Business Line articles from February 2002

Business Line archives from February 2002

Parsec deploys solutions.
February 28, 2002... HYDERABAD: Parsec Technologies, an end-to-end solutions provider for the contract centre industry, has successfully deployed its solutions at the Hyderabad-based Birla Global Informatics Services. "With BGIS, Parsec has completed about...

CCD okays strategic sale of HPCL, BPCL.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 ON the eve of the Budget for 2002-2003, the Union Government on Wednesday took an in-principle decision to privatise two major national oil companies, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum...

Tatas keen on investing in Mumbai's Sky Bus project.
February 28, 2002... MUMBAI, Feb. 27 THE Tatas have evinced interest in investing in the city's Sky Bus Project - the first of its kind in India - being promoted by Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL) and the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority...

Biotech meet in Bangalore on March 7.
February 28, 2002... BANGALORE, Feb. 27 A ONE-DAY biotechnology meeting to highlight the growth potential of the sector will be held here on March 7. The meet will map the unique competitive advantage of the biotechnology industry which has the prospects of...

Tellabs introduces AE 3150.
February 28, 2002... BANGALORE: Tellabs has introduced a performance probe software package for its voice-quality enhancement system to help wireless carriers optimise call quality as they reduce operating costs. The Tellabs AE 3150 Performance Probe software...

Changes in Pritish Nandy management.
February 28, 2002... MUMBAI, Feb. 27 PRITISH Nandy Communications Ltd has announced changes in its management structure. The board of the company has accepted the resignation of Mr Yash Johar from the directorship of the company and has appointed Mr Satyajit...

Govt to approach BIFR with Jessop revival deal.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 THE Cabinet Committeee on Disinvestment has cleared the bid submitted by Ruia Cotex for acquiring a controlling stake of 72 per cent in Jessop and Co. "The highest bid of Rs 18.18 crore submitted by Ruia Cotex Ltd was...

Ranbaxy divests stake in Specialty to promoters.
February 28, 2002... Ranbaxy's decision to exit the 'reference laboratory' business was because it was not its core business and it involved "avoidable deployment of valuable managerial and financial resources away from its core business of pharmaceuticals." ...

Knoll Pharma net at Rs 48.69 cr.
February 28, 2002... MUMBAI: The board of directors of Knoll Pharmaceuticals Ltd on Wednesday said that the company has decided to seek approval of shareholders through postal ballot for buyback of shares at a maximum price of Rs 350 per share. The company...

Parke-Davis net at Rs 11.65 cr.
February 28, 2002... MUMBAI:Parke Davis India Ltd has registered a profit after tax of Rs 11.65 crore in the eight months ended November 30, 2001. In the 12 months ended March 31, 2001, the company had registered a profit after tax of Rs 62.45 crore. ...

Restructuring exercise -- Jones Lang LaSalle to advise Advani Hotels.
February 28, 2002... CHENNAI, Feb. 27 ADVANI Hotels and Resorts India Ltd (AHRIL), formerly known as Ramada Hotels India Ltd, has retained hotel investment services group Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels as an advisor in its restructuring exercise. The company,...

HC rejects plea against ITC amalgamation.
February 28, 2002... KOLKATA, Feb. 27 A DIVISION Bench of the Calcutta High Court dismissed the application of Mr Tamal Majumder, a shareholder of ITC Ltd, opposing the amalgamation of the company with ITC Bhadrachalam Paper Boards Ltd. Mr Majumder filed a...

Fresh bids for HZL in second week of March.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 THE Union Government will invite fresh financial bids in the second week of March from all qualified interested parties for acquiring a controlling stake of 26 per cent in Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL). There are six...

Branding India.
February 28, 2002... The most important challenge for Oasis was to sell India as a desired destination to the upscale American traveller, which they did not by positioning it as just a vacation, but as an exercise in spiritual regeneration. INDIA Tourism....

Satyam pact with Rational on test solutions.
February 28, 2002... HYDERABAD, Feb.27 SATYAM Computer Services Ltd and the US-based Rational Software Corporation, have announced an alliance through which the former would be a systems integrator and test bureau partner under Rational Unified Partner Programme....

Restructuring hopes to lift Indo Gulf?
February 28, 2002... A CORPORATE major that is, according to the grapevine, thinking of restructuring is Aditya Birla Group's Indo Gulf Corporation. The market talk is that the company is likely to hive off its fertiliser division into a separate company or sell...

Golf a favourite with corporate sponsors.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 APART from currently being the most well paid sport in the country (even surpassing cricket), golf is scoring on the popularity front as well. An indication of golf's rising popularity in India is the increasing number of...

Budget update service from Bharti Cellular.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 BHARTI Cellular Ltd, which provides the AirTel cellular servcies in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh has announced the launch of its special service to offer "budget updates by the minute". An SMS...

CID probing Charminar-mafia links.
February 28, 2002... HYDERABAD, Feb. 27 THE Charminar Bank Chairman, Mr Syed Alamdar Hussain Sajjad Aga, passed away at 8.45 pm on Tuesday night at a corporate hospital here. Mr Aga allegedly shot himself with his personal revolver on Monday morning owing to...

Jet Air advances check-in time.
February 28, 2002... IN view of the enhanced security procedures being followed at airports across the country, Jet Airways has advanced the minimum reporting time for passengers from March 10. According to an airline statement, business and economy class...

Daunting task ahead of Sinha.
February 28, 2002... The absence of any significant investment activity or job creation has further compounded Mr Sinha's problems to the extent of limiting his leeway to contain expenditures to make up for the revenue shortfall. NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 IT will...

Tribunal extends stay on default mobile STD calls.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 THE Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has once again extended its stay on the interim arrangement for distribution of all default mobile-to-mobile STD calls between Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and...

Digital purifier.
February 28, 2002... USHA SHRIRAM BRITA has launched what it claims to be India's first digital water purifier, Waterguard-Digital. It is reportedly apt for designer and modular kitchens. It is a four-stage wall mountable on-line water purifier that works on...

HCL Insys shareholders clear capital expansion.
February 28, 2002... The authorised capital has been increased in order to facilitate funding such opportunities, HCL Insys said in a statement. NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 SHAREHOLDERS of HCL Infosystems Ltd (HCL Insys) have approved enhancement of the company's...

Charminar Bank: 'Few panic reactions'.
February 28, 2002... VISAKHAPATNAM, Feb. 27 ALTHOUGH depositors of the crisis-stricken Charminar Cooperative Urban Bank are anxious in the wake of the recent developments at the bank, it has not sparked a State-wide panic reaction among depositors of co-operative...

German firm set to launch flab-buster in India.
February 28, 2002... HYDERABAD, Feb. 27 WANT to shed that extra flab and get the 'ship-shape' feeling? Here is a recent technique using ultrasound pulses from Germany promising to make you feel good with least pain. The 12m DM, Soring of Germany, a...

Why divest... give MTNL back to us, says BSNL.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 IN what could be a homecoming of sorts for Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), 16 years after it was incorporated as a separate entity, its erstwhile parent Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (the then Department of Telecom...

Sify plans to raise additional capital.
February 28, 2002... CHENNAI, Feb. 27 SATYAM Infoway Ltd (SIFY) is actively exploring opportunities to raise additional capital, which could be in the form of debt, equity or a combination of both, the company has said in its latest Form K-6 filing with the...

Silver Tips tea glitters again.
February 28, 2002... COIMBATORE, Feb. 27 THE high-grown speciality tea, Katary Silver Tips, has once again fetched a record price. This time, the speciality tea leaf was bid for a phenomenal Rs 590 per kg at the Kochi auction on Wednesday. This is against Rs 401...

All of Modern Foods on HLL plate -- Transfer of 26 pc stake at Rs 11,489.56 per share.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 THE Union Government has decided to sell its residual stake of 26 per cent in Modern Food Industries Ltd (MFIL) to the strategic partner, Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), at Rs 11,489.56 per share, in the first case of a...

End to V5.2 connectivity controversy -- MTNL to replace switches.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 IN what should put an end to the controversy regarding the technology interface for WLL limited mobility services, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has been allowed to replace its V5.2 switches with the more advanced A+...

GEC to buy out HDFC stake in GE Countrywide.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 THE US-based General Electric Corporation (GEC) has decided to buy out the 25 per cent stake of its joint venture partner, HDFC, in GE Countrywide Consumer Financial Services Ltd. The buy-out will be carried out through...

Govt moots base price for robusta exports.
February 28, 2002... The Government's stand not to curb production or export is in variance with Indonesia's proposal. CHENNAI, Feb. 27 THE Government has asked other major Asian coffee producers, Vietnam and Indonesia, to consider a proposal to fix a...

Ludhiana SE begins trading in derivatives.
February 28, 2002... MUMBAI: LSE Securities Ltd (LSESL), the securities broking subsidiary of Ludhiana Stock Exchange (LSE), went live on Wednesday with NSE.IT's software on derivatives trading on the NSE. The platform used is NeatXS, an order routing system...

Rakesh Mohan green light for Nitish.
February 28, 2002... Byline: noting that the upper classes generally had elasticities above unity - NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 THERE is not even a mention of Dr Rakesh Mohan in Mr Nitish Kumar's 2002-03 rail budget. But that does not imply that the prescriptions of...

Mind your dots and digits, Mr Sinha!
February 28, 2002... MUMBAI, Feb. 27 WILL the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, be violating the Standard Weights & Measures Act, 1976 when he presents the Union Budget today? In all likelihood, yes. In 1987, the Central Government changed the numeration...

Visesh inks pact with Tiangjin.
February 28, 2002... BANGALORE, Feb. 27 VISESH Infosystems, the Bangalore-based software solutions provider, is planning a joint venture with the Chinese infotech major, Tiangjin Tiangcai Ltd in China. Visesh had signed a memorandum with its Chinese...

Corpn Bank cuts home loan rates.
February 28, 2002... MANGALORE: Corporation Bank has lowered its interest rates on housing loans to 11 per cent with effect from March 1. According to a press release issued here on Wednesday, the interest rate on home loans up to a five-year maturity have also...

Breaking up Railways.
February 28, 2002... The Indian Railways is an unwieldy leviathan. It is not easy to run such a big organisation profitably and efficiently. To improve the company's services and profitability, it can be broken into three separate companies focussing on moving...

Karzai outlines thrust areas for investment.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 THE Chairman of the Interim Administration in Afghanistan, Mr Hamid Karzai, has invited the Indian business community to invest in various industries in Afghanistan including education, health, infrastructure network such...

AI engineers call off strike.
February 28, 2002... MUMBAI: Air India Aircraft Engineers' Association (AIAEA), which had earlier served a strike notice on the airline management, has said that it is calling off the proposed strike. According to an AIAEA statement here on Wednesday, the...

Sasken may acquire DCM Tech division.
February 28, 2002... Sasken already has a tie-up with DCM Technologies, through which both companies have jointly developed integrated GPRS-Bluetooth protocol stack. BANGALORE, Feb. 27 SASKEN Communication Technology Ltd, the Bangalore-based telecom products...

Iffco-Tokio ties up with KSFC.
February 28, 2002... BANGALORE: General insurer Iffco-Tokio General Insurance has tied up with State-owned term lender Karnataka State Finance Corporation (KSFC) to distribute insurance products to industrial enterprises in the State. All KSFC clients would be...

Well done, says Rakesh Mohan.
February 28, 2002... 'I can recommend what I like, but then I am not responsible to the public. For a Minister to actually implement these reform measures calls for conviction and concern for the larger interests of the Railways.' NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 A DAY...

Sinha chosen G-20 Chairman.
February 28, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 ON the eve of the presentation of the Union Budget, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, had reason to cheer after the Group of 20 (G-20) chose him as Chairman. According to Mr Paul Martin, the Organising Chairman...

Bulls retreat.
February 28, 2002... BULLS had a good start in the initial hour of trading. But, bears were successful in restricting the bulls. Wednesday's trading activity witnessed a tug of war between bulls and bears with no one gaining control over the day's proceedings....

Monsterindia.com, Rediff tie up.
February 28, 2002... MUMBAI: Monsterindia.com, a global career Web site, has announced a strategic alliance with Rediff.com India Ltd, extending its services to a larger user base. Under the agreement, Monsterindia.com will become the exclusive career search...

Pepsi - The most admired company.
February 28, 2002... CHENNAI: PepsiCo has been rated the 'World's Most Admired Beverage Company' by Fortune magazine. In the latest survey, Pepsi has moved to the top spot from the fifth position that it occupied last year. The annual survey is conducted...

HSE derivative trading from next month.
February 28, 2002... HYDERABAD, Feb. 27 PROVIDING a fresh lease of life to the Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE), its subsidiary - HSE Securities Ltd - is preparing the ground to commence trading operations in the futures and options segment from next month. ...

A silver lining for tourism sector.
February 27, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 26 DESPITE the gloom scenario painted by the Survey, the travel industry feels that the Government can arrest the decline in international tourist arrivals and the resultant fall in foreign exchange earnings. This, it...

Grasim to divest loss-making unit.
February 27, 2002... MUMBAI, Feb. 26 GRASIM Industries has decided to divest its loss-making fabric manufacturing operations at Gwalior to Melodeon Exports Ltd and its associates (Swastik group of Bhilwara). However, in this divestment, Grasim will pay a sum...

TCS to open centre in Australia.
February 27, 2002... MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced its plans for setting up a global development centre in Melbourne, Australia, to provide high-end technical support services to clients in the Asia-Pacific Region. The centre will...

Sleeper travellers to be squeezed most.
February 27, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 26 WHAT is the extent of the increase in fares that Mr Nitish Kumar has imposed on passengers in the 2002-03 Rail Budget? An answer to this is not all that straightforward, given the rather complicated 'tariff...

Govt in no hurry to relax capital controls.
February 27, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 26 THE advocates of liberalisation of the capital account, whose numbers have been dwindling, have more reasons to feel dejected. First it was the apex bank, which sent out signals that liberalisation of the capital...

Intelligroup implements SAP.
February 27, 2002... HYDERABAD: Intelligroup Asia, a Hyderabad-based provider of application implementation and offshore software development services, announced the successful go-live of its SAP R/3 for Fuchs Lubricants, an Indian subsidiary of the...

Customer is king, but which one?
February 27, 2002... Customer Relationship Management (CRM) will help a company target its most valuable customers. MOST chief information officers (CIOs) may believe that these are not the right times for new projects with expensive funding requirements....

'Wipro has optimised shareholder value'.
February 27, 2002... BANGALORE, Feb. 26 MR Suresh K. Senapati, the CFO of Wipro Ltd, sees himself as the co-pilot, assisting the CEO of this technology bellwether to navigate in these choppy times. In the backdrop of Wipro's robust growth complemented by its...

Qwiky's eyes mass market with vending machines.
February 27, 2002... CHENNAI, Feb. 26 QWIKY's Corporation, the speciality coffee chain, has launched a range of automatic coffee dispensing machines under the brand name 'Aroma'. This vending machine, designed by the company, will serve both hot and cold coffee....

Back on the right track?
February 27, 2002... MR NITISH Kumar has done it at last! In his own inimitable way he has laid down the ground rules for taking up new projects and in the process put the brakes on the financial profligacy that has marked the Railway Budget of his predecessors -...

Thrust on capacity expansion, security: PART - I.
February 27, 2002... The following is the text of the speech of the Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, in Parliament on February 26: Mr. Speaker Sir, I rise to present the Budget Estimates for 2002-2003 for the Indian Railways. The year 2002-2003...

Thrust on capacity expansion, security: PART - III.
February 27, 2002... BUDGET ESTIMATES Sir, I shall now deal with the Budget Estimates for 2002-03. The Railways are expecting to carry 510 million tonnes of revenue earnings originating traffic during 2002-03, which is 21 million tonnes more than the...

Thrust on capacity expansion, security: PART - II.
February 27, 2002... Projects Sir, as I have mentioned earlier a major focus for the Railways will be the augmentation of capacity on the saturated golden quadrilateral and its diagonals, which will require doubling of the single line patches, third and...

Nitish back on old borrowing track.
February 27, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 26 THE Railways Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, has decided not to factor in any private sector investment to finance the Railways' budgeted Plan size of Rs 12,330 crore for the coming fiscal. His predecessor, Ms Mamata...

J&J delivers goods home as chemists shun brands.
February 27, 2002... MUMBAI, Feb. 26 BY demanding higher margins from the trade, women and baby products company, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), is facing a boycott of all its brands at chemist stores in Mumbai. In a bid to combat this situation, the low-profile...

Siemens launches HiPath 3000.
February 27, 2002... MUMBAI, Feb. 26 SIEMENS Ltd has announced the launch of its latest range of communication servers - HiPath 3000 range of EPABX/KTS. The product, which is targeted at the small office home office (SOHO) and small and medium enterprises...

LIC Care Homes may include Apollo Hospitals, ITC Hotels.
February 27, 2002... LIC, the Apollo Hospitals group and ITC Hotels are understood to be coming together to set up old age homes. The project aims to provide hospitality and healthcare to old people at locations across the country. MUMBAI, Feb. 26 TIMES are...

Driven, at last, by commerce.
February 27, 2002... LAST YEAR MS Mamata Banerjee, the politician, saw the 13 million people who use the train each day as voters - a community to be wooed, not taxed. Her successor, Mr Nitish Kumar, has betrayed no such vested interest. He has gone by commercial...

Sinha to address CII meet on March 4.
February 27, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 25 THE Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, is to address members of the National Councils of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on the proposals of the Union Budget 2002-03 in the capital on March 4. In a...

Steel stocks decline on freight tariff rejig.
February 27, 2002... KOLKATA, Feb. 26 STEEL sector scrips reacted negatively on Tuesday to the railway freight restructuring involving two basic inputs - coal and iron ore. "Instant market reaction is negative, albeit marginal, because of the fact that the...

Attack's the best form of defence.
February 27, 2002... Active filtering of virus threats at the Internet gateway will help prevent denial of service attacks and messy clean-ups after a virus attack. VIRUS attacks and clean-ups have become routine. Companies would love to be warned of a...

Reform-oriented budget, says Cochin chamber.
February 27, 2002... KOCHI, Feb. 26 VARIOUS Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the State have described the Railway Budget for 2002-03, as reform-oriented and aimed at promoting the growth of the Indian Railways. The President of the Cochin Chamber of...

Cyberquest.
February 27, 2002... QUESTIONS 1. What is a B2E site? 2. Which cyber giant's global initiative to provide solutions is called 'iForce'? 3. Pure trivia. After the recent disinvestment, what is the Government's holding in VSNL? 4. Who recently...

Sony set to 'maximise' its position.
February 27, 2002... MUMBAI, Feb. 26 SONY Entertainment Television (SET) Network aims to position its second channel, Max, among the top five television channels over the next 12-18 months. This is in line with SET's intention of restoring its main Sony channel...

India, France to join hands for cyber varsity.
February 27, 2002... HYDERABAD, Feb. 26 COLLABORATION between France and India has come a long way especially in groundwater research and the two Governments have agreed to set up laboratories, one real and another virtual, to promote research and exchange...

'RBI found Charminar operations flawed'.
February 27, 2002... HYDERABAD, Feb. 26 THE Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank recently withdrew its deposits of around Rs 120 crore from Charminar Bank, the Hyderabad-based urban cooperative bank whose Chairman attempted suicide on Monday. This withdrawal...

Sharp reversal of yields to peg back interest costs.
February 27, 2002... BANGALORE, Feb. 26 INTEREST costs of the Centre are expected to show a sharp reversal in the revised estimates for the current financial year's Budget. Banking sources said that one of the major reasons for the reduced interest costs is...

Dr Reddy's Lab zooms on new drug initiative.
February 27, 2002... MUMBAI, Feb. 26 PHARMA major Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) was in the limelight today on news that the company had sought the USFDA approval for a $2-billion hypertensive drug. The DRL share price has been on an upward curve for the past...

Need to procure more wagons: Texmaco chief.
February 27, 2002... KOLKATA, Feb. 26 MR Ramesh Maheswari, President, Texmaco, has emphasised the need for substantial enhancement of wagon procurement by the Railways. "It is common knowledge that the Railway fleet is fast ageing and the wagon fleet...

InfoTech signs pact with Pratt & Whitney.
February 27, 2002... HYDERABAD, Feb. 26 THE city-based software solutions provider specialising in the area of geographical information systems (GIS), InfoTech Enterprises Ltd, has announced a strategic business alliance with Pratt & Whitney, division of the...

Good luck, Finance Minister!
February 27, 2002... With recessionary conditions, a glut in the market, fewer takers for industrial and white goods, and even less demand for farm commodities, the Finance Minister is a much harried man. Forced to keep both the fiscal deficit and the rate of...

Steel industry hit by hike in key input costs.
February 27, 2002... NEW DELHI, Feb. 26 THE Railway Budget provisions are being seen as a mixed bag for the steel industry, which is already in trouble. While the increase in freight tariff for major inputs like iron ore, coal and limestone proposed in the Budget...

Rlys focus shifting from bulk transporter to logistics aide.
February 27, 2002... Byline: simultaneously reducing the freight on finished steel items, which are KOLKATA, Feb. 26 THE Railway Budget for 2002-03 is a pointer to the fact that the Indian Railways is slowly trying to have its role recast from transporter of...

Cadbury parent ups stake to over 90%; plans second offer.
February 27, 2002... MUMBAI, Feb. 26 CADBURY Schweppes Plc's holding in Cadbury India Ltd has risen to over 90 per cent after its open offer to the shareholders of the Indian company. Approximately 14 million shares were tendered in the open offer, pushing...

Beverly to outsource projects to Majoris.
February 27, 2002... BANGALORE, Feb. 26 THE US-based healthcare services provider, Beverly Enterprises Inc, has entered into a strategic business alliance with Bangalore-based Majoris Systems to outsource its IT requirements. Majoris would work closely with...