Daily News Roundup - Dec 18 2008

Satyam calls off acquisition of Maytas Properties and Maytas Infra. (BS)

RIL to supply the second consignment of crude oil from its eastern offshore KG D6 block to Chennai Petroleum in January-end or early February instead of this month. (BS)

FIPB cleared a proposal by German plastic moulding major Ralf Schneider, setting aside objections raised by its former Indian partner L&T. (BS)

M&M’s ultra low-cost tractor is scheduled to be launched in June 2009. (BL)

Tata Power signed a JV agreement with IOC for establishing a coal-based power plant in Orissa. (BL)

Patel Engineering bagged the Pranahita-Chevella Lift Irrigation-package 6 for Rs38.6bn from the Andhra Pradesh Government in consortium with BHEL and Navyuga Construction. (BL)

Essar Power plans to double capacity of its upcoming power plant in the Jamnagar district of Gujarat from 1,200MW to 2,400MW. (BS)

Honda Siel Cars India to postpone the capacity enhancement and assembly operations at its new plant in Rajasthan. (BS)

NSE picked up 26% stake in Bangalore-based front-end technology provider Omnesys Technologies. (BS)

Wockhardt may resort to fresh borrowing overseas to repay holders of FCCB as its attempt to sell assets has failed to generate buyers. (BS)

Titan Industries to spinning off its precision engineering division into a JV. (BS)

Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation to set up a 200MW wind farm project for an estimated investment of Rs10bn-12bn. (BS)

Elecon Engineering Company won an order of Rs1.2bn from Mundra port and SEZ of the Adani Group. (BS)

IDBI has shortlisted seven buyers for its home loan subsidiary. (BS)

TCS to qhire over 3,500 employee's in China over the next four years. (TOI)

SpiceJet, IndiGo & GoAir are likely to cut fares by 10%.

Temptation Foods has increased its stake in Kohinoor Foods to 13% from 3.9% in June. (TOI)

BHEL will not dilute its stake in JV Company with NTPC. (ET)

Cadila buys remaining 30% in Zydus Pharmaceuticals from its partner. (ET)

Gail imposes service charge of Rs110 per thousand standard cubic metre on gas distribution. (ET)

Civil aviation ministry has proposed a Rs25bn bail out package for Air India, which is likely to be announced by January 09. (ET)

Oil companies want airlines to pay interest on outstanding bills. (ET)


Government is likely to announce further sops for real estate, auto and steel sector in its second stimulus package. (ET)

The Centre and the state governments have agreed not to unilaterally change the tax rate on goods and services, once the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is implemented from April 2010. (BS)

Small savings collections rise 5.85% yoy during the period April-October, 2008. (BL)

Government to consider a proposal to double the income tax exemption limit on housing loans to Rs0.3mn from the current level of Rs0.15mn. (BS)

The Orissa government has decided to reduce the land requirement of 10 mega steel projects by about 5,481 acres (16% lower). (BS)

The oil ministry in an attempt to control over-aggressive bids in the eighth round of the Nelp VIII, may make the government’s share of profits from oil and gas blocks a non-biddable item and capping it at between 70 and 80%. (BS)

Nabard has sanctioned Rs36.2bn from its Rural Infrastructure Development Fund to 22 State governments for implementing infrastructure projects in rural areas. (BL)

TRAI has asked communication ministry to come clean on the 3G licenses to be issued to the new entrants and the license fees. (ET)

Share of saving and current a/c deposits in banks falls in first half of the current fiscal. (ET)

Hotel room rates falls 25% with a fall of 35% in occupancies rate across the entire premium business hotel. (ET)