Success in my Habit

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Annual milk production in Haryana has reached 62.67 lakh tonnes

Ahmedabad: Chandigarh, January 17 - The annual milk production in Haryana has reached 62.67 lakh tonnes as compared to 52.22 lakh tonnes during 2004-05.

Haryana Animal Husbandry and Dairying department official said that per capita per day availability of milk in the state is 680 gram as compared to national average of 262 grams. A target for doubling the milk in the next 10 years has been fixed.

He said that to provide quality veterinary services, the government had opened 133 government veterinary hospitals and 291 government veterinary dispensaries. These are in addition to up gradation of 120 government veterinary dispensaries .

As a result of it, the total number of veterinary institutions in the state had gone up-to 2790 for providing veterinary and breeding services to the livestock in the state.

The Government had taken many steps for conservation and improvement of indigenous breed of buffaloes and cattle, especially Murrah and Hariana breeds. For the purpose, the owners of top quality Murrah buffaloes were given cash incentives ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 25000 per milk animal depending upon the milk yield.

He said that Haryana was the only State in the country where the insurance of animals belonging to Scheduled Caste families was being done free of cost. During the period from April, 2005 to December, 2011, 2.27 lakh animals had been insured. In addition to this, 15 districts of the state were being covered under the centrally sponsored livestock insurance scheme.

National Housing Bank plans to raise upto Rs 10 billion via bonds

MUMBAI: National Housing Bank ( NHB) plans to raise upto 10 billion rupees ($196.1 million) via 36-month bonds with put/call option after 13 months, three sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The base size of the issue is 2.5 billion rupees and the firm has invited quotes on Tuesday, said the sources.

HDFC Bank in 'Harvard Business Review' elite list of 10 companies

MUMBAI: HDFC Bank has been featured by 'Harvard Business Review' in a list of 10 companies globally that have grown their net income by 5 per cent every year for the 10-year period ended 2009, the private lender said today.

The list is based on a survey, 'How the growth outliers do it', which covered 2,347 organisations, all with market capitalisation of USD 1 billion.

'Harvard Business Review' is a reputed general management magazine.

"These companies have been recognised for prospering over the long-term and being more stable and innovative than their competitors," the survey report said.

"They (the selected companies) make small bets early and diversify their portfolios, are active acquirers, have processes that support speed and flexibility, build innovations into everyday operations and hold to their talent and keep their senior leadership stable," it said.

Referring to HDFC Bank, the report said the Indian lender had a history of entering into new growth markets through initiatives like the launch of international debit cards, tele-banking, mobile banking and foreign exchange services, among others.

Besides HDFC Bank, the other Indian company to be featured in the list is IT giant Infosys.

The list comprises three companies from the US, two each from India and Spain and one each from Japan, Slovenia and China.

Banks need to invest in digital platform: PwC

MUMBAI: Country's lenders are not investing in digital platform for banking even as customers are ready to pay for service which they use, a survey by the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has found.

"Banks have generally been slow to openly embrace the digital innovation...they (the customers) are willing to pay for these and yet the majority of banks still only provide basic mobile and internet banking services," PwC India's associate director for financial services, Robin Roy, said.

The commercial banks tend to see digital platforms only as a way to reduce costs and it is time they start to invest in their digital offerings keeping in with the expectations of the customers, he added.

PwC released a report titled "The Digital Tipping Point" said customers are willing to pay for extra services. 85 percent of those polled in India said they will pay for transaction notifications coming through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Other areas where they are ready to pay include spending analysis tools, relevant third-party offers and storing documents in a virtual vault, among others.

Stating that the needs of the generation Y are different and that the grouping is very diligent in choosing whom they bank with, the report says, "The quality of a bank's digital offering will become a key determinant for customer stickiness."

TN to launch Rs 6,650-cr urban development project

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Government has announced a Rs 6,654.03-crore integrated urban development mission to upgrade basic infrastructure in major cities and towns.

According to an official press release, the project to be implemented in the city corporations and municipalities to upgrade drinking water supply, drainage, sewerage, solid waste management, parking facilities and public transport infrastructure in line with the increasing urbanisation in the State.

According to the 2011 Census, 48.45 per cent of the State's population is living in urban areas and in the next two decades this will increase to 67 per cent.

The Government will spend Rs 5,890.12 crore to provide these facilities in major cities and towns, and Rs 763.91 crore in town panchayats. (There are 10 city corporations, 148 municipal towns and 559 town panchayats in the State.)

Drinking water supply
In the current financial year, the State Government has sanctioned Rs 757.28 crore including Rs 506.48 crore for cities and large towns and Rs 250.80 crore for town panchayats, the release said.

To increase the drinking water supply to Chennai and fully utilise the 530-million-litres a day capacity of treated water available from the Chembarambakkam water treatment facility, an additional two-metre diameter pipeline will be laid over a 6.5-km up to the Poonamallee bypass junction from Chembarambakkam.

The Government has earmarked Rs 40 crore for the project.

Sudarshan Chemicals acquires Finnish cosmetics pigments brands

Pune: Pune-based Sudarshan Chemical Industries has bought the natural mica pearlescent business from Eckart Effect Pigments, a division of Altana AG,a Euro 1.5 billion German speciality chemicals group. The buy comprises Eckart's brands Prestige and Flonac - C, produced at its plant in Pori, Finland. These pigments are used in the cosmetics business.

The Rs. 700 crore Sudarshan, a speciality chemicals maker with a plant at Roha, Konkan, on Maharashtra's coastal strip, will add the new pearlescent product lines to their existing pearlescent pigment portfolio sold under the Sumicos brand name. Sudarshan has acquired only the brands and some critical assets which it will ship to India.

Sudarshan Chemicals is a manufacturer of industrial, cosmetics and agro chemicals in which the Japanese company Dai Nippon Ink and Chemical holds an 8% stake but has no management stake. Sudarshan has been expanding in global markets since 2008, setting up wholly-owned subsidiaries in North America and Europe with plans to open sales offices in Asia Pacific and Latin America.

The agreement to sell the cosmetics portfolio based on natural mica was signed between Eckart and Sudarshan on 15 December 2011, with the latter taking over the business from January 24, 2012.

After divesting its cosmetics line, Eckart will focus on its core businesses of metallic effect pigments and pearlescent pigments based on borosilicates and synthetic mica. The division posted revenues of Euro 282 million in 2009, according to its website.

Pharma retail market grows 15% in 2011

Mumbai: Domestic pharma retail market clocked a robust 15% growth during 2011, mainly driven by therapies like anti-diabetic, vitamin, anti-infectives and dermatology. The pharma sector continued to show its resilience amid slowdown concerns in the economy with December posting a strong growth, with anti-infectives back in favour during the month. The domestic pharma retail reached a new milestone by recording overall sales of Rs 60,000 crore for the year 2011.

The pharma market grew at 15.7% during December, with growth in key therapy areas, including anti-diabetics, derma and vitamins outperformed the market, data compiled by market research firm AIOCD (All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists) said. While the growth in anti-infectives and pain and analgesics at 11% and 12.1%, respectively, grew slower than the market during the month.

During December 2011, the companies that reported a strong year-on-year growth significantly above the pharma market include Glenmark (35.3%), Sun Pharma (27.5%), Pfizer (27.9%) and IPCA Laboratories (21.6%). While Sun has grown more consistently due to its large presence in the chronic segment, Glenmark and Ranbaxy have seen bouts of high and low growth due to larger acute dependence, experts say.

The laggards for the month include Ranbaxy (5.1%), Zydus Cadila (9.8%), Dr Reddy's (11.0%) and Cipla (13.6%), an analyst from Nomura stated.

Also, during December, Sun remains the fastest growing company in the top 10, and Macleod's clocked growth in range of 40% level.

The top pecking order in terms of market share was led by multinational Abbott (6.11%), and followed by Cipla (5.14%) and GlaxoSmithKline (4.86%) at the second and third slots during the month. Sun Pharma was ranked fourth with a 4.79% share, and Ranbaxy fifth, clocking a 4.34% market share.

Tyre exports up 25% in Apr-Nov

Kochi: Tyre exports increased 25 per cent during the April-November period of the current financial year. During the period, a total 5.03 million tyres were shipped compared to 4.01 million in the same period of the last financial year.

A good turnaround was noted in November as the shipments rose to 652,390 tyres as against 587,000 in the previous month. Exports in November registered a 11.13 per cent increase over the same month of the previous financial year. Export of motorcycle tyres registered an increase of 82 per cent in November, while 85 per cent decline was registered in the case of scooter segment.

In the case of production, the cumulative figure for April-November period was up seven per cent at 82.8 million tyres, compared to 77.3 million in the same period of 2010-11.

Total monthly production increased 10 per cent in November compared to October at 10.8 million across all categories. The total monthly figure in September was 10 million while this was 9.2 million in October according to the data by the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association.

Wikipedia to shut down for 24 hours

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales on Monday asked school students to finish their homework early as he detailed the plan to shut down the website on Wednesday to protest against a controversial anti-piracy bill that the US senate is debating.

"Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday," Wales said on his Twitter page.

"I am just starting to do press interviews about the upcoming blackout of Wikipedia...This is going to be wow. I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know," he wrote. Wales said that visitors to the Wikipedia's English website will see a message telling them that the website has been shut for 24 hours to protest the anti-piracy laws called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA).

For last few months there has been a fierce debate over SOPA in US. While organizations like Motion Picture Association of America believe that laws like SOPA, which has several drastic provisions, including blocking websites at DNS level, are needed to fight piracy, web companies like Google and Facebook say that SOPA will stifle innovation and hit freedom of speech.

Wales also said that ComScore estimates around 25 million people visit the English website of Wikipedia every day.

When Wikipedia shuts down, it will join tens of other websites that will shut down on Wednesday as part of their protest against SOPA. These include Reddit, a website housing an influential web community that curates news, Cheezburger network, a collection of websites that host immensely popular LOLcat memes, BoingBoing, a popular blog, Craiglist, Mozilla, Minecraft and several other websites related to video games. There are reports that Google and Facebook may join the blackout.

On Saturday, White House joined the debate saying that certain provisions of SOPA could harm the web. "Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small...We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet," said the note prepared by three senior officials, including Aneesh Chopra, the US chief technology officer. "Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online."

Reports claim that after the White House made its stance clear, SOPA has put on hold by the US senate. But Wales said on Twitter that even if SOPA is dead, PIPA remains a threat. "SOPA is crippled now. PIPA is still extremely dangerous," he wrote.

Monday, January 16, 2012

GMR Energy commissions 25 MW solar plant in Gujarat

Bangalore: GMR Energy Ltd (GEL), a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, has commissioned its 25-MW solar power plant at Patan district in Gujarat.

The 25-MW grid interactive solar power project has been executed through GMR Gujarat Solar Power, a subsidiary of GMR Energy. The project was awarded to the company in October 2010 under the Gujarat Solar Policy.

The company in a release said this plant adopts the crystalline photovoltaic technology and is situated in the solar park set up by the Gujarat Government at Charanka village in Patan district.

The power plant was commissioned on December 31, 2011 and is supplying power to Gujarat UrjaVikas Nigam on a 25-year power purchase agreement under the Gujarat State Solar Policy.

GMR Energy, after tasting success of this solar venture, has initiated plans to enhance its renewable energy portfolio by over 100 MW in the next two years.

GMR Energy is currently operating 808 MW. The company is currently executing power projects of about 7,500 MW capacity which includes 2,200 MW hydro capacity.