No PAN data, 25 lakh demat a/cs still frozen
More than seven months after trading was suspended from dematerialisd (demat) accounts without a Permanent Account Number (PAN), investors are yet to provide the PAN details for over 25 lakh accounts.
According to the latest data available with two leading depositories, NSDL and CDSL, as many as 25.4 lakh demat accounts are still suspended due to non-compliance with the PAN rules.
This represents nearly 55% of about 44 lakh accounts frozen with effect from January 1, 2007.
Interestingly, more than 11 lakh frozen accounts show holding of some shares - down from more than 20 lakh such accounts at the beginning of the year.
NSDL and CDSL together maintain a total of more than 1.05 crore demat accounts now - up from nearly 99 lakh at the beginning of this year.
Apollo Group, DKV launch health insurance firm
The Apollo Hospitals Group and DKV AG, Europe's largest private health insurer and a Munich Re Group company, today launched Apollo DKV Insurance Company - the second stand-alone health insurance company in India.
While the Apollo Hospitals Group will hold 74% stake in the new company, DKV AG will hold the remaining 26% in the joint venture, which is expected to roll out products by the middle of September.
The partners have invested Rs 108 crore in proportion to their shareholding in the venture, and the company hopes to offer cashless products and services in over 4,000 hospitals across the country and on reimbursement basis to cover all hospitals.
"Pricing will be risk-adequate and at par with other players. Our products, however, will have much more value-added services built-in and will give true value for money," said Shobana Kamineni, director, Apollo Hospitals Group.
"We expect to cover one million lives in the next two to three years," said Jochen Messemer, director, Apollo DKV.
Vishal Retail to invest Rs 200cr, open 40 stores
New Delhi-based Vishal Retail is planning to invest Rs 200 crore to set up 40 additional stores, mostly in north India.
"In addition to 53 stores that we have at the moment across 41 cities, we want to put up 40 more in the current fiscal year with an investment of Rs 200 crore," Ramchandra Aggarwal, managing director, Vishal Retail said today.
The company would use Rs 110 crore, which it had raised through an IPO earlier this year, for expansion and raise the remaining Rs 90 crore as debt from domestic financial institutions.
"We are in the process of tying up the debt portion," Aggarwal said.
RIL Maha Mumbai SEZ gets 1-yr extension
The government today said it has extended by one year the in-principle approval to Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai SEZ but asked the promoters to cut the size of the zone to 5,000 hectares in line with the new rules.
The commerce ministry has also asked Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries to ensure that land acquisition for the project must be done with the consent of the owners and no compulsory acquisition is done by the state government.
"The issue was not required to be brought to the board of approval, and was processed by the commerce ministry," Commerce Secretary G K Pillai told reporters here.
He made it clear that RIL has to bring down the size of the project to 5,000 hectares. As per the earlier in-principle clearance, which expired this week, the SEZ was proposed to be set up on 10,000 hectares.
The government has since amended the SEZ rules as decided by a Group of Ministers in April this year to reduce the size of zones after widespread protests in the country.
Infosys gets nod for 2 SEZs in AP
Infosys Technologies has received approvals for two IT special economic zones (SEZs) in Andhra Pradesh.
The board of approval for SEZs, which met today, cleared the two proposals.
Nasscom to work out policy for 'best practices'
Nasscom today announced that it will soon introduce a 'best practices' policy framework to streamline and standardise processes in the information technology-related services and business process outsourcing (ITeS-BPO) industry.
This will cover human resources, data security, people management, physical infrastructure, ethics and whistle-blowing. "Clients of ITeS-BPO industry are demanding quality in all aspects of services. If the Indian ITES-BPO industry has to continue to make a mark at the international level, processes have to be standardised. We will shortly come out with a policy framework addressing these issues," Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said.
The framework is being designed keeping in mind aspects of safety and security of employees, a code of ethics, corporate social responsibility and other industry initiatives. "All members will voluntarily adhere to this framework. We will bring out the policy in a brief format in a couple of months. The final version will take some more time as it will have to be evaluated by an independent body," Karnik explained.
Industry-wide HR management guidelines will be an integral aspect of the framework. "The aim is to create a set of guidelines that will help attract and retain talent. It will also address the issue of attrition to a large extent," said Genpact CEO Pramod Bhasin, who is chairperson of the Nasscom ITES-BPO Forum.
It will attempt to eliminate discrimination in hiring. "We want it to be a standard process where all get a fair chance. It will also have a code for those changing jobs within the industry," Bhasin said.
Aptech to open centres in four countries
IT education and training institute Aptech plans to open centres in Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia shortly as part of its overseas expansion plans.
"We also plan to set up offices in Vietnam and Nigeria," Aptech Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Pramod Khera said here. Aptech trains students under its various programmes — Aptech Computer Education (ACE-software engineering) and Arena (multimedia training).
"We are opening one ACE centre in Afghanistan to start with, one Arena and three ACE centres in Jordan and one Arena and two ACE centres in Syria," Khera said. In Saudi Arabia, he said, the company is establishing one Arena centre exclusively for women, where the entire staff would comprise women. Aptech has close to 400 centres overseas, majority of them being ACE centres.
"We are witnessing a lot of growth in China, where we have been able to open 250 centres in the last five years and capture 32.1 per cent marketshare," he said.
The company has 31 centres in Vietnam, Khera said, adding that plans are afoot to open another 20 centres over the next three years.
Wipro to open two BPO centres in China
Wipro is setting up two BPO centres in China by next month with a combined employee pool of 300, while another unit in the US will be opened later.
"We would be starting by next month...It will be up (in China)," Wipro Chief Executive Officer (BPO) T K Kurien said. The two centres are coming up in Shanghai and Chengdu, he said.
The two centres in China would provide financial services and finance and accounting works, Kurien said. "Our ambition is to grow to 10-15 customers in China," he said. "All our current customers will go there". Wipro BPO's Chinese foray is the second such initiative after Romania, where it has already set up a unit.
Wipro BPO also plans to open a centre in the US in the next six to nine months, he said. "We have identified the place. I can't talk about it right now," Kurien said
Pepsi launches small cans to spur sales
Beverages giant PepsiCo today launched 250-ml Pepsi cans at Rs 15, a price point that's 40 per cent lower than the existing 330-ml cans available at Rs 25.
It's a step in line with Pepsi India's strategy to push premium beverage sales in excess of 25 per cent annually.
The new slim packs are branded My Can.
"The slim cans will help push mass distribution of cans, which are now restricted in consumption," said Punita Lal, executive director, marketing, Pepsi Foods.
The company has also introduced the slim cans in its clear drink brand 7UP and will extend this to Mirinda and Mountain Dew soon.
Cans constitute a mere 2 per cent of the company's beverage volumes in India and it expects to increase that to 5 per cent of sales.
Lal said the company will target different formats – Tetrapaks, PET bottles, cans and so on – in different sizes to cater to the diverse needs of consumers.
More than seven months after trading was suspended from dematerialisd (demat) accounts without a Permanent Account Number (PAN), investors are yet to provide the PAN details for over 25 lakh accounts.
According to the latest data available with two leading depositories, NSDL and CDSL, as many as 25.4 lakh demat accounts are still suspended due to non-compliance with the PAN rules.
This represents nearly 55% of about 44 lakh accounts frozen with effect from January 1, 2007.
Interestingly, more than 11 lakh frozen accounts show holding of some shares - down from more than 20 lakh such accounts at the beginning of the year.
NSDL and CDSL together maintain a total of more than 1.05 crore demat accounts now - up from nearly 99 lakh at the beginning of this year.
Apollo Group, DKV launch health insurance firm
The Apollo Hospitals Group and DKV AG, Europe's largest private health insurer and a Munich Re Group company, today launched Apollo DKV Insurance Company - the second stand-alone health insurance company in India.
While the Apollo Hospitals Group will hold 74% stake in the new company, DKV AG will hold the remaining 26% in the joint venture, which is expected to roll out products by the middle of September.
The partners have invested Rs 108 crore in proportion to their shareholding in the venture, and the company hopes to offer cashless products and services in over 4,000 hospitals across the country and on reimbursement basis to cover all hospitals.
"Pricing will be risk-adequate and at par with other players. Our products, however, will have much more value-added services built-in and will give true value for money," said Shobana Kamineni, director, Apollo Hospitals Group.
"We expect to cover one million lives in the next two to three years," said Jochen Messemer, director, Apollo DKV.
Vishal Retail to invest Rs 200cr, open 40 stores
New Delhi-based Vishal Retail is planning to invest Rs 200 crore to set up 40 additional stores, mostly in north India.
"In addition to 53 stores that we have at the moment across 41 cities, we want to put up 40 more in the current fiscal year with an investment of Rs 200 crore," Ramchandra Aggarwal, managing director, Vishal Retail said today.
The company would use Rs 110 crore, which it had raised through an IPO earlier this year, for expansion and raise the remaining Rs 90 crore as debt from domestic financial institutions.
"We are in the process of tying up the debt portion," Aggarwal said.
RIL Maha Mumbai SEZ gets 1-yr extension
The government today said it has extended by one year the in-principle approval to Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai SEZ but asked the promoters to cut the size of the zone to 5,000 hectares in line with the new rules.
The commerce ministry has also asked Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries to ensure that land acquisition for the project must be done with the consent of the owners and no compulsory acquisition is done by the state government.
"The issue was not required to be brought to the board of approval, and was processed by the commerce ministry," Commerce Secretary G K Pillai told reporters here.
He made it clear that RIL has to bring down the size of the project to 5,000 hectares. As per the earlier in-principle clearance, which expired this week, the SEZ was proposed to be set up on 10,000 hectares.
The government has since amended the SEZ rules as decided by a Group of Ministers in April this year to reduce the size of zones after widespread protests in the country.
Infosys gets nod for 2 SEZs in AP
Infosys Technologies has received approvals for two IT special economic zones (SEZs) in Andhra Pradesh.
The board of approval for SEZs, which met today, cleared the two proposals.
Nasscom to work out policy for 'best practices'
Nasscom today announced that it will soon introduce a 'best practices' policy framework to streamline and standardise processes in the information technology-related services and business process outsourcing (ITeS-BPO) industry.
This will cover human resources, data security, people management, physical infrastructure, ethics and whistle-blowing. "Clients of ITeS-BPO industry are demanding quality in all aspects of services. If the Indian ITES-BPO industry has to continue to make a mark at the international level, processes have to be standardised. We will shortly come out with a policy framework addressing these issues," Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said.
The framework is being designed keeping in mind aspects of safety and security of employees, a code of ethics, corporate social responsibility and other industry initiatives. "All members will voluntarily adhere to this framework. We will bring out the policy in a brief format in a couple of months. The final version will take some more time as it will have to be evaluated by an independent body," Karnik explained.
Industry-wide HR management guidelines will be an integral aspect of the framework. "The aim is to create a set of guidelines that will help attract and retain talent. It will also address the issue of attrition to a large extent," said Genpact CEO Pramod Bhasin, who is chairperson of the Nasscom ITES-BPO Forum.
It will attempt to eliminate discrimination in hiring. "We want it to be a standard process where all get a fair chance. It will also have a code for those changing jobs within the industry," Bhasin said.
Aptech to open centres in four countries
IT education and training institute Aptech plans to open centres in Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia shortly as part of its overseas expansion plans.
"We also plan to set up offices in Vietnam and Nigeria," Aptech Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Pramod Khera said here. Aptech trains students under its various programmes — Aptech Computer Education (ACE-software engineering) and Arena (multimedia training).
"We are opening one ACE centre in Afghanistan to start with, one Arena and three ACE centres in Jordan and one Arena and two ACE centres in Syria," Khera said. In Saudi Arabia, he said, the company is establishing one Arena centre exclusively for women, where the entire staff would comprise women. Aptech has close to 400 centres overseas, majority of them being ACE centres.
"We are witnessing a lot of growth in China, where we have been able to open 250 centres in the last five years and capture 32.1 per cent marketshare," he said.
The company has 31 centres in Vietnam, Khera said, adding that plans are afoot to open another 20 centres over the next three years.
Wipro to open two BPO centres in China
Wipro is setting up two BPO centres in China by next month with a combined employee pool of 300, while another unit in the US will be opened later.
"We would be starting by next month...It will be up (in China)," Wipro Chief Executive Officer (BPO) T K Kurien said. The two centres are coming up in Shanghai and Chengdu, he said.
The two centres in China would provide financial services and finance and accounting works, Kurien said. "Our ambition is to grow to 10-15 customers in China," he said. "All our current customers will go there". Wipro BPO's Chinese foray is the second such initiative after Romania, where it has already set up a unit.
Wipro BPO also plans to open a centre in the US in the next six to nine months, he said. "We have identified the place. I can't talk about it right now," Kurien said
Pepsi launches small cans to spur sales
Beverages giant PepsiCo today launched 250-ml Pepsi cans at Rs 15, a price point that's 40 per cent lower than the existing 330-ml cans available at Rs 25.
It's a step in line with Pepsi India's strategy to push premium beverage sales in excess of 25 per cent annually.
The new slim packs are branded My Can.
"The slim cans will help push mass distribution of cans, which are now restricted in consumption," said Punita Lal, executive director, marketing, Pepsi Foods.
The company has also introduced the slim cans in its clear drink brand 7UP and will extend this to Mirinda and Mountain Dew soon.
Cans constitute a mere 2 per cent of the company's beverage volumes in India and it expects to increase that to 5 per cent of sales.
Lal said the company will target different formats – Tetrapaks, PET bottles, cans and so on – in different sizes to cater to the diverse needs of consumers.
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