SQL Star profit jumps to Rs 2 crore: SQL Star, the Hyderbad-based software major, has posted a 240 per cent increase in pre-tax profit to Rs 2.15 crore on a turnover of Rs 12.20 crore for the first half of the current financial year. The board also considered the issue of a public offering to fund its Rs 25-crore expansion plan this year. However, it failed to arrive at a concensus on the issue, company managing director Ashok Agarwal said.

Indo Rama Cementpresident: KK Taparia has taken over as president of Indo Rama Cement Ltd. Taparia comes with rich experience at AV Birla group company, Indian Rayon and expertise in the steel industry. Taparia's appointment comes at a time when Indo-Rama Cement has embarked on a one million MT per annum blended cement project at Raigad in Maharashtra.

Armour Polymers sales spurt to Rs 16 crore: Armour Polymers has registered a 72 per cent increase in sales to Rs 16.4 crore for the half year ended September 30, 1998, against Rs 9.5 crore in the corresponding period last year. After incurring heavy losses of Rs 1.28 crore and Rs 2.68 crore for the fiscals ended March 31, 1996 and 1997 respectively, the company made a net profit of Rs 1.65 crore during the half year ended September 30, 1998. Further, the profit of Rs 1.29 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal is also 3.5 times higher than that of the first quarter ended June 30, 1998. Armour Polymers is the country's only manufacturer ofcyanopyridines, used in the manufacture of vitamin B3 and anti-TB drug, INH.

Keonics ties up with Aptech: The Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (Keonics), the technology arm of the Karnataka government has chosen Aptech Ltd as its partner to implement the prime minister's information technology task force recommendations in the state. The Keonics-Aptech project will initially focus on computer literacy in the Dhakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

Badge of pride for Tata Infotech: Tata Infotech Ltd has been voted amongst the 300 best publicly quoted small companies in the world. The cross industry survey, conducted by the Forbes Global Business and Finance magazine covered Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, USA and Canada. The study researched over 13,000 global companies with revenues not exceeding $500 million and a return on equity of at least 8 per cent in the last financial year.

Nokia, Star Hub sign $100m contract: Nokia and StarHub havesigned a $100-million contract for the delivery of a total integrated fixed and mobile solution in Singapore. The deal will see the provision of fixed and mobile services using Nokia's integrated DX200 switching solution as the common platform together with intelligent Network capabilities.

Melstar, IBM set up software centre: The Mumbai-based Melstar Information Technologies Ltd in partnership with IBM has set up a new software development centre at Bangalore to focus on IBM projects.