Pritish Nandy Communications joined hands with DQ Entertainment International

Pritish Nandy Communications joined hands with DQ Entertainment International

Pritish Nandy Communications has joined hands with DQ Entertainment International, one of the world's leading animation, game art and film production companies, to co-develop and co-produce 6 movies in the next 3 to 4 years time within a budget of $45 million. These films will be in animation and live action and each project will be separately announced once the global co-production budgets are closed.

DQ Entertainment, academy award winner and London listed company, is a leading producer of animation and VFX for global TV series, feature films, DTH videos including online, mobile and next-gen console game art and in-game animation. DQE is engaged in global co-production: with world majors including American greetings and marvel comics in the US and method films and moonscoop in France and works with over 80 client-partners worldwide out of its production, creative and business support facilities in India, Philippines, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Paris. DQE has won many award nominations and been recognised for its technological and creative excellence, corporate governance and growth by Red Herring Asia 100, Deloitte Technology Fast50 and Deloitte Fast500 Asia Pacific.

The company made this announcement during the trading hours today, 19 March 2008.

Tata Communications launches Cisco Certified TelePresence connection services globally

Tata Communications announced the launch of its global TelePresence network service which has achieved Cisco Certified TelePresence Connection status. Cisco TelePresence is an innovative realistic virtual meeting solution that creates unique, in-person experiences allowing real-time, face-to-face communication over a converged IP network. It delivers life-size images, ultra-high-definition video (1080p), spatial audio and a specially designed environment to create a room within a room meeting space.

Cisco TelePresence is transforming the way organizations conduct business. Companies can utilize the TelePresence solution to enhance collaboration, to make decisions faster, to improve cross-cultural communications, to scale scarce resources and to move products to market faster. Tate Communications is the first Asian service provider to achieve Cisco Certified TelePresence Connection status enabling the delivery of the Cisco TelePresence solution.

The Cisco certification program for TelePresence services provides businesses with an added level of confidence, that providers such as Tate Communications can deliver the capabilities needed for an optimal TelePresence experience. The Cisco TelePresence certification process goes beyond static service measurement of network performance. It adds leading practices based on current industry standards for network architecture, management and performance including measurement, staff, processes and tools. These are audited regularly to help ensure that service providers are committed and able to offer an optimal Telepresence experience providing customers with robust, end-to-end communication solutions that meet their business needs today and into the future.

The company made this announcement during the trading hours today, 19 March 2008.

L&T to add 4000 MW per annum capacity for super-critical boilers, steam turbine generators

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is all set to ramp up its manufacturing capacity of super-critical boilers and super-critical turbine generators to 4000 mw per annum. The foundation stone for the upgraded facility was laid at Hazira on 19 March 2008 in presence of A M Naik, chairman and managing director, L&T, and Ichiro Fukue, representative director, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

L&T is the only private sector company in India to enter the space of super-critical boilers and steam turbine generators. The company will be manufacturing and marketing these critical components of the large power plant through two separate joint ventures with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) of Japan. MHI is a global leader in this business.

L&T holds 51% in both the joint venutre with MHI holding 49 per cent. The joint ventures will have an investment of Rs 1500 crore. The joint venture had already started their operations in existing facilities at Hazira last year and have already constructed two new workshops. To further add capacities by 4000 mw, the new dedicated facilities coming up at Hazira marks a significant milestone in India's power sector.

Super-critical boilers and turbines are integral components of energy efficient, coal-based power plants. They will help meet the demand supply gap for power plant equipment as India ramps up its power generation capacity using the super-critical technology.

Manufacturing capability of these products integrates into L&T's existing strengths in the power sector. L&T is currently engaged in total EPC contracts for power projects as well as manufacture of complete condensing and feed heating systems and 'balance or plant' for power projects. With L&T also declaring its intent to enter the generation space as a developer of power projects, the company has developed capabilities for becoming a single point solution provider for the power sector.

L&T -MHI will have a product configuration catering to super-critical power plants, ranging between 500 mw-1000 mw. The engineering design centre for the boilers is based in Faridabad, near New Delhi, and that for steam turbines in Vadodara, Gujarat. The new fabrication and manufacturing facilities will be extension of present complex and will be state of the art world class set up.

The company made this announcement during the trading hours today, 19 March 2008.

Software worries upset real estate mood

The infotech industry continues to rubbish speculation about a downturn in their future prospects after all the spooky talk about a recession in the US. But all the babble has sparked fears that if the software industry goes through the skids, it will have a knock-on effect on real estate prices at home. The argument goes like this: the IT and IT-enabled services industry have been one of the biggest drivers of real estate values in the country over the past few years. Reports indicate that software companies are putting their property deals on hold. These are just a few straws in the wind, but some pundits who divine trends from such stray signals say real estate prices can soon head downward as well with one of the key props for the market gone.

They believe that there will be a sobering impact on both residential and commercial prices. A recent report by the Deutsche Bank says the IT/ITeS sectors have driven 80 per cent of the demand for office space in the country over the last three to four years. The report adds, "These IT and ITeS employees had started the residential boom in India in the late 1990s and accounted for 40 per cent of the demand for residential apartments in the top 15-20 cities in India.