ICICI Prudential AMC, a joint venture between ICICI Bank - one of India's foremost financial services companies, and UK-based Prudential plc - a leading international financial services group, has announced the launch of an open ended equity diversified fund, called the 'ICICI Prudential Target Returns Fund' in the Indian market.

The fund seeks to generate capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity shares of the large market capitalization companies constituting the BSE 100 index.

Ashok Minda Group, Country’s leading auto component manufacturer, has plans to set up a new manufacturing facility in Uzbekistan with an initial investment of $25 million.

Sources reported that the raw material for the proposed Uzbekistan plant would be shipped from India to control input costs as key inputs like steel and plastic cost, which is available lower cost in India compared to abroad.

BEML Limited, second largest maker of earth moving equipment in Asia, announced that it has established an assembly division, BEML Brasil Industrial Ltda, at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Shri Pradeep Kumar, Secretary (Defence Production), Govt of India inaugurated the BEML BRASIL INDUSTRIAL LTDA in the company of His Excellency Shri BS Prakash, Ambassador of India to Brazil and Shri V RS Natarajan, Chairman and Managing Director, BEML LTD.

Substantiating the December 2008 reports that some top-rung executives of ICICI Bank may quit after Chanda Kochhar's appointment as the new CEO and MD, two business chiefs - Renuka Ramnath ICICI Ventures' Managing Director and CEO; and Shikha Sharma, Managing Director of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance - are likely to put in their papers, sooner than later.

A 'cost-reduction, efficiency-enhancement' aimed restructuring program appears to in the offing for Naresh Goyal's private carrier Jet Airways! The company, which has recently slashed 30 percent of its flights and leased out several of its planes, is now planning to layoff nearly 400 employees.

Some other steps to be taken by the company include the closing down of some of its offices in metros that basically handle ticketing; as well as working out a centralized operation control centre in Mumbai. At present, flight despatch job for the airline is handled at its hubs at Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bangalore.

The largest cellular service provider in India, Bharti Airtel has launched its new service called "My Airtel My Offer" for its prepaid subscribers. The service lets the subscribers know various new schemes and offers by launched Airtel, without receiving any calls or SMSs on their mobile phones.