The drug regulatory agencies of India and Canada are planning to collaborate on improving the quality of drugs traded between the two countries, besides helping the industry in both the countries to tap the opportunities in the field of generic medicines and drug development.
The Indian pharmaceutical companies are involved in patent litigations of a mere 40 drugs, out of the 135 known patent litigation drugs in the US. This is despite the claims by major Indian players such as Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's at having secured over 20 first to file status abbreviated new drug applications with the US Food and Drug Administration.
Consider this. India's best paying B-school -- Indian School of Business, Hyderabad -- made offers to five international faculty members in the past three years. All of them chose to join management institutes in Singapore because of the fat pay packets. ISB pays its professors salaries that are five times more than an Indian Institute of Management professor. This means if an IIM professor's monthly salary is Rs 54,000, his counterpart at ISB would draw Rs 2,70,000 a month.
The company is demerging its new chemical entity research unit into a separate company to meet the demands of increased spend on research and development, and to insulate investors from the risks involved. According to the deal signed with Merck, NPIL will discover and develop new drugs for two selected targets provided by Merck in the area of cancer.
Leading five-star hotels in the country are taking their signature restaurants to cities across the country, thanks to their success and popularity. Taj Hotels and Palaces in Mumbai will open its signature Japanese restaurant, Wasabi by Morimoto, in Delhi by early next year.
Generic drug sales in the US, that power the business of such leading Indian drug manufacturers as Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma, Lupin and Zydus Cadila, will face competition soon, as big US wholesalers decide to outsource their requirements from upcoming Indian manufacturers.
While IIM-B is yet to decide on the exact quantum, the increase could be anywhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000. The institute will be revising its fee after three years. Through the revision, the institute plans to increase its earnings from the placement fee.
More than six hotel chains are looking at either building properties or expanding their presence in these states. ITC's WelcomHeritage brand, for instance, is scouting for properties in Nagaland and Kaziranga, Assam. The hotel, however, is already there in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya.
NPIL had announced that it would team up with the French company to develop a drug for the epidemic about six months ago, following the spread of the disease, mainly in southern India and Maharashtra in the last two years. Currently, drugs are not available to effectively treat the disease and doctors in the country administer viral disease drugs such as paracetamol and other anti-biotics to check the infection.
India's largest biotechnology company Biocon is planning to tap the potential of biosimilars (generics or copycat versions of biotech drugs going off patent) in the regulated markets of the US and Europe, besides taking Insugen, its own version of insulin, to the global markets in a big way.
The Planning Commission, according to highly-placed sources, says GDP allocation to education will increase from its from current 3.5 per cent to 5 per cent by the end of the 11th Plan. Around 19.7 per cent of the total plan resources would be set aside for education, according to the sources in the Commission.
This Diwali, Rakesh Mehta, a senior sales and marketing employee with an IT firm, will celebrate in Australia with his family. Mehta, is one of the top performers of his company and has been rewarded with this 'Diwali Gift'. Other top performers from his company will celebrate their Diwali in New Zealand and Mauritius. In fact, a lot of IT, BPO, pharma companies and banks are rewarding their employees for good performance by sending them to exotic locations.
Another Indian School of Business (ISB) is taking shape. Rajat Gupta, the former CEO of McKinsey & Company and now a senior partner in the professional services firm, along with his team is planning to set up a second ISB, this time in the North. The existing ISB in Hyderabad was Gupta's brainchild and is among India's most coveted business schools. It is spread over 260 acres of land and was set up in December 1999 at a cost of around Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion).
Dubai Holding, an investment firm of the Dubai government, has threatened to come out with an open offer for Orient-Express Hotels if the Tata group acquires a significant stake in the hotel chain. This comes exactly a month after the Tata group's Indian Hotels Company bought 10 per cent and expressed interest in striking a deal which was turned down by Orient-Express.
Shortage of staff is preventing the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission from summoning over 140 B-schools to furnish details about their fee structure, faculty payments and tie-ups. The body issued notices to around 100 "defaulter" B-schools last week.
Rising real estate costs and lack of good locations in cities are driving hotel companies to rent space in malls and other commercial complexes. For instance, Accor Hotels is in talks with mall developers to build its Formulae 1 brand of budget hotels at the topfloor of malls in tier I and tier II cities.
India is the fourth largest manufacturer of pharmaceutical products in the world and the 12th largest in value terms. India could emerge as the second largest producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), next to China, within two to five years, overtaking Italy, according to various estimates.
Ginger Hotels, the no-frills brand by Roots Corporation, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Indian Hotels which operates Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, is in talks with real estate developers to rent space in commercial complexes to run its hotels.
IMT-Ghaziabad's placement chairperson, Nilanjan Chatopadhyay, has scheduled visits to 15 companies in Singapore and eight in Hong Kong from July 2007 to January 2008. The institute has set aside a fund of Rs 6 lakh for promotional activities.
IIM-Bangalore has received around 70 offers so far this year .Companies which have made offers are Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, HSBC, JP Morgan, HLL, P&G and Marico among others.
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