Daily News Roundup - Dec 23 2009

Reliance Industries announced its third successive gas discovery in a deepwater exploration block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, which the company had bagged in the fifth round of NELP. (BS)

The MCA has asked SEBI for details of its investigation pertaining to a complaint that Reliance Industries had allegedly routed funds to dummy companies to buy its own shares nine years ago. (BS)

ONGC has replaced Reliance Industries with Repsol YPF SA, Spain’s biggest oil company and Malaysia’s Petronas to bid for Venezuelan oil blocks next month. (BS)

ONGC has said it is ready to accept a special oil tax on any super-normal profits from high crude oil prices, if the subsidy-sharing regime is rationalized. (FE)

Phase-II construction of the Bengaluru International Airport Ltd, a consortium of Siemens, GVK Group, Unique Zurich Airport, Karnataka State Industrial Investment & Development Corporation and Airports Authority of India, is expected to begin by the second half of 2010. (BS)

CCEA may take up Jet Airways proposal to raise Rs20bn through sale of shares to institutional investors. (ET)

Tata Motors plans to increase its market share by 2-3% in the utility segment with the launch of utility vehicle Grande MK II, an upgraded version of its premium Sumo Grande. (BS)

Reliance Power is likely to invest over Rs 60bn over the next four to five years to produce 6.6bn tons of coal per annum. (FE)

Sun Pharmaceutical is getting greater support, to acquire Israeli drug major Taro Pharmaceutical, from independent advisory firms like Glass, Lewis & Co. who has recommended a vote against the proposals of the Taro board at the AGM. (BS)

Tata Teleservices and Novatium Solutions Ltd. have joined hands to launch ‘Nova Navigator', which is claimed to be the country's first cloud computing on wireless broadband service. (BL)

Sun TV is restructuring its distribution business into two new divisions - 1) to handle South India operations and international business and 2) to focus on expanding the Sun TV bouquet into the northern, western and eastern markets of India. (BS)

Aban Offshore has repaid bonds worth Rs8bn along with accrued interest. (ET)

Nalco increased prices of aluminium by Rs3,500/ton. (ET)

Sistema Shyam TeleServices, which recently launched MTS mobile service network, is looking to raise around US$2bn to ramp up infrastructure. (ET)

Meghalaya government has finally decided to hand over two 450Mw each hydel power projects - Kynshi stage I and Kynshi Stage II, to Athena Power and Jaypee Group respectively. (BS)

Jindal Saw received orders worth Rs11bn for the supply of large diameter welded pipes and ductile iron pipes. (BL)

Bharati Shipyard received 10.2mn shares in the open offer made for acquiring an additional stake of 20% in Great Offshore at Rs590/share. (BS)

Lupin settled all its ongoing patent litigation with US-based Forest Laboratories on the Alzheimer’s disease treatment drug, Namenda. (BS)

The promoters of Hotel Leelaventure are increasing their stake to 55% from the current 52.5% through creeping acquisition. (BL)

Gati will hold an extraordinary general meeting on January 11 to seek shareholders’ approval for raising Rs789mn through the issue of warrants to promoters and the Infrastructure Fund of India. (ET)

JK Tyre is exploring possibilities to acquire a company in the South-east Asian region. (BS)

Tata Realty & Infrastructure, a 100% subsidiary of Tata Sons, has unveiled its plans to develop "Ramanujan IT city" at Taramani in Chennai at an estimated to cost Rs35bn. (ET)

The Centre has indicated that it would consider giving direct cash subsidy to state-owned oil marketing companies this year, instead of bonds, to compensate them for selling cooking fuel at lower than market price. (BS)

The Centre has stopped allocating coal blocks to state governments till the Mines and Mineral (Development & Regulation) Act is implemented with the amendments. (BS)

The country’s multiplex industry is likely to invest Rs4bn in setting up new properties, new genre movies and at least two big-budget bollywood releases every month over the next one year. (BS)

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board said that 19 out of the total 330 city gas distribution networks identified in the country for supply of natural gas to domestic users are located in Andhra Pradesh. (BS)

Inorder to arrest aggregate technical and commercial losses of power, all the three state power distribution companies of Madhya Pradesh are now allowed to invite franchisee partners for power distribution. (BS)

The power ministry has floated a Cabinet note to resolve a contentious issue in implementing open access that allows large users - typically consuming 1 Mw and above - to choose their electricity supplier. (BS)

The Planning Commission indicated that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways was in a position to bid out contracts for the construction of 8,000 km of roads within the current financial year. (BS)

As the Government decides to allocate spectrum for 3G only by August next year, some of the Indian operators are reviewing their strategy and looking at the possibility of leapfrogging to the 4G technology. (BL)

India and Bhutan signed MoUs on initiating DPR work on the Amochu Reservoir (620 MW), Kuri-Gongri (1800 MW), Kholongchu (486 MW) and Chamkharchu-I (670 MW) projects in Bhutan and for initiating consultancy services aimed at the preparation of a transmission grid master plan. (BL)

The Union Food and Agriculture Minister has asked sugar mills not to default on their ethanol supply commitments to oil marketing companies. (BL)

The high-power committee, constituted by the Union Ministry of Shipping, to look into the issues of sinking of vessels carrying iron ore cargo along the Indian coast, plans to recommend the ban on ships more than 25 years old from loading iron ore cargo. (BL)

Lenders have asked the RBI to allow them to decide interest rates on loans below Rs0.2mn to enable them reach out to unbanked sections which are presently serviced by microfinance institutions and money lenders at high rates. (ET)

India signed two loan agreements totaling US$850mn with the Asian Development Bank, to fund the country’s infrastructure program. (ET)

The proposed civil nuclear deal between India and the UK has been delayed as both sides are yet to complete negotiations. (FE)