Go4i CEO Piyush Gupta confirmed that talks with Nicholas Piramal were at an advanced stage, but added that a deal had yet to be finalised. "We haven't concluded the deal, so I cannot comment on the details of the joint venture just yet," Gupta told The Financial Express.

The deal, when it fructifies, will see the Piramal group join a clutch of top-notch Indian drug companies leveraging the Internet to grow their business. While Ranbaxy Laboratories is working on plans to set up a portal for trading-largely in bulk drugs, the Dr Reddy's group already holds a stake in Meditimes.com, a dedicated portal for the medical community.

Internationally, Swiss giant Novartis has forged a strategic e-business partnership for healthcare and nutrition with World Online, a pan-European Internet communications company.

Commenting on the proposed healthcare portal, Gupta added, "It is a portal aimed at enabling healthcare access to consumers and we should be able to divulge the details of the joint venture and the project within a week".Go4i, currently capitalised at about $30 million, has been setting up vertical segments to service various consumer needs. Its most recent tieup has been with Stanton Chase International, a global recruitment agency for Go4careers.com, an online recruitment facility.

The Piramal group already has its own software outfit, Psytech, in its fold though analysts expect the proposed tieup with Go4i to largely revolve around-Wellspring-a one-stop health facility in Mumbai. There is, however, no official confirmation on this. Wellspring is a 50:50 venture between UK's Bupa and Piramal Enterprises. The Bupa Piramal top brass had, in December last, indicated that plans were afoot to set up a portal for health-related advice. Wellspring essentially offers ambulatory care facilities for a variety of medical consultations with general practioners, consulting physicians, gynaecologists, among others, besides modern facilities for diagnostics, pathology and radiology.

Psytech, which is credited with having developed a computer-based expert system, Oncosys, for cancer specialists in 1994 for the Piramals Gopikrishna Piramal Memorial Hospital, already has IT expertise in areas like patient portfolio management, materials management, sales and distribution etc.

Shareholder's approve Deonar facility sale
Shareholders of Nicholas Piramal have approved the proposed sale, lease, transfer or disposal (as a going concern) of the company's facility at Deonar in Mumbai at an extraordinary general meeting held recently.

The company has transferred workmen at the Deonar unit to its Haemaccel factory and the Quest Institute of Life Sciences at Mulund in Mumbai, though the union had moved court seeking a stay on these transfers. While the stay has not been granted, the company has, at the instance of the industrial court, held in "abeyance the taking of disciplinary action against the said workmen". The matter is currently subjudice.

Shareholders also approved the proposed issue of American Depository Receipts (ADR) upto an aggregate sum of $100 million and an employee stock option scheme (ESOP), effective from April 1, 2000.