Daily News Roundup - July 19 2012

One person was killed and at least 90 were injured in a clash between workers and the managerial staff at Maruti Suzuki India’s Manesar plant, forcing stoppage of work. (BS) ONGC Videsh Ltd will team up with Petronet LNG and Indian Oil Corporation to bid for up to 20% stake in Russia’s Novatek LNG project. (BS) CRH Plc, Irish building materials group, has entered the fray to buy Jaiprakash Associates' cement plants in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, after the company's discussions with the AV Birla Group got stuck due to differences over valuation and other issues. (ET) Sesa Goa Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta group, has written to the state government seeking to lift ban on transportation of iron ore during monsoon, which had resulted in drying up of their raw material required to run two of their plants. (BS) Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has launched Atorvastatin Calcium tablets in the US market. (BL) Reliance MediaWorks Ltd is signing a term sheet with an international private equity firm for ~Rs6.05bn for its film and media services division. (BS) Biocon is mulling merging its wholly-owned subsidiary Biocon Biopharmaceuticals with the parent company. (BL) Shriram Transport Finance has reserved 80% of its ~Rs3bn non-convertible debenture issue for individual investors. The NCDs have coupon rates of 11.15% for three years and 11.4% for five years. (BS) Despite global iron ore prices remaining stable in the last few weeks, NMDC may hike prices of its ore for the July-September quarter by 8-10% for lumps and fines. (BL) Saint-Gobain India is looking at supplying solar systems in India, backed by the group’s solar energy equipment production Uninor has announced that it has moved the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for permission to initiate another round of raising funds. (FE) HPCL Mittal Energy and Indian Oil have offered to examine the feasibility of constructing petroleum product pipelines to Pakistan. (BS) Economy Snippets Giving indication of some recovery, indirect tax collections during the first (April-June) quarter of this financial year rose by 13.8% to ~Rs1.07tn over ~Rs948.5bn in the corresponding period last year. (BS) The Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom has deferred a decision, till later this week, on the contentious issue of a reserve price for the re-auction of 2G spectrum. (BS) Retail price inflation declined to 10.02% in June. The base effect of inflation in housing contributed to the fall in inflation. (BS)