Daily News Roundup - Aug 17 2010

Vedanta Resources has agreed to acquire a majority stake in energy explorer Cairn India for up to US$9.6bn in cash. (ET)

A four-member panel appointed by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has told MEF it would be illegal to allow Vedanta-owned Sterlite Industries to conduct bauxite mining operations on the Niyamgiri hills at Kalahandi district in Orissa. (BS)



SBI has raised its benchmark prime lending rate by 50bps to 12.25% effective Tuesday. (ET)

Lanco Infratech has targeted a capex plan of Rs240bn for increasing its power generation capacity to 9,300MW. (ET)

Siemens has bagged a 10mn euro order from SAIL to supply an RH vacuum degassing plant to the Rourkela Steel plant. (ET)

Tata Steel’s domestic manufacturing capacity will jump three-fold to 21mtpa following the expansion of its Jamshedpur project and Orissa and Chattisgarh’s greenfield units becoming operational. (ET)

Tata Steel-owned Corus to invest £185mn in the No 4 blast furnance at Port Talbot steelworks in Wales, which will increase capacity by 400,000 tons a year. (BS)

Yes Bank has raised Rs6.65bn of capital through two bond issues. (BS)

Biocon Ltd plans to foray into the critical care segment aiming to provide treatment for hospital infections, including post surgical complications and trauma. (ET)

Tata Motors global vehicle sales for the month of July rose 36% to 90,646 units. (ET)

Godrej Consumer Products is in talks to give up the license to sell the air-freshener brand 'Ambipur' in India to global major P&G in the next 2-3 months. (ET)

Sesa Goa’s acquisition of a 20% strategic stake in Cairn India to cost ~US$3bn. (FE)

Wholesale price inflation falls to single digit at 9.97% in July. (ET)

The government said it has not set any timeframe for implementing recommendations of telecom regulator Trai on spectrum related issues, which among other things has suggested delinking licence from spectrum. (ET)

The Shipping Ministry will award 25 port projects under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme during the current financial year. (ET)

The government gave its formal approval to the introduction of 5% ethanol-blending in petrol, at a price of Rs27 per litre for ethanol. (BS)