* AVIATION: Air Costa plans to apply for a pan-India licence in the next 6-8 months.
* BANKS: Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan and the deputy governors will not be meeting the heads of the county's leading banks in the run up to the upcoming review of its monetary policy. The Reserve Bank of India is likely to hike repo rate by 25 basis points on Oct 29 on the back of rise in inflation rates in September.
* COURTS: Tata Capital has filed a notice against SKS Ispat & Power in the Bombay High Court challenging a demerger plan of the company in a bid to recover dues of about 500 mln rupees.
* ECONOMY: Setting up of natural resource centre for monitoring the smooth acquisition of land and creation of state-level social impact assessment units are among the key rules of the first set of draft rules released under the new land acquisition law.
* ENERGY: Forum of Regulators has called for amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003, empowering regulators to impose penalty for non-compliance by state distribution companies of the renewable energy obligation. Power companies can soon be allowed to divert surplus coal generated from captive mines to their other power projects won through tariff-based bidding. Russia has shown interest in joining the four-nation initiative as an active partner to build the gas pipelines between Turkmenistan and India . In a confidential agreement, Iran has authorised Oman to collect crude oil payments due to it by buyers, including India , and keep in safe custody.
* EXCHANGES: The Enforcement Directorate, Mumbai, has registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against National Spot Exchange board and directors of defaulting companies. Forensic audit commissioned by Forward Markets Commission has found that the exchange gave away 17 bln rupees as returns during its life span.
* GOVERNMENT: The Congress said the "strategic investments" in purchase of weather bureau's equipment under the United Progressive Alliance regime were now paying off while the Bharatiya Janata Party said the Vajpayee government had kickstarted the setting up of National Disaster Management Authority. An inter-ministerial group, which reviewed the onion production and export situation, decided not to raise the minimum export price for the time being.
* HEALTHCARE: Private equity firm IDFC Alternatives has invested 1.25 bln rupees in Bangalore-based healthcare services provider Medi Assist Healthcare.
* PHARMA: Global pharmaceutical players may be able to sell, without clinical testing in India , drugs that they have been selling for at least four years in international markets.
* POLITICS: The Bharatiya Janata Party objected to Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan's announcement abroad of initiating "big" banking sector reforms, saying such an important policy decision on opening up the banking sector should have first been debated.
* REGULATORS: SEBI has proposed new norms for settlement of administrative and civil proceedings, under which insider trading and front running defaults in publicly listed companies will no longer be settled through the market regulator's consent settlement mechanism.
* REALTY: Foreign real estate developers might be allowed to exit before the mandatory three years stipulated at present, but with riders. Global fund house Xander is close to acquiring an IT special economic zone in Chennai from the development arm of Shriram Group for 6.9 bln rupees.
* RETAIL: Swedish furniture chain, IKEA is yet to identify a location for its first store in the country. Finance minister has said Wal-Mart will be a speck in India 's market and its absence will not make a huge difference.
* TELECOM: SingTel has sought approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to increase its stake in SingTel Global ( India ) Pvt Ltd to 100% from 74% currently. The Cellular Operators Association of India has said the rule for migration to the new unified licencing norms is "coercive in nature". To lower the current account deficit, the finance ministry has asked the Department of Telecom to explore the possibility of raising additional revenue by auctioning 3G spectrum. Reliance Jio Infocomm has paid 16.73 bln rupees to the government as entry fee to migrate to unified licence.
* BANKS: Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan and the deputy governors will not be meeting the heads of the county's leading banks in the run up to the upcoming review of its monetary policy. The Reserve Bank of India is likely to hike repo rate by 25 basis points on Oct 29 on the back of rise in inflation rates in September.
* COURTS: Tata Capital has filed a notice against SKS Ispat & Power in the Bombay High Court challenging a demerger plan of the company in a bid to recover dues of about 500 mln rupees.
* ECONOMY: Setting up of natural resource centre for monitoring the smooth acquisition of land and creation of state-level social impact assessment units are among the key rules of the first set of draft rules released under the new land acquisition law.
* ENERGY: Forum of Regulators has called for amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003, empowering regulators to impose penalty for non-compliance by state distribution companies of the renewable energy obligation. Power companies can soon be allowed to divert surplus coal generated from captive mines to their other power projects won through tariff-based bidding. Russia has shown interest in joining the four-nation initiative as an active partner to build the gas pipelines between Turkmenistan and India . In a confidential agreement, Iran has authorised Oman to collect crude oil payments due to it by buyers, including India , and keep in safe custody.
* EXCHANGES: The Enforcement Directorate, Mumbai, has registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against National Spot Exchange board and directors of defaulting companies. Forensic audit commissioned by Forward Markets Commission has found that the exchange gave away 17 bln rupees as returns during its life span.
* GOVERNMENT: The Congress said the "strategic investments" in purchase of weather bureau's equipment under the United Progressive Alliance regime were now paying off while the Bharatiya Janata Party said the Vajpayee government had kickstarted the setting up of National Disaster Management Authority. An inter-ministerial group, which reviewed the onion production and export situation, decided not to raise the minimum export price for the time being.
* HEALTHCARE: Private equity firm IDFC Alternatives has invested 1.25 bln rupees in Bangalore-based healthcare services provider Medi Assist Healthcare.
* PHARMA: Global pharmaceutical players may be able to sell, without clinical testing in India , drugs that they have been selling for at least four years in international markets.
* POLITICS: The Bharatiya Janata Party objected to Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan's announcement abroad of initiating "big" banking sector reforms, saying such an important policy decision on opening up the banking sector should have first been debated.
* REGULATORS: SEBI has proposed new norms for settlement of administrative and civil proceedings, under which insider trading and front running defaults in publicly listed companies will no longer be settled through the market regulator's consent settlement mechanism.
* REALTY: Foreign real estate developers might be allowed to exit before the mandatory three years stipulated at present, but with riders. Global fund house Xander is close to acquiring an IT special economic zone in Chennai from the development arm of Shriram Group for 6.9 bln rupees.
* RETAIL: Swedish furniture chain, IKEA is yet to identify a location for its first store in the country. Finance minister has said Wal-Mart will be a speck in India 's market and its absence will not make a huge difference.
* TELECOM: SingTel has sought approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to increase its stake in SingTel Global ( India ) Pvt Ltd to 100% from 74% currently. The Cellular Operators Association of India has said the rule for migration to the new unified licencing norms is "coercive in nature". To lower the current account deficit, the finance ministry has asked the Department of Telecom to explore the possibility of raising additional revenue by auctioning 3G spectrum. Reliance Jio Infocomm has paid 16.73 bln rupees to the government as entry fee to migrate to unified licence.
