Daily News Roundup - Apr 22 2009

ArcelorMittal plans to cut the size of a planned steel plant in India by half and indefinitely defer the second plant. (BS)

The bauxite mines of NALCO at the Panchpatmali hills in Koraput district of Orissa are yet to restart operations after last week’s naxalite attack. (BS)

SEBI bars GHCL promoters and other top brass from stock market after investigations revealed that the company had filed false shareholding details. (BS)

Cipla won a patent fight against US-based Gilead Sciences on bird flu medicine in India. (BS)

NHAI alters bid process and project terms to lower risk for potential investors for the 19 highway projects. (BS)

Oracle Corp agreed to buy Sun Microsystems Inc for about US$7.4bn in cash. (BS)

The board of Axis Bank appointed Ms Shikha Sharma, MD, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, as the bank’s new MD & CEO. (BL)

BHEL plans of picking up equity or even buying out forgings ventures in Eastern Europe and China. (BL)

Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co, formed jointly by Bank of India, Union Bank and Dai-chi Mutual Life, plans to infuse Rs8.5bn in the next five years. (BL)

TCS has announced bonus issue in the ratio of 1:1. (ET)

Indiabulls Real Estate has sold 15,730 sq ft area in its upcoming commercial complex at Lower Parel in central Mumbai for Rs300mn to British Council. (ET)

Power Grid Corporation plans to raise up to Rs30bn by issuing fresh shares by end of FY10. (ET)

Public sector power utilities NTPC, NHPC, Power Grid and Damodar Valley Corporation will jointly set up an online high power short circuit testing facility at a cost of Rs2.5bn. (ET)

Tata Teleservices has asked government to process its applications for GSM licences and spectrum in three circles - Assam, North East and J&K. (ET)

Vodafone and Onmobile have entered into an agreement which would enable Vodafone to use value-added services of Onmobile in emerging markets. (ET)

Reliance-ADAG’s DTH arm, Big TV to hire 15,000 tech professionals. (ET)

Tata Teleservices’ US$2bn capex plan for two years till 2010 for its GSM roll out and CDMA operations remains on track. (FE)

Tech Mahindra has ruled out any immediate job cuts among Satyam employees, but salary cuts are possible. (FE)

Air India has decided to cut fares by as much as 70% on 35 sectors starting today. (ET)

Jet Airways is planning to cut its fleet by nearly a fifth. (ET)

SEBI has barred the promoters of GHCL, along with its top management, from dealing the securities market until further orders. (ET)

Bajaj Finserv entered into a 49:51 JV agreement with Allianz Global Investors to foray into the mutual fund business. (FE)

Adani Power - an Adani Enterprises company is expected to re-file its draft red herring prospectus with SEBI for its proposed Rs22bn IPO soon. (ET)

JNPT has signed a sister port agreement with Spain-based Gijon port authority. (ET)

BEML has set up an assembly unit in Brazil. (ET)

Oracle to buy Sun Microsystems for US$7.4bn. (ET)

The RBI survey said that the economy will grow at 5.7% in FY10. (BS)

Retail loan growth drops to single-digit level in FY09. (BS)

The Government will soon give infrastructure status to the tourism sector. (FE)