Date:10/12/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/12/10/stories/2005121002480300.htm

Back Tatas to focus on telecom, biotech, drug discovery: Irani

Our Bureau

Kolkata , Dec. 9

THE Tata group, comprising around 30 operating companies — including 12 major ones such as Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, VSNL and Tata Teleservices — is eyeing at growth organically and inorganically, both within India and abroad.

Telecommunications, biotechnology and drug discovery are among the major focus areas in the days ahead, according to Dr J.J. Irani, Director of Tata Sons Ltd.

Telecom thrust: Speaking at an interactive session with newspersons here, Dr Irani said the Tata Group had already invested Rs 5,000 crore on its telecom initiatives — including the cost of acquisition of VSNL — in the last few years, and a similar amount would be invested on building networks and providing handsets, among other things, in the next two to three years.

Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd (TTML) together have a pan-India footprint, barring a presence in the North-East. The group has a customer base of six million with the incremental addition being around "one million every other month."

VSNL gets SA licence: Dr Irani said that the Tata group's investments in the telecom arena were the biggest by the group in a decade and it was "very serious about it." TTSL and TTML were still not making profits even as VSNL was. In fact, VSNL had obtained a licence to operate telecom services in South Africa as the second operator there. South Africa was a target geography for the Tata group, which was already present there in the hotels and ferro chrome businesses.

VC funding in biotech: According to him, in the area of biotechnology, the Tata group had provided venture capital to Advenis, which engages 140 people in Pune and Bangalore. "In the biotechnology area, we have provided venture capital to one or two small companies. In this space, we would rather encourage talent than be in it ourselves," he said.

Steel initiatives: On the group's initiatives in steel, Dr Irani said that while Tata Steel had announced plans to set up greenfield steel plants in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, not all of them would come up simultaneously. The first of the proposed plants would come up in that State where land and iron ore is first made available. The group, however, was proceeding with the detailed project reports of all the proposed plants simultaneously.

Asked about his views about some States not being keen to provide access to iron ore mines to steel plants located in other States, Dr Irani said the Confederation of Indian Industry had proposed to a committee of the Planning Commission that steel plants should be allowed to be set up in the best possible location and States that provide the iron ore be compensated with some levies.

Rs 1-lakh car: One the proposed Rs 1 lakh car from Tata Motors, he said the prototype of the vehicle was in place and commercial production could be expected in the fiscal 2007-08.

Dr Irani said that last fiscal had been the "best-ever year" for the Tata group, and its performance in the current fiscal would surpass last year's.