Daily News Roundup - Sep 21 2010

Indian Oil Corporation will raise prices of petrol by 27paise a litre, effective midnight tonight. (BS)

REC has received the status of an infrastructure finance company (IFC) from the Reserve Bank of India. (BS)



Hindustan Copper plans to sell excavated waste rock used to lay roads and railway tracks, raising as much as Rs60bn. (ET)

TCS has approached the Karnataka government seeking 100 acres in Bangalore to build a new facility. (ET)

ONGC in its report stated that it has a capacity to handle oil spills of up to 700 tonnes. (BS)

Jindal Steel and Power Limited plans to set up a Rs55bn industrial park at Parang. (BS)

Slum development project at Mumbai’s international airport is facing time overrun by nearly three years as the developer, HDIL, is finding it hard to complete land acquisition. (ET)

Reliance Infrastructure approached banks for Rs70bn loan to fund a new rail project in Mumbai. (ET)

Wockhardt expects to close all issues pertaining to its corporate debt restructuring in the next few months. (ET)

Tata Steel has said the government’s proposal to provide compensation to project-affected people in mining operations should be included in the cost of operations of the company and not derived as a share of the profit. (ET)

Hexaware Technologies revised its current quarter revenue guidance upwards, helped by renewed demand for software services in its top market US. (ET)

The Advertising Standards Council of India has upheld HUL’s recent complaint against P&G’s ‘mystery shampoo’ outdoor and print advertisements. (FE)

Orient Green Power Company Limited is in the process of setting up 50 Mw wind power project in Gujarat. (BS)

Core Projects and Technologies has acquired two US-based education companies for US$20mn. (BS)

KSK Power Ventur Plc, has tied up Rs160bn loans for its 3,600-MW thermal power project in Chhattisgarh. (BL)

Actis Biologics has said that Angiozyme, its biotech molecule targeted at colorectal cancer, has entered into the third phase of trials on humans in India. (BL)

Piramal Life Sciences has started Phase-II clinical trials of a molecule, aimed at treating diabetes, in Europe and India. (BL)

Godrej Industries has set up a US$50mn venture capital fund to invest in agri start-ups. (BL)

YES Bank has kicked off the process of rate hikes increasing its benchmark prime lending rate by 50 basis points to 17.5%. (FE)

Jet Airways has decided to lease five additional A330 jets from the US based Intrepid Aviation Group LLC to serve the rising demand for international travel. (FE)

The trademark row pertaining to the brand name and trademark of Capsola among Pfizer Pharmaceutical (India), RFCL (Ranbaxy’s group company), Parth Parental and Pearl Drugs has reached the Supreme Court. (FE)

Symphony Capital is said to have exited Orchid Chemicals completely by selling its 2.97% stake. (FE)

SRF Ltd said it will take up three research and development driven projects costing around Rs2bn at its Dahej chemical complex in Gujarat. (FE)
Economy Snippets

The Steel Ministry has said that it may seek concessions for state-owned firms like SAIL and NMDC from the 26 per cent profit sharing rule, proposed in the draft mining bill, as the PSUs have been fulfilling social obligations for long. (BS)

An advisory committee of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has proposed for introduction of monthly contracts on the exchanges. (BS)

Steel ministry has made its opposition known to certain proposals in the new mining Bill that seek to remove reservation of mines for public sector undertakings. (ET)

Major cement companies on Monday hiked prices by Rs 5-7 per 50 kg bag with immediate effect due to increase in input costs. (FE)