After a handful of farmers toyed with the idea of exporting pomegranates to Europe and Middle East last year, this season a significant number of them are exploring the overseas market. Farmers from Pune, Sangli and Solapur districts are the ones who initiated pomegranate farming, a shift from the conventional crop pattern. Last year, 12 farmers had obtained the 'global gap' certificate while this year 54 have got it and there are more in the pipeline.

MUMBAI: Auto component maker Bharat Forge said on Monday it has started commercial operations of forging press facility at Pune unit. The state-of-art 4,000 tonne open die press will forge ingots ranging up to 70 tonnes at its Mundhwa facility in Pune, B harat Forge said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

“It marks a very significant step that we have taken into a new area of business - manufacturing of critical components for the non-automotive sector,” said the Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Forge B N Kalyani.

MRO-TEK Ltd., a networking and internetworking computer equipment manufacturer, has executed a network infrastructure supplied by Foundation Networks for Big Animation in Pune.

Through this network, Big Animation will receive wire speed switching which enables to transfer Terabytes of data.

Geometric spurted up 5.34% to Rs 57.20 at 13:52 IST on BSE after the company said it has signed a contract with Ford Motor Company to provide application management services for its engineering applications.

The company made this announcement during trading hours today, 6 August 2008.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 306.88 points, or 2.05%, to 15,267.95 on strong cues from global markets. US stocks soared on Tuesday, 5 August 2008, after the Federal Reserve signaled that it is in no rush to raise interest rates and oil prices tumbled further.

Grey Matter India Technologies, a reputed IT outsourcing provider based in Mumbai officially announced the opening of its new captive technical ODC in Baner, Pune. This is the second operational unit in the satellite city and is in conjunction with GMI's aggressive business expansion plans. Spread over an area of 2500 sq ft, the new unit expands GMI's technical talent pool by 60 engineers.

Pune: Alfa Laval (India) Limited, sales company of the Sweden-based group, today launched its new fittings factory unit at Sarole near here.

Speaking on the occasion, Company Managing Director Nish Patel said the unit began in 1992 as a joint venture between Alfa Laval Group and Denmark-based Lavrids Krudsen Maskinfabrik (LKM), and was named as LKM (India) Limited.

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Patel said, however, LKM (India) Limited merged with Alfa Laval Limited in the year 2001.

IT Services provider iNautix Technologies India, an affiliate of Pershing LLC and The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, plans to undertake in next round of expansion in Pune where it will take up 88,000 sq ft space and employing 800 people. The third phase of its expansion would also be its first outside Chennai.

Pune, July 22 (IANS) Precision Automotive Robotics Inc (PARI), a city-based robotics and automation company, has bagged a Rs.150-million order from American automobile giant Chrysler to develop an automated axle manufacturing system, a top official said here. The Chrysler account adds to PARI’s US customer base that includes automotive and engineering companies such as Caterpillar, American Axle, Honeywell and Dow Corning, joint managing director Ranjit Date told reporters Monday during a plant visit.

Pune: The Pune-based Kirloskar Brothers Ltd (KBL), manufacturers of pumps, has recorded a net loss for the first quarter this year on a higher turnover.

The company has recorded a total income of Rs 374.16 crore for the first quarter of the current fiscal against Rs 321.42 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. It recorded a net loss of Rs 4 crore in the first quarter of 2008-09 as against a profit of Rs 34 crore last year.

Pune July 14 The Pune Municipal Corporation called it a dream project. And the Rs 19,000 crore comprehensive mobility plan (CMP), meant to be the one-stop solution to all traffic problems that plague the city, may justify the label, say traffic experts who have been keeping track of the city traffic issues for long.

Transport expert Sujit Patwardhan said while the plan has a vision, the fear of many of the components remaining merely a vision was the clause that has been added that in the interim, flyovers would be constructed.