Daily News Roundup - Dec 16 2011

Arvind Ltd has announced the formation of a JV with the PD Fiber Glass Group for the manufacture of glass fabrics in India with an investment of Rs800mn over the next 5 years. (BL)

Adani Power Ltd is set to bring on stream the entire 4,620-MW proposed thermal power capacity at Mundra by February. (BL)

Mahindra & Mahindra has announced a price rise of up to 3% across its passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle and tractor range, effective from next month. (BL)

Tata Motors’ global wholesales, including the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) brand, rose 35% to 1.08 lakh units in November 2011. (BL)



JSW Steel Ltd proposes to reduce its capital expenditure by over half for the current fiscal and go slow with its capacity expansion. (BL)

Ashok Leyland John Deere Construction Equipment Company Pvt Ltd and Corporation Bank have entered into an agreement that provides for the bank to fund the company's customers. (BL)

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd signed an MoU to set up a JV for manufacturing transmission-line towers and tower parts. (BL)

SBI started operations in Saudi Arabia with the opening of a branch in Jeddah. (BL)

Reliance Capital is in talks with Ronnie Screwvala to scale up its stake in UTV News Ltd much beyond the 18 per cent it holds at present. (BS)

Mahindra & Mahindra’s US emission certificate set to expire in December. (BS)

Kingfisher Airlines has decided to cut down the frequency of flights to Shimla and Kullu Manali in Himachal Pradesh by half. (BS)

Prashant Bhushan moved an application alleging that CBI has booked the steel-to-BPO group Essar and its front company Loop under lighter sections. (FE)

S Jaipal Reddy said natural gas output from Reliance Industries-operated D1 and D3 fields in the KG basin has declined as the company drilled only 22 wells out of the 31 to be drilled by March 2012. (FE)

Indiabulls Real Estate approved buyback of its shares through open market at a price not exceeding Rs75 a share. (ET)

Indian Oil Corp has cut prices of aviation turbine fuel by Rs920 per kilolitre effective December 16.(ET)
Economy Snippets

The Reserve Bank of India announced a slew of measures to support the rupee and curb build up of speculative positions in the foreign exchange market. (BL)

Food inflation eases sharply to 4.35% on base effect, cheaper vegetables. (BL)

In the first 11 months of 2011, Iron Ore export volumes totalled an estimated 80 million tones, a year-on-year fall of as much as 22 million tones. (BL)

The Reserve Bank of India is likely to announce a calendar for the buyback of Government securities of up to Rs500bn through Open Market Operations in the mid-quarter review of the monetary policy on Friday. (BL)

On the back of third installment of advance tax payment due on December 15, net direct tax collection till December 14 in the financial year showing a growth of 9.93% stood at Rs2528.50bn as against Rs2300bn realised during April-December 14 last year.(BS)

New norms to hold pharma MDs, CEOs responsible for offering freebies to docs (FE)