Passenger car market leader, Maruti Udyog has unveiled the Swift diesel variant. The car is powered by a state-of-the-art, 1.3-litre, DDiS engine, which unlike the conventional diesel engines is silent, clean, compact, powerful, and offers superior fuel efficiency. A compact engine, the 1.3-litre DDiS features a 5-injection multi-injection technology. An electronic control system in the engine sub-divides the principal injection into smaller multiple injections, leading to homogenous combustion. The system also makes the engine silent, minimises vibration and reduces emission substantially, compared to the conventional 3-injection diesel technology. The engine delivers 75 bhp and 190 Nm torque at 2000 rpm. 

Technology for this diesel engine was obtained by Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) through a technical licence agreement with Fiat and Adam Opel. The engine is being manufactured at SMC and Maruti Udyog's diesel engine plant in Manesar near Gurgaon. The plant is under a joint venture company, called Suzuki Powertrain India Limited (SPIL) in which SMC holds 70 per cent equity with the rest held by Maruti Udyog.

CEAT, India’s leading tyre-manufacturing company, has recorded an impressive performance for the quarter-ended December 2006. The net profit for the quarter stood at Rs. 11.78 crores up by 665 per cent as against Rs 1.54 crores for the corresponding quarter in the previous year. The company’s gross turnover for the quarter stood at Rs. 600 crores as against Rs. 455 crores last year, up by 32 per cent. 

According to a press release from CEAT, the company’s net sales rose to 31per cent in the quarter to 536.66 crores from Rs. 410.69 crores in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, operating margins surged 7.8 per cent to take EBITDA to Rs 41.88 crores from Rs 25.28 crores last year, up by 66 per cent. The company recorded PBT of Rs. 18.47 crores, which was substantially better as compared to Rs. 3.12 crores for corresponding period last fiscal, which is up by whooping 492 per cent. The expansion in operating margin, despite sharp increase in the cost of inputs, has been mainly on account of increase in sale of higher value added products and sustained effort towards achieving cost optimisation.

Pune-based BioEnable Technologies has launched GPSIntegrated, a web-based GPS tracking service in India. The service would allow you to track your mobile vehicles, assets, people, and even animals. GPS Integrated provides real time vehicle tracking and fleet management Services. The service is based on Satellite imagery from Google Earth and maps from Google maps, and allows you to track your vehicle in near real time (max. 5 mins delay) on your desktop using Google Earth and in web browser using Google maps. 

The company also provides various reports for vehicle owners like Start-stop report which gives information about when the vehicle started, where it stopped, for how long and approx distance covered on a particular day. Other reports like Speed report, Fleet Summary report are also available. Customers can also access detailed transaction history of the vehicle which can be exported to pdf or excel files for their further analysis.

The All New Mahindra Scorpio has been awarded the coveted Golden Peacock Award for Innovative Product/Services in the automobile segment. Dr. Arun Jaura, Sr. VP Product Development, M&M and B. Bhaumik, VP, New Product Development, received the award, at a function in Kolkata, from Dr. Ola Ullsten, Prime Minister of Sweden, and Chairman, World Council for Corporate Governance. 

The Peacock Award is given to the most innovative product as determined by the satisfaction of customer’s long term unarticulated needs, and which shows a quantum jump in the exploitation of current technology to achieve maximum customer satisfaction at minimum cost. IOD is a registered non-profit apex body of corporate directors committed to improving the competitiveness of Indian Business and Industry through Total Quality strategies. 

Mahindra & Mahindra has also been awarded the coveted Golden Peacock Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance 2006.

Car market leader Maruti Udyog Limited announced its results for the quarter ending 31st December 2006. The company’s domestic sales during Q3 (October - December 2006) grew 18.7 per cent over the same period last fiscal. The company sold 172,181 vehicles during the quarter, including 9,073 units of exports. The company registered Total Income (Net of Excise) of Rs 38,079 million during October-December 2006, a growth of 18.3 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year. Net profit during October-December 2006 stood at Rs 3764.1 million, up 11 per cent over October-December 2005. 

According to a press release from the company, the above takes into account a loss of Rs 546.1 million incurred by MSAIL (Merged with Maruti Udyog Limited with effect from 1st April 2006, as per a High Court order) during the period 1 April 2006 to 31 December 2006 of which Rs 213.2 million relates to the period 1 April 2006 to 30 September 2006.

Nashik-based Right Tight Fasteners Pvt Ltd (RTF) and US-based Continental Midland LLC have agreed to form a joint venture for production and marketing of fasteners and engineered components. The alliance is being formed primarily to cater to the Indian and global auto industry. 

According to sources close to RTF, the company is determined to project this venture to Indian and global OEMs as a "one-stop-shop" for fastening solutions with American processes, world class technology and low cost manufacturing. Robert S. Kaminski, chairman & CEO, Continental said, “Continental Midland LLC shares the vision of creating a joint venture which will service global fastener needs with high end technology, low cost manufacturing and high value chain integration.” 

Continental Midland LLC is a dominant player in the American fastener industry, and is foraying into the burgeoning Indian automobile market with ambitious plans. With the Indian automobile industry growing at leaps and bounds this alliance is set to offer a large portion of fastener and engineered solutions in the years to come. As per the initial understanding, Continental will be sharing with RTF its technology and equipment infrastructure to manufacture high quality fasteners. RTF on the other hand contributes by bringing in cost effective manufacturing processes and access to Indian automobile manufacturers that it has been servicing over the years.

Tata Motors has initiated preliminary steps for the construction of its small car plant at Singur, with the consent of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC). According to a press release from the company, Tata Motors, through its contractors and its sub-contractors, will deploy appropriate people from the Singur area on various unskilled jobs and also skilled assignments, like masons, fitters etc, as per the project's needs. 

Further, Tata Motors has initiated steps to train people of the Singur villages, who had registered with the WBIDC, to improve their employability. The company, according to the release, has selected a batch of individuals, on the basis of a test and interview, for an extensive 6-month training. Another group of 179 residents of Singur, selected by the WBIDC, are at present being trained by the Ramakrishna Shilpa Mandir (Belur). 

As part of the project work, Tata Motors is also organising groups of women from Singur families to supply food for the construction workers. This is part of the company's plan to infuse income-generation for Singur families, by enabling them to produce various items, which will be required during the construction phase and when the Tata Motors and vendor plants are operational. Other such women group activities will include tailoring to manufacture personal gear. 

Once commissioned, the plant is expected to create employment in excess of 10,000 direct and indirect jobs amongst vendors and service providers in the vicinity.