Japan's top carrier NTT DoCoMo is to launch a tablet computer running Google software to challenge Apple's hot-selling iPad , DoCoMo will marry the new Google-backed Android operating system with a device made by South Korea's LG Electronics to launch the product in Japan by the end of March, Users will be able to get on the Internet via DoCoMo's cellular connections, it said, adding pricing and other details were yet to be decided. Google is expected to release a tablet-friendly operating .
Tuhin Mukherjee , the man widely credited for JSW Steel’s recent mine acquisitions overseas , has quit the company to join the Birlas’ unlisted mining arm,EsselMining.Mukherjee will replace Ravi Kastia, who has spear headed Essel Mining for the past five years . JSW Steel. confirmed Mr Mukherjee's exit and said he was moving for what it described as ‘better prospects’ . Confirming Mr Mukherjee's appointment , an Aditya Birla group spkeswoman said that current Essel Mining managing director Ravi Kastia, will look after other businesses such as trading, thermal and wind power projects and ports. Mr Kastia will also oversee a fero-chem — which is a raw material used in the chemical industry — factory at Vapi and the textile unit at the Phillippines. Mr Mukherjee led the Jindal group's efforts to match its growing steelmaking and power generating capacities with captive resources and the Mumbai-based group's recent acquisition of mines in the US, Canada, South Africa and Mozambique could be attributed to his team. In April 2010, JSW acquired a majority stake in South African Coal Mining Holdings for about Rs 51.16 crore and followed that a month later, by buying coking coal assets in West Virginia for about Rs 450 crore. In October, the JSW group bought a controlling stake in Canada's CIC Energy, a coal miner, for about Rs 1,886 crore to feed its power generating arm, JSW Energy. "Mukherjee brought aggression to most of JSW's forays. He was known for thorough due diligence," said a senior executive from a rival metals company who had competed with the JSW group in some of the recent acquisitions. In the negotiations to acquire the South African coal company, the JSW group raised its price and offered to build mining infrastructure, which eventually clinched the deal. JSW's resources team has also completed the acquisition of Chile's iron ore project — the Santa Fe Mining project — where JSW invested about $400 million. The project had been put on the backburnerduringtheeconomiccrisisof 2008and was restarted early this year. The Chile project will make 6 million tonnes of ore annually. Apart from Essel Mining, Mukherjee will also head the group's mineral resources development unit which looks at backward integration of various manufacturing operations within the conglomerate.
Automaker TATA MOTORS today reported 30.63 per cent increase in its December sales last year at 67,441 units sold as compared to 51,627 units sold in the same month in 2009. The homegrown firm's total passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market in December 2010 stood at 19,706 units, which is a jump of 34.48 per cent from the same month previous year, the company said in a statement. The company's latest offering Nano's sales during the month stood at 5,784 units, up by 60 per cent. 'Indica' reported sales of 5,923 units, which is 40 per cent up from the units sold in December 2009, Tata Motors said. 'Indigo' family recorded sales of 5,234 units, a rise of 3 per cent over the same month in the previous year. Sales of 'Sumo' and 'Safari' increased by 62 per cent to 2,765 units. In the domestic commercial vehicles segment, the company sales increased by 25.08 per cent, as it sold 41,926 units last month compared with 33,519 units sold in December during 2009. Light commercial vehicles' sales during the month were at 24,558 units, a growth of 35 per cent over the previous year, while medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales stood at 17,368 units, a growth of 14 per cent compared with the year-ago period. The company exports grew by 69.18 per cent to 5,809 units sold last month compared to 3,454 units sold in December 2009.
