BHEL-BEL JV to set up Rs.2000 crore unit at Fab City, Hyderabad

Two Navaratna PSUs Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and Bharat
Electronics Limited (BEL) have formed a joint venture to manufacture
solar wafers, cells and modules to meet domestic as well as export
demands. The unit is likely to come up on 70 acres at Fab City, which
never really took off.

The project envisages setting up of a manufacturing facility with a
capital investment of Rs 2,000 crore and will provide direct
employment to 1,000 people. A high-level team of officials recently
visited the city to identify possible location for the plant.

Sources said the team identified about 70 acres in Fab City as the
ideal location. It was said to have expressed satisfaction over the
land as it is located in an SEZ meant for similar industries and also
because of its close proximity to the international airport. Another
positive point is, the official say, BHEL has a major unit in the
city.

"Fab City is an ideal location for setting up any semiconductor and PV
panel manufacturing facility as several similar facilities have
already started functioning. This will enable the board of the joint
venture to finalise Hyderabad as possible destination," sources said.

BHEL and BEL had joined hands to form the joint venture to enter the
domain of semiconductors and solar panel manufacturing in 2008. Since
then, the new venture has been on the look out for a suitable
location. After studying the facilities such as power and water, the
high-level team was said to have expressed preference for Hyderabad.
"The team has submitted its proposals to the board for concurrence on
the location in Fab City. We are awaiting for their response," the
sources added.

As per the proposal submitted to the state, the project will have 250
MW solar photovoltaic (PV) production facility for processing silicon
wafers, solar cells and PV modules in new plant. Chief minister N
Kiran Kumar Reddy reportedly gave the go-ahead to provide all the
required facilities to the public sector unit.

This is the second such major public sector venture to come to Andhra
Pradesh in the past two years, the first being the joint venture unit
of BHEL and NTPC. The BHEL-NTPC joint venture has set up its first
unit to manufacture equipments for the power plants at Mannavaram near
Srikalahasti in Chittoor district with an outlay of Rs 6,000 crore.

The sources said the government would de-notify 80 acres at Fab City
to hand over it to the BHEL-BEL joint venture, once they get the
go-ahead from BHEL-BEL board

GHMC to take over 14 Industrial Area Local Authorities (IALA) areas from APIIC

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will take over 14
Industrial Area Local Authorities (IALA) areas,which are now under
Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC).

The GHMC standing committee on Tuesday resolved to merge them into
Greater Hyderabad.Once they are merged,GHMC would look after
maintenance of roads,providing infrastructure facilities,building
permissions and also collection of property tax from residential
colonies under IALAs.

The resolution will be sent to the state government for approval now,
GHMC mayor B Karthika Reddy told reporters on Tuesday.

GHMC officials said apart from industrial areas,residential colonies
that have come up in areas like Madhapur,Gachibowli, Serilingampally,
Nacharam, Mallapur, Pragathinagar (Kukatpally), Patancheru, Sanatnagar
and Jeedimetla are now under the control of IALAs of APIIC.

Building permissions and tax collections are being looked after by the
local authorities.
Since Industrial Area Local Authorities do not have manpower and
infrastructure,many colonies lack civic infrastructure.Welfare
associations of several residential colonies have been demanding to
merge their colonies with Greater Hyderabad for better amenities.

Hyderabad in New York Times 2011 list of must see places

Giving a much-needed lift to Hyderabad's T-bruised image, the New York
Times (NYT) has featured the city of pearls in its list of `41 places
to go in 2011.' In fact, Hyderabad is the only Indian city to have
made it to this year's NYT list, released earlier this month, which in
its earlier listings has featured Mumbai, Mysore and even the holy
city of Varanasi along with the happening beaches of Goa.

"Dynastic grandeur in the heart of modern India", is how the western
daily describes the Nizam's land, which shares the must-visit tag with
other fascinating holiday destinations such as Koh Samui ( Thailand),
Loreto (Mexico), Dresden (Germany), Budapest ( Hungary) and so on.
"The new Taj Falaknuma Palace (in Hyderabad) is a window into the
past" and "completes the Indian palace tour for the south," the daily
reads further claiming that a trip to the over 120-year-old
palace-turned-star hotel can "make a trip to Hyderabad worth while
just on its own." While applauding the city's rich heritage, the list
even makes a mention of the recently opened Park Hotel,Somajiguda as
it describes it as "a futuristic structure with an aluminium and glass
facade inspired by the settings and metalwork found in the Nizam's
jewellery collection."

So, hoping to cash in on this new-found recognition for the city, the
state tourism department has rushed in to use the NYT list as the
`selling' point for its tableau that would be part of the Republic Day
parade in the city on Wednesday. "We will showcase Hyderabad as a
favoured tourist destination across the world and also use the
opportunity to create awareness among people about how it is now a
joint responsibility for us to work towards making it the most
hospitable city in India," said Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary,
tourism, adding how it was a matter of huge pride for Hyderabad to
have made it to the international list. "It is a very prestigious list
and I am glad our city has been chosen over other Indian destinations
to be featured on it," he said.

And apart from the city's rich history, the NYT list also portrays the
`hi-tech' achievements of Hyderabad as it mentions how in the last one
decade "a new sort of wealth has arrived" here through the outsourcing
of international companies, which in turn has "inspired a boom of
sleek cafes and restaurants" in the city.

However, such an honour has failed to impress heritage experts here
who feel that the description of Hyderabad on the list comes across as
a "rich-man's" view of the city and does not justify its qualification
as one of the 41 must-see places in the world. "The two hotels (listed
in the article) are not places any regular tourist can visit. You have
to pay a heavy price to be there," said city-historian Narendra Luther
pointing out how given a choice he would have showcased the Golconda
Fort, the bazars of Old City and Chowmahalla Palace, among others, to
pull crowds to Hyderabad.

Tatas to set up 3 joint venture projects in Aerospace SEZ, in Hyderabad

Following Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata's announcement that Hyderabad
will be made their aerospace hub, the company is setting up three
joint venture projects in the Aerospace Special Economic Zone at
Adibhatla near Hyderabad with an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore.

Nova Integrated System for manufacturing radar and electronic
equipment for defence, Tata Aero-structure Limited for assembling of
aircraft equipment and Tata Aerospace Systems Limited for
manufacturing aircraft parts are the three projects announced by the
company.

The trio will collaborate with overseas partners for setting up the units.

Nova Integrated System chief executive officer and managing director
Ajit Bhavnani met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on
Monday and discussed the proposed projects, said official sources in
the Chief Minister's Office.

"The three projects will attract an investment of Rs 1,000 crore and
provide direct employment to 1,000 persons. The government is in the
process of allotting 125 acres of land in the SEZ to the companies,"
the CMO sources said.

Tata Aerospace Systems, a Tata Group company, has already established
its unit at the SEZ for manufacturing helicopter cabins with an
investment of Rs 1,000 crore. It was during the inauguration of this
facility in November last that Ratan Tata announced his group's
proposal for establishing aerospace and defence clusters in Hyderabad.

The three overseas partners with whom the Tatas would collaborate
would visit India next month for the Aero Show in Bengalore.

"The Tatas would like to conduct ground-breaking ceremony for the
projects during February in the presence of their overseas partners,"
said the state government official.

Prime Minister inaugurates TIFR Hyderabad Campus

Deccan Chronicle  20.10.2010


The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Tuesday laid the foundation stone for the prestigious Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) campus coming up in Gopanapalli in Hyderabad. The campus will become operational by end-2013 and have about 1,500 doctoral, 700 post-doctoral students and 250 faculty members.

The campus, coming up at an investment of `2,500 crore would focus on “Light, Matter and Life” which are closed linked to applications in the areas of health, energy and communication.

The Governor, Mr E.S.L. Narasimhan, Chief Minister, Mr K.Rosaiah, Union minister for law and justice, Mr Veerappa Moily, principal scientific advisor to the Union government, Dr R. Chidambaram, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Dr Srikumar Banerjee, TIFR director Prof. Mustansir Barma and University of Hyderabad vice-chancellor, Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain were present on the occasion.

The state government and the officials of University of Hyderabad (UoH) heaved a sigh of relief as the programme went off peacefully though some student unions and teachers associations threatened to conduct demonstrations against the allotment of 209 acres on the university campus to TIFR.

“It is befitting that Hyderabad, which has emerged a a knowledge and technology centre, should be chosen as the site for the new campus of the TIFR. I would like to congratulate the AP government for inviting the TIFR to set up its campus here,” Dr Singh remarked after laying the foundation stone

Virtusa Opens Global Technology Center At Gachibowli Hyderabad

As part of its global expansion plans,IT services provider Virtusa India Pvt Ltd opened its global technology centre housed in its first whollyowned campus spread over 6.6 acre at Nanakramguda IT SEZ beside Gachibowli Finacial District .The centre,which has a capacity to house 6,000 people,has been set up at an initial investment of Rs 75 crore with plans to pump in another Rs 27.5 crore in the second and third phase,top company officials told newspersons here.

The Massachusetts headquartered company,which has been present in India for over a decade now,had so far been operating out of leased premises at Begumpet housing 1,500 people.Our new global technology center will focus on accelerating business outcomes and consumer experiences of our Fortune 100 client base, Kris Canekeratne,chairman and CEO,Virtusa said.

The $165 million turnover company,which currently only has a global headcount of 4,000 employees,is looking at stepping up its hiring in India.The companys vice-president Samir Dhir said the hiring policy would be in sync with their current growth rate,estimated to be around 27 percent.

The center will strengthen our delivery capabilities.Our hiring will be in areas of content management,data warehousing,business process management,software development and more, he added.Chief Minister K Rosaiah who unveiled the facility urged the ITES service provider to fulfill its expansion plans for Phase II.

Facebook Opens Office In Hitech City Hyderabad

Barely six months after social networking site Facebook announced its plans to make Hyderabad its home in Asia,it officially logged into the city with its global operations center at Hi-Tech City.

The Hyderabad centre,which is its second international centre outside US apart from Dublin,will house Facebooks online advertising and developer support teams that will provide round-the-clock,multi-lingual support to the social networking sites worldwide online user,advertisers and developer base.

While to begin with the company has kicked off operations with nearly 50 people,plans were afoot to increase this headcount to 100 by March 2011 and up it to 1,000-1500 people over next two to three years,sources told TOI.Sources said that while the company had started off with a smaller space in the city,the gameplan was to later move into bigger premises coming up next door.

Company officials were,however,tightlipped over their overall investment and hiring plans for India.But they pointed out that India was among the fastest growing markets for Facebook and a key part of their global operations.

Facebooks active userbase in India has shot up to over 15 million from around 8 million six months ago while its global active userbase grew only from 400 million to 500 million.

Facebooks director of online operations Don Faul said Hyderabad beat competition from 20 other global locations in Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific to emerge as Facebooks face in Asia largely because of availability of superior talent,supportive and proactive state government,easy access due to good infrastructure,the time-zone advantage to support a 24×7 coverage,among others.

At the helm of the Facebook India team is Kirthiga Reddy,a former senior hand at Motorola,as director of online operations and India operations head as well as ex-Googler Manoj Varghese,who will be steering the companys user operations as director