Vedanta Resources, the UK-listed mining group, is planning to invest $20bn in India in the next four years to expand its metals, mining and electricity generation operations in the country.
Gazprom, Russia's gas monopoly, on Tuesday predicted oil prices would reach $250 a barrel in 2009. The prediction came as the developed world's energy watchdog warned that record high oil prices were needed to choke off demand in order to balance the oil market.
Standard Chartered, the UK-based emerging markets bank, and ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company, are considering listing in India using a domestic depositary receipt programme. The proposed listings are still at an exploratory stage.
People who know Mr Ambani, estimated by Forbes as the world's sixth richest man with a net worth of about $42bn, say the deal is typical of his aggressive style.
A possible merger of Reliance Communications of India and South Africa's MTN could see Anil Ambani become the enlarged group's chairman and biggest shareholder with a stake of almost 35 per cent.
Like Bharti, India 's largest mobile operator, Reliance has global aspirations. After losing last year's keenly-contested $11bn takeover of Hutchison Essar, India 's fourth-largest mobile operator, to Vodafone of the UK, Reliance needs to raise its game or risk becoming an also-ran.
India 's government has obviously never heard the maxim: "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today". The government routinely defers decisions by commissioning studies of thorny issues in the hope they will have blown over by the time a report is filed a year later.
Billionaire Sunil Mittal, arguably India 's most successful telecom entrepreneur, may be on the verge of starting another revolution in the country's corporate world. Mr Mittal, who has built his mobile operator Bharti Airtel from a bit player into a $40bn company in less than a decade, is now pondering a deal that could leave him holding a much smaller share in the group but turn it into a global player.
India 's threat to impose a blanket ban on agricultural commodities futures trading would not ease food prices, analysts, traders and food executives warned, describing the measure as political posturing.
But this week, after years of navigating red tape, the 202-room Four Seasons Mumbai became the first luxury hotel of its size to launch in the city's south in about 20 years.
The Hinduja family is planning investments of about $50 billion (Rs 2 lakh crore) in the next five years in India and abroad, led by a foray into oil and gas in Iran. The closely held group, run by four billionaire brothers, is also planning large investments in real estate, automotives, power and infrastructure, mostly in India, Europe and West Asia.
In the past few months, shell-shocked air travellers emerging from Mumbai's domestic terminal 1B could have been forgiven for thinking they had somehow landed in Singapore. The revitalised terminal was the first sign that the airport's new regime, led by GV Sanjay Reddy, the managing director of the Mumbai International Airport, was beginning to have an impact.
When the private consortium in charge of building and operating Bangalore's airport inquired last year about what was happening with the state government's road construction projects, it got some mixed news.
India 's airline sector is expected to report losses of $1bn for the year ended last month - double that of a year earlier, according to the head of one of the country's biggest airlines. Naresh Goyal, founder and chairman of Jet Airways, said he expected high costs and fierce price wars to prompt more consolidation in the industry and Jet was ready to seize the opportunity to acquire rivals in India and overseas.
Engaging India is an online column analysing the issues, trends and forces behind the business and politics shaping India and its impact on the world. Engaging India appears on Thursday mornings exclusively on FT.com India, a dedicated online section on India, and is written by Jo Johnson, the Financial Times' South Asia bureau chief; Amy Yee, New Delhi correspondent; and Joe Leahy, Mumbai correspondent.
The Bombay Stock Exchange could list on its own market this year either through an initial public offering or a direct listing, Rajnikant Patel, the group's chief executive, said. The move, part of efforts to reform India's second largest equities market after its demutualisation in 2005, comes as it seeks to raise its international profile.
India is expected to ask domestic iron ore producers to lower prices on Tuesday as part of a range of emergency measures aimed at stemming an alarming jump in inflation. The government is already considering reducing import duties and scrapping some export incentives for steel producers in response to rising inflation, which hit a 13-month high of 6.68 per cent in the week ending March 15.
One thing that has never been a hard sell in Mumbai over the past few years is property. But last week, for the first time in 13 years, Mumbai's metropolitan authorities failed to sell government land in an auction in India's financial capital.
Staff at India's second largest winemaker are preparing for their 10th annual harvest party in mid-March at a new amphitheatre in the vineyard, which lies in the some of the richest agricultural lands of the western state of Maharashtra.
Rice prices surged to a fresh 34-year high on Tuesday as the Philippines awarded a tender for the staple at an average price of $708 a tonne, up almost 50 per cent from the price it paid in late January. The sharp rise reflects a market suffering from tightening supply after key producers India and Vietnam this month both imposed further restrictions on rice exports. Supplies from Thailand are also low, traders said.
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