Daily News Roundup - Jan 17 2011

Infosys plans to acquire small US companies to tap US$70bn government outsourcing market. (ET)

NTPC may miss the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) commissioning targets for the proposed 750MW (3X250MW) Bongaigaon thermal power station in Assam. (BL)

GAIL has finalised a deal for procuring LNG from Qatar. (BL)




Union Bank of India is planning to mop up Swiss Franc150mn under its umbrella US$2bn medium-term note programme. (BL)

Reliance Industries to shelve its plans of reopening its retail petrol outlets. (BS)

Tata Steel says it would hold on to its shares in the Australian miner Riversdale, calling it a strategic stake. (BS)

Marico plans to acquire 51% stake in Unibic India for Rs1.3bn. (ET)

Tata Steel’s FPO price band has been decided at Rs594-Rs610 per share. (BS)

Sebi asks R-Infra not to hire Price Waterhouse for 3 years. (ET)

IOC raised petrol prices by Rs2.50 per litre, while HPCL hike rates by Rs2.54 a litre and BPCL raised price by 2.53 per litre. (ET)

SBI plans to raise up to Rs20bn through bonds to be offered to retail investors next month. (BS)

Ansal Properties sold properties worth about Rs17.14bn in the first nine months of this fiscal and its sales realisations improved by 24% compared to the year-ago period. (BS)

Tata Motors global sales increased by 21% in December to 90,294 units. (BS)

SAIL inks pact with IRCON International for jointly working on rail infrastructure projects in India and overseas. (BS)

Maruti Suzuki firms up plans to launch its luxury sports sedan Kizashi early next month. (BS)

Maruti Suzuki to increase the prices of its range of products. (BS)

Tatas Motors plans to merge CV & passenger car dealership. (ET)

Hindustan Unilever may raise prices of soaps, skincare brands. (ET)

Godrej Consumer Products plans to focus on rebranding of its various products this year. (ET)

Birla Corporation is setting up an Rs4.5bn cement manufacturing plant in the North Cachar Hills district of Assam. (BL)

Cummins plans to make engines for light commercial vehicles and components like turbochargers in India. (ET)
Economy Snippets

The wholesale price index rose 8.43% in December from a year ago; the index was at 7.48% in the previous month. (ET)

The government appoints Anand Sinha as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India. (ET)

Foreign exchange reserves dipped US$3.3bn during the week ended January 7. (ET)

State-owned oil firms hiked jet fuel prices by 2%, the seventh straight increase in rates since October. (ET)

The total traffic handled by the 12 major Indian ports increased by a meagre 1% for April-December 2010 compared to the corresponding period last year. (BS)

Annual Survey of Industries 2008-09 data shows large gap between the annual growth rates disclosed by the two official measures - ASI and IIP. (BL)

World Bank committed US$1.5bn funding support to the Prime Minister's rural road initiative — Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. (BL)

Cellular service operators are finally ready to roll out mobile number portability across the country from January 20. (BL)