Reliance Industries (RIL) has agreed to share KG-D6 accounts with the national auditor under the terms of the production sharing contract (PSC), meeting a key demand of oil minister Jaipal Reddy ahead of a crucial meeting of the block's management committee. Reddy had asked the company to provide data for audit last month, when he assured RIL executive director and BP India head that the government would speed up approvals for various proposals in four blocks, including KG-D6. Along with the assurance, the ministry had stated that company's representatives were requested to make all the records and accounts of the KG-D6 block available to the CAG as provided for in the Production Sharing Contract.

Country's largest power producer NTPC is looking to spend more than Rs 1.38 lakh crore over the next few years on projects with a total capacity of over 27,000 MW. The capital expenditure has been envisaged for capacities that are either under construction or being awarded or at tendering/planning stage. The state-owned power producer plans to shell out Rs 47,169 crore for capacities that are currently being constructed, involving 12,428 MW generation capacity. Another Rs 91,353 crore will be spent for projects under award/tender/planning, with a total capacity of 15,100 MW. Together, the capital expenditure would be Rs 1,38,522 crore for establishing 27,528 MW additional capacity. Out of the total capex amount, Rs 96,965 would be funded through debt.

All the required formalities have been completed for the launch a joint venture company between the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) and the Gas Authority of India (GAIL) for supply of natural gas in the city and surrounding areas. The proposal of this joint venture company would come before the general body of the VMC on August 8. After getting approval from the elected members of the VMC, the Gujarat government as well as the concerned central authorities, the joint venture company is expected to come into existence in the next couple of months. Once the new company comes into existence, it is expected to provide over 85,000 gas piped connections in the city, in addition to the existing 78,000 connections. GAIL presently has allocated one lakh cubic metres of gas for the city, which will be increased to provide more gas connections for domestic, non-domestic and industrial sector.

Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) plans to invest Rs 1 lakh crore to expand its capacity multi-fold to 20 million tonnes per annum in the next eight years. JSPL has a 3 MTPA capacity at Raigarh in Chhattisgarh and is planning to commission the first phase of its 6 MTPA plant at Angul in Odisha by 2013-14. Besides, the company is also constructing a greenfield plant of similar capacity in Jharkhand. Earlier, the company had announced to invest Rs 45,000 crore in its expansion by 2015-16, through a mix of debt and internal resources. As on March, 2012, the company had a net debt of about Rs 17,000 crore and debt-equity ratio of 0.61. Besides, it also had a cash profit of Rs 5,578 crore at the end of the last fiscal. Besides, the company has already initiated the process to acquire land and other regulatory clearances to expand the Chhattisgarh plant to 7 MTPA capacity.

Pharma major Cipla plans to invest Rs 500 crore for setting up an active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) facilities at Patalganga, Bengaluru and Kurkumbh. The setting up of these facilities is expected to be complete in 2012-13. Besides, several dosage forms and APIs manufactured at the company's facilities continued to enjoy the approval of major international regulatory agencies such as USFDA and WHO. The company is actively involved in developing bio-similars/bio-therapeutic products through its partners in China. It is expected that the clinical trials on these drugs will be completed in 2 to 3 years and subsequently the products will be launched in India. The company's venture into stem cell-based products is under progress with a major investment in Stempeutics Research, Bengaluru.

The much talked-about joint venture between state-owned miner NMDC and Russian steelmaker Severstal continues to languish on the drawing board, as neither is ready to be a minority stakeholder. The two companies had signed a memorandum of association in 2010. In late 2011, they formed a joint venture company to set up a three-million tonne steel plant in Karnataka for Rs 20,000 crore. The two companies held equal share in the joint venture, in which NMDC was to supply iron ore for the steel plant, while Severstal would supply coking coal from its mines in Russia. However, Severstal now plans to have the majority stake in the venture, something unacceptable to NMDC. In May, the two companies were likely to resolve the ownership dispute by June-July. But the tussle seems far from over.

MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) has received approvals from market watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to launch Currency Options. These approvals will enable the exchange to expand its offerings in the Currency Derivatives Segment (CDS) by introducing Currency Options in the Dollar-Indian Rupee (USD-INR) currency pair. MCX-SX held a successful mock trading session on August 4, 2012 and will soon announce the date of live trading of Currency Options. MCX-SX, whose application for a full-fledged stock exchange was recently approved by SEBI, currently offers trading in only currency futures. The MCX-SX currency futures platform is supported by a strong membership base of 751 members and witnesses nationwide participation from 714 towns and cities across India.

Leading global paints and coatings firm Akzo Nobel India plans to invest Rs 150 crore in a new manufacturing plant at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. The work to establish integrated coatings facility at Gwalior has started. At present, the company operates five plants. The company operates mainly in decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals and recently made a foray into wood finishes. It enhanced its manufacturing capacity last fiscal by commissioning a 30 million litre facility in Hyderabad. It also added capacity of coil coatings at Bangalore plant. Akzo Nobel India (formerly ICI India) is engaged in manufacturing and marketing of paints, speciality chemicals, adhesives and starch. The company's origin goes way back in 1926 when Brunner Mond & Co, one of the four companies was combined to form ICI in UK.

The Bangalore-based public sector lender Vijaya Bank is hopeful of raising its credit growth to 18-20 percent in the current financial year. However, the bank is concerned regarding patchy monsoon and the overall gloomy economic environment may have adverse impact on credit pick-up. The public sector lender posted a 16 percent rise in credit demand and 14 percent increase in deposits in Q1. While the lender's advances increased to Rs 59,306 crore in the June quarter from Rs 51,130 crore reported a year ago, its deposits increased to Rs 86,464 crore from Rs 75,877 crore in the same period previous fiscal. Vijaya Bank posted a 54 percent rise in its net profit at Rs 111.36 crore in the first quarter of current fiscal.

Rising raw material costs, high inflation and competition will be challenges in the ongoing fiscal, FMCG firm Emami stated but the company remains positive to grow on back of cost efficiency measures and strengthening of distribution network. According to the company, which sells personal and healthcare care products under the brands like 'Boroplus' and 'Sona Chandi Chywanprash' among others, rising crude oil, mentha oil and other raw material costs are threatening margins. Emami is also focusing on its healthcare and over-the-counter Zandu product portfolio coupled with new launches to drive growth. For the 2011-12 fiscal, Emami posted revenues of Rs 1,454 crore. Its profit after tax stood at Rs 259 crore.