Maharashtra government on Wednesday replaced the controversial Pune municipal commissioner Arun Bhatia with the 1975-batch IAS officer Ratnakar Gaikwad. The government's move came after Pune Municipal Corporation general body's resolution to recall Bhatia was passed unanimously. Bhatia has been appointed director archieves. Bhatia, who was shunted out of the P MC recently, was reinstated following Bombay high court's judgement on a public interest litigations filed by Puneites.

Sinha okays hardware report

Finance minister Yashwant Sinha has given approval to the jinxed hardware report of the national information technology task force. Sinha's much-awaited nod to the report has rekindled hopes that the prime minister's office may finally be able to put up the report for cabinet's consideration once prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee clears it.

Tisco to close down mill

The Rs 6,274-crore Tisco, the flagship of the Tata group, is set toclose down its one million tonne per annum rolling mill in Jamshedpur, Bihar, following the commissioning of the continuous cast process. With the closure of the mill, which was the mainstay of Tisco, the company will turn 100 per cent in the continuous casting process, putting an end to its age-old ingot rolling process.

Philips profit gets boost

Philips India took the help of an innovative accounting methodology to show lower "other income" and post an operational profit for the year ended December 31, 1998. An analysis of the annual report for fiscal 1998 shows that the company regrouped items under "other income" head for not only fiscal 1998, but also for the previous year. The company would have shown an operational loss had it not re-grouped "other income" items as operational income.

Aerospatiale adds IA order rider to venture with HAL

French aircraft maker Aerospatiale has entered into a joint venture with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to produce 50-seater ATR-42 aircraft. TheFrench company, however, has attached an important rider to the agreement: it will manufacture the aircraft with HAL only if IA places an order for this aircraft type.

Shrachi group plans venture

Shrachi Securities is planning to float a joint venture for manufacturing power tillers in the country. It entered the segment way back in 1992-93 though a group company, Bengal Tools, which assembles power tillers after importing them from China.

MRTPC discharges complaint against Cipla

MRTPC has discharged Modi Mundipharma's complaint against pharmaceutical major Cipla for unfair trade practice as the company has already withdrawn its publicity material containing misleading claims about its asthma treatment drug.

UB in talks with property dealers

The UB consortium is in talks with global property developers like Brooke International and Richard Ellis to lease out land to construct real estate properties as part of its elevated rail transit system project in Bangalore. Thestrategy behind the move is to attract captive ridership from employees and residents live in the apartments being constructed close to ELRTS stations.

Sensex sheds 25 points

Rumours of tensions at the Kargil front once again provided the much needed trigger point for the operators to liquidate their long positions on the local bourses. The 30-share Sensex on Wednesday witnessed a free fall to breach the crucial barrier of 4,088 and closed at 4,041.89 registering a net loss of 24.93 points.

Rathi miffed over inter-depository connectivity delay

BSE president Anand Rathi has expressed concern on the absence of connectivity of the Central Depository Services with the existing depository, even three months after Sebi gave the commencement certificate to CDSL. He said it is time that the two depositories worked together to promote the depository concept.

Cement stocks come to the fore

Cement stocks are on the roll. And, the newfound faith in the sector has percolated even totwo-penny stocks. The reason: Cement offtake has picked up for the second consecutive month with industry majors hiking the prices.

Umbrella funds

Equity markets are likely to witness fresh inflows of around Rs 600 crore in July-August when the three umbrella funds close for subscription early next month. All these funds will be chasing the same set of stocks in FMCG, IT and healthcare sectors since they comprise sector-specific schemes with identical objectives.

StanChart net dips to Rs 3.7 cr

StanChart-India's net profit has declined to Rs 3.7 crore in 1998-99, down from the previous fiscal's Rs 67.7 crore. The fall is on account of the Rs 165.4 crore incurred towards the bank's early separation scheme, which saw 1,100 employees leave the bank. The bank's deposits have grown by 11 per cent to Rs 5,352.64 crore while advances have risen to Rs 3,381.21 crore.

IDBI MF in talks with Principal Group

IDBI is mulling the possibility of IDBI Mutual Fund entering into an alliancewith United States' pension fund major the Principal Group of Companies, for launching pension fund based investment schemes and retirement benefit plans for Indian investors.

CII moots expert panel for trade talks at WTO

A committee comprising experts on WTO norms and diplomacy must take over the task of drumming up support for the country's cause at the next round of WTO negotiations in Seattle, according to CII. The panel should go around the developing world to muster support for our legitimate interests at the WTO negotiations in November", CII president Rahul Bajaj said.

Britain's cable and wireless wins control of IDC

Britain's Cable and Wireless Plc, on Wednasday won its takeover battle with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp for control of the Japanese telecom carrier International Digital Communications Inc. Two key shareholders in IDC, Toyota Motor Corp and Itochu Corp said they would each sell their 17.7 per cent stake in IDC to the British company.

Cement prices crashin Madhya Pradesh

Even as cement prices are touching new highs in the western and southern markets, the cement-surplus Madhya Pradesh region has been witnessing a shocking reversal ahead of the monsoon. The oversupply problem is taking its toll in the region as prices have crashed to Rs 90-95 per bag. Analysts are sceptical that retail prices may drop to below Rs 75 per bag once the monsoon actually sets in.

Motorola, Sun sign pact

Motorola and Sun Microsystems on Wednesday signed a 10-year, non-exclusive technology agreement to provide high-access wireless network equipment.

The agreement calls for Motorola to purchase up to $1 billion in software and hardware from Sun Microsystems.

PPA for Reliance project revised

Maharashtra government on Wednesday revised its power purchase agreement for the Rs 1252-crore Reliance power project being set up in Patalganga.

Deputy chief minister gopinath munde, who also holds the energy portfolio, said as per the revised PPA, the price perunit would now be six to seven paise cheaper than the original Rs 1.55 per unit envisaged in earlier PPA.