The power sector is always strongly correlated to economic activity and is receiving its share of investor attention as India's post-Covid-19 recovery continues. India's leading integrated power producer, the public sector undertaking (PSU) NTPC controls around 25 per cent of India's power capacity. It continues to increase installed capacity, in thermal as well as renewables (solar, wind, green hydrogen) and hydropower and pumped hydro, and also has backward integration into coal mining, and explored nuclear.
Coal industry expert Sunjoy Joshi tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com that the NDA's e-auction of coal blocks will not solve the fundamental problems that dog the industry.
The 30-share Sensex closed lower by 256 points at 25,610.
In a bid to break the monopoly of public sector over coal, the government proposed to introduce legislative changes allowing for private mining while liberalising norms for allotment of captive blocks permitting trading of coal.
Although the mining and electricity sectors did better in May, manufacturing fared poorly in the month with the growth rate decelerating to 11.9 per cent from 13.3 per cent during the corresponding month in 2006-07.
Government will start to auction the rights to up to 70 diamond and gold exploration zones to mining companies this year
The Union Budget stepped up plan allocation for the health sector by 20 per cent with a focus on health insurance, which Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced would be extended now to unorganised sector workers in hazardous mining and associated industries.
The previous low was recorded at 3.8 per cent in May this year.
Decades of a state-owned monopoly selling coal at a fixed price has taken its toll on production.
VP Ansari thanked Polish leadership for its support to India's bid for NSG membership,
The divestment department has proposed that public sector units involved in mining ores alone should qualify for 'natural asset' status while imposing additional norms concering employment of labour.\n\n\n\n
The government's final rules for reallocation of cancelled mines through an e-auction process give the existing owners an advantage over new bidders.
India's industrial production growth rose marginally to 5.6 per cent in February from 5.5 per cent in January 2023, mainly due to good performance of the power, mining and manufacturing sectors, according to official data released on Wednesday. There was an improvement on an annual as well as sequential basis. The factory output growth measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) stood at 1.2 per cent in February 2022.
Essar group on Friday announced the signing of a USD 2.4 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) deal to sell certain ports and power infrastructure to ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel in one of the largest post-pandemic merger and acquisition deals in India. In a statement, the Ruia-run firm said the deal also envisages a 50-50 joint venture between Essar and ArcelorMittal for building a 4 million tonnes a year LNG import terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. Without giving details, it only identified certain ports and power infrastructure that are primarily captive to operations of the Hazira steel plant, which was acquired by ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AM/NS) in 2018-19, as part of the deal.
The slowdown in corporate revenue growth over the last one year has begun to reflect in India Inc's capital expenditure, or capex. The country's top listed companies are going slow on fresh investment in capacity expansion, in line with a deceleration in their top line growth. The combined fixed assets of the listed companies, excluding banking, finance services and insurance (BFSI) and the government-owned oil & gas firms, were up 10.1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) during April-September 2023 (H1FY24) - the slowest in 18 months - as against 21.1 per cent Y-o-Y growth in H2FY23 (October 2022-March 2023) and 11.6 per cent growth in the April-September 2022 period (H1FY23).
Exceptions were made for ultra-mega power plants, such as the one at Sasan, which the court observed were not under consideration, and for coal blocks attached to the power and steel companies controlled by the central government.
Asia's richest man Gautam Adani's group on Tuesday said it will deploy hydrogen fuel cell operated trucks for mining logistics and transportation as part of its decarbonisation plan. "Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL), part of the diversified Adani portfolio of companies, signed an agreement to launch a pilot project to develop a hydrogen fuel cell electric truck (FCET) for mining logistics and transportation with Ashok Leyland, India, and Ballard Power, Canada," it said in a statement. This collaboration marks Asia's first planned hydrogen powered mining truck.
The Industrial of Index Production was 1.9 per cent in April and 2.5 per cent in May last year, as per the data released by Central Statistical Organisation.
It is the diamond in Africa and Russia that is dazzling India these days. India is planning joint ventures with diamond mining companies across Russia, Africa and the CIS nations.
There are two important points about the price correction in gold. The first one is the anti-correlation with the U.S. dollar; certainly that put pressure on gold. The second one, which may be even more important, is that people really seem to believe that the financial system is safe again.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said the central bank does not "emulate" others when it comes to regulations and asserted that the bank's as well as his own opposition to cryptocurrencies remain unchanged, a day after US regulators allowed bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). He also said that emerging markets and the world cannot afford to have a "crypto mania". "What is good for another market need not be good for us.
India's economic growth slowed to 8.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2021-22, mainly due to waning low base effect, official data showed on Tuesday. The GDP growth in April-June quarter this fiscal stood at 20.1 per cent. The Indian economy had contracted by 24.4 per cent in April-June last year.
The Modi government's e-auction policy for coal, meant to shield the consumer against hike in electricity charges, has already led to serious allegations of cartelisation among the bidding corporates. Matters came to such a pass that the government at one point last week was considering inviting the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the matter, reports Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
Mining and power generation at the public sector Neyveli Lignite Corporation came to a standstill
India's industrial production growth perked up slightly to 5.2 per cent in January from 4.7 per cent in December 2022, mainly due to good performance of the power, mining and manufacturing sectors, according to official data released on Friday. There was an improvement on an annual as well as sequential basis. The factory output growth measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) stood at two per cent in January 2022.
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The marginal improvement in the index of industrial production was mainly on account of higher power generation and mining sector output, while manufacturing declined.
India's economy grew 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022-23, pushing up the annual growth rate to 7.2 per cent, official data showed on Wednesday.
Six bills, including the one to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday amid protests by opposition members over the violence in Manipur.
Old timers in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) still remember how in early 2000 its overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), was on the verge of closure. Though OVL was set up in 1965, the only discovery the company had made till then was in Vietnam offshore, with more investment needed to monetise it. In 2001, when OVL started looking for new blocks abroad, the company's previous acquisition was 13 years old.
Industrial production declined by 10.4 per cent in July, mainly due to lower output of manufacturing, mining and power generation, as per the government data released on Friday.
Terming investment in infrastructure "quintessential" to boost growth, the Economic Survey on Friday said post unlocking of the economy, infra sectors are poised for growth and construction of roads is expected to return to the high pace attained before COVID-19. The infrastructure sector will be the key to overall economic growth and macroeconomic stability, the Survey said emphasising that the year after the crisis (2021-22) will require sustained and calibrated measures to facilitate the process of economic recovery and enable the economy to get back on its long-term growth trajectory. "Basic infrastructure facilities in the country provide the foundation of growth. In the absence of adequate infrastructure, the economy operates at a suboptimal level and remains distant from its potential and frontier growth trajectory.
Forced to cut prices by 2-3% due to cheaper imports from Japan, Korea and China
Indian industry has logged a growth of 9.5 per cent in April 2006 as against 8.1 per cent in the same month last fiscal.
Industrial growth slowed to 3.6 per cent in February, 2011, compared to 15.1 per cent expansion in the year-ago period, dragged down by poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors.
As many as seven of eight core industries saw a contraction in output in September.
Pulled down by the mining and electricity sectors, the Index of Industrial Production stood at 8.8 per cent during April 2005 compared to 8.9 per cent in the same month last year.
Based on a feedback, the exchange could cap a sector's weight at 25 per cent, or align with the broader market.
