Daily News Roundup - Aug 11 2011

Piramal Healthcare has made its telecom debut by picking up a 5.5% stake in Vodafone Essar for USD640mn.(FE)

Fortis will pick up a 65% stake in Vietnam’s Hoan My Medical Corporation for USD64mn. (BL)

Maruti Suzuki India is working on customer specific marketing strategy to increase its sales among the first time buyers, a company official said. (BS)



Over 50 individual shareholders on Wednesday gathered to attend the annual general meeting of IT outsourcing company Mahindra Satyam expressing their displeasure over the company’s merger plan. (BS)

Infotech Enterprises Limited offering engineering and geographic information services entered into an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad. (BS)

Percept Group has been surveyed by the income-tax department on charges of not depositing TDS it collected from the salaries of its employees and payments made to clients.(ET)

Tata Steel is moving to spot purchase of iron ore and coal for its European operations, signaling a shift in its commercial policy that could put pressure on margins of steel users, including car makers and consumer goods manufacturers(ET)

Liberal bilateral regime during recent years with other countries for air flights is a major reason for its huge losses, Air India has asked the government to withdraw some of these. (BS)

The West Bengal government has decided to vest the 270 acres, directly purchased JSW Bengal Steel at Salboni in West Medinipur, with it. (BS)
Economy Snippets

Telecom operators will benefit as a draft of the national telecom policy for 2011 proposes trading, pooling and sharing of spectrum. The policy is also pushing for a one-country-one-license regime, which means removal of roaming charges. (BS)

Local passenger car sales fell the most in over 30 months in July due to rises in lending rates and lower production at the country’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd(BS)

The Planning Commission on Wednesday said it was likely to lower its average annual economic growth target for the 12th five-year plan (2012-17) to 8.5 to 8.7%, as against the 9-9.5% contemplated earlier. (BS)

Cellular additions in India GSM technology,have declined for six consecutive months indicating that the dual-SIM effect and hyper competition that drove the worlds fastest-growing market for last two years has started petering out even as most regions in the country are reaching peak saturation levels.(ET)