Daily News Roundup - Aug 16 2012

Reliance Industries has proposed to drill the first exploration in almost five years in the flagging gas fields at its own cost. (BL) Reliance Industries is in talks with BP to buy its petrochemicals plant in Malaysia as it seeks to replicate its domestic success in building fully integrated operations in all its businesses. (ET) The US drug regulator is expected to inspect Aurobindo Pharma Ltd’s two manufacturing facilities in Andhra Pradesh during September-December. (BS) Cipla has launched ‘Qvir’, a four-drug kit priced at ~158 to be used for treating HIV/AIDS. (BS) GAIL India Ltd is interested in buying stake in Russia’s 10mn ton LNG plant planned at Vladivostok on the Pacific coast and to import natural gas from the US$7bn project to meet the nation’s growing energy needs. (BL) Wockhardt has received approval from the American health regulator USFDA to market Alfuzosin hydrochloride tablets in the US market. (BS) Karl Slym, the former India head of General Motors will take over as Tata Motors’ managing director. (ET) The Department of Telecommunications has sought fresh legal opinion on whether it can ask Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular to stop offering 3G roaming services beyond their licence areas under roaming pacts. (BS) The division bench of the Bombay High Court has upheld an order restraining Videocon from marketing its washing machine brand Pebble on the grounds that it is similar to rival Whirlpool’s brand Ace. (ET) S&P assigned a BBB- rating to the proposed issue of senior unsecured notes by ICICI Bank. (BS) Bombay Dyeing plans to enter the e-commerce space by launching its e-tailing site to sell its bed and bath products soon. (BS) Union Bank of India raised US$350mn via sale of dollar-denominated bonds for five years at coupon of 4.63%. (BS) Economy Snippets Wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation eased to a 32-month low. WPI reading fell to 6.87% from 7.25% in June. (BS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh projected India’s economic growth in the current fiscal to be a little higher than 6.5% achieved a year ago amid many global agencies projecting a bearish outlook. (BL) Severe sluggishness in demand led to India’s merchandise exports falling 14.8% to US$22.4bn in July, compared with US$26.3bn in the corresponding period last year. This was the steepest fall in exports in 35 months. (BS) Indirect tax collections rose 23% to ~Rs398bn in July, against ~Rs323bn in the corresponding month last year. (BS)