Volkswagen India appoints Dr. John Chacko as its new Managing Director. Chacko, who has over 30 years of experience with Volkswagen, replaces Joerg Mueller in the role. Additionally, ArcelorMittal plans to build three new steel plants in India with a 3 million tonne capacity each in Jharkhand, Odisha, and Karnataka by 2015-2016. India will also launch a new communication satellite from Sriharikota spaceport next month to enhance communication services.
2. Volkswagen India appoints Dr John Chacko as MD
Volkswagen Group has announced the appointment of Dr John Chacko as the new
Volkswagen Group Chief Representative India and President and Managing
Director, Volkswagen India Private Limited , with effect from December one.
Chacko (58) had played a significant role in the operations of Volkswagen Group in
India as the Technical Managing Director of Volkswagen India, the company said
in a release.
He succeeds Joerg Mueller (48), who has recently moved on to a new
responsibility at the newly formed Volkswagen Group Trucks Division.
An engineer with a B. Tech degree from IIT Madras, Dr Chacko has been a part of
the Volkswagen Group since 1978.
Previously, as Technical Project Leader for Volkswagen's Project India, Chacko
played a key-role in the decision making process towards Volkswagen Board's
resolution to take the step into the Indian Market with a full-fledged production
base, it said.
3. ArcelorMittal to build small steel units in 3 states: govt
Global steel major ArcelorMittal will build smaller plants, each of 3 million tonne
capacity, in Jharkhand, Orissa and Karnataka, as per the company's investment
proposals with the government.
The company is likely to commission these plants in Jharkhand and Karnataka by
2015, while the Orissa project would go on stream a year later, Minister of State for
Steel A Sai Prathap said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
Besides, there are major proposals by leading companies like Tata Steel, SAIL,
NMDC, Posco, Essar Steel and Jindal Steel to take the domestic steel sector capacity
to about 172 MTPA through expansion as well as new plants, Prathap said.
ArcelorMittal CFO Aditya Mittal had said last month that, to begin with, the
company would set up small facilities in India to expand footprint.
He said Essar Steel's 6 MTPA and 3 MTPA projects in Orissa and Chhattisgarh
respectively were likely by 2012-13.
4. India to launch new communication satellite
India would launch a new communication satellite from its spaceport of
Sriharikota next month to augment capacity and services in the field.
Sources in the Indian Space research Organisation today said top space scientists
would meet on December 10 to conduct a mission-readiness review and give the
final go-ahead for the launch on December 20.
The satellite, GSAT-5 Prime, would be launched by geosynchronous Satellite
Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F06).
An exclusive C-band spacecraft, GSAT-5P carries 24 normal C-band and 12
Extended C-band transponders to augment communication services in areas like
television broadcasting and telecom.
GSAT-5P has a designed mission life of 12 years
5. SEBI probing insider-trading in companies party to loan scam
Market watchdog SEBI is probing possible front-running and insider trading in shares of
over two dozen companies, including some blue chips, by entities and persons involved in
the housing-finance scam. The initial findings, when corroborated with the charges made
by the CBI, indicate to a large-scale front-running deals or shares being purchased or sold
in these companies on the basis of prior knowledge about investment decisions being
made by large institutional investors, a senior SEBI official said on the condition of
anonymity.
The probe of large institutional investors may cover LIC, whose Secretary (Investments)
was among those arrested by CBI in connection with the multi-crore scam, as also those
investors who participated in share or debt placements arranged by investment banking
and financial services firm Money Matters, sources said.
The probe would encompass large dealings and any irregular spurt in volumes or prices of
shares of all the companies where these institutional investors had bought or sold shares
over the past two years, they said.
The top officials of Money Matters, a fast growing entity that boasts of having served a
number of top-level corporate entities in the past including the likes of Tatas, Ambanis and
Birlas, have emerged as the focal points of the scam. Sources said that though the
arrested official of the country's largest insurer LIC could have been used (by Money
Matters) in terms of revealing the investment decisions already taken by the PSU, he might
not have been in a position to know upcoming decisions by the company or influence its
investments in stocks.
6. India President urges business heads to explore more
opportunities
The Indian president, Mrs. Pratibha Devi Singh Patil has recently asked the
business captains of Industry in India and UAE to join hands with each other and
look for more opportunities for cooperation in agriculture and food
processing units.
For the record, the president also said that the new areas need to be explored for
cooperation. While taking into account the fact that agriculture activity in the
country if the biggest private business in India, the president rightfully mentioned
the fact that close to 40 percent of farming activity in India is dryland farming.
The president also asked Sharjah to be the partner in the second green revolution
in India mentioning the fact that the agriculture and food processing are the most
important sectors for investment opportunities.
There is no denying that Agriculture is in the roots of India and the
successful partnership between the two countries will mean a lot of business for
the UAE region.
