Gamesa to supply wind generators to Indo Rama Renewables

Chennai:Gamesa Wind Turbines Private Ltd will supply 30 MW of wind energy generators to Indo Rama Renewables, a subsidiary of Indo Rama Synthetics (I) Ltd.

This marks the entry of Indo Rama into the renewable energy market.

The order from Indo Rama Renewables involves supply of 15 wind mills, G97-2.0 MW units, which Gamesa will erect and commission in Jath, Maharashtra, by December end this year, according to a press release from Gamesa.

“The Indo Rama Renewable contract strengthens the Gamesa 2.0 MW portfolio in Maharashtra,” said Ramesh Kymal, Chairman and Managing Director of Gamesa in India.

“The company is fast emerging a market leader with the Gamesa 2.0 MW platform among the growing IPP segment.”

The release quoting Vishal Lohia, Executive Director, Indo Rama Synthetics, said, “Indo Rama has made its entry into the Indian renewable energy arena with the 30 MW order for Gamesa 2.0 MW turbines in Maharashtra. This is the first of several investment plans that have been chalked out, we have aggressive plans to be a leading renewable Independent Power Producer (IPP) and an active participant in the Indian renewable energy platform.”

Renew Power
To Gamesa, this contract comes weeks after the announcement of the single largest 75 MW order with another IPP, ReNew Power, in Maharashtra.

India contributed 14 per cent of Gamesa’s total sales in the first half of 2012.

International calls set to become cheaper on new TRAI rule

New Delhi: International long distance call charges are set to come down with the telecom regulator introducing a new measure that will intensify competition in this segment. TRAI has allowed telephone users of one operator to use calling cards issued by another operator.

For example, a Vodafone user will now be able to make calls to the US or UK using Reliance’s global calling card. Until now, a Vodafone subscriber was forced to make ISD calls using only Airtel’s network.

The new system also opens up the game for foreign giants such as BT, AT&T and Orange which can now sell their voice calling cards to retail and enterprise users in India. These multinational firms, at present are offering only data services to large corporates.

TRAI has directed all operators to open up their access networks to enable customers to make the choice and use calling cards of other players.

According to industry watchers, this could trigger a price war in a segment, where tariffs have remained flat over the past few years. In addition, consumers could also get dynamic pricing on various international routes. An operator with more traffic to the Gulf region could offer cheaper calls than another player which has heavy traffic on the US route. Although there are 27 companies in the country with a licence to offer international long distance services, most of them are not offering voice calling facility to retail users. That’s because the telecom company which owns the subscriber does not allow another operator to give access to their services. As a result, ISD tariffs in the country have not declined for many years. A call to the US, for instance, is priced at around Rs 7, which has been at the same level since 2008.

The TRAI is examining a number of other aspects in the long distance telephony segment, including ways to bring competition in the cable landing station segment. There are 12 undersea cables landing on Indian shores but most of the landing stations are controlled by just two players — Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications. According to other ILD players, this has kept the landing charges artificially high which in turn is adding to the bandwidth cost.

Future Group buys convenience store chain Big Apple for Rs 62 crore

Kolkata: Future Group has acquired Delhi's convenience store chain Big Apple which operates 65 stores in the National Capital Region (NCR) for around Rs 62 crore in an all-cash deal. The group is likely to re-brand the Big
Apple stores into its KB's Fair Price stores - the group's neighbourhood store format - to consolidate its operations in the NCR, one of its largest market in the country. The country's largest retailer closed the deal through Future Ventures India LtdBSE -0.88 %, the investment arm of the group which builds and operates innovative and emerging businesses.

"The acquisition will help Future Group to significantly grow presence in the convenience store format in NCR where it already operates 100 KB's Fair Price neighborhood stores and have a ready operational and administrative infrastructure," a person close to the deal said, requesting anonymity.

Big Apple is owned by Express Retail Services Ltd, which sells groceries and food products for over six years. The Big Apple stores generate annual revenue of around Rs 120 crore and is a debt-free company.

Incidentally, Future group has recently transferred its 180-plus KB's Fair Price stores from Pantaloon Retail India to Future Consumer Enterprises, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Future Ventures. While Express Retail Services will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Future Ventures, there are possibilities that it might be later merged into Future Consumer Enterprises to consolidate the convenience store operations under a single holding company.

Big Apple has direct tie-up with farmers in Haryana, Rajasthan, HP and Uttar Pradesh, which provides consumers with uninterrupted and qualitative product supply, according to the company website.

HCL Tech signs five-year deal with Freescale

New Delhi: HCL Technologies on Wednesday entered into a five-year deal with Freescale Semiconductor, manufacturer of embedded processing solutions. The companies declined to give the deal value but sources said that it was a multi-million dollar deal.

HCL will be managing desktop support, computer, storage, database, telecom (network and security) and process automation. It will deliver services to Freescale across 20 countries, handling a user base of 19,000 employees spread across 80 locations.

Freescale will also leverage HCL’s global delivery centres in Poland and Shanghai for multilingual helpdesk support. It will develop more resilient systems, optimise its operational costs, increase visibility into IT operations, experience reduced technology complexity and drive innovation to existing and new initiatives.

“HCL will be sharing our vision of building a robust and agile IT environment required to keep pace with the growing technological innovation demands of the business and creating new ideas and technologies for the next generation opportunities,” Hal Yarbrough, Director of IT Infrastructure at Freescale Semiconductor, said.

HCL Technologies infrastructure services division (ISD) manages mission critical environments and handles over three million devices for over 1.7 million end users.

The ISD business contributes 26 per cent to the overall revenue of $4.2 billion as of June 30.

India-Pakistan commerce secretaries likely to discuss new trade routes, air links, petro trade

Opening of new trade routes for boosting bilateral trade via land with Pakistan, including the Khokrapar-Munabao link, would feature in the commerce secretary-level talks with India over the next two days.

Commerce Secretary S R Rao, who is leading a 10-member delegation on a two-day visit to the neighbouring country, would review the progress in bilateral trade with his counterpart Munir Qureshi.

Issues such as increasing air connectivity and starting trade in petroleum products are expected to figure in the talks beginning tomorrow in Islamabad. The last commerce secretary-level talks were held in November 2011 here.

During the meeting, which aims at further boosting trade relations, matters that might get prominence include trade in electricity and opening of bank branches in each other’s country, said an official at the ministry of commerce and industry. Both sides might also sign the Customs cooperation and redressal of trade-related grievances agreement.

India was also keen to export petrol and diesel through the land route. New Delhi had also expressed its desire to supply 500 Mw of power.

India and Pakistan recently inked a visa liberalisation agreement to increase movement of businessmen and professionals between the two countries.

In a joint press statement in April after the meeting between the commerce ministers of both countries, the two sides had desired that discussions continue at the official level for possibilities of opening more land Customs stations for bilateral trade, which stands at around $3 billion.

Two-way trade between India and Pakistan is estimated to increase to $6 billion by 2013-14.

IndiGo emerges top carrier for 2nd month

New Delhi: Domestic airlines carried 43.69 lakh passengers in August this year, a decline of over 8.6 per cent compared with the same period last year.

According to the latest data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), for the second consecutive month, the low-cost airline IndiGo carried the maximum number of domestic passengers at 12.05 lakh.

Market Share
In terms of market share, IndiGo again took the top spot with 27.6 per cent.

In August, Jet Airways flew 8.16 lakh passengers while SpiceJet carried 8.07 lakh.
The number of passengers flown by Jet Airways will be more if the 2.85 lakh passengers flown by its low-cost arm, JetLite (2.85 lakh), is also considered.

In addition, Air India carried 7.94 lakh passengers, GoAir (3.24 lakh) and Kingfisher (1.38 lakh).

Jet Airways enjoyed a market share of 18.7 per cent, followed by SpiceJet (18.5 per cent) and Air India (18.2 per cent).

Meanwhile, Air India has been asked to submit within a week a plan to enhance its domestic market share.

A Civil Aviation Ministry statement said the airline had been asked to include month-wise targets of market share along with the corresponding strategy to achieve these targets for the next one year.

IAN invests in Mexican food chain Poncho

ndian Angel Network (IAN), a network of over 200 business angels investing in start-ups and early stage ventures, made an undisclosed investment in Poncho, a Mumbai-based Mexican quick service restaurant. IAN investor Kaushal Aggarwal led the investment and investors like Saurabh Srivastava have invested in this round in Poncho.

IAN’s investment will help Poncho, founded by IITians Amit Raj and Anshul Gupta in August 2011, to scale up by opening new outlets, strengthening the back-end operations and ramping up the core team, a company statement said. Poncho has opened 6 outlets since its inception and plans to reach 15 by the end of this year.

The entry of renowned international brands and celebrities and rapidly growing eating-out habit have made restaurant sector a hot investment destination for Indian private equity/venture capital investors.

Major Indian PE/VC firms already have wider exposure to small and mid-sized QSRs. The Chennai-based TVS Capital has investments in Om Pizza (runs Papa John’s pizza chain) and Indian Cookery (runs the Yellow Chilli brand of restaurants of chef Sanjeev Kapoor). New Silk Route (NSR) is planning an investment to the tune of $100 million to expanding its food and restaurant portfolio. In May 2012, NSR invested in Bangalore-based restaurant chain Adiga’s.

Kaushal Aggarwal, an IAN member and co-founder & Managing Director, Avendus Capital said, “Food and beverage space has lately gained a lot of attention from the investors. Exclusive services and products are being offered by the start-ups in this sector.”

Other PE/VC deals that took place in restaurants space this year include Navis Asia’s investment in Nirulas Corner House, Verlinvest SA’s investment in Cuisine Asia. Last year, ICICI Ventures invested in RJ Corp’s Devyani International that runs KFC, Pizza Hut and Costa Coffee chains. The Delhi-based Sagar Ratna, a restaurant chain serving South Indian cuisine across the National Capital Region, raised $35 million from India Equity Partners.

TCS opens new centre in Minneapolis

New Delhi: Tata Consultancy Services has opened a new facility in Minnesota, which will serve as a hub for delivering technology services to customers in the region. The 50,000-square foot facility will house roughly 300 employees.

“The decision to open a new TCS facility in the Minneapolis region is part of our company’s on-going commitment to grow our presence in each and every market we serve,” said N. Chandrasekaran, TCS’ Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.

“Over the past few years, Minnesota has put an emphasis on technological innovation that aligns with TCS’ breadth of industry expertise, innovative engineering strength and commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions, and will only enhance the scope and scale of our customer offerings in North America,” he added.

TCS, which had set up operations in New York City in 1979, now has 18 offices in the US.

Bajaj inks distribution deal with Kawasaki for Indonesian market

Pune: Bajaj Auto has inked an alliance with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, under which Bajaj motorcycles will be assembled and sold in Indonesia through the latter’s distribution network as co-branded products.

The BAL board accorded its approval to the deal this morning, while the KHI had approved it on September 12.

The first product under this alliance will be the newly launched Bajaj Pulsar 200 NS and shipments to Indonesia will begin

in the middle of 2013, Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, BAL said. The bikes will be made in India and assembled overseas from SKD units.
Bajaj already exports variants of the Pulsar to Indonesia and has sold nearly 50,000 units here over the years. But given that the big four Japanese bike makers have a virtual stronghold over this 0.5 million units per annum market, the company required an entry strategy that was sustainable, Bajaj explained, adding “otherwise you can make a lot of losses.”

Bajaj and Kawasaki have had a similar partnership in the Philippines since 2004, and together command 45 per cent market share here. After Indonesia, the Indian company hopes to extend such a marketing arrangement to another six to seven markets globally, including Brazil, in the next 3-5 years’ time.

Elaborating on BAL’s strategy, Bajaj said it was clearly to stay specialised. “We have decide

d to be a global company and sell motorcycles all over the world. We want to stay in a narrow band as far as products are concerned,” he said.
Speaking at the company’s AGM here in July, Bajaj had told shareholders that the company wanted to achieve 10 million units in annual sales by 2016 and estimated that 50 per cent or more of this would come from exports.

Last year, Bajaj Auto sold 1.2 million motorbikes in overseas markets, representing 70 per cent of total motorcycle exported from India. In every market where sales exceed 10,000 units, the company sets up assembly units, Rakesh Sharma, President, International Business said, adding that the company has 14 such units so far in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. It is in the process of setting up six more in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Egypt, and two more in West Africa.

India fourth most economically confident country in world: Ipsos

Mumbai: India's economic confidence has shot up by 8 points to 68% in the month of August compared to the previous month, according to the 'Ipsos Economic Pulse of the World' survey. This makes India the fourth most economically confident country in the world after Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Germany.

India's economic confidence, said a report by Ipsos, has got a major boost due to recent big-bang economic reforms such as the hike in diesel prices, FDI in retail, aviation and broadcasting, disinvestment in 4 public sector undertakings and cut in cash reserve ratio (CRR) by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Mick Gordon, CEO of Ipsos in India said, Union Government of India unleashed a burst of economic policy reforms that included steep rise in heavily subsidized diesel price, limit on cooking gas subsidy for consumers and foreign investments into critical sectors such as aviation and retail, raising the hope that expected fiscal breach will now be lower and investments will pick up. Borrowers could see better days ahead as banks are expected to cut lending rates following the RBI's decision to unlock Rs 17,000 crore by slashing CRR by 25 basis points. The liquidity infusion would ensure adequate flow of credit to productive sectors of the economy.''

Slightly less than a half of Indian citizens (48%) believe their local economy which impacts their personal finance is good, a marginal rise of 2 points and an optimistic 53% people expect that the economy in their local area will be stronger in next six months.

The online Ipsos Economic Pulse of the World survey was conducted in August 2012 among 20,915 people in 24 countries.

The average global economic assessment of national economies remains static from last month as 38% of global citizens rate their national economies to be 'good'. Countries with the strongest proportion of citizens expecting their local economies to be 'stronger' six months from now include Brazil (65%) followed by India (53%), Saudi Arabia (47%), Mexico (41%), Argentina (40%) and China (38%).