MUMBAI: The Indian Drug Manufacturers Association has said the new Patents (Amendment) Bill is a sell-out of national interest under pressure from international lobby and should be rejected. The proposed Bill denies the patent office opportunities to verify claims and also denies drug firms their right to oppose a grant which will prevent them from producing or continuing to produce within the country vital life saving drugs at fair and reasonable prices. The Bill threatens the right to life and healthcare by legally granting the right to charge exorbitant prices.

Forex level up

MUMBAI: The country's foreign currency assets increased by $23 million to $26.55 billion in the week to December 4. However, gold reserves held with the RBI declined by $21 million to $3.04 billion, the central bank's weekly statistical bulletin said on Saturday. While, special drawing rights increased by $1 million, the net effect on total foreign currency reserves was a marginal rise of$3 million.

VSNL-Intelsat

NEW DELHI: VSNL has hired eight transponders, each with a capacity of carrying two channels, from Intelsat for analog broadcast services in the country. The company plans to charge $900,000 from customers per channel. VSNL has already received firm bookings from a number of broadcasters for the transponders, capable of carrying two channels per transponder.

BSE badla rates

MUMBAI: Carryforward rates on the BSE fluctuated in the band of 11.5 per cent to 17.5 per cent annualised before closing at 12.2 per cent for the week ended December 11. The badla turnover on the BSE, excluding the undha badla (backwardation) volumes, touched a high of Rs 663 crore.

CNBC Asia

MUMBAI: CNBC Asia has announced its search for "The CNBC Complete Manager," an all-India contest for the managers of tomorrow. The search for the first among equals, covers 60 premier institutes and 13 cities, spanning the whole of India. The contest which is currently underway and goingthrough its regional rounds, will see over 8,000 future managers competing with each other, collectively battling their way through 15,000 testing hours and three lakh questions.

Adfactors

MUMBAI: PR Week, the international public relations journal, has in its latest issue featured the marketing campaign of State Bank of India's Resurgent India Bonds (RIBs) by Mumbai-based Adfactors PR. This is perhaps the first time that an Indian PR case study is being featured in the prestigious journal published from the UK and the USA.

MasterCard

MUMBAI: Gurpreet Singh has been appointed by MasterCard International as Director Acceptance Development for India. In his new role, Singh will liaise closely with MasterCard member banks to identify new areas of merchant acceptance as also to expand the existing merchant acceptance base in India for MasterCard International's range of payment products including credit and debit cards.

Anji Reddy

MUMBAI: DR K Anji Reddy, chairman of the Rs 500crore Dr Reddy's group of pharmaceutical companies, received the FAPA-Ishidate Award given to an outstanding Asian pharmacist excelling in pharmaceutical research by the Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Association (FAPA). The award was presented to him in Mumbai by the FAPA president at the Indian Pharmaceutical Congress of Indian Pharmaceutical Congress Association (IPCA) organised jointly with the Asian Congress of Pharmaceutical Sciences of FAPA.

Toyo Engineering

MUMBAI: Toyo Engineering India Ltd has bagged the export award for 1997-98 from Overseas Construction Council of India in the category of maximum foreign exchange earned and repatriated in engineering service contracts. Toyo is one of the prominent technical consultancy organisations in India and its services are acknowledged by Indian petrochemical, fertilisers and chemicals manufactures.

MM Softek

MUMBAI: M M Softek Ltd, a Bangalore-based provider of IT solutions, has announced a public issue of shares. It is planning toset up of a state-ofthe-art 100 per cent EoU at the Software Technology Park of India, involving a cost of Rs 2 crore.

MM Rubber

MUMBAI: MM Rubber Company Ltd, the largest manufacturer of natural latex foam mattresses in the country, has introduced its two new innovative mattresses adding to its wide "MM Foam" range of high quality mattresses, with the aim of providing customers with ultimate comfort and luxury.

Bunka Orient

MUMBAI: Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, Inc, USA has signed a strategic alliance with Bunka Orient India, the Indian arm of Bunka Orient Corporation, Japan. This is the second alliance between BOC, Japan and IMC. The objective of the alliance is to provide ERP/MRP II solutions based on Microsoft technologies through MRP9000, the flagship product of IMS.

BSEL Information

MUMBAI: BSEL Information Systems has entered the field of software education training by tying up with Canadian Government-owned Sheridan Collage to set up state-of-the-art authorizedtraining centres (ATCs) in India.