Daily News Roundup - July 25 2011

- CCEA has approved BP’s US$7.2bn deal to buy stakes in Reliance’s exploration blocks, brightening prospects of higher gas output from the D6 field. (ET)

- Coal India said inordinate delays in the receipt of green clearances for mining proposals have stalled investment decisions on 67 new projects and also affected expansion work in ongoing projects, translating into an annual production loss of 200mn tons. (ET)



- California-based Union Bank has cancelled a US$20mn contract with Infosys to implement its core banking software product Finacle. (FE)

- ONGC plans to invest about Rs260bn in putting 50 onshore and offshore fields on production, 49 through in-house efforts and one through service contract. (BS)

- Bharti Airtel has increased its pre-paid mobile tariffs by 20%. The operator has hiked tariffs on two plans — Advantage and Freedom — for calls and SMS' sent within the Airtel network. (BL)

- Dr Reddys Laboratories Ltd has entered into an agreement with Mumbai based JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals to acquire the latters pharmaceutical prescription portfolio in Russia and other CIS regions for a consideration of US$34.85mn. (BS)

- Reliance Industries plans to shut down its production facility at the MA oilfield in the KGD6 block for about 20 days for annual maintenance by the end of this month. (ET)

- ICICI Bank, has raised deposit rates by 25-75 basis points in select term deposits. The rate increase is effective from July 22. (BS)

- Mahindra Satyam has decided to defer salary increments to employees till October, instead of giving them in the June quarter as is customary in most IT firms. (ET)

- HCL Technologies has bagged an outsourcing contract from European media group Mecom involving a "significant portion" of the group's IT operations. (BL)

- Hero Honda will reveal its global brand identity in London on August 9. (FE)

- Tata Motors has opened a new plant in South Africa for the assembly of commercial vehicles. (BL)

- Nalco plans to bid for an upcoming 4,000-mw ultra-mega power project in Orissa, for which requests have to be submitted by August 1. (ET)

- Varun Energy Corporation, a group company of Varun Industries, plans to set up a plant of 0.5mtpa to process the rare earth ore discovered at its Madagascar mines in Africa. (BL)

- Wipro Technologies will carve out a new agriculture vertical early in the next financial year, aiming to provide IT services to seed, fertiliser, agro chemical, bio pharma and commodity companies. (FE)

- Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd will add 3,000 beds, with an investment of Rs16bn, in the next three years. (BS)

- Zydus Cadila is in talks to acquire the brands and manufacturing facility of Biochem Pharmaceuticals. (ET)

- Emami Group is poised to team up with Sheth Developers of Mumbai to jointly develop prime real estate on in Dadar, Mumbai. (ET)

- Sesa Goa has refuted allegations of over and underinvoicing of exports and imports worth over Rs10bn, asserting that corporate fraud investigation body SFIO carried out the probe with a ‘pre-determined mind’ and ignored the firm’s explanations. (ET)



Economy Snippets





- The Telecom Commission cleared the project to connect all the panchayats across the country through Rs200bn optical fibre network. (ET)

- The government will buy back bonds worth Rs69.45bn from fertiliser companies at a discount and compensate for 50% of their losses. (ET)

- The gems and jewellery industry in India is likely to reach Rs2.13tn by 2015, Assocham said. (BL)

- The Industry Ministry is looking at revising base year to 2010-11 for computation of inflation index with a view to present more realistic picture of the price situation. (ET)