Gen. Suhag's appointment is final: Arun Jaitely

Following General V.K. Singh's accusation Army Chief designate, Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag of supporting dacoity, Defence Minister Arun Jaitely said that his appointment as the next chief of army staff is final and he added that Lt. Gen. Suhag's appointment should be kept out of the political realm. Reacting to this, Rajya Sabha MP from Janata Dal United (JDU), K.C. Tyagi accused Singh of trying to block Suhag's appointment. From past seven years the post of defense minister was never controversial, but this time, BJP has made it one. Two days before the appointment of General Suhag, Subramnyan Swamy went to the election commission to stop Suhag's appointment so that V.K. Singh's relative A.K. Singh could be appointed. Meanwhile BJP leader, Subramanian Swamy said that Suhag's appointment should be reviewed and he agreed with General Singh that the appointment of General Suhag should be reconsidered.

TechNVision Ventures' affliate inks OEM agreement with Kronos Incorporated

Solix Technologies, an affliate to TechNVision Ventures and a leading provider of Enterprise Data Management (EDM) solutions, has signed an OEM agreement with Kronos Incorporated, whereby Solix's database archiving technology will be embedded into the Kronos Workforce Central suite of workforce management applications. Data growth is a major challenge faced by companies managing enterprise applications across all industries. Swelling data volumes can slow application performance, increase storage costs, deepen compliance risk, and expose business operations to outages. Solix database archiving provides an Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) framework that will enable Kronos Workforce Central customers to more effectively manage data growth challenges and enhance application performance, availability, and compliance. With Solix, Kronos Workforce Central administrators will be able to archive workforce data based on their legal hold, compliance, and data retention policies. Solix Technologies is a leading provider of information lifecycle management and application testing solutions with proven success worldwide helping customers meet vital business challenges.

Future Retail to raise Rs 2,000 crore via issue of shares

Future Retail is planning to raise Rs 2,000 crore by issuing shares to promoters and investors. The company will raise Rs 400 crore through issue of shares and warrants on preferential basis to investors and promoters and about Rs 1,600 crore through issue of shares on rights basis. 75 percent of the total funds raised will be used to reduce debt. The company will issue 15.3 million shares of Rs 130 each on preferential basis to Brand Equity Treaties, an investor in the company, for Rs 199.99 crore. It will also issue 7.6 million warrants at a price of Rs 130 each, aggregating Rs 99.99 crore to Future Corporate Resources, a promoter group entity with an option to the warrant holder to acquire same number of shares within a period of 18 months. Future Retail has debt of Rs 5,500 crore on the books and the company paid interest of Rs 155.3 crore in March quarter of last financial year, which is 98% of its profit before interest and taxes (PBIT). The company's debt is around 1.8 times of the equity.

NecLife gets European cGMP approval for its Cephalosporin FDF Facility

Nectar Lifesciences (NecLife) has touched a significant milestone by receiving second European cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practices) approval for its Cephalosporin Finished Dosage Forms (FDF) manufacturing facility in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. NecLife has received second European cGMP compliance certification for both Oral & Injectables Cephalsporins followed by the successful inspection by the Portugal Authority - National Authority of Medicines and Health Products, Infarmed in July 2013. The Infarmed Certificate is accepted by all EU Health Authorities and by authorities of several other countries. NecLife's FDF facility, Unit-VI, has received this approval for all the Cephalosporin steriles and Non-sterile products which includes tablets, capsule, powder for oral suspension and powder for injections. This approval is a testimony to the high standards of quality and compliance practices put in place by the company. This approval will facilitate exports to the lucrative generic drug markets of Europe and this certification opens up lot of opportunities for Contract Manufacturing for NecLife for European customers. In addition to EU approval NLL is eagerly awaiting USFDA approval in writing anytime for its FDF & API facility inspections by USFDA between January 12 and January 24, 2014. Nectar Lifesciences is a $200 million pharmaceutical organization. The company offers a range of Cephalosporin active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished dosage forms.

HCL Technologies trades in the green on BSE

HCL Technologies is currently trading at Rs 1403.70, up by 10.30 points or 0.74% from its previous closing of Rs 1393.40 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 1401.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs 1418.00 and Rs 1390.00 respectively. So far 52272 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs 1588.65 on 28-Feb-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs 745.30 on 26-Jun-2013. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs 1397.00 and Rs 1303.00 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs 98332.10 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 61.69% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 32.28% and 6.03% respectively. HCL Technologies, leading IT services provider, is looking to add a centre in United States (US) and is planning to do more of local hiring in the US. The company currently has 3 global delivery centres in US. Recently, it was reported that the company secured $500 million IT outsourcing order from beverage giant Pepsico. The fourth-largest Indian IT services firm beat HP to bag the seven-year IT deal. HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company working with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses. HCL leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of offices in 31countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public Services and Healthcare & Life sciences.

HCC builds India’s first tunnel using Tunnel Boring Machine in Himalayan terrain

The 330 MW Kishanganga Hydroelectric Power Project is located on River Kishanganga, a tributary of river Jhelum, in Bandipore district of Jammu & Kashmir

HCC has made history by successfully completing the first tunnel constructed using Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) in Himalayan Terrain for its Kishanganga Hydroelectric Power Project in Jammu and Kashmir. The tunnel boring machine emerged out successfully on Monday, June 10 2014, completing the 14.75 km tunnel. With this, HCC has completed tunneling work of the project well ahead of schedule. The 330 MW Kishanganga Hydroelectric Power Project is located on River Kishanganga, a tributary of river Jhelum, in Bandipore district of Jammu & Kashmir. HCC, in a joint venture with Halcrow Group Ltd. U.K. (Halcrow) is executing the project for the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Ltd. (NHPC). The project is run of the river scheme and involves transfer of water of Kishanganga River in Gurez valley to Bonar nallah near Bandipore in Kashmir valley. Kishanganga Hydroelectric Power project is being constructed by HCC on EPC basis. The project has a 23.65 km long Head Race Tunnel to carry the water from dam to the powerhouse. The tunnel is constructed using two methodologies - 14.75 km tunnel is constructed by Tunnel Boring Machine and the remaining 8.9 km tunnel is constructed by conventional drill and blast method. This is one of the Longest HRT in India with maximum overburden (height of mountain above tunnel) of 1470 m. Speaking on the occasion, A.I. Benny, Project Manager HCC said, “Using tunnel boring machine in young Himalayan Mountains poses various geological and technical challenges. We are indeed proud of having a capable team that took up this challenge and with meticulous planning and precise execution overcome all hurdles to complete the tunnel well ahead of time.” A state-of-the-art Double Shield TBM was ordered from SELI of Italy for this specialized job. The 225 meters long TBM with a cutter head of 6.18 meters was transported to the project location via Mumbai in 160 container shipment. Transporting the machine to project location in Jammu & Kashmir was a major logistical challenge which was completed in three months. The TBM commenced its first drive on April 20, 2011 and completed the tunnel today with average monthly progress of around 500 meters. In November 2012, HCC made a national record of highest monthly tunneling progress of 816 meters at Kishanganga project. Government, of India has cleared the Project from the Indus Waters Treaty. The contract is on a turnkey basis valued at approximately Rs 2726.49 crore. Project’s Major components: Dam – 37 m high Concrete Face Rock fill Dam (CFRD) Diversion Tunnel – 9.5m diameter, 560 m long Diversion tunnel Head Race Tunnel – 23.65 km long Head Race Tunnel to carry the water from dam to the powerhouse - one of the Longest HRT in India with overburden (height of mountain above tunnel) of 1470 m. The construction of Head Race Tunnel is carried out using two methodologies. The 8.9 km tunnel of 6 m diameter from the dam side is constructed using the conventional Drill and Blast Method while the balance 14.75 km with a finished diameter of 5.2 m from the powerhouse side is constructed using Tunnel Boring Machine Tail Race Tunnel- Tail Race system discharges water back into the stream after power generation and comprises of 862 m long and 5 m diameter D-shaped tunnel and a 44 m long open channel. Surge Shaft – It is a part of the water conductor system to power house located at the end of the Head Race Tunnel which acts as a balancer to absorb the effect of water hammer when the water in motion is forced to stop. The Surge Shaft at Kishanganga is a vertical shaft of 18.75 m diameters and 100.7 m deep. Pressure Shaft - One steel lined pressure shaft 4.0 m diameter trifurcating at the bottom into three penstocks 2.1 m diameter each to create pressure in turbines for power generation. Power House - The underground Power Station consisting of two parallel caverns, one for the three generating units and the other for transformer Switchyard - A surface Switchyard

Microsoft Office 365 prompts more businesses to get onto Cloud

Microsoft is bringing new personalized experiences that integrate social capabilities throughout Office 365. Over the past three years Microsoft Office 365 has changed the way businesses operate by unlocking social and mobility scenarios enabling them to take advantage of the cloud. Amongst the thousands who have adopted the Office 365 solution are some of India’s leading non-profit organizations, education institutes, IT/ITES companies and manufacturing and healthcare organizations including Ascent Yarns, Bakewell Biscuits, BLK Super Speciality Hospital, Godrej Industries and iResearch.  Talking about how the move helped, Shailesh Joshi, Head - Corporate IT, Godrej Industries Ltd, said, “We chose Office 365 to integrate communications between our group companies across India as well as our international entities. With Exchange Online, our email is backed up with service-level agreements, performance guarantees, disaster recovery and assured business continuity. Overall, we are very satisfied with the stable performance of Exchange Online and its lower cost of ownership. We are also evaluating other services within Office 365 like SharePoint Online and Lync Online to avail full benefits of the Office 365 suite.” Further reiterating the Office 365 advantages, Yogesh Shah, Founder & Director of iResearch Services Pvt. Ltd, another company that recently took to the cloud offering, is all for adoption of technology solutions to propel growth. “With Office 365, we are taking full advantage of reliable, state-of-the-art technology that helps our business run more effectively at lower costs. Most importantly, with majority of the research workforce being mobile and geographically spread out, tools like Microsoft Lync enable field workforce to host meetings, share desktop presentations, and find appropriate individuals/expertise quickly and effectively by collaborating remotely. All this helps us meet client deadlines efficiently. Microsoft technologies provide enterprise-class, reliable and robust solutions for our operations,” he said. In fact, Office 365 Personal was recently added to complement the existing bouquet comprising Office 365 Home Premium, Office 365 University and Office 365 for businesses, and Office for iPad, aiding mobile scenarios. Office 365 is growing rapidly worldwide, making it the fastest-growing product in Microsoft history. As for Office 365 Home Premium, it is already at 3.5 million subscribers, and growing. Ramkumar Pichai, GM - Microsoft Office Division, Microsoft India, said, “We are pleased with the adoption of Office 365 amongst businesses in India and globally, which reinforces our cloud and mobile leadership. Microsoft is focused on delivering the cloud for everyone, on every device. The future lies in people focused cloud productivity that – enables individuals and organizations to achieve more with the devices and services that people love the most.” Updated capabilities of Office 365 Microsoft is bringing new personalized experiences that integrate social capabilities throughout Office 365. Powering these new user experiences is the Office Graph, a new Office 365 intelligence fabric that remains unseen to the user but is constantly analyzing content, interactions and activity streams and mapping the relationships using machine learning to intelligently connect and surface the most relevant content to each user. These new experiences include the following: Groups. Groups is a new feature unifying people, conversations, calendars, emails and files across the Office 365 suite, enabling a seamless collaboration experience across applications.  Inline Social. Microsoft is bringing the power of social collaboration and conversations to everyone by offering Inline Social experiences throughout Office 365. It has the ability to have social conversations inside documents stored in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. Office 365 Video Portal. It has been developed to support upload, storage and discovery of videos in a secure manner. Businesses will be able to categorize videos into channels for specific business needs and stream them on mobile devices, with all of the video compression, optimization and rendering work done by Office 365.

Indices slip into red

Some buying activity is seen in banking, IT, healthcare and teck sectors on BSE, while sectors such as capital goods, auto, metal and FMCG are losing sheen.

At 1:16PM, BSE Sensex is trading down 93 points at 25,490, while S&P Nifty is trading down 34 points at 7,622. BSE Mid-cap is down 0.44% at 9,211, while BSE Small-cap is down 0.03% at 10,014. Some buying activity is seen in banking, IT, healthcare and teck sectors on BSE, while sectors such as capital goods, auto, metal and FMCG are losing sheen. Infosys, TCS, Cipla, SBI, Gail India and Dr Reddy's Lab are among the gainers, whereasNTPC, Tata Power, BHEL, Hindalco, SSLT and HUL are losing sheen on BSE. India's trade deficit data rose 11.3% to $11.23 billion in the month of May from $10.09 in April 2014, according to the government data. The trade exports increased to 11.3% to $28 billion in May from $23.63 billion in April, while imports also reported a rise of 9.8% to $39.2 billion from $37.7 billion, the data added. According to the trade secretary, April trade deficit has widen on a MoM basis and May trade deficit is in line with estimates. Stock news: Coal India has decided to amend the object clause of its memorandum of association (MoA) for foraying into the business of producing fertilisers and chemicals using coal gas. CIL is trading down 1.74% on BSE. Future Retail today said that its Board of Directors of the company has approved to raiseRs. 200 crore to reduce debt. At least 75% of the funds will be used for reducing debt. The scrip is trading down 2.85% on BSE.

SBI surges on plan to merge its five subsidiaries with itself

State Bank of India (SBI) is currently trading at Rs. 2704.00, up by 39.25 points or 1.47% from its previous closing of Rs. 2664.75 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 2683.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 2731.05 and Rs. 2683.00 respectively. So far 137871 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 2833.85 on 26-May-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 1452.90 on 28-Aug-2013. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 2760.00 and Rs. 2620.00 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 201985.35 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 58.60%, while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 30.53% and 8.75% respectively. State Bank of India (SBI), the nation’s biggest lender is all set to merge its five associate banks with itself to fund the economy that is on the cusp of a strong growth like China two decades ago. The combination of the associates will enhance the asset base of SBI to Rs 21.9 lakh crore, and add 5,658 branches to its 15,143 branches. The combined market share will rise to 24%, from 19%, making it a formidable force. SBI’s five associates are State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur and State Bank of Mysore. Although consolidation was first mooted about a decade ago, nothing much happened with the staff unions being a stumbling block, and the previous United Progressive Alliance’s policy inertia.

Shoppers Stop’s arm opens one Crossword franchisee store in Mangalore

Shoppers Stop’s wholly owned subsidiary - Crossword Bookstores has opened one Crossword franchisee store at Mangalore in Karnataka. Further, the company has closed one of its Crossword store located at Nirmal Lifestyle, Mulund. With these, there are now 87 Crossword stores. Shoppers Stop is engaged in the retailing business. It runs a chain of departmental stores with brands including Shopper's Stop, Home Stop, Crossword, Cafes and Restaurants etc.