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| GM may hatch alternative plans if Daewoo deal fails NEW DELHI, Nov 16: General Motors India may hatch an alternative plan if it fails to purchase the passenger car......more Radio
frequency BANGALORE, Nov 16: World leader in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) product development and services.....more Rupee
spurts to 5-1/2 MUMBAI, Nov 16: The rupee spurted to a five-and-a-half month peak against the US currency early today at Rs 45.0250.....more Microsoft
to localise NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Microsoft today announced its decision to localise windows and office software in 14 Indian........more |
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Tata Steel given TPM excellence award-2004 KOLKATA, Nov 16: Four units of Tata steel have been adjudged winners of the ‘TPM excellence award-2004’ by the.........more FM
justifies decision TIRUCHIRAPALLI, Nov 16: Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has justified the levying of the Value Added Tax.......more Malaysia
may revise KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16: Malaysia may revise domestic retail oil prices if global crude oil breaches 60 a barrel but will.....more Cooperatives
suffering NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Worried over the lack of autonomy for cooperatives, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said ........more |
GM may hatch alternative plans if Daewoo deal fails NEW DELHI, Nov 16: General Motors India may hatch an alternative plan if it fails to purchase the passenger car assembly assets of Daewoo Motors India Ltd, a top company official said today. "We are hopeful of striking a deal with Daewoo India. If it does not materialise, the company may go for some alternative arrangements. But, at present, we are not thinking on those lines," GM India president and managing director Aditya Vij told UNI at the launch of new look Chevrolet Optra here. Though GM has completed the due diligence at the Surajpur facility of Daewoo, some legal, Governmental and creditors’ issues are still under consideration, he added. GM has plans to use the Surajpur plant for rolling out a mini-car, Chevrolet spark (erstwhile Daewoo Matiz). The Surajpur facility has an annual manufacturing capaciy of 85,000 units. In case of the failure of the Daewoo deal, the Indian arm of the US auto giant may rely on its halol plant in Gujarat. Meanwhile, the company is doubling its production capacity to 60,000 units annually and the revamped capacity will be operational from February next. GM India, which has invested Rs 1,300 crore in the country, targets to sell 30,000 vehicles by this year. It sold 15,150 units in 2003. GM India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of general motors corporation, manufactures the Chevrolet Optra, Tavera, Opel Corsa, Opel Corsa sail and Opel swing in the country. It also sells the imported Opel Victra and Chevrolet Forester. (UNI) |
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Radio frequency identification
product to BANGALORE, Nov 16: World leader in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) product development and services, oatsystems today announced the launch of its Bangalore Development Centre and its partnership alliance with infosys in servicing its RFID products. Company chief technology officer, Dr Sanjay Sarma, widely considered as the father of RFID, told newsmen here that India could reap rich from the opportunity available in this emerging technology whose market was estimated to be between 1.6 billion dollars and 4.2 billion dollars by 2007. He said RFID was an early and rapidly growing market that would support the creation of a new software category and a few, major best of the Bred companies. India cannot be laggard and grab the opportunity, he added. A number of large retailers including walmart and Tesco were working towards RFID compliance at various times during 2005 and supplying companies to these retailers in various parts of the globe need to have RFID tags. Headquartered in Boston, us oat had been founded by industry’s most respected team of experts including Dr Sharma and had received 11.5 million dollars venture capital funding from greylock and matric partners in September last year. Its clients included global 500 leaders such as Hewlett Packard and Gillete besides 30 customers in retail, consumer electronics, manufacturing, life sciences, aerospace and defence sectors. Dr Sharma said infosys and oat would work towards identifying opportunities across multiple vertical markets. Oat would leverage on infosys business domain expertise to help joint enterprise customers in identifying the right processes and strtegic benefits of employing RFID and in developing the implementation blueprint. (UNI) |
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Rupee spurts to 5-1/2 month peak against USD MUMBAI, Nov 16: The rupee spurted to a five-and-a-half month peak against the US currency early today at Rs 45.0250/0350 per dollar, driven-up by strong bunched-up dollar supplies accumulated over the long holiday weekend. A weak dollar against major global currencies amidst sliding world oil prices also aided rupee sentiments, dealers said. In fairly active trade at the interbank foreign exchange market here this morning, the rupee opened distinctly firm at Rs 45.07/10 per dollar, sharply higher from last Thursday’s five month closing peak of Rs 45.15/16 per dollar. The forex market was closed on Friday, November 12 for Diwali and on Monday, November 15 on account of Id-ul-Fitr. Heaped-up dollar supplies from trade and foreign fund inflows collected over the long holiday weekend gave the rupee robust support in the face of negligible dollar demand, a forex dealer said. Tumbling global oil prices to below USD 47 a barrel and a lingering weak dollar overseas also helped market sentiments, he added. New York Sweet Crude Oil for December delivery is currently quoted at USD 46.79 a barrel in Asian trade. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) made net purchases in equities with investments of rupee 1,319.5 crore ($286.9 million) for the traded week ended Nov 5. The foreign fundswere net purchases of Rs 83.8 crore ($18.4 millon) in the debt market, according to data released by Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI). India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by over a billion dollars in the week to November 5 to stand at the record USD 122.22 billion as investments and export revenue flowed into the buoyant emerging economy. The reserve shot up by nearly USD 22 billion so far in 2004, and could pile higher as investors chase robust returns. Turning to cross currency trade, the euro was quoted at Rs 58.25/28, pound sterling at Rs 83.16/19 and the Japanese yen (100) at Rs 42.72/75. (PTI) |
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Microsoft to localise MS Windows, office in 14 languages NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Microsoft today announced its decision to localise windows and office software in 14 Indian languages over the next 12 months and said India must take steps to increase computer penetration in the country. This was stated by microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here today. "The first thing on PM’s mind was support for all Indian languages in computer software that people use. I updated him on `project Bhasha’ to bring MS Windows and office in 14 Indian languages by this time next year", Ballmer told newspersons after the meeting. Expressing concern over poor PC penetration in India, he said "Government needs to help get more computers in the hands of more people. We also feel Government can do a lot to stimulate IT economy in India since India still lags somewhat in investment in computerisation for its own purposes even though providing it services to the world". He said microsoft will hire hunderds of software engineers in India in this year. Asked about offshoring to India, he said "we are in a fortunate situation. We can’t hire as many smart people as we can use. We need to add smart people. We are hiring in US, we will hire 3000 people in US this year and hundreds of people in India this year." "I trust you to continue to see us hire more and more r&d engineers as fast as we can even as we continue to hire at our headquarters in Seattle", he said. (PTI) |
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Tata Steel given TPM excellence award-2004 KOLKATA, Nov 16: Four units of Tata steel have been adjudged winners of the ‘TPM excellence award-2004’ by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM). Every year the institute confers the TPM awards to applicants from all over the world doing well in implementing TPM to increase plant efficiency. This is the first time in India, when a hot strip mill, a bearings plant or a precision tube mill has achieved the distinction of getting the JIPM TPM excellence award, according to a Tata steel press release issued here today. Competitiveness, sustanability and the need to maintain its position as the lowest cost producer in the world had promopted tata steel to adopt various improvement initiatives which helped the company in achieving its goal of being the lowest cost producer of steel in the world, it added. The release said as part of the effort, in 1999-2000 the company undertook to implement total productive maintenance or TPM at some of its critical units. These were the hot strip mill, precision tube mills (tubes division), bearings divisioin (Kharagpur) and the wire rod mill. The prime objective of deployment of TPM at Tata steel has been to achieve a status of zero accident , zero breakdown , zero customer complaint and zero defect . The deployment results of TPM in the four units had encouraged Tata steel to challenge the coveted ‘TPM excellence award - first category of JIPM, for all these four units. Company sources claimed that buoyed by the significant improvements achieved in these units, the deployment of this TPM philosophy has now been done at all the manufacturing and support service areas of the company including mines and collieries. As of now, more than 50 units of the company have initiated the TPM journey and are at various stage of its deployment. (UNI) |
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FM justifies decision to levy VAT TIRUCHIRAPALLI, Nov 16: Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has justified the levying of the Value Added Tax (VAT), which is to be introduced in all the states from April 2005. Inaugurating the cancer institute of a city-based private hospital here last night, Mr Chidambaram pointed out that levying of VAT, under different nomenclature, was in practice in as many as 138 countries in the world. He said vat would be promulgated at the state-level, while the service tax would dominate at the Centre. Within two or three years, VAT would be in the national stream, perhaps with the title of Goods and Service Tax (GST), as it was practised all over the world. In India, GST would be a combined bundle of excise duty and service tax, he added. In the next few years, there would only be two tax patterns namely Income Tax and GST in the country, he added. He said in India, only 75,000 individuals whose annual income exceeded Rs ten lakh were paying tax and added that it was a very difficult task for the Government to locate the real tax payers. He explained that the Government required funds to execute various development works, besides basic amenities. Expressing deep concern over the Public Health System (PHS), he said the PHS in the country was in shambles. "Though we show interest in personal hygiene, we are least bothered about public hygiene," the minister opined. He called upon the people to launch a campaign to create public awareness on the importance of public hygiene and health. He urged the people to educate their children on the importance of public hygiene and imbibe in them the requisite qualities for keeping the environment clean. (UNI) |
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Malaysia may revise oil prices if crude tops 60 KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16: Malaysia may revise domestic retail oil prices if global crude oil breaches 60 a barrel but will continue to subsidise prices at a reasonable rate, the Government’s economic planning body said in a publication. The publication didn’t specify what type of crude oil it was referring to. "If the crude oil price rises to more than 60 per barrel, the Government may revise the oil prices in Malaysia," the National Economic Action Council said in a booklet, excerpts of which were published in local newspapers on Tuesday. Benchmark US Light Crude was trading around 46 per barrel on Tuesday, down from a peak of 55.67 late in October. Malaysia’s main crude, Tapis, was assessed at 45.00 a barrel. Malaysia is a net exporter of crude but the cost of keeping down the retail price of petrol, diesel and liquefied natural gas is burning a hole in the Government’s budget. The Government earlier estimated that with oil prices at 53 a barrel, annual fuel subsidies would cost 13.9 billion ringgit ( 3.7 billion). That’s about 12 percent of the 117 billion ringgit operating and development expenditure allocated in the 2005 federal budget. In October, Malaysia raised petrol pump prices for the second time in five months, though at 1.42 ringgit per litre, premium petrol prices are still among the region’s lowest. The booklet, which explains the recent price hike, said the Government had formed a committee to study the impact of oil prices on the economy. Malaysia will benefit from high oil prices but economists warn a prolonged price rally could weaken its major trading partners’ economies and crimp demand for its exports. To counter the impact of high oil prices, the Government is encouraging the use of renewable energy such as biomass and solar energy. Malaysia’s Trade Ministry said on Saturday it would submit a proposal to the Government on Nov 24 on ways to ease the burden of fuel subsidies without resorting to a price hike. (AGENCIES) |
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Cooperatives suffering from lack of autonomy: PM NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Worried over the lack of autonomy for cooperatives, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the UPA Government was considering constitutional amendments to ensure democratic, autonomous and professional functioning of cooperative bodies. Singh, who was speaking on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of cooperatives here, said the task force set up to improve efficiency and viability of the cooperative banking sector was expected to present its report shortly. "Our Government is committed to the success of cooperatives. We are seriously engaged in considering possible constitutional amendments to ensure democratic, autonomous and professional functioning of cooperatives", he told a conference organised by the National Cooperative Development Corporation. (PTI) |
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Nokia launches 2 new CDMA camera phones HELSINKI, Nov 16: The world’s largest mobile phone maker, Nokia, launched two new camera phones on Tuesday to beef up its product offering for the CDMA market. Nokia said the phones, the 6235 and the 6235I, would be available in the second quarter of 2005. CDMA, or code division multiple access, is the world’s second-largest mobile standard globally after GSM, and is used in North America, Latin America and parts of Asia. (AGENCIES) |
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China’s Lenovo says H1 profit up 16 pc HONG KONG, Nov 16: Lenovo Group Ltd. 0992.HK , China’s number one PC maker, said on Tuesday its first-half profit rose 16 percent, slightly better than market expectations, as it benefited from cost cutting and a campaign to move into China’s Hinterland. Lenovo, which controls more than a quarter of China’s PC market, reported a profit of HK 626.87 million (US 80 million) for its fiscal first half through September, compared with HK 539.42 million a year earlier. Three analysts polled had forecast, on average, that the company would report an interim profit of HK 622 million. Lenovo’s stock has risen more than 50 percent in the last 3 months, including a 13 percent jump in the last week alone, on bullishness about the company’s strengthening position in China and media reports of an imminent joint venture with US-based rival IBM UBM N Lenovo has denied the reports. (AGENCIES) |
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Vfortress announces series a funding from KVCF BANGALORE, Nov 16: Vfortress Network Security Private Limited, a Bangalore headquartered product company dedicated to offering secure, remote access to business applications and data today announced a series a funding from Kerala Venture Capital Fund(KVCF). As part of the first round, KVCL would contribute a total of Rs 20 million to vfortress to expand its business initiatives, strengthen its hold in the secure remote access field and set up a development centre at the info park, Kochi, according to a release here. Kvcf is a close-ended venture capital fund conceptualised by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation Limited (KSIDC), Kerala Financial Corporation (KFC) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and was dedicated to investing in enterprises with high technological inputs such as information technology and bio technology primarily in Kerala state. Vfortress is on the high growth path and had recently announced the global launch of its indigenously developed application security product Suite-seamless Private Application Network (SPAN). Announcing the funding Vfortress CEO Subash Warrier said that "the KVCF funding fulfils our capital requirements substantially and will fuel our aggressive growth plans". KVCF managing director K A Joseph said that "we are impressed by the high quality product management at vfortress that has led to world-class software products being built out of India". (UNI) Mauritius to be tapped for software development NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Mauritius today said that the island nation would be the next destination for India’s IT and software expansion. Mauritius IT and Telecom Minister, Pradeep Jeeha today said he wanted to create an a wareness in the minds of Indian corporates that Mauritius "could be the next destination in association with India for outsourcing and software development. While visiting Noida’s logix park a software and back office operations area he said there was a huge demand for infrastructure development in Mauritius. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to inaugurate a software technology park in Mauritius on 27th December. (UNI) |
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