Tata Steel has acquired 3,000 acres land for its 6 million tonne project in Orissa and expects to start construction within two months.
"We will soon place orders for the equipment for the Rs 15,000-crore (Rs 150 billion) project. We have got the bids and negotiations with different parties are going on. We should finalise the order by July," said B Muthuraman, managing director.
The Orissa project is part of the Rs 67,000 crore (Rs 670 billion) that the steel major is investing for three greenfield projects.
The other two are the Rs 12,000-crore (Rs 120 billion) project in Chhattisgarh with a capacity of 5 million tonne per annum and the third greenfield plant in Jharkhand, entailing an investment of Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) for a 12 million tonne capacity.
Tata Steel is also investing Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) to expand its Jamshedpur plant capacity by 1.8 million tonne, which should be completed by August 2008, added Muthuraman.
"By the end of this financial year, the total capacity should increase by half a million tonne to five million tonne per annum," he said. He denied any plans to come out with rights issue to finance the projects.
The company has earmarked about 3,000 acres for the Chhattisgarh project and identified the area for the Jharkhand project, which will be spread over 5,000 acres. It has spent about Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) for acquiring the 3,000 acres land in Orissa.
Reiterating that the Orissa government has commenced rehabilitation programme for the displaced natives, Muthuraman said that the company will adopt all the 700 affected families.
"Each one of them will be called 'Tata Steel Family' and we will make sure their income levels are better or equal as before," he stated. The first phase of the Orissa plant, adding 3 million tonne, will be over by 2009.
Muthuraman added that Tata Steel will also adopt the 1,400 families who will be displaced by its projects in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. "We will monitor each family every month and they will be under our care," he said.
Tata Tele set to invest Rs 600 cr
Telecommunication service provider Tata Teleservices Maharashtra, a subsidiary of Tata Teleservices, will invest Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) in this financial year for enhancing and rolling out network.
TTML, which is licensed to provide telecommunications services in the states of Maharashtra and Goa, will now target tier-B and tier-C cities followed by rural cities.
TTML sources said with the proposed investment, the company will be focusing on wireline segment in addition to enterprise segment.
"We had invested over Rs 650 crore (Rs 6.50 billion) last year and will be investing more than Rs 600 crore in the current financial year," they said.
"The wireline segment offers better ARPU (average revenue per user) compared to the wireless segment," sources said.
Meanwhile, TTML has also tied up with US-based Kodiac Networks for launching instant conference facility for post-paid customers.
"The test drive for the facility has been successfully conducted and this will be a revenue-sharing model with Kodiac," they said.
Instant conference facility will enable a customer to speak to several persons at a time by dialling a number that represents a group, they added.
TTML-led consortium is also pitching for Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) broadband connectivity initiative by the IT department of the Goa government, GSWAN (Goa State Wide Area Network).
The consortium partners include Tata Consultancy Service, Videsh Sanchar Nigam and other equipment vendors.
GSWAN will enable connectivity to over 200,000 households in the state of Goa with 100 mbps pipeline, and government offices will be connected with 10 gbps. The project is likely to be completed by February 2007.
According to industry sources, the Goa government may pick up an equity stake in this project and is likely to scale down the size of 100 mbps pipeline.
"The project includes video on demand, cable services, e-governance initiatives and transaction-based revenue models," industry sources said.
Advinus in drug discovery push
Advinus Therapeutics, the new drug discovery company floated jointly by the Tatas, and Rashmi Barbhaiya, the former head of research at Ranbaxy, plans to create world-class research facilities in the country with the best available talent pool from across the globe.
It has earmarked about Rs 1,000 crore for investing in the project over the next two to three years, sources said.
Advinus' expansion plan also includes acquisition of research-based companies with rich R&D assets in the pharmaceutical sector both in India and abroad.
The company, which marks the Tata group's foray into the burgeoning business of drug discovery, is in the process of appointing senior and talented scientific hands at its Bangalore facility.
The sources said the company has major plans to explore the global market for pharmaceutical discovery utilising the country's talent pool.
Advinus has recently appointed Nimish Vachharajani, a former fellow and senior scientist in the Bristol-Myers Squibb's research team in Princeton, as vice-president of pharmaceutical and agrochemical development.
It is also looking at expanding the scientific team at its Bangalore and Pune facilities with senior scientists.
Vachharajani, who brings over 13 years of drug development experience from a large pharmaceutical company in the US and with a record of publishing over 40 scientific and review articles in various peer-reviewed journals, will be responsible for heading operations of the company's site at Bangalore.
Barbhaiya, CEO and managing director of Advinus, is an internationally reputed pharma executive having extensive global experience in handling diverse aspects of drug discovery and development.
While Kasim Mookhtiar, CSO and business head (drug discovery) has spent several years in the pharmaceutical industry and has held key scientific positions in his earlier assignments.
He was formerly with Bristol-Myers Squibb for almost a decade before joining Ranbaxy.
Focused on new drug discovery and development of pharmaceutical and agrochemical products, Advinus is eyeing the opportunities in companies based in the US and Europe, which are looking at cost-effective, high-quality solutions for their R&D programmes.
The new company, which will combine the resource capability of the Tata group and the world's best talent in innovative discovery, is currently in the process of setting up one of the best drug discovery units in Bangalore.
The R&D venture focuses on drug discovery, contract research and pharmaceutical development services. Its aim is to discover small therapeutic, licensable molecules to treat a whole range of diseases including diabetes, obesity, chronic asthma, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and neglected third-world diseases such as kala azar, dengue, TB, leprosy and malaria.
Advinus has identified Bangalore, with its research centres and talent pool, as its hub. It also has smaller-scale research operations at Pune.
The company aims to become a leading discovery organisation in India through its leadership and people, discovery programmes, partnerships, productivity by INDs and successful out-licensing.
Free mobile-to-landline plan unveiled
Tata Teleservices has launched Tata Indicom Don't Stop Mobile, which will allow customers to make free outgoing calls for a period of two years to any Tata Indicom Mobile or Tata Indicom Fixed Phone within Maharashtra.
This offer is valid up to June 30 and subject to a maximum of 3,600 minutes. This service is available on a range of new mobile handsets, including Indicom Ace, Haier D1000, Kyocera Prisma and Indicom Star, priced at Rs 2,299, Rs 2,499, Rs 2,799 and Rs 3,749, respectively.
"An existing customer enrolled on the earlier Non Stop Mobile scheme for two years and Standard pre-paid plan, can also avail the benefits of Don't Stop Mobile by using special recharge vouchers of Rs 199," said Darryl Green, chief executive officer, TTSL.
Subscribers will also be provided with an initial talk time of Rs 10 for calls to other phones. With this new product, there is no fixed monthly commitment and subscribers are free to recharge with any vouchers starting from Rs 50, he said.
"Don't Stop Mobile has been launched across 20 circles and over nine million customers of Tata Indicom," Green said.
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