According to a top official familiar with the matter, Rajkot-based Atul Auto (AAL) is looking at setting up a new plant in the southern region of the country. While the investments are expected to be over Rs. 60 crore, it is expected that the demand for three-wheelers is increasing in the country and the scenario will be the same even for the coming months.

Atul Auto's Director, Vijay Kedia said that the company currently has close to 16 models in the offering and it will be investing Rs. 60 crore for setting up a new plant.

Tata AutoComp Systems Ltd recently said that the company has lined up Rs. 3 billion as capex for FY11 wherein a large chunk will be invested in expanding the production capacity of the company.

While the success of the Indian automobile market may have bought many big names into its geographies in the past couple of years, but the labour issues with the sector are taking its own time to get back on track.

After companies like Hyundai, Apollo, Hero Honda have suffered from the labour issues in the past months, it is now the turn of Ford India to test the rough waters.

In fact, the newly-formed employees union at Ford India has sought the government's intervention to begin negotiations with the company.

The world's leading German auto major, Volkswagen has been planning aggressive moves in the domestic circuit for the many months now after it launched the compact Polo in the Indian market.

In fact, the company has recently said that it will be launching the all new, next-generation version of its mid-size saloon, the Jetta for the Indian market by March 2011.

It is not hidden to anyone that the Indian market is attracting a lot of investment keeping in mind its low cost advantage, with a view to jump on to the bandwagon, Volvo Group has also assigned VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) a task to become more strategically aligned in its global operations.

In a major announcement, the company said that it will be making an investment of 2,880 million Indian rupees in its Pithampur plant for the production and final assembly of the Volvo group’s new global medium-duty engine platform.

According to a top official associated with the company, Ford India, the Indian arm of the American automobile manufacturer Ford Motor Company has already started to ship engines to destinations like Thailand and even the fully build Figo to markets like South Africa.

Ford India President and Managing Director Michael Boneham said that the company has already started exporting engines to Thailand.

Home Retail Group Plc, the owner of Argos and Homebase stores, announced a decline of 8.1% in like for like sales at its Argos division for the first quarter of the fiscal. The first quarter sales figures of Argos The group said that the decline in Argos first quarter sales was mainly attributable to the weaker demand for video games and televisions in the period.

Home Retail also said that sales at its Homebase chain fell by 1.4% in the first quarter of the fiscal.

Fuller, Smith & Turner Plc., a brewing and pub group in UK, announced today that its pretax profit grew 17% for the full year ended March 27, 2010. Fuller said that the strong full year profits were mainly attributable to the increase in total full year sales with strong cask ale sales during the period.

In its annual report, the group also revealed that it had acquired eight managed pubs in past 12 months. Fuller also announced a 12% hike in its full year dividend.

UK manufacturing output fell unexpectedly in the month of April, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics. The decline in April followed a strong gain in the month of March this year. However, the manufacturing output in the month of April grew comparing to the previous corresponding period.

According to the data from the Office for National Statistics, the manufacturing output was reported down by 0.4% comparing to March. The manufacturing output in April missed the expectations of economists as they were anticipating a rise of 0.5% rise in the month.

ICICI Bank is evaluating its options to launch a $100 million fund to provide growth capital to small and mid sized companies. As revealed by sources, the fund will be managed by the bank's 100 per cent subsidiary ICICI Investment Management Company Ltd.

Known as the emerging fund, the new fund has already received strong commitments worth $50 million from some reputed institutions, the bank's spokesperson informed on Friday.

Leading German Auto maker Volkswagen has informed that it has decided to set up a plant in China. Volkswagen AG has announced that the company is all set to enter to the world's biggest auto market. The greenfield plant will be set up in south China.

The maximum production capacity of the facility will be of 300,000 units annually. The location has been finalized and the construction work will start soon.

In the recent hours of the FIFA WC 2010 that will be aired live from South Africa and in order to assure the smoother running of the whole event for viewers back in Europe and the Middle East, Eutelsat Communications has made four satellites available that will be posting live feeds for its viewers.

The satellites termed as W2A, W3A, W4 and W7 will be used to broadcast the huge amount of live and recorded content in various languages across different countries, for the entire thirty days, i.e. the period of World cup.

It has been informed that BHEL and Alstom will bid jointly for an upcoming rail project in India. State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has decided that it will join hands with Alstom for a metro rail project.

Alstom is a leading firm from France. Both of them will jointly bid for Chennai Metro Rail Project. It is going to be one of the prestigious projects in India. The approximate cost of this project is Rs. 14, 000 crore.

Sony believes that the current surge in the e-book market is slowly gaining when compared to a traditional print publishing and in the next five years it will rule over it, as reported by Steve Haber, the President of Sony’s Digital Reading division.

He further states that books will slowly fade away just like the music industry, with the current surge of digitization found everywhere.

The UPA Government has said the disinvestment process will be on its top priority in the coming months. Hopefully, in next fiscal year there will be some major disinvestments.

The government has informed that it will sell its stake in 35 companies. These companies are PSUs and some will be listed in the Indian stock market, while some are already listed.

As per the market experts, by such move, the government can raise a huge funds. The UPA government can raise nearly Rs. 1.5 lakh crore in revenue by such move in coming years.

The energy major made its case in its annual economic review with its exploration into oils that were difficult and harder to extract and also stating that the demand globally would now increase when compared to last years downfall in the consumption. oil fields located in the gulf of Mexico currently where efforts are being made by BP to plug in the well that is leaking, killing species, is supposedly one of the most profitable as well as productive fields of the world.

Country's second-largest software services provider by revenue, Infosys has outlined that as a result of currency fluctuation, the company's top bosses received an increase in their total salary package.

For the fiscal 2009-10, the company announced a decreased profit of Rs. 5,803 crore compared with Rs. 5,819 crore recorded in the previous year.

There has been emergence of many questions as to why Infosys' top bosses managed to grab a high salary for the fiscal 2009-10 despite the company recording a lower profit compared to the previous fiscal.

With sugar prices landing back on a stable level, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today pointed to impose up to 25% duty on refined sugar imports in a view to protect the domestic industry.

In addition, he posted that the certain parts of the industry have prompted towards 60% duty on white (refined) sugar, while others favor 40%.

Retail sugar prices touched at nearly Rs. 50 a kg in January; however, prices have since registered a squeeze 30% to around Rs. 35 per kg.

India's Chief Negotiator at the WTO and D K Mittal, an Additional Secretary in the Commerce Ministry, announced that the countries who are asking for greater access to Indian markets will have to pay for it, that also only if India agrees to give access.

Mittal spoke at a special address on World Trade Organisation Doha Round Negotiations, which were organized by WTO and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Friday. Mittal shared that market access would have to be given by all the member countries.

The sale of online tickets for the Commonwealth Games has been launched by Suresh Kalmadi, the Chairman of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee on Friday. The first ticket was issued by Kalmadi to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Tejinder Khanna.

Kalmadi, while addressing media persons, shared that tickets are priced practically, so as to encourage more and more participation of people in the event.