Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories, a 74% subsidiary of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, has come under fire from the FDA. American enforcement officials raided Caraco’s plants, seized medicines and ingredients used in their production. The seizure has been attributed to Caraco’s continued failure to meet cGMP norms (current good manufacturing practices). The FDA had warned Caraco in October 2008 and had given it time to rectify the deficiencies. Continue Reading →
Companies
Nandan Nilekani leaves Infosys, joins government
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Nandan Nilekani is leaving Infosys as its co-chairman to join the government. He has the task of handing out a unique identification card to every citizen of this country. It’s a simple enough task by itself; but made complex by a large population, spread across a vast geography and the failure of such schemes in the past. Nearly a decade ago, the election commission’s voter identity card programme is still to cover vast parts of the population. Mr Nilekani’s challenge will be to do much better.
Companies
Bharti Airtel outsources Value Added Services to Comviva
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Bharti Airtel has contracted Comviva, a managed services company, to manage its value added services portfolio. Bharti has been the leader in outsourcing crucial functions, changing the way the telecom industry in India operated. Here it seems to have taken a big leap of faith, outsourcing the crucial function of providing value added services. Continue Reading →
Companies
Satyam’s Q3 numbers are bad, but not catastrophic
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Companies
Siemens to expand steam turbine plant capacity
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The company was making single stage and multi stage steam turbines with a capacity of up to 45mw for industrial applications. Steam turbines can be used for various purposes, as a pump drive (feedwater pumps for large boilers), generator drive, compressor drive and waste to energy applications (source: www.siemens.com). The Vadodara factory was set up with an initial investment of Rs 30 crore and after this expansion will be able to make turbines with a capacity of up to 100mw.
Continue Reading →
Companies
Novartis revises open offer price by 28% to Rs 450
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Novartis AG has offered Novartis India’s shareholders Rs 99 more per share to make its open offer more attractive. The promoter holding in Novartis will increase to 89.93%, if the offer succeeds, just below the 90% cap on promoter holding in a listed company. The current share price is Rs 444 and it remains to be seen how many shareholders tender, even at the revised price of Rs 450. The price had touched a high of Rs 467 indicating investors were expecting the revised price to be higher. Continue Reading →
Companies
Tata Communications’ 2008-09 results hit by higher interest outgo
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Companies
Bharti and MTN to join hands; complex deal structure
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The promoters of Bharti Airtel and MTN have agreed upon a merger agreement. This will be a novel deal involving an Indian company and a foreign company, with a consideration involving cash and a share swap. If it succeeds, both companies will hold stakes in each other, with Bharti holding the upper hand with a 49% stake in MTN. Of course, it is paying a stiff price to get that privilege.
Companies
ITC’s sales down 1% in the March quarter, cigarettes still the boss
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Economy+Policy
A new government: business as usual?
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Business as a rule loves stability. They could not have asked for a better verdict from the 2009 elections. The UPA government has come back to power, much stronger with about 260 seats in a 543-seat parliament. In the previous election, it was much dependent on a number of smaller allies, hampering effective functioning especially on the economic front.
A tough economic situation…