US hotel chain Wyndham to open 70 hotels here by 2016

New Delhi: The US-based Wyndham Hotel Group is set to expand to 70 properties in India by 2016, from 16 under various brands at present.

Targeting mostly the mid and mid-premium market, Wyndham will bring in globally established brands like Howard Johnson and Hawthorn Suits to India over the next five years, said Wyndham’s managing director (APAC), Frank Trampert. Wyndham owns 15 hotel brands and runs 7,000 hotels worldwide.

Wyndham already has properties in India under brands such as Ramada, Wyndham, Days Inn and Ramada Plaza. These operate under franchisee agreements with different local companies.

Under its alliance with the Unique Global Group, operating in the real estate segment, Wyndham will establish 35 mid-market hotels in metro and tier-II cities over the next five years, said Trampert. The properties would be developed and run by Unique Group under the Howard Johnson and other Wyndham brands.

“India is a key market for us and we have nearly doubled our presence in the past two years,” he said. The first hotel under the Howard Johnson brand would be opened in Bangalore next year. The price of the rooms would be between $80 and $120 a night and would be targeted at young domestic travellers.

In the first phase, 22 properties would be developed. Of these, seven would be Howard Johnson. “In the first phase, Unique will open hotels in Mumbai, Tirupati, Lucknow and Bhubaneswar,” said Raj Kumar Rai, chairman and managing director, Unique Group.

Unique would invest a little more than Rs 2,000 crore for setting up the properties -- 35 hotels with around 3,500 rooms. The company will also set up hotels in pilgrimage destinations such as Puri and Shirdi.

“Premium hotels would be established in partnership with different local allies,” added Trampert.

Unique Group is expecting a better occupancy across hotels, backed by its time-sharing business. The company has so far referred guests and partners of the time-sharing business to other hotels. “Now, they will be placed at our own chain of hotels,” said Rai. It expects Rs 300 crore revenue from its time-sharing business during FY13, up from Rs 200 crore in FY12.

The Wyndham-Unique alliance opened its first hotel at Udaipur under the Ramada brand last week

NLC, UP govt firm ink pact for power plant

Chennai: Central public sector company Neyveli Lignite Corp Ltd (NLC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidhyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (UPRVUNL) to set up a power project in the state at an estimated investment of Rs 14,858 crore.

A joint venture company between NLC and UPRVUNL will set up the 1,980-Megawatt (3x660 Mw) coal-based super critical thermal power station in Ghatampur, Kanpur Nagar, in five years.

The capital investment of Rs 14,858 crore would be shared in the ratio of 51:49 by NLC and UPRVUNL.

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructures of the Central government had approved the joint venture, NLC-UPRVUNL Power Ltd, in April 2012.

Subsequently, the Uttar Pradesh government approved the venture on September 25.

The feasibility report, environment impact assessment (EIA) and environment management programme (EMP) of the project are under preparation. The ministry of coal has been approached for allocation of coal blocks for the project.

The state government has already accorded clearance for land acquisition of 2,500 acres and has given allocation of 80 cusecs of water for this project.

As per he Gadgil’s Formula being followed by the Central Electricity Authority, Uttar Pradesh will get 64.39 per cent of power produced from this plant, which will work out to 1,275 Mw. The state government, however, has asked for 75 per cent of power generated from this plant.

The project is being set up in a comparatively backward region of the state, which will also generate employment opportunities and help the overall development of the area. Reliable and quality power would be available as the project is located close to power load centre, said an NLC release.

India-US biotechnology tie-up to invest in joint research

Mumbai: The Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE), the apex body of the biotechnology sector in India, and the US-based Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association (WBBA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enable broad ranging co-operation in the field of biotechnology. The duo will support breakthrough discoveries in healthcare, agriculture and clean energy in the country.

Both ABLE and WBBA are to provide each others’ members an opportunity to co-operate and invest in the State of Washington and in India, in the field of biotechnology. These activities could be current ones that both associations are engaged in, or future ones that both may decide to do individually or jointly.

Activities could concern technical knowledge, market research, inputs for policy making, internships, exhibitions, workshops, seminars, capacity building, collaborations, investment and business partnering.

P. M. Murali, President, ABLE said, “The collaboration aims to achieve breakthrough discoveries to provide affordable solutions for critical diseases, important challenges in agriculture and energy on mutually agreed topics.”'

Chris Rivera, President, WBBA said, “We see India as the growth engine of tomorrow and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The collaboration with ABLE is significant to facilitate best of research in biotechnology from both the countries.”

India and Netherlands Agree to Strengthen Bilateral Cooperation

New Delhi: On the invitation of Ms Edith Schippers, Minister of Health, Sports and Welfare, Government of Netherlands, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare visited Netherlands on 3rd and 4th October, 2012.

During his two day visit, Shri Azad attended the Ministerial Meeting on the Responsible Use of Medicines and Anti-Microbial Resistance at Amsterdam on 3rd October and held a bilateral meeting with Ms Schippers at The Hague on 4th October.

Addressing the Ministerial Conference on 3rd October, Shri Azad said responsible and rational use of medicines is an important part of the national health policy in India. He said that due to high out of pocket expenditure on health, of which a larger part is on medicines, it is vitally important that drugs are prescribed rationally. He highlighted the need to look at adherence to Standard Treatment Guidelines, curbing unethical promotion of medicines by the drug manufacturers, better regulatory control over prescriptions and dispensing of medicines and to make the consumer aware the hazards of self medication. He said several steps have been taken by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare towards universalization of health care in its endeavour to make health care services accessible, affordable and equitable, such as Free Maternal Health Services, Free Child Health Services, Free Immunization, Adolescent Health Services, Family Planning Services, NCDS and JSSK.

Shri Azad said the Government of India proposes to further expand the Initiative for Universal Health Coverage by taking up Free Supply of Essential Medicines in Public Health Facilities in the country. This step, he said, is aimed at providing affordable health care to the people by reducing out of pocket expenses on medicines. Besides, Universal Health Coverage will also promote rational use of medicines and reduce the consumption of inessential medicines.

During the discussions on the issue of anti-microbial resistance, Shri Azad pointed out that this is an area of serious concern the world over. He stated that the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has developed the National Policy for Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance to tackle the issue of antimicrobial resistance and promote rational and responsible use of antibiotics in India. He highlighted certain salient features of the the National Policy for Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance India, such as curbing antibiotic use in animals, conducting infection surveillance in hospitals, improving hospital surveillance for monitoring antibiotic resistance, promoting rational drug use through education, monitoring, and supervision, developing and implementing a standard and more restrictive antibiotic policy, educating health professionals in good prescribing practices and using prescription guidelines, promoting improvements in personal and hospital hygiene and hospital infection control programmes, establishing a multidisciplinary national body to coordinate policies on antibiotic use and monitor their impact, promoting systems of supervision, prescription audit and feedback in institutional settings to ensure rational use of antibiotics.

Following the Ministerial Meeting on 3rd October, a bilateral meeting was held between Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ms Edith Schippers on 4th October, 2012 in the Ministry of Health, Sports and \Welfare at The Hague, Netherlands. During the bilateral meeting several matters of mutual interest and benefit were discussed.

Shri Azad and Ms Schippers agreed to further strengthen bilateral cooperation through signing of a broad based MoU between the two governments in the field of health & medicine for mutual benefit as well as a sectoral MoU between the respective food regulatory authorities to formalize cooperation in the important area of food safety.

Cloud services market to surpass $326 million in 2012: Gartner

The cloud services market in India is projected to grow 32.4 per cent in 2012 to total $ 326.2 million (about Rs 1,665 crore), according to IT research and advisory firm Gartner.

Software as a service ( SaaS) is the largest segment and is forecast to grow to $ 115.6 million in 2012, while infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is estimated to grow from $ 35.2 million in 2011 to $ 42.7 million in 2012, it said.

Cloud computing enables companies to use software, applications and various services on pay-per-use basis, without the need to set up and own IT infrastructure.

Business process services also known as business process as a service, or BPaaS, is the next-largest segment primarily because of the inclusion of cloud advertising as a sub-segment, it said.

BPaaS is forecast to grow to $ 112.1 million in 2012, up from $ 90.3 million in 2011, it said, adding cloud compute services will become the largest single segment within the public cloud services market in India growing to $ 140.8 million, and accounting for about 14 per cent of total public cloud services spending in the next four years.

Worldwide public cloud services revenue is on pace to total $ 111 billion this year, it added.

Gartner noted that high growth rates will occur in emerging markets, including the top three growth countries of India, Indonesia and China. However, 81 per cent of spending increases will come from North America and Western Europe.

For cloud services providers, this will require a strategic approach when considering both high-volume and high-growth markets. Both will be important in the development of sustained, global strategies, it added.

Oil India, IndianOil buy US shale stake for Rs 427 cr

New Delhi: Government-owned Oil India Limited (OIL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) have together acquired 30 per cent stake in a producing US shale asset at an investment of $82.5 million (Rs 427 crore). This is the first shale acquisition by the two companies in the US. OIL will buy 20 per cent and IOC 10 per cent stake in the asset owned by Carrizo, a Nasdaq-listed company.

The deal entitles the two Indian firms to a 30 per cent stake in the daily production of 1,850 barrels of oil equivalent. The two companies, through their wholly-owned US subsidiaries, have acquired 30 per cent of Carrizo's interest in 61,500 acres in Colorado's Denver-Julesburg basin, a well-known producing one in the US.

The investment provides an early entry into a prolific unconventional oil play to the two companies.

This is not the first Indian investment in a US shale asset. Last September, Gail had acquired 20 per cent stake at Carrizo’s Eagle Ford shale acreage in south Texas for $95 million (Rs 492 crore). The acquisition was GAIL’s first shale gas asset in the US. Similarly, Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries (RIL) holds 45 per cent in Eagle Ford and 60 per cent in a Marcellus Shale gasfield through a joint venture with Carrizo. RIL’s shale gas business in the US comprises three upstream joint ventures with Chevron, Pioneer Natural Resource and Carrizo Oil & Gas, and a midstream joint venture with Pioneer. Aggregate investments since the inception of these joint ventures stand at Rs 22,000 crore ($4 billion).

OIL Chairman S K Srivastava said the acquisition will give the company a first-hand exposure in shale oil and gas. This will facilitate the company’s domestic shale gas plans when the government auctions acreages in the near future.

The total consideration of Rs 427 crore comprises an upfront payment of Rs 213.5 crore, and an assumption of Rs 213.5 crore of Carrizo's future drilling and development costs. OIL Director (finance) T K Ananth Kumar said the company had set aside Rs 7,000 crore to fund acquisitions this year. “Many other opportunities are being discussed, and we are hopeful of sealing more deals in coming months,” he said.

“Our share of peak production, estimated to reach in three-four years, would be 3,700 barrels of oil-equivalent a day,” said N K Bharali, director (human resources and business development). The joint venture would spend $230 million (Rs 1,190 crore) over the next three-four years on the shale property. Current output from the field comprises 69 per cent of oil, 14 per cent of natural gas liquids and 17 per cent of dry gas, Bharali said.

OIL to pick bankers for FPO
OIL Director (finance) T K Ananth Kumar said the market condition is good for the follow on public offer and the company will select three bankers on October 17, after which finance ministry will decide on a road map. On September 14, the government decided to disinvest 10 per cent of its equity, meaning its stake would come down to 68.43 per cent.

Indian cos to be front-runners in adopting mobile workstyles: Study

Mumbai: India would be front-runner in adopting mobile work-styles, with workplace of the future providing just seven desks for every 10 workers. Globally, almost a quarter (24 per cent) of companies has already fully adopted mobile workstyles.

By 2020, organisations are set to reduce office space by almost a fifth (17 per cent), and each person will access corporate IT network from an average of six different computing devices, according to study by Nasdaq-listed IT firm Citrix.

The trend towards fewer office-based employees – who use multiple computing devices to access corporate applications, data and services from a range of locations outside of the traditional office – is part of a global trend called mobile workstyles.

By the middle of 2014, 83 per cent of organisations will have embraced mobile workstyles. The Citrix Workplace of the Future report polled 1,900 senior IT decision-makers across 19 countries.

Some of the highest desk-to-worker ratios in 2020 would be in Japan (8.77), South Korea (7.95) and Germany (7.90) and India (7.12). The figure for 2020 is as low as six desks for every 10 workers in Singapore, the Netherlands, the US and the UK.

“Organisations are encouraging people to operate outside of the traditional workplace on their own personal devices to improve the bottomline – by making the organisation more responsive, improving productivity and reducing the cost of real estate and device management,” said Mick Hollison, Vice-President, integrated marketing and strategy Citrix.

“At the same time, organisations are investing in the space they have to create enticing workplaces that foster collaboration, innovation and creativity. The result is a stronger organisation, with high calibre people performing at their best. The technology to enable the workplace of the future is already available and proven, and plans for workplace redesign can easily be put in place. The real winners will be those that get the people management and culture right, to empower the workforce of the future,” he added

Workspace of Future
Almost every organisation says it will redesign office space to be more appealing. The workplace of the future will foster creativity, be inspiring and encourage collaboration by enabling people to work from wherever, whenever and on whatever device so that work becomes something people do, not a place people go.

The global report also reveals that a third of people (29 per cent) will no longer work from their traditional office. Instead, employees will base themselves from various semi-permanent locations including the home (64 per cent), field and project sites (60 per cent), and customer or partner premises (50 per cent). People are also expected to access corporate applications, data and services while mobile from locations such as hotels, airports, coffee shops and while in transit.

For organisations, mobile workstyles create a more flexible, agile workplace (73 per cent), lower employee-related costs (53 per cent), reduce real estate costs (48 per cent) and help attract (47 per cent) and retain (44 per cent) top talent.

Employees benefit from more flexibility (65 per cent), increased personal productivity (62 per cent), less commuting time (61 per cent), and a better work/life balance (55 per cent) are other benefits. It also helps them spend more time with customers (48 per cent).

The majority of organisations (83 per cent) will use bring-your-own-device initiatives to manage the growing number of devices that people use to access the corporate network. Employees will generally choose and purchase their own computing devices, with 76 per cent of organisations reimbursing the employee in-part or fully.

India eyes $40 billion global generic market; patents held by MNCs to expire in over 3 years

New Delhi: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, India has launched a sustained global campaign to capture an estimated $40 billion worth of additional market for generic or copied medicines as patents held by multinationals on sophisticated medicines run out over the next three years.

While emphasis is on countries with ageing population such as Japan, which needs more of cheaper medicine, large markets such as Africa and Latin America are also in focus.

"We see an opening of $30-40 billion market for Indian generics over the next three years as patents on a number of drugs run out," additional commerce secretary Rajeev Kher told ET. "We want to send out a message to the world that we have the capacity to fill in this space with high quality yet cheap medicines."

The commerce department is going all out to hard-sell Indian generics in difficult but promising markets under its recently launched Brand India Pharma campaign where the focus is on credibility, quality, availability and affordability of Indian medicines, he added.

It is also working with its embassies in Africa and other countries to dispel misinformation spread about Indian generics by global pharma biggies.India's pharma exports stood at $13 billion last year.

The country produces a fifth of the generic medicines of the world and accounts for about 70% of medicines supplied to poor countries through humanitarian agencies.

The commerce department recently led two delegations comprising Indian pharma majors like Dr Reddy's, Lupin, Mylan and Nectar, to Japan and Indonesia under the Brand India Pharma Campaign to explore opportunities in the big but difficult markets.

India, which accounts for less than 1% of Japanese pharma market estimated at over $100 billion, hopes to make big gains under the free trade pact or CECA signed last year.

Next destination for about 200 leading generic manufacturers in India for showcasing their products is Madrid where India is the partner country in the world's leading pharma networking event CPhI beginning next week. This is the first time that the government has approved a pharma sector specific India show.

"For the first time ever, India is a partner country in the event which will allow over 200 Indian companies to closely interact with buyers from more than a 100 countries and display their strengths," Kher said.

"They will also get the opportunity to meet regulators from various countries to understand the dynamics of different markets."

Analysts say the timing to promote Indian generics globally is just right as the next three years will be crucial in terms of opportunity.

"While patent expiries are expected to peak out in 2012, we believe that the growth momentum would sustain as most Indian companies have a fairly well spread out product pipeline till 2014," according to a recent paper by rating agency ICRA.

"While some companies have a healthy pipeline of FTF (first-to-file) opportunities, others are likely to benefit from the launch of niche, limited competition products."

India's largest generic pharma company Ranbaxy has already given US drug major Pfizer a run for its money by launching the generic version of the anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor whose patent expired last year.

Ranbaxy has gained a larger market share for the medicine that had helped Pfizer generate about a sixth of its revenue over the last few years.

India's Services Purchasing Managers Index up in September: HSBC

Mumbai: India's services sector, which contributes the most to the country's GDP, continued to accelerate in September, led by a rise in new business and a pick up in employment. However, business sentiment in the country eased a bit during the month, possibly due to the continued rise in inflation pressures, a release from global financial services major HSBC, based on a monthly survey of purchasing managers, said.

"Both input and output prices accelerated in September on the back of higher fuel and wage costs. A steady rise in growth and inflation in the largest sector of the economy should make the RBI more cautious about lowering policy rates too quickly," the note from HSBC said. According to HSBC's India PMI, service sector activity picked up pace in September with a score of 55.8 points against 55.0 in August. New business flows also increased in September, at 56.7 points compared to 55.9 in August, but business expectations for the coming 12 months fell notably, to 67.2 points in September from 74.0 in August. The composite index for manufacturing and services rose to 55 from 54.3 in August on the back of a pick up in services, the note said. The survey also showed that both input prices (54.3 compared to 53.5 in August) and prices charged (54 compared to 53.3 in August) rose at a faster pace. "Panelists said higher fuel prices, labour costs and taxes drove inflation up," it said.

What these finds imply, according to HSBC, are services continue to trend up, visibly diverging from manufacturing where growth is restrained by the lagged impact of monetary policy, weak global economic backdrop, and slow progress on structural reforms in recent years. "The rise in services is likely led by domestic demand given the weak global economic backdrop. A buoyant rural sector could be adding to the resilience of the services sector," the note added. Looking ahead, HSBC believes growth in services should continue to remain supported by domestic demand and the positive sentiment effects from the recent improvement in policy reform momentum. "However, elevated inflation will dampen the growth in spending power," it said.

Cabinet clears Companies Bill, amendments to Competition Act

New Delhi: The Cabinet on Thursday gave its nod to the Companies Bill 2011 and amendments to the Competition Act 2002. India Inc has been awaiting this move for some time.

Putting to rest all concerns on whether bank mergers will be out of the Competition Act ambit, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told newspersons that the Act governs all sectors. But, banks and insurance companies that have got approvals for mandated/forced mergers have been exempted from the purview of the Act.

The proposal after its initial consideration in April, 2012 was referred to a Group of Ministers to examine in detail, with particular reference to jurisdiction of sectoral regulators on Competition related issues.

“Major amendments approved by the Cabinet relate to changing the definition of “turnover”, “Group”, reducing the overall time limit of finalisation of combinations from 210 days to 180 days and insertion of a new Section 5A enabling the Central Government to lay down, in consultation with the Competition Commission of India, different thresholds for any class or classes of enterprises for the purpose of examining acquisitions, mergers and amalgamations by the Commission.

Companies Bill
After nearly two decades of efforts to revamp the exiting Companies Act 1956, the Companies Bill 2011 aimed to give a modern legislation for growth and regulation of corporate sector was approved with certain modifications. The Bill gives a clearer direction to the role of auditor, corporate social responsibility, inter-corporate loans and makes whole-time directors more accountable and defines private placements, among others.

Once the Bill becomes a law, corporates will be expected to give valid reasons if they are not spending the amount earmarked for CSR activities. However, the Bill does not make it mandatory.

What may seem relevant today, the Bill has modified provisions for audit of Government companies by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (C&AG). The modification has been made to enable C&AG perform such audit more effectively.

The provisions relating to restrictions on non-audit services have been modified in the Bill to ensure that such restrictions shall not apply to associate companies. It also gives a transitional period for complying with such provisions.