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New Delhi: As many as 18 power plants in the country are faced with critical level of coal shortage, Minister of State for Power KC Venugopal informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Of the 89 thermal power projects being monitored, 34 had fuel (coal) stock less than seven days...
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa began crackdown on anti-nuclear activists at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant on Monday. Nine Kudankulam protestors have been detained. The Tamil Nadu government has also got the nuclear power plant site cleared. Seeking to end the impasse over the Kudankulam nuclear plant...
In a major relief to the government over the fiercely contested National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), three amendment motions moved by the opposition on the anti-terror intelligence hub were defeated in the Lok Sabha Monday. The Trinamool Congress, a bitter critic of the NCTC but part of the ruling...
New Delhi: Mamata Banerjee has met with the Prime Minister after he allegedly upset her by stating in Parliament that he regrets the departure of Dinesh Trivedi from his cabinet. Mr Trivedi is from Ms Banerjee’s party, the Trinamool Congress, which is a key member of the ruling coalition...
Lucknow: Mulayam Singh Yadav has said his support from the outside to the UPA government will continue, but says the Samajwadi Party is not joining the government. “We have not asked anyone and no one has asked us to,” the Samajwadi Party chief said emphatically in Lucknow today. Mr...
With the Yeddyurappa camp adamant in its demand for reinstating him as Karnataka Chief Minister, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on Monday said the party is in touch with him and that the issue will be resolved. BJP leader Arun Jaitley said he did not see the crisis in the...
Amidst mounting pressure from ally DMK and other parties, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said India was “inclined to” vote in favour of a resolution on Sri Lanka at the U.N. which meets “our objectives” with regard to the future of ethnic Tamils. Responding to strong concerns of...
India’s largest fund house, HDFC Asset Management Co. Ltd, and Pramerica Asset Managers Pvt. Ltd, an arm of US-headquartered Prudential Financial Inc, have emerged as the frontrunners to buy the assets of Fidelity’s mutual fund in India—FIL Fund Management Pvt. Ltd. Out of some 20 bidders, HDFC and Pramerica...
A politically vulnerable Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is likely to drop the proposal for easier foreign direct investment (FDI) norms in insurance and pension funds. Accordingly, the proposal to enhance FDI in insurance joint ventures to 49% is likely to be dropped, and the government, as demanded by...
Technology, investments and training form the core of India-Africa partnership. India has offered its expertise and resources in these areas at the pan-Africa, regional and bilateral levels with great success. Stating this in her special address at the special inaugural plenary session titled ‘India – Africa: Partners in Progress’,...
NEW DELHI: Upstream oil and gas companies ONGC, Oil India and Gail India are worried that various Budget proposals would increase their tax outgo substantially, even as they are prevented from selling crude oil at global price. These firms will have to share a larger part of the losses...
NEW DELHI: The government’s plans to reign in petroleum subsidies to plug the fiscal deficit next financial year are in jeopardy, as a whopping Rs 2.13 lakh-crore revenue loss is expected at the current levels of global crude oil prices and domestic retail prices of controlled products. Non-revision of...
NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the government will take “corrective decision” in consultation with all stakeholders to deal with the impact of rising crude oil prices on public finances and subsidy bill. “The important question is can a country afford to import 100-120 million tonnes of...
NEW DELHI: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) plans to invest over Rs 33,065 crore next fiscal in exploration and production of oil and gas, a 5 per cent increase over capital expenditure in 2011-12. ONGC will invest Rs 33,065.31 crore in 2012-13 as compared to Rs 31,316...
The energy scenario in India today presents a bleak picture, especially of fossil fuels. Coal India, the PSU behemoth, is unable to meet the current coal demand. It has enough resources deep underground but its extractable reserves do not allow for more than a marginal increase in production. Blocks...
Globally there are very few resources that can affect the world economy like the price of oil does. Currently oil is one of the most important sources of primary energy in the world, accounting for about 33% of the total. Oil availability and prices affect the global output capacity,...
Energy security depends on several variables. It goes beyond fuel sources and pricing. Infrastructure for energy transportation and storage are as important as energy access. Since India’s oil dependency is high–about 70% of energy sources—it is extremely important to ensure that the supply chain is maintained to feed the...
The 2012-13 budget proposals for the power sector clearly take a different approach. It fails to offer even a hint at fundamental reforms, but at least presents a coherent approach to tackling the rising energy costs and fuel shortages. Several proposals are made to lower the unit cost of...