Placement drive at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has entered in eighth day with many students still waiting to get placed in the midst of global slowdown.

The companies which visited the campus this year include McKinsey, Frost & Sullivan, Boston Consulting Group and Booz and Co. The list also includes many leading banking and insurance firms like Standard Chartered Bank, ICICI Bank, UAE Exchange, SIDBI and SEBI.

India's largest cable company, Polycab Wires and Cables, has entered into an alliance with France's Nexans to set up Euro 60-million (Rs 400-crore) project near Baroda in Gujarat.

The joint venture, with its headquarters in Vadodara in the state of Gujarat, will cover the manufacturing and marketing of special cables for the shipbuilding, material handling, railways and windpower industries.

State surpasses national growth rate of 11.89%

Despite slowdown in the Indian economy, revenue collections by income tax in Gujarat have registered a growth of 15% in the first 11 months of the financial year 2008-09 over the corresponding period last year. While nationally, income tax revenue has registered a growth of 11.89% in the same period.

If the roads & buildings department's circuit house expansion dream takes a 'realty' turn, the Gujarat IAS officers' association stands to be rendered homeless, with its office at the Officers' Bungalow 3 in Shahibaug, allotted to it four years back, being targeted for the extension of adjacent circuit house.

Interestingly, the association does not even have a mess of its own and most of its members' major events are usually held in the IPS officers mess in Shahibaug. What remains to be seen now is whether the association will be given another place for shifting its office from the present house immediately, or not.

Oil & Natural Gas Commission will raise Rs 9,000 crore for its petrochemicals project in joint venture with Gujarat State Petroleum Corp, a company executive said.

"It will be through syndicated loans," director (finance) D K Sarraf said, adding, "We will complete the transaction in March or early April." ONGC Petro Additions Ltd, a joint venture of ONGC and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp, is building a petrochemical plant at Dahej in Gujarat.

In a shocking development, one more case of hepatitis has come to light in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat.

However, health authorities in the state are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that no other person dies due to this fatal viral disease.

With this the total number of people infected with hepatitis has gone up to 185 in the state, of which 56 have died.

The town of Modasa in North Gujarat district is considered to be the epicentre of this disease.