Daily News Roundup - Aug 14 2012

The bauxite mining operation in Mali Hill in south Odisha’s Koraput district by Hindalco Industries Ltd has been stopped due to an agitation by the local tribal people. (BS) Oil & Natural Gas Corporation has decided to set up a Rs50bn urea manufacturing unit in North Tripura district in joint venture with a private company. (BL) Sun Pharma raised its offer price for the remaining shares of Israeli major Taro Pharma by as much as 60%. It will have to cough up about US$600mn for the remaining shares under the new offer. (BS) L&T has secured orders totalling over Rs20bn across business segments in the last 45 days. (BL) The All India Coal Workers’ Federation has opposed Coal India’s move to hike the penalty for its failure to meet the requirements of power producers in the fuel supply agreement model. (BL) Bank of Baroda raised deposit rates on select maturities by up to 0.65%. (BS) Shipping Corporation of India has initiated fresh talks with ONGC to form a joint venture to help the explorer in its offshore oil exploration activities. (ET) Indian Overseas Bank has raised US$500mn via sale of dollar denominated bonds for 5.5 years. (BS) The Supreme Court admitted a plea by Adani Power Ltd seeking to terminate a pact to supply power to public sector Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (BL). Maruti Suzuki India Limited would decide on resuming operations at the violence-hit Manesar unit later this week. (BS) Ford Motor is recalling more than 100,000 units of its popular Figo and Classic models sold in India to fix potential problems in suspension and power steering that could lead to fire and brake-safety hazards. (ET) DLF has signed a binding agreement with Mumbai-based Lodha Developers to sell its 17.5-acre NTC mill land in Lower Parel area for Rs27bn. (ET) Supreme Infrastructure India Ltd has secured orders worth Rs12.4bn in various states. (BL) Reliance MediaWorks is shifting part of its operations to the US, where it will move half a dozen top executives including its CEO for film and media services. (ET) Economy Snippets A parliamentary panel has asked the government to make corporate social responsibility spending mandatory for companies above a certain threshold. It also wanted the government to clearly define in the Companies Bill the term ‘private placement’ of instruments to raise money. (BS) The Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee has approved 16 iron ore mining lessees in Karnataka to resume operations, but has not permitted them to produce more than a third of their earlier annual sanctioned capacity. (BS) India will notify the rules for advance pricing arrangement that signal a shift away from aggressive tax approach that resulted in transfer pricing adjustments as high as over Rs1tn in the last two financial years. (ET) The government has said eight states and two union territories have supported foreign direct investment in organised retail, revising its earlier reply to the Rajya Sabha that two states and two union territories had supported this contentious reform. (ET)