APTDC to invest Rs 300 cr in nine hotel projects

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation is investing Rs 300 crore to implement nine hotel projects and develop new facilities, including three eco-tourism sites.

The State-owned corporation registered revenues of Rs 140 crore during 2011-12 up from Rs 115 crore in 2010-11, Mr Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, APTDC, said.

Interacting with Business Line, Mr Sandeep Sultania said the State attracted over 15.5 crore tourists last year, which is about 21 per cent of the total tourist traffic in the country.

“We have taken up several sites including Kuchipudi, Pembarthi and Srikalahasti for devlopment as rural tourism sites. These are getting popular. The Corporation has bagged a national award for one such site,” he said.

CII launches cluster development for Godrej Interio, vendors

Dehradun: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has launched a cluster development programme for Godrej Interio and its six vendors in the industrial town of Bhagwanpur in Haridwar district of Uttarakhand. The aim of the programme is to increase business output and improve quality.

Besides giving a push to their business, the companies participating in the cluster development programme will also seek to introduce innovations, improve the inventory-turnover ratio, space utilisation and delivery schedules, as well as reduce energy consumption.

Apple Industries, B K Canworks, Start Seating System, Savitan Living Concepts, Securipax Packaging and Godrej and Boyce Interio Division (Bhagwanpur plant) are the six small companies supplying various components to Godrej Interio’s Bhagwanpur plant, which manufactures only chairs.

The plant, which produces 600,000 chairs a year, now intends to introduce desks for office use from next year, Anil S Mathur, chief operating officer of Godrej Interio, said. The plant was set up two years ago with an initial investment of Rs 20 crore.

Godrej Interio plans to increase its sales turnover to Rs 5,000 crore by 2016-17, based on 20-25 per cent year-on-year growth, and has pinned its hopes on the cluster development programme. The present turnover of the company is Rs 1,500 crore.

“We want to increase our business by three-to-four times and the cluster development is a very good opportunity for our company to increase our business and improve quality,” said Mathur.

“This is the first cluster development programme that CII has launched with the help of our consultants in Uttarakhand. And we are hopeful that this programme will also inspire other companies to replicate the model for future improvements,” said Sandip Jain, vice chairman of CII Uttarakhand.

So far, 208 clusters of SMEs have been formed by CII all over India, according to Harinder Jeet Singh, principal counsellor at the CII-Avantha Centre for Competitiveness. “Getting together, learning together and achieving together is our approach,” Singh said.

Essar commissions 6 mtpa pellet plant in Odisha

Mumbai: Essar Steel commissioned a six million tonnes per annum (mtpa) pellet-making facility at Paradip in Odisha on Monday.

This is the first phase of the 12 mtpa pellet plant to be commissioned by 2013.

The company is also setting up 12 mtpa iron ore beneficiation plant at Dabuna and a 253 km slurry pipeline connecting Dabuna and Paradip.

The beneficiation plant will enhance the iron content in the ore to 63 per cent from 54 per cent.

Essar Steel plans to invest Rs 4,200 crore to set up the integrated facility in Odisha.

The pellet plant in Paradip, along with the eight mtpa facility at Visakhapatnam, in Andhra Pradesh, will fully secure the iron ore requirements of the company's Hazira plant.

Mr Dilip Oommen, Managing Director and CEO, said the company will beneficiate the low-grade iron ore available at Dabuna and transport it through a slurry pipe to the pellet plant at Paradip.

The pellets will then be transported from the company's dedicated berth at Paradip port to Hazira.

“The entire process will bring down our production cost to $750 a tonne against the industry average of $1,000 to $1,350 a tonne,” he said.

Mr Shashi Ruia, Chairman, Essar Group, said Odisha is fast emerging as a favoured investment destination and Essar is committed to be part of this growth story.

Largest Producer
“This pellet plant in Odisha is crucial in our quest to achieve complete vertical integration,” he said.

Essar has emerged as the largest pellet producer in India with a capacity of 14 mtpa.

This will increase to 20 mtpa after completion of the second phase in Odisha. JSW Steel has 9.2 mtpa capacity followed by JSPL, at 4.5 mtpa.

Essar Steel requires about 15 mtpa pellets to produce 10 mtpa of steel at Hazira. It intends to either export or offload the surplus pellets when the entire capacity is commissioned.

The company has signed a 10-year supply contract for iron ore in Odisha and has a long-term contract with NMDC for its requirement at Visakhapatnam.

It has applied for allotment of iron ore mines in Odisha.

Steel Production
The company has set a production target of 7.4 mtpa for this fiscal against 4.35 mtpa achieved in FY'12.

“We intend to ramp up production at all our facilities and aim to produce more value-added products, such as outer panels for the auto sector and the white goods industry, besides targeting import substitution. The realisation from value-added products is higher by $70-80 a tonne,” said Mr Ruia.

The company's turnover will touch Rs 40,000 crore once it produces 10 mtpa of steel, said Mr Oommen. It has a debt of Rs 20,000 crore.

E-returns for those with over 10 lakh income

New Delhi: The government has asked individuals with income of over Rs 10 lakh to electronically file tax returns for 2011-12 , something which was optional till the previous financial year. The recently-introduced tax returns forms also ask individuals to furnish details of donations made for claiming tax deductions.

Further, resident individual taxpayers need to disclose overseas assets in their tax returns. The move to ask expatriates to furnish details of bank accounts and foreign assets is expected to cause hardship, said PricewaterhouseCoopers executive director Kuldip Kumar . These individuals pay taxes in India as they earn salaries here.

While these individuals also pay taxes on income accruing from overseas in their home countries, the new provisions will require them to provide details of all income to Indian tax authorities .

Sanjiv Choudhary, Partner at KPMG, said Sahaj and Sugam forms, which were introduced last year to make returns for specified taxpayers less complex, cannot be used by resident individuals , who are now required to report foreign assets. Kumar said the new forms are beneficial for those who want to claim indexation benefit, while calculating long-term capital gains tax. The new forms have also provision to furnish information regarding co-ownership of house property, which the earlier forms did not provide.

India, Qatar sign pact on co-operation in energy

New Delhi: India signed an initial pact for cooperation in the energy sector with Qatar today. The country is looking at Qatar for sourcing more crude oil and gas to meet its domestic energy demand.

The objective of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) is to establish a co-operative framework to facilitate and enhance bilateral co-operation in the sector, a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry here on Monday said.

The pact envisages co-operation in the areas of upstream (exploration) and downstream (refining) oil and gas activities.

The MoU was signed by Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, and Qatar's Energy and Industry Minister, Mohammed Bin Saleh al-Sada, after Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani met the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, earlier in the day.

On April 2, at an event where Qatar's Energy Minister was present, the Petroleum Minister said India was looking at larger quantities of liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas imports from Qatar.

In 2010-11, India imported 5.6 million tonne oil from Qatar. India also buys 7.5 million tonne a year LNG from that country based on a long-term contract.

Currently, Petronet LNG gets 7.5 million tonne of LNG from Qatar.

India is looking at additional volume of at least three million tonne at an affordable price.

Apart from co-operation in the energy sector, an agreement was also signed between the Reserve Bank of India and Qatar Central Bank for sharing supervisory information and enhancing co-operation.

Agreements on education exchange programmes, co-operation in the field of legal affairs, culture, and trade promotion in the field of organising exhibitions were also signed.

Fortis announces special services for senior citizens

Kolkata: Fortis Hospitals, Kolkata, on Friday introduced a special privileged service “Shradha” for senior citizens on the eve of World Health Day - 2012.

Under this service, senior citizens will be able to avail priority in admission to the hospital, get free diet counselling and get discounts on room rent, pathology, investigations and ambulance charges among others.

According to Ms Richa Debgupta, facility director, Fortis Hospitals, senior citizens can also avail four physician consultations free in a year.

World Health Organisation statistics reveal that older people are the fastest-growing age group worldwide. By 2050, 2 billion people, or nearly one out of every four people, will be older than 60 years.

“As people get older, they are more likely to have mobility difficulties and chronic conditions such as cancer, stroke, depression and dementia. The need of the hour is to create and consider means which can be put in place to respond to the aging population,” Ms Debgupta said.

Under the Shradha service, senior citizens will be entitled to get 10 per cent discount on room rent, radiology and ambulance charges. This apart, they will also get an additional 5 per cent discount on pathology and investigation, she added.

The hospital has also set up a dedicated helpline 033 – 6628 4335 to help senior citizens get immediate medical assistance.

Otis Elevator sees rising potential in India

Bangalore: Otis Elevator Company plans to double manufacturing capacity at its Bangalore plant by end-December.

“The annual production at the Bangalore plant is 5,000 units now. We plan to increase it to 10,000 units by end-December this year,” Mr Patrick Blethon, President – Asia-Pacific, Otis Elevator Company, told Business Line. The elevators market in India was estimated at 40,000 units last year. It is expected to touch 70,000 units in the next three years, he said.

There has been increased investments in the real estate and infrastructure sectors in the past years in India, he pointed out. With the rate of urbanisation touching 30 per cent, India is the second biggest market for Otis after China.

About 70 per cent of Otis' market in India is from the residential segment. Mr Blethon said that the trend towards greener projects was catching up, especially in the high-end segment.

The company also wants to expand its services base in the country. Currently, it services 50,000 units, and wants to increase this to one lakh units in the next couple of years.

Besides, the company, which sources only 50 per cent of the components locally for its Bangalore plant now, plans to increase this in the next two years. “The Bangalore factory is a green factory, and so we want to increase our localisation to 80-85 per cent in two years,” said Mr Blethon.

It also plans to expand its product portfolio in India, and launch its Gen2 Nova, a green elevator for low and mid-rise buildings, in India. The company also plans to globally launch a green elevator for sky-rises by this year end, he added.

Italian luxury apparel brand Canclini Tessile in JV with Emperor Textiles

Bangalore: Italian luxury apparel maker Canclini Tessile is tying up with a little known Tirupur-based company to stitch its shirts in India. The equal JV with Emperor Textiles will also set up a separate manufacturing unit in Tirupur to manufacture Italian fabric for domestic consumption.

Canclini Tessile, known for its fabrics worldwide, makes the Via Montenapo brand of shirts which retail at prices starting from Rs 5,000 and can go up to Rs 30,000.

"Meeting Canclini was by accident. We have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together and are looking to form a new JV company Italian Luxury Garment, where Canclini and Emperor will hold equal share," said Karthekeyan Palaniswamy, managing director of Emperor Textiles, which is in the business of home textiles, apparel and garment manufacturing.

The company has an annual turnover of Rs 60-70 crore and works for some big names like Louis Philippe, ITC and Color Plus. Emperor also exports shirts to Australia and Europe. "There are many players in the mass market segment but in the high end there are only a few," said Palaniswamy.

The company currently manufactures 8,000-10,000 shirts a month but with the new tie-up it will have to ramp up its capacity. Under the JV, the company's plant will have a capacity of three million metres, which can be ramped up to six million metres yearly at a later stage.

"The crisis in Europe crisis is very tough. We could not grow there any more, so decided to move to BRIC countries. Strategically, India is one of the markets with the highest growth potential outside Europe for Cancilini, both for fabrics and retail," said Simone Cancilini, president of Cancilini Tessile SpA. Depending on its success in India, Canclini also plans to replicate the India model in other BRIC countries.

The company is in talks with 30 retailers in India to sell their fabrics. The joint venture company has already tied up with Kimaya for marketing and sales of its men's shirts range through their outlet in Bangalore.

"We plan to test market with a shop in shop with Kimaya but once we penetrate into metros there is room to experiment with standalone stores too. Later, we might also put fabrics in the stores," says Simone. Canclini plans to have 25 shops in shops stores in the next 2-3 years.

Nasscom creates health insurance plan for IT companies

Bangalore: In what may be a first of its kind initiative by an industry body, Nasscom has created a health insurance plan in association with Oriental Insurance for the 2.5 million people industry.

Insurance premiums come down when more people are part of a plan, and given the scale of the IT sector, Nasscom's Techie-Health Plan will bring down substantially the cost of providing insurance especially for small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Nasscom said over 200 companies have already committed to join the plan. The association's target is to bring 1,000 SMBs under the scheme in 15 months.

"The scheme offers a 30% to 50% cost savings to companies with up to 100 employees. It will have a cover of up to Rs 3 lakh for employees and their spouses and children,'' said Sangeeta Gupta, senior V-P, Nasscom. There are different kinds of plans, and the cost of the plan for a 100-employee company would vary between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 9.5 lakh based on the plan.

The employees will not have to pay any premium unless they want to top up the plan for more benefits. Depending on the plan, three to seven family members will be covered. The plan is fairly comprehensive, covering even pre-existing ailments, maternity and new-borns.

Insurance broking company Medimanage and third party administrator Mediassist will also be involved in implementing the scheme.

Healthcare costs have risen phenomenally, especially in private hospitals, making insurance almost a necessity for middle class Indians, who seek better healthcare services. "Employee health and wellness is a key priority for the industry. We will have roadshows across the country to popularize this health insurance plan,'' said Gupta.

Google picks Bangalore as product hub for emerging markets

Bangalore: As part of its three-monthold emerging markets initiative, Google has chosen Bangalore and Paris as two of its main centres from where products for emerging markets like India, Africa and Latin America will be conceived and developed, according to a top Google India executive.

Google counts most of south and south-east Asia, some parts of Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America and countries where internet penetration is less than 50%, as emerging markets.

"We are making Bangalore one of the two major centers for emerging markets," said Lalitesh Katragadda, country head, India products, Google. Katragadda, the man behind Google Mapmaker and Google's transliteration, has recently taken on the additional responsibility in the emerging markets team for Google.

"Think of us as a start-up within Google, which has a mission of getting the next five billion people online," explained Katragadda. The new group in Google will build products and features from scratch and also make existing products work for emerging markets.

"Many of the products we are building right now are still under the wraps," said Katragadda. The emerging markets team is a separate group that spans across all the seven product areas, which include Android, Chrome, search, ads, social and YouTube. Products specifically for emerging markets will be built out of the Bangalore or Paris development centres.

"It's not something Bangalore has been known for in the last few years," he added. Google has an estimated 2,000 member workforce in India, but Katragadda did not specify how many of them will work for the new team. Nelson Mattos, Google's vicepresident for product and engineering, Europe and emerging markets, leads the group with a "handful" of top engineers, product managers and marketers.

Katragadda, who is three months into the new role, said: "It now involves not only looking into all our products and making sure that they work well in India but also conceive and build new products - not just in India but also for the whole of emerging markets." New Google products for emerging markets are most likely to be in local languages and mobile based.

"If you launch a product in emerging markets that is not on mobile, that's not going to work right," said Katragadda. The Google veteran, who moved to India with Krishna Bharat, a distinguished research scientist at Google, in 2004 to set up the company's Bangalore operations, did not share the number of emerging market products in the pipeline, but said that "at least one compelling product" will be built.

"I don't think it takes more than one or two great products to really draw people to the Internet. Frankly, we are going to figure it out by launching a few experiments and have the users tell us."