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| Car sales continue to draw double
digit growth in Oct NEW DELHI, Nov 9: On the back of festive season purchases, passenger cars and motorcycles sales continued to draw double digit growth during October this ,.........more NIIT to invest Rs 8 cr to set up 100 centers for new programme NEW DELHI, Nov 9: NIIT Limited, Asia’s largest IT education provider, plans to invest Rs eight crore in the next two years for setting up 100 centres for its .........more India at 126 on HDR Index; must hike funds on amenities: UNDP NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Observing that water and sanitation are under-financed relative to military spending in India, a UNDP report has called for adequate . .........more Mefcom Agro acquires 14.5 pc stake in Mayur Development MUMBAI, Nov 9: Mefcom Agro Industries Ltd today said it has acquired 14.5 per cent .. .....more |
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Satyam bags $71 million Qantas
contract NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Satyam Computer Services Ltd today announced it has signed a seven-year contract worth 71 million Australion dollars .........more M&M signs pact with Renault to set up new unit in India PARIS, Nov 9: Mahindra & Mahindra and French auto major Renault today signed an MoU to set up a greenfield manufacturing facility in India.The new unit would ..........more Outsourcing is good for US economy: Ballmer NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Favouring large-scale outsourcing of software services and R&D works to countries such as India, Steve Ballmer, CEO of the world’s largest software company Microsoft, has said .......more Essar to start Gujarat oil refinery within a fortnight NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Essar Oil Ltd today said it will start its 10.5 million tonnes per annum refinery in Gujarat within a fortnight." .............more |
Car sales continue to draw double digit growth in Oct NEW DELHI, Nov 9: On the back of festive season purchases, passenger cars and motorcycles sales continued to draw double digit growth during October this year at 16.34 per cent and 13.16 per cent respectively. According to figures released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), total passenger car sales increased by 16.34 per cent at 92,383 units in October this year as compared to 79,407 units in same month last year. Motorcycles sales during the month stood at 7,05,467 units as against 6,23,432 units, in the corresponding month last year, up by 13.16 per cent. The country’s largest car manufacturer Maruti Udyog Ltd clocked 9.88 per cent growth in sales during the month at 47,994 units as against 43,676 units in the same month last year. Rivals Hyundai Motor India Ltd had a sales growth of 18.28 per cent at 18,563 units in October as compared to 15,693 units. However, home grown major Tata Motors witnessed a decline in sales during the month at 12,720 units as against 13,616 units last year, down by 6.5 per cent. According to SIAM, the growth in motorcycle sales was led by Bajaj Auto Ltd, which managed to sell 2,23,642 units during the month as against 1,89,169 units last year, up 18.22 per cent. Market leader Hero Honda Motors Ltd also posted an impressive 16.79 per cent growth at 3,45,319 units, against 2,95,654 units in the same month last year. Chennai-based TVS Motors Co Ltd, however, had a modest growth of 4.89 per cent at 86,990 units, compared to 82,933 units in the same month last year. Scooter sales continued to be on the decline at 9.75 per cent. Total scooter sales during October stood at 84,680 units as against 93,830 units in the corresponding month last year, SIAM said. Scooter market leader Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India had a drop in sales by 9.14 per cent in October this year at 43,957 units as against 48,382 units in the same month last year. Bajaj Auto Ltd managed to sell just 49 units of scooters compared to 13,850 units in the same month last year, while Hero Honda Motors sold 11,088 units in October this year. Pune-based Kinetic Motor Co managed 36.67 per cent growth in scooter sales during the month at 7,509 units, against 5,494 units in the same month last year. SIAM said commercial vehicle sales during October was at 38,554 units as compared to 31,663 in the same month last year, up by 21.76 per cent. The growth in the commercial vehicle sales was driven by the medium and heavy commercial vehicles, which clocked a healthy 27.68 per cent growth at 22,183 units as against 17,373 units in the same month last year. Total light commercial vehicle sales during the month also increased by 14.56 per cent at 16,371 units as compared to 14,290 units last year, SIAM said. (PTI) |
NIIT to invest Rs 8 cr to set up 100 centers for new programme NEW DELHI, Nov 9: NIIT Limited, Asia’s largest IT education provider, plans to invest Rs eight crore in the next two years for setting up 100 centres for its new specialised programme on networking and infrastructure - NIIT NetworkLabs. "Our new programme, NIIT NetworkLabs, is fully industry endorsed and will help in creating skilled professionals in networking and infrastructure area. We will also invest Rs eight crore in next two years for setting up 100 specialised centers for this course," NIIT President (Individual Learning Business) G Raghavan told PTI. The industry is facing an acute shortage of manpower in the networking and infrastructure management sector, he said adding that "according to an IDC survey, there will be shortage of about one lakh people in this segment". He said, "we have already launched this programme in Delhi and Chennai and would take this to across 25 cities in near future." The curriculum of NetworkLabs has been designed in partnership with global technology leaders such as 3Com, Intel, Microsoft and CompTIA, Raghavan said. The company already has major IT organisations as placement partners, who would absorb NIIT students as per their requirements, he added. "NetworkLabs will provide students with real time experience of infrastructure management, business desktop deployment among other things making them industry ready," Raghavan said. NIIT NetworkLabs would be supported by state-of-the-art educational methodologies, which has been designed to impart practical networking skills through dedicated networking and virtual labs. The students will have the option to specialise in select infrastructure management areas, as part of the programme, Raghavan said. The programme’s duration is about one year and would cost Rs 50,000 per person. (PTI) |
India at 126 on HDR Index; must hike funds on amenities: UNDP NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Observing that water and sanitation are under-financed relative to military spending in India, a UNDP report has called for adequate funds for such basic amenities so that increased income levels could be successfully translated into human development. UNDP’s Human Development Report 2006, which ranked India 126 globally in Human Development Index for 2004 as compared to 127 a year ago, noted that India alone loses 4.5 lakh lives annually to diarrhea-more than any country. "India spends eight times more of its national wealth on military budgets than on water and sanitation," the report, which was released today, said. Public policy shaped the conversion of income into human development, it said, adding budget priorities raised some important questions about public spending. "All countries see national security and defence as priorities. But viewed through the prism of human security it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that water and sanitation are under-financed relative to military spending," it said. It observed that neighbouring Pakistan lost 1.18 lakh lives to diarrhea, with the country ranking 28 places higher in the global league table for deaths from diarrhea than in GDP per capita. India, on the other hand, ranks 14 places higher in this regard, the report observed, adding many factors were at play but low levels of spending on water and sanitation surely contribute to the state of affairs. The report, however, lauded efforts by India in enhancing spending on rural sanitation four-fold and doubling spending on rural water supply since 2002. On achieving the Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation levels, the UN study said the global aggregate picture was mixed. "With strong progress in high population countries such as China and India, the world is on track for halving the share of people without access to water, but off track in sanitation," it said. Pointing to the dichotomy on water availability, the UNDP report said people in slums of Mumbai, Jakarta and Nairobi faced shortages of clean water, although their neighbours in high income suburbs had enough water for household needs and keep their lawns greens and their "swimming pools topped up". The report lamented that in cities such as Delhi, Dhaka and Mexico City, about 40 per cent of water leaks out of corroded pipes or is sold illegally. This results in low revenues for public providers, fueling a vicious cycle of deteriorating assets, water losses, low revenue collection, low investment and further infrastructure deterioration. Commenting on the scarcity of water in rural areas, the report criticised the policy of subsidising electricity to farmers, which remove ‘incentives to conserve water’. "In India, agriculture accounts for about a third of the sales of electricity boards but only three per cent of revenue. According to World Bank, subsidies accounted for about a third of India’s deficit in 2001," it said. These subsidies have created disincentives for water conservation and incentives for inappropriate cropping patterns, the report said. The UN report said if water were to be sensitively priced and regulated it was unlikely that a water intensive crop like sugarcane would be grown on its current scale across Gujarat. "Because electricity subsidies tend to rise with the size of holding and depth of wells, they are highly regressive, wealthier the producer, the bigger the support," it said. It said over-extraction of ground water in Gujarat has posed a twin threat to agricultural producers by reducing water availability and increasing soil salinity. Similar problems can emerge across the border in Pakistan, it said. Commenting on the financing for irrigation maintenance, the report said it was greater in India compared to Pakistan but still less than half the minimum of the global yardstick of three per cent spending of the value of capital stock. "Chronic underinvestment in system maintenance has led to widespread problems of siltation, soil salinisation, water logging and reduced flows in both countries," it said. The UNDP report said extending check dams across all of India’s rainfed farming areas would raise the value of the monsoon crop from 36 billion dollars a year to 180 billion dollars for an initial investment of 7 billion dollars. Acknowledging that such a move could face huge governance challenge, it said, given the very high poverty rate in rainfed areas, it was difficult to envisage another investment with more potential to enhance human development and extend the benefits of India’s economic success into rural areas. On the challenges posed by entry of high population countries such as China and India entering the global water stress league, the report said: "As gloomy as this projection, it understates the problem." Citing India as example, it said, "the country may be heading for water stress, but 224 million people already live in river basins with renewable water resources below 1,000 cubic metres per person water-scarcity threshold. "The reason: more than two thirds of the country’s renewable water is in areas that serve a third of the population," it said. The report said all of India’s 14 major river systems were badly polluted and in many of the most stressed basins water quality had been greatly compromised. In Delhi, to take one example, 200 million litres of raw sewage and 20 million litres of waste are dumped into the Yamuna river every day, it said. On the issue of malnutrition, the report, quoting 2001-03 statistics, observed that India was amongst the countries where high levels of malnutrition existed despite being well endowed with food. "One in five people in food self-sufficient India is under-nourished," it said. (PTI) |
Mefcom Agro acquires 14.5 pc stake in Mayur Development MUMBAI, Nov 9: Mefcom Agro Industries Ltd today said it has acquired 14.5 per cent stake in a real estate company, Mayur Development and Leasings Ltd. The company, engaged in the business of real estate, infrastructure and construction, informed the Bombay Stock Exchange about the acquisition. However, it did not mention the financial details of the acquisition. Shares of the company were trading at its upper circuit limit of Rs 28.40 crore, up 4.99 per cent on the BSE. (PTI) |
Satyam bags $71 million Qantas contract NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Satyam Computer Services Ltd today announced it has signed a seven-year contract worth 71 million Australion dollars with Qantas, a world-leading airline for application development and maintenance services for over 150 applications across a wide portfolio of technologies. This follows the recent Oracle e-Business suite contract announced in August between Qantas and Satyam for the implemented elements of Qantas’ eBusiness systems. The transition of the IT support and service delivery of these applications to the company is already underway. "We are very proud to partner with Qantas, Australia leading airline as one of their global service providers and we look forward to leveraging our global expertise towards achieving Qantas goals and objectives," company’s co-founder and chief executive officer Rama Raju said. The company’s Asia Pacific Senior Vice President and Director Virender Aggarwal said this partnership calls for Satyam to further enhance Qantas operational efficiency and with our experience across ADMS and the airline industry, we look forward to expand this relationship for any IT application development project in the future with Qantas. Over 1000 associates are serving Australia in providing similar application development activities to global majors including nine of the top Fortune 500 Companies in ANZ. Satyam Australia is amongst the earliest organisations in Australia to be certified under ISO 27001 for Information Security and Management Standards, a certification which Satyam achieved enterprise-wide, globally. (UNI) |
M&M signs pact with Renault to set up new unit in India PARIS, Nov 9: Mahindra & Mahindra and French auto major Renault today signed an MoU to set up a greenfield manufacturing facility in India. The new unit would manufacture ‘Logan’ and other vehicles and the capacity would be ramped up in phases to 500,000 units in five years, company officials said here. The plant would be primarily used for exports. (PTI) |
Outsourcing is good for US economy: Ballmer NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Favouring large-scale outsourcing of software services and R&D works to countries such as India, Steve Ballmer, CEO of the world’s largest software company Microsoft, has said the US stands to benefit out of this. "We will have to increasingly bank on India for scaling up our operations to rise on the next wave of innovation. So, outsourcing is here to stay. I have always stated that the so-called outsourcing is good for the US economy," he said while delivering the fifth Madhav Rao Scindia Memorial lecture yesterday night. "With the US Government making it more difficult for people to come into the US from outside, it puts in pressure on companies like ours to relatively grow our talent pool in India even faster. About 18 per cent of our engineers in Seattle are Indians," he said. Ballmer, however, felt the attitude (against outsourcing) has improved over the last year. Based on a Global Delivery Centre (GDC) model, the 23-billion dollar Indian software services industry thrives on the offshore business. But this has led to a backlash in many countries, including the US, as a result of local job loss. Ballmer also stressed on Indian engineering talent to redefine the software industry. "Thirty per cent of all computer science graduates in the world are passing out of Indian universities. That puts a special responsibility on this country. The world is counting on the talent of this country to lead the next wave of innovation," he said, adding harnessing that talent, required companies to work with a big bold goal. (PTI) ) |
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Essar to start Gujarat oil refinery within a fortnight NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Essar Oil Ltd today said it will start its 10.5 million tonnes per annum refinery in Gujarat within a fortnight. "We are in the final stages of getting the refinery ready to cut crude. It should be ready in the next seven to 15 days," Essar Oil Marketing Head S Thangapandian said here. He said the refinery would initially start with a capacity of 7.5 million tonnes per annum, which would be ramped up to 10.5 MTPA by April 2007. When operational, this would only be the second refinery by a private sector oil company after Reliance Industries Ltd’s 33 million tonnes Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat. Thangapandian said almost a third of the quantity produced would be exported. "Majority would be on spot basis. However, there are some long-term contracts also," he said. On sales from Essar’s fuel outlets, he said the company is losing Rs 2-4 per litre on diesel sales but making Rs 2-4 per litre on sale of petrol. (PTI) |
GAIL in talks with RIL to pick up stake in D6 gas field NEW DELHI, Nov 9: State-run gas utility Gail (India) Ltd is in talks with Reliance Industries Ltd to pick up a stake in the Mukesh Ambani-led company’s field in K-G basin as part of a broad pact being negotiated by the two firms for a possible pipeline and city gas distribution joint venture. The draft MoU for joint cooperation between the two firms states that Gail "shall consider farm-in opportunity in RIL’s D6 field on mutually acceptable terms. Further, both parties may jointly explore farm-in opportunities in other blocks owned by them". Industry sources said the two companies were negotiating the MoU, which was likely to finalised in a month. Officials of the companies were not immediately available for comments. The MoU provides for the two companies floating a JV to supply piped natural gas to domestic and commercial sectors as well as CNG to automobiles. The states identified for cooperation includes Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal. RIL would supply gas from its K-G field, while GAIL would bring to the table its vast pipeline network to take the fuel to various cities. The MoU provides that Gail would extend cooperation in sale and transmission of RIL’s gas through its pipeline network. "Gail and RIL shall mutually discuss the possibility of jointly developing the pipeline infrastructure from K-G basin for integrating with Gail’s existing pipeline grid, so that gas from the RIL field could be brought to market centres across the country," the draft MoU says. GAIL, which presently has 800 km of pipeline in Andhra Pradesh, would expand its network in the state on marginal cost basis to new consumers for sale of RIL gas. The proposed MoU also calls for monetisation of Coal Bed Methane gas discovered in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Sources said Gail would have preferential status for purchase and sale of gas. The two companies also proposed to do joint marketing and development of transport infrastructure sector. For petrochemicals, the draft MoU states that "in order to enlarge the market reach as well as to increase/achieve better market realisation for specific grades, non-competitive arrangement will be considered". The two companies may also enter into product swapping to reach out to large markets. The MoU provides for cooperation between RIL and GAIL for import of LNG and polymers. (PTI) |
GE bags $6.5 mn contract from Tata Chemicals. NEW DELHI, Nov 9: GE Water and Process Technologies, a unit of GE Infrastructure, today said it has bagged a 6.5 million dollar contract from Tata Chemicals Ltd for a sea water desalination plant. The project, awarded on build-own-operate (BOO) basis, would supply 5.8 million litres of industrial water per day to Tata Chemicals for four years, a GE press release here said. The plant would minimise water scarcity faced by Tata Chemicals, the release said. "We are committed to using innovative technologies to help improve the quality of life of local community without adversely affecting the environment," Tata Chemicals Chief Operating Officer R Mukundan was quoted as saying. GE Water and Process Technologies’ business in India has grown by more than 36 per cent from 11 million dollars in 2005 to 15 million dollars this year and expected to go up to 300 million dollars by 2010, the release said. (PTI) GTL infra surges 15 pc in debut trade MUMBAI, Nov 9: GTL Infrastructure Ltd, which was listed on the bourses today, surged 15.52 per cent from its opening price of Rs 38. The company’s shares were trading at Rs 43.90 on the BSE in the mid-day session. GTL Infrastructure scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs 59.90 and also fell to a low of Rs 35 on the BSE. GTL infrastructure has been listed consequent to the restructuring of its parent company GTL Ltd. Pursuant to the Scheme of Arrangement and Reconstruction between GTL Limited (GTL), GTL Infrastructure Limited (GIL) and GTL Technology Investments Ltd (GTIL), the Infrastructure unit of GTL was demerged and vested into GIL on a going concern basis. In consideration, GIL had allotted one equity share of Rs 10 each fully paid-up for every one equity share of Rs 10 each held by the shareholders in GTL on the record date. (PTI) |
Nissan dumps Suzuki for
India NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Japanese auto major Nissan today said it has ended talks with compatriot Suzuki to set up a manufacturing plant in India as it was in discussions with French auto firm Renault and Mahindra & Mahindra for the same. "Nissan is committed to establishing a manufacturing presence in India as part of our global growth strategy. Nissan is in active discussions with Renault and Mahindra concerning a new industrial partnership and will make a final decision within four months," the company said in a statement. "In consequence, we will not continue discussions with Suzuki concerning a new industrial project in India" it said. The company, however, reiterated that the previously announced agreement to work with Suzuki concerning the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) supply from India of a new small car for sale mainly in Europe remained intact. When contacted, Maruti Suzuki officials declined to comment on the development, saying that the talks were held between its parent Suzuki and Nissan. Sources, however, said Maruti Udyog will make 50,000 units of small car a year for Nissan to be exported to Europe. Nissan and Suzuki had in June this year announced expanding their business collaboration, including sharing of manufacturing facilities in emerging markets starting from India. They had held discussion about jointly setting up a manufacturing plant largely for exports with a capacity of 250,000 units. (PTI) |
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