Global Automobiles, a Xenitis Group company, has introduced a motorcycle called the Rock 100. The motorcycle has rolled out of the Global facility in Hooghly district in West Bengal within seven months of it being commissioned. The motorcycle was developed by Global Automobiles R&D and features a with four-stroke engine, electronic self start and kick start facility, tachometer, gear indicator, aerodynamic headlight with halogen bulb, sporty indicators and much more. The Rock 100 is priced at Rs 19,990. 

Speaking on the occasion, Santanu Ghosh, Chairman & MD, Xenitis Group commented, “We are going aggressive for an all India launch of this revolutionary Rock100 the 100 cc performance motorcycle at lowest ever price point by any 2-wheeler manufacturer in India. This will cater to the requirement of the common people of our country”. He added, “Our 2-wheeler factory has the capacity to churn out 3.6 lacs 2-wheelers annually. Today the company has taken order booking of 1.6 lacs 2-wheelers to be supplied till March 2008 from all India distributors and booked a sales turnover of Rs 400 crores for the current financial year. The company has also got confirmed export enquires from Middle East, Russia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and some African countries”.

Husco International has commissioned its Indian manufacturing and R&D facility at Talegaon on the outskirts of Pune in India. Husco is into the manufacture of hydraulic and electrohydraulic controls for construction, industrial, automotive and agricultural equipment and a global supplier. The company was founded in 1985 as a result of a management buyout led by chairman and CEO, Agustin Ramirez Jr. and in the twenty years since, has grown to specialize in manufacturing of hydraulic and electrohydraulic controls for off-highway and automotive applications. Speaking at the inauguration of the facility at Pune, Agustin Ramirez, chairman and CEO, Husco International, said, “Husco is a US $ 150 global company with more than 50per cent of sales outside of US”. The company has operations in US, UK, China and now in India. Speaking about the company’s entry into India, Ramirez expressed that “We are in here because we have an existing customer base; we believe we can establish a globally competitive manufacturing facility here; we are keen to establish a R&D centre in India that can handle intellectual property and leverage communication”. Ramirez further expressed that “The facility here would serve our needs for many years and the engineering business will initially serve internal customers. Our customers are world leaders. JCB is our largest customer in India”. The Husco Pune facility that turns out 6600 Series and 5000 Series control valves is not very far from JCB’s Talegaon facility. The R&D centre situated within the plant is first such entity setup by the company outside of US. Build with an initial investment of US $ 10 million the facility, which includes the R&D centre is spread across a 21 acre campus and has been divided into three phases. Phase 1 was completed in June 2007 with the construction of 7,000 sq mtr facility including 2,000 sq mtr of office and R&D space and 5,000 sq mtr of manufacturing and product testing setup. The production line currently is divided in two lines. The 3rd and 4th line is expected to be commissioned in 2008. The execution of phase 2 and 3 according to Husco sources depends on the success of the phase 1 and no time frame has been marked as of yet. The R&D centre has 30 engineers presently and plans to increase this to 100 by 2010. The company plans to have an employee base of 70 associates by the end of the year 2007 and 300 by the end of the year 2010.