Fiat Chrysler (owner of Jeep) and Mahindra & Mahindra are locked in a dispute over the design of the latter’s Thar SUV in Australia. Mahindra’s teaser ad for its Thar in that market appears to be the trigger with Fiat Chrysler demanding that Mahindra should not launch the Thar in Australia and should give a 90-day notice if it intends to do so. The two parties have since moved the Federal Court of Australia. The dispute is over Thar’s design which Fiat claims infringes the Jeep Wrangler’s design. A Mahindra spokesperson said, “We have filed our reply in the proceeding commenced by FCA against us. There are no plans to launch the current model of the Thar in Australia. We would provide adequate notice to FCA, if we were to launch any future model of the Thar in Australia.
Britannia exec to be next CEO of Bata India
Footwear major Bata India said it has appointed Gunjan Shah, the former chief commercial officer of Britannia Industries, as its new CEO. He will take over from Sandeep Kataria, who was elevated as the global CEO of Bata Brands in November. Shah will join Bata in June. Before moving to Britannia in 2007, Shah has also spent the early stages of his career working with brands such as Asian Paints and Motorola. Shah, an alumnus of the IIM-Kolkata, has experience working across varied sectors spanning consumer durables, telecom and FMCG. He has played a crucial role in growing the Britannia business, having led several business divisions of the company for more than a decade, a spokesperson said.
JSW to set up new Oxygen plant in Ballari
India's largest steel maker JSW plans to set up a liquid medical oxygen plant that will produce 440 million tonnes of oxygen at Toranagallu, Ballari in Karnataka. The state high level clearance committee (SHLCC), headed by chief minister B S Yediyurappa, cleared £89.2 million project proposal. Industry department officials said the project will be executed by its subsidiary, JSW Techno Projects Management limited. Amid the second wave Covid-19 pandemic crisis, the SHLCC cleared £1.32 billion investment proposals that included the JSW project. It also cleared a project of Indian Oil Corporation limited (IOCL) in Chitradurga for storage and dispatch of petroleum on a 130 acre land parcel.
