Applexus Technologies sets up office in Sharjah

Thiruvananthapuram: Applexus Technologies, a leading provider of IT services and solutions, has opened an office in the West Asia.

Applexus specialises in next-generation SAP, .NET, JAVA and mobility services.

It has its headquarters in the US and global delivery centres in India, including at Technopark here.

Regional HQ
The Sharjah office will serve as the regional headquarters to MENA (Middle East-North Africa), said Mr Nagarajan Anantharaman, Chief Executive Officer.

He will lead efforts to increase awareness and adoption of Applexus services in the region, a company spokesman said.

The focus will be on organisational engagement, strategic partnerships, marketing, sales and general operations.

“There is a huge opportunity in the MENA region,” Mr Nagarajan said.

Applexus looks forward to engaging with enterprises to make them more productive and successful, he added.

Having a presence in the region is vital as the company wants to provide relevant support for growing the customer base.

Mr Nagarajan has been Vice-President and Head of Wipro Arabia, leading and overseeing its growth from inception of the business.

“This will add immense value to Applexus' ventures in the West Asia,” Mr Sam Mathew, Managing Director, said.

Applexus has a growing number of clients in the region across multiple industry verticals, he added.

India's Onshore Wind Energy potential is 3000 GW: Study

A study is pegging Indian potential for wind energy at 3,000 GW. It claims that the potential for wind energy utilisation with the prevalent technologies is far in excess of earlier estimates by Center for Wind Energy Technology (CWET). The Centre estimated Indian wind energy potential at 49,000 MW and increased to 100 GW subsequently.

"Scientific and research work carried out by Indian wind industry expert Jami Hossain has inspired scientists at Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (LBNL) to challenge assessments of the Chennai based government agency CWET, on the potential for wind farms in India. Hossain in his paper, published in the international renewable energy journal Renewable Energy, presented his findings on the assessment for potential for windfarms using Geographical Information System Platform," read a media statement issued by World Wind Energy Association (WWEA).

In the paper, Hossain assessed the potential at around 2000 GW, which has now been confirmed by the LBNL study which sees the total onshore wind potential of India between 2000 and 3000 GW.

Commenting on the development, WWEA secretary general Stefan Gsanger said, ""These findings have significant policy implications for India as every unit of electricity generated from wind not only saves oil and coal but also prevent emissions of CO2 and other environmentally dangerous gases. Unfortunately India is not the only country where the wind potential has been underestimated by far." He added that recent studies and national targets from China, Denmark or Germany - and now from India - have demonstrated that wind could cover the whole electricity demand of these countries.

"Many more countries should update their wind potential assessment, based on real data, in order not any more to underestimate the potential contribution of wind power to the national energy supply," said Gsanger.

Hossain stated that they have tried to further refine and improve figures based on competing uses of land in the country but with the continued improvement in technology, the onshore potential is indeed very high compared to what was assessed earlier. "The gross under estimation by CWET has prevented the policy makers and the planning bodies in the country such as the planning commission and Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in recognising wind energy as a major and possibly mainstream source of wind energy," said Hossain.

Tax information exchange pact signed with Argentina

New Delhi: India has signed a tax information exchange agreement with Argentina. This is the tenth such pact in the past three years.

This pact with Argentina would enable Indian tax authorities to obtain specific information, including banking related, on tax evasion cases.

The other such pacts signed by India are with the Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Jersey, Isle of Man, Guernsey, Liberia and Macau.

The tax pacts with Argentina, Jersey, Guernsey, Liberia and Macau have not yet entered into force, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

India has also entered into new double taxation avoidance agreements with Colombia, Ethiopia, Lithuania, Uruguay and Estonia. These, too, have not yet entered into force, Mr Mukherjee said.

He said that India had renegotiated double taxation avoidance pacts with Australia, Nepal and Norway, but all these had not come into force.

On information from the French Government regarding accounts in one of the Swiss banks, the Minister said that although the tax had not been assessed or demand raised yet, some persons had paid taxes of Rs 181 crore so far.

Action in accordance with the provisions of direct tax laws, including levy of penalty and initiation of prosecution, is taken in all such cases after the assessments are completed, he added.

German connection
With regard to information from the German Government regarding Indian taxpayers' accounts with LGT Bank in Liechtenstein, Mr Mukherjee said assessments had been made against 18 individual cases, being beneficiaries of the said trusts/entities. Out of these 18 taxpayers, one had passed away. Prosecution has been launched against the other 17 taxpayers.

He said the total assessed income stood at Rs 39.66 crore and a total demand of Rs 24.26 crore was raised in these cases. Penalty proceedings for concealment of income have been separately initiated in all these cases.

Gammon Infra wins Rs 935 cr order from NHAI

MUMBAI, MAR 26:
Gammon Infrastructure Projects has bagged a contract from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for four-laning a national highway in Haryana at an estimated cost of Rs 934.93 crore.

“The company has received the letter of award for the four laning of ... Yamunanagar—Saha—Barwala— Panchkula section of NH—73 in Haryana from the NHAI on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) toll basis,” it said in a filing to the BSE.

The concession period of the project is 22 years, including a construction period of 2.5 years.

“The project cost, as estimated by NHAI, is Rs 934.93 crore. The company will receive a grant of Rs 279 crore during the construction period of the project,” the company added.

The company said further that it has signed two concession agreements with the NHAI for two different road construction projects in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh respectively.

The project in Andhra Pradesh is for six-laning of the Vijayawada—Gundugolanu section of NH 5, while the project in Bihar for four laning of Patna—Buxar stretch of NH 30.

Shares of the company ended at Rs 14.90 apiece on the BSE, 9.96 per cent up from the previous close.

Keywords: National Highways Authority of India, stock movement, four-lane road projects,

Lavasa launches second township

MUMBAI, MARCH 26:
Lavasa Corporation has announced the launch of Mugaon, the second township to be built at Lavasa.

Mr Rajgopal Nogja, Group President, HCC, said, “Dasve and Mugaon, the first two towns are part of the planned Phase 1 development which has been cleared by the Ministry of Environment & Forests. Dasve, the first town is completely sold out and, for Mugaon, we have a long waiting list.”

Lavasa Corporation has resumed construction after the environment clearance was given by the Ministry. Mr Nogja presented the keys of an apartment to the 100th citizen of Lavasa.

The Mugaon development, across 2,400-acre, will comprise residential, education, business and commercial spaces.

Over 2,000 apartments, ranging from 550 sqft to 2,000 sqft will be built over four years. The sqft price varies from Rs 3,550 to Rs 3,950.

Mugaon will also be connected to Lonavala through another approach road and a tunnel is being built for the purpose, the company said.

SAIL chairman inaugurates newly rebuilt coke oven batteries at Bokaro

Kolkata: The Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is poised for quantum growth with the inauguration of two of its rebuilt Coke Oven Batteries (COBs) on Saturday.

The two coke oven batteries were inaugurated by SAIL chairman Mr C S Verma in presence of Director (Personnel) B B Singh, Director (Technical) & BSL CEO SS Mohantyand other senior officers and employees of the plant.

Re-built at a cost of Rs. 500 crores, the two COBs of BSL are completely emission free, with a high level of automation and increased productivity. Part of the 8-battery complex, these two COBs share the same basic dimensions, while improving upon other technical aspects.

Mr Verma also inaugurated the Coil Packaging Line-2 of the new Cold Rolling Mill. It is part of the new 1.2 MTPA Cold Rolling Mill complex, being built at a total cost of Rs. 3,000 crores. This mill is in the final phases of equipment testing and commissioning.

The products of this state-of-the-art mill are expected to meet the expectations of auto-body and premium white goods sectors. The mill capacity will include 0.84 MT of Cold Rolled products and 0.36 MT of coated products.

The CR product basket will include Extra Deep Drawn (EDD) Quality, Deep Drawn Quality (DD), Interstitial-free (IF), High Strength Low Alloy Steel (HSS), Dual-phase (DP), Transformation-induced Plasticity (TRIP), Bake-hardening (BH), in addition to Commercial Quality, with a maximum tensile strength of 680 MPa.

In the current phase of expansion, which started in 2008 January, the Hot Metal capacity of BSL is slated to go up from 4.59 to 5.77 MTPA. This phase of expansion envisages improvement in techno-economic parameters, removal of obsolescence and induction of new technologies through an infusion of Rs. 8625 crores in modernisation, expansion and sustenance schemes.

A number of units have already been commissioned and brought into regular production. With volume enhancement, technological upgradation and provision of a new turbo blower and Coal Dust Injection (total project cost of Rs. 1062 crores), the Blast Furnace-2 will have a productivity of more than 2 tonnes / M3 / day.

Further downstream, the Steel Melting Shop-2 & Continuous Casting Shop complex has been upgraded through the provision of a covered slag yard, computerised process control and a second ladle furnace, resulting in capacity augmentation from 2.85 to 3.35 MTPA.

Trident to invest Rs 3,600 cr in M.P. facility

New Delhi: Trident Group has announced setting up an integrated textile complex and expanding its yarn facilities at Budni, Madhya Pradesh. This will entail an investment of Rs 3,600 crore.

Mr Rajinder Gupta, Chairman, Trident Group, said, “The new facilities will be engaged in the manufacturing of terry towels, sheeting, value-added yarns and captive power plant. This expansion is expected to be completed by third quarter of 2013.” It will be one of the largest integrated home textile manufacturing facilities in the world.

Trident Group will also inaugurate its yarn projects at Budni comprising of 1.25 lakh spindles. The expansion project of the yarn spinning facilities is being implemented with an investment of Rs 1,200 crore. Subsequent to the commissioning of this yarn spinning unit, the total yarn spinning capacity has increased to 3.66 lakh spindles and 3,584 rotors.

Oxford University opens gate to CBSE, ISC students

Kolkata: CBSE and ISC students scoring 90% and above can now seek admission in undergraduate courses at Oxford University. The students will, however, have to appear for admission tests and interviews for securing a seat in this highly prestigious academic institution.

Speaking at Calcutta University on Saturday, Oxford VC Andrew Hamilton detailed out the admission plans of the institution. "We have thrown our gates open to ISC and CBSE students who can seek admission in our undergraduate courses. They will have to score 90%. This is, however, only the application criteria.

The students will have to take tests in particular subjects and appear for an interview. We will test the intellectual capability of students and grant them admissions. However, no quota will exist in undergraduate courses for Indian students. Admissions will open from September 2013. The course fee will be 15,000 pounds a year," said Hamilton.

Addressing brilliant students from financially weak families, he assured, "A few scholarships are available for undergraduate studies. We are holding talks with several individuals and organizations, including Indian industrial houses, to draw more funds to offer scholarships."

Exim Bank extends credit to Central African Republic

Mumbai: Export-Import Bank of India has extended two lines of credit (LOCs) of $20 million and $39.69 million to the Government of the Central African Republic (CAR).

Lines of Credit
The LOCs, extended by the bank at the behest of the Government of India, are for development of a mining project ($20 million) and for two hydro-electric projects ($39.69 million) in the CAR, said an Exim Bank statement.

The LOC agreements were signed in New Delhi at the CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership recently.

Cement Plant
Previously, Exim Bank had extended a line of credit to the African Republic of $29.50 million for setting up of a modern dry process cement plant and for supply of 100 buses for internal transport.

India, South Korea to double bilateral trade by 2015

New Delhi: India and South Korea have decided to expand their political and security cooperation besides improving the already thriving business ties to achieve the bilateral trade target of US$ 40 billion by 2015.

Dr Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, noted that bilateral trade had risen 65 per cent over the past two years since the two countries implemented the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).Since the implementation of CEPA from January 1, 2010, bilateral trade crossed US$ 20 billion mark in 2011.

“We have therefore set a new target of $40 billion by 2015. We also agreed to accelerate work in progress to upgrade the agreement and make it more ambitious,” added Dr Manmohan Singh after wide-ranging talks with Lee Myung-bak, President of South Korea.

Responding to Lee Myung-bak’s call, Dr Singh agreed to expand the political and security cooperation between the two countries.

“With this objective in mind, I informed President Lee of India’s decision to position a Defence Attache at our Embassy here in Seoul before the end of the year,” according to Dr Manmohan Singh.

“India has also offered to launch Korean satellites on Indian space launch vehicles,” as per Dr Manmohan Singh.