GAIL India Ltd recently entered into a MoU with NCDEX, an online multi-commodity exchange, enabling GAIL users to trade in spot contracts of natural gas. Both the parties will jointly educate various stakeholders about natural gas platform.

The two companies are also looking at jointly forming a core team for designing the natural gas spot trading contract/market, assessing risk and formulating tools for hedging the risk and developing a mechanism of physical clearance and settlement of natural gas disputes.

GAIL has also entered into MoUs with National Iranian Oil Company and Bangladesh’s Spectra International for setting up CNG infrastructure development projects in their countries, along with separate agreements for equity participation in the Tripura Natural Gas Company and China Gas Holding as well as a deal for setting up petrochemical plants in Iran and India.

The public sector gas major has also signed a MoU with the National Institute of Oceanography for gas hydrate exploration and exploitation of Indian offshore areas and has roped in Infosys Technologies for jointly developing information technology solutions in the retail gas business.

Beisdes Gail is also in an agreement with Ergo Exergy Technologies Inc, Canada, for developing underground coal gassification projects in India. Ergo Exergy will contribute its technical know-how to help GAIL commercialise the project.

Pharmaceutical major Wockhardt today has entered into joint ventures in Mexico and South Africa, besides setting up a wholly owned subsidiary in Brazil, in an attempt to advance the company’s biopharmaceuticals business.

Commenting on its expansion moves Habil Khorakiwala, chairman of Wockhardt, said: “With these ventures, we are now establishing building blocks of our global footprint in biopharmaceuticals. We have already received nine approvals for our biopharmaceuticals and expect another 25 approvals during the year in Russia, former CIS countries, South America, South East Asia and North Africa. We now have a ground presence in almost all major markets of the world.”

In Mexico, the company has entered into 51:49 joint venture with Representaciones E Investigaciones Medicas SA to float a company that will initially market various forms of Wockhardt manufactured insulin followed later by other diabetology products and biopharmaceutical.

With a 51% stake in Wockhardt South Africa Pty, Wockhardt plans to use the regulatory, sales and marketing expertise of Pharma Dynamics, a generic pharmaceutical company in South Africa, to commercialise its growing pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical portfolio.

Its Brazilian subsidiary has been named Wockhardt Farmaceutica do Brasil.

Meanwhile, Wockhardt has a reported a 49.7 % growth for the year ended December 31- 2004, with net profit up to Rs 213.5 crore ($47.5mn) from Rs 142.6 crore the previous year. Total sales was Rs 1238.9 crore ($275 mn) against Rs 942 crore last year, a 31.5 % increase.