Indian Oil Corporation, the country's largest petroleum product marketer, has already started selling only premium fuels in nearly 25 of the 50 fuel stations it has in Mumbai, and in almost 10 of 50 outlets in Delhi. Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation are also planning to follow IOC's example.
Jet Airways is all set to spread its wings to Beijing, Milan and Paris within a year. The airline currently flies to London it is the market leader on this route with a robust share of 33 per cent and Brussels, which is also its second hub after Mumbai. Jet will be operating flights to Dubai from New Delhi and Mumbai. Taking on Air India's other strategic market, Goyal also announced the date for the launch of the airline's Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flight.
In a move to focus on its core FMCG strength, the Burman family, promoters of Dabur India, last week announced their exit from the pharma business.
A government committee is looking at going beyond mere economic considerations and recommend an essentiality-linked pricing structure, it is learnt.
A group of ministers (GoM) headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is scheduled to meet on April 30 to finalise its recommendations for a policy that would attempt to balance the interests of the common man and the industry. The GoM is also expected to give recommendations on the regulation of trade margins on all medicines, public procurement of drugs, price negotiation of patented drugs and medical devices, in addition to the legislation of new Acts.
The 31 rigs were operating in India's offshore areas till February this year, making the country the largest offshore rig user in the world after the US, where 56 rigs are operating. Countries such as Brazil and Mexico have now overtaken India.
From zero presence in the Indian power equipment market a couple of years ago, Chinese companies are likely to supply as much as 30 per cent of the equipment required to meet the Eleventh Plan capacity addition target of 78,000 Mw.Chinese companies are also bagging large orders from private power companies in India, despite the perception of "suspect quality".
Multinational firms, which import country-specific packs of medicines from their parent companies.The reason is that the medicines reaching Indian arms of multinational pharma majors now are the consignments for which orders were placed during December 2007, two months before the government cut CVD from 16 per cent to 8 per cent (on February 29). overseas, say they will not be able to cut prices of medicines till June.
The three state-owned oil marketing companies say they expect to report losses in the fourth quarter of the 2007-08 financial year with the government likely to bear 42.7 per cent of their retail losses against the 57 per cent it had promised in February. The three companies, IOC, BPCL and HPCL bear revenue losses because they are forced to sell petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene at subsidised prices.
The mandatory 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol may not happen for the existing 101 million vehicles on the Indian roads without introducing technical changes in them. The central government plans to make 10 per cent blending compulsory from October from the current 5 per cent. Existing vehicles are not capable of running on 10 per cent ethanol-blended petrol as ethanol releases more heat and can corrode vehicle engines, experts say. It will lead to a 3% drop in mileage.
In a move likely to influence future drug price regulation in the country, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has started a process to understand how other countries carry out this function.The authority has already studied the relevant regulatory systems in at least eight major countries. It has also finalised a round-table meeting on April 11 in New Delhi to sensitise stakeholders on the need to have an international outlook.
The retail losses that the country's oil marketing companies incur on sale of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene at subsidised prices have risen by 7.3 per cent to around Rs 440 crore (Rs 4.4 billion) per day in the fortnight ended March 31.IOC lost Rs 17 for every litre of petrol it sold, up from Rs 14.65 a litre on March 15. It lost Rs 316 per 14.2-kg cylinder, compared with Rs 303.65 per cylinder in the previous fortnight.
Novartis India is up in arms against a two-month old decision of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to reduce the price of its flagship brand Voveran on public interest grounds. The annual sales of Voveran, the brand name for pain reliever medicine diclofenac, exceed Rs 100 crore and account for one-fourth of the company's total sales turnover. The company has filed a review petition with the chemicals and fertilisers ministry against the authority's decision.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the nodal department that handles intellectual property rights (IPR) related matters under the commerce ministry, is launching an ambitious Rs 300-crore (Rs 3 billion) project to sensitise all stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, scientists, companies, ministries and the general public on IPR issues.
Sixth Pay Commission has urged the government that all Indian Telecom Service (Group A) officers be absorbed in the public sector telecom service providers, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd & Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd, or sent to the surplus pool. It has also suggested winding up of the Telecom Commission saying BSNL and MTNL now provide extensive services along with several private sector operators. The report states there is no need to retain the 2400 cadre strong-ITS (Group A).
The over 1.6 million employees of central public sector companies are demanding a salary increase of over 100 per cent, saying the average 40 per cent raise recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission for government employees is not enough. Salaries of public sector workers were last revised in 1997 and were scheduled for the next revision on January 1, 2007. The average gross monthly salary an ONGC executive earns today is between Rs 40,000 and Rs 50,000.
In a step towards dual pricing of domestic cooking gas, the government has decided to allow oil-marketing companies to sell the fuel at market prices in distinct fibreglass cylinders. IOC, BPCL and HPCL will sell these cylinders in Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune, which have been identified as test beds for the pilot project. The companies could revise fuel prices for transparent cylinders as LPG for them will not be subsidised. Feasibility of this project is yet to be adjudged.
Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd (Mahyco), the seed partner of multinational agro-biotech major Monsanto Corporation, has moved the Delhi High Court against a Central Information Commission order seeking details of the safety test data generated during clinical trials of its genetically modified (GM) brinjal, the first GM edible crop to be introduced in India.
358 of 413 drug patent applications for the disease in India are from top multinationals. An analysis of pharma patent applications pending with the patent office by the group, which did not wish to be identified, has put the number of cancer drug patent applications at 413. Of these, 358 came from top multinationals like Novartis, Aventis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Boehringer, Roche and Abbot.
Labayendu Mansingh, Chairman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, is an amicable yet tough man. In his 5 months as the petroleum & natural gas regulator, Mansingh announced to the oil & gas industry his intention of proving that the regulatory board is more than a toothless tiger. The board will come out with its first set of regulations, which will lay down rules for the distribution of gas to households, vehicles & industries in cities by middle of this month.
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