Daily News Roundup - Oct 1 2012

Maruti Suzuki India is planning to offer low-cost houses to about 5,000 employees as it tries to walk the extra mile to improve relations with its workers. (ET) A government-controlled panel has approved Reliance Industries’ revised field development plan for MA oilfield in the predominately gas-rich KG-D6 block that will help the firm boost gas production. (ET) The engineers of Kingfisher Airlines went on a flash strike in Mumbai, making 80 passengers wait three hours in an aircraft for take-off clearance and forcing the cash-strapped airline to cancel 11 flights. (ET) Bharti Enterprises has started talks with Walmart and is hoping to form 50:50 joint venture to roll out retail outlets in India. (ET) NTPC is floating a joint venture as part of its plan to foray into power distribution. The company’s distribution arm, NTPC Electric Supply, has invited bids from power distribution licensees with five years of experience. (ET) Four months after the GoM gave its nod for mining at Essar Power’s Mahan coal block and providing tapering linkage till production starts at the 1,200-MW power plant; the project is yet to get coal supplies. (BL) Ybrant Digital Limited’s deal with US-based Experian Interactive Media to buy the latter’s three Internet brands has missed the deadline. (BS) Cadila Healthcare has received the US drug regulator's nod to market Irbesartan tablets, an anti-hypertension drug, in the US market in strengths of 75mg, 150mg and 300mg. (BS) Thermax has won Rs2.8bn EPC order for a combined cycle extension power project from a leading Government of India Enterprise in the North East. (BS) BP will sell its interests in purified terephthalic acid production in Malaysia to Reliance Industries Limited for US$230mn, a company statement said. (BS) Dalmia Cement (Bharat) of the Delhi-based Puneet Dalmia Group has acquired Adhunik Cement in Meghalaya for an enterprise value of Rs10.85bn. (ET) Nasscom has said presence of Infosys, which is in talks with the West Bengal government for setting up a campus here, would give a fillip to the state’s positioning as an IT hub. (BL) Economy Snippets The department of telecom will seek fresh opinion from the highest law official in the country on its plans to make it compulsory for all operators to match the upcoming auction-determined price for their existing 2G airwaves for the remaining period of their licenses. (ET) The sugar industry is requesting the government to increase the import duty on raw sugar from 10% to 25% for safeguarding the domestic market from price distortion. (ET) India’s economic position with the rest of the world improved in the June quarter with current account deficit shrinking to 3.9% of GDP from 4.5% in the March quarter. (ET) The output of eight infrastructure industries rose 2.1% in August, higher than 1% in July, but not enough to offer hopes of a revival in industrial production. The output of these industries rose 2.8% between April and August. (ET) The RBI said all public sector banks will get an interest subsidy of 2% per annum against a short-term production loan up to Rs0.3mn to farmers. (ET) Retail investors in an initial share sale will have to be compensated if the shares fall sharply within three months of listing, capital market regulator Sebi proposed. (ET)