Various chambers of commerce, trade and industry in the state have decided to launch an agitation against the hike in power tariff by MSEB. A committee of apex bodies have decided to launch the agitation on December 14, when the winter session of the state assembly commences. All industries in Maharashtra will be observing black day and switching off the power for an hour between 11 am and 12 noon. During this period the continuous process industries will switch on to the power supply from their own generating sets.

Rama Petro suspends operations: Rama Petrochemicals has suspended its operations at its Patalganga plant due to labour problems, the company has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Reliance sponsors polio project: Reliance Industries has sponsored a unique "pulse-polio eradication 1998-99 Reliance global picture" project, organised by Ahmedabad municipal corporation (AMC) in collaboration with Gujarat government, to createmass awareness about immunisation programme on December 6 and January 17. RIL donated a cheque of Rs 25 lakhs to AMC for the project in which 1,500 famous artists from all over the country will paint pictures on the same theme on a 2,200 metres (2.2 km) long canvas, around the circular Kankaria Lake in the city.

Microsoft launches hotline in city: In its fight against software piracy in the country and to encourage greater public involvement in the effort, Microsoft Corporation has launched a dedicated hotline to report the illegal usage of its software. Personal computers, seized from system builders selling illegal software, was donated to the students of Pragati Vidyalaya for the deaf. Gujarat milk federation to expand manufacturing base: The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) plans to expand its milk product manufacturing capacity to achieve a five-fold growth in turnover to Rs 10,000 crore by 2005. Well-known for its `Amul' brand of dairy products, GCMMF is also makingefforts to increase milk procurement, strengthen human resource base and distribution network to become a dominant player in the domestic market.

Siemens enters Internet market: German telecom major siemens today entered the Indian Internet infrastructue market with two orders worth two million dollars for network building.