The Swift DZire, which is essentially a replacement model for the Esteem, was launched by Maruti Suzuki to strengthen its dwindling position at the entry-level of the sedan segment. The car was launched with an attractive price tag of Rs 4,49,000 in March, 2008.
Apart from the embarrassment, these "crazy blogs" - as companies term them - force India Inc to spend crores of rupees to repair the damage.
Reliance's Jamnagar units, including the existing refinery and the second one that will begin work by mid-November, will be the world's largest single-location refining facility. The entire refinery complex will have a total processing capacity of 1.24 million barrels a day. The current production of the existing unit is 0.66 million barrels a day.
Real estate companies such as Unitech, Peninsula Land, HDIL and Future Capital, the financial services arm of Future Group, are in talks with investors including some leading private equity funds for raising investments for their projects, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, whose third party fund had promised investments in these property companies' projects, according to industry sources.
The company has already received an approval to spend Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) for commercialising two of its biggest gas discoveries in the D6 block located in the KG basin. "In a letter to oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the company has submitted one more development plan for Rs 10,000 crore as additional capex (capital expenditure) for the block.
The rupee's slide against the dollar and euro has put pressure on international automobile companies as compressed margins may force them to revisit prices of imported models in the next few months.
Billionaire Anil Agarwal-controlled Vedanta Resources has decided not to pursue a proposal to build a Rs 20,000-crore (Rs 200 billion) five-million-tonne steel project in Orissa in view of its strategy to focus on non-ferrous and iron ore businesses, two highly-placed sources in the company said on Tuesday.
The negotiations were shelved following a difference of opinion on prices. "We intend to close both the deals by September," said a highly-placed source with MCorp, the holding company for B K Modi's group of companies.
Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain), the third largest telecom operator in West Asia and a leading operator in Africa, has initiated talks with several Indian telecom service providers to buy stakes.
Tax concessions in Uttarakhand are encouraging auto majors from Hero Honda to Tata Motors to shift a larger part of their manufacturing to the state to counter rising raw material costs and increase their flexibility to offer consumers cheaper models in a competitive market.
India Inc is seeing yet another family feud - this time between Gujarat NRE Coke founder Girdhari Lal Jagatramka and his son-law, Ratan Lal Tamakhuwala, who owns Austral Coke.
Austrian two-wheeler maker KTM Power Sports is developing three intra-city transportation models - a trike, a budget car and a scooter - in a joint collaboration with Bajaj Auto. Bajaj, India's second-largest motorcycle maker, owns 21 per cent stake in KTM.
Analysts tracking listed companies like Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors have said sales forecast for the two-wheeler industry for the next few months looks very bleak as spiralling input costs, high lending rates and reducing availability of finance will put brakes on sales growth. ICICI Bank's has already withdrawn from advancing loans at two-wheeler dealerships.
In an attempt to steal the two-wheeler market from the three Indian giants Hero Honda, Bajaj and TVS Motors, which collectively account for almost 85 per cent of sales, Japanese bike manufacturers like Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki will launch scaled-down Indian versions of their international superbike models.
"Levi & Korsinsky usually investigates a deal when any of the clients complain about chances of fraud in the transaction. In Aegis's acquisition of PeopleSupport, we received a complaint from a client who is a shareholder of PeopleSupport. After our investigation, if we find any fraud, we will take up the issue before the court. At this point of time, we can not disclose the name of the client," said Juan E Monteverde, associate, Levi & Korsinsky.
Honda Motorcycle Scooter India, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Honda Motor Company, Japan, will launch a slew of high-power premium bikes in India, the first of which will debut by March next year, according to company executives.
The group's foray into the segment dates back to the start of 2004 when M&M Group Chairman Keshub Mahindra said the company had started testing some two-wheeler models and was looking at a commercial launch. Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra said: "The company's foray into the bottom segment of the pyramid will create tremendous brand awareness in an entire section of the population and open a whole new population in the urban market."
With automotive sales entering into a sluggish period, leading commercial vehicle makers are enticing buyers by doling out discounts and lucrative finance options. Tata Motors, for instance, recently run a scheme wherein commercial vehicle buyers would get three months' waiver on equated monthly installments on the vehicle loan. The response, according to the company, was very positive.
Lines up investments in steel, power sectors to profit from booming demand.
A proposal by the joint venture between Tata Motors and Fiat to set up a facility to manufacture the world's most famous small diesel engine -- the 1.3 multijet -- had been rejected by Japan's largest maker of minicars, Suzuki Motor Corporation.
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