* CAPITAL GOODS: Instrumentation Company WAAREE Group has acquired Italian valve manufacturer Cesare Bonetti.
* ECONOMY: Credit rating agency ICRA has cut its forecast on India 's gross domestic product growth in the current financial year to 5.4-5.6% from 5.8-6.0% earlier on weaker-than-expected industrial production and exports.
* FAST MOVING CONSUMER GOODS: Private equity fund Sequoia may invest 1 bln rupees in personal care company Vini Cosmetics. The Supreme Court has banned surrogate advertisement for tobacco products, slamming the government for 'conniving' with the tobacco lobby and disregarding health of citizens
* FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT: American car rental company Avis has sought Foreign Investment Promotion Board's approval to acquire additional 7% stake in its joint venture with the Oberoi group for 180 mln rupees.
* GOVERNMENT: The rural development ministry will give additional 2 bln rupees to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar , Odisha, and Jharkhand under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
* MARKET: SEBI sold the entire investment limit for foreign institutional investors to invest in government bonds, in a well-bid auction.
* MEDIA: The government may soon clear Tata Sky's new shareholding structure under which TATA COMMUNICATIONS and Singapore-based Omega TC Holdings will collectively hold over 43% in the direct-to-home television company.
* METAL & MINING: The government may bar winners of first auction of coal blocks from selling the asset or diluting equity until the mine is developed. Most villagers oppose Vedanta group's plan to mine bauxite in Niyamgiri hills.
- Vedanta Aluminium may soon get bauxite from Bharat Aluminium Co's mines. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam plans to cut stake in the $11-bln steel project in Afghanistan due to delay in execution.
* OIL & GAS: The Empowered Group of Ministers' meeting on making natural gas available to fuel-starved power plants has been deferred.
* PHARMACEUTICAL: Belgium-based UCB has sued 15 companies including RANBAXY LABORATORIES, SUN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES, AUROBINDO PHARMA, along with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz and Watson to prevent them from marketing the generic of epilepsy treatment drug Vimpat.
* PRINTING AND PACKAGING: Machinery manufacturers are gearing up to establish presence in overseas markets.
* REGULATORY: The Department of Disinvestment has floated a draft Cabinet note for inter-ministerial consultations, which moots transferring of shares of loss-making state-owned companies into a fund to make them compliant with minimum public shareholding norm. The government has amended the law relating to consent orders with retrospective effect to provide entire process a legal sanctity.
- Food Minister K.V. Thomas Monday said that the government is working on improving the regulatory framework for spot exchanges. SEBI is probing instances of brokers leasing their terminals to stock market operators who use the trading system to create artificial volumes in shares and manipulate prices. RBI has started scrutiny of 3,000 private finance companies.
* RETAIL: The government is set to dilute local sourcing norms for foreign retailers, and give states freedom to relax 1 mln population threshold. Bharti Wal-Mart's loss expanded 34% in 2012.
* TAXATION: Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on Goods and Services Tax unanimously elected Jammu & Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul
Rahim Rather as the new chairman of the panel. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the law ministry is vetting the draft constitutional amendment bill, following which it would be placed before the GST panel for approval.
- The finance ministry has decided that companies selling products below cost to increase market penetration will now have to pay excise duty on normal price. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has assured opposition legislators that local body tax, which will replace octroi, will not be implemented in Mumbai from Oct 1, but may come into effect from Apr 1, 2014.
* TELECOM: Vodafone India is likely to cut rates for data access for its third generation network on Tuesday.
* TEXTILES: Government has relaxed quarantine norms for import of certain varieties of wool to smoothen the inflow of these items, which will help domestic industry engaged in value-addition.
* TRADE: The RBI has asked all nominated banks and agencies to ensure that at least one fifth of imported gold is made available for exports and that gold is imported for domestic use only for entities in the jewellery business.
* ECONOMY: Credit rating agency ICRA has cut its forecast on India 's gross domestic product growth in the current financial year to 5.4-5.6% from 5.8-6.0% earlier on weaker-than-expected industrial production and exports.
* FAST MOVING CONSUMER GOODS: Private equity fund Sequoia may invest 1 bln rupees in personal care company Vini Cosmetics. The Supreme Court has banned surrogate advertisement for tobacco products, slamming the government for 'conniving' with the tobacco lobby and disregarding health of citizens
* FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT: American car rental company Avis has sought Foreign Investment Promotion Board's approval to acquire additional 7% stake in its joint venture with the Oberoi group for 180 mln rupees.
* GOVERNMENT: The rural development ministry will give additional 2 bln rupees to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar , Odisha, and Jharkhand under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
* MARKET: SEBI sold the entire investment limit for foreign institutional investors to invest in government bonds, in a well-bid auction.
* MEDIA: The government may soon clear Tata Sky's new shareholding structure under which TATA COMMUNICATIONS and Singapore-based Omega TC Holdings will collectively hold over 43% in the direct-to-home television company.
* METAL & MINING: The government may bar winners of first auction of coal blocks from selling the asset or diluting equity until the mine is developed. Most villagers oppose Vedanta group's plan to mine bauxite in Niyamgiri hills.
- Vedanta Aluminium may soon get bauxite from Bharat Aluminium Co's mines. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam plans to cut stake in the $11-bln steel project in Afghanistan due to delay in execution.
* OIL & GAS: The Empowered Group of Ministers' meeting on making natural gas available to fuel-starved power plants has been deferred.
* PHARMACEUTICAL: Belgium-based UCB has sued 15 companies including RANBAXY LABORATORIES, SUN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES, AUROBINDO PHARMA, along with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz and Watson to prevent them from marketing the generic of epilepsy treatment drug Vimpat.
* PRINTING AND PACKAGING: Machinery manufacturers are gearing up to establish presence in overseas markets.
* REGULATORY: The Department of Disinvestment has floated a draft Cabinet note for inter-ministerial consultations, which moots transferring of shares of loss-making state-owned companies into a fund to make them compliant with minimum public shareholding norm. The government has amended the law relating to consent orders with retrospective effect to provide entire process a legal sanctity.
- Food Minister K.V. Thomas Monday said that the government is working on improving the regulatory framework for spot exchanges. SEBI is probing instances of brokers leasing their terminals to stock market operators who use the trading system to create artificial volumes in shares and manipulate prices. RBI has started scrutiny of 3,000 private finance companies.
* RETAIL: The government is set to dilute local sourcing norms for foreign retailers, and give states freedom to relax 1 mln population threshold. Bharti Wal-Mart's loss expanded 34% in 2012.
* TAXATION: Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on Goods and Services Tax unanimously elected Jammu & Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul
Rahim Rather as the new chairman of the panel. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the law ministry is vetting the draft constitutional amendment bill, following which it would be placed before the GST panel for approval.
- The finance ministry has decided that companies selling products below cost to increase market penetration will now have to pay excise duty on normal price. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has assured opposition legislators that local body tax, which will replace octroi, will not be implemented in Mumbai from Oct 1, but may come into effect from Apr 1, 2014.
* TELECOM: Vodafone India is likely to cut rates for data access for its third generation network on Tuesday.
* TEXTILES: Government has relaxed quarantine norms for import of certain varieties of wool to smoothen the inflow of these items, which will help domestic industry engaged in value-addition.
* TRADE: The RBI has asked all nominated banks and agencies to ensure that at least one fifth of imported gold is made available for exports and that gold is imported for domestic use only for entities in the jewellery business.
