Essar Telecom Retail said on Tuesday it will invest $250 million in two to three years to set up 2,500 stores in a bid to take its revenue beyond $1 billion.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat, praised Essar Americas for saving an iron-ore mine in her state.
Three bidders, including the Essar group, vying for the government stake in the Shipping Corporation of India have inked the confidential information memorandum, even as uncertainty remained over the fate of the sole international bidder.
Equinox plans to launch 1.4 million sq ft residential project in Bengaluru in the last quarter of calender year 2011 and a one-million housing project in Thane near Mumbai in the next one year.
Essar Steel said on Monday it has joined hands with two state-run Vietnamese companies for setting up a two million tonne steel plant in southern Vietnam at a cost of $527 million (about Rs 23.71 billion).
This decision will come as a relief to Essar's multi-product port-based SEZ project in Hazira as well as of Adani Group's zone in Mundra, which the revenue department felt was not built on vacant land when it was notified, and hence it had violated the law. Both the zones are in Gujarat.
Delhi High Court issued notices on Monday to the Centre, Hutchison Telecom India Ltd, Hutch-Essar and its minority shareholders among others on a petition alleging breach of foreign direct investment norms in telecom sector.
The government is planning to probe into diesel imports by private firms that had been given a license to retail the imported fuel but are selling it to industrial and bulk consumers.
The court issued notices to the Law Ministry and the DoT, rejecting their contentions that the same cannot be issued against them as they were not the parties to the case.
The Vadinar refinery in Gujarat currently operates at a capacity of 7.5 million tonnes and it is expected to reach its full capacity of 10.5 million tonnes by October.
The Delhi high court directed the Centre and Foreign Investment Promotion Board on Friday to complete within two months, an inquiry into Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecom allegedly holding more than the permissible 74 per cent stake in Hutch-Essar.
Essar Telecom Retail Ltd will be introducing a pan-Indian network of retail telecom outlets called TheMobileStore, which will offer state-of-the-art technology in telecom solutions besides several value-added services.
Essar Oil, which was building a 9-million tonne per annum crude oil refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat, was supposed to complete it by April 2003, so that it would be qualified to get the benefits of the sales tax incentives.
The Ruias of the Essar Group will now be getting around $750 million (about Rs 3,493 crore) more from their telecom joint venture partner, Vodafone Group, over and above the fair market price if they exercise the "put" option for their 33.02 per cent stake.
In the late 1990s, the Gujarat government had issued a policy allowing deferment of sales tax/VAT up to a certain amount, with the benefit capped for a period not exceeding 17 years. Projects with investment over Rs 1,000 crore could be eligible for the tax benefit. A deferment benefit on sale tax means a dealer is allowed to postpone the payment of tax on purchase of raw materials sales of products for a fixed period or/and up to a specific monetary limit.
On June 30, mining and metals giant Vedanta, announced that it had decided to initiate a strategic review of its steel and steel-making raw material businesses. The review would begin immediately and evaluate a broad range of options, including but not limited to a potential strategic sale of some or all of the steel businesses, the company said in its stock exchange filing. The signs have been there - approaches had been made to steel players over the past year. Last December, Anil Agarwal, chairman Vedanta group, told Business Standard that the steel plant capacity was about 3 million tonnes (mt).
Indian steel manufacturer Essar will invest $1.2 billion in a steel plant to be commissioned by the end of next year in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Anil Ambani group's Reliance Infrastructure and Hyderabad-based Lanco Infratech have so far purchased the Request for Qualification applications for taking up the Rs 12,132-crore (Rs 121.32 billion) Hyderabad Metro Rail project.
The state government has cleared the proposal and the plant is to be set up at Bagalkot, industry sources said, adding that project details were being worked out. Initially, the plant would have a 3 mtpa capacity which would be doubled to 6 mtpa in the second phase. The proposal is to set up a pellet plant, a coke oven plant and a battery in the first phase. Essar has asked the state government to lease an iron ore mine for uninterrupted supply of the raw material.
The Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International would record a profit of around HK$70 billion, once the sale of 67 per cent stake in Hutch-Essar is completed.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) began making submissions on Monday on its appeal before the Delhi high court challenging the acquittal of accused persons, including former telecom minister A Raja, and firms in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case in December 2017.
The CBI contended before the Delhi high court on Tuesday that there were glaring illegalities in the trial court judgment that acquitted former telecom minister A Raja and others in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma said the parties shall file brief written submissions not exceeding five pages.
A special court at Dantewada in Chhattisgarh has acquitted tribal activist Soni Sori and three others in a case lodged against them in 2011 for alleged transfer of 'protection money' to Naxals.
If there were an Olympics for bank frauds in India, Rishi Agarwal, founder and former chairman of ABG Shipyard Ltd, a nephew of the Ruia brothers of the Essar group, would bag the gold, pushing Nirav Modi to his right, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Aided by the $57.8-billion merger of HDFC Bank and HDFC, India Inc reported its highest ever mergers and acquisitions in calendar 2022 at $171 billion as against deals worth $145 billion announced last year. The acquisition by the Adani group across cement, media and ports dominated the headlines with the conglomerate making its foray into the cement sector by buying Swiss materials firm Holcim's stake in Ambuja Cements for $6.5 billion. The Adani family's additional $4-billion open offer for Ambuja did not get a response because shareholders preferred to stay invested with the new owner.
The government should scrap the windfall profit tax on domestically produced crude oil as the levy is adversely impacting the capex-intensive exploration of oil and gas, the industry said in its recommendation for the forthcoming annual Budget. India first imposed windfall profit taxes on July 1, joining a growing number of nations that tax super normal profits of energy companies. At that time, a Rs 23,250 per tonne ($40 per barrel) windfall profit tax on domestic crude production was levied.
In 2017, a consortium led by Russian state oil company Rosneft agreed to buy Essar Oil for $12.9 billion in India's biggest foreign acquisition of a homegrown company. Rosneft's buyout of Essar's assets was meant to herald a wave of energy investments in India - over six decades after Esso, Caltex and Shell invested in India's refining sector in the 1950s. But the government has tripped up in its efforts to sell Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), formerly Burmah Shell, a blue chip public sector company. Bidders include a couple of global funds and resources firm Vedanta.
June was a memorable month for the 101-year-old Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB). Last month, the Thoothukudi-based bank witnessed two new landmarks in a history in which the last three decades could easily qualify for a Kollywood blockbuster.
Chanda Kochhar, who was arrested for a cash-for-loan scam on Friday, was once a powerful banker and instrumental in making ICICI Bank the country's biggest private sector lender. Kochhar, a regular feature on Forbes top global honchos lists, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with her husband Deepak Kochhar in connection with alleged cheating and irregularities in loans sanctioned by ICICI Bank to Videocon Group companies. Kochhars were called to the agency headquarters and arrested after a brief questioning session. Her chapter at ICICI Bank ended abruptly in 2018 when the board of directors approved a request from Kochhar to seek early retirement following allegation of corruption and quid pro-quo while extending loans to the now bankrupt Videocon Industries.
While the collapse of a large financial intermediary can wreak havoc on the system because of the interconnectivity, a large business conglomerate too can play spoilsport if the banks have too much exposure to the entity, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The government has recapitalised public sector banks (PSBs) by infusing over Rs 3.10 lakh crore in the last five fiscals, a majority of which was through issuance of recapitalisation bonds, Parliament was informed on Monday. "Government has infused Rs 3,10,997 crore to recapitalise banks during the last five financial years i.e., from 2016-17 to 2020-21, out of which Rs 34,997 crore were sourced through budgetary allocation and Rs 2,76,000 crore through issuance of recapitalisation bonds to these banks," Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. He was responding to a host of questions asked by Congress party's Member of Parliament Manish Tewari.
The delay will increase the provisioning burden on lenders and will also postpone the benefit of reversal of money set aside as provisions.
Coal production by Coal India (CIL) has grown slower than the captive mines, awarded over the last six years. During 2020-22, production from the captive mines jumped by 38.5 per cent while CIL saw a tepid growth of 3.4 per cent, according to government data. In terms of dispatch to the power sector, captive mines have raced ahead, witnessing a growth of 72 per cent compared to 15 per cent for CIL. For the current fiscal year, CIL's production is expected to be around 565 million tonnes.
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