Call to hike the limit for investment approval from CCEA to Rs 1,500 crore.
Of these, 14 have received environmental clearances and four forestry clearances.
The government on Thursday formally allowed Swedish furniture major IKEA to invest Rs 10,500 crore for setting up single brand retail stores to sell mostly home furnishing items.
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.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs last evening gave OVL, the overseas arm of the state-run explorer, approval to invest its share of $204 million in the oilfield. Over and above these, the two have committed a minimum exploration investment of $165 million and an additional optional exploration expenditure of $235 million.
India-born billionaire Lakshmi N Mittal's proposed Rs 3,365 crore investment in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd's Bhatinda refinery in Punjab will have to wait for government approval as the Cabinet did not take up the issue on May 24.
The government is likely to file draft papers for the mega initial public offering of LIC with market regulator Sebi by next week, while a portion of the issue would be reserved for anchor investors, a top official said on Wednesday.
Infrastructure development has come to a standstill despite all the promises.
With land acquisition completed and infrastructure work streamlined, India's bullet train dreams are slowly, but finally, inching closer to reality.
The department of industrial policy and promotion, nodal agency for FDI policy under the ministry of commerce and industry, seems to have prepared a note for the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs to consider.
The airline intends to raise the money to meet its cash flow requirements and had got the shareholders' approval for the same on July 24.
CCI has also raised the ceiling of 4,000 km of four-laning under the National Highways Development Project phase-IV to 8,000 km on a build, operate and transfer (BOT-toll) mode.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh allowed ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, to invest $167.84 million in taking 8.35 per cent stake in the pipeline.
The government on Friday said it has started implementing liberal FDI rules under which proposals up to Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) foreign equity would be cleared by the Finance Minister without seeking approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
A series of mega projects that have faced bottlenecks and which the Cabinet Committee on Investments has to clear.
How the first FDI in aviation was achieved.
The government is likely to empower ONGC Videsh, the foreign arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, to make investments of up to Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) in oil and gas properties abroad without going to the Cabinet for approval.
The relaxation will apply to those sectors that have composite caps (foreign direct investment or FDI plus FII). "The move will not impact sectors like banking and insurance which are governed by Acts of Parliament. However, sectors with composite caps which see administrative control like telecommunication services, broadcast services like direct-to-home and FM radio will benefit," a Delhi based FDI policy expert told Business Standard.
A key beneficiary of the CCI impetus has been the petroleum sector, where investments worth $13.42 billion for exploration and production activities in 40 oil blocks were held up.
Foreign airlines can now pick up 49 per cent stake in India's domestic carriers, a step that is expected to give a boost to cash-strapped aviation industry.
In its first decision, the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on Wednesday cleared Reliance Industries' producing KG-D6 block and gas discovery area NEC-25 along with 3 other areas where the Defence Ministry had either barred oil and gas activity or put stringent conditions on that.
The Union Cabinet and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved a slew of social sector initiatives, including treating the backlog of reserved vacancies of other backward classes (OBCs) as a distinct group not subject to the limit of 50 per cent reservation in a year.
Besides doubts relating to round tripping of investments through Mauritius, the proposal was earlier rejected on the ground that there were no details about the offshore entity.
While the government expects the new urea policy to bring more investment, the fertiliser industry is less than enthused. New capacities to make urea, industry representatives say, will come up only if adequate fuel and timely payment of subsidy dues is ensured.
Latest official data shows that investment is, in fact, showing signs of a moderate pick-up.
Housing finance leader HDFC's bid to cash in on India's booming real estate got a boost with the government on Thursday allowing a global realty fund sponsored by it to invest up to $720 million (Rs 3,240 crore) in the country.
It is thanks to the policy of liberalisation conceived by Manmohan Singh and enforced by P V Narasimha that the Indian economy has now become the world's 5th largest economy by nominal GDP, asserts Dr Sudhir Bisht.
The government on Thursday gave its nod to a foreign direct investment of $150 million (Rs 675 crore) in Maran family-run Sun TV's ambitious direct to home service project.
The government on Thursday decided to sell 10 per cent shares in Nalco and Neyveli Lignite Corporation.
The proposal was mooted by the department of industrial policy and promotion in the ministry of commerce and industry.
Likely to set the ball rolling for Rs 1.72-lakh-cr projects today
August 15, 2023 became for me, an extraordinary Independence Day. I will remember it as the day the country's largest political party -- one that struts around like a colossus and tutors us in apt behaviour -- suddenly looked bankrupt in terms of ideas and had to take out a personal guarantee from the prime minister to underscore its capacity to deliver our future, observes Shyam G Menon.
The government on Friday approved the acquisition of drug company Ranbaxy Laboratories by Japanese pharma major Daiichi Sankyo envisaging foreign investment of around Rs 21,500 crore (Rs 215 billion).
A brief report card on Modi's ministers.
The new rules for foreign investment issued by the Cabinet committee on economic affairs have two specific problems. Both lie in the new provision that any company which has an Indian majority shareholding and Indian control will be treated as an Indian company.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved ONGC Videsh Ltd's proposal to invest $820 million for acquiring US energy giant ExxonMobil's interests in an oil field located off the Brazilian coast.