Eighteen candidates from state-owned companies have applied for the post of chairman and managing director of the country's largest gas marketer, GAIL India, nine months before the incumbent retires.
After nearly two years, the state-owned oil companies have started making profits on petrol sales, but not diesel or cooking fuel, with the Indian basket of crude oil falling below $60 a barrel on Friday, the last date for which data is available.
The board of GAIL India, the country's largest transporter and marketer of natural gas, on Wednesday approved a proposal to pick up to 19 per cent stake in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) petrochemical project in Gujarat.
As crude oil prices rose sharply, private companies like Essar Oil and Reliance Industries closed their retail outlets as they found it difficult to compete with state-owned oil companies, which were selling fuel below the production cost with support from the government. While Essar Oil has drawn up plans to re-open its retail outlets, Reliance Industries has decided not to go ahead with the retail plan
With international crude oil prices dipping to last year's levels, the government has put the issue of cutting motor and cooking fuel prices back on the agenda to tame inflation, two senior oil ministry officials have said.
Cairn India, which found India's largest oil field in Rajasthan in over 30 years, has discovered a saline water reservoir near its oil field that will help pump crude oil to the ground level and enhance production.
OVL, along with global oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, British Petroleum, Total and China National Petroleum Corporation, is one of the 35 companies short-listed by the Iraqi government for the auction, which includes six oil-producing blocks with recoverable reserves of 40 billion barrels of oil, making it the largest such auction in the world.
The rupee, which fell 8.88 per cent since the beginning of September to an all-time low of less than 49 per dollar last week, has negated much of the impact of an over 45 per cent dip in crude oil prices since early July. As the value of the rupee falls, the companies have to pay more for crude oil in rupee terms, resulting in increased under-realisation on the fuels that they sell.
The US Congressional committee, which is inquiring into the country's Food and Drug Administration's handling of drug-marketing approvals of India's leading drug-maker Ranbaxy, has extended its probe into similar permissions given to Iceland's Actavis.
Funds dry up owing to liquidity crunch, high debt.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of India's largest oil producer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, is holding talks with the Iranian government for exploring an oil block in the northern part of the country. Chinese company Sinopec is also believed to be in the race for the block. This could not be independently confirmed. The block is near the Caspian Sea.
Fears of an economic slowdown in the US, and a consequent spread of the crisis to Europe and other parts of the world, resulted in oil prices falling over 12 per cent since Monday, the largest weekly fall since early 2004.
India has missed yet another meeting on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline last weekend as officials from Iran and Pakistan met in Teheran to discuss the revised project cost and a new pricing formula.
In a move aimed at encouraging the growth of innovation-driven industries, the Ministry of Science and Technology has proposed to set up special innovation zones that will offer a host of fiscal incentives for research and development companies in India.
The World Health Organization has given five more months to the Drugs Controller General of India to upgrade its performance to international standards. The extension of the current deadline of October-end came after a visiting WHO team found the modernisation programmes of the Indian drug regulator on track.
RIL expects oil and gas sales from the Krishna-Godavari basin to boost its revenues and profits significantly. The company started test production of oil from the basin around 10 days ago. The cost of production per barrel of oil is not known. RIL's share price on the Bombay Stock Exchange has fallen 9.3 per cent in the last month as world markets have tumbled on fears of an economic crisis.
Sun generates 41 per cent of its annual revenues from the US market, a record of sorts among Indian drug firms. The company is bullish on its US prospects and expects 25 per cent growth in the country this year, higher than the 18-20 per cent growth projection it has given for other markets including India. The US is the world's largest market for medicines and accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the $780 billion global medicine sales.
The first petition alleges that Cipla Ltd, India's second largest pharmaceutical company, violated Roche's patent by launching a generic version of Valcyte. The second petition says Cipla violated the Swiss drug maker's trademark by launching the product in a phonetically similar name, 'Valcept'.
The group's testing lab chain SRL Ranbaxy has been renamed as Religare Super Laboratories. RanAir, its charter aviation company will be known as Religare Voyages. About 15 group companies, including joint ventures like Religare Macquarie Private Wealth, Religare Aegon and Vistaar Religare have come under the umbrella brand Religare.
Companies like Shanta Biotech, Panacea Biotec and Serum Institute of India are among the leading vaccine makers which have not been able to file any fresh application to the WHO due to this temporary de-recognition of the country's drug regulatory system. The WHO pre-qualification is essential for companies to supply vaccines to national immunisation programmes funded by the WHO or UNICEF outside the country.
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