11844 stories by IPA Staff
Madhya Pradesh Records Nine Rapes A Day
From L S Herdenia BHOPAL: A ghastly incident, in which a mother was killed for daring to report the gang rape of her daughter, has shaken the conscience of the political, administrative and police circles of Madhya Pradesh. The traumatic incident took place in Betul—a predominantly tribal district of...
Akalis In The Dock On Rajoana Issue
By B.K. Chum in Chandigarh The euphoria over securing second successive term has lasted merely a fortnight. The Akali-BJP government now finds itself in the dock for two reasons. First, the controversy generated over proposed hanging (since stayed) of Balwant Singh Rajoana for the assassination of former Punjab Chief...
ICVL to soon buy coal asset in Australia for over R1,500 crore
New Delhi: International Coal Ventures Ltd (ICVL) is within a striking distance of acquiring its maiden coking coal asset abroad in Australia’s Bowen Basin for about R 1,500 crore, a top official said. ‘‘This (the acquisition in Australia) is going to happen very soon. All necessary formalities have been...
Rollback in fares for 2nd class, Sleeper, AC Chair Car, 3-AC
New Delhi: The hike in rail passenger fares for second class suburban and non-suburban, Sleeper, AC Chair Car and AC 3-tier was today rolled back with the new Railway Minister Mukul Roy dubbing it as a “huge drain” on the pocket of masses. He, however, kept untouched the increase of...
UltraTech Cement in talks to buy Adhunik MSP Cement's Meghalaya plant for Rs 700 crore
MUMBAI: The Aditya Birla group, which built the world’s seventh-largest cement business largely through acquisitions, is in talks to buy north-eastern cement maker Adhunik MSP Cement’s Meghalaya plant for over Rs 700 crore. Group firm UltraTech Cement wants to buy the 1.5-million-tonne unit and bolster its presence in the...
RBI tightens norms for gold loan NBFCs
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday tightened rules for lending against gold by finance companies, saying the rapid growth in such loans in the past few years had increased risks to the banking system and retail investors. The banking regulator has directed that companies having half their...
Reports of coal scam rock Parliament; both Houses adjourned
Parliament was today rocked by reports of an alleged coal scam to the tune of Rs 10.7 lakh crore with the Opposition forcing adjournment of both the Houses till noon. As soon as the Lok Sabha met for the day, JD-U members were on their feet demanding immediate discussion...
Statement on Defence Budget by Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII
“CII welcomes the increase of budgetary allocation for Defence Capital expenditure to INR 79, 578 Crores, i.e. 20.31 percent increase over the revised planned expenditure for the fiscal year 2011-12. Though most of the capital expenditure is expected to be absorbed by the recently announced and the ongoing defence...
UPA-2 Can Complete Its Present Term
By Kalyani Shankar It is said that a week is long in politics. The current week has shown how true it is. While the doubting Thomases were speculating about the stability of the UPA 2 when the budget session began, it is clear now that no party wants to...
Promoters of Godrej Properties to sell stake through IPP route
Mumbai: After a lukewarm response to the offer for sale (OFS) route for offloading equity stake in companies, promoters of Mumbai-based Godrej Properties have decided to test the institutional placement programme (IPP) route to sell a 10.6 per cent stake in the company. Both OFS and IPP were introduced...
RBI tightens norms for gold loan NBFCs
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday tightened rules for lending against gold by finance companies, saying the rapid growth in such loans in the past few years had increased risks to the banking system and retail investors. The banking regulator has directed that companies having half their...
UltraTech Cement in talks to buy Adhunik MSP Cement's Meghalaya plant for Rs 700 crore
MUMBAI: The Aditya Birla group, which built the world’s seventh-largest cement business largely through acquisitions, is in talks to buy north-eastern cement maker Adhunik MSP Cement’s Meghalaya plant for over Rs 700 crore. Group firm UltraTech Cement wants to buy the 1.5-million-tonne unit and bolster its presence in the...
130 B-schools face closure
New Delhi: The business of running business schools isn’t easy. Around 130 management institutes or 4% of all B-schools in India are expected to close shop this year, twice as many as last year, thanks to faculty shortage, lack of students, substandard curriculum and poor infrastructure. Topping the list...
Outlook grim for PE investments as instability, policy paralysis hurt
New Delhi: The prevailing macroeconomic conditions in the country are definitely hurting private equity investments. Policy paralysis, global uncertainties, volatile markets, and a depreciating rupee are dampening new investments. If the past three months are any indicators, here’s a lowdown. December 2011 clocked investments worth $567 million, January 2012...
Poor returns may force telecom companies to go easy on spectrum auctions
New Delhi: Hyper-competition, rock-bottom tariffs and huge payouts for 3G spectrum have hammered telecom companies’ return on capital employed (ROCE), limiting their capacity for aggressive bidding in spectrum auctions and upsetting the government’s revenue calculations. Consequently, the Budget target to raise R40,000 crore from spectrum auctions this fiscal may...
Pakistan notifies negative list for trade with India
New Delhi/Islamabad: The Pakistan government on Wednesday issued a notification for switching over to a negative list regime for trade with India, where the number of products facing a bar on import from the eastern neighbour will come down to 1,209. The Commerce Ministry in Islamabad issued a Statutory Regulatory...
Post-Budget pessimism on investor interest in SEZs
New Delhi: In the wake of the Union Budget proposals, developers of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) say the scheme is heading for an end, with investors’ interest certain to reduce drastically. Developers of SEZs were expecting some positive announcement in the Budget over removal of the Minimum Alternate Tax...
India pushes refiners to cut Iran imports, despite sanctions scorn
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India, publicly disdainful of sanctions to pressure Iran, has been left off a list of nations given a U.S. waiver from the measures, but is privately pushing its refiners for substantial cuts in imports from the Middle Eastern country. The United States gave exemptions on...
