Novartis patent loss

New Delhi, July 5: The Intellectual Property Appellate Board has rejected Swiss drug major Novartis’s patent claim for its cancer drug Glivec in India. “We are currently reviewing the decision and will look at various options available to us,” Novartis India said. Novartis has intellectual property rights for Glivec in nearly 40 countries.

Anil-Mukesh

Mumbai, July 5: Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Capital has exited Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries by offloading an investment worth Rs 129.88 crore in the firm. However, Reliance Capital continues to hold a little over one per cent in another Mukesh Ambani company — Reliance Industrial Infrastructure.

MF dividend

New Delhi, July 5: At least seven mutual fund houses have announced dividends on various schemes in the past one month to revive the waning investor interest at a time when the equity markets looking up.

Security tax

New Delhi, July 5: The government has brought the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which protects country’s vital installations such as nuclear plants and airports, under the ambit of service tax. Finance ministry sources said the CISF came under “security agency services” of the Finance Act of 1994, under which only private security agencies are paying the tax.

Job prospect

New Delhi, July 5: Job prospects in the country are likely to improve in the next 12 months, a pan-India survey of recruitment agents by Edelweiss Securities said. Over 70 per cent of the recruitment agents believe that hiring will stabilise in the coming three months.

Port growth

New Delhi, July 5: The country’s top 12 state-owned ports registered growth of 1.89 per cent in handling cargo at 136.58 million tonnes in the first quarter of this fiscal compared with 134.05 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year.

Mittal project

New Delhi, July 5: Lakshmi N. Mittal said initial installations at the Bhatinda oil refinery was likely to come up in the first half of 2011 and the project was not facing any major hurdles. According to earlier reports, Mittal had threatened to stop work on the refinery.