The Department of Telecom gearing up for the 3G spectrum auction as per schedule on January 30 and has left it to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to take a call on the reserve price for a pan-India 3G licence.
Spectrum qualifies for the infrastructure criteria, say ministry officials.
The government on Thursday cleared the long-awaited sale of the UTI Asset Management Company to three state-owned banks and the LIC at a price of Rs 1,237 crore.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Saturday cleared ONGC Videsh Ltd's proposal to acquire stake in two oil blocks in Sudan.
"It has been decided to sell 8 per cent equity in Maruti," Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Santosh Mohan Deb told reporters after the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Friday.
The Centre will invest around Rs 200 crore over five years for the exploration and development of these mines.
In a bid to promote industry and tourism in North Eastern states, the government will provide Rs 175 crore (Rs 1.75 billion) to Indian Airlines arm Alliance.
State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd will commission the Rs 6,354 crore (Rs 63.54 billion) Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh in two years' time.\n\n\n\n
The finance ministry is believed to have objected to some provisions of the policy.
The government has approved a hike in natural gas prices by 12 per cent to Rs 3,200 per thousand standard cubic meters from Rs 2,850 for power and fertiliser units.
The government on Thursday fixed the Minimum Support Price for rabi crops, raising the MSP for pulses and oilseeds up to Rs 30 per quintal and leaving that for wheat unchanged at Rs 620 a quintal.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved ONGC Videsh Ltd's proposal to invest an additional $1.1 billion in Sakhalin-I project in Russia.
The government on Wednesday rolled back its decision to hike LPG price by Rs 5 every month.
The cabinet committee on economic affairs will meet this evening to decide on the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene, petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said.
In a move to protect the interests of national oil companies against the fluctuations in global crude prices, the government on Monday decided to grant these PSUs limited freedom to fix petrol and diesel prices.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, will acquire 11 per cent stake in a 744 million barrel oil field in Sudan for $125.4 million.
The Union Cabinet has cleared disinvestment of the country's largest insurer LIC and a panel headed by the finance minister will now decide on the quantum of stake dilution, a senior official said on Monday. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) had in January appointed actuarial firm Milliman Advisors LLP India to assess the embedded value of LIC ahead of the IPO (initial public offering), which is touted to be the biggest public issue in Indian corporate history. The Budget amendments to the LIC Act has been notified and the actuarial firm is expected to finalise the embedded value of the life insurer. Under the embedded value method, the insurance company's present value of future profit is also included in its present net asset value.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the government is working out a new Bill on cryptocurrency which will be placed in the ongoing session of Parliament after approval of the Union Cabinet. The ongoing winter session is scheduled to end on December 23. Replying to a series of questions in the Rajya Sabha, she said the new Bill takes into account the rapidly changing dimensions in virtual currency space, and incorporate features of the earlier Bill that could not be taken up.
The government cleared the proposal despite opposition from the petroleum ministry, which says this is not the right time for divestment as the sector is moving from trade parity to export parity pricing.
The capital cost of the entire project, including a 5.6-km-long bridge, other minor bridges, underpasses and a rail overbridge, was estimated at over Rs 2,900 crore. The decision to cancel the project came in the backdrop of the killing of 20 Indian soldiers in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on June 15.
With Congress party vice president Rahul Gandhi making a strong pitch for raising LPG cap, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily on Friday said the quota of subsidised cooking cylinders will be hiked to 12 from 9 per household.
The government will launch the mega public offer of LIC by March and file draft papers with market regulator Sebi by the end of this month, an official said. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had last week reviewed the progress of the initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in a meeting with top officials of the ministry. The official said the September 2021 quarter financials of LIC are getting finalised as well as fund bifurcation is in progress.
The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has named Ravneet Kaur, a Punjab cadre IAS officer of 1988 batch, as chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kaur will hold the post for five years or until attaining the age of 65. She is the second woman to serve in an 'economic regulator' role after Madhabi Puri Buch, who was appointed chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India last year and the first woman to head the country's chief national competition regulator.
At the same time, the Cabinet approved reducing government's stake in select PSUs such as IOC to below 51 per cent while continuing to retain management control.
The agreement between the two has a long stop date clause, stipulating that all approvals be secured by then.
MCA is a legal contract, which prescribes the terms and conditions for executing a road project.
FIPB has deferred 18 proposals.
After attacking the Jet-Etihad deal, Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday trained his guns on the Air Asia proposal to set up an Indian carrier, saying the FIPB clearance to it was "not legally valid".
The move is part of a larger initiative by the government to speed up work in the highway sector.
The Department of Telecom, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs and the Department of Economic Affairs had to give their comments on the proposal, sources said.
The government has shortlisted Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas for giving legal advice on upcoming mega IPO of India's largest insurance company LIC, an official said. Four law firms - Crawford Bayley, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Link Legal and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co - had made presentations before the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on September 24. Following presentations, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has been selected as legal advisor for the initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the official told PTI.
The Home Ministry has conveyed to the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) that it has not given security clearance to the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways' proposal to buy a 24 per cent stake in Jet Airways.
On Tuesday, Modi will share his views with India Inc on 'Getting growth back'.
The approvals would be handled independently by administrative ministries of different sectors.
The government has appointed 10 merchant bankers including Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, Citigroup Global Markets India, and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities India to manage the mega initial public offering of country's largest insurer LIC. Other selected bankers include SBI Capital Market, JM Financial, Axis Capital, BofA Securities, JP Morgan India, ICICI Securities, and Kotak Mahindra Capital Co Ltd, a circular on the divestment department website said. "Government has finalised the book running lead managers and some other advisors for the IPO of LIC," DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted. The divestment department had invited applications for the appointment of merchant bankers on July 15.
To proceed with a Cabinet proposal to grant the relaxations to RIL, the Election Commission's approval will be sought.
The sources said the matter should have been referred to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs as foreign investments above Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) can only be cleared by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by the Prime Minister.
He was last month appointed as Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs in place of his batchmate Arvind Mayaram, who was first shifted to Tourism and then to Minority Affairs Ministry.
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