The race for control of Kuwait-headquartered Zain Telecom has quickened with the Indian consortium led by Delhi-based Vavasi group saying it is willing to give a majority stake in the consortium to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd or Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, depending on which company gets government approval to go ahead with the deal.
Essar group, which is buying out the Uganda and Congo assets of Warid Telecom -- a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Group and Singtel and is present in Kenya, has also reportedly been sounded out by Zain shareholders. A company spokesperson, however, declined to comment on the issue.
Meeting will confine discussion to processes involved in building consensus among members.
The delay in the monsoon arrival had caused water storage to touch a historic low of 9 per cent in June (see table), as per data from the Central Water Commission. The latest data of Central Electricity Authority shows daily power availability in the country was 0.7 per cent ahead of demand on August 12 from an 8-10 per cent deficit last month.
India will commission its first 500-Mw fast breeder reactor (FBR) for generating commercial nuclear energy by the end of next year. The reactor, when commissioned, will mark the country's entry into the second phase of its three-stage nuclear energy programme.
In a written reply to a question asked in Parliament earlier this week, minister of state for power Bharatsinh Solanki admitted that the coal stock position at some of NTPC's power stations had depleted. NTPC Ltd, the country's largest power generator, however, denies any shortage of dry fuel.
Two traders - Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and GMR Energy Ltd - have already surrendered their licences.
The Union government's six-year initiative to unbundle state electricity boards into separate entities for power generation, transmission, distribution and trading businesses is set to be delayed further, with seven states still to do so, even as the Centre's latest time-limit expired on June 30. After 6 years of pushing, just 14 states have turned these into separate units.
With deficient monsoon reducing hydropower generation in the country by around 40 per cent, the power ministry has started stressing more on power from coal and natural gas.
the terminal will not be used to run the Dabhol power plant and would be supplied entirely to other domestic companies
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to decide on a Planning Commission proposal to allocate a portion of power generated from Centrally-owned utilities for open access to large consumers.
The company has four lenders -- State Bank of India, IDBI, ICICI and Canara Bank. According to the Reserve Bank of India norms, these loans would be declared as NPAs if the project is not financially restructured by March 31, 2009. The restructuring exercise includes a 50 per cent hike in the tariff for sale of power from the project, to be allowed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. The project is expected to become viable after this.
The Maharashtra government has offered some respite for the troubled Dabhol Power Project by agreeing to provide a guarantee for a Rs 300 crore
Planning Commission to ask Prime Minister's Office to intervene.
This supply is likely to start in the next few weeks. A proposal to hive off the terminal was turned down by the government last year after it was opposed by NTPC Ltd and Gail, which hold 28 per cent each in the project. The terminal has an LNG regassification capacity of five million tonnes per annum. It will, however, be fully operational only after the completion of the breakwater facilities in 2011.
The government may revive a proposal limiting the number of Ultra Mega Power Projects awarded per developer.
The Tilaiya project is a part of the government's showcase UMPP scheme under which a power generation capacity of around 50,000 Mw is planned to be created through 13 of such mega projects, which will come up mostly in the Twelfth Plan period.
Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Power is likely to announce the financial closure of its 3,960-Mw Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP) in a few weeks.
Amid concerns expressed by short-listed bidders over the ongoing financial crisis, the bids for the 4,000-Mw Tilaiya Ultra Mega Power Project in Jharkhand will be opened on December 29. "The bidding will take place as announced," said Power Secretary Anil Razdan.
Fresh addition of power capacity in the first half of the 2008-09 financial year has fallen short of target by nearly two-thirds because of delays in supply of critical components for thermal projects and non-availability of fuel for a nuclear project.
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