Daily News Roundup - Jan 21 2009

TCS has won a multi-year contract from Ducati to deploy ERP solutions for the Italian super bike maker in Europe (BL)

L&T is emerging as a strong contender for acquiring Satyam. (ET)

Tata Motors cash flow may fall by Rs5bn in FY09 (BS)

M&M has forayed into the retail sector with launch Mom & Me stores. (ET)

ITC plans to introduce organic spices in the overseas market and to garner Rs3bn revenues in the next two years from the division. (FE)

RPL to start exports of petroleum products by January-end (BS)

DLF plans to restructure its business verticals through a major human resource redeployment to boost efficiency and productivity (BS)

SBI crosses priority sector lending target (BS)

M&M plans to launch fuel-efficient hybrid and electric vehicles in the near future. (ET)

Satyam’s ERP consultants are learnt to be exploring options of breaking away with the company and servicing existing clients. (ET)

Videocon expects growth to slow down (BS)

Vedanta Resources Plc is planning to buyback the remaining 20% stake held by the public in Madras Aluminium Ltd. (FE)SBI is likely to witness fall in credit off-take by 15-20% in Q3 FY09. (FE)

HCC in JV with John Laing Investment and Sadbhav Engineering has bagged NHAI project to construct the 96.5km highway from Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border to Dhule on NH-3 BOT basis. (FE)

Kirloskar Brothers to spin off its investments operations into a new company (BS)

LIC increases stake in IOB to more than 5% (BS)

Sasken Communications to continue to do business with Nortel Networks in the near-term (BL)

Dish TV is in talks with the Indian Railways to launch the live television services in trains. (FE)

UCO Bank to disburse Rs70-80bn during January-March 2009. (ET)

Catholic Syrian Bank’s employees oppose merger with Federal Bank. (ET)

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has issued new tariff regulations for next five years under which the base rate for return on equity has been raised from 14% to 15.5%. (ET)

The third stimulus package to not include tax cuts to boost demand, says Mr.Montek Singh (BS)

RBI has directed banks not to ask for collateral security for new loans up to Rs0.5mn from micro and small enterprises. (ET)

The Government has told public sector banks to extend credit to fund starved Indian industry, especially exporters and small and medium sector enterprises. (ET)

The coal ministry has indicated that the standing linkage committee is likely to restrict coal allocation within overall approved ceiling of 299mn tons during 2008-09. (FE)

Government mulls ‘golden share’ concepts in infrastructure projects built under PPP models (BS)

The Government has scrapped its export ban on basmati rice and cut the floor price for overseas shipments. (ET)

India’s sugar production may fall by over 30% to 18mn tons in the current season. (ET)

SEBI may ease norms to speed up fund raising. (ET)

Service tax collections from Mumbai have increased by 26% yoy to Rs135.78bn during Apr-Dec’08. (ET)