Deo named power regulatory body chief
Deo named power regulatory body chief
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday approved the appointment of Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Authority chairman Pramod Deo as the chairman of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC). Others in the fray for the post that had been lying vacant for one-and-a-half years included former industry secretary Ajay Dua, CERC member Bhanu Bhushan and Surya P. Sethi, principal adviser, energy, Planning Commission.
BCCL asks SAIL to pay more for coking coal
New Delhi: Coal India’s Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) unit said it could stop supplying coking coal to Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) if the public sector steel firm did not agree to pay a higher price. BCCL wants SAIL to pay Rs6,300 per tonne– Rs1,800 more than the price at which it bought coking coal last year.
“It’s difficult for us to carry on at this rate," said BCCL chairman and managing director Ashoke Kumar Paul, noting BCCL had supplied 1.68million tonnes of coking coal to SAIL in the last fiscal at Rs4,500 a tonne whereas its cost of production was Rs7,600. BCCL being a public sector company has to supply to state-owned steel firms. Anik Basu
K Raheja forms JV for logistic infrastructure
Mumbai: Mumbai-based real estate developer K Raheja Corp. and US-based warehouse firm ProLogis have entered in an equally owned joint venture for warehousing and logistic infrastructure development in India with an investment of Rs2,300 crore over the next two-three years.
The venture will acquire the land, develop the properties and manage warehouses in the cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Pune.
“It is expected to develop 7.5 million sq ft in the next three years and 25 million sq ft by the end of next five years," said Vishwas S. Dhumal, chief executive (industrial infrastructure and logistics) of K Raheja. P.R. Sanjai
India needs to move up value chain: Scindia
New Delhi: Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia on Wednesday took charge as the minister of state for communications and information technology. Scindia, one of the younger members of Parliament, takes over from Shakeel Ahmad. “India has to transcend from being a back-office nation to a product nation and move up the value chain. We will ensure last mile convergence of information technology and telecommunication," the new minister said. Regina Anthony
DoT sets up new panel to monitor VAS
New Delhi:The department of telecommunications, or DoT, has set up a new committee to monitor value-added services (VAS) including the popular BlackBerry email service being offered by phone firms such as Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Essar Ltd, as the government plans to gain better control of such services in the country.
“We have constituted a VAS committee under member technology to monitor these services," Siddhartha Behura, secretary DoT, said on Wednesday.
DoT is in talks with operators and senior executives at Research In Motion Ltd (RIM), which owns BlackBerry, for resolving concerns about alleged security threats involving the technology that allows phone users to access their emails through a hand-held device. “We have another meeting with operators and RIM officials tomorrow (Thursday), and will see what best could be done," added Behura. Pankaj Mishra
Swamy files response affidavit on Sethu
Mumbai:The battle over the controversial Sethusamudram project inched a little closer to conclusion on Wednesday: key litigant Subramanian Swamy filed his 41-page response affidavit in the Supreme Court, clearing the way for the apex court to hold what may be the final hearing on the case on 15 April. A three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, will also decide whether to lift a stay order issued in September on work at the site of Adam’s Bridge, also known as Ram Sethu after the mythological king Ram who is believed to have built the coral walkway.
The project aims to cut navigation times for ships travelling around India by 24 hours. Priyanka P. Narain
Ranbaxy, govt tie up to develop new TB drugs
New Delhi:Drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd and the department of biotechnology will be collaborating to find new drugs for treating tuberculosis.
The research will be conducted as part of a major initiative launched by the government to check spread of tuberculosis (TB), stated a Ranbaxy release. TB is among the leading causes of mortality in India—killing two people every three minutes and nearly 1,000 every day—and the most common opportunistic infection in HIV positive people. The thrust areas for the initiative will be development of diagnostics, vaccines and drugs for the disease that affects 1.8 million people in the country every year. Bhuma Shrivastava
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