As companies find themselves in the midst of an unprecedented meltdown, the role and expectations from CEOs are changing, according to Spencer Stuart, one of the largest global recruitment agencies for senior directors and CEOs. It has made these findings from recruitments undertaken in India across sectors like financial services, telecommunications and FMCG, amongst others.
The 'golden share', which will be owned by the government, will ensure that it has a say in all major decisions taken by the private concessionaire. It will also obviate the need for the government to invest in the equity of the company. The proposal has been mooted by the Planning Commission in the new model concession agreement that it has developed for the infrastructure sector. The agreement has been circulated among various stakeholders for consultation.
It has rejected a proposal by Subash Chandra-promoted Wire and Wireless India, which has sought permission to issue partly paid-up equity shares, pursuant to its rights issue. WWIL is in the cable network business. The shares were to be issued to non-residents, which also included FIIs, venture capital funds, multilateral and bilateral development financial institutions, and eligible NRIs for cash aggregating up to Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion).
The dispute involves a UK-based hedge fund, Altima Partners, and the company's principal promoter Raghav Bahl, founder and largest shareholder of Network18, the broadcasting group which runs TV channels such as CNBC-TV18, Colors and Awaaz.
Auctions for spectrum for 3G or third-generation telecom services could be delayed from an already rescheduled date of January 30 after the Department of Telecommunications sought legal opinion on whether it should send the finance ministry's suggestion on doubling the reserve price back to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for its endorsement.
Will scrap bid if it falls below government's revenue expectations.
The economic slowdown has taken off the road nearly a quarter of the total trucks in the country. In fact, the number is as high as 80 per cent in the mining belts of Karnataka, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.
Inadequate funding and non-viability of some projects have forced several leading infrastructure development firms to stay out of bidding for over 13 highway projects worth over Rs 12,500 crore (Rs 125 billion).
Bajaj family members are in the final stages of reaching a peace formula to their six-year-old dispute over the division of group companies and assets. Sources familiar with the developments said an announcement can be expected in the next 10 days, but did not want to divulge details.
Nearly three years after RITES, the consultancy arm of Indian Railways, prepared a preliminary project alignment design for the proposed dedicated freight corridor project, the railways are demanding 42 per cent more land for the project than what was previously envisaged.
Korean car maker Hyundai Motors India Ltd said it will have to lay off 2,000 temporary workers, about one-fourth of its labour force, to tide over a decline in car sales. The company employs over 8,400 workers, of which around 3,300 are temporary.
This is the second project in the country in which a metro rail project is being undertaken through a PPP model after the 71-kilometre Hyderabad metro project was won by Maytas Infrastructure. According to industry sources, infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro had also initially shown interest for the project, but backed out finally.
Highway users will have to shell out more toll for using the roads that are constructed under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.
This is the first time Hill & Knowlton, part of the WPP group that has several joint ventures in advertising, is venturing into India in this area. The Hong Kong-based company has presence in more than 41 countries across the globe. The PR business has been attracting the attention of international agencies and many have already set up JVs or signed partnerships with Indian players.
More than half the transactions under four of eight categories tracked under a scheme to reduce tax evasion lack a "valid" identification number issued by the Income-tax (I-T) Department.
Only 13 infrastructure companies attended the pre-bid conference at Rail Bhawan, compared with over 25 companies that had earlier submitted RFQs to the railways. Out of those 25, the railways had prepared a list of 13 companies which were technically qualified for the project. However, the RFQ was cancelled and a new set of documents was prepared.
The government aims to make highway projects more attractive to the private sector by raising the approved or sanctioned cost of all projects to be implemented under the private-public partnership mode by 15 per cent.
Over 50 per cent of the fishing vessels operating near the major ports on the country's western coast are unregistered, posing a threat to India's maritime security.
The government's ambitious highway projects under the public-private partnership mode are in serious trouble. Construction companies have either not put in bids or have withdrawn from 20 such projects, which fall under the build, operate and transfer scheme.
Days after NTT DoCoMo of Japan announced that it will buy 26 per cent in Tata Teleservices for $2.7 billion, NRI businessman C Sivasankaran has decided to put on the block his eight per cent stake in the company.