Daily News Roundup - July 9 2012

Tata Investment Corporation has written off its over 50-year old equity stake in 26 companies from Pakistan and Sri Lanka. (BL) NTPC has expressed hope of getting three out of its five de-allocated mines from the government this month. (BL) SAIL will open the technical and commercial bids from the prospective mine developer cum operators (MDO) for Tasra coal block on July 10. (BL) Wipro is betting big on emerging geographies like Asia Pacific, Latin America and Africa and expects to see strong growth in the region despite slowdown in the US and Europe. (BL) SBI Cards has decided to make a big foray into corporate cards this year, its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Kadambi Narahari, has said. (BL) Religare Enterprises is all set to buck this trend with its new health insurance business. It has decided to roll out its first health insurance product in a day or two but the full-fledged operations will start in the last quarter of this calendar year. (BL) Coal India plans to take over Indian Oil Corporation’s explosives division and expand its capacity to meet the requirements of the mining giant. (ET) The Union home ministry has decided to provide ‘adequate’ security cover to SAIL for development of its greenfield iron ore mines in Chhattisgarh. (ET) Cairn India will invest another US$6 bn to start pumping more crude in two years and raise output by 71% and account for one-third of India’s production by 2018. (ET) Carrefour is learnt to be rationalizing its expansion plans in India, prompted by a worsening global economy, particularly in Europe. (BS) Confident of India’s robust growth potential despite the short-term economic headwinds, Japan’s Nippon Life said it would put to use all its resources to help its Indian partner Reliance Life become the country’s top life insurance company. (BS) Gitanjali Group is planning to add 25 more large-format, multi-brand franchisee stores in the current calendar year. (BS) Take Solutions Limited, a business technology company focusing on supply chain and life sciences sectors, has launched ‘take 10’, a cloud solution offering, in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard (HP) India Sales Private Limited. (BS) Economy Snippets As many as 32 of the 59 mega power projects being implemented by public sector firms (at a cost of over Rs.10bn each) were running behind schedule as of end-March 2012.(BL) Mining approvals have been put on hold, as the ministry of mines looks for fresh legal opinion from the law ministry in the context of the ongoing 2G case.(ET) The government is likely to relax local sourcing and brand ownership norms as part of a comprehensive review of the FDI policy for single-brand retail to address concerns of foreign companies, even as a senior government official ruled out the possibility of an IKEA-specific package.(ET) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Sunday approval the proposal of the Government of Tamil Nadu to set up a Petroleum Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR).(BS) The Defence Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, said he has no reservations in appointing the Home Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, as the head of empowered group of ministers on spectrum. (BL)