Steel companies reduce prices by Rs500
New Delhi: Steel companies, including PSU SAIL and private steel maker Tata Steel agreed to cut prices of TMT bars, galvanised steel and HR coils after the government asked them to reduce prices to keep inflation under check.

SAIL, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, Tata, Essar, Ispat and JSW Steel were among the steel companies who agreed to reduce prices they had hiked on March 1 after meetings with Steel Secretary R S Pandey here.

Producers said the hike was a routine activity on the first of every month and was based on domestic and international fluctuations.

The prices of HR coils have been reduced to Rs27,000 per tonne from 27,500 per tonne. The increase in prices of TMT bars and galvanised steel would be rolled back entirely or about 100 per cent.
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Cement manufacturers not to cut prices
New Delhi: Cement companies refused to toe the government's line to rollback cement prices - hiked after a proposal to impose dual excise duty on the product as they said they were not in a position to absorb increase in taxes.

Earlier in the day, the finance minister P Chidambaram had said that while government was not resorting to price control, it has to take effective steps to moderate the prices.

Chidambaram, in his budget speech on 28 February, proposed to reduce excise duty on cement by Rs50 from Rs400 per tonne if it is sold at Rs190 per 50 kg of bag, but raised it by Rs200 per tonne to Rs600 per tonne if sold at higher prices.
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Govt not to enforce cement price control
New Delhi: The finance minister, P Chidambaram at a post-budget interaction with FICCI members, while referring to the issue of duty differential proposed for the cement sector said the government was not resorting to price control in the cement sector and invited industry players for talks on duty differential measures announced in the Budget 2007-08.

The Budget reduced excise duty on cement by Rs50 from Rs400 per tonne if it is sold at Rs190 per 50kg of bag, but raised it by
Rs200 per tonne on cement sold at a higher retail price.

He asked cement industry players to discuss the Budget proposal among themselves and with the government as well. However, the government's plea to cement players seems to have fallen on deaf ears as manufacturers raised prices by around six per cent a day after the Budget was announced.

The Budget proposal had also drawn flak from the industry with CII president R Seshasayee expressing doubts over the efficacy of the measure.
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Reliance Wind Energy ties up with Suzlon for wind power project
New Delhi: Reliance Wind Energy (RWE), a subsidiary of Reliance Energy, has signed an agreement with Suzlon Energy for setting up a 150 MW wind power project, in which the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group firm would invest Rs900 crore.

The wind farm is expected to be rolled out by March 2008 and would be set up by Suzlon Energy in Sangli district of Maharashtra.

RWE said in a release that the project will be completed in two phases and would generate 380-million units per annum after completion, which would be purchased by Reliance Energy Limited for its Mumbai distribution business.

The company said it has plans to set up 500 MW of wind power in various states over the next two - three years and this 150 MW project will make Reliance ADA Group one of the biggest wind energy generators in the country.
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NTPC board approves foray into nuclear power
Mumbai: NTPC, the country's largest power generation company's board of directors has approved a proposal to enable the company to foray into the nuclear power generation business. NTPC envisages generating 2,000 MW from atomic power by the end of 2017. At present, state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd is the only company in the sector.

NRPC has also appointed former Atomic Energy Commission secretary S Rajgopal and former executive director of NPCIL V K Kaushik as consultants to prepare a strategy for its proposed foray.

India has an installed nuclear power capacity of about 3,200 MW, less than three per cent of the total generation capacity. The Government plans to add fresh capacity of 3,100 MW nuclear energy by the end of the 11th plan (2011-12), which will be further increased during the 12th plan.
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Delay in 3G-spectrum policy creating uncertainty: CDG
New Delhi: The CDMA Development Group (CDG) has cautioned against further delay in announcement of spectrum policy for Third Generation (3G) mobile services, saying such a delay would put India behind other countries and deprive its citizens of better services.

The group said the delay would create more uncertainty in the timing of the launch of 3G services, deprive Indian consumers and businesses of the benefits of these services, and keep India behind other countries, the CDG said in a statement.

3G services allow mobile companies to offer real-time interactive services like high speed Internet, video streaming and financial trading.

To release 3G-spectrum for mobile players, the defence ministry has to release 45 Mhz of spectrum by the end of this year in the IMT 2000 band and 1800-1900 MHz band.
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Hinduja TMT arm demerger approved by Bombay High Court
Mumbai: Hinduja TMT said that the Bombay High Court has sanctioned the demerger of its IT undertaking into HTMT Technologies Ltd.

After the demerger, HTMT Technologies Ltd would be known as HTMT Global Solutions Ltd. Under the scheme, the company would reduce the face value of the equity shares from Rs10 each to Rs5 each.
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Four companies submit bids for Punjab Tractors
New Delhi: Four players have submitted bids for acquiring a 43 per cent stake in Punjab Tractors Ltd. The bidders include Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Group (in tie-up with Fiat) and TAFE. The majority of the bidders are said have put in bids at upwards of Rs350.

Earlier seven firms had shown interest in purchasing private equity firm Actis' 29.3 per cent stake and the Burman family's 14.2 per cent stake in Punjab Tractors.

Mahindra & Mahindra confirmed its plan to bid for a stake in Punjab Tractors. According to sources, the valuation for the 43 per cent stake in Punjab Tractors, in addition to the 14 per cent and 33-per cent stake, which the tractor company has in Swaraj Mazda and Swaraj Engines respectively, could well be at over Rs1,100 crore.

Actis had given financial services firm Citi the mandate to call for bids from potential buyers for its stake. The private equity firm had acquired 23.45 per cent of the stake in mid-2003 from the Punjab Government at Rs153 per share. Actis has invested about $60 million in Punjab Tractors till date.
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Strides AIDS drug gets approved by US FDA
Bangalore: Strides Arcolab's first though tentative US FDA approval for an NDA (new drug application) for a combination anti-AIDS drug has come through.

The US regulator has approved Lamivudine/Zidovudine 150mg / 300 mg tablets co-packaged with Nevirapine 200mg tablets. The application was reviewed under the expedited review provisions of the US PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief programme,) an official release said.

The company has already received tentative approval from the FDA for Stavudine capsules and Nevirapine tablets. Four applications are under review under the same programme and another 12 are in the pipeline for development and submission. The company has six WHO pre-qualified ARVs that are supplied to more than 37 countries in Africa and Asia.

The company said it was partnering with the Clinton Foundation to ensure availability of affordable generic ARVs in poorer countries.
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Moser Baer to invest $250 million for setting up solar fab
New Delhi: Computer compact disc maker Moser Baer plans to invest $250 million over the next three years to set up a thin film solar fab.

The company has entered into a technology partnership with US-based Applied Materials to build the unit in its existing SEZ at Greater Noida.

The project is expected to help generate 200 MW of solar energy by 2009.

The unit for making thin films would be commercially operational by March 2008 and the construction is beginning in a week.

The company will start with a capacity of 40 MW, to be increased to 200 MW by 2009. With this initial capacity, the company is expecting a turnover of $100 million a year.
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