New Delhi, July 3
After Petrobras of Brazil, Norway's Norsk Hydro has agreed to take a stake in ONGC's gas discovery block off the east coast.

Norsk Hydro will take 10 per cent stake in the block KG-DWN-98/2 for $26 million and will have the option to raise it to 20 per cent, an ONGC press release said here.

ONGC last evening signed an agreement with the Norwegian deepwater export to develop deepwater oil and gas blocks. The agreement was signed by director (offshore) N.K. Mitra and Director (exploration) D.K. Pande on behalf of ONGC and Tore Torvund, executive vice-president, Norsk Hydro.

Petrobras had last month picked 15 per cent stake, with an option to raise it to 30 per cent, in the block where ONGC has reported six discoveries, the latest one at UD-1 well being assessed by upstream regulator DGH as holding 2.08 trillion cubic feet of reserves.

The block sits next to Reliance Industries' 50 trillion cubic feet KG-D6 block. Before farm-in by Petrobras, the block had ONGC holding 90 per cent stake and Cairn India the remaining 10 per cent interest.

ONGC chairman and managing director R.S. Sharma said his company, Petrobras and Norsk Hydro will do a joint appraisal of the gas discoveries in the block and prepare a development plan.

Oslo-based Norsk Hydro will also give ONGC technological support to increase the recovery from Vasai East oil field, off the Mumbai coast. The state-run oil major will pay $7 million to Norway's second-largest oil company for the job.

Norsk Hydro would also provide ONGC with offshore operator know-how. ONGC has offered the company a stake of up to 30 per cent in 32 offshore blocks. — PTI

New Delhi, July 3
Bharti Airtel today extended its partnership with Nokia Siemens Networks by awarding a $-900-million contract for expansion of its mobile, fixed lines and next generation network.

There were also indications from the company that it may place a similar-sized contract with Swedish telecom vendor Ericsson for mobile expansion, discussions for which are currently going on. This will be among the largest GSM expansion deals in India with the installation of an estimated 22,000 base station sites.

"Discussions with Ericsson are going on," Bharti Airtel president and CEO Manoj Kohli said here without divulging financial details.

Bharti has already announced a capex of $3.5 billion for this fiscal to penetrate into the country.

Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks will expand Airtel's GSM network in eight existing circles, long-distance and international long-distance network with 1.8 million Next Generation Network (NGN) ports and its international calling card pre-paid service capacity by 4.5 million new users.

The MoU on the contract was signed between Manoj Kohli, and Simon Beresford Wylie, CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks.

Bharti Airtel is also planning to expand the international calling card service from the US at present to 10 more countries with sizable Indian NRI population during this fiscal.

The GSM and NGN expansions are planned over two years and the international calling cards expansion over three years.

The two-year GSM expansion will cover the eight existing circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand, Orissa, Kolkata and West Bengal where Nokia Siemens Networks already provides equipment and managed services.

Meanwhile, Nokia Siemens Networks had yesterday said it would invest up to $100 million in India over the next three years in a move to strengthen its grip in one of the fastest-growing markets for telecommunications equipment. — PTI

Mumbai, July 3
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Y.V. Reddy has warned that growth of the Indian economy may slow down slightly to 8.5 per cent.

Speaking at the Russian central bank yesterday, Reddy said the 8.5 per cent growth may be maintained provided there was no rise in crude oil prices and not internal or external shocks to the Indian economy.

“There are reasonable grounds for optimism about the growth of the Indian economy .... and this has been globally recognised,” Reddy said.

He, however, added that Indian policy-makers had to be guarded given global inflation pressures, persisting global imbalances, the re-pricing of risk and volatile capital flows, he said.

He said the government was committed to containing inflation close to 5 per cent.

“The acceleration of growth in the real sector has been reflected in the upward shift in the growth trajectory of credit extended by commercial banks, which in the past three years has been unprecedented in the history of the Indian economy,” he said.

“There has been some sign of deceleration in the recent period,” he added.

Reddy said Indian growth of 9.4 per cent in 2006-07 - the fastest growth in 18 years - reflected structural and cyclical factors, which were difficult to quantify.

Mumbai, July 3
New York-based Interpublic Group (IPG), a global player in advertising and marketing, has acquired 100 per cent stake in Lintas India Pvt Limited for an undisclosed amount.

IPG already had 49 per cent stake in Lintas, which it acquired in two phases in 1969 and 1998. With the completion of integration process, Lintas would now operate as a part of IPG-promoted Lowe Worldwide Network.

The post-acquisition entity will be redesigned into a 'high- value ideas company' and will set up centres in 10 hubs worldwide, said Stephen Gatfield, IPG executive vice- president.

''Lintas has been a key partner of Lowe Worldwide for more than three decades and has brought great business in India. The entity will work closely in future also with IPG ventures'', Gatfield told reporters.

The group is also on the look out for suitable partners in its ventures and is likely to set up joint ventures, he said.

Lowe worldwide's client roaster include Unilever, Nokia, Johnson & Johnson, Nestle, Saab and Stella Artois.

Started in 1969, Lintas is providing integrated communication solutions to clients and has leading brands like Initiative, Insight, Interactions, Intellect and Media Futures.

The company has 200 clients in domestic market that include Industry-heads like Tata, Nestle, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Prudential and Berger Paints. — UNI

Chennai, July 3
Hinduja group flagship Ashok Leyland and Finland’s Alteams group today announced forming a joint venture (JV) that will invest over Rs 500 crore in next few years for setting up a unit to manufacture aluminium products.

The 50:50 JV factory would be commissioned by December, 2008 near here. The two partners would invest Rs 175 crore in the first phase and Rs 335 crore in the second stage over the next 5-6 years, Ashok Leyland managing director R Seshasayee and Alteams CEO Panu Routila told reporters here.

The new unit would make aluminium products, particularly for automotive and telecom industries. The turnover in the first year of operations was expected to be around Rs 280 crore. With the completion of second phase, the JV would achieve a turnover of Rs 650 crore and generate 1,000 jobs.

Routila said the JV would start functioning immediately and start distributing Alteams’ products, imported from the company’s unit at China, to Ashok Leyland and Nokia.

The factory would be located around Chennai so that it could be close to Ashok Leyland and Nokia factories.

Separately, Ashok Leyland informed that the JV would manufacture High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) aluminium products, particularly for auto and telecom sectors.

The unit will also be used to partly meet Ashok Leyland’s captive needs for components for engines and gearboxes. — PTI

Mumbai, July 3
Wolfsburg-based carmaker Volkswagen will launch its first car 'Passat' in India this year, which will be the first model assembled in the country.

The company will also set up a subsidiary, Volkswagen Group Sales India Pvt Limited, in order to strengthen its operations in India.

The Indian operations would be headed by group MD Joerg Mueller while the passenger car segment will be headed by Andreas Prinz.

The company is initially targeting tier-1 cities Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore to establish its dealership network and will gradually expand operations to other Indian cities.

The Indian subsidiary will operate as an independent distribution company for Volkswagen and Audi in India.

The group's popular brands include Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen commercial vehicles. — PTI

Bangalore, July 3
Infosys Technologies Ltd today announced its selection as ‘Best Outsourcing Partner’ by readers of ‘Waters’, a leading publication covering the needs of chief information officers in global capital market firms.

Waters’ ranking recognises the outstanding achievements of solution providers that help financial institutions generate revenue and service their clients efficiently, Infosys said.

The Bangalore-based company was named the best outsourcing partner over nine competitors and by a margin of more than double from the closest competitor in the survey.

In May, editors of ‘Waters’ invited the publication’s readers and financial technology professionals to vote for the best hardware, software, financial service vendors and trading venues in the industry across 22 categories. — PTI

New Delhi, July 3
The proposed construction of 100 railway budget hotels across India to meet the Commonwealth Games tourist rush has hit a road block with no clear signal as to which authority will execute them.

The ministry of railways had last month created a new Railway Land Development Authority (RLDA) as part of its new policy to take care of the bidding process of these hotels, which was earlier being done by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation(IRCTC).

“Nothing has moved further ever since the authority is created. It is not clear who is in charge of the things,” said a senior ministry official.

The mandate of RLDA is to develop new budget hotels on unused railway lands. If the new policy comes through, this statutory authority of the railways may also have to look after the renovation, maintenance and operation of the hotels which has been under the supervision of IRCTC so far.

Earlier, there were plans to hand over the Rail Yatri Niwas and Rail Ratna (budget hotels) to private operators on a 15-year and 30-year lease, a ministry source said.

The plans also envisaged dividing the ownership of rooms between the builder and the Railways on 70:30 ratio.

But initial biddings had raised many eye-brows, so all previous deals are under the scanner now, the source added. — PTI

Mumbai, July 3
Air-India will introduce a daily, non-stop flight from New York’s JFK International Airport to Mumbai from August 1.

These flights are in addition to Air India’s daily 747-400 direct service from New York to India via London, and from Newark to India via Paris. AI will press in its new Boeing 777-LR aircraft on this route.

The airline said the flight will depart daily at 9.30 p.m. from JFK International Airport, while Flight 141 will depart Mumbai at 12.45 a.m., arriving at JFK at 7.10 a.m. the same day.