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Inflation for the month of July shows a slight dip to 9.22%, compared to the 9.44% seen in the previous month. One could argue if a drop of one-fifth of a percentage point is significant, but lower inflation, however small the actual decline, is a good thing.
The government releases overall inflation data monthly, while primary inflation data (food and non-food) and fuel price behaviour is released on a weekly basis.
GMR Energy joined a growing number of Indian companies who are tying up their coal requirements in Indonesia. The country has large reserves of the black gold which is used chiefly for power generation and steel-making, apart from other uses.
Vodafone Plc announced that Piramal Healthcare, Ajay Piramal’s group flagship, will pay $640 million or about Rs 2,900 crore to acquire a 5.5% stake in Vodafone Essar. This will help raise cash for Vodafone as well as allow it to remain compliant with India’s foreign direct investment rules for the telecom sector, which mandate a 74% foreign shareholding cap.
Hydro-power company NHPC’s revenues rose by 40% to Rs 1,431 crore during the June quarter (Q1), but this growth was chiefly due to prior-period revenues. Finalisation of tariff for earlier years led to Rs 275 crore being added to revenues in this quarter. Excluding that, growth would have been a more sedate 13.7%.
Speculation that the government may want a more pliant governor at the helm of the central bank proved to be bunkum. The government announced that D Subbarao would be the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, for two more years, providing continuity on the monetary policy front. He will now retire as the RBI governor on September 4, 2013.
Napo Pharmaceuticals Inc, the innovator company behind anti-diarrhoea drug crofelemer, is finding itself in litigation with its partners. The company owns crofelemer, a novel anti-diarrhoeal drug under development, which is in advanced stages in the clinial trial process and is widely anicipated to hit the market.
Pranab Mukherjee, finance minister, spoke to a gathering of industrialists on Saturday at the National Conference of the Confederation of Indian Industry, assuring them that the government had no intention of adopting regressive policy measures. He said that dual pricing for diesel is not on the cards and neither is the government planning any fresh tax hikes.
Great Eastern Shipping Co.’s operations in the June 2011 quarter (Q1) were affected by a slump in the global shipping market. Margins suffered as revenues grew at a lower rate than costs did.
Net profit (after minority interests) fell by 5.4%, despite higher other income and lower interest costs, which were offset by depreciation and a higher tax incidence.
Financial Technologies (India) scored a key victory in its battle with the National Stock Exchange, its second one after it earlier got a favourable order from the Competition Commission of India. The company today announced a settlement of a case it had filed against the National Stock Exchange of India in the Bombay High Court.