Daily News Roundup - Sep 9 2009

GAIL India may pick up a stake in US$2bn gas pipeline that China is building for ferrying natural gas found off the Myanmar coast. (ET)

BHEL is believed to have finalized France’s Alstom as the technology partner for its proposed JV with NPCIL to undertake nuclear power projects. (FE)

TCS has entered into an alliance with Microsoft India to launch a virtualization center of excellence in Chennai. (ET)

Board of Approval for SEZ’s will take up the issue of granting a third extension to the clearance given to four zones including Reliance Industries multi product SEZ in Gurgaon and Suzlon Infrastructures high tech SEZ in Karnataka. (ET)

Cairn India will pay only Central Sales Tax on crude sold in Rajasthan. (ET)

DLF is considering selling DT Cinemas to PVR Cinemas and is also discussing various options including retaining minority stake incase of merging its multiplex business with the latter. (FE)

PNB is looking to acquire a bank in Kazakhstan for an estimated US$33mn by March next year and also unveiled its expansion plans in UK too. (FE)

Ashok Leyland signed a MoU with Magma Fincorp to provide financing to end customers of commercial vehicles. (FE)

Axis Private Equity, PE firm sponsored by Axis Bank, plans to triple its corpus size to Rs18bn. (FE)

CREC’s move to impose ceiling on tariff for sale and purchase of power has been opposed by PTC India, Indian Energy Exchange, Power Exchange of India and GMR Trading. (FE)

Wal-Mart, through Bharti Retail has introduced eight private labels in its ‘easyday’ supermarket chain. (ET)

MERC has ordered an investigation into the business affairs of Reliance Infra, the distribution arm of Reliance Power. (ET)

Tata Teleservices GSM launched its one paise per-character pricing plan for SMS. (FE)

Mahindra Satyam has decided to restore variable pay for 28,000 employees across all levels. (ET)

Reliance Capital plans Rs1bn worth stock options to its senior employees. (ET)

Almost 760 pilots belonging to Jet Airways took mass sick leave in protest against the sacking of two pilots. (FE)

Avesthagen plans an IPO raising Rs6-7bn from domestic and international market in 2010. (FE)

Kuwait’s largest telecom operator, Zain, has approached BSNL urging it to pick up a significant stake in the company. (ET)

American Tower Company has restarted negotiations to buy majority stake in Essar Telecom Infrastructure. (ET)

Talks between consumer durables retail chains - Tata Croma, Videocon’s Next and Planet M - and private equity firms for possible stake sales have hit a wall due to differences over valuations. (ET)


SEBI has set up a special committee to review its key provisions of the takeover code. (ET)

Government keen to raise FDI limit in Insurance sector from 26% to 49%. (BL)

A ministerial panel decided that new telecom companies providing 3G services will have to share 3% of their revenues with the government as spectrum usage fee while incumbent operators entering the 3G space will have to share an additional 1% of their revenues for using these airwaves. (ET)

Finance Minister says the stimulus needs to be continued but there will be no fresh tax cuts. (ET)

Despite an 11% fall in hydro electricity this fiscal, the overall electricity generation was up 6.3% (till Aug) due to higher thermal and nuclear generation. (BL)

NASSCOM has approached the European Union for a single work visa for IT workers to enable employees of Indian companies to move freely across the 27 member regional grouping. (ET)

PSU oil companies may lose Rs25,000cr on under recovery (BS)

Total direct tax collected from April-September has matched last years growth with total collections standing at Rs900bn. (ET)

Indirect tax collections fell to Rs636bn for April to July period from Rs884bn last year. (FE)

Heavy commercial vehicle sales see first upturn in 14 months (BS)

Government’s refusal to issue visas to Chinese technicians over security concerns has hit the progress of several power projects that use Chinese equipments. (ET)

Government has invited foreign players to participate in the bidding process for its oil blocks under the NELP-VIII and CBM-IV. (ET)

Government has approved nine FDI proposals involving an investment of Rs750mn. (ET)

High capital base needed for banks with PE arm - RBI (BS)

Over 300 new items would be introduced in the new WPI. (ET)

Uttar Pradesh sugar sector disinvestment process is postponed yet again. (FE)

Imports of sensitive items rise 40.6% in April-June. (FE)