Daily News Roundup - Nov 2 2012

L&T Construction has won new orders valued at over Rs10.6bn across various business segments in October. (BL) SAIL expects to expand its production capacity to 18mn tons by the end of current financial year, as it plans to commission two new blast furnaces. (BL) Oil India Ltd has started drilling operations in Gabon, South Africa for hydrocarbon exploration. (BL) In a reprieve to incumbent telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications, BSNL and MTNL, the empowered group of ministers on telecom permitted them to retain up to 2.5 Mhz of spectrum in the 900-MHz band. The rest would have to be refarmed to the 1,800-MHz band. (BS) The Wipro board has approved the separation of the non-IT businesses from Wipro Ltd to form a new company, Wipro Enterprises Ltd. The new unlisted entity will include Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering and Medical Diagnostic Products & Services. (BS) Tata Global Beverages has dropped its plan to foray into the food segment. Instead, it would focus on the tea, coffee and water spaces. (BS) SpiceJet is looking at raising funds from investors, including private equity firm Bravia Capital. (BS) Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd plans to invest about ~Rs20bn to add 2,500 beds between 2013 and 2015. (BS) Thomas Cook (India) Ltd launched a ‘borderless prepaid card’ in collaboration with MasterCard Worldwide. (BS) The office of the CAG said it would have unfettered right of access to all records of Reliance Industries during its audit of operations in the Krishna-Godavari basin and would override any conditions sought to be imposed on the process. (BS) Employees of Kingfisher Airlines received a second installment of salaries as part of a deal between the company management. (ET) Dabur is re-launching its hair care brand Vatika. (ET) Hexaware is aggressively scouting for acquisitions in healthcare, insurance, banking and capital market sectors, which contribute over 75% of the company’s revenues. (ET) Economy Snippets Spending by the Indian Government outpaced revenue receipts by Rs2.1tn in the first half of 2012-13. This was equivalent to 65.6% of the Budget estimates for the full fiscal. The revenue deficit, on the other hand, was R2.6tn, equivalent to 75.1% of the Budget estimate. (BL) The Reserve Bank of India has modified the definition of sickness and a procedure for assessing the viability of sick micro and small enterprises. (BS) The government, facing stiff opposition, has put on hold the ~Rs26.5 increase in price of cooking gas cylinders that consumers buy beyond their quota of six subsidised bottles. (ET) The Central government approved a hike of up to 20% in the support price of five rabi crops, including pulses and mustard seed, but left wheat untouched. (ET)