Daily News Roundup - March 24 2009

The Tata Group is likely to consolidate the varied beverages businesses under a single entity; may also merge Mount Everest Mineral Water with Tata Tea. (ET)

TCS plans to hire 2,000 people for the Passport Seva Project, which is ready for a pilot launch in June this year. (FE)

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has signed preliminary agreements with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and BHEL to build reactors in India. (BL)

Tata Motors launched its much awaited Rs100,000 car Nano. (BL)

Tata Motors plans to re-design the Nano for the US and launch it in the next three years. (BL)

Reliance Industries has raised the marketing margin it will charge on selling natural gas from eastern offshore KG-D6 fields to US$0.15 per mmbtu from US$0.12 per mmBtu earlier. (BS)

The Government has issued oil bonds amounting to Rs100bn to HPCL, BPCL and IOC. (BL)

The Government-appointed board of Satyam is understood to have short-listed six bidders, including Spice Group, L&T and Tech Mahindra. (BS)

The short-listed bidders for Satyam may be asked to submit their financial bids around April 9. (BL)

The Spice Group is having second thoughts and planning to re-evaluate its interest in the Satyam bid. (ET)

Drug regulators of the UK and Australia have approved Ranbaxy Laboratories’ Paonta Sahib manufacturing facility. (BL)

UB Group is planning to enter the tourism industry, by promoting its Four Seasons winery at Baramati in Maharashtra as a lifestyle destination. (BS)

Punjab National Bank’s credit growth is likely to slow down to 20% for the next fiscal, according to its CMD, Dr K.C. Chakrabarty. (BL)

Credit Analysis and Research (CARE) has assigned the highest ratings of AAA and PR1 for Tech Mahindra’s short-term and long-term borrowing programs respectively. (ET)

BSNL has decided to lease out towers in semi-urban areas to other telecom companies. (FE)

Nigeria has short-listed GAIL India to develop the African nation’s natural gas reserves. (FE)

SBI to provide seven year term for paying Nano’s loan. (FE)

A consortium of 11 banks led by IDBI Bank has offered to extend structured funding facilities worth Rs38.5bn to BGR Energy to execute Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd’s 1,200mw Kalisindh Thermal Power Project at Jhalawar. (FE)

NDTV is ready for a demerger of its news and entertainment business. (BS)

Share Microfin Ltd has entered into a rated loan assignment transaction of Rs493mn with Yes Bank. (BL)

Hikal Ltd’s board to meet this week to consider the merger of its subsidiary Hikal Pharmaceuticals with itself. (FE)

Subhash Projects has bagged an order worth Rs4.9bn from a Mumbai suburban municipal corporation for an underground sewerage project. (BS)

Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd has signed a letter of intent with the Netherlands-based FMO for external commercial borrowing of US$100mn. (BL)

Bosch Ltd plans to open 230 multibrand Bosch Car Service centres by 2010 across the country, taking the total number to 500. (BS)

Highway developers are looking at selling small stakes in various central road projects to raise funds, as banks deny loans for high–risk BOT projects. (ET)

National Highway Builders Federation NHBF has alleged that cement manufacturers have been consistently increasing prices in the last few months instead of passing on the duty cuts to customers. (BL)

The Indian Sugar Mills Association has opposed duty-free import of white sugar into the country. (BL)

Whole-sale sugar prices have fallen below production cost for the first time in India. (ET)

India and Association of South-East Asian Nations are likely to reschedule the June 1 deadline for eliminating duties on more than 4,000 products traded between the tow sides. (ET)

The prices of IT services in outsourcing are anticipated to shrink by 5-20% globally during 2009 and 2010. (FE)