Daily News Roundup - Feb 19 2014

GMR Infrastructure announced the completion of the divestment of a majority 74% in GMR Ulundurpet Expressways Private Limited to India Infrastructure Fund for Rs2.2bn (BS)

ONGC Videsh Ltd and its partner Oil India Ltd have signed contracts to explore for oil and gas in two areas in Bangladeshi waters. (BS)

Ashok Leyland's joint venture with construction equipment manufacturer John Deere launched Backhoe Loader targeting the first time users. (BS)

Canara Bank plans to sell Rs10bn worth of non-performing assets by the end of this financial year. (BL)

Alstom India has been awarded a contract by NTPC to provide environmental control equipment for the NTPC’s 500 MW Vindyachal super thermal power plant in Madhya Pradesh. (BL)

Havells India Ltd has set its eyes on export market as Chinese fans have started getting more expensive, thereby giving an opportunity for Indian makers to pump their products in the international markets. (BL)

Data analytics firm Flytxt has partnered Idea Cellular to deploy multi-channel mobile advertising platform ‘QREDA’. (BL)

CBI has registered cases related to supply of low quality imported coal to NTPC and NSPCL (NTPC-SAIL Power Company Ltd). (BS)

ING Vysya Bank looks to open 40-50 branches each every year between 2014 and 2016 as its aims to improve mobilisation of current and savings accounts and speed up growth. (ET)

Power Grid Corp plans to invest more than Rs610bn in the next three financial years, with a significant chunk of funds to be raised by way of bonds and debentures. (ET)

Coal India unit Western Coalfields expects to raise output by 10% to 44mn tons in the next fiscal year due to the use of more sophisticated machinery in its mines. (ET)

Economy Snippets
The drug regulator has proposed mandatory patient monitoring cells in pharmaceutical companies due to reduction in time gap between drugs launches in developed markets and India. (BS)

The GSM subscriber base in the country rose 1.24% in January to 703.4mn with the addition of 8.58mn users, industry body COAI said. (BS)

Government's total debt increased by 2.6% to over Rs46tn in the third quarter ended December, compared to the previous three months of the current financial year. (BS)