· The net sales are up by 63% to Rs. 91.9 crore compared to net sales of Rs. 56.2 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last year.

· PAT has risen by 23% to Rs 10.7 crore from Rs.8.7 crore the same quarter last year even after providing for Rs. 5.03 crore for foreign currency fluctuations.

· Registering an impressive growth of 145%, the pharma sales have risen to Rs. 60.1 crore in the first quarter of 2008 as against Rs. 24.5 crore in the previous year.

· The EBIDTA for this quarter stood at Rs. 24.8 crore, an increase of 36.2% as compared to Rs 18.2 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Commenting on the results, Mr. Jai Hiremath, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Hikal Ltd., said, “The long-term contracts signed earlier with leading global life sciences companies is now resulting in increased pharma sales. We expect this trend to continue as a number of our projects will go on stream in the coming quarters.”

Earlier this month, IFC, a member of the World Bank group, agreed to invest US$ 15 million in Hikal by way of equity. Hikal also announced the inauguration of a new multi-purpose agrochemical plant at Taloja for supply of Active Ingredients for Crop Protection Products to Bayer CropScience AG.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Hikal:

Hikal is a reliable long-term outsourcing partner to companies in the Pharmaceuticals, Crop Protection Products, and Specialty Chemicals industry. The company has been supplying key active ingredients (AI) and intermediates, manufactured using stringent global quality standards, for it’s customers in the United States, Europe and Japan. Hikal’s advanced manufacturing facilities have been inspected and approved by leading global players in Crop protection and Pharmaceutical sectors. The crop protection facilities are located at Taloja and Mahad (Maharashtra). Hikal’s manufacturing activities are supported by state-of-the-art research centers and pilot plant facilities located at Bangalore and Taloja respectively. The API and pharmaceutical intermediates manufacturing facilities are situated in Jigani (Bangalore) and Panoli (Gujarat) respectively.

Modern India Free Trade Warehousing Private Limited is in the process of acquiring upto 300 acres of land at Taluka Panvel at a total costing of Rs.375 crores. The Company plans to meet this cost through Equity Capital, Debt & Internal Accruals. According to IL&FS report, leveraging on its location attribute, proximity to Mumbai and Navi Mumbai and other large-scale infrastructure projects like Airports, Ports & Special Economic Zones; the site is suitable for establishing Free Trade and Warehousing Zone.

Commenting on Modern India’s foray into FTWZ, Mr. Vijay Kumar Jatia, CMD, Modern India Ltd, says “A need was felt for developing a FTWZ. The FTWZ policy has been evolved to provide much needed infrastructure required for trading and storage activities relating to foreign trade. The key differentiator between an FTWZ and a standard warehouse is the unique product offering wherein the benefits of a free zone are integrated with professionally handled, high quality physical infrastructure, thereby providing an ideal platform for the successful proliferation of trading and warehousing companies in a globally competitive scenario”.

Mr. Jatia further added that “the benefits that come with FTWZ include common facilities such as cost effective skilled labour, transportation facilities, customized warehouse, sophisticated equipments, etc thereby improving the quality of infrastructure while reducing the logistics cost across the industry groups”.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Modern India Ltd.

Modern India Ltd (erstwhile Modern Mills Ltd) was incorporated in the year 1933. The company was a composite Textile Mill, however, prolonged strike in 1982 impacted operations of the company. MIL was one of the first to develop surplus land and the company revived on the back of project undertaken to develop a 40 storey residential complex at Mahalaxmi with modern amenities like swimming pool, health club, Jacuzzi, tennis court, squash court and ample parking space. Modern India Limited owns & operates a business centre at Mahalaxmi having about 150,000 sq. ft. of built up area provided to various reputed entities interalia (a) Aviva Life Insurance, (b) ING Vysya Bank, (c) HDFC Bank, (d) MF Global, (e) Emerson Process Mgt. Pvt. Limited, (f) Ugam Solutions Pvt. Ltd. & Lloyds Metal & Engineers Limited. Modern India Ltd. is also developing business space in the vicinity of existing business centre and upon completion it would have about 800,000 sq. feet of commercial space.

TaxYogi's differentiation is its tax planning software which is to be released soon. This will be completely integrated into the suite of other personalized financial planning software that is being developed at InvestmentYogi.com. "TaxYogi will combine analytics, a proprietary recommendation engine, and the collective intelligence of our user community to come up with tax planning suggestions," says Sanjay Joshi, the CTO of InvestmentYogi.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About InvestmentYogi

InvestmentYogi.com is a Hyderabad based internet startup that offers personalized financial planning tools and services that are typically only offered by wealth managers to HNIs (High Net-worth Individuals). InvestmentYogi does this through innovative and scalable technology that is tightly integrated into a social networking platform. It is managed by a team with over 20 years of combined experience in high volume internet web properties.

InvestmentYogi is registered under InvestmentYogi Fin Advisory Services Private Limited.

The equity will be offered to IFC by way of preferential share allotment which was approved at the meeting of Company’s Board of Directors held on July 3, 2008.

Mr. Jai Hiremath, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Hikal Ltd., said, “The IFC investment clearly demonstrates the strength and potential of Hikal. Building long term strategic partnerships is the fundamental basis on which Hikal operates and we welcome IFC’s financial support as part of our growth strategy. The significant capital inflows will be used for capacity expansion across our manufacturing and R&D facilities.”

The expansions will be carried out at Hikal’s existing sites at Jigani (near Bangalore), Panoli (Gujarat) and Taloja (near Mumbai).

Earlier this week, Hikal announced the inauguration of a new Multipurpose Agrochemical plant at Taloja for supply of Active Ingredients for Crop Protection Products to Bayer CropScience AG.

Hikal also announced a final dividend of 70% for the year ended March 2008 (previous year 65%) subject to approval of the shareholders. This includes the interim dividend of 30% that was paid in February 2008 (previous year 30%). The Board of Directors has also approved the audited accounts for the financial year ended 31st March 2008.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Hikal:

Hikal is a reliable long-term outsourcing partner to companies in the Pharmaceuticals, Crop Protection Products, and Specialty Chemicals industry. The company has been supplying key active ingredients (AI) and intermediates, manufactured using stringent global quality standards, for it’s customers in the United States, Europe and Japan. Hikal’s advanced manufacturing facilities have been inspected and approved by leading global players in Crop protection and Pharmaceutical sectors. The crop protection facilities are located at Taloja and Mahad (Maharashtra). Hikal’s manufacturing activities are supported by state-of-the-art research centers and pilot plant facilities located at Bangalore and Taloja respectively. The API and pharmaceutical intermediates manufacturing facilities are situated in Jigani (Bangalore) and Panoli (Gujarat) respectively.

Mr. Vishal Rawat, President, IKF Green Fuel Ltd said, “Energy Security has become a primary concern for all the countries. Increase in the energy demand combined with increasing cost of fossil fuel extraction is leading to continuous price hike of oil. In light of the said situation, our announcement showcases our commitment to the environment through the usage of biofuels.”

The company that is poised to become the leader in biofuels production in India by 2010 is planning to set up a refinery / trans-esterification plant in Vidarbha which will turn out approximately 10,000 liters of bio – diesel per day. It is expected that the entire operation (plantation and refinery) will generate direct employment for approximately 20,000 people within three years. The company is targeting an area of 10,000 hectares of land in the current cropping season. Consequently it is also in the process to tie up with NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), EGS (Kindly elaborate on the short forms), BRGF (Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme) and other Government schemes.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Nimbuzz will use this latest funding to continue to develop its product offering into the most comprehensive and user friendly application for the widest range of handsets, across multiple IM and Social Network communities and in any country.

Founder and CEO Evert Jaap Lugt commented: “We are actively working on strategic distribution deals with leading social networks and mobile operators. It is our aim to blend our technology with existing mobile internet access to upgrade the value chain for business and consumers alike. Operators understand the need for services like Nimbuzz which provide traffic and drive the demand for mobile data plans, an ever more important revenue stream.”

“Nimbuzz brings IM and voice to social networks.” adds Lugt. “By incorporating our applications, social networks can offer their users fully integrated real-time communication services like voice calls, chat, file sharing and access to their friends in other popular IM communities such as Skype, AIM, Yahoo, MSN and GTalk. Additionally, their online social networking experience can be extended to the mobile phone, allowing them to become completely connected.”

Deals with 10 major social networks and 3 operators are already on the table. The extent of the Nimbuzz product portfolio to date has confirmed the investors’ confidence in the companies’ potential to stay on top of technology advancements and in turn become an integral part of day to day mobile and internet communication.

“We are well on the way to realising this aim with more than 1, 000,000 registered mobile users and more than 5,000 joining each day. The renewed commitment from our investors, coupled with our impressive growth, gives us important additional leverage in our discussions with both operators looking for ways to generate loyalty amongst consumers and social networks enabling free chat and voice communication within their community. The uptake of applications such as Nimbuzz is driving mobile internet traffic and in turn accelerating the demand for flat rate mobile data plans, a big win for consumers and network operators alike”.

The continued introduction of flat rate mobile data plans provided by operators across Europe is a sure sign of the importance of mobile internet services to the future communications industry. Analysts such as IDC suggest VoIP will lead the communication evolution and predict that there will be around half a billion worldwide personal IP communications subscribers by 2012. With the benefit of this latest funding Nimbuzz will continue to capitalise on this market opportunity and build important win-win relationships with forward-thinking operators and strategic partners across the world.

Nimbuzz has grown rapidly and now employs 70 people. It has opened offices in Argentina and Brazil, where it has partnered with Abril, the largest media company in the country. With the benefit of this latest funding the team will work to extend Nimbuzz’s reach to other platforms including Windows Mobile, iPhone and Android and will implement additional social and presence-based features to its clients. Announcements on these and other developments are expected later this year.

In 2007 Nimbuzz raised $10 million in funding, led by Mangrove Capital Partners with investments from Naspers / MIH Group and Holtzbrinck Ventures. This money was used for the development of the current product offering, which allows users who download Nimbuzz access to free mobile VoIP calling, conference calling, instant messaging, chat and group chat, as well as photo and file sending across multiple IM communities (including Skype, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo!, AIM, Jabber and ICQ). It also offers a widget which provides voice to 23 social networks, including Facebook and MySpace – all from a single application.

The genuine Nimbuzz mobile VoIP works worldwide on Symbian Series 60 devices when connected using a 3G or Wifi network. However users with only a GPRS/EDGE connections, or using Java-enabled phones, can also make international mobile VoIP calls using the Nimbuzz “hybrid-VoIP” solution (as used by other providers like Truphone and Skype) – for making international mobile calls at local dial-in cost – in as many as 50 countries. Impressively, the development that has already gone into Nimbuzz means it works on more than 500 handsets worldwide.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Nimbuzz

Nimbuzz offers a social interaction service combining presence, IM, and VoIP. The free application is available on the mobile phone, PC and Web, for (group)calling, instant messaging, (group)chat, file sharing across popular IM communities, including Skype, MSN, GTalk, Yahoo!, AIM, ICQ, plus 23 social networks including Facebook and MySpace.

About Naspers

Naspers is a multinational media company with principal operations in electronic media (including pay-television, internet and instant-messaging subscriber platforms and the provision of related technologies) and print media (including the publishing, distribution and printing of magazines, newspapers and books). The group creates media content, builds brand names around it, and manages the platforms distributing the content.. Naspers’s most significant operations are located in South Africa, where it generates most of its revenues, with other operations located elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, China, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Brazil, the Netherlands, the USA, India and Thailand.

About Mangrove Capital Partners
Mangrove Capital Partners provides venture capital with a punch to entrepreneurs looking to build world class companies. We look to invest in companies operating Internet or Software businesses as early as possible in their development. We are particularly comfortable investing prior to product launch and view our role as an accelerator of growth and a partner for the journey to success. We expect to be alongside the company at all phases of this journey and encourage entrepreneurs to fulfill their vision, without any concessions.

Mangrove Capital Partners has been the first institutional investor to invest in many of the following portfolio companies: Skype, Securewave, Dialcom Networks , Piczo, Quintura, Properazzi, Brickfish, and Jambaz.

As an industry leader, Laqshya intends to continue to invest in developing world-class media assets, focusing on the top cities and infrastructure projects such as airports, transit systems and street furniture including modern bus queue shelters and pedestrian bridges. It has actively invested in developing state-of-the-art civic infrastructure such as pedestrian bridges and public toilets in Indore, Hyderabad, Chennai and other cities; and is underwriting such investments by winning long-term contracts for placing advertising on these assets. Having built a strong business in India, Sri Lanka and the UAE, Laqshya plans to expand its footprint across the Middle East, Africa and South-East Asia.

Mr. Alok Jalan, Managing Director, Laqshya Media, said, “This investment by Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity investor, comes at a time when the Out-of-Home advertising space is growing dramatically. We will be capitalising on the multiple growth opportunities we see for our business, and accelerate our company’s expansion plans to build our leadership position across India and overseas. We are excited to execute the next stages of our strategy in partnership with Warburg Pincus.”

Julie Johnson Staples, Head of Communications, Warburg Pincus, said, “Outdoor advertising in India is undergoing a period of rapid and transformative growth, as the industry consolidates and the quality of assets reaches global standards. We are delighted to partner with Laqshya Media, a recognized leader in this sector.”

Avendus Capital served as the sole financial advisor to Laqshya for this transaction.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

For the year ended March 31, 2008, Tilaknagar Industries’ PAT climbed 87% YoY to Rs. 16.21 crore from Rs 8.65 crore in the last fiscal. The Company’s Gross Sales for FY08, including Net Income from tie-ups stands at Rs 226.78 crores, a hop of 102.28%, as against Rs 112.11 crores in the last fiscal. There was a substantial jump in the total sales volume from 1.31 million cases in the previous fiscal to 4.21 million cases in FY 2007-’08, notching a growth of 221.37 per cent.

Announcing the results, Mr. Amit Dahanukar, Chairman & Managing Director of Tilaknagar Industries Ltd. said, “The increase in sales was driven by increased efforts in distribution and aggressive marketing inputs. We hope to sustain the growth pattern in the coming years, thereby maximizing shareholders’ returns.”

The Company is readying to invest Rs. 150 crores to be requisitioned through debt, equity and internal accruals, for use in the expansion of their plant from 50 KLPD to 100 KLPD (Kilo Litres Per Day), and diversification to grain spirit-based alcohol plant, approval for which has been received from the Excise Department.

Taking advantage of the subsidies being given by the Maharashtra government, TI plans to set up a grain distillery plant capable of producing 1,00,000 ltrs. of spirit per day in the state. TI has already received the letter of intent for their application for a Grain distillery license from the state government.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Tilaknagar Industries Ltd.

Mumbai-based Tilaknagar Industries Ltd is primarily engaged in the business of manufacturing and marketing of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), which consists of whisky, rum, gin and vodka with a strong presence in the brandy market. TI’s brand portfolio consists of Senate Royale, Courrier Napoleon, Mansion House, Classic Whisky, Shot whisky and Hottt silk whisky. TI brand Shot whisky crossed one million cases in sales in 2007-08. At present, their products like Senate Whisky and Classic Whisky are being exported to Western Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and the Caribbean countries.

Alok Industries plans to sell part of its stake in its realty unit to 3-4 private equity firms by August end. The company’s chief financial officer Sunil Khandelwal is currently in the UK for negotiations on this issue. They are working out different options and strategies for there realty venture. Alok Industries had initiated talks with private equity firms in October last year, but had to discontinue after crashes in the stock markets led to a steep correction in valuations.

According to analysts, Alok could be looking at increasing the valuation of the realty company through a private equity deal and subsequently list it. Alok Infrastructure plans to invest large amounts in real estate development and is also developing over one hundred eighty acres in its textile SEZ in Silvassa. It has already acquired two hundred twenty acres at Silvassa. The company has also acquired one hundred thirty acres at Panvel at the rate of twenty five lakh rupees per acre in a 50-50 joint venture. According to India Real Estate sector report Global Research, the Indian real estate market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20 percent, driven by an 18-19 percent growth in residential real estate, 55-60 percent in retail real estate, and 20-22 percent in commercial real estate, over the next five years.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

"This investment allows Syntensia to continue our solid growth in India and our expansion in Cambodia and the Philippines," said Syntensia CEO Johan Hansson. "It also makes possible expansion into other Asian markets. We are particularly pleased to have attracted the support of InnovationsKapital, which has a reputation for backing innovative growth companies in Scandinavia."

“Syntensia is capitalizing on the powerful combination of a low cost, high demand product offering to fast growing markets. We are very pleased with our investment in Syntensia and feel very excited about the company’s potential,” said InnovationsKapital’s Investment Director Magnus Berglind.

Syntensia's WK product series is the most cost-effective and comprehensive network security solution for SMB available in the market today. These hardware-based appliances are Plug and Play ready, all-in-one network security solutions that integrate seven crucial security check points - Firewall, VPN, Intrusion Protection, Anti Virus, Spam Elimination, Surf Protection and Spyware Guarding and are available for a nominal subscription fee.

Syntensia’s subscription model typically bundles everything into its single subscription fee, including automatic updates, maintenance and 24X7 technical support, thus enabling organizations to eliminate upfront costs, providing a predictable cost structure, and ensuring quality of service and the freedom to re-evaluate the solution decision any time.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

InnovationsKapital (www.innkap.com) was founded in 1994 and is a leading independent venture capital firm for innovative growth companies in the Nordic region. The business, carried out from offices in and Stockholm, Gothenburg and New York, is focused on investments within ICT and Healthcare & Life Sciences — dynamic sectors that are rapidly expanding and where Nordic research plays an important role. The capital is provided by highly reputable Swedish and international institutional investors.

Syntensia AB

Syntensia AB (www.syntensia.com) is a European Company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Established in 2005, Syntensia is a pioneer in Security on-demand solutions sold on subscription basis. Syntensia focuses on providing all-in-one network security solutions for SMB in high growth emerging markets.

The project entails setting up 25,000 Common Service centers (CSCs) in rural India across six states namely West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. These Centres would link the rural areas with the entire world and provide all necessary services needed by them. Beginning from e-governance to e-commerce and to e-learning have already been incorporated in the bouquet of services to be offered and the plan is to gradually expand the service range.

Mr. Hemant Kanoria, Chairman & Managing Director of SREI informed that “the implementation has already begun in West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu and within the end of next year all these 25,000 centres would be operational.”

Under a unique model created by the Company people would be empowered at the operating level. About 25,000 Entrepreneurs would run these centres and they in turn would create direct employment of another 75,000 persons in the rural areas. The VLE or the Village Level Entrepreneur will operate the CSCs, offering a variety of services, which would include programme, and facilities that the government would provide in the rural areas like birth certificates, land records among others. SREI Sahaj would add the e-commerce and e-learning products to makes it remunerative for the village level entrepreneur.

“SREI has always believed in creating partnerships and through this initiative we will create 25,000 new rural partners within a span of two years across six states in India”, said Hemant Kanoria.

“This Venture of creating rural infrastructure is exciting and will service 21 crore rural people, i.e. about 33% of the rural population of our country” said Mr. Kanoria. The government’s plan is to set up 1,00,000 CSCs for offering such services. SREI’s share through its operations in the six states has already touched 25 percent, which would make it the single largest service provider in the rural area.

“Our plan is to expand to other states and cover a large part of the country through our rural partnership approach. It is a mammoth task, but in our one year of trial, we are convinced that we can achieve our target” said Dr. Sabahat Azim, CEO, SREI Sahaj e-Village Ltd.

The Sahaj-developed e-learning model offers unique courses in English language and Computer learning through a broadcast device over Internet.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

ABOUT SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited

SREI is one of India’s leading private sector infrastructure equipment finance, project finance & project advisory and development services companies. The company has also developed strong expertise in areas of investment banking and venture funds, besides insurance broking. SREI operates across the country with a network of 51 offices and has expanded its operations overseas in Russia. SREI is the first Indian Infrastructure Financing Company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). International Finance Corporation (IFC) Washington (World Bank Group), KfW Germany & DEG Germany (Financial Institutions owned by the Government of Germany), FMO the Netherlands (Financial Institution owned by the Government of Netherlands), BIO Belgium (Financial Institutions owned by the Government of Belgium) and FINFUND Finland (Financial Institution owned by the Government of Finland) are among the large stakeholders in the Company.

ABOUT SREI SAHAJ e-Village Limited

SREI SAHAJ e-Village Limited is a subsidiary of SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited. It is a business integrator in the field of IT infrastructure with a focus on rural India. It has 30 offices across 6 states and is emerging as one of the largest implementers of ICT projects in India.

The ICSI-WIRC is also organising a study circle seminar on IPO case studies to be held on Friday, May 23, 2008, at 06.00 pm at ICSI-WIRC premises, 13 Jolly Maker Chambers No.2, First Floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai- 400 021. Mr. Rajnish Rangari, Country Head Investment Banking – CMG, Karvy Investor Services Ltd., will be conducting the session.

The Faculty for conducting the seminar (scheduled May 24) on "Accessing International Capital Markets: A Discussion on ADRs/ GDRs/ FCCBs/ FCEBs" comprises an illustrious gathering of luminaries from the business including: Mr. Aditya Gaiha, Deputy General Manager, FED, Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai, Mr. J.C. Bham, Company Secretary, Tata Iron and Steel Co. Ltd., Mumbai, Mr. Sanjiv Bhatia, Senior Vice President, Issuer Services – Global Transaction Services, Citibank, Mumbai, and Mr. Greg Hughes, Associate Director, Transaction Services, KPMG, Mumbai. The topics to be covered included: Industry Perspective, Regulatory Perspective, Depository Perspective and Financial Perspective & Overseas Listing Requirements. The Delegate Fees is as follows: Members – Rs. 1,200; • Non-Members – Rs. 1,500; and Students – Rs. 1,000; (Inclusive of Seminar Kit & Lunch).

Mr. Mahavir Lunawat, Chairman of ICSI-WIRC, said, “The Institute of Company Secretaries Western India Regional Office has lined up a series of programmes on accessing the capital markets in India and abroad. We have also roped in the support of some of the brightest brains in the business to interact with the participants. We believe that these initiatives will go a long way in developing greater understanding of the complex capital markets.”

Also, the admission to the Company Secretaries (CS) Executive Programme is on. Graduates seeking admission till August 31, 2008, will be eligible for Examination in June, 2009. B.A/ B.Sc. B.Com Graduates of any discipline (excluding Fine Arts) can pursue the CS EXECUTIVE PROGRAMME conducted by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). The 24 Hours CS Helpline is available on Telephone No. 011 - 41504444.

Prospectus and Application Form for CS Executive Programme is available on cash payment of Rs.300/- at C 37, Sector 62, Noida or from ICSI-NIRC Building, Plot No. 4, Prasad Nagar Institutional Area, Rajendra Place, New Delhi. The Prospectus can also be had by Registered Post by sending a Demand Draft/Postal Order for Rs.350/- favouring “The Institute of Company Secretaries of India” through any of the 73 offices of the ICSI spread all over India. For further details log on to : www.icsi.edu

The ICSI a premier National professional distance education body, established by an Act of Parliament (Company Secretaries Act, 1980) and imparts compulsory Postal Tuition (by correspondence) along with provision for optional oral coaching classes. Admission to the CS course is open throughout the year. After qualifying the Executive and Professional Examination students are required to undergo Practical and Modular Training to become qualified Company Secretaries.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

For more information:
Mr. Mahesh Khanolkar, Western India Regional Office, Institute of Company Secretaries; Ph: 22021826, 22047569, 22844073; E-mail: pr.wirc@icsi.edu
Ms. Y. Karkera, Kruthika Communications; Ph: 228699207, 9930050101; E-mail: ykarkera@gmail.com

14.5 hours per week reading and answering email

13.3 hours per week creating documents

9.6 hours per week searching for information

9.5 hours per week analyzing information

IDC also estimates that an organization employing up to 1,000 knowledge workers loses $5.7 million annually just in time wasted having to reformat information as they move among applications. Not finding information costs that same organization an additional $5.3 million a year.

Focusing on innovative technologies, such as semantic and collaborative applications, may have the potential to address these inefficiencies and radically change the business economics. By reducing email clutter, partially automating document creation and making searches more effective, information workers are left with more time to perform analysis work which may be more valuable to the organization. Analysis work itself can also be speeded up by deploying low cost user tools such as Enterprise Mashups to access and manipulate distributed information.

Management and users need to consider areas such as;

CEO / CFO / Senior Executives

Is the technology investment aligned with the strategic objectives of the organization?

Is the organization following best practices and peer competitive?

Is there a better, quicker, cheaper way?

CIO / IT Director / IT Manager

Can the IT budget be better utilized to meet management and user needs?

What technology tools exist to abstract complexity and get business & technical agility?

How does the company move from an operational to strategic IT outlook aligned with business needs?

'Line of Business' Managers / Users

How can end users get access to key information quickly?

How can end uses achieve better collaboration across various departments?

How can end users effectively capture and disseminate knowledge throughout the organization?

The new business driven services supplied by MaxTunity are focused entirely on addressing questions, such as the above, to attain technology ROI for clients. The services also encourage the use of a low risk change management approach to satisfy project cost and timescale targets.

With the benefit of previous experience in taking a systems integration consultancy to flotation stage, Alan Glass, Director of MaxTunity said, “As we do not sell hardware or software, our research and services are geared towards helping clients reduce IT budget over a 3 to 4 year cycle, rather than increasing it. Whilst preserving legacy investment where possible, we also aim to cost effectively introduce elements of a modern, strategic IT architecture as a solid base for increased functionality and innovation.”

More details on the newly launched services are available at www.maxtunity.com/business_IT_services

Contact Information

Alan Glass, Glass,Director, MaxTunity,

Aston Science Park,

Faraday Wharf, Holt Street,

Birmingham, UK, B7 4BB

Phone: +44 121 260 6055

Fax: +44 121 260 6003

Email: marketing@maxtunity.com

Website: http://www.maxtunity.com

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About MaxTunity: MaxTunity are a privately funded, vendor independent IT research and services company based in the UK. MaxTunity’s aim is to maximize technology ROI for their clients worldwide. MaxTunity are based at a prominent Science Park which offers access to leading edge academic research and European networks.

The easy-to-read, well structured book is also translated to other languages like Japanese and Korean for the benefit of FML's international clients. Divided into six parts, the book covers aspects of Indian law such as foreign direct investment, general corporate laws, taxation and dispute resolution. It provides valuable information on investments in India, carrying on business, employment laws, capital market regulation, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), double taxation avoidance treaties, the court system, arbitration laws and even environmental regulations.

Mr. Som Mandal, Managing Partner, FML, says "We at FoxMandal Little would like to think of ourselves as more than just a law firm. Part of our responsibilities as legal professionals of 21st century India is to ensure that we provide true and accurate information, not just to our clients, but also the investors at large. As a much needed guide to the intricacies and labyrinthine laws and procedures for doing business in India, the book serves as a point of first reference to the investor, professional and scholar alike". "We believe that our book titled "Investing in India- 2008" shows our commitment and devotion to make India as the most attractive country for investments" he further added.

FML regularly attends and addresses distinguished conferences, wherein the book is given to all delegates, hosted by International Bar Association, American Bar Association, Inter-Pacific Bar Association, Asia Law and Practice conferences, Conference of Singapore Construction Industry, International Financial Law Review conferences, Bengal National Chambers of Commerce, Confederation of Indian Industry, FICCI, etc., all over the world. It comes into most use when dealing with a specific sector or industrial activity. This is why the chapter on Sectoral Overview outlines the sector-specific laws and guidelines relating to twenty areas of industrial activity. It covers most of the Indian economy and an investor would be hard pressed not to find this book both useful and handy.

Highlights of the Book

Seeking to provide a comprehensive and holistic overview of foreign direct investment in India, FML’s annual publication “Investing in India” serves as a handy tool for the foreign investor and the scholar alike. The book acts as a central location for issues relating to FDI in India and deals with a number of areas of law including setting up of companies, taxation, environmental regulation and even a broad, general introduction to the Indian economy.

The book is divided into six parts as follows:

1. An Introduction to India outlines broadly, the Indian economy, its political and judicial scenario and explains why India is a much sought-after investment destination
2. A Special Introduction on Foreign Direct Investment elaborates the current FDI policy and FDI ceilings for various sectors
3. The section on General Corporate deals with a number of issues faced by multi national corporates when setting up a business in India. These include entry option for foreign enterprises, how to protect intellectual property rights, export and import, capital market regulation, external commercial borrowings, labour welfare and environmental regulation
4. The section on Taxation not only explains the taxation system in India, both direct and indirect, but also brings forth the advantages a foreign enterprise may take from the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements between India and Cyprus, Mauritius and Singapore.

1. Dispute Resolution outlines the judicial system in India and explains the procedures involved for dispute resolution, both in a mainstream litigation setting as well as out-of-court alternative methods.
2. The sixth and final part is a Sectoral Overview of laws and regulations governing individual industrial sectors. This covers most areas of the Indian economy- from Healthcare to Venture Capital, from Real Estate, Construction and Special Economic Zones to Biotechnology.

It is our belief at FML that “Investing in India” is invaluable for any investor interested in a slice of the vibrant and dynamic pie that is the Indian economy. The simplicity of language, the lucid style and the clarity of thought and expression lend much to the practicality of the book. Deciphering Indian law is a tedious and protracted task at best. Investing in India is our way of telling foreign investors that one of the best things that they could do is to continue “investing in India”.

We hope that you’ll enjoy reading this book as much as we have enjoyed making it.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

FoxMandal Little in its humble commitment to attract FDI into India four years back published the 1st Edition of the book entitled “Investing In India”.

It was strongly felt that foreign Investors need to know more about their possible investment into India and also have to have a brief overview of the relevant questions that generally pop up into the mind of an investor prior to their investment in a new environment. The Government of India has no such relevant publication and even the other publications available in the market are not very relevant and do not contain all relevant information in a comprehensive manner.

Our book captures the most salient features of investments into India and we have tried to cover all the relevant information that an Investor needs to know. We have tried to be as practical as possible to cover the relevant information which includes amongst others entry options for Foreign Investors, IP laws, Labour laws, Environment laws, Taxation, Double Taxation Treaties, Dispatch Resolution and Sectoral overviews.

The response that we have received and the success of the 1st edition encouraged us to commit ourselves to bring subsequently each year after the Budget a new edition of the said publication. This year we are into our 4th edition. The book has so far received tremendous reviews from all those Investors who have used it. Looking at possible Investments from countries like Korea, Japan, China, we have also been publishing soft copies of this book in Korean, Japanese and Chinese languages which has been greatly appreciated. The Indian Embassy in Korea has been handing our book to potential Investors from Korea to India and such Investors have been highly impressed with the Indian Embassy for providing such high quality books free of cost.

This year, we are planning to send this book to many other Indian Embassies around the world so that they may use this as an information tool to potential Investors in India. We are also planning to take out an Arabic Version of this book from this year.

The cover page of the Book has also attracted wonderful comments since its project what India was and is now. It depicts India’s past and present in pictures. We feel that the book’s greatest strength lies in its simplicity. We hope that you enjoy reading “Investing in India” and help us make this release a wonderful success.

Coming to other arenas- FoxMandal Little has been the first Asian firm to open an office in London this year on 18th February, for which we have received great encouragement and appreciation from across the globe.

CLP India will invest approximately Rs 500 Crore or US$125 million in the 100.8 MW wind power project in Samana, Jamnagar, Gujarat. The project will be the largest wind project undertaken to date by the CLP Group. It will involve the building of 126 turbines of Enercon-E53, each with a capacity of 800 KW. The wind farm is expected to be completed in two phases, with 50.4MW to be completed by June 2008, and the other 50.4MW by January 2009. Upon its full commissioning, the wind farm will be anticipated to reduce reduction of approximately 200,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.

CLP's Chief Executive Office, Andrew Brandler, said: "The Samana project reinforces CLP's commitment to growing our position as a leading Indian power producer through CLP India. It will also make an important contribution to the Group's renewable energy portfolio, which is growing both geographically and in terms of its contribution to our generating capacity."

CLP Group is committed to the reduction of carbon emissions and the development of renewable energy in the Asia Pacific region. In end 2007, it has achieved its voluntary target of having 5% of its total generating capacity from renewables sources, and has now scores of wind, hydro, biomass and solar energy projects in India, China and Australia. Last year, the Group issued its Climate Vision 2050, and pledged that the carbon emissions intensity from its generation portfolio will be reduced by 75% by 2050, and 20% of its generation portfolio will come from non-carbon emitting sources by 2020.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About CLP India

CLP India is one of the largest foreign investors in the Indian power sector and is responsible for developing CLP's presence in that market. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Hong Kong based CLP Group, one of the leading power companies in Asia Pacific.

It is responsible for the GPEC gas-fired power plant in Gujarat. CLP acquired a majority stake in GPEC in 2002 and fully acquired GPEC in mid-2003. The GPEC power plant is one of the largest independent power projects (IPPs) to have been set up in India.

CLP is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is one of the largest investor-owned power businesses in Asia. Through CLP Power Hong Kong, it operates a vertically integrated electricity supply business in Hong Kong, and provides a highly reliable supply of electricity and excellent customer services to over 5.5 million people in its supply area.

The CLP Group is the largest external investor in the Chinese mainland electricity industry, and a leading international private sector power company in the Asia-Pacific region with an integrated energy business in Australia and interests in OneEnergy, a 50-50 joint venture with Mitsubishi Corporation, which owns generating assets in Southeast Asia.

Qualcomm Ventures was launched in the United States in November 2000 with an initial US$500 million allocation. Qualcomm Ventures’ aim is to support Qualcomm’s mission of enabling and fostering next-generation wireless markets through strategic investments in privately owned startup ventures. These strategic investments include companies focusing on wireless communication technologies and products serving consumer, enterprise and vertical markets worldwide.

After expanding its activities in Korea, Japan, China and Europe, Qualcomm Ventures is expanding into India. For more information, please visit www.qualcomm.com/ventures

Qualcomm Incorporated (www.qualcomm.com) is a leader in developing and delivering innovative digital wireless communications products and services based on CDMA and other advanced technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Qualcomm is included in the S&P 500 Index and is a 2007 FORTUNE 500® company traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market® under the ticker symbol QCOM.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Qualcomm Ventures was launched in the United States in November 2000 with an initial US$500 million allocation. Qualcomm Ventures’ aim is to support Qualcomm’s mission of enabling and fostering next-generation wireless markets through strategic investments in privately owned startup ventures. These strategic investments include companies focusing on wireless communication technologies and products serving consumer, enterprise and vertical markets worldwide.

After expanding its activities in Korea, Japan, China and Europe, Qualcomm Ventures is expanding into India. For more information, please visit www.qualcomm.com/ventures

Qualcomm Incorporated (www.qualcomm.com) is a leader in developing and delivering innovative digital wireless communications products and services based on CDMA and other advanced technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Qualcomm is included in the S&P 500 Index and is a 2007 FORTUNE 500® company traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market® under the ticker symbol QCOM.

Qualcomm is a registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

“When making their investment decisions, investors frequently look at the eastern and western European market separately, and often overlook the fact that, with its strategically favorable position, eastern Germany is an exceptional investment location for serving both markets from a single site”, said Dr. Engelbert Luetke Daldrup, Deputy Minister, German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, while releasing the report by KPMG.

According to some sources, outbound FDI by Indian companies exceeded foreign direct investment into India in 2007. Indian companies invest significantly more abroad than companies from the other BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), and have set up remarkable local presence at breakneck speed all over the world. Initially majority of Indian foreign direct investment (FDI) was focused on the USA and the UK. Other markets have since grown more attractive for Indian FDI, especially in the industrial countries of Western Europe.

Mr. Andreas Dressler, Director- Advisory Services, KPMG in Germany said, “The rapid international growth of Indian companies means that they will need to expand their physical presence to support new business in different countries and regions. Europe is becoming a critical market for Indian companies from a range of industries and Germany in particular is one of the most lucrative sources of potential business. Finding the right location in Europe is one of the key challenges Indian companies face.”

Advantage East Germany: KPMG

- The number of skilled manpower in eastern Germany is increasing

-Compared with most western European countries, eastern Germany has surprisingly low labor costs

- Eastern German locations are ahead of their competitors in Eastern Europe in terms of patent applications, scientific publications and total R&D expenditure

- A modern infrastructure, which includes transport connections, power supply and the availability of commercial real estate

- Indian investors can benefit from the favorable state investment regulations and funding opportunities

- BMW, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Amazon, Dell, Dow, GlaxoSmithKline and MTV are some international companies present in East Germany

- Suzlon, Wockhardt, Voltas, Bharat Forge and the Viraj Group are some Indian companies in the region

Eastern German industries with investment potential for Indian companies include the automotive supplier industry, mechanical engineering, engineering services, microelectronics, renewable energies, biotechnology, chemicals and pharma, and service centers. Various regional focal points for the individual growth industries have developed in eastern Germany.

“India is currently developing into a global economic power, with its businesses displaying great entrepreneurial spirit and dynamism. As they head for Europe, they will find that the federal states of eastern Germany present attractive arguments for selecting a location at the heart of the European Union”, added Dr. Engelbert Luetke Daldrup.

Germany’s reunification gave fresh impetus to the economy of this region in the heart of Europe. India itself began its successful race to catch up as an emerging market in the global economy at

more or less the same time, in the early 1990s. This common experience can serve as a connective element to provide Indian companies with an attractive investment alternative in the center of Europe.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About KPMG:

KPMG is the global network of professional services firms of KPMG International. KPMG member firms provide audit, tax and advisory services through industry focused, talented professionals, who deliver value for the benefit of their clients and communities.

KPMG in India has offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune and services over 2,000 international and national clients. The firms in India have access to more than 900 Indian and expatriate professionals.

MagicBricks.com South India Property Bazaar ‘08 will not just offer thousands of residential property options to choose from, but also will provide home financing options – all at a single venue.

Mr. Naveen Luthra, VP and Business Head, MagicBricks.com said, “India has witnessed consistent real estate growth in all the major cities of the country, and the development has moved onto the Tier-II and Tier-III cities. There is a huge demand for properties in and around big metros like Bengaluru, Hyderabad & Chennai.”

“In addition, South Indian cities like Mysore and Cochin have metamorphosed into a second home option for many investors. Homeseekers are looking for villas, houses and apartments in these places suiting their budgets. Keeping this in mind, Magicbricks.com has created South India’s biggest property fair and this innovative platform - South India Property Bazaar ‘08.” added Mr. Luthra.

There will be an abundance of over 200 projects, both ready and under-construction, to choose from, brought by the best and most illustrious developers, builders, and real estate agents at the MagicBricks.com South India Property Bazaar ‘08.

Some of the reputed names participating at the MagicBricks.com South India Property Bazaar ‘08 include ICICI Bank Home Loans, Concept City Group, Goel Ganga Group, Vakil Housing, Alpine Housing, Gopalan Enterprises, Vaswani Group, UKN Properties, Alliance Projects, Aliens Group, Lakshish Habitats, Acron Developers, Desai Homes & JTL and Reliance Capital.

MagicBricks.com regularly conducts property fairs, branded as “MagicBricks.com Property Bazaars”, which serve as a one-stop-shop for property-seekers to interact face-to-face with developers, real estate agents and housing financing institutions, all at a single venue. MagicBricks.com Property Fairs are conducted in 4 different formats, Locality-Centric (e.g. Property Fair in Bengaluru for properties in that city), Income-Centric (e.g. Luxury Properties for HNIs – by invitation only), Regional Showcase (e.g. Goa properties fair in Delhi), and International Fairs (e.g. Indian Properties showcased to NRIs and PIOs in Singapore, Dubai & London). So far, MagicBricks.com has conducted over 40 domestic and 6 international property fairs.

Magic Bricks.com is set to provide home-seekers with the amazing experience of a landmark real-estate fair with this event. So don’t miss this amazing opportunity! Make time & visit the best developers, builders, and financers - all under one roof at the innovative MagicBricks.com South India Property Bazaar ‘08 at Koramangala Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru on 5th & 6th of April 2008.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About MagicBricks.com:

The internet has empowered and paced up our lives almost on every front. The emerging virtual world of the real estate sector is an outstanding example of the paradigm shift the internet is bringing. People prefer to search for information on product online before they actually buy it and this applies to property search as well. Online property search is catching up fast, be it a residential or a commercial plot, building, flat or office space.

Keeping with the trend, Times Business Solutions launched MagicBricks.com in August ’06, as a platform to bring together buyers and sellers in the real estate industry. Within three months of its launch, MagicBricks.com achieved the status of being the No.1 property portal in India. With its revolutionary next-gen services customized specifically to address the real estate industry it has consolidated its position as the leader in the sector. MagicBricks.com provides a common platform for all users, and provides a space for property buyers & sellers to locate properties of interest and source information about all property related issues in a transparent and unambiguous process.

MagicBricks.com offers a pan – India coverage of over 500,000 listings, showcasing the Indian real-estate market. MagicBricks.com currently records over 15 million page-views per month.

MagicBricks.com comes packed with a host of tools, never witnessed before by Real-Estate Industry, which include –

•Location Map Service

•Unique Property Alerts

•Micro-Sites

•Virtual Walkthroughs

•Brix-Research

With such innovations, it is evident MagicBricks.com retains its leadership position with more than 5 Lakh properties live on the site, and over 3.5 lakh registered users, including over 40,000 real estate agents and more than 5,000 builders having their presence on the site.

Announcing the launch of Aokang in India, Mr. Wang Zhentao, Chairman & President – Aokang Group said “Aokang has been a name familiar with the Indian consumers for its quality and craftsmanship. We have been waiting for an opportune moment to enter the Indian market and with a booming economy and high purchasing parity, the market is just right for international brands to enter India. We are looking forward to establish ourselves in the Indian market with our top quality international footwear.”

In its commitment towards making world-class footwear in India, Aokang International India Pvt. Ltd will be setting up an R&D centre and manufacturing units to boost its production. While the first Aokang store will be opened in Emaar MGF Metropolitan Mall , Saket, New Delhi, the brand will be available in over 200 stores including exclusive, retail and multi-brand outlets by the end of the year.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Anirudh Banerjee, CEO - Aokang International India Pvt. Ltd, said “While the Indian footwear industry is pegged at around US$ 2750 million, the branded segment contributes about US$ 1400 million. There is a huge growth potential in the Indian market and our inherent belief of providing the best international quality footwear will witness a paradigm shift in the Indian market.”

Aokang’s Spring Summer Collection is available in formal, casual and party ranges both for women and men, priced between Rs. 1899– Rs. 3699. For the upcoming season, Aokang is going to come up with their Signature Collection priced between Rs. 5999 – Rs. 9999.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Aokang Group

Established in 1988, Aokang Group is one of the first in the shoes making industry to pass ISO9001 international quality system and ISO14001 environmental management system. With its main products of Aokang leather shoes having been honored national genuine leather shoes king, national famous brand, national famous trademark, Aokang has become the only leading brand in China’s leather shoes industry. It is also listed in industrial tourism sites and has won the National May Day Prize. Aokang Group boasts 3 shoes-making bases, 5 shoes brands and 3 design centers in Wenzhou, Dongguan and Milan, where thousands of new shoes are developed every year, leading the fashion trend in shoes making industry.

"India is also a high-growth market vis-à-vis rest of APAC market, our clientele have grown manifold. It gives us immense pleasure that the third party (IDC DQ Channels) has rated us as the second largest networking company in the Indian SMB market. The heartening thing is that the difference between the number one and two is marginal. This gives us an impetus to be aggressive in the Indian market,” says Mr. Lo.

“We are investing in creating focussed teams within the organization, who can work aggressively on various high-growth vertical markets i.e. Education, Retail, BFSI, Government and PSUs, added Mr. Lo”

Mr. Kerman Rana,Managing Director, Central Asia Pacific, says, “NETGEAR India is growing faster in this region because of our innovative products and solutions. Moving along the line of our commitment to India, we will be bringing out the new families of next-generation Wireless-N networking solutions, ReadyNAS advanced network-attached storage solutions, built-for-business ProSafe switches, security and wireless solutions, wired and wireless network bridges and extenders, and carrier-grade broadband gateway solutions to India. These are the solutions we had exhibited at CeBIT 2008 and earned high adulation.

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Lo said, “Net Gear India continues its exponential revenue growth year on year and our expectation is that we will put up a better performance for next couple of years.”

Mr. Atul Jain, Country Manager –NETGEAR Technologies, India & SAARC said, “This is the second visit of our founder Chairman, Mr. Patrick Lo to India which clearly suggests his interest and the company’s focus and commitment to this country. At the micro-level, our focus is to go deep into the smaller places and demonstrate our capabilities. We believe apart from metros, there is a huge market in B and C class cities, which are growing more than the metros. We are investing in channel training programmes, customers’ awareness programmes, road shows etc. to grasp these markets”

“As Patrick says, we will have a much accelerated growth this year because our plans are executed at the right time and right direction. This year, we have strengthened our distribution network by taking Ingram Micro on board. However, we have been working with Rashi Peripherals and Cyberstar Infocom Ltd. for a long time. Complementing each other, these three companies will contribute to the growth of NETGEAR fabulously,” he added.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About NETGEAR® India Pvt. Ltd.

NETGEAR® India Pvt. Ltd. is the subsidiary of$727.8 million Netgear Inc. US. NETGEAR designs technologically advanced, branded networking products that address the specific needs of small and medium business and home users. The Company's product offerings enable users to share Internet access, peripherals, files, digital multimedia content and applications among multiple personal computers and other Internet-enabled devices.

Pi is developing cloud computing software and services to help individuals control how they find, access, share and protect their ever-growing and increasingly valuable personal information.

“At Pi we are working on cutting edge, revolutionary product development and looking for highest quality developers and quality analyst who want to be part of changing the world. We hand-pick our talent. Our focus is on hiring quality professionals. We look for people who are up to the challenge of solving deep problems, ones who work on a task with great determination.” said Ms. Arathi Kundapur, Director – Engineering, Pi Corp.

“Cloud computing is a term people are using to describe the next generation of computing in which functions are delivered across the Internet as services. It promises to reduce cost and complexity while delivering better experiences”, she added.

The company was acquired last week by EMC, the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions. Pi will operate as an independent subsidiary.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Pi Corporation

Pi Corporation is a software company focused on creating better ways for people to organize, share and access their data. It was founded in late 2003 by Paul Maritz, a former Microsoft executive. Pi is an independent subsidiary of EMC Corporation.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

For further information please contact:
Kheman Kumar - Good Relations India
9871829296

Murud Janjira is a very beautiful beach side location situated about 2 hours from the gateway of India. The Ambrosia has many attractive features which makes it a must buy for any real estate investor:

• Nestles on a sea facing hill slope, 100m off the National Highway to Goa
• Just 2 hour's from Gateway of India via Alibag
• Aesthetically designed layout designed by one of India's finest Architects
• Villas of size 3000 - 6000 sq ft on plots of 4000 - 8000 sq ft
• Premium fittings and construction materials used
• Elite neighborhood – of corporate honchos, celebrities, NRI’s (sale only by invitation)

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

The Yahoo! Research Israel Lab, which opens today, will focus on boiling down complex technology problems into simple solutions to change the game in Web search. As a demonstration of its commitment to next-generation search, Yahoo! recently opened Yahoo! Labs – Bangalore and appointed eminent scientist Dr. Rajeev Rastogi to head the new India lab. Yahoo!’s arrival in Israel furthers the company’s commitment to discovering new technologies that deliver compelling experiences on the Web.

“Search is still in its infancy,” said Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo! Research. “At Yahoo!, we are working on the hard core science that can lead to search experiences that are significantly beyond the current art.” He continues to say, “Ronny Lempel is a great addition to the world-class team that we have assembled to develop a new approach to Web search. His expertise in search technologies and ties to local academia will help us draw on the best talent and knowledge from across the region and strengthen our worldwide R&D efforts.”

Lempel previously worked at the Information Retrieval Group at IBM's Haifa Research Lab, focusing on research and development for enterprise search systems. Prior to joining IBM, he received his BSc., MSc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. He has authored numerous papers and received several awards for his work on search engine technology, and has twice won the Best Presentation Award at the International World Wide Web Conference.

“Israel is fertile ground for incredibly talented technologists, researchers and engineers, and the Yahoo! Research Israel Lab provides the best opportunity to create the technologies that will underpin the next generation of search on the Internet,” Lempel said. “I look forward to building the Haifa team with the best talent this region has to offer.”

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

India being the largest milk producer in the world with an annual production of more than 100 million tons, is a huge potential of value added dairy products. Functional Systems plant will initially produce blends for the ice cream market and then will move on to other dairy products. The Enzyme plant will make enzyme blends to satisfy the needs of the Indian market for grain processing, textiles, laundry detergents, fuel ethanol, animal feed and food and beverages.

Danisco India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Danisco A/s, the Denmark headquartered USD 3.8 Billion (INR 14,820 Crores) international producer and supplier of food ingredients, sugar and industrial bio-products. The company has direct presence in 47 countries and an employee base of 9,700 worldwide.

Neil Prasad, Managing Director - South Asia & the Gulf States, Danisco India says: "For Danisco timing for our two plants is ideal. The changes in government legislation in processed food have spurred our functional system investment, while the obvious importance of Bio Technology in South Asia has resulted in our Enzyme Investment. We have also used the most up to date blending technology in our plants with versatile capacity.” – he adds. “The future is bright and can be seen all around you in the region, the retail industry is a good indicator which has moved in leaps & bounds over the last three years.”

“The SAARC region has been showing sustainable double digit growth in Danisco, and the new Functional System plant will give us an edge to become one of the first International functional system plants in the Region. This latest investment will strengthen our presence and commitment as a serious player in the region," says Anders Wilhjelm, Executive Vice President – Gums & Systems: Danisco A/s.

On Business potential in India Anders says, “'India is an important growth market to Gums & Systems – It’s difficult not to be excited about a market of 1 billion consumers experiencing good economic growth! As an ingredient leader we want to be at the forefront of this development and assist the Indian food industry in this growth story!”

The industrial enzymes segment of an estimated worth of USD 75 Million (INR 300 crores), is another quickly growing market in India. Danisco wants to seize this opportunity by opening an enzyme manufacturing plant, operated by it’s Genencor Enzyme Division. The plant will primarily produce enzyme blends to service the markets of animal nutrition, fuel ethanol, grain processing & textiles. The India textile industry is a major market for Genencor and the countries second largest employment generator after agriculture, contributing about 14% to the countries industrial production.

In addition, the opportunities presented in the various other industrial enzymes markets segments are a key driver for Danisco to strengthen it’s position in the Indian market and add local capabilities and production capacity through it’s Genencor Division.

“Danisco’s enzymes division, Genencor, has ambitious plans for Enzyme business in India, and has been increasing its presence and investing here to satisfy growing market opportunities for past few years,” says Dr. Raj Lad, Senior Director, India Market Development. “The new plant provides strong and reliable local support to our customers, and is a first step in a series of developments that will enhance our commitment and capabilities in this exciting market.”

Danisco leadership position in the global food & enzyme industry can be seen from the fact that Danisco ingredients are used in every second ice cream and cheese, every third box of detergent and every fourth loaf of bread produced globally. Based on technology platform Danisco produces ingredients for food and other products used in everyday life like dairy, biscuits, jams, ice creams, juices, animal feed, toothpaste, bio-fuel and plastics.

A considerable proportion of Danisco employees are engaged in research and development of new and more consumer friendly products for the international food industry. Today, the Group holds more than 2,000 active patents and patent applications. With production facilities located in more than 40 countries, many of them in rural areas close to the sources of raw materials, Danisco has an obligation to act in a responsible manner. Ensuring a safe workplace means fewer accidents, reducing water usage and energy costs, and preserving the environment. Employee training enables the company to reach its financial targets and retain valuable staff.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Danisco
With 9,700 employees in more than 40 countries, Danisco is one of the world's leading suppliers of food ingredients, sugar and industrial bio products. Based on our technology platform we use nature's own raw materials and resources to develop and produce ingredients for food and other products used in everyday life. Danisco ingredients are used in about every second ice cream and cheese, every third box of detergent and every fourth loaf of bread produced globally. Danisco ingredients based on food technology and biotechnology are also used in other consumer products – from feed and toothpaste to bio fuel and plastics. Throughout the value chain, sustainability is integrated in Danisco's way of doing business.

About Danisco South Asia
Neil Prasad started Danisco’s south Asian operations in 2000 with a small home office. Today, Danisco South Asia employs 50 people with turnover in excess of INR 50 Crores. South Asian setup consists of corporate office at Gurgaon and a sales office in Mumbai.

VIVUS-SMRC Heart Centre is dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. By specializing in the nation's number one killer disease, patients at VIVUS-SMRC Heart Centre experience the benefits of advanced technology while receiving services that focus on their individual needs. The concept of a facility dedicated to diagnosing and treating patients with cardiovascular disease allows staff and physicians to put the patient’s interest first. VIVUS-SMRC Heart Centre is leading the way by concentrating on providing outstanding patient care, achieving better outcomes and advanced treatment options.

VIVUS-SMRC Heart Centre is designed to provide the best possible setting for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. The 50-bed hospital provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient cardiac care, and staff a 24-hour full service Emergency Center. Each physician, every staff member, and all our technological resources are directed towards delivering the best in patient care.

The Vivus Group - promoted by the Srinivasa Cardiology Centre Private Limited (SCCPL) - is today an acknowledged pioneer in health care services in India. Promoted by experienced professionals and sponsors who strongly believe in providing affordable and quality healthcare to patients, the mission of Vivus Group is to provide such services in the niche segment of healthcare through a balanced curative and preventive medical practice.

The Vivus group opened its first 50 bedded Heart Care Centre in 2000. Today, Vivus is a multi location cardiac centric group, with a presence in central Bangalore, Madekeri and Goa. The first cardiac centre to get ISO 9001:2000 recognition, Vivus is also a preferred group for tie up with quality players like MV Diagnostics and St Theresa and Gayatri Hospitals; who prefer to obtain their cardiac care services from the group.

In addition, Vivus to fulfill their corporate social responsibility, Vivus has for the past two years, deployed their highly popular Mobile Cath Laboratory during the week ends - so that Patients in rural areas can undergo an interventional procedure at their doorstep by a team of specialist doctors from Vivus.

The group has also been recognized by the Rajiv Gandhi University for Health Sciences for two fellowship programs in cardiology designed for postgraduates. Vivus recently was one of the promoters and approved centre for the IGNOU course in community medicine. Finally in 2003 Vivus received accreditation for a 3 - Year DNB program in Cardiology and has allocated two seats per year to train cardiologists.

Our Other Hospitals

Some of the institutions, organizations and hospitals set up/ managed by the Vivus Group are:

The Heart Centre at Bangalore

The flag ship 50 bedded exclusive cardiac care hospital located at the Central Business district of Bangalore is dedicated for cardiology and cardio thoracic surgery offering state-of-the-art cardiac care facilities & services. It has the distinction of being the first cardiac-care hospital for having received ISO 9001:2000 - certified by TUV Rhineland - in India.

The Heart Centre has a choice of Private Rooms and Semi Private Rooms. Two five bedded Intensive Care Units, a Post Operative ICU, a well equipped Non-Invasive Department, a Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, and two Operation Theatres ensures that the hospital can take care of any cardiac emergency. In addition it has accesses to a 24-hour Emergency Ward, Pharmacy, Clinical laboratory and Blood Bank.

The hospital has a specialized digital Cath lab facility with state-of- the- art ICU & CCU care. The department is geared up for all cardiac emergencies round-the-clock. Private suites and semi private rooms are made available to cater to individual preferences.

The Group also has a team of highly skilled cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, vascular surgeons, and interventional radiologists who provide specialized care in all areas of cardiovascular care. The medical team is ably supported by skilled and trained nursing, paramedical staff, customer support and administrative services.

Some of the significant achievements of the Heart Centre:

• Treated over 90,000 patients in a short period of seven years.
• Over 30,000 echocardiograms and 2,500 Dobutamine Stress Echocardiograms have been conducted, which is the largest number in South India.
• With ISO 9001:2000 to its credit, the Heart Centre is in the process of implementing “six sigma” to offer the best service possible to its patients.
• The Heart Centre was the first to acquire and perform Intracoronary Brachytherapy (Radiation) in India, after the approval of U.S - F.D.A. in November, 2000. The Laser Myocardial Revascularisation equipment is unique and first of its kind in India, in that it can perform both Direct Myocardial Revascularisation (DMR) by surgery and Percutaneous Transluminal Myocardial Revascularisation (PTMR) through catheters.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Angel believes that with their projected commissioning of 185 Branches all across the country over the next two years, such seminars will help in building a foundation of basic awareness & education amongst the Existing Investor and Future Investor Class in the country. These camps will empower investors with more knowledge and awareness, thus helping them to create wealth from the stock market.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Dinesh Thakkar, Chairman & Managing Director, Angel Broking said, ” The Budget 2008-09 can truly be called a Budget with a Human face and fits well into the UPA government’s objective of Inclusive growth. The FM’s announcements pertaining to Direct Taxes and Debt Waiver for farmers, have given an edge to the UPA, when the country goes to poll next year.

The FM has partly stuck to the agenda set out by the UPA at the beginning of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan last year, of ‘Faster and more Inclusive Growth’. We say partly, because while the current Budget is a good example of Inclusive growth, it is the Faster Growth aspect that has to be delved into more deeply.

While this has been a dream Budget for rural India and for professionals, the unchanged corporate tax rates & the increased short-term capital gains tax have dampened the overall sentiments for equities. However, we believe that the market has been short-sighted on this one & the long-term prospects for our stock markets remain good, with no expected damage to the secular bull trend. Current market corrections are, and will continue to provide, a good entry point for investors.”

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Angel Broking

Set up by Mr. Dinesh Thakkar in 1987, Angel Broking is today amongst the leading Indian stock-broking and wealth management houses, with a focus on retail business and a commitment to provide “Real Value for Money” to its clients. The Angel Group is a member of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange, as also the country’s two leading Commodity Exchanges – the NCDEX and MCX. Angel is also registered as a Depository Participant with CDSL.

The great value proposition of Angel’s unique Retail Focused Business Model has also been recognized by International Finance Corporation (IFC) Washington, a World Bank affiliate, which has taken a 12.3 % stake in the Group holding company in December 2007.

Angel provides a wide range of personalized wealth-management & investment services to its retail clients – this includes Stock & Commodity Trading, Portfolio Advisory & Management Services, Investment Advisory Services, distribution of Mutual Funds, Depository Services, Personal Loans & Insurance, as well as E-broking services – all supported by intensive research and a six sigma-backed Quality Assurance program.

Angel Group provides its value-added services to over 4.2 lakhs individual retail investors through its nationwide network of 100 branches, including 15 regional hubs, 4000+ sub-brokers/business associates and 3,450+ direct employees & 15, 000 indirect employees. Angel Broking has one of the largest trading terminal bases (9,101 terminals) in the country, and the largest sub-broker network on the NSE. It records daily business volumes of 3,500 crores in Equities, 350 crores in commodities & 550 crores through online-broking.

With over 1,500 outlets connected through a state-of-the-art IT network, Angel offers world-class services with a personal touch. Angel has top-quality, retail-focused research as well as expert dealing facilities in broking, e-broking, commodity broking, depository services, wealth management services, portfolio & investment advisory. State-of-the–art centralized helpdesks to answer investor queries and complaints are available 24x7, along with a Web-enabled, value-added back office, accompanied by a brilliant team of experts for Quality Assurance.

As part of this collaboration, a business investor dialogue is being organized to facilitate discussions between the private sector, domestic and international investors, and the Securities Exchange Board and to shed light on that state of governance in Indian companies. Issues to be explored include the effectiveness of various governance structures, the role of the board, disclosure, and enforcement.

The event will give participants an opportunity to make recommendations for improving corporate governance among enterprises. Discussions around research on the state of corporate governance in India’s listed companies will be conducted by Professor Vic Khanna of the University of Michigan, Professor Bernard Black of the University of Texas, and Professor N. Balasubramanian of the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.

The ongoing research includes surveys of 500 publicly traded companies, representing various sectors in the country's six largest cities. This research is supplemented by publicly available information. The data analysis seeks to identify the connections between various aspects of governance, company performance, and profitability.

The event aims to identify challenges facing companies, offer possible measures for improvement, and provide an opportunity for local and international business leaders and investors to share views and experiences on the investment climate in India. It also aims to generate discussions and obtain policy recommendations from an assembly of local business representatives and investors.

Participants expected include investors and senior business leaders from Barclays, Bombay Stock Exchange, Crisil, National Stock Exchange, Fortis, Kotak, KPMG, Tata Motors, and Wipro.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About IFC

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, fosters sustainable economic growth in developing countries by financing private sector investment, mobilizing private capital in local and international financial markets, and providing advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments. IFC’s vision is that people should have the opportunity to escape poverty and improve their lives. In FY07, IFC committed $8.2 billion and mobilized an additional $3.9 billion through syndications and structured finance for 299 investments in 69 developing countries. IFC also provided advisory services in 97 countries. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.

About Global Corporate Governance Forum

The IFC Global Corporate Governance Forum is an IFC multi-donor trust fund facility. It was co-founded by the World Bank and the OECD in 1999. Through its activities, the forum aims to promote the private sector as an engine of growth, reduce the vulnerability of developing and transition economies to financial crisis, and provide incentives for corporations to invest and perform efficiently in a socially responsible manner. It sponsors regional and local initiatives that address the corporate governance weaknesses of middle- and low-income countries in the context of broader national or regional economic reform programs. Its donors include IFC and the governments of Canada, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. For more information, visit www.gcgf.org.

For Further Information Please Contact:
Minakshi Seth
Phone: +91 11 4111 1058
E-mail: mseth@ifc.org

Ruhee Dhar / Amit Gupta - Integral PR
Ph:9818102377 / 98715 76705
Email:ruhee@integralpr.com/amitg@integralpr.com

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