Daily News Roundup - Dec 13 2011

The CBI charges Essar group vice-chairman Ravikant Ruia and his nephew Anshuman Ruia, director with cheating and criminal conspiracy. (BS)

South Indian Bank is aiming at a 50% growth in its fee income in the next two to three years. (BS)

The promoter of Kingfisher Airlines, Mr Vijay Mallya, called on the Chairman of the CBEC, Mr S. K. Goel, seeking operationalisation of the airlines frozen bank accounts. (BL)

Trade unions have demanded a whopping 50% pay hike by Coal India Ltd in the forthcoming National Coal Wage Agreement-IX. (BL)



IL&FS Transportation Networks said it has been selected as a preferred bidder to build an expressway in China. (BL)

BEML Ltd is to hive off its rail business into a separate company to tap the business in rail rolling stock of nearly Rs1000bn over the next 10 years. (BL)

SBI has started operations in Qatar with the inauguration of a branch in Qatar Financial Centre, Doha. (BL)

TDSAT directed Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications to pay 10% of the Rs0.5bn penalty each imposed on them by DoT for violation of ILD licence terms and conditions. (FE)

Infosys is making its nearly 1.5 lakh employees work extra this quarter by cutting two weekend breaks, a step that may indicate the company is struggling to meet its revenue growth target. (ET)

Goldman Sachs has bought a 6.47% stake in Max India for Rs3.08bn raising its total shareholding in the insurance and healthcare company to 15.6%.
Economy Snippets

IIP for October comes in at negative 5.1% (FE)

Gold imports have soared to the second largest slot for India just after crude, on the back of soaring demand from the gold backed exchange traded funds. (FE)

Loan growth, which has slowed significantly in the current financial year due to high interest rates, may result in banks falling short of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s loan growth projection of 18% for 2011-12. (BS)

Credit card transactions in October were worth Rs89.98bn, up 33.1% from that in the corresponding period last year. (BS)

The RBI capped commercial banks' investments in non financial companies at 10% to ensure they do not engage in activities barred by the Banking Regulation Act. (BS)

There is a significant decline in the positive perceptions on current economic conditions, according to the Reserve Bank of India's latest Consumer Confidence Survey. (BL)

A group of farmer leaders on Monday asked the PM to implement the decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail or else face an agitation. (ET)