PRESS DIGEST - Indian Business News - Nov 3

MUMBAI, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Indian newspapers carried the following stories in their print or Web editions on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

ECONOMIC TIMES (www.economictimes.com)

* Apparel firms Arvind (ARVN.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Alok Industries (ALOK.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) are exploring options to hive off retail businesses to unlock value of their brands by inviting equity investments.

BUSINESS STANDARD (www.business-standard.in)

* Telecom service provider Reliance Communications (RLCM.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) is close to awarding a contract for implementation of mobile number portability across its network worth 7-8 billion rupees to eight telecom firms including Intec Telecom Systems, (ITL.L: Quote, Profile, Research), ZTE Corp (000063.SZ: Quote, Profile, Research), Tekelec (TKLC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Radio Telecom.

DNA (www.dnaindia.com)

* The Drugs Technical Advisory Board is likely to deliberate on 12 drugs, which are banned in several parts of the world but allowed in India.

* SREI Infrastructure Finance (SREI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) is looking to raise an overseas fund with corpus of $500 million-$1 billion for domestic infrastructure projects.

* BOC India (BOC.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) will invest 6 billion rupees in building and commissioning a 2,550 tonne per day air separation unit at Tata's Steel Ltd's (TISC.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) Jamshedpur plant.