by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, C S R, Corporate, Economy, Investing, Markets, News, SMEs
Haldia : Exide Industries, which is aspiring to supply batteries for bullet trains, will invest over Rs 550 crore for setting up a battery recycling plant and expand its existing facility here to manufacture Nickel-Cadmium batteries, an official said on Tuesday.
“The expansion project will mainly produce high-end Nickel-Cadmium batteries in technical collaboration with Furukawa of Japan. These batteries have applications in bullet trains, metro rail and other critical installations. This plant will also produce lead acid batteries.
“We are also setting up a battery recycling plant here. The investment will be over Rs 550 crore in these two projects,” company’s MD and CEO Gautam Chatterjee said.
Both the projects will be completed in the next 12-18 months, he said.
Earlier in the day, West Bengal’s Minister for Transport and Environment and Chairman of Haldia Development Authority Suvendu Adhikari laid the foundation for the two plants.
The new facility, which will be built on a 20 acre land allotted to the company by the Kolkata Port Trust, will have the capacity to manufacture 1.2 lakh batteries every month and it will also have a mega charging station.
The greenfield battery recycling plant with latest European technology will be set up on another 20 acre land given by Haldia Development Authority, Chatterjee said.
In collaboration with Italy’s Energitech Technologies, one of the leading players in this field, the plant in Haldia will have a monthly capacity of 15,000 metric tonnes, making it the country’s largest lead recycling plant.
The company already operates two lead recycling plants near Pune and Bengaluru. Their combined monthly capacity is 11,500 metric tonnes of recycled lead.
Exide’s lead recycling business is carried out by its wholly-owned subsidiary Chloride Metals Ltd which clocked a turnover of Rs 2,013 crore in financial year 2017-18.
According to Chatterjee, the company has a two-pronged strategy to make Haldia one of the largest and integrated self-sufficient battery making centres in South-East Asia where it manufactures everything from recycled lead to finished battery.
In the current fiscal, the lead-acid storage battery maker planned to make Rs 1,100 crore of capital expenditure including the investments of two projects.
“Haldia plant is contributing one-third of our battery production. Last year, we invested Rs 600 crore here and this year, the investment will be Rs 700 crore (of the total capital expenditure),” Chatterjee said.
He said the company, which have 11 plants across India, selected this plant for expansion on the basis of its cost effectiveness, adaptability of newer technologies, work culture and talent.
Applauding the West Bengal government’s proactive role, Chatterjee said they got the land promptly.
State Minister Adhikary also said that the government has a land bank here for companies to expand their businesses.
“There was a moratorium imposed by the Central Pollution Control Board on fresh investments in Hadia. The state worked hard in order to lift the ban and eventually, it was withdrawn in 2013. Now, several companies like Indian Oil, Hiranandani group LNG terminal, Mitsubishi Chemicals and others are expanding here,” he said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Investing, Markets, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : Facebook has announced to invest an additional $4.5 million towards helping the news industry globally.
The social media giant, that reported more than $5 billion in profit in the second quarter this year, said it will give $3.5 million towards “Facebook Membership Accelerator”, a three-month pilot programme designed to help news organisations with membership models.
“We are going to continue to coach the group of metro news publishers from the pilot programme through the end of this year, and we will reconvene with them in 2019 to focus on subscriber retention,” Campbell Brown, Global Head of News at Facebook, said in a blog post on Thursday.
Facebook also announced to contribute $1 million to the 2018 “NewsMatch” campaign which matches individual donations to more than 100 non-profit newsrooms around the country.
“Last year, ‘NewsMatch’ helped make 2017 a record-breaking year for giving to non-profit journalism and we are excited to help NewsMatch expand in 2018,” said Brown.
The “Facebook Membership Accelerator” will help non-profit news organisations and local, independent publishers with membership models build sustainable businesses, by providing supporters access to exclusive content and experiences through memberships.
An earlier “Local News Subscriptions Accelerator” programme from Facebook was designed to test strategies focused on growing digital subscription acquisitions for local publishers.
“We’re encouraged by the early successes of this programme, and proud of the tangible business results that publishers have accomplished so far,” Brown noted.
Facebook said it is also working with publishers across the US and Europe to test support for subscriptions in “Instant Articles”.
“Moving forward, we’ll also be exploring ways to support emerging models like membership directly on Facebook,” said Brown.
On Thursday, Facebook announced its first partnership in India with Chennai-based Asian School of Journalism (ACJ).
Part of the Facebook Journalism Project, the partnership will establish a scholarship programme at ACJ and support five students in four career specialisations — print, new media, radio and television.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Investing, SMEs, World
Beijing : China on Tuesday said it is not threatened by growing American investments in infrastructure and other sectors of the Asian economy.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had announced on Monday that Washington would be investing $113 million in energy, technology and infrastructural initiatives in Asia, to possibly counteract growing Chinese influence in the region.
“It is a good thing that the US and other countries will increase imports to develop infrastructure and connectivity in this region,” Chinese Foreign Affairs spokesperson Geng Shuang was cited as saying by Efe news.
“We(…) will never seek domination in the Indo-Pacific, and we will oppose any country that does that,” Pompeo had said, in a fresh warning to Beijing in the face of growing tensions in the South China Sea, where countries like Vietnam and the Philippines have disputed China’s claim over a number of islands.
“We hope these countries make investments and carry out imports with the aim of increasing the benefits for the well-being of this region,” said Geng, adding that China was willing to work with the US and other countries to ensure economic growth and regional development.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, Events, Investing, News, Politics
Lucknow : Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on Sunday laid the foundation stones of 81 projects worth Rs 60,000 crore whose MoUs were signed in February this year at the UP Investors summit, lauded the state government and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for making this happen in a period of less than five months.
“I have been Chief Minister of Gujarat, an industry driven state and can well understand the number of difficulties and problems the team of Yogi ji must have faced and hence kudos that you all made this happen,” he said.
“It is a big, significant and an unconceivable thing where everyone from the Chief Minister to the last revenue official is involved,” he added.
“This is exceptional success… I am speaking on basis of experience,” Modi said while nothing that the ground-breaking ceremony which he was presiding over should ideally be called “record breaking” as the state had competed the journey from “intent to investment”.
“My heart says that UP would soon be a one trillion dollar economy,” he said, while stressing how the changes would open new vistas for the people of the state, including the unemployed youth.
“When I was elected an MP from UP I had promised the 22 crore people of the state that I will give back their love and trust with interest and this event is a part of it,” the Prime Minister added.
He also informed that gathering that due to proactive policies of his government, the energy deficit in the country, which stood at 4.2 per cent in 2013-14 had now narrowed down to less than one per cent. A sum of Rs 50,000 crore has been saved by the people by way of replacing conventional electric use by green energy like LED and solar energy, he said.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was also present, said that he too had been the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh but had never expected such fast work as that the Yogi government had rolled out.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodity Market, Investing, Medium Enterprise
Hyderabad : Orient Cement Ltd, a part of C.K. Birla Group, plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore to expand the capacity of its plant in Telangana, the state government said on Saturday.
The company will expand the capacity of its factory at Devapur in Mancherial district from current 3.05 million tonnes to 7.5 million tonnes of cement per annum.
Deepak Khetrapal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Orient Cement Ltd, on Saturday met Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao and discussed the expansion plans.
Orient Cements Ltd has obtained first stage of Environment Clearance from the Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry for expanding the plant.
The construction of the plant is expected to start within four months once the final clearance from the ministry is received, said a statement from the minister’s office.
This plant is likely to give direct employment to 4,000 people. Khetrapal requested Rama Rao for limestone linkage from Telangana State Mineral Development Corporation (TSMDC) mines for long-term operation of the plant.
The minister said that the state government’s industrial policy continues to attract investments.
“Through Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), Telangana state has succeeded in attracting new investments to the state and is helping the existing firms in expanding their business in the state,” he said.
—IANS
