Reliance Money launches new gold coins with India Post logo

Anil Ambani group company Reliance Money Infrastructure Limited (RMIL) launched new gold coins with the India Post logo to capitalize on the festive fervor in the country.

The company, part of Reliance Capital, also launched a special promotional offer, under which it would give a 0.5 gram of gold coin free on every purchase of 10 grams. This offer would be available to customers for the entire month of October up to Diwali.

Research reveals Indians privately hold around 18,000 tonnes and buy around 700 tonnes of new gold every year.

RMIL targets to more than double its gold coins sales to 600 kg by the end of the current financial year and aims to be the largest gold coin retailer in the country in the next two years.

The company is expanding its distribution reach to 850 India Post outlets across India, up from the current 632 India Post offices, as part of its drive to reach the remotest parts of the country. Currently, the company's gold coin range includes gold coins in the 0.5 gram, 1 gram, 5 gram and 8 gram denominations.

Besides India Post, the entire range of pure gold coins would also be available across Reliance Money, Reliance World and the company's partner outlets across the country.

IFC keen to ramp up activity in India's green energy sector

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is keen to ramp up its activity in renewable energy sector in India besides finding more ways to help the private sector scale up. The World Bank Group's private sector financing arm had in the financial year ended June 2010 invested $140 million in alternative sources of energy in India.

IFC will also work together with IBRD to support their efforts to promote the development of regulatory frameworks that enable private sector participation in power and foster use of renewable sources.

US-based group launches hospital ranking service in India

With patient care and safety emerging as a major concern, a US-based healthcare organization has launched a certification service for hospitals for the first time in India.

KEMP Healthcare has started a comprehensive collection of evidence-based performance indicators that have been tried and tested in international healthcare systems as reliable benchmarks. The hospitals would be evaluated on parameters like safety, quality, timeliness, effectiveness and patient satisfaction.

It would then rate hospitals on a five star scale. This certification would give the hospitals additional credibility and confidence within an increasingly competitive market and will make them more attractive to the health insurance providers, panel companies and also to the foreign visitors coming to India for medical tourism.

India to increase hiring in N America, Europe

Emerging markets like India and China, known for their vast pool of cheap labor force, are witnessing a role reversal with companies from such countries increasingly hiring in North America and Europe, says a study.

Growth market companies - led by the twin forces of China and India -- are increasingly hiring in North America and Europe, according to the latest IBM Global Chief Human Resource Officer study.

It covered 700 Chief Human Resource Officers and senior executives from 61 countries and 31 industries worldwide. It found that unlike the traditional pattern of workforce movement - where companies in mature markets seek operational efficiency through headcount growth in emerging economies - investment was moving both ways.

The study pointed out that 45 per cent of companies in India plan to increase headcount in North America and 44 per cent would expand in Western Europe.

The study, "Working Beyond Borders," says that while organizations continue to develop and deploy talent in diverse areas around the globe at an accelerated rate, the rationale behind workforce investment is changing.

The study added that even at the height of global recession, 33 per cent of respondents in mature markets -- and 43 per cent in growth markets - increased investments in leadership development, despite the cost containment initiatives at the time.

Tata Group gives USD 50 million to Harvard Business school

America's prestigious Harvard Business School has received a whopping USD 50 million from Ratan Tataled Tata Group, the largest gift from an international donor in the institution's 102-year history.

The USD 50 million gift comes just days after Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and managing director of Mahindra and Mahindra, gave USD 10 million dollar as gift to the Humanities Centre at Harvard.

Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata conglomerate, attended the school's Advanced Management Program--one of three comprehensive leadership programs offered by HBS Executive Education- -in 1975. He received the school's highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award, in 1995.

The gift will fund a new academic and residential building on the HBS campus here for participants in the school's broad portfolio of executive education programs.

The school hopes to break ground for the building, which will be named Tata Hall, next spring.

GSK to make India a hub for anti-parasite drugs

The world’s second-largest drug maker, Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), is making India a major manufacturing hub for its free global drug supply to treat neglected diseases. GSK supplies about 600 million tablets a year. India produces half of these pills, while the rest comes from GSK’s factory at Cape Town in South Africa. The drug is used to treat children at risk of intestinal worm schistosomiasis (bilharzia). This would cost GSK an additional £12 million a year, said Witty. He said they needed regulatory approvals to supply albendazole from India, as their Indian production was only meant for use inside the country. Worldwide, more than 1.3 billion people live at risk of disability and disfigurement caused by LF, one-third of those at risk live in India. GSK supplies its entire production from the Nashik facility for the LF eradication program in India.

GSK was developing a vaccine against malaria and the final phase of clinical trials were on in Africa. Global drug makers supply select off-patent drugs as charity to various WHO programs against neglected diseases. This includes Novartis’ donation of clofazimine treatment for leprosy and its complications, Sanofi-Aventis’ commitment against sleeping sickness elimination and Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis for the next five years, Bayer’s plans to give drugs for treating African sleeping sickness and Chagas disease, Eisai Pharma’s free drug supply of diethylcarbamazine to cure LF and Johnson & Johnson’s recent announcement to donate mebendazole for treating intestinal worms in children.

Discovery Channel launches Telugu feed

Discovery Channel, a leading channel in nonfiction entertainment, has launched its new Telugu language feed for its viewers in Andhra Pradesh on October 1, 2010, coinciding its 15- year celebrations in India. The Telugu feed will be available from six PM till midnight every day, and will be transformed into a 24-hour parallel feed shortly. The channel has already launched 24x7 its Tamil and Hindi feeds. The Telugu feed has been paying dividends and has seen a 25 per cent rise in viewership since its launch in Andhra Pradesh. Discovery Channel reaches over to 53 million subscribers in 604 districts in India.

Gems, jewelry exports up 56% on US demand

India’s gems and jewelry exports recorded a phenomenal growth in September on the back of a rise in demand of midand low-end diamond jewelry in the US. The US constitutes nearly 40 per cent of diamond jewelry consumption in the world. Data compiled by apex trade body, the Gems & Jewelry Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), showed that the total exports rose a staggering 56 per cent to $4,061.87 million in September, against $2,602.26 million in the corresponding month of the previous year.

In rupee term, however, the total shipment rose 48.42 per cent at Rs 18,708.96 crore from Rs 12,605.36 crore in September 2009. Overall imports of gems and jewelry also rose sharply at $2,849.88 million in September — an increase of 62.24 (54.27 per cent) as compared to $1,756.53 million in the corresponding period last year.

During the first half of the current financial year, total exports of gems and jewelry was recorded at $18,893.38 million, a sharp rise of 45.84 per cent (38.42 in rupee term) as compared to $12,954.78 million in September last year. Imports of rough diamonds at $5,711.94 million during the first half showed an increase of 44.99 per cent (38.11 per cent in rupee term) compared with the imports at $3,939.44 million during the corresponding period of the previous year. The growth for manufacturing export was at 30.05 per cent in dollar terms in the first half of this financial year, compared to the same period last year. In rupee terms it recorded a growth of 23 per cent in net manufacturing exports.

Export of cut and polished diamonds stood at $2,398.57 million in September, recording a growth of 36.41 per cent (29.71 per cent in rupee term) as compared to $1,758.37 million last year. During the first half of this financial year, the total consumption of cut and polished diamonds stood at $12,714.83 million recording a growth of 61.54 per cent (53.44 per cent in rupee term), compared to $7,870.91 million for the same period last year.

Provisional export of gold jewelry for the first six-month period stood at $5,340.46 million recording a growth of 20.04 per cent (13.74 per cent in rupee term) from $4,448.75 million in the corresponding of the previous year.

In contrast, export of colored gemstones was at $138.79 million recording a decline of 2.06 per cent (6.73 per cent fall in rupee term) in the first half of the current financial year, compared to $141.71 million in the same period last year.

Cadila launches Parkinson's generic drug in the US market

Drug firm Cadila Healthcare has launched generic Pramipexole tablets, used for treating Parkinson's disease, in the American market. The company's subsidiary Zydus Cadila has launched the Pramipexole tablets in the strengths of of 0.125 mg, 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg and 1.5 mg, Cadila Healthcare said in a filing to Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The sale of Pramipexole tablets in 2010 is estimated to be $632 million according to healthcare information solutions company NDC Health, Cadila said.

Pramipexole's patent, which has expired, was held by German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim. Parkinson''s disease is a progressive disorder marked by muscle rigidity, weakness, shaking, tremor, and eventually difficulty in walking and talking.

Cadila has 56 approvals and has filed for 113 Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDA) before the US health regulator .

Tata Housing to launch projects abroad

Tata Housing, a unit of Tata Sons, is foraying into international markets with the launch of projects in Sri Lanka and Maldives in the current quarter. The real estate company, known for low-cost housing projects, plans to do a mix of luxury and affordable housing projects in these markets.

The company may partner with local governments and land owners to launch its projects.

Kotak Wealth looks to expand overseas, eyes NRI investments

Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd’s financial services arm, Kotak Wealth Management, plans to open more overseas branches to tap wealthy non-resident Indians (NRIs). “We see a lot of potential in the NRI community and there is a fair amount of interest in India across the world,” said C. Jayaram, executive director, Kotak Mahindra Bank. “In addition to India’s growth story, they also have an emotional reason to invest in India.”

The Kotak group is present abroad through the offices of its offshore fund, which manages more than $1.5 billion in West Asia, Singapore and London. The bank’s wealth management business has grown consistently over the past 15 years from Rs.500 crore in assets in the mid-1990s. It is now one of the largest wealth managers in country. Increasing salaries and higher disposable incomes in the hands of young professionals has boosted India’s wealth management business over the past decade. According to a recent wealth report by DSP Merill Lynch and Capgemini, the population of India’s high networth individuals (HNIs) and their wealth grew 50.9% and 53.8%, respectively, in 2009. A global wealth report by Credit Suisse Group AG said total wealth in India has tripled in the past decade to $3.5 trillion.

With the growth in size, the wealth management business is becoming increasingly competitive. 10-15 years ago, asset management was part of the Kotak group’s securities business, and investors came to the company for its expertise in equity. Much of the investment was old money that investors wanted to grow.

The government’s move last year to allow individuals to invest up to $200,000 a year outside India has also helped wealth managers. Kotak has formed a joint venture with Lombard International Assurance SA, which will offer private banking products to Kotak’s customers.