corporatenews

Reliance Industries has decided to shut down all the petroleum retail outlets owned by it directly.
Reliance Industries is evaluating a plan to set up its third refinery at Jamnagar to reach a total capacity of 100mmtpa.

The Indian JV of Fiat and Tata Motors plans to invest Rs23.4bn in its Ranjangaon facility in Pune, taking the total investment to Rs40.4bn.

Oil India plans to go ahead with its IPO despite the stock market falling more than 29% from its peak in January.

Petronet LNG is keen to join existing coal bed methane projects in Australia and plans to bid for gas blocks in the next auction.

BPCL and GAIL will float a joint venture — God’s Own Gas Company (Go Gas) — for marketing CNG and piped gas in Kerala and Karnataka.

ICICI Bank has entered into a Rs11.5bn equity-cum-debt deal with Jaypee Infratech for the 165km Taj Expressway

Ranbaxy, Cipla and Aurobindo Pharma are in the race for the US$200mn South African government tender to supply anti-HIV drugs.


The NPPA has asked Cipla to pay Rs628.5mn as interest on alleged unpaid overcharged amounts in respect of four drugs

Cipla is developing a basket of combination-drugs, including medicines for allergic rhinitis, asthma and cardiac-problems for developed markets.

Cipla is set to launch the world’s first triple drug combination inhaler for patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in India.

TCS has been selected to provide its flagship electronic signature platform for US-based Prudential Financial Inc.

The USFDA has asked the US subsidiary of Sun Pharma to withdraw many batches of its generic Metformin Hydrochloride tablets.

Tata Motors and Ford are expected to complete the Jaguar-Land Rover deal on March 26

Eicher Motors will replace its existing Skyline and Cruiser buses with a new range that will meet all specifications of the Indian bus-code.

Future group is all set to tie up with Cisco Systems to implement RFID technology across all its retail formats.

Emami Group, now in the midst of an expansion-diversification mode, plans to spend Rs2.5bn on its edible oils unit in Haldia.

GHCL’s Board has accorded an in-principle approval to spin off its home textile and retail businesses into separate units.

Punjab National Bank plans to raise fresh capital of Rs5bn by issuing upper tier-II bonds on a private placement basis.

Rain Group is expanding the capacity of its cement plant in Kurnool, by adding 1.5mn tons by May, besides augmenting its CPC production.

Madras Cements plans to expand cement capacity to 10 MTPA by Q2 FY09 and to increase grinding capacity by 1MTPA each at Kolaghat, Chennai and Salem facilities with an investment of Rs15.2bn.

Gulf Oil Corp has announced the launch of four-stroke motorcycle oil Gulf Pride 4T Plus 10W-30, a synthetic blend oil.

Allcargo Global Logistics has purchased a 650 ton capacity Leibherr-LR-1650 crawler crane and ordered 10 more crawler and telescopic cranes having 150-400 ton capacity.

Aarvee Denims is expecting to almost double its turnover in 2008-09 on the back of its Rs700mn expansion plan.

LIC has increased its stake in Reliance Communications to over 5%.

Nicholas Pharma has launched a pilot project in Rajasthan to take its drugs to rural areas where there is no proper public health system.

Raheja Developers will foray into hospitality sector with the Indian Hotels Company.

GMR group is diversifying in the real estate sector with a Rs33bn deal.
Aries Agro is targeting a turnover of Rs2bn during FY10 on the back of its proposed capacity expansion plans.
BP is likely to enter into a strategic tie-up with Cals, a Spice Energy holding company, for its proposed US$1bn refinery at Haldia.

Hyundai Motor plans to sell buses in India from 2009.

National Dairy Development Board has started the process of merging Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable and Dhara Vegetable Oil & Foods Co.

UK-based Cobra Beer targets to sell 20 mn cases in India by 2012 and will infuse US$80mn in setting up and acquiring new breweries.

LG Electronics is targeting to sell around 1.5mn refrigerators in 2008.

Economic News

The Centre is contemplating amending the land acquisition law to ensure adequate compensation to people whose lands are acquired. The Government also says that no agricultural and irrigated land should be taken for SEZs.

According to telecom regulator TRAI, India is set to become the second largest wireless network in the world in April.

The Government will raise Rs960bn from the market in April-September by issuing securities to part-finance its expenditure in 2008-09.

TRAI may rethink on phasing out access deficit charge this year.

Banks and financial institutions have settled NPAs of about Rs30bn in 2007-08 through the auction route, which is 25% less than last year.

Five million DTH subscribers may be able to switch from their current service providers to new players by installing an add-on device.

The NHAI has projected an expenditure of Rs280bn for FY09 to complete its ongoing projects and the new projects announced under NHDP.

The Government warned telecom companies to put the required security system in place within 15 days or stop the Blackberry services.

Aluminium prices have been reduced by Rs10,000 per ton from March 20.

Coal production in the 11th Five Year Plan period is expected to increase by 680mn tons from 460mn tons.

Orthodox tea production during the next five years is expected to touch 130mn kg from 80mn kg.

The Government is considering cutting import duty on soya oil.

The Government is mulling the abolition of import duty on all grades of steel.

Steel manufacturers say they would reduce prices provided the excise duty on the alloy is brought down to a reasonable level