entities as the Government of Singapore has a significant shareholding in the entities, restricting them from raising their holding in ICICI Bank.

Spicejet Denies Stake Sale Reports

The budget airline SpiceJet stock has taken wing in the last month over a buyout buzz. Tatas, Anil Ambani and even Vijay Mallya may be in the ring for buying into the airline but the Spicejet management says no stake sale is on the anvil. The buzz about a takeover of Spicejet is getting louder. But suddenly there is intense speculation about these two men entering the fray for SpiceJet. Anil Ambani might want to fly into the aviation space and Vijay Mallya could make a bid to consolidate his market share after acquiring Deccan.

The Spicejet management however denies all talks of a stake sale but despite these denials the Spicejet stock has simply taken off, going up by more than 64 per cent in one month. The Spicejet stock touched a 52 week high of Rs 104.8 while closing down Rs 92.60 on Jan 9. The Spicejet management claims that the higher share price is not because of takeover talks but because the airline has been doing well. The company is expecting to announce a profitable quarter as ticket prices are on the rise which will help bottom lines. However, Spice''s promoters may be looking for an exit at a time when valuations are high. Ajay Singh one of the promoters is already investing huge amounts of money into his automobile business and the other promoters the Kansagra family is betting big on oil.

Reliance Comm To Get GSM Spectrum

In a development that could bring peace to the turbulent telecom sector, the government on Jan 10y decided to allocate spectrum to existing GSM players such as Idea Cellular and also to rival CDMA player Reliance Communications for launching mobile services. The new entrants, on the basis of eligibility and the priority of application, would be considered thereafter, according to a direction given by Communications Minister A Raja to his ministry officials. Among existing GSM players, Aircel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone-Essar would be getting the start-up frequency of 4.4 MHz for some circles at the existing price based on Rs 1,651 crore for nationwide spectrum. These companies have been waiting for spectrum to start GSM mobile services in some of the circles to cover the remaining areas in the country.

Besides them, Anil Ambani-led RCom that currently offers CDMA-based services, would also get GSM spectrum under the government''s decision of October 19 last year to allow companies to launch operations with both the technologies. The GSM operators have challenged the dual technology decision in telecom tribunal TDSAT and also in Delhi High Court but haven''t been able to get a reprieve.

SCI Goes Into Fleet Expansion Mode

Sabyasachi Hajara, the man who heads India''s largest shipping company, the Shipping Corporation of India, has big plans on his radar and he is looking at acquisitions and joint ventures to fuel growth. SCI''s aggressive diversification plans will require expansion of fleet as it is all set to enter untapped territory like shipbuilding, container terminal operations, dredging and offshore businesses.

SCI is investing over $4 billion over the next five years for acquiring 72 new vessels. The company will also be investing over Rs 18,000 crore in all its new ventures and by 2011-12 its total fleet size would be over 100 vessels. Hajara believes the returns are likely to be delayed as the projects will only be operational by 2011-12.

SCI plans to set up two greenfield shipyards one each on the east and the west coast with one of them could possibly be with a Korean shipbuilding major. For container terminal operation, it has joined hands with MSC, Concor and CWC. While for Offshore business it has entered into joint venture with ONGC. On dredging front, SCI is working with JNPT, Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and Cochin Shipyard. Hajara is working full time to transform the largest shipping company into largest maritime company. With over 72 new vessels and its foray in shipbuilding, dredging and off shore business, Hajara promises good times for its shareholders in future.