Ruia Group acquires German automotive fastener firm, Acument GmbH

Kolkata: The Ruia Group has acquired Germany-based automotive fasteners manufacturer, Acument GmH & Co KG, from US-based Acument Global Technologies Inc. With the acquisition of Acument's plants in Neuss, Beckingen, Neuwied and Schorzberg and its logistic centre in Koln in Germany, the Ruia Group has incorporated a new company - Ruia Global Fasteners AG (RGF).

According to Pawan K. Ruia, chairman of the Ruia Group, the group would invest approximately 4 million Euro in the company. He expects the company's turnover to be around 200 million Euro this year.

The acquisition was funded partly by internal accruals and rest was by three years sellers' credit.

Acument GmH & Co had a turnover of 227 million Euro in 2010. In 2008 following the global economic meltdown the company incurred a loss of 40 million Euro. Due to this Acument's board of directors had filed for insolvency in 2009. The company had posted a turnover of 800 million Euro before insolvency.

Robin Kendrick, former Vice President and General Manager of Acument Europe is now president and CEO of Ruia Global Fasteners Ltd.

The company has a 15 percent of market share in the fastener segment in Europe.

Pawan K. Ruia said that he had no intentions of shifting the operations to India. However, based on demand, the group may decide to locate additional manufacturing units in India.

This acquisition is expected to help the company tap opportunities during the next boom in the automotive market, which is projected to grow five times in India by 2020.

The Ruia Group had acquired Schlegel Automotive Europe Ltd in 2008, Draftex Automotive GmbH in 2009 and Gumasol Rubber Tec GmBH in 2010. This is the group's third acquisition in Germany.

This year the group is targeting a turnover of 335 million Euro (20.534 billion Indian rupees), of which 50 percent is contributed by it's overseas operations.

Source:-http://machinist.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3101&Itemid=1

Budget: Here's what the common man wants

Indrani Roy Mitra & Manu A B in Kolkata and Mumbai

The Union Budget is the annual financial statement of India presented every year on the last working day of February. The Budget is laid before both the Houses of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha).

This statement of accounts is valid for one financial year. The financial year starts on April 1 every year and ends on March 31.

The statement includes the estimated receipts and expenditure of the government of India for the financial year. With the Budget, being the most important financial event of the country, it is natural that common people have huge expectations from it.

What do people of India want this year's Budget to be? What are their needs?

From people who do not know who Pranab Mukherjee is or what the Budget means to industry veterans, we spoke to a cross section of the people from various walks of life to know their views about the Budget. Read on...

Click NEXT to know the view of the aam aadmi andindustry on Budget...

Source: Budget: Here's what the common man wants - Rediff.com Business

790 tourists gets visa on arrival in January - General news

New Delhi:A total of 790 tourists from eight countries availed the facility of tourist visa on arrival during January, officials said.

The highest number of visas on arrival were issued to New Zealand citizens (242) followed by Finland (156), Japan (155), Singapore (125), Philippines (98), Luxembourg (6), Cambodia (4), and Vietnam (4).

The maximum number of visas on arrival were issued at Delhi airport (406), followed by Mumbai (214), Chennai (137) and Kolkata (33).

The central government has extended the visa-on-arrival scheme for tourists from Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Laos from January this year.

The scheme was launched last year for tourists from Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore as a measure to attract more foreign tourists to India.

Source: 790 tourists gets visa on arrival in January - General news

Perform, achieve and trade the way to save industrial energy

KOLKATA, 4 FEB: The Union ministry of power would be launching a scheme ~ Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) ~ to enhance cost effectiveness in improving industrial energy efficiency under the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) from April this year.

The scheme is likely to save 9.78 metric ton oil equivalent (mte), which amounts to an avoided capacity of 5,623 MW of power over a period of three years.

The scheme was announced today during an interactive session for the eastern region organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) here. 

Through the market-based mechanism, the Centre would notify energy intensive industries as designated consumers and such industries would be provided incentives to achieve better energy efficiency, beyond the specific energy consumption (SEC) stipulated for each designated consumer.

The first cycle of PAT which is going to be started from April 2011 aims to cover eight industrial sectors ~ thermal power plants, fertilisers, cement, pulp and paper, textiles, chlor-alkali, iron and steel and aluminum ~ that would be given a target of three years to achieve better energy efficiency.

“The national target has been set at 10 mote at the end of the first PAT cycle. The 563 notified industries consume 231 mote energy that is 60 per cent of the total energy consumption of the country,” said Mr Kapil Mohan, deputy director general, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). The thermal power plants consume the maximum with 160.3 mote followed by integrated steel that consume energy to the tune of 26.98 mote.

It sets in place a monitoring and verification mechanism for the SECs and processes for issuing and trading in Energy Saving Certificates and its trading across sectors and their synergy with renewable energy certificates. The energy saving certificates would be issued to designated consumers that achieve the target reduction from the baseline SEC during the stipulated period. The number of certificates would depend on the quantum of energy saved during each target year. The value of the certificates would be based on the crude oil price or will be decided by the trading mechanism.

Source: Perform, achieve and trade the way to save industrial energy