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| Gandhinagar great destination for outsourcing: chief of Texan firm AHMEDABAD, Nov 22: The chief of a Texas-based outsourcing firm has said Gandhinagar, which boasts of an infocity......more Lord
Paul’s Caparo LONDON, Nov 22: Lord Swraj Paul’s Caparo group has announced a major expansion of its operations in India with the.....more Singapore
yellow SINGOPORE, Nov 22: Directory listings business yellow pages Singapore Pte Ltd.....more Pertamina
says JAKARTA, Nov 22: Indonesia state oil company Pertamina will have no problem getting crude oil for its refineries from.........more |
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LG posts record sales, raises plasma TV target SEOUL, Nov 22: LG electronics inc. Rang up record monthly sales in October after shipping third-generation (3G).........more Toursim
corporation INDORE, Nov 22: Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation has entered into agreements with European and........more Rupee
rallies against MUMBAI, Nov 22: The rupee rallied against the US currency early today on bunched up weakend.....more Reliance
group MUMBAI, Nov 22: Driven by panic over "ownership issues" in the Ambani family, Reliance industries and other listed........more |
Gandhinagar great destination
for outsourcing: AHMEDABAD, Nov 22: The chief of a Texas-based outsourcing firm has said Gandhinagar, which boasts of an infocity with world-class infrastructure, is far more an attractive destination for outsourcing than Bangalore. "Bangalore may have magnificent buildings, great companies operating from it but I would not like to go there. There has been a high level of attrition (of resources). Gujarat’s capital is any day better with its advanced infrastructure facilities, best power situation and telecom facilities. The airport is just 20 minutes away from infocity and more importantly, there are no traffic snarls," said A C ‘chuck’ Smith, president and chief operating officer of the effective teleservices inc, while delivering a lecture on ‘exporting America: losing jobs or gaining economic globalisation’ at the Ahmedabad Management Association here. Scoffing at apprehensions about security concerns in the light of Gujarat riots in 2002, he said, "there is no place in the world which does not have a history." Mr Smith said, "profiency in English is what attracts American firms to India. Our Indian employees have a great command of the king’s language. They may not speak it as well, but they can type it fine." "They also talk in terms of career, rather than jobs, in the outsourcing industry," Mr Smith noted. The ETI, which was the first American firm to open its office at the infocity park in Gandhinagar, had completed one year of operations last month. It has booked more space there to increase its capacity to 1,500 call centre seats. On the outrage that has sparked off in his country about outsourcing of jobs, Mr Smith argued, "all the apprehensions are misplaced. The us is growing and prospering more. Its turnover is 250 percent a year." For every one dollar spent on outsourcing, the US economy receives on an average 1.3 dollar in return, he observed. "The estimated number of workers affected by offshore outsourcing is between one to two million of a 140 million strong US workforce, which is a small fraction," he explained. He said outsourcing to India accounts for less than 10 per cent of 2.3 million jobs lost in the US and added the outsourcing trend would only grow as most companies have realised its benefits. Citing the law of comparative advantages, Mr Smith said if the outsourcing has raised the welfare of other economies, it was good for the us as "weak foreign economies mean less demand for American goods". Chalking out the advantages that the companies enjoy by outsourcing, he said, "apart from cost savings, offshore outsourcing helps companies deliver a 24/7 schedule far more easily. It has become a requisite for them in view of competitiveness in the global economy and also enhances their survivability." Giving a comparison in the corporate tax structure, the Coo said while it was five per cent in India, it was 30 per cent in the US. He said even foreign investment for setting up US-based plant or subsidiary has doubled to 82 billion dollars between 2002 to 2003. "Companies are finding that having a base in US can be a big help when selling to the lucrative market there," he added. Referring to senator John Kerry’s famous quote "I am not a benedict Arnold" during the US Presidential campaign (by which he meant he was not a traitor or a coward), Mr Smith said, "If jobs can be done more efficiently in Gandhinagar then why not? We are gaining by economic globalisation. It is best for the us if India rises too." (UNI) |
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Lord Paul’s Caparo group to expand operations in India LONDON, Nov 22: Lord Swraj Paul’s Caparo group has announced a major expansion of its operations in India with the addition of three automotive components manufacturing plants, aimed at generating a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore in the next three years. Paul, founder chairman of London-based Caparo group, told a group of visiting Indian journalists that Caparo was looking to generate annual turnover of Rs 300-Rs 350 crore in 2005, raising it to Rs 1,000 crore in three years. With India poised to emerge as a leading manufacturer and exporter of cars in the next five years, Lord Paul envisaged that the Caparo group would be a leading exporter of automobile components from India to other parts of the world. His youngest son Angad is chairman and chief executive officer of Caparo’s Indian companies. Paul, who was thwarted in the early 1980s from taking over DCM and escorts companies in India, said yesterday the new plants were under construction for completion next year. They include a new automotive components plant at Bawal in Haryana, which will be in operation in February-March next year and another plant in Indore, which will double its turnover to Rs 70 crore by June next year. Expansion of the Halol plant in Gujarat to raise the turnover to Rs 24 crore by July next year and setting up of a plant in Haryana for manufacturing fasteners for the automotive and general industries, which will be in production by September next year with an annual turnover of Rs 50 crore in the first phase, are the projects being planned. Paul said work would start for constructing a leisure complex in Greater Noida on 24 acres of land that has already been acquired. Being a person who is very proud of India and absolutely sure of its abilities, Paul said he had a dream for India on which he had been working for a long time and there was an atmosphere now in which Caparo could be part of that dream. "My son is also dedicated to achieving that vision. He is our only British son and one can see the pride in him of being of Indian origin," he said. Caparo started the Caparo Maruti plant in 1994 to make automotive components for Maruti and under Angad it has reached a turnover of Rs 100 crore. The three-year-old Indore plant has a current turnover of Rs 35 crore and the Halol plant Rs 10 crore. Last week the Caparo group announced acquisition of five European steel companies with a combined annual sales turnover of approximately 135 million pounds (Rs 1,090 crore) for an undisclosed sum. The five european steel companies, tyco tybe, tyco strip, industrial fasteners GKS-centrepiece, systems scaffolding ltd and Barcelona-based lipe, are Britain’s leading manufacturers and distributors of precision steel tubing assemblies. Lord Paul said though India was 15 years behind China in initiating reforms, it has made good progress during the last decade and a half. The Vajpayee Government did a marvellous job during its tenure, he said and expressed confidence that the Manmohan Singh Government would further hasten the pace of reforms. Lord Paul, who is also British Ambassador for Overseas Business, said he did not envisage any hindrance from the Leftist leadership to the reforms. "In fact, at the moment, CPI and CPI-M have a very good leadership," he said, adding "they are not against reforms but they want reforms with a human face and I fully agree with it." (PTI) |
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Singapore yellow pages sets IPO price range SINGOPORE, Nov 22: Directory listings business yellow pages Singapore Pte Ltd aims to raise up to US 140 million through an initial public offering of shares priced between s 1.46 ( 0.89) and s 1.66 each, brokers said on Monday. The shares in Singapore’s third-largest IPO this year are projected to have a dividend yield of between 7.0 to 8.0 percent, the sources said. One broker who has seen the IPO’s term sheet said offer represents up to 80 percent of the company and would include 45 percent primary shares and 55 percent secondary shares. The IPO comes as an exit for private equity firms CVC Asia Pacific and JP Morgan partners Asia, which bought the firm from Ssingapore Telecommunications Ltd last July for s 220 million. Yellow pages had said in its prospectus that it planned to use proceeds from the IPO to repay a loan of s 83 million and boost working capital. The IPO is being managed by Swiss Bank UBS AG and Singapore’s DBS group holdings ltd. ( 1=1.646 singapore dollar) (AGENCIES) |
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Pertamina says looking to source crude regionally JAKARTA, Nov 22: Indonesia state oil company Pertamina will have no problem getting crude oil for its refineries from nearby countries after deciding not to renew deals with Algeria and Angola, a company official said on Monday. "Pertamina will look for crude oil from regional (suppliers) such as Malaysia, Australia, and Vietnam or others ... We don’t see any problem so far," Dwi Kushartojo, Pertamina deputy Director for Processing, told reporters. "Pertamina has not renewed deals with Algeria’s Sonatrach and Angola’s crude for around 900,000 barrels per month each from October. The reason is Pertamina wants a cheaper price," he said. Kushartojo said Pertamina imports about five million barrels of crude oil per month on average. Traders have said Pertamina has bought 6.6 million barrels, or 11 cargoes, of regional sweet crude for January delivery via its regular tender. In the tender, which closed on Nov 10, Pertamina bought Australia’s Legendre and Cossack, Vietnam’s Bach Ho and Bunga Kekwa, Brunei’s Seria light, Thailand’s Pattani, Malaysia’s Tapis, and China’s Wengchang and Panyu, traders said. The sellers and awarded prices were not immediately available. Pertamina last bought 1.8 million barrels of December-arrival sweet crudes through tender. Indonesia’s crude oil production dipped slightly to 972,300 Barrels Per Day (BPD) last month, from 974,700 BPD in September, industry sources have said. Condensate output was stable at 121,000 BPD, against 120,200 BPD in September. Indonesia, Asia’s only member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPRC), has a quota of 1.399 million BPD under OPEC’s current production ceiling of 27 million BPD. Condensate is not included in the limit. (AGENCIES) |
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LG posts record sales, raises plasma TV target SEOUL, Nov 22: LG electronics inc. Rang up record monthly sales in October after shipping third-generation (3G) mobile phones to Hutchison and orange and forecast it would become the top plasma television maker by 2006. But its shares fell 5.3 percent to 63,900 won, hit by a stronger Korean won and falls in US stocks. The broader market shed 2.2 percent. South Korea’s LG, the number two plasma TV producer in 2003, said on Monday it aimed to grab a 20 percent market share to overtake current leader Matsushita Electric Industrial Co of Japan. Matsushita and LG had 15.1 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively, of the plasma TV market in 2003, according to research firm Isuppli. LG also launched the world’s largest plasma TV, with a screen measuring 71 inches (180 cm) diagonally, just months after panasonic products maker Matsushita released 65-inch sets. The two are in a legal dispute over alleged plasma patent infringements. LG, which is also the world’s top maker of air conditioners, recorded total sales of 2.35 trillion won ( 2.2 billion) for October, up 15 percent from September. The company, the world’s fifth-largest mobile phone maker, sold 5.09 million phones last month, up 27 percent from September and 68 percent from a year earlier. It is gaining from sales of pricey 3G phones to telecoms giants like Hutchison Whampoa and France telecom’s orange. "Handset sales jumped in October thanks to shipments to Hutchison Whampoa and orange. We just started shipping videophones to orange in October," an LG official told by telephone. Earlier this month, LG said it had added Spain’s Telefonica moviles to its list of 3G phone customers. ( 1=1,068.0 won) (AGENCIES) |
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Toursim corporation ropes in
European and INDORE, Nov 22: Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation has entered into agreements with European and American tour operators during world travel market in London recently to promote tourism in the state. Corporation president Nitish Bharadwaj said that some tour operators have agreed to develop the state into a "global tourist site" while talks with others are in the last phase. "An American marketing agency has agreed to promote Madhya Pradesh on Global Distribution System (GDS). The company would release information pertaining to 10 selected hotels to travel agents throughout the world," Mr Bharadwaj said. "The company has signed the MoU in London and a final decision would be taken by the Board of Directors of Toursim Department soon," he added. Mr Bharadwaj also said the corporation would provide two packages to foreign tourists visiting the state for a week’s duration. (UNI) |
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Rupee rallies against USD in early trade MUMBAI, Nov 22: The rupee rallied against the US currency early today on bunched up weakend dollar supplies in moderately active but cautious trade at the interbank foreign exchange market here. The domestic unit was quoted at Rs 45.06/07 per dollar in the late morning deals, sharply higher from Friday’s close of 45.0950/1050 per dollar, after a firm opening at 45.05/06 per dollar owing to a lingering weak dollar overseas. The US dollar tumbled to new record lows against the euro and showed multi-month troughs against the Japanese yen. Heaped up dollar supplies from trade and foreign fund inflows gave the rupee firm underlying support amidst a lingering weak dollar overseas, even as global oil prices showed a fresh surge to over 49 dollar a barrel, a forex dealer said. Crude oil crossed usd 49 a barrel on worries over supplies. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) recorded net purchase of Rs 730.9 crore ($159,7 million) in equities for the trading week ended on November 19 and made net purchase at Rs 608.1 crore (USD 132.9 mn) in the debt market, according to the data available with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). In cross currency trades, the euro was quoted at Rs 58.73/76, pound sterling at Rs 83.66/68 and the Japanese yen (100) Rs 43.60/62. (PTI) |
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Reliance group scrips move down in opening trade MUMBAI, Nov 22: Driven by panic over "ownership issues" in the Ambani family, Reliance industries and other listed group entities today saw a fresh spell of selling on the Bombay Stock Exchange, taking their prices down by over 2.5 per cent in early trading. RIL stock, which carries a heavy weight on the BSE-30 index, traded at Rs 512.50 against its previous close of Rs 527.15. The share of Reliance energy quoted at Rs 600 (against Friday’s close of Rs 620.70) while Reliance capital scrip moved down at Rs 132 (Rs 137.70). Indian Petrochemicals Ltd (IPCL) stock also saw selling pressure and was traded lower at Rs 178.9 (Rs 184.30). Selling in Reliance group scrips by investors was due to concerns over "ownership issue", analysts said. The family meeting, which is likely to be held later in the day to sort out the problem, may provide some indication about future, they added. (PTI) |
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Dollar near record lows, no support from G20 TOKYO, Nov 22: The dollar was near record lows against the euro and its lowest level since March 2000 versus the yen on Monday after a meeting of the group of 20 rich and developing nations suggested no effort to stem the dollar’s decline. Traders said the dollar was poised to fall further on Monday, after the G20 made no reference to currency swings in its post-meeting communique, despite the dollar falling to a nine-year low against a basket of currencies. On Friday the dollar touched a record low of 1.3070 per euro after federal reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said market appetite for US assets would eventually fall, raising the prospect that foreign funds flows into the united states will become insufficient to fund its gaping current account deficit. Analysts said that Greenspan’s comments, which echoed those of other fed officials in recent weeks, were nevertheless the first clear pointer from the fed chief to a weaker dollar, and would likely accelerate the currency’s decline. The dollar fetched 103.11 yen as of 2300 gmt, barely changed from Friday’s close and just above a 4 year low of around 102.70 hit in New York on Friday. The euro bought 1.3033, slightly up on the day and in sight of the record high. Dealers said given the dollar’s sharp falls they were wary of possible intervention by the Bank of Japan to stem the yen’s rise and protect Japan’s export-led economic recovery. "If they don’t intervene now, it’s pretty much an admission that the Japanese authorities are happy for the dollar to fall below 100 yen, and I don’t think that’s the case," said Mitsuo Imaizumi, deputy General Manager of the International Bond and Forex Department at Daiwa securities SMBC. Japan has not interevened in currency markets since March. (AGENCIES) |
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Rally will expand trade with ASEAN: Munjal GUWAHATI, Nov 22: The Indo-ASEAN car rally will increase trade with ASEAN countries by more than three times, CII president Sunil Kant Munjal said here. Trade with ASEAN countries, which stood at around 10 billion dollars annually, could go up to 30 billion dollars, he said at a conference on "north east- India’s gateway to ASEAN" at the IIT, Guwahati. The north eastern region and the ASEAN countries had common culture and both the regions had come closer now, Munjal, who is also the chairman of the National Advisory Committee of the rally, said. "We have to find ways to lower transportation cost and target aggressive trade levels with countries other than Singapore and Malaysia with whom India already has a good rapport," he said. Quoting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the north east was the gateway to south east Asia, Munjal said the region was underdeveloped and much had to be done so that it could take advantage of the liberal economic policies. (PTI) |
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Sri Lanka, Pakistan to enter
free trade COLOMBO, Nov 22: Sri Lanka and Pakistan will enter into a long-awaited free trade agreement by January during a visit to Islamabad by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, visiting Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said today. Aziz said the FTA was almost ready to be signed and he expected all problems to be sorted out when a meeting takes place in Islamabad in two days to finalise the deal. "Where there are problems, we will work around them," Aziz said. "We are hopeful we can make the FTA operational by the time President Kumaratunga visits Pakistan in January." He said bilateral talks focused on greater economic and political cooperation between the two countries and there would be a review of joint cooperation later in December. (PTI) |
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