Mercy Clinics will break ground Tuesday on a 17,300-square-foot building that will be home to Mercy Capitol Internal Medicine, Mercy East Village Family Practice and an urgent care clinic that will operate under expanded hours when it opens. Ladco Development Inc. is the builder. The $4.2 million project should be completed by the spring of 2010. The building is being constructed just east of the Mercy Capitol Medical Building, 1350 Des Moines St.

Deere & Co. said today it has completed all legal requirements to form a joint venture in India between its Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division and Ashok Leyland Ltd., the flagship of the Hinduja Group. The venture will be named Ashok Leyland John Deere Construction Equipment Company Private Limited and will initially manufacture backhoes and four-wheel-drive loaders and will market backhoes, four-wheel-drive loaders and excavators that will be sold in India and exported to other markets, with plans to provide a full line of construction equipment in future years. Financial terms have not been disclosed. Ashok Leyland is the second-largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in India. Moline, Ill-based Deere recently announced that it is set to expand its operations in Russia.

Technology firms announced fewer job cuts in the second quarter, stopping a trend. Outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said employers in the computer, electronics and telecommunications industries announced 33,891 job cuts in the period ended June 30, down from 84,217 in the previous quarter. In the first half of the year, technology firms said they would eliminate 118,108 jobs, more than double the number of job cuts announced in the first half of 2008.

Construction of commercial buildings such as hotels and retail shops could drop 16 percent this year and another 12 percent in 2010, according to a survey of construction forecasters that was released today by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The semiannual survey suggests that construction of new hotels could decline 25.8 percent this year and 16.8 percent in 2010. Construction of retail buildings could be down 40.6 percent during the period and construction of office buildings could drop nearly 39 percent.

The Iowa Power Fund has awarded $676,419, with nearly $1 million in matching funds, to four energy-related projects. The projects include efforts to develop vertical-axis wind turbines, purchase and test a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and research the nutritional limitations of distillers grains.

EMC Insurance Group Inc. will release its second-quarter earnings report before markets open on July 23 and will host an earnings call at 10 a.m. Iowa time the same day. The report will be available at www.emcinsurance.com. Dial-in information for the call is (877) 407-8031. A digital replay will be available through Aug. 26 by calling (877) 660-6853 and entering passcodes 286, for account number, and 327390, for conference identification. A webcast of the teleconference will be available through July 23, 2010, at www.investorcalendar.com or www.emcins.com/ir.

Twenty-five venture capital funds raised $1.7 billion in the second quarter of 2009, representing the smallest number of active venture funds since the third quarter of 1996 and the lowest level of dollars committed since the first quarter of 2003, according to Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association.