DAily News Roundup - Feb 15 2011

Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Ltd has awarded an EPC order of over Rs11bn to L&T for setting up a 1 x 375 MW gas-based power plant at Dhuvaran near Vadodara in Gujarat. (BS)

BHEL has bagged a US$436mn EPC contract to set up a gas turbine-based power plant in the Republic of Yemen. (FE)

BPCL has hired SBI to help it borrow US$200mn. (ET)



Tata group has entered into a joint venture with the US aerospace and defence company Lockheed Martin Corp to make aircraft components for the C-130 transport planes. (BS)

Reliance Infrastructure will buy back shares aggregating Rs10bn at up to 725 a share. (ET)

Tata Motors subsidiaries, HV Transmissions and HV Axles, are set to merge to form TML Drivelines, in order to harness synergies and become a total driveline solutions provider. (FE)

Bharti Airtel’s plans to delist its Zambian arm, Celtel Zambia, have hit a roadblock with the Lusaka Stock Exchange rejecting its application to delist reportedly for "procedural flaws". (ET)

Hero Motors sold a stake of 17.6% in Munjal Kiriu Industries, a joint venture with Japan’s Kiriu Corp, to the co-promoter. (BS)

MoEF gave its conditional go-ahead to JSPL for its six mtpa integrated steel plant and 1,000 Mw captive power plant in Orissa. (BS)

Fortis Hospitals has made its entry into Kerala with the launch of its first information centre at Thrissur. (BS)

Cipla is discontinuing a clutch of veterinary medicines in the domestic market. (BL)

Vijaya Bank might seek a second deadline extension for meeting the 70% provision coverage ratio (PCR) norm even as the pace of rise in its non-performing assets was falling. (BS)

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals would hire people to support the promotion of its products in the vaccine, branded generics and speciality segments, among others. (BL)

Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd is now planning to commercially enter the green energy sector and offer its expertise to food processing and other companies to make them use solid bio-waste for power generation. (BL)

Areva T&D India has commissioned the country's first indigenously developed 765 kV transformer at Lanco Infratech's ‘Anpara-C' power project in Uttar Pradesh. (BL)

RPG Group’s Phillips Carbon Black has tied up US$900mn debt as Evonic deal hots up. (BS)

Tata Teleservices distanced itself from RCom and its stance on dual technology, saying that it applied for licence only after the policy was announced. (ET)
Economy Snippets

Wholesale price-based inflation moderated to 8.23% in January from 8.43% a month ago, despite food inflation rising over to 15.65% from 13.55% in December. (BS)

After Supreme Court verdict of allowing export of iron ore that are lying in the major ports of Karnataka, miners see a possible lifting on iron ore export ban by end of March, 2011. (BS)

The Asian Development Bank expects its finances in infrastructure projects in India to increase, irrespective of land acquisition complications. (BL)

Asian Development Bank said it will keep its annual sanction limit at US$2bn for financing Indian projects in 2011, unchanged from what it targeted in 2010. (ET)

The Orissa government envisages average annual growth rate of 9 per cent in the 11th five year plan (from 2007 to 2012) with a projected outlay of Rs322.25bn. (BS)

The state Cabinet gave its nod to the AP State Finance Corporation to raise Rs2bn from the open market by issuing 10-year bonds. (BS)

According high priority to promote clean technologies in coal mining, the Coal Ministry has identified seven blocks for development of underground coal gasification (UCG). (BL)

The Environment Ministry has given its nod for a proposal involving the mining of coal from a block earmarked for a proposed 4,000-MW Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) in Orissa. (BL)

The Construction Federation of India (CFI) has sought a service tax exemption to infrastructure projects in the power sector. (BL)