However, analysts say it is not immediately clear if the merger would have any impact on Novartis India, the listed Indian subsidiary of the company.
This increase is despite the decreased growth of drug sales in the US - the world's largest market - which has seen a tightening of regulations and aggressive competition.
Leading Indian drug majors, such as Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Piramal Healthcare and Wockhardt, are in-licensing popular products from overseas drug makers to boost their domestic sales.
R-Infra quoted Rs 42-crore (Rs 420-million) premium over the bids of rival companies such as GVK Power and Infrastructure Limited, GMR Infrastructure, B Sennaih and C&C, JMC Srei and Sadhbhav, sources told Business Standard.
Move comes within months of acquiring Wockhardt hospitals. Fortis Healthcare, a hospital chain promoted by former Ranbaxy owners Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, is close to a major acquisition overseas
India has become the most sought destination for investment by Japanese companies, next to China, and ahead of other Asian countries and emerging economies like Russia, Brazil, Mexico and even the United States and the United Kingdom.
Mumbai's Metro rail system, which is scheduled to take off by next year, will have a Geographic Information System for mapping the entire rail tracks and nearby areas to enhance safety, maintenance and traffic regulation.
The central government is planning to mandate biometric identification for clinical trial volunteers in the country to bring in global standards and to weed out unethical practices in the industry, which is less than a decade old.
When United States-based drug major Merck bought Schering-Plough early this month, it decided to go off the beaten track. Instead of having one managing director for the merged entity, it decided to retain both: Naveen A Rao will continue to head Merck's subsidiary MSD Pharmaceuticals in India and K G Ananthakrishnan will retain his position as MD of Schering-Plough's subsidiary Fulford India.
The Year of India in Russia - as 2009 is officially known - has helped India Inc get into a long bear hug with the Russian consumer. They are lapping up everything - from Ratan Tata's marquee cars to Vijay Mallya's whisky.
Baba Ramdev and the Tata Group are poles apart in their area of operations, but they have one thing in common: both have been quick to spot the money-spinning potential of Ayurveda's healing touch.
Biocon was scouting for more strategic alliances and exploring opportunities for outlicensing its biotech drugs under development, as it pitches for a slot among the top three bio-pharmaceutical players across the globe, said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director.
If the spiritual guru's Patantjali Yog Peeth Trust has set up one of the world's largest centres for Ayurveda in Hardwar with facilities for treatment, research and a university, the Tatas aren't far behind. India's largest conglomerate has tied up with an NGO, the Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions, to set up the Indian Institute of Ayurveda Integrated Medicine at Yelahanka near Bengaluru.
Dr Reddy's Laboratories has succeeded in developing a copycat or generic version of Pfizer's Lipitor, the world's largest selling drug which has sales of over $10 billion.
The OTC major plans to pump in millions of dollars into Vedants' manufacturing facility coming up by 2011 at Ambernath near Mumbai. Perrigo will then move production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs or the key therapeutic substance in a drug) from its sites in Germany and Israel to India.
Nandini Piramal, heir apparent to the Piramal business empire as the elder child of Ajay Piramal and Swati Piramal, became the executive director of Piramal Healthcare in April this year. A 29-year-old graduate from Hertford College of Oxford University, with an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, she joined the firm in 2006 as a General Manager and has been closely associated with the company's overseas subsidiaries in the US and Canada.
India's ambitious plans to generate an additional 180,000 Mw of power in the next seven years will face hurdles if Indonesia, the second largest supplier of thermal coal, goes ahead with plans to cap coal exports to serve domestic demand.
Indian drug companies have cornered an overwhelming majority of drug approvals under the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
Teva Women's Health filed a suit this week in the US District Court for New Jersey, claiming that Lupin had filed an abbreviated new drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration, which infringes the patents of Seasonale, its oral contraceptive that limits the number of menstrual periods women have in a year.
Nova's new owner has decided not to pursue this project.