Key Corporate and Industry Developments

Key corporate news

• UK business minister Sajid Javid is travelling to Mumbai to meet Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry today to stave off the possible loss of thousands of jobs at TATA STEEL’s UK plant that could result from a sale or shutdown. (ET)
• The British government opened talks on Tuesday with potential buyers for TATA STEEL's UK operations, including Sanjeev Gupta's commodities company Liberty Group, as it stepped up its battle to find a buyer for the loss-making business. (Reuters)
• M&M has launched a new platform for tractors – YUVO which has the flexibility to roll out tractors in 32, 35, 40, 42 and 45 HP categories, covering over 75% of the tractor industry in India. (BL)
• TATAMOTORS banks on Tiago as its comeback car, launch today, will be rolled out of Sanand plant (FE)
• POWER GRID CORP has commissioned transmission projects worth ₹30,300 crore (unaudited) during 2015-16, which is the highest-ever commissioning achieved by the company. (BL)
• NTPC to stop coal imports on abundant local coal supply (ET)
• NTPC said Tuesday the board has approved investment proposals worth Rs. 3,104 crore for solar PV projects in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. (BL)
• Reliance Jio Infocomm could well stun the market, offering 0.5 paisa per 10 kb of data usage, which is substantially lower than the 4 paisa per 10 kb data being charged by India's top telcos Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular.(ET)
• LUPIN has launched a generic insomnia drug, Zolpidem Sublingual tablets, in the US market with 180-days of marketing exclusivity. (BL)
• AUROBINDO PHARMA has received approval from the US health regulator to market Polymyxin B for Injection, an anti-infective drug, in the American market. (BL)
• DISH TV pegs its FY17 capex need at about Rs 850cr, The Company is not looking to raise money through equity markets. Debt level will remain same or go down because of the free cash flow, said its CEO (ET)
• TATA COMMUNICATIONS has won a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract with Air France-KLM, to provide next-generation network connectivity to 170 sites. (BL)
• Public markets-focused PE firm WestBridge Capital Partners has added RELAXO FOOTWEARS LTD as its third new portfolio company this year. (VCC)
• Cash-strapped PROVOGUE shuts over 60 stores in 1-yr. Lenders are mulling invoking powers under SDR provisions (FE)
• BSE aims to list next year, its CEO said (Reuters)

Key Industry news

• The government will push for consolidation of public sector banks once they are capitalised and strengthened, FM said on Tuesday (ET)
• Emphasising the government was committed to reforms, FM on Tuesday said things appeared to be in the final round as far as the GST is concerned, while the bankruptcy Bill is expected to be taken up in the upcoming Parliament session.(PTI)
• India will review its decision of imposing a minimum import price (MIP) on steel on 12 April, two months after it was imposed. (VCC)
• RBI has ruled out any new non-resident deposit scheme to attract dollars while the special dollar-raising facility under FCNR (B), scheme it offered in 2013 will start maturing from September. (ET)
• RBI said it will explore possibilities of licensing other differentiated banks such as custodian banks and banks concentrating on wholesale and long-term financing. It added that it will come up with a discussion paper on the new categories by September 2016. (VCC)
• RBI will seek public comments to regulate the peer-to-peer lending business after a number of startups sprung up that connect individual borrowers or small businesses with lenders through a digital platform. (VCC)
• Health ministry has ordered government agencies to enforce a new rule for bigger health warnings on cigarette packs, stepping up a fight against the country's $10 billion cigarette industry that has shut down its factories in protest. (Reuters)
• Road construction has accelerated to an all-time high pace of 20km/day, Road Transport and Highways Minister said on Tuesday. (ET)
• Tractor industry leader M&M sees 10% growth this fiscal (FE)
• The civil aviation ministry is likely to abolish the ‘5/20 rule’ that bars companies from flying abroad unless they have flown in India for 5 years and have a fleet size of 20 aircraft (BS)
• A government body has issued notices to China, Japan and South Korea proposing to initiate a probe on the 'dumping' of some steel products into India. (Reuters)
• NSE seeks SEBI nod for commodity futures trade (ET)
• PE Funds infused $410 million in residential, office and retail projects in Jan-Mar 2016, as against $680 million a year ago (Mint)
• KKR raises $3.35B in second global special situations fund (VCC)
• Welspun Renewables Energy Pvt. Ltd’s plan to sell its portfolio of 1.1GW of renewable power assets has attracted interest from several local and foreign power producers (Mint)
• Bt cotton failure forces govt to promote native seeds (FE)
• Bihar has finally become a “dry state“ from Tuesday (ET)
• The global economy's already modest prospects will decline further unless authorities take stronger action to boost growth, the head of the IMF warned on Tuesday, saying the Fund would cut its headline forecasts next week. (Reuters)