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Visa group acquires coal mine in Australia
India’s Visa Group, which is based in Kolkata has acquired
a coal mine at Queensland in Australia.
Visa Steel, which is setting up a 1.5-million-tonne steel and stainless
steel plant in Orissa, will source its coking coal from this Australian
company.
The first phase of five lakh tonnes per annum capacity would become
commercially operational by December 2007, while the coke oven plant
is schedule to be commissioned in March 2006. For the first phase,
the company has already invested Rs 250 crore. The company is eyeing
a market share of around 25 per cent once it goes on stream. It,
however, has no plans to go public. While arrangements for coking
coal has been worked out, the plant will be fed iron ore by Orissa
Government agencies on a short-term basis.
Five –year initiative by Australia
for Indian food market
Australia is aiming to increasing its share in the Indian food market.
To achieve this it has announced to launch a five-year initiative
aimed at
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giving its food products more presence in the retail markets in
India. Its Minister announced this for Agriculture, Fisheries and
Forestry, Mr Peter McGauran, recently. According to this initiative,
it expects to spend about Rs 40 crore in the first two years. As
part of the initiative they will seek space for Australian products
in various supermarkets in India and be managed by the National
Food
Industry Strategy (NFIS) Ltd and Austrade, the Minister told the
media. Australia's food and beverage exports to India last year
were worth $50 million (Rs 225 crore). These included pulses and
vegetables, apples and fruit juices, canned fruits, biscuits, breakfast
cereals, salad dressings, wine and honey. Australia estimates India's
annual food and beverage market at $135 billion (Rs 6 lakh crore),
growing at 5 per cent a year.
Mr McGauran said that he had met the Union Agriculture Minister,
Mr Sharad Pawar, in New Delhi and the two had agreed to accord "very
high priority" to the issues of market access for Australian
dairy and
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meat products and exports
of Indian mangoes to Australia. (India has been facing constraints
in exporting mangoes due to Australian quarantine regulations.)
Mr McGauran said that these issues would be resolved on the "basis
of science".
India’s IT presence in Australia
Indian IT companies are increasing their presence in Australia and
there are many indications of this. Besides Infosys, other IT companies
are also making inroads, TCS, for example, has opened a centre of
excellence in Melbourne. Earlier Infosys Australia (Infosys) became
one of the first IT service companies in Australia to achieve the
Software Engineering Institute's CMMI(r) Level 4 accreditation, doing
so on its first attempt.
Recently a delegation of 19 Indian software from NASSCOM visited this
year's CeBIT expo in Sydney seeking Australian partners to collaborate
in joint export efforts and outsourcing arrangements. |
