Noted

Won: By Aaj Tak, the award for the Best Hindi News Channel at the Indian Telly Awards 2007, held in Mumbai recently. The channel won the honour for the fifth straight year. Aaj Tak is part of the same group that owns and publishes Business Today and several other leading publications.

Rechristened: As Avantha Group, the Gautam Thapar Group, promoter of BILT and several other companies. Avantha combines French and Sanskrit terms to express growth and stability in the new name. The group, which is India’s largest paper producer, also has interests in power generation, distribution, transmission, chemicals, equipment and food processing.

Selected: By the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority, Life Insurance Corporation to sponsor a company to manage the pension funds of central government employees. LIC has sponsored LIC Pension Fund, which is the first company incorporated in India to manage pension funds under the new pension system

Raised: By the Government of India, Rs 51,600 crore, from the sale of equity in PSUs since 1991, according to a white paper tabled in Parliament. The PSUs with high market capitalisation are ONGC, NTPC, BHEL, SAIL and IOC. The recent sale of the government’s residual 10.27 per cent stake in Maruti netted Rs 2,366.94 crore.

Rejected: By Nokia Siemens Networks, PSU telecom company BSNL’s decision to offer it 40 per cent of the contract for a 22.5 million line GSM network. Differences over pricing was the main reason for NSN not accepting the offer. LM Ericsson Telephone was awarded 60 per cent of the contract and NSN, being the second-lowest bidder, was given the rest.

Rolled out: By Tata Motors, its onemillionth passenger car, an Indica, from its facility in Pune. The company commenced production in January, 1999. To celebrate the milestone, the company is running a contest for free upgrades for lucky customers and also running special retail offers.