Daily News Roundup - Feb 8 2011

Coal India may soon come out with a solution for all land-related issues faced by the mining companies. (BS)

Wipro announced sweeping changes across its IT business that will now be driven by six new business units aimed at quicker decision making and accountability. (ET)

With the natural gas all set to reach Uttarakhand, the government-owned State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited is holding talks with GAIL to set up two 300-Mw gas-based plants at Kashipur and Haridwar areas. (BS)



Key employees of Patni Computer Systems and iGate, are set to get a special retention bonus, which could be up to six months’ salary, as an incentive to stay with the company. (ET)

M&M announced its entry into the construction equipment business with the launch of the first indigenously developed — Mahindra EarthMaster- backhoe loader. (FE)

JSW Steel reported a 9% increase in its crude steel production in January to 5.8 lakh tonnes from 5.33 lakh tonnes a year earlier. (ET)

JSW Steel has deferred the open offer for picking an additional stake of 20 per cent in Ispat Industries. (BS)

The Supreme Court has stayed the Allahabad High Court order directing the Uttar Pradesh government to reconsider its decision to deny tax benefits to Bajaj Hindustan under its industry promotion policy. (ET)

Tulip Telecom said it has appointed Rahul Ahuja as its new CFO with immediate effect. (ET)

Rescuing ONGC from a 15-year-old contract that forces it to pay entire royalty on crude oil produced from India’s largest onland oilfields is not a legitimate reason for the oil ministry to block the US$9.6bn Cairn-Vedanta deal, the government’s legal experts, vetting pre-conditions for the transaction, said. (ET)

NTPC will soon see 7% of its generation vanish off the grid as wagon breakers who toppled a rake carrying coal to its Kahalgaon Thermal Power station in Bihar on Sunday, rendering the track unusable for minimum four-five days. (ET)

NTPC is slated to spend over Rs 56bn on "green" projects in the coming five years. (BL)

SAIL is forming an equal equity joint venture with Japan’s Kobe Steel, for a new plant in Durgapur. (ET)

Fortis Healthcare plans to invest Rs10bn in rolling out a dozen new hospitals across the country. (BL)

Infotech Enterprises is in advanced stages of acquiring an aerospace services company in Europe for a consideration of approximately US$20mn. (BS)
Economy Snippets

The economy is set to expand 8.6% in the fiscal year ending March compared with 8% in the previous year, the government said on Monday. (ET)

The UPA government will unveil an ambitious financial inclusion programme that aims at opening 50mn no-frill accounts by March 2012, spanning 73,000 villages. (BS)

IIFCL to mop up Rs12bn from tax-saving infrastructure bonds. (BL)

The government has set up the inter-ministerial group to suggest measures to control spiralling prices, particularly of food articles, almost three weeks after the announcement of forming such a body. (ET)

SEBI has said that new norms for takeover of companies, as also for ownership and governance issues of stock exchanges, would take some time as they need more deliberations, including by the government.(BL)

SEBI has deferred decisions on important issues such as the MCX-SX case, Direct Takeover Code and Jalan Committee report. (BL)

The environment ministry today issued a notification banning the use of plastics for packaging gutka and other tobacco products. (BS)

The enumeration process for the 15th Indian National Census 2011 will start on February 9 and a number of new features have been added to it. (BS)

The Orissa State Pollution Control Board has served a closure notice on the sponge iron plant with an installed capacity of 400 tonnes per day and the 14 MW co-generation plant of OCL Iron & Steel at Lamloi, Rajgangpur in Sundergarh district for failing to comply with the consent conditions and directives issued by the board from time to time. (BS)

RBI will open sub-offices in all the capital states of NorthEast, starting with Agartala. (FE)