Jayaprakash Narayan conferred Bharat Ratna posthumously: Legendary socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan was on Wednesday posthumously conferred with India's highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna, for his invaluable contribution to the freedom struggle and upliftment of the poor and downtrodden.

Former Raasi Cement official eyeing sick units: Raasi Cement former managing director KV Vishnu Raju is on the lookout for sick units which he intends to revive after infusing funds into them. Raju said various financial institutions are in touch with him for takeover of units which have turned sick for want of finances.

Enron in pact with SCI, Mitsui for LNG transport: USpower major Enron has announced a $200-million joint venture with SCI and Mitsui OSK Lines of Japan to transport LNG from the Gulf for captive consumption at the Dabhol power project in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.

Infosys announces 1:1 bonus issue: Infosys Technologies Ltd has announced a bonus issue of shares in the ratio of 1:1. The company has convened an extraordinary general meeting of its shareholders on January 20 to seek approval for the purpose. Infosys CMD NR Narayana Murthy said the capital restructuring is a continuous process at Infosys and the bonus issue is proposed to align the equity capital in line with the capital employed in the business.

NIIT's Rajendra Pawar named IT man of the year: Rajendra S Pawar, one of the founders of NIIT Ltd, has been named the Dataquest "IT man of the year" for 1998. Pawar was chosen for the award on Wednesday by a distinguished jury including N Vittal, Nirmal Jain, Ravi Marwah, Anil Batra, Shyam Malhotra and Pradeep Gupta under thechairmanship of Nasscom executive director Dewang Mehta.

Maruti ranked among top Indian companies: Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) has been ranked amongst the top 20 Indian companies by the Hong Kong-based business magazine Asiaweek in its annual survey. Maruti Udyog ranks eighth among the top 1,000 Asian companies on the "highest return on assets'' parameter with its profit as a percentage of assets being 18.2 per cent.

Nicco calls EGM for battery unit sale: Nicco Corporation, the Rajive Kaul flagship, is selling its battery division to the Bangalore-based Kirloskar Batteries for Rs 9.55 crore. It has called an EGM on January 14 next year to get shareholder approval.

IFCI works out revival plan for Modistone: The Industrial Finance Corporation of India has submitted a Rs 50-crore revival package to BIFR for the VK Modi-controlled Modistone Ltd. If approved, the company will only run two divisions, and all excess machinery and manpower will be done away with.

Philipsemployees in talks to run Salt Lake unit: The employees of Philips India have started talking to several domestic and multinational colour television-makers for a joint venture to run the Salt Lake unit, Philips Employees Union, Mumbai, president Kiron Mehta said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Al Futtaim to shed Westar majority stake: The $2.5 billion Al Futtaim group of Dubai has decided to offload its controlling stake in Westar International Ltd. The Dubai group has a 70 per cent stake in the joint venture with the Bangalore-based Cosmos Watch Industry Ltd.

CVC guidelines to check bank frauds: The Central Vigilance Commission has finalised guidelines for public sector banks and CBI for checking bank frauds and helping bankers to be pro-active in taking credit decisions. The CVC has finalised a new chapter on banking for the CVC manual on Wednesday in consultation with RBI officials, senior executives of nationalised banks and CBI.

Ashok Agarwal elected Delhi Stock Exchangepresident: The Delhi Stock Exchange board on Wednesday unanimously elected Ashok Agarwal as its new president and Bharat Bhushan Sahny as vice-president for the year 1998-1999. Agarwal and Sahny were elected for the second time as president and vice-president, respectively.