Daily News Roundup - Feb 3 2010

Siemens to invest Rs16bn in India in the next three years to build a production unit for wind turbines, besides other engineering products in the country. (ET)
Tata Steel to invest around US$300mn in a Quebec, Canada. (ET)
ITC to open nine more of its Fortune brand of hotels over a period of next 10 months. (BS) Reliance Communications has found few callers for a package that includes its prized FLAG undersea cable network. (ET)
ONGC has asked the government to make good on its promise to reimburse Rs7.6bn paid by the company in extra royalty and cess on behalf of other partners in seven pre-Nelp production blocks. (FE)
HDFC has decided to pay variable interest rate on recurring deposits, a move aimed at attracting long-term deposits and prevent premature withdrawal when interest rates peak. (ET)
BSNL and MTNL will be ready to implement the mobile number portability service by the new deadline of March 31,2010.(BS)
Siemens has received a contract from the Power grid corporation to construct a new 765/400kV sub-station at Meerut and augmentation of sub-station at Mandola (UP) and Ballabgarh (Haryana). (BS)
Great Offshore said it has deferred its funds raising plans. (FE)
Jet Airways to raise over US$200mn through the QIP route. (FE)
IDBI Bank plans to raise US$300mn through medium term note by the end of the current fiscal. (FE)
SAIL announced a new round of hike in steel prices of Rs500 per tonne for flat products. (FE)
Union Bank of India and Dena Bank have reduced their interest rates on most of the foreign currency deposits with effect from February 1. (ET)
Zylog has acquired Canada-based consulting and enginnering company Brainhunter for ~Rs1.5bn. (BS)
Bharat Electronics is set to get an order from the Indian Air Force (IAF) for supply of an additional 750 Akash medium-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) for six squadrons. Each squadron will have 125 missiles and radars and the order is valued at Rs43bn. (BS)
Bajaj Auto posted a 112% increase in motorcycle sales for the month of January, with major contributions coming from the newly-launched products under the Pulsar and Discover brands. (BS)
Titan Industries is set to open a new watch assembly facility in Pantnagar in Uttarakhand. (BS)
Bharat Biotech International would invest Rs2.5bn over the next two years in clinical research. (BS)
The Delhi High Court has stayed a decision to revoke the patent granted to Abbott Laboratories’ rheumatoid arthritis drug, Humira (adalimumab). (BS)
NTPC issue floor price set at Rs201. (FE)
In a bid to consolidate the nascent export recovery, the commerce & industry ministry is pushing for cheaper forex loans for exporters. Since liquidity has improved significantly since the financial sector meltdown, the ministry feels that there is a strong case for reducing the interest charged on foreign exchange loans.(ET)
India is unlikely to achieve the desired target of annual steel production capacity of 124 million tonne by 2011-12 due to slow progress in big expansion projects of different companies. (ET)
India’s coffee exports rose to to 15,103 tonnes in January, up by 65 per cent from the same last year. (ET)
Government plans to raise the cap on FDI by any single investor (currently 5%) in India’s stock and commodity exchanges .However, the overall cap on FDI for these bourses would remain 49%. (FE)
India and Germany talked about boosting their trade and security cooperation in combating global terrorism. (FE)
The MSME ministry has asked the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to increase the lending priority and tax audit for micro enterprises. (FE)
The government said it will divest up to 15% stake in state-run Coal India Ltd in next six months. (FE)