A MOTLEY COLLECTION OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC NEWS

After a lull of four years, Swiss travel major Kuoni is in the process of building up its appetite for acquisitions in India. The country's biggest travel company has expressed interest in acquiring niche brands in the domestic travel business, especially in the space for soft adventures, such as hiking, birdwatching, and those that will help it to develop tourist destinations in the country.

This will be in line with Kuoni's efforts to strengthen its presence in the domestic travel market, and attract more first time travellers into its fold.

"We continue to look at opportunities (for acquisition) as and when they present themselves," Armin Meier, group CEO, Kuoni Travel Holding, and chairman, Kuoni Travel Group, India, told a leading financial daily.

IBM Global Services India has announced the opening of its global delivery centre in Hyderabad, the fifth such facility set up by the company in the country. The Hyderabad centre will initially employ 1,000 staff with a capacity to grow in line with client demand, enabling IBM to scale delivery of its application management services according to market needs.

Frank Kern, vice-president, Asia Pacific operations, said, "The growing markets, huge support base and talent available in India make us committed to this great nation. In the last couple of years, IBM's business in India has grown by 49 per cent." According to him, IBM now employs around 23,000 professionals across India.

The number of dollar millionaires in the country rose 14.6% to 70,000 in 2004, one of the fastest growth rates in the world, according to the latest Merrill Lynch-Cap Gemini World Wealth report, 2005. The survey attributes the rise in the number of the rich to a strong surge in the stock market.

India's 70,000 high networth individuals are less than 3% of the rich in the Asia-Pacific region. However, private bankers are attracted by the fast-paced growth in the economy and in sectors that are adding to the affluence. "Many of the rich own shares of the companies that they work for through stock options. This has given a tremendous boost to the number of the rich in the country," DSP Merrill Lynch vice-chairman & MD Shitin Desai said. HNIs began investing aggressively and churning their portfolio in the Indian equity markets about two years ago. The exposure is around Rs 10,000 crore.

With 6,250 beds in various hospitals and clinics spread across 37 locations in India and abroad, it is already the largest private healthcare service provider in Asia and the third largest in the world. Relentlessly fighting battles with death and disease, the group has diversified into a large number of areas beyond cardio-thoracic facilities—forays that make Apollo a serious contender for global leadership in healthcare.

Apart from covering an entire range of disease management, the group has ventured into pharmacies, IT outsourcing, medical education and hospital management projects. It also extends insurance benefits under a family health plan.

Apollo's come a long way from a single hospital in the early eighties.

Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has signed a 51:49 JV agreement with US-based International Truck & Engine Corporation (ITEC) to produce medium and heavy commercial vehicles, apart from making India a supply base for sourcing components and materials.

The Rs 400-crore entity, called Mahindra International, will make trucks and buses from 2007 at one of M&M's plants, and provide engineering services for design and development of trucks and buses for ITEC globally. The vehicles will have 90% local content, with the existing LCV business of M&M being transferred to the JV. The products to be sourced, could cost in excess of $50m in the first year. The board also approved the transfer of transport solutions and LCV businesses to a separate company.

Natural vanilla cultivation in India may soon get a new flavour with the government promising new strategies to increase the country's share in the global market for the sweet-smelling beans.

At a meeting chaired by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, the State Trading Corporation was entrusted with the task of immediately conducting a study on both domestic and international demand for vanilla.

"The demand for natural vanillin extracted from vanilla beans is growing at a fast pace," Kamal Nath observed. "Still, natural vanillin fulfils only 1 per cent of the demand for vanillin, the rest is made good by synthetic vanillin. This reflects the huge potential for the export of vanilla."

India produces 5 per cent of the world output of vanilla.