The Mint Report for 30 July 2012

A newly appointed panel is going to relook tax policies affecting a range of transnational industries. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has appointed the former chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, N.Rangachary, to head the committee.

Moving on, hundreds of millions Indians were left without electricity in the early hours of Monday. A power grid failure left a large swath of northern India without power at about 2:30 am. Supplies to essential services like the railways were only restored by 8 am.

Delhi’s metro started normal services an hour later. Eventually, full electricity supplies were restored in Delhi and much of UP. But power was only partially back in other states like Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. While the exact causes of the outage are not known, India’s power utilities are struggling with a combination of antiquated grids and fuel shortages.

Watch video

PM appoints panel to relook taxes on IT and other industries; power outage leaves millions without electricity for hours; SpiceJet posts strong profits for the first quarter.

Loading video...

In earnings, budget airline SpiceJet has surprised observers by posting a profit for the first quarter. Profit soared to Rs56 crore compared with a loss of Rs72 crore in the same period last year. And revenue jumped up 51% to Rs1,407crore. SpiceJet’s numbers come even as the airline industry is coping with losses and massive debts. But the results have spurned hopes of a revival for the sector.

Shares of SpiceJet rocketed up more than 22% on the BSE. And rival Jet Airways gained 7.72%. Even troubled carrier Kingfisher went up 2% to close at just under 10 rupees a share.