From the Sensex firms, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Tata Steel, Maruti, Infosys, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Titan, Reliance Industries, Wipro and Mahindra & Mahindra were the biggest gainers. Sun Pharma, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India and Nestle were among the laggards.
A top oil ministry official said it will be "suicidal" to even think of raising prices of diesel, LPG or kerosene just before Parliament is to meet.
The Petroleum Federation of India, the apex body of public and private oil firms, has submitted to the oil ministry a 100-day agenda for the new government. On top of its list is decontrol of petrol and diesel prices. Currently, public sector retailers sell auto fuel at government-dictated rates, which the private sector competition is unable to match in times of high input cost (crude oil prices).
The panel, however, set some conditions for the company, including that Cairn India will have to upload the status of environment compliance, including results of monitored data, on its website and update it periodically.
Government headhunters Public Enterprise Selection Board selected Srinivasan after interviewing 11 candidates at its office in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Or Iran may face the risk of losing its biggest client
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had last week stated that there were demands from 'several chief ministers' for raising the quota of subsidised cylinders and the government 'will look into' them.
Surging global crude oil prices failed to shore up customs revenue substantially as India Inc resorted to advance licence scheme, which allows duty-free imports for value-added exports.
The Petroleum Ministry has asked the oil regulator to look into the marketing margin charged by not just Reliance Industries, but also state-owned GAIL India Ltd on the sale of domestic gas and imported LNG.
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 ministry had previously wanted to disallow $1.235 billion expenditure that RIL had incurred on putting production facilities at the Bay of Bengal gas fields but in the 7-page notice it sent to the company on May 2, the cost to be disallowed was put at $1.462 billion, sources privy to the development said.
Petroleum Ministry is considering cutting down the number of independent directors on board in an oil PSU to 33%.
Citing the May, 2010, Supreme Court ruling that upheld the government's right to frame gas utilisation policy, the ministry last week wrote to Reliance directing it to first supply natural gas from its KG-D6 fields to priority sectors like fertiliser and power, official sources said.
The petroleum ministry has sought expansion of the legal team that is to argue the government's stand on the gas dispute between the Ambani brothers before the Supreme Court beginning next week.
The decision comes after Australian mining major BHP Billiton said it would not improve the terms of its bid. BHP Billiton, the largest mining company in the world, and new entrant GVK Oil and Gas were the sole bidders for five deepwater blocks and hence the provisional winners after the bidding closed on June 30 this year.
The KG-D6 production is lower than 61.5 mmscmd rate achieved in March, 2010, as a drop in pressure in the wells and increased water ingress has led to a lower per-well gas output.
A hike in diesel and domestic LPG prices has been deferred for now, but an increase in petrol prices later this week looks imminent.
Non-core sponge iron plants, petrochemicals units and oil refineries have cornered as much as 13.13 million cubic metres per day out of the 60.76 mmscmd of KG-D6 gas allocated.
Deora is believed to have explained the oil ministry's position on gas pricing and utilisation.
Ministry wants to abolish 2.5 per cent customer duty on petrol and diesel.
Oil demand had plunged 5.9 per cent in January, the most in 13 years, after the shock demonetisation of high-value currency notes in November
Reliance Industries is ostensibly seeking a 25 per cent increase in the price of natural gas it produces from the eastern offshore Krishna-Godavari Basin after it wrote to the Oil Ministry saying it has customers willing to pay more than the government-approved price.
An ecological disaster is in the making in the Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove forest spanning across the Indo-Bangla border, after an oil tanker collided with an empty cargo vessel. The incident spilled nearly 350 tonnes of oil into the Sela river, threatening the survival of multiple species of flora and fauna.
Vedanta had proposed to buy a 51 per cent stake in Cairn India for $9.6 billion in the middle of last year. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs is expected to take up the issue next week.
in some sense, it is much worse as the current rise was preceded by an increase in commodity prices
Oil ministry this week issued written instructions to the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run firm to make a 'pro-rata' cut in gas supplies to all existing customers if the production from its KG-D6 field cannot support new customers, two sources with direct knowledge of the information have said.
The Indian desire to deepen its ties with Vietnam, especially in the oil sector, besides defence and trade, was conveyed to the top leadership in Hanoi by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
State-owned oil firms have seen their losses on diesel sales widen to over Rs 6 per litre, even as a ministerial panel meeting on raising prices has not yet been scheduled.
The government had in May last year disallowed $1.005 billion expense of RIL on the flagging KG-D6 gas fields for not implementing the approved field development plan.
Faced with one setback after another in expanding the scope of mining in the country, almost all the major miners of the world have wound down their operations in India.
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