The Tata Group and SBI Card announced the launch of the Tata Credit Card. The Tata Credit Card is an innovative and pioneering initiative by the Tata Group in association with SBI Card (a joint venture between State Bank of India and GE Capital) and MasterCard International.

To be initially made available across the six cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Bangalore and Hyderabad, the Tata Credit Card will give customers the convenience of an internationally accepted Credit Card and the rewarding membership to India's first ever Multi-Brand Coalition Programme — The Tata Privilege Programme. By May 2006, the Tata Credit Card will be available to customers in all major cities and towns in India.

Tata Consultancy Services announced that it had entered into a five-year research and development collaboration with Stanford University, in the US, for research in the area of data privacy. The five-year period is to have started from January 1, 2006.

Stanford University plays a key role in National Science Foundation-led initiatives to accelerate research into security and data privacy. It is part of TRUST — Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technology — a multi-university initiative that includes UC Berkeley, Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon University as well as industrial partners like Cisco Systems, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Sun and Symantec.

Stanford computer science Professor John Mitchell (a co-principal investigator of TRUST) as well as computer science Professor Rajeev Motwani and computer science and electrical engineering Professor Hector Garcia-Molina will work closely with TCS researchers on this critical area of data security.

As part of the collaboration, TCS will become an industrial partner on data privacy in the new TRUST initiative as well as a member of the Stanford Computer Forum: Industry Affiliates Program

Tata BP Solar has been awarded the PV GAP Quality Mark for its 1Wp to 80Wp TBP mono and polycrystalline solar PV modules. The company is now one of only five other companies globally to have received this award.

PV GAP (Global Approval Program for Photovoltaics) based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a not-for-profit international organisation dedicated to the sustained growth of global photovoltaics.

Tata BP Solar has also bagged three impressive new deals:

• An order valued at Rs 20 million to supply four sets of solar power systems to Larsen & Toubro for installation at ONGC offshore platforms in Bombay High.
• The Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency has placed an order worth Rs 16 million for seven 5kWp solar power plants for rural electrification.
• Siemens Public Communication Networks has placed an order for 23 units of Tata BP Solar's 4.2 kWp solar power systems. This order is worth nearly Rs 20 million.

Tata Salt retained the No1 position as the most trusted food brand in India for the third consecutive year at the fifth Brand Equity survey. In the overall brands, Tata Salt also maintained its No 5 position, behind Ponds, Dettol, Lux and Colgate.

The Most Trusted Brands survey aims to identify the brands that bond the best with consumers. These are brands that consumers believe provide quality and reassurance. Conducted by the agency AC Nielsen ORG-MARG, the survey covered a total of 275 brands (196 consumer and 79 service brands).