Essilor eyes 10 pc market share in Indian lens market

Essilor eyes 10 pc market share in Indian lens market 22 Aug, 2008, 1314 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI : France-based opthalmic lens major Essilor International is aiming to capture 10 per cent market share in India in the next two-three year, on the back of its newly launched Crizal A2 transparent lens in the country. The 2.4 bn Euro company’s Indian subsidiary Essilor India is rolling out the Crizal A2 lens across the country this month. “Crizal A2 is an innovative product with dust repellent features and we believe that it will have wide acceptance in India. We are looking for Crizal A2 to garner 10 per cent of the total plastic lens market in India in the near future,” Essilor India Chief Operating Officer Pradeep Narayan told the media. “There has been a great acceptance for Crizal A2 worldwide. We have sold 10 mn Crizal A2 lenses around the world and statistics show that six pairs of these are being sold every minute,” he said. The company is now aiming to replicate the world-wide success of the new range in the country by targeting 10 per cent of the around 80 million pairs volume size Indian plastic lens market. He said the Crizal A2 was selected in 2007 as the most transparent among lenses in the international market by Eurocin, an independent France-based organisation which conducts sensory analysis, based upon laboratory and user tests. The company, which started its Indian operations in 2008, is introducing the Crizal A2 range as a follow-up to its other ranges including Crizal (hard multicoated), Varilux (progressive), Titus (hard coated) and Airwear(polycarbonate). “Essilor is the first company in the ophthalmic industry to use Sensory Analysis to make a connection between scientific data and eyeglass wearers’ perceptions,” he added.

Indu Projects, CARE, Hopkins to jointly set up health city

Indu Projects, CARE, Hopkins to jointly set up health city 18 Aug, 2008, 0113 hrs IST,Khomba Singh,

NEW DELHI: A consortium of real estate developer Indu Projects, US-based healthcare major John Hopkins and Hyderabad-based CARE Hospital is setting up a 2,000-bed health city in Nagpur. The consortium will invest around Rs 750 crore in the project through a combination of debt and equity. Sources familiar with the development said that the consortium pipped healthcare majors such as Manipal Health, Apollo Tyres promoted Artemis Hospital, Singapore-based Parkway Hospitals and Reliance ADAG for the project. Fortis Healthcare was also in the fray and was also qualified to make the final bid. However, the hospital major backed out over differences about the operational structure of the project. The Maharashtra government is developing a Multi-Modal International Cargo and Passenger Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN), an aviation hub. The project includes a special economic zone (SEZ) in which the health city will be based and other residential and industrial projects. The Maharashtra Airport Development Authority, which is developing the SEZ, will lease the 74 acre land to the consortium for 66 years. Ramana Reddy, who is heading the health city project for the consortium, told ET that it expects to get the regulatory nod in the next few months and the civil work will start by the end of the year or early next year. The health city envisions to build 10 superspecialty hospitals and will primarily target overseas patients. In the first phase, the health city will have 750 beds and it will be operational in the next 36 months. Hyderabad-based Indu projects will be responsible for the development and management of the project, while CARE Hospitals will operate the hospital. John Hopkins will be the knowledge partner but will also hold equity in the consortium. Indu Projects will fund majority of the investment and is expected to hold majority stake in the consortium, although details of the holding structure are being worked out. Like other health cities being developed by Indian healthcare majors, the health city plans to have medical, para medical and other medical education centres. The consortium is also in talks with a Thailand-based group to set up a health and wellness village in the health city. To complement their human resources of a fast expending healthcare sectors, healthcare companies are setting up health cities. Fortis Healthcare is setting two medicities in Gurgaon and Lucknow and plans to set up 10 such projects in the next 10 years. Renowned cardiologist Dr Naresh Trehan is also setting up a medicity in Gurgaon. var RN = new String (Math.random()); var RNS = RN.substring (2,11); b2 = ‘<iframe align=”left” src=\”http://adstil.indiatimes.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_sx.ads/www.economictimes.com/News/index.html/1′+RNS+’@Right3?\” WIDTH=250 HEIGHT=250 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 hspace=0 vspace=0 frameborder=0 scrolling=no bordercolor=\”#000000\”> </iframe>’; if (doweshowbellyad==1) bellyad.innerHTML = b2;