Financial Express ND 19/3/2010

Vindi Banga to quit Unilever Fe Bureau &Agencies Mumbai The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant, Unilever Pic, announced on Thursday that Manvinder Singh (Vindi) Banga, its president for global foods, home & personal care, was leaving the company in May Banga was chairman of the company's Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Unilever, between 2000and2004, before moving on to regional and global roles with the parent. Banga, a 33-year veteran of Unilever, told FE over phone from London that after five years at the Unilever executive board and being part of the core team that helped completely transform the company if' really feels like a good moment to move on to do something else and to explore new opportunities." Financial Express ND 19/3/2010, p-1 Apollo commits Rs 1,000 cr for medical education entry So ma Da s& BV Mahalakshmi New   Delhi/Hyderabad, Mar 18: India's largest corporate hospital chains Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Health care and Max Health-care are poised for an aggressive foray into medical education, which was opened to them recently While the largest chain, Apollo, committed an initial investment of Rs 1,000 crore on Thursday in medical education, the second largest player, Fortis, announced its plans to offer pure medicine courses but nursing, dentistry, and other paramedical courses as well. Max Healthcare said it is contemplating entering medical education” in two to three years from now." The Centre has allowed companies to set up medical colleges, as reported by FE on Wednesday. Prathap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Group, while replying to a FEquery said, "We are working out the modalities for setting up a global health academy which would include an undergraduate medical college with an initial intake of 200 students. Economic Times ND19/03/2010, p-1 NO SURPRISES FOREIGN TELCOS STAY OUT Uninor only incumbent to shun 3G spectrums bids Joji Thomas Philip NEW DELHI THE Indian arm of the world's sixth-largest mobile phone firm, Telenor, has decided not to bid for 3G airwaves, marking it out as the lone incumbent operator to stay away from what is expected to be a hotly-contested auction. Uninor, in which Norway's Telenor owns 67.2 5% and property developer Unitech the rest, first wants to see clarity emerge on the allotment of 2G spectrum before it takes the 3G plunge, its MD Stein-Erik Vellan told ET. Allocations of 2G airwaves have been put on hold until the government comes up with a new allotment methodology. Before March 2009, when the allocations were stopped telcos got spectrum based on their subscriber numbers. On Thursday, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar, Tata Teleservices and Etisalat placed their bids to participate in the auction of 3G spectrums that will allow them to offer services such as high-speed internet and video-conferencing on mobile phones. Idea Cellular, Videocon, S Tel and Aircel are likely to bid on Friday, the last date forbidding. The auction is to start on April 9. Economic Times ND19/03/2010, P-1 S&P upgrades India to 'stable' Better Govt Finances, Decision To Cut Subsidies Spur Move; India Inc's Borrowings To Get Cheaper Our Bureau MUMBAI GLOBAL credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Thursday revised the outlook on India tollable' from * negative' due to improved government finances a move that could marginally lower the borrowing cost of India Inc and support equities. The decision not only dispelled fears of an immediate downgrade, but also revived hopes that India's fiscal position could now begin to recover. The agency, which identified inflation as the only downside, also affirmed the 'BBB-' long-term and 'A-3' short-term sovereign credit ratings on India. Ratings below BBB-' are non-investment grade. Bond prices rose soon after the announcement, but slipped after RBI deputy governor KG Chakrabarty indicated that the central bank might hike interest rates before the April policy "if it is inevitable and the price situation warrants". The outlook revision follows the government's decision to prune subsidies. "The decision to change the fertiliser policy to implement a nutrient-based pricing policy and to raise urea prices by 10% from April 2010 is a step forward for the reduction of subsidies. The budget also announced an average increase in the prices of domestic petroleum and diesel of 6% and 7.8%, respectively, S&P said. Financial Express ND 19/3/2010, p-6 Arcelor Metal to shift Rs 50k-cr project to Bokaro New Delhi Disappointed over delays in the launch of its Rs 50,000-crore steel project in Jharkhand, global steel giant Arcelor Mittal is set to relocate its plant proposed at Khunti-Gumla to Bokaro district in the state mainly on account of land acquisition problems. The steel maker had entered into a pact with the Jharkhand government for setting up a 12 million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel plant in 2005 but has been facing delays in land acquisition amid regulatory hurdles. Hindustan Times ND 19/03/2010, P23 Bharti, Vodafone in race for 3G, BWA KT Correspondent NEW DELHI:  The race to offer the next-generation wireless broadband services truly turned hot on Thursday as a slew of high-profile operators led by Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel joined' the fray, one day ahead of the deadline. Bharti became the first company to submit an application for 3G (third-generation) spectrum and was soon followed by Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications, Vodafone and Etisalat DB (formerly Swan). Vodafone threw a surprise by throwing its hat in the ring for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA)! Tata Communications (formerly Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd) and Tikona, a broadband service company promoted by a former Reliance president Prakash Bajpai also submitted applications for BWA spectrum a day after US-based LTE technology champion Qualcomm submitted its BWA bid to demonstrate its know-how.