Essar Communications Holdings (ECHL), the telecom subsidiary of Essar Global, has acquired a 49% stake in Kenya-based Econet Wireless International (EWI) by subscribing to fresh capital of EWI for an undisclosed amount. The strategic alliance will significantly benefit Econet Wireless Kenya (EWK), which is 70% owned by EWI, from a rollout as well as product offering perspective. Essar will actively participate with EWI in the network rollout of EWK, ECHL said in a statement. Econet Wireless is a diversified telecommunications group with operations in more than nine countries in Africa, Europe and the East Asia Pacific Rim. The group offers products and services in the core areas of mobile and fixed telephony services, internet and satellite.   more »

Nasscom and ICICI Knowledge Park have come together to launch a fund aimed at providing seed capital to start-up ventures creating intellectual property. The Nasscom-ICICI Knowledge Park Innovation Fund (NIIF) will have a corpus of about Rs 100 crore and will operate as an independent entity managed by a professional team. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), ICICI Knowledge Park and Bharti Airtel are the anchor investors. The fund is expected to be operational by April this year and will attract the first round of investment from another 8-10 institutional investors, outgoing Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said. The plans for follow-on rounds are to attract another Rs 150 crore - Rs 200 crore.   more »

The Rs 100-crore Gland Pharma Ltd has signed an agreement with Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund, a private equity fund focused on investments in life sciences businesses in the country, for capital infusion of $30 million (Rs 120 crore). The proposed fund is to support its expansion at its manufacturing facilities and fund research and development activities. The company is also open to acquisitions in the near future. Announcing this to the media, Ravi Penmetsa, vice-chairman and MD, said that the capital infusion of $30 million would help to vertically integrate the manufacturing capabilities, fund capacity expansion and file more Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA). Besides, the company is bullish over exports to the regulated Markets and expects 60% of its revenue to come from these Markets in the next two years. Gland Pharma has a pre-filled syringe facility in the country. Some of the Companies’ products include heparin, enoxaparin and dalteparin, used to treat blood clots and rocuronium, atracurim, etc used in anesthesia. The company is in the process of developing generic products in the oncology and anesthetic segments.   more »