Orissa government is likely to challenge the Union ministry of environment & forest’s decision to deny permission to state owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) to mine bauxite in the Nyamgiri hills

OMC had entered into a JV with Vedanta Aluminum for mining to deed VAL’s refinery at Nyamgiri. State government had committed to supply 150 million tons of bauxite to VAL.

India’s biggest fuel retailer IOC is considering raising petrol prices by 35 paise per litre this week as the crude oil prices have gone up.

If government increases the prices this will be the third hike in petrol prices since government freed its pricing on June 26

IOC decision is expected to be followed by other state run fuel retailers- Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp

HDFC standard life insurance has put off its listing plans until the government relaxed foreign investment norms. UK life insurer Standard Life Insurance holds the maximum permissible 26% in the life insurance venture with mortgage giant HDFC.

If government relaxes foreign investment limits to 49% as expected Standard Life will subscribe to its full entitlement.

Three leading US based private equity firms- Carlyle, Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts and Warburg Pincus are likely to acquire an effective stake of 15-18% in “HERO HONDA Motors”

Discussions with three PE firms to sell 60-70% stake in a special purpose vehicle to fund the acquisition of Honda’s 26% shareholding and it is likely to be completed in two phases.

Food Inflation declined for the fourth week in a row to a one year low but government remain concerned over the pace of the decline

The food inflation declined to 12.3% but it has increased when compared to previous year figures which was 12.59% a year ago