Daily News Roundup - Feb 24 2010

Petroleum Minister said Reliance Industries need not club marketing margin with the gas sale price for the purpose of calculating royalty - a statement that overturns a suggestion by oil regulator, the Director General of Hydrocarbons. (BS)

Infosys expects an increase in its patent filings on the back of new technologies like cloud computing, analytics and emerging information and communication technologies. (BS)

Cairn India's 670km long crude carrier pipeline is nearing completion and will be commissioned next month. (BL)

Maruti Suzuki admitted to recalling 100,000 A-Stars which were manufactured before August 22, 2009 to replace faulty components that could cause fuel leakages. (BS)

HDFC has ruled out any immediate hike in its lending rates given the surplus liquidity in the system and low credit demand. (ET)

The Punjab government has cleared the phase-I of Super Mega Mixed Use Integrated Industrial Park being developed by DLF Home Developers Ltd over an area of 1,250 acres, with an investment of Rs27bn in Mullanpur Local Planning Area. (BS)

Public sector banks and insurance majors step in to salvage the FPO of state-owned Rural Electrification Corporation which closed with the issue being oversubscribed 3x. (BS)

Axis Bank’s private equity arm Axis Private Equity is mulling to separate itself from the parent company in the coming weeks - a move that is part of the group’s overall restructuring plan. (ET)

UK-based GlaxoSmithKline’s plan to buy about 5% stake in Dr Reddy’s Laboratories for US$150-160mn is stuck and unlikely to happen. (ET)

Reliance Media Works which is locked in a takeover battle for multiplex operator Fame with rival Inox, has challenged the sale of majority shares of Fame to Inox citing the existence of an undisclosed "preexisting financial arrangement" between the two. (ET)

Religare Enterprises is acquiring a majority stake in Northgate Capital, an international private equity and venture capital firm. (ET)

Havells India plans to acquire a company in China to secure a strong footprint in the region in the next one year. (ET)

Satyam Computer has filed a fresh lawsuit in a New York court, challenging the tax payment claims made by mobile payment services company Upaid Systems.(BS)

The 11-day-long strike by contractors' workers at SAIL’s Durgapur Steel Plant was called off last night. (BL)

Kalpataru Power plans to raise up to US$125mn through issue of shares to institutional investors. (FE)

Radico Khaitan is looking to ramp up its wine sales by introducing ‘Carlo Rossi’ brand in the Indian market. (ET)

Shree Cement targets to earn Rs4.6bn by selling power next year as it looks to de-risk its income from the cyclical downturn of cement business. (ET)

Tata Communications plans to invest US$200mn in the Tata Global Network Gulf cable system over the next two years. (FE)

Infinite Convergence Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infinite Computer Solutions, said it will further develop and support Motorola's software-enabled short message service and multi-media messaging service solutions. (BL)

Texmaco Ltd, through a scheme of de-merger, will transfer its heavy engineering and steel foundry divisions, with all their assets and liabilities, to Texmaco Machines Ltd, its wholly-owned subsidiary. (BL)

The Tamil Nadu government cleared JK Tyre’s proposal for setting up a new production facility in the state, which would attract around Rs16bn investment. (BS)

The Shipping Corporation of India proposes to hike freight rate on the west-bound trade from India to Europe as part its rate restoration initiative. (BL)

The initial share sale offer of United Bank of India got fully subscribed on the first day of issue on Tuesday. (ET)

Considering a proposal of asking IIFCL to follow the Reserve Bank of India norms for finance companies, the Government may infuse more capital into the company. (BL)

French cement company Lafarge is betting big on its Indian operations in 2010, with volume growth aimed at a high 11% against its average growth expectation for the world of only 5%. (BS)

The Andhra Pradesh government has pre-qualified all the eight bidders for issue of request for proposal and other documents for submission of financial bids for the development of the Rs121bn Hyderabad Metro Rail project. (BS)

The government proposes to come out with standard input and output norms for service tax and excise. (BS)

After NHAI banned companies with three road projects pending for financial closure from bidding any further, the industry has asked the government to relax the definition of financial closure. (BS)

The commerce and industry ministry may withdraw incentives offered to certain export-oriented industries and reallocate these to sectors that are struggling for survival after a review in April. (BS)

The Central Board of Excise and Customs has recommended amending the rules to widen the scope of levying service tax on the entertainment business. (BS)

Foreign currency loans by Indian companies declined 15.3% to US$1.32bn in January 2010 from US$1.56bn a year ago, according to data released by the RBI. (BS)

The tractor industry is hopeful that the zero excise duty levy on tractors will continue. (BL)

Asian Development Bank is to provide, in first tranche, a sum of US$60.3mn to the Union Government for funding Assam Power Sector Enhancement Programme. (BL)

The Government has imposed a moratorium on granting environmental clearances for mining proposals in Goa till such time the State finalizes its mineral policy. (BL)

UP government has revoked the ban imposed on raw sugar imports into the state end last year, thus making available an additional 1mn tons of sugar for the open market. (ET)

The finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the proposed unified GST will not be introduced from April 1 this year as was originally planned. (FE)

National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE), a programme aimed at building a market worth Rs740bn for energy efficient products, may be taken up by the Cabinet in a month's time. (ET)

Gems and jewellery exports surged 61.80% in January to US$2.6bn. (ET)