Hindujas to appear before court
The three Hinduja brothers, SP Hinduja, GP Hinduja and PP Hinduja, against whom CBI has filed chargesheet in the Bofors pay-offs case, have expressed their willingness to appear before the designated court in New Delhi, but sought cancellation of a CBI look out notice seeking their detention on their arrival in India.

India to produce turbo-prop aircraft
The preparations for producing the first passenger aircraft in India have begun with the French aviation company, ATR and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) initialling an industrial contract late last month. "We are now expecting a commercial contract to trigger off this partnership, after the Indian Airlines gives a go ahead," Mr Philippe Advani, managing director of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) said.

CBI chargesheets four in FACT case
The CBI has filed chargesheets against four persons in the case relating to pilfering of over 10,000 litres furnace oil, while being transported from the Indian Oil Corporation depot in Kochi to Fertilisers And Chemicals Travancore (FACT) for its ammonia plant. The agency was also contemplating taking action against two FACT employees for conniving with transport operators for facilitating the fraud, the CBI sources said.

CIL acting chief gets extension
The acting chairman of Coal India Ltd CD Arha, has got a three-month extension to continue at the top post till the end of March 2001.

Infy Q3 net seen growing 10%
Infosys Technologies is likely to see a net profit growth of under 10 per cent for the third quarter ended December 2000, against the previous quarter ended September 2000. Profits are seen in the range of Rs 165 crore to Rs 170 crore, even as the company's exposure to the dotcom sector causes concern for analysts.

Reliance raises $150 m overseas loan
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has raised $150 million through a syndicated loan to refinance an earlier borrowing, the Bank of America (BoA) said in a statement on Sunday. Indian units of BoA, ABN AMRO Bank and Citibank are the arrangers of the issue.

Sterlite puts plan on hold
Sterlite Industries, which was examining the option of bringing its aluminium businesses under one roof, has decided to put the plan on hold. Consultancy firm Arthur Andersen, which was roped in to give its recommendations on the consolidation issue, has already tabled the report before the company.

Inflation rate hits 26-month high
The inflation rate breached its two-year record on December 23, 2000, touching 8.02 per cent, the highest level since November 14, 1998 with the decline in food and non-food articles failing to act as a dampener. A significant fall in prices of fruits and vegetable, coffee, soyabean, kardiseed and jowar could not rein in the inflation, based on the wholesale price index (WPI) which is coming close to the level of 8.21 per cent, recorded last on November 14, 1998.

Ranbaxy eyes $1b sales by 2004
Ranbaxy Laboratoriesis eyeing acquisitions in France for generics business as part of plans to aggressively expand its overseas operations, to achieve $1 billion sales turnover by 2004. It had already set up joint venture operations in Germany and Brazil last year besides branded drugs' business in the UK.