Insurance companies are anticipating claims of at least Rs 500 crore from the incessant rains and flooding in Chennai.
India must be prepared for a big, fat fuel import bill in FY23 - barring any further avatars of the Covid virus - as refiners crank up runs, or crude processing rates, to meet the growing demand for fuels, and crude prices soar. Capacity additions by an Indian state-run refiner will reinforce the need for foreign crude. Demand for all fuels is expected to increase by 3-8 per cent next fiscal from 2021-22, reaching pre-pandemic levels, according to analysts and industry experts.
As the country moves towards creating a spot gold exchange, markets regulator Sebi's whole time member G Mahalingam on Wednesday suggested routing all the imports of the precious metal through the exchange ecosystem in the future. Such a "funnelling" would ensure that gold monetisation takes place right at the source as the metal enters the country, he said while addressing a conference organised by industry lobby Ficci. However, he also noted that the issue has not been dealt with in the papers floated by Sebi.
Following up on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's Budget announcement of creating an integrated oil company, India's biggest oil and gas producer ONGC may buy all of the government's 51.11 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has announced the contours of carving out of its oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business into an independent unit with a USD 25 billion loan from the parent, as it looks to unlock value by selling stakes to global investors like Saudi Aramco.
Cumulatively, the eight core sectors grew by 4.2 per cent in 2017-18, lowest in the last three financial years.
The average estimate of 12 brokerage houses stands at Rs 6,994 crore for the June 2020 quarter. This is 30.8 per cent lower than the June 2019 quarter net profit of Rs 10,104 crore.
However, a prolonged and intense second wave that curtails oxygen supply to industries for a longer-than-expected period will exacerbate downside risk in affected sectors
As many as six of eight core industries saw a contraction in output in October.
A senior official in the central labour commissioner's office said the efforts of the government were to resolve the cases amicably and not to press for legal action against employers. "Everyone is going through tough times. We could initiate legal action if we want but that's not the idea. We want to address the issues amicably," the official said.
Refining major optimistic on planned investment of $16 bn for expansion and new technology to post healthy margins
The government expects to make 10,000 oxygenated beds available in a short period of time by making temporary hospitals near industrial units which produce oxygen of requisite purity to boost the supply of the life-saving gas to fight COVID-19.
With the investment, the company's refining capacity will rise 60 per cent from the present 65.7 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 105 mtpa by 2022.
Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday mentioned about leadership transition at his energy-to-retail conglomerate, saying he wants the process to be accelerated with seniors, including him, yielding to the younger generation. Ambani, 64, who has previously not spoken about succession plans at the country's most valuable company, said Reliance is "now in the process of effecting a momentous leadership transition." Ambani has three children -- twins Akash and Isha, and Anant.
The exploration and production assets of Essar Oil will not be part of the Rosneft deal and would continue to remain with the Group.
Though the NDA government had been trying to privatise 20 companies, a decision for which was taken in 2017, and included national carrier Air India, the investor community evinced little enthusiasm for any of them. Now, with an in-principle approval for privatisation of BPCL, CCI and SCI, the government has taken the plunge again.
The Reserve Bank of India is expected to hold interest rate at 8 per cent in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review on Tuesday.
The growth rate in September too was 3.2%.
Total income from operations, however, dipped 27 per cent to Rs 68,261 crore.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd's plans for investing Rs 75,000 crore in solar, batteries, fuel cells and hydrogen could create valuation of $36 billion (Rs 2.6 lakh crore) for the new energy business, Wall Street brokerage Bernstein Research said in a report. Reliance currently has three verticals -- oil-to-chemical (O2C) business that houses its oil refineries, petrochemical plants and fuel retailing business; digital services that comprises telecom arm Jio; and retail including e-commerce. New Energy will be the fourth vertical. At the company's annual general meeting of shareholders last month, Ambani announced a plan to invest Rs 75,000 crore in a new energy business over the next 3 years in the next stage in its transformation.
Forced to cross the Nanoi, a channel of the Brahmaputra, over 7,000 people uprooted from their homes and farms in Darrang district of Assam now use the stream's muddy water to drink and cook and defecate in the open as `Swachh Bharat' toilets built in their villages are now guarded by policemen who do not allow them to re-enter any part of the lands they have been thrown out of.
India's traditional companies are now moving full scale into the renewable and alternative energy space that had been dominated by smaller players over the past decade. Companies such as government-owned NTPC and the Adani and the Tata groups restructured their businesses well in time to become major players in the green space. At the same time, other conventional companies, such as Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which have a presence both in the energy sector as well as myriad other activities - construction, technology and retailing - are tying up with new-age companies to hitch a ride to a greener path.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) is deploying drones to monitor its vast network of pipelines across the country as it doubles down on the use of technology to thwart attempts to steal fuel, helping not just save the commodity but also avoid accidents. The country's top oil company already uses a combination of sophisticated technology and patrolling to detect any leakage from the pipeline network spanning over 15,000-kilometers. And now, it is adding drones to monitor the vast network, officials said. Use of technology helped throttle 34 attempts to pilfer fuel and arrest 53 persons in the 2020-21 fiscal year, they said adding the latest incident was in Sonipat, Haryana on August 17.
A shortfall in LPG supply from Aramco has led to huge booking backlog across states. To meet the backlog, India has asked Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for two additional cargos of LPG, but that may take another 10 days to reach.
Around 75 per cent, or 372 stocks, that are part of the BSE500 are trading at least 10 per cent below their all-time high levels, despite the index hitting a record high 20,515 points on the BSE in intra-day trade on Wednesday, surpassing its previous high of 20,390 touched in March 12. The index, which accounts for 93 per cent of BSE listed companies' market capitalisation, has gained 8 per cent from its recent low of 18,983, touched on April 19. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex gained 6 per cent over the same period, but is still nearly 4.5 per cent away from its all-time high of 52,517 that it hit on February 16.
The last week of March saw a series of new refining capacity going on stream. HPCL-Mittal Energy, Essar Oil and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL) were able to announce completion of capacity additions a couple of days before the seven-year tax holiday in this regard came to an end, on March 31.
There are about 23 oil refineries in India with a combined capacity of 230 million tonnes per annum.
These core industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production.
The sale is key to meeting the government's disinvestment target of Rs 2.1 trillion in the financial year 2020-21. So far, the disinvestment exercise has fetched the government Rs 34,845 crore during the current financial year.
According to data shared with the Lok Sabha, 19 road projects awarded after May 2014 were facing delays
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has signed a pact to invest an undisclosed amount in a giant petrochemical hub being built in the UAE. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate will join the recently-formed Ta'ziz joint venture of Abu Dhabi state energy giant Adnoc and state holding company ADQ for developing the Ruwais Derivatives Park in western Abu Dhabi. A company statement said an agreement has been signed for Reliance to invest in the project but did not give details. Unconfirmed reports put the investment at about $1.5 billion.
After rallying 543 points in the morning session and touching the 40,000-mark, the BSE Sensex surrendered all gains to close at 38,628.29, showing a loss of 839.02 points or 2.13 per cent. Similarly, the NSE Nifty tanked 260.10 points or 2.23 per cent to end at 11,387.50.
The move comes days after the Indian Navy also warned of a possible terror attack from the sea side.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday announced a Rs 75,000 crore investment in new energy business over the next three years as the operator of the world's largest oil refinery pivots towards a greener and cleaner version. Reliance will build solar manufacturing units, a battery factory for energy storage, a fuel cell-making plant and an electrolyzer unit to produce green hydrogen as a part of the business, chairman Mukesh Ambani said at the company's annual general meeting with shareholders on Thursday. It will also set up 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power generation capacity by 2030 and invest in setting up a carbon fibre plant.
'To keep the next catastrophe at bay, a carbon free economy will be an imperative. 'Our 2000 cc internal combustion engine powered personal cars and public transport may have to give way to electric and hydrogen powered fuel cells. 'The oil refineries which were so much part of my professional life may have to be dismantled and trees planted in its place. 'The smokestacks, which once upon a time represented growth and prosperity, will now be gory symbols of a polluting past,' notes former Hindustan Petroleum chairman Arun Balakrishnan.
Coal, refinery products, electricity and cement production registered a growth of 14.5 per cent, 8.1 per cent, 10.2 per cent and 11.3 per cent, respectively in November, as per the data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry.
A spokesman for Gibraltar's government also confirmed that police proceedings against four members of the crew had ended.
Rediff reader Hitesh Kumar Jha from Akola reveals how his first salary changed his life.
'An internationally established price of crude will encourage more players to invest in India, leading to enhanced domestic production which can be made available to domestic refineries,' recommends Anil Agarwal whose company Vedanta Resources has a controlling stake in Cairn India that operates the country's biggest onland oilfield in Barmer, Rajasthan.
Indian companies place orders worth $600 million for US crude, which is likely to increase by nearly $2 billion in the near future.
