Business Line articles from January 2002

Business Line archives from January 2002

Reliance Petro net, sales down in third quarter.
January 31, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 30. RELIANCE Petroleum Ltd (RPL) has reported lower net profit and sales for the quarter ended December 31. Net profit dropped marginally to Rs 402 crore (Rs 408 crore) while sales dipped 12.03 per cent to Rs 8,166 crore (Rs...

Ceat posts Rs 1.39 cr net in third quarter.
January 31, 2002... KOLKATA, Jan. 30. CEAT Ltd, an RPG Enterprise, has improved its third quarter results through better capacity utilisation, cost reduction and production of more of value-added products. A company release said that during the period under...

Marginal fall in MRF first quarter net.
January 31, 2002... CHENNAI, Jan. 30. MRF Ltd has reported a net profit of Rs 9.16 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2001 as compared to Rs 9.64 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net Sales have declined from Rs 458.91 crore in...

IPCL Q3 net slumps 22% to Rs 19.22 cr.
January 31, 2002... AHMEDABAD, Jan. 30. INDIAN Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL) saw its cumulative net profit for the first nine months of 2001-02 touch Rs 55.81 crore down by almost 63 per cent from Rs 149.78 crore in the comparable period last year. ...

Madras Cements net falls 89 pc.
January 31, 2002... CHENNAI, Jan. 30. MADRAS Cements Ltd has recorded an 89-per cent fall in net profit and a four-per cent growth in net sales for the quarter ended December 31, 2001 over the corresponding quarter last year. For the quarter ended December...

Binani Zinc plans Rs 35-cr expansion.
January 31, 2002... KOCHI, Jan. 30. BINANI Zinc, a division of Binani Industries Ltd, has drawn up plans for an 8,000-tonne capacity expansion by the end of 2003 with an investment of Rs 35 crore. Addressing a press conference here, Mr N. Mohan, President,...

Hindalco sales rise, net at Rs 165.5 cr.
January 31, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 30. HINDALCO Industries Ltd has reported a net profit of Rs 165.5 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2001, nearly unchanged from the year-ago's Rs 165.1 crore. Hindalco has been able to maintain profit through a...

Hindalco board okays buyback.
January 31, 2002... THE board of directors of Hindalco Industries Ltd has approved a buyback of shares to the extent of 10 per cent of the company's share capital at a maximum price of Rs 825 per share. The total amount of funds to be deployed would be Rs...

Fragrant memoir.
January 31, 2002... THE HOUSE OF BALENCIAGA has launched a new fragrance in the memory of its founder Cristobal Balenciaga called Cristobal. The fragrance is available in 100 ml, 50 ml and 30 ml packs at exclusive retail counters in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and...

Microland pact to divest stake in Net Brahma.
January 31, 2002... BANGALORE, Jan. 30. MICROLAND Ltd on Wednesday announced that it has signed a MoU to divest complete stake in its group company Net Brahma Technologies to Metro-Optix, a US-based telecommunications optical networking equipment provider for an...

Siyaram spins new fabric.
January 31, 2002... MUMBAI: Siyaram Silk Mills Ltd, the flagship company of the Rs 1,000-crore Siyaram Poddar Group, has launched a new fabric called 'Mistair' with the baseline 'The fabric that breathes'. The fabric range made with an exclusive technology,...

State of Union address: Bush casts a spell.
January 31, 2002... IF ANYONE had the slightest lingering doubts about the telling transformation of the US President, Mr. George W. Bush, from the butt of lampoons during the Presidential campaign in 2000 to the universally acknowledged stature of a leader of...

No nonsense.
January 31, 2002... IN A recent public statement, the SEC Chairman, Mr Harvey L. Pitt, makes a valiant case for improving the disclosure and financial reporting system that "is still the best in the world". On that, there could be differences, but not on...

Is Amby set for an uphill drive?
January 31, 2002... Hindustan Motors is all set to roll out the Ambassador in a brand new avatar. However, the company has a difficult task ahead in today's highly competitive market for mid-size cars. C. K. Birla, Managing Director (right) and B. K....

Party wear.
January 31, 2002... WEEKENDER has launched a new range of party clothes for men and women. The women's party wear collection consists of three categories - Crystal Crush, Club Soda and Grafix. The Crystal Crush range consists of lycra knits and wovens. The...

Infosys forays into testing space.
January 31, 2002... BANGALORE, Jan. 30. SOFTWARE major Infosys Technologies Ltd has forayed into independent software-testing services. The company has recently set up a separate core group InSolaTER (Infosys Software Labs for Text Execution and Research) for...

Valentine's range from Oriflame.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI: Oriflame India Ltd has announced the launch of Valentine's range. The new range includes a Valentine lipstick, nail polish, EdT and soap. While the lipstick in a special Valentine shade is priced at Rs 45, the nail polish is...

Western cow vs Third World farmer.
January 31, 2002... IT IS a strange world. For all we know, it is also an unequal world. The glaring inequality is not only confined to the ever-widening gulf between the rich and poor, between the elite and the masses and between the people and the powers that...

TRAI asks cell operators to cut roaming charges.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 30. THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed cellular operators to reduce the charges for national/region roaming. The authority has ruled that there shall be no entry fee for roaming. Further, a...

MoU for skybus.
January 31, 2002... THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:A me-morandum of understanding for conducting a feasibility study for setting up a 'skybus metro' project in Kochi was signed here on Wednesday. The Kerala Cabinet had earlier approved the signing of the MoU by the...

Sterlite Optical net hit by low OFC prices.
January 31, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 30. DEPRESSED prices of optical fibre and optical fibre cables (OFC) drove down both net profit and net sales of Sterlite Optical Technologies Ltd (SOTL) during the third quarter of 2001/2002. Net profit fell to Rs 7.99...

Seagram to launch global brands in India.
January 31, 2002... BANGALORE, Jan. 30. SPIRITS major Seagram Manufacturing Ltd is poised to launch a slew of brands from its international portfolio in India soon. Seagram's latest introduction will include premium whiskies such as The Glenlivet, Royal...

India-US: A long-term perspective.
January 31, 2002... NEVER since India became independent has there been such an intensive engagement with the US as during the last two months. Following visits by the Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, and the National Security Adviser, Mr Brajesh Mishra, a...

APEDA proposes 'Made in India' logo.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 30. THE Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) plans to develop an exclusive 'Made in India' logo that can be displayed by exporters of agro and food products on their consignments. ...

Marginal loss.
January 31, 2002... BEARS dominated the initial hours of Wednesday's trading. During the wee hours, bulls managed to recoup most of their day's losses. Bears were left with marginal gains. The sentiment reading of the tradable counters changed in favour of the...

RBI approves Kotak Mahindra, Rabobank proposals.
January 31, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 30. THE Reserve Bank of India has granted in-principle approval to Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd and Rabobank for their proposals to set up banks. In the case of Kotak Mahindra, the RBI has stipulated that the NBFC has to...

ICICI appoints United Western as SPV trustee.
January 31, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 30. ICICI Ltd has appointed United Western Bank Trustee Company as the trustee of the special purpose vehicle (SPV) created to hold the 46 per cent stake of ICICI Ltd in ICICI Bank, Mr K.V. Kamath, Managing Director, ICICI Ltd,...

Atta kneader.
January 31, 2002... TTK PRESTIGE has launched an atta-kneading machine called Magic Atta Kneader. The atta kneader can reportedly knead 250 gm of atta within one minute, which is enough to make seven-eight chapattis. It is priced at Rs 1,775. Our Bureau

Modi Revlon to take on Elle 18 with new brand.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 30. MODI Revlon, the 74:26 joint venture between Modi Mundi Pharma and Revlon of the US, finally seems to be getting its act together. Six years after it stepped into the Indian market, the cosmetics major has charted a plan...

Dena Bank trims losses.
January 31, 2002... MUMBAI: Dena Bank has reduced its net losses during the quarter ended December 31, 2001, to Rs 1.09 crore as compared to Rs 6.90 crore for the corresponding period of the previous year. The bank has prepared a revival plan for the current...

Management practice.
January 31, 2002... The article "Promoting the will to act" (Business Line, January 28), should bring home the point to Mr B. S. Raghavan calling the points made by Prof C. K. Prahalad pedestrian. There is a lesson for managerial professional fraternity, be they...

Infotech stocks lead market fall.
January 31, 2002... THE markets continued their slow downward slide on Wednesday and even as share prices kept eroding, the volumes too drifted to lower levels. The 'yo-yoing' in software stock prices was also a feature that resurfaced on the third trading...

SBI net goes up three-fold in Q3.
January 31, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 30. STATE Bank of India (SBI) has reported a 178.97-per cent rise in net profit at Rs 613.89 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2001 as compared to Rs 220.05 crore in the corresponding previous quarter. Mr Janki...

Jet Air hopes to get $10 m from IDFC.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 30. JET Airways hopes to get $10 million from International Development Finance Corporation within the next few days, and is working at getting its modern hangar facility at the Delhi airport ready by the middle of next month...

BSNL seeks stay on Bharti's long-distance operations.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 30. BHARAT Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has approached the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) seeking a stay on the national long distance operations of Bharti Telesonic Ltd (BTSOL) launched on January 26. ...

Hardware business to touch $62 b by 2010: Study.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 30. INDIAN electronic hardware industry has the potential to reach the size of $ 62 billion by 2010, 12 times its existing size, with major export opportunities in the area of innovative new products, contract manufacturing...

Ranbaxy up on molecule hopes?
January 31, 2002... AFTER a sterling performance from its US subsidiary and good quarterly results by the company itself, Ranbaxy Laboratories could be on the verge of joining the elite league of Indian companies that have licensed molecules. Market sources...

VSNL Q3 net down 10.7 pc.
January 31, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 30. VIDESH Sanchar Nigam Ltd has reported a 10.7 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 357.3 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2001, as compared to the net profit of Rs 400.2 crore during the corresponding quarter of...

VSNL cuts annual rental for bandwidth lease.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 30. VIDESH Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has announced a reduction in the annual rental of bandwidth for Internet leased lines and international private line circuits (IPLC) by between 5 and 60 per cent and 35 and 40 per cent,...

SoftSol posts reduced profit.
January 31, 2002... HYDERABAD, Jan. 30. THE slowdown has taken a heavy toll on the performance of some software firms including SoftSol India. SoftSol India Ltd has recorded a total income of Rs 2.41 crore and a net profit of Rs 26 lakh for the quarter ended...

EU to make import norms more transparent.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 30. THE European Union (EU) is working to become more transparent in setting technical standards for import to help developing countries understand the regime better, the Minister for Development Co-operation, Netherlands, Ms...

Artfed bags fresh orders at Frankfurt fair.
January 31, 2002... GUWAHATI: Artfed (The Federation of Assam Apex Weavers and Handloom Societies) has bagged new orders for Muga variety of handloom textiles from Lazaro Franco of Greece and Casa Plus of Venezuela at the Heimtextil, 2002, the global textile...

Ministry plugs forward for drawback.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 30. EVEN as the Finance Ministry is considering rationalisation of various tax rebate schemes for exporters, the Commerce Ministry has made out a case for further extending the scope of duty drawback to include reimbursement...

LIC MF pact with Federal Bank.
January 31, 2002... KOCHI, Jan. 30. LIC Mutual Fund has entered into a tie up with the Aluva-based Federal Bank for the distribution of its products - LIC MF MI Bond Fund, LIC MF Govt Sec Fund and LIC MF Children's Fund through the 58 branches of the bank. ...

Ranbaxy to get $15 m from Eli Lilly divorce.
January 31, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 30. RANBAXY Laboratories Ltd (RLL) is slated to receive a total payment of $15 million from the US-based Eli Lilly and Company, following the final wrap-up of their mutual decision to part ways. According to an RLL...

Focus on power reforms at revenue circle level.
January 31, 2002... The move is aimed at cutting the huge distribution losses. National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Ltd have been appointed consultants who would prepare 'base line information' on the revenue...

SBI against sharing ATM network.
January 31, 2002... THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Jan. 30. PUBLIC sector banks do not seem to be enamoured of the emerging trend among foreign banks to share their ATM networks and offer customers free access to a second network of choice, with a view to cutting down...

PFC offers to pick up Rs 1,000-cr KPCL stake.
January 31, 2002... BANGALORE, Jan. 30. POWER Finance Corporation (PFC) has offered to pick up an equity stake equivalent to Rs 1,000 crore in the State-owned Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL). This offer would amount to a dilution of the State...

SAIL loss widens.
January 30, 2002... NEW DELHI: The unaudited financial results of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) for the period April-December 2001 showed a loss of Rs 1,290 crore, primarily on account of a steep drop in sales realisation, rise in input costs and an additional...

Licence agreement on Haldia berth signed.
January 30, 2002... HALDIA, Jan. 29. A LICENCE agreement between the Kolkata Port Trust and TM International Logistics Ltd (TMILL), a joint venture between Tata Steel and IQ Martrade & Holding & Holding GmbH of Germany, was signed here on Tuesday. The...

Godrej Foods demerger okayed.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 29. The demerger of Godrej Foods Ltd (GFL) has been approved by the Bombay High Court and the Jabalpur High Court. The demerger scheme announced in July 2001 involves the merger of the manufacturing business of Godrej Foods,...

SureWave Mail from JP Mobile.
January 30, 2002... NEW DELHI: JP Mobile, an infrastructure and applications software developer for mobile businesses, has announced the launch of SureWave Mail - the mobile industry's first over-the-air (OTA) synchronisation product based on the new SyncML...

IDBI third-quarter net plunges 77 pc.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 29. INDUSTRIAL Development Bank of India (IDBI) has taken a hard knock on its bottomline with net profit for the third quarter plunging to less than a fourth compared year on year. The institution's total assets have also...

Draft recast plan ready -- HPL shut due to 'technical fault'.
January 30, 2002... KOLKATA, Jan. 29. THE Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) plant has had to be shut down owing to some technical and instrumentation faults at the caustic tower, which is an integral part of the naphtha cracker unit (NCU). While efforts are...

Bharti Telenet pact for RoW.
January 30, 2002... NEW DELHI: Bharti Telenet Ltd, the basic service operator in Haryana, has signed an agreement with the State Government for right of way (RoW) to lay its optical fibre and copper wire network throughout the State. Meanwhile Bharti Cellular...

ICICI Bank in ATM pact with Bharti.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI: ICICI Bank and Bharti Cellular have formed a strategic partnership which will allow consumers to recharge the latter's pre-paid cash cards (Magic) at ICICI ATM machines. The service is currently available to AirTel subscribers in the...

Howzzat! BPL hits ton with replay bug.
January 30, 2002... BANGALORE, Jan. 29. REMEMBER BPL Oye, the first countdown show on Indian television? The consumer durables major, BPL, is now riding high on the success of another media innovation associated with live cricket, christened in media circles as...

Rakesh Mohan panel report -- 'Incorporate tonnage tax in I-T Act'.
January 30, 2002... The committee has also recommended a minimum lock-in period of 10 years for shipping companies that opt for the tonnage tax regime. This implies that once a shipping company opts for the tonnage tax system, it cannot revert to the corporate...

Canbank Venture invests in Prathista.
January 30, 2002... BANGALORE: Canbank Venture Capital Fund has picked up an undisclosed equity in Secunderabad-based Prathista Industries Ltd with an investment of Rs 3 crore. Prathista manufactures amino acids based bio-derived fertilizers, which are...

Tavant Tech development centre.
January 30, 2002... BANGALORE: Tavant Technologies, Inc, a US-based provider of demand chain software solutions for enterprise class customers, has set up a development centre at Bangalore. It expects to have a development team of 30 engineers by the...

IRDA to set up institute in Hyderabad.
January 30, 2002... HYDERABAD: The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) and the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) have signed up to establish a global institute for insurance, risk management and other allied financial...

BSES net up 14%.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 29. HIGHER energy sales have enabled the Mumbai-based power company BSES Ltd to better its bottomline in spite of a fall in the EPC contract business. BSES has reported a 14-per cent jump in net profit at Rs 86.79 crore (Rs...

Infosys, Citadon server deal.
January 30, 2002... BANGALORE: Infosys Technologies on Tuesday announced its server-side development partnership with Citadon for Citadon CW, a product which is designed to meet the needs of enterprises with capital works programmes that involve complex...

Eicher Motors net up at Rs 5.87 cr.
January 30, 2002... NEW DELHI: Small truck manufacturer, Eicher Motors Ltd, on Tuesday said improved vehicle sales helped its net profit improve a tad to Rs 5.87 crore in October-December quarter compared with Rs 5.55 crore a year earlier. The company, in...

Gulf Oil posts Q3 net loss.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI: The downtrend in the lubes industry continued to affect the profits of Gulf Oil India Ltd which has reported a net loss of Rs 1.96 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2001 against a net profit of Rs 1.22 crore for the...

BHEL nets Rs 80.15 cr profit.
January 30, 2002... NEW DELHI: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has posted a net profit of Rs 80.15 crore on a turnover of Rs 1,609.8 crore for the quarter ended December 2001 as against a net loss of Rs 197.96 crore on a turnover of Rs 1,388.78 crore...

Bharat Electronics posts profit.
January 30, 2002... BANGALORE: Bharat Electronics Ltd has a made a net profit of Rs 25.75 crore (Rs 23.63 crore) out of a total income of Rs 403.40 crore (Rs 314.07 crore) during the quarter ended December 31, 2001. The quarterly results were taken on record by...

88 pc drop in EIH profit.
January 30, 2002... KOLKATA, Jan. 29. NET profit of EIH Ltd, a member of the Oberoi group, for the quarter ended December 31, 2001, has plunged to Rs 3 crore from Rs 25.36 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year, a drop of nearly 88...

Exports a shot in arm for Ranbaxy; net at Rs 240 cr.
January 30, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 29. RANBAXY Laboratories Ltd (RLL) is reaping the fruits of its research initiatives and efforts in key global markets, with its global subsidiaries clocking profits for the first time in 2001. RLL's net profit after...

Pfizer to pay 50%.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 29. Pfizer India Ltd has registered a marginal increase in net profit at Rs 11.39 crore for the quarter ended November 30, 2001 against Rs 10.68 crore in the corresponding period last year. The board of directors of the...

M&M turns around in Q3 with Rs 24.32-cr profit.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 29. AFTER reporting losses in the first two quarters of the current fiscal, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) has been able to reverse the trend for the third quarter (October-December 2001) with a net profit of Rs 24.32 crore (Rs...

CESC losses in Q3 mount.
January 30, 2002... KOLKATA, Jan. 29. POOR tariff revision along with higher power purchase price and increased costs have led to a Rs 39-crore increase in costs for CESC Ltd during the third quarter of the current fiscal. The CESC board said that the...

Eicher Motors MD steps down.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI: Eicher Motors Ltd has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that as a part of organisational changes, Mr Rakesh Kalra, has stepped down as Managing Director and also from the board of directors. Mr Kalra will, however, continue to...

Tata Tele Q3 net up 89 pc.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 29. TATA Telecom Ltd has announced an 89 per cent growth in net profit - at Rs 3.46 crore - for the third quarter ended December 31, as compared to the net profit of Rs 1.83 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous...

FICCI moots steps to check counterfeit brands.
January 30, 2002... NEW DELHI, Jan. 29. TO counter the menace of counterfeits and pass-off products which are, in reality, 'stealing' the sales of genuine brands, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has suggested some stringent...

Common man sidelined.
January 30, 2002... Karnataka's citizens are becoming victims of high utility charges. First, the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation hiked electricity charges. Now the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board has increased water charges 71 per cent,...

Maharashtra to get Rs 536-crore World Bank aid.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI, Jan. 29. MAHARASHTRA will receive Rs 536-crore World Bank funding in the next fiscal year for fiscal reforms programme, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chief Minister, has said. He said this was out of Rs 1,398 crore required by the State...

No takers for shrimps.
January 30, 2002... CHENNAI, Jan. 29. SHRIMP prices currently range around $12.50-12.60 per kg 16/20 counts for black tiger. But these find no buyers with most of the importers based in Japan concentrating on the Indonesian market, where cheaper stocks are on...

Narrow movement.
January 30, 2002... TUESDAY'S trading activity witnessed narrow movement. Bears managed to gain marginally . The market sentiment reading continues to remain neutral. In the normal course of trading on Wednesday, the prevailing sentiment is likely to continue....

On a smooth road.
January 30, 2002... IT initiatives have put Maruti Udyog Ltd in top gear. The company shares the implementation success with eWorld. IMAGINE manufacturing some 1200 to 1500 vehicles, co-ordinating the sales of an equal number of vehicles through a 250-strong...

Tata Infomedia net dips.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI: Tata Infomedia Ltd has posted 17.62 per cent drop in its net profit at Rs 2.65 crore for the third quarter ended December 2001 compared to the net profit of Rs 3.22 crore in same period the last fiscal. Net sales for the period...

Rubbermaid facility to come up in Bangalore.
January 30, 2002... HYDERABAD, Jan. 29. RUBBERMAID Homeproducts, a part of the $7-billion Newell Rubbermaid group of the US, is planning to set up a manufacturing unit in the country jointly with Perk Inn International (PII) of Bangalore. According to Mr...

BoB net crawls up.
January 30, 2002... MUMBAI: Bank of Baroda has reported a five per cent rise in net profit at Rs 158.13 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2001, as compared to Rs 150.79 crore in the corresponding period in the previous year. According to the...

Transforming Afghanistan through a peace economy.
January 30, 2002... NOW that the conflict in Afghanistan has ended, the international community has acknowledged its moral obligation of bringing relief to the war-worn country. They too have a right to peace, security and dignity. It may take years to heal the...