Daily News Roundup - Oct 11 2011

BHEL has bagged a Rs40.7bn contract for a 1,200 MW thermal power project in Andhra Pradesh. (BL)

MRF said its turnover for the first time has crossed Rs100bn in one year, becoming the first Indian tyre maker to achieve this mark, and announced plans to acquire plantations or companies abroad to neutralise the impact of high import duty on rubber. (ET)

Tata Steel will invest £2mn in creating a facility to manufacture jacket foundation structures for wind turbines at its Hartlepool tube plant in the UK, a move that will step up its presence in the renewable energy market. (BL)



Maruti Suzuki India said that production at its plant in Gurgaon had been impacted because of the strike at Suzuki Powertrain India Ltd (SPIL), which supplies engines to MSI. (BL)

Hindustan Unilever entered the premium water purification segment with the launch of Pureit Marvella.(ET)

Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz is set to clinch a joint venture with Tata Group for opening coffee shops in India, almost nine months after he struck a sourcing deal with Tata Coffee. (ET)

Strides Arcolab said its subsidiary Onco Therapies has received approval from the US health regulator to market its generic Cladribine injection used for treating blood cancer in the American market.(ET)

Reliance Industries, is set to sign a deal with the Indian unit of Walt Disney to acquire content for its telecom operations. (ET)

Wipro Ltd plans to relaunch Aramusk, one of the oldest male deodorant soaps, which it had acquired from Mumbai-based contract manufacturer VVF Ltd in June.(BS)

More than 300,000 workers of Coal India, went on a one-day strike demanding higher bonus. This caused the company a production loss of 1 mn tonne or Rs1.2bn, in value terms. (BS)

State Bank of India is likely to raise Rs50bn through a rights issue of shares by December, a move expected to shore up the bank’s Tier-I capital to above eight per cent for the current financial year.(BS)

Jindal Power Ltd has sought a no-objection certificate from the Coal Ministry for the proposed expansion of its thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh at an estimated cost of Rs134bn. (ET)

Rio Tinto, is close to getting a licence to mine a diamond find in MadhyaPradesh.(ET)

Hyderabad Industries Ltd, is expanding its business architecture by transforming itself from an asbestos cement (AC) roofing sheet products manufacturer to an innovative building materials and solutions provider.(BL)
Economy Snippets

The Communications and IT Minister, , announced a slew of initiatives for the telecom sector, including free roaming, unrestricted Net telephony and a new licensing regime for operators under a draft New Telecom Policy 2011.(BL)

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board will now start scrutinising takeovers by foreign players in the pharmaceutical sector — for the next six months. (BL)

Indonesia has circulated a draft decree seeking comments on imposing a ban on export of coal below 5,100 gross kilo calories per kg from 2014. (BL)

Credit rating agency, Crisil, has lowered India's GDP growth forecast for FY2012 to 7.6 % from the earlier estimated 7.7-8.0 %.(BL)

The government's excise duty collections fell for the first time in 16 months in September, confounding analysts and policy makers alike while raising hopes this might compel the central bank to put its monetary tightening on hold. (ET)