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The railway ministry is working on a proposal with the Ministry of Rural Development to jointly fund key railway projects by utilising the government’s flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
Why a well-managed and diversified fund will always beat a benchmark.
Reliance Life Insurance has launched 17 new unit-linked plans to cater to individuals of all age groups.
To also discuss Swarup panel’s suggestions on financial stability.
The company faced solvency margin issues recently.
Welcoming the amendments proposed by the government to its petition on the Ambani gas row, Anil Ambani today said his group company RNRL"s dispute with Mukesh-led RIL was commercial and pertained to the demerger of the Reliance businesses.
Bollywood film maker Mahesh Bhatt"s son Rahul is a witness in the case relating to terror charge probe against American national David Headley, a top police official said.
Tech Mahindra’s equity infusion into Mahindra Satyam should comfortably bankroll the pay-off.
Raju and associates ‘forged board resolutions’ to secure loans.
The economic recovery and a low base should help India Inc post robust profit growth for the December quarter.
Kerala chief minister to lay stone for the project on Nov 28
Says HC allocation order wrong, for govt is custodian of all gas in India
Ruias-led Essar Group has bid $150 million for taking over an Australian coal firm, Rocklands Richfields, bettering an earlier offer from Jindal Steel and Power.
Naveen Jindal-controlled Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) is in the race for Mongolia’s Tavan Tolgoi coal project, one of the 10 biggest deposits in the world.
Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh today said the Centre is in talks with the Jharkhand and Orissa governments to facilitate the multi-billion dollar India projects of global steel giants ArcelorMittal and Posco.
From a low of 8,047 in March 2009, the Sensex has more than doubled over the last three quarters. With such a sharp upmove and valuations in the expensive territory, experts say that investors will have to temper their returns expectations for the current year. To find out the direction of the markets and promising sectors as well as the key concerns, Vishal Chhabria spoke to Krishnamurthy Vijayan, executive chairman, J P Morgan AMC. Excerpts:
Tata Group"s Infiniti Retail today said it expects to have over 100 "Croma" stores across the country in the next three years as it eyes deeper penetration into Tier-II and Tier-III cities.
Tata Motors will distribute all Nano cars from Pantnagar through its new subsidiary, Tata Motors Distribution
The sales of used gold, known as scrap gold in commodity parlance, shot up 25-30 per cent on Wednesday as retail investors rushed to cash in on high prices before a correction, which analysts forecast as imminent.
The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C), which started its summer placements process today, saw offers trickling in from the world’s leading finance and consulting firms on day one.
Retired, but not yet a senior citizen seems to be the plight of many. For instance, the Union ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment defines a senior citizen as someone who is 60, but the income tax department allows benefits for the category only after 65.
BJP today attacked government"s decision to abolish profit sharing clause in the Sugarcane Control Order saying farmers would not be able to get better price even though mills are currently earning huge margins.
Rising demand and steep rise in raw material prices may lead to 10-30% hike in prices.
Public Sector lender Central Bank of India today said its net profit declined by 13.25 per cent to Rs 306.44 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, over the corresponding period last fiscal.
MTNL will be one of the few big telecom companies in the world to allow competitors to offer their brand on its network.
Telecom major Reliance Communications (RCom) has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,637 crore for first quarter ended June 30, 2009, an increase of 8.3 per cent, compared with a net profit of Rs 1,512 crore recorded during the same period of previous financial year.
Public sector lender Bank of Baroda (BoB) is the seventh-largest foreign lender in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with loans of $1.63 billion, while global banking major HSBC Bank leading the chart with $17 billion exposure.
Surajeet Das Gupta & Mansi Taneja / New Delhi December 15, 2009, 0:25 IST
The government has written to telecom operators, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone and Tata Teleservices, asking them to be punctual in sharing information with special auditors looking into revenue leakage.
ING Vysya Life Insurance Company Limited (ING Life), part of the ING Group, a financial services company, today announced its tie-up with Mumbai-based Suvidhaa Infoserve, a company pioneering in service commerce (s-commerce), to collect insurance policy renewal payments for its customers. Customers of ING Life can now pay their policy renewal premium at over 7,000 Suvidhaa outlets across 300 cities in India, including over 700 outlets in Gujarat.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today claimed to have found evidence of ‘large-scale’ violations of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) guidelines by real-estate major Emaar MGF in purchase of land. During its searches carried out at 13 premises of the group on Thursday, the ED also claimed to have recovered about Rs 9 crore in cash, two kg of gold and foreign currency worth Rs 5 lakh. Stating that Emaar MGF had availed more than Rs 6,000 crore of FDI in the last four years, the ED said in a press statement that the seized documents indicated “large-scale violations of FDI guidelines.”
In a boost to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), a court here issued an arrest warrant against Binod Sinha, close associate of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda in connection with the multi-crore illegal investments and hawala case.
Business Standard / New Delhi November 18, 2009, 0:21 IST
Launches GSM service in the two states
The country added a whopping 3.55 crore wireless telephone users during the quarter ended on June 30 this year, taking the wireless subscriber base to 42.72 crore.
Dishnet Wireless Ltd, part of Aircel group that offers GSM mobile services in northern and eastern states, was the most congested mobile network in April-June this year, Trai said today.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel today cut mobile roaming rates by 60 per cent for its 115 million users, opening a new turf in the ongoing tariff war.
India urgently needs coherent policy and regulation
Tata Capital, today announced the appointment of Akhil Awasthi as the managing partner of its Mid-Market Private Equity Fund.
The government today ruled out appointing an ombudsman to redress the complaints of poor mobile telephony services, like call drops, saying state-run BSNL and MTNL were taking effective steps to upgrade technology.
The government’s move to sell wheat through the country’s two leading online trading platforms will help mills, which are operating at less than 40 per cent capacity due to lack of availability of wheat and the government’s stock limit regulation.
British financial services major HSBC Holdings Plc has reported a 57 per cent plunge in profit at $3.35 billion in the first half of 2009, hit by the ballooning loan impairment charges in many markets including India.
The government has shortlisted four candidates for the post of National Housing Bank (NHB) Chairman and Managing Director.
India has urged the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) not to impose fine on Satyam, now Mahindra Satyam, in view of irregularities as the company was also listed there.
United Bank of India (UBI) is likely to file a red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for their initial public offer (IPO) next week, Chairman Satish C Gupta has said. “We hope to come out with the IPO by end January or early February,” Gupta said.
Tata Teleservices thinks it has hit upon the formula for success with its "pay per call" plan.
2009 saw a high-voltage legal battle between the Ambani brothers over the gas dispute reaching the Supreme Court with a judge withdrawing from the bench.
In an all-cash deal, a consortium of India Power Corporation Ltd (IPCL) and Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd has won the bid for a controlling stake of 57.17 per cent in DPSC Ltd (formerly Dishergarh Power Supply Company), which was previously held by public sector units Andrew Yule, Life Insurance Corp and United India Insurance.
Telecom operators in the country added around 1.2 crore subscribers in the wireless segment in June taking the total user base to 46.48 crore, sectoral regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said today.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) is likely to seek approval for auctioning three blocks of 5 MHz each of 3G spectrum pan-India except Rajasthan and North East, from the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) scheduled to meet tomorrow.
The Trident Group company Abhishek Industries today said it is planning to enter into a joint venture with the Portugal-based Mundotextil Industrias to produce luxury linen and other home textile products.
Bharti Airtel may pay lenders as much as 3.2 percentage points more than the London interbank offered rate (Libor) as it seeks to borrow $5 billion to buy a stake in MTN Group, three people familiar with the matter said.
The Supreme Court collegium has decided to drop its recommendation for elevating Karnataka Chief Justice P D Dinakaran, facing charges of land grabbing, to the apex court, bringing to end months of controversy over the move.
Completion financing, or last-mile funding, where developers get funds to complete projects stuck midway, is catching on among private equity (PE) funds.
The stock soared to a high of Rs 1,054 and finally settled at Rs 1,046, up 3% from its previous close. The counter clocked volumes of 152,172 shares as compared to the two-week daily average traded volumes of 130,005 shares on the BSE. _________________________________________________________
At a time when deal flows in private equity remains muted, structured deals are being seen as the most prominent form of deal making, going forward.
Private airlines in the country owe Rs 274.19 crore to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) as of October-end, with Kingfisher being ahead of Jet Airways and SpiceJet leading the pack of low-cost carriers.
The government today approved the proposal of Jet Airways for raising around Rs 1,850 crore from foreign investors.
The stock jumped 8.4 per cent to Rs 377.30, a 52-week high, after the foreign institutional investor (FII) — Capital International A/c Emerging Markets Growth Fund Inc bought 1.09 million equity shares at a price of Rs 374.18 per share through block deal on the National Stock Exchange.
Six out of the top 10 companies added over Rs 24,000 crore to their market capitalisation last week with telecom giant Bharti Airtel alone contributing one-third of the gain.
CEO seeks changes in regulatory regime
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may deliberate on freeing auto fuel prices when he reviews the financial health of state-run oil firms with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Oil Minister Murli Deora on January 13.
Daiichi Sankyo, which has a majority stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories, today said it is going to launch some of Ranbaxy"s generic medicine in the Japanese market soon.
India"s largest retailer, Pantaloon Retail (India), today said it will raise Rs 500 crore by way of private placement of shares with qualified institutional buyers.
Infrastructure firm IL&FS"s open offer for acquiring an additional 20 per cent stake in crisis hit Maytas Infra will open tomorrow.
Jindal Steel net gets a power boost
India’s foreign exchange reserves rose $22 million to $283.52 million during the week ended January 1, mainly due to the revaluation of gold.
Bharati Shipyard (BSL) today said it would abide by the guidelines issued by the market watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on the Great Offshore open offer.
One of the domestic financial houses plans to sell 450,000 equity shares of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), amounting to 1 per cent stake in the largest exchange in India. Sources said that one of the banks might be offloading a part of its stake. The process has already started with SBI Caps Securities, the investment banker for this transaction, asking for bids from institutions. Sources indicated that Rs 3,600-3,650 per share is being sought by the offloading entity.
Fears of rising interest rates in the US dampened investor sentiments on Monday. The Sensex dropped over 100 points, to end below 17,000 after four trading sessions.
The government today said in the Lok Sabha that a special audit has observed that Reliance Communication and its other subsidiaries under reported revenues during 2006-07 and 2007-08.
The public sector Indian bank, with a lot of expertise in the field of recovery of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs), is exploring the possibility of floating a subsidiary for undertaking NPA management.
Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) today said a section of its workers belonging to an unrecognised union at its Chennai plant have threatened to go on strike from December 5, which could hurt its production.
Slamming the government for what they called siding with sugar mill owners on the cane pricing issue, the Opposition in the Lok Sabha today urged the government to protect the interest of growers.
In advanced discussions with many domestic lenders, including SBI, Axis Bank and IDFC for raising the debt.
Tuticorin-based Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) has set a target of Rs 20, 000 crore business by March 2010 from the present Rs 16,000 crore.
With a view to attract more investors, leading fund house, UTI Mutual Funds today said it plans to launch mobile transaction platform by January-end, a top official said.
Abheek Barua / New Delhi January 6, 2010, 0:09 IST
Work on checking oil spill from MV Black Rose, the sunken vessel, has taken off a day after the visit of the high-level expert team from the Centre.
The Union ministry of environment and forests has directed the Orissa government to take legal action against the Paradeep Port Trust (PPT) authorities for violating the Wild Life Protection Act, Environment (Protection) Act and Water Pollution Act.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) today told the Supreme Court that Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) had agreed to the clause on ‘government approval’ (on gas sales) in the discussions that followed the demerger between the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil.
The country"s largest power producer NTPC today said it plans to recruit about 1,300 people in the next fiscal to support the company"s ambitious target of becoming a 50,000-MW company by 2012.
India"s foreign exchange reserves rose by $0.962 million to $286.376 billion for the week ended November 13 from $285.414 billion in the previous week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said today.
Work on checking oil spill from MV Black Rose, the sunken vessel, has taken off a day after the visit of the high-level expert team from the Centre.
Focus is on underground, abandoned mines.
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) company, Reliance Communications, today said its capex would decline significantly starting this year and continue on a downward trend in the future.
Hindalco Industries, an integrated producer of aluminum and a leading copper manufacturer has drawn up a Rs 16,000 crore capex plan for the next two years, a top company official said.
Madhukar Sabnavis / New Delhi December 04, 2009, 0:34 IST
The ONGC scrip rose 7 per cent to close at Rs 1,126.45 on fuel price hike. The government raised the price of petrol by Rs 4 a litre and diesel by Rs 2 after market hours on July 1. Following the hike, experts believe that the ONGC"s subsidy burden for the current year would reduce if the crude prices stay at around $70 a barrel. The stock opened at Rs 1,081.1 and made a high of Rs 1,155.7 and a low of Rs 1,076.1. The total traded volumes stood at 1.9 million shares (around 4 times its two-week average).
Essar Oil today said negotiations to buy Royal Dutch Shell"s three European refineries will continue beyond the expiry of the exclusive talks period today.
After a sharp correction at the start of the week which saw Smart Portfolios slip into the red, the markets bounced back sharply and recouped losses.
The pre-Diwali rally fizzled out last week as markets players opted to book gains. However, in Smart Portfolios only Amar Ambani got into profit-taking mode. Ajay Parmar was the only other active fund manager with one trade on each side (buy & sell). On the other hand, Amar Ambani executed 12 trades, out of which 10 were on the sell side. He was a net seller of stocks worth Rs 3.65 lakh. Phani Sekhar and Praveen Panjwani continued to remain on the sidelines.
The stock finally ended at Rs 135 after touching a high of Rs 136. The counter clocked volumes of 1.10 million shares on the BSE as compared to the the two-week daily average traded volumes of 1.17 million shares on the BSE.
Ajai Shukla / New Delhi December 29, 2009, 0:19 IST
Tension gripped the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh raising fears of violence as the ongoing agitation for a separate statehood to the area intensified on Tuesday with the worsening health condition of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi president, K Chandrasekhara Rao.
When it comes to on-line booking of air-tickets, travellers from Mumbai take the lead with as many as 77 per cent opting for these facilities compared to travellers at six other leading international airports globally.
Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi August 22, 2009, 0:00 IST
The government today admitted that there is a delay in issuing passports in a few passport offices and assured that remedial measures are being taken to avoid the delays.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has sold a third of its holding in Mahindra Satyam, or 27.24 million shares, for Rs 306.54 crore, taking the software company’s share price down by 6.6 per cent, the biggest fall in five months.
CBI has filed a fresh status report before the Supreme Court into alleged irregularities in defence deals, which caused a loss of around Rs 2,000 crore to the state exchequer, entered into in the wake of the 1999 Kargil conflict.
The country"s largest sugar manufacturing firm, Bajaj Hindusthan, today said its shareholders will meet on December 16 to consider and approve raising of Rs 2,000 crore from domestic and international markets.
Sail has closed at Rs 187, higher by nearly a Re or 0.5%, on the BSE.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has pointed out serious lapses in the way banks sold derivative products in 2007 and 2008. This is part of RBI’s reply to a questionnaire sent by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Orissa High Court had last year asked the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to submit a report on the derivative losses incurred by the industry last year.
Government seeks Rs 4000 crore from Centre
Public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) today received final approval for its general insurance venture from the sectoral regulator IRDA.
IRB Infrastructure Developers today said it has emerged as the successful bidder for a project of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in Punjab.
2009 was a bumper year for bullion investors as both gold and silver reached record highs in domestic and international markets.
The Sensex has ended (provisional) at 17,541 - down 75 points.
State-run Union Bank of India today announced the appointment of Subhash Chander Kalia as its Executive Director.
Ashok Leyland ended the day at Rs 53, higher by Rs 0.6 or 1.2%.
After initial resistance, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has relented and would now seek telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India"s (Trai) recommendations on a proposal to bring in a uniform licence fee.
Union minister of state for Railways K H Muniyappa has asked the state to submit a list of its demands for development of railway network in the state to the Centre before January 15, 2010.
The Trinamool Congress got a letter from the parliamentary affairs ministry asking it to nominate a party MP for an overseas tour. Railway Minister and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee took less than a second to decide and nominated singer-turned-politician Kabir Suman.
The warning comes at a time when exports from two of the company’s manufacturing sites in India continue to be suspended by the US regulator.
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) brokers plan to take up extending trading hours with the Prime Minister and market regulator Sebi.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) wants operators to make their network accessible to Lawful Interception and Monitoring (LIM) for the security agencies after they switch to mobile number portability (MNP) mechanism next month-end. DoT is likely to issue directives soon to all the telecom licencees on putting the subscribers under the LIM even before MNP is activated in the system.
The government today ruled out appointing an ombudsman to redress the complaints of poor mobile telephony services, like call drops, saying state-run BSNL and MTNL were taking effective steps to upgrade technology.
Public sector telcos BSNL and MTNL together have Rs 41,471 crore cash on hand as of September 2009, the government said today.
Coal-based generators plan upgrades, clean tech over 5 years.
IT firm Sterlite Technologies today said its net profit jumped nearly nine-fold to Rs 54.67 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2009, over the same period last year.
Continuing its agitation for the cause of Maharshtrian youth, Raj Thackeray-led Maharasthra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has written a letter to State Bank of India (SBI) for considering locals for its new job openings.
Support at 5,150, resistance at 5,300.
Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata today said that deadline for his retirement was still intact, but before hanging his boots he would like to find a successor.
In an attempt to retain Wipro and Infosys in West Bengal, the state government today offered 45 acre each to the two IT giants for setting up their units.
West Bengal government shelves IT township project at Rajarhat in the wake of Vedic Village land scam.
Production, despatch affected by turmoil; rail wagon shortage hits momentum.
The markets have firmed up after a soft start this morning. The Sensex opened a point lower at 17,118, and soon touched a low of 17,089 owing to weak cues from the global markets.
In a fresh initiative, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today expressed the Centre’s willingness to “talk to anyone” having “meaningful ideas” to promote peace in Jammu and Kashmir and offered to resume dialogue with Pakistan provided it curbed activities of those engaged in terrorism in India.
MLAs of Punjab’s ruling Akali Dal and Opposition Congress on Tuesday entered into a scuffle in the Assembly over the recent violence in Ludhiana. The scuffle started when Congress legislators moved towards deputy chief minister and home minister Sukhbir Singh Badal when he was replying to a call-attention motion on the state’s law and order situation.
Vrishti Beniwal & Ajay Modi / New Delhi November 21, 2009, 0:57 IST
The world’s third largest wind energy turbine maker, Suzlon Energy, has shifted most of its management operations back to its headquarters in Pune.
AE Rotor Holding B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suzlon Energy today announced that it plans to sell a 35 per cent stake in Hansen Transmissions.
Seeks 40% lower funding from Asian Development Bank.
The Sensex is now at 15,375, up 144 points. The NSE Nifty is at 4,566, up 43 points.
Markets have recovered after a brief drop into the red.
Asian markets surged to 17-month highs today. The Hang Seng jumped 456 points (2%) to 22,280. The Nikkei added 27 points to 10,682.
The markets have recover after slipping into negative terrain for the second time since morning trades. The NSE Nifty is now at 4,535, up eight points.
Mahindra Satyam has topped the combined value chart with a turnover of Rs 1,076 crore. It is followed by Suzlon( Rs 954 crore), Reliance (Rs 886 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 757 crore) and DLF (Rs 676 crore).
Buy shares worth Rs 30,456 crore in June quarter, mostly from open market.
Akash Prakash / New Delhi December 25, 2009, 0:38 IST
Fierce protests from the Trinamool force Sonia Gandhi to ask her managers not to proceed with the land Bill.
The Airports Authority of India is seeking financial assistance from the government for its loss-making operations in the North Eastern region.
LIC Housing Finance today sold 18.3 per cent of stake in LIC Mutual Fund to Japanese Financial services company, Nomura, expecting to garner Rs 138-crore.
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Tuesday said it would launch a trading platform for mutual fund (MF) units on December 4. The move comes a day after the National Stock Exchange (NSE) launched a similar platform. Central Depository Services Ltd will be the BSE’s depository partner.
I had invested in ELSS (equity linked savings scheme) funds one year before, but I have not claimed this investment while filing for return. Can I withdraw from the ELSS, though the three-year lock-in is not complete?
Driven by mobile PC shipments, global computer market is expected to grow 2.8 per cent in 2009, a research firm said today.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said intensified international action to tackle ship seizures off the Somali coast is forcing pirates further afield into the Indian Ocean and more recently closer to the Seychelles.
Investors have sold units worth Rs 16,507 cr in the past 3 months.
Accelerating mobile PC shipments will drive the worldwide PC market to grow again, according to Gartner Inc, an information technology research and advisory company ‘s preliminary fourth-quarter forecast. In 2010, PC shipments are projected to reach 336.6 million units, a 12.6 per cent increase over 2009.
Cox & Kings (India) ended Day 1 at Rs 426, a premium of around 30% to its issue price of Rs 330.