Daily News Roundup - Sep 4 2009

The court has deferred the Upaid-Satyam case hearing to January 2010 from September. (BS)

Neyveli Lignite plans to invest Rs100-120bn in setting up power projects. (BS)

SAIL achieved sales of 1.1mn tons during August in the domestic market, up by 20% yoy. (BL)

BHEL plans to invest close to Rs20bn to set up a 250MW solar photovoltaic production facility for processing silicon wafers, solar cells and PV modules. (BS)

M&M to enter US operations in the first quarter of 2010 with two new variants of SUV Scorpio, besides two vehicles in the Indian market over the next six months. (BS)

SBI has slashed interest rates for minor irrigation (like wells and pump sets) and crop loans above Rs0.3mn to support farmers hit by weak monsoon and drought. (BS)

TCS aims at 10% of its total revenue from government projects and plans to hire 25,000 people in FY10. (ET)

Sona Koyo to set up four manufacturing plants. (BS)

Pipavav Shipyard is re-negotiating price component in orders for eight vessels placed by its overseas customers. (BS)

Ranbaxy has entered into an agreement with Validus Pharmaceuticals LLC to market and distribute generic version of calcium drug Rocaltrol in the US. (BL)

The Fiat Group based in India plans to source auto components worth US$1bn (~Rs49bn) from domestic auto ancillaries in 2010. (BS)

MRF plans to invest about Rs4bn in expansion of its facilities at Andhra Pradesh. (BL)

LIC proposes to invest Rs1,000bn in equity market during the current fiscal year (ET)

PNB to reschedule 15-20% of its crop loan owing to drought like situation (BL)
Economy Snippets
The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation declined 0.21% during the week ended August 22. (BL)

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has started looking for options to park 3-5% of its retirement fund in stock markets to earn better returns. (BS)

The food ministry has raised the levy price at which it buys sugar from mills to supply the public distribution system (PDS) by 50% in Maharashtra and 63% in Uttar Pradesh for the new sugar season starting next month. (BS)

The government has extended the implementation of mobile number portability to December 31. (BS)

Banks could have separate benchmark prime lending rates (BPLR) for corporate and retail borrowers. (BS)