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.
They are of the view that calling the new institutes "IITs" would dilute the brand image of the existing premier institutes, which figure among the world's 100 best technology universities and are compared with the likes of MIT, California University and Berkeley. The seven IITs are located in Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati and Roorkee.
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.
The government appears to have hit upon a novel faculty-sharing solution to tackle the shortage of quality faculty at the premier Indian Institutes of Technology. The shortage will accentuate now that eight new IITs have been announced.
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.
In December 2009, the Consulate will change its address from the landmark Lincoln House in south Mumbai to the Bandra-Kurla Complex, where it will have 40 visa windows as compared with the 17 visa windows at present.
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.
The move was initiated by National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda as an incentive to encourage innovation, collaboration, licensing and commercialisation in Indian institutes. The matter is before the Cabinet and will shortly be moved to Parliament for approval, according to a source close to the development. The law will be on the lines of the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act of America.
At IIM-Ahmedabad, 11 students opted out of placements to start their own venture. While at IIM-Bangalore, 4 students chose not to join the corporate world, IIM-Kozhikode had 5 students who decided to kick-start their own venture. At S P Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai, out of 89 students, one student decided to opt out of placements to join his own family business where he would be heading a new division.
The finance ministry, in the explanatory memorandum to the Finance Bill 2008-09, proposes to withdraw the tax holiday which has been a window the petroleum ministry has been using to market the oil and gas exploration blocks under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (Nelp) since 1999. The commitment to give a 7-year tax holiday to companies producing gas from Nelp blocks was finalised by the Union Cabinet after consultation with the finance ministry.
The positive impact of the February 14 hike in petrol and diesal prices on oil marketing companies has been negated in just a fortnight with daily retail losses of these companies going back to over Rs 410 crore (Rs 4.1 billion) for the fortnight ended February 29. This is due to the steep rise in global crude prices in recent days. The retail prices were hiked by Rs 2 per litre for petrol and Re 1per litre for diesel.
The premier southern institute is said to have got about 100 international and 600 domestic offers for its batch of 425 students. ISB rules mandate that each student will get at least two offers.
LPG demand this fiscal is expected to be around 11 million tonne, against around 10.2 million tonne last year. It is the subsidised price of LPG, which is available at around Rs 21 per kg for domestic use. LPG for industries, which is outside price control, is sold at around Rs 58 per kg, up from around Rs 36 per kg last year.
Information technology firms appear to have lost their appeal at the Indian Institutes of Technology. Campus recruitment figures by major Indian and foreign IT firms have dipped this year, raising further concerns of an industry slowdown.
With the government planning to start 20 per cent blending of bio-diesel with diesel, Indian oil companies are fast firming up their bio-diesel ventures.
The revamping will start with its assets in Assam. The company will soon float tenders worth Rs 2,500 crore, a senior company executive said. ONGC has three fields in Assam - Rudrasagar, Lakwa and Geleki. The Rudrasagar field is almost 40 years old.
Petroleum Ministry is considering cutting down the number of independent directors on board in an oil PSU to 33%.
Iran's proposal to transform the $7.4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project to an Iran-Pakistan-China (IPC) project is nothing more than an "empty threat", according to Indian officials, who say the move is fraught with technical and financial challenges.
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