(PTI) The Department of Telecommunications has sought Rs 1.72 lakh crore in past statutory dues from state-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd following the Supreme Court’s ruling on revenues that need to be taken into consideration for payment of government dues. Sources with direct knowledge of the development said DoT sent a letter to GAIL last month seeking Rs 1,72,655 crore in dues on IP-1 and IP-2 licences as well as Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence. In response, GAIL has told DoT that it owes nothing more than what it has already paid to the government. The firm told DoT…
Author: Aruna Sharma
(PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday sought to assuage concerns of Muslims over the amended citizenship law and the NRC, saying both have nothing to do with Indian citizens and slammed his rivals for “inciting” people and trying to divide the country in their bid to target him. Putting up a strong defence of the contentious law, he said at a rally in the national capital that it is about giving rights to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries and does not snatch anybody’s rights. Launching a scathing attack on opposition parties like the Congress, AAP, TMC and the Left over…
(ET) The government is looking at introducing methanol-blended fuel pan India — a move that can potentially reduce one’s fuel bill by at least 10%, lower vehicular pollution levels by over 30%, and save the exchequer Rs 5,000 crore in annual import bill. Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has written to petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, asking him to “make all efforts” to make methanol widely available for commercial use at fuel stations, officials told. Currently, vehicles in India use up to 10% ethanol-blended fuel. But the cost of ethanol production is comparatively high at Rs 42 a litre. Methonol,…
(LiveMint) The counting of votes for 81 Jharkhand Assembly seats begin today. The state went to polls in five phases from November 30 to December 20. The counting of votes will start at 8 am in all 24 district headquarters amid tight security.Jharkhand is the third BJP-ruled state after Haryana and Maharashtra that went to polls this year. In Jharkhand, the Bharatiya Janata Party is up against the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance which includes Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). While the JMM has fielded candidates in 43 seats, the Congress and the RJD are fighting for 31 and…
(PTI) The domestic steel sector is facing challenges in form of high input costs and unavailability of coking coal in the country, SAIL chairman A K Chaudhary said on Saturday, and conveyed that the government is aware of the issues and taking appropriate measures to resolve them. He was speaking at a session on ‘India: Roadmap to a USD 5 trillion economy’ organised by industry chamber FICCI here. High input cost is a concern for the industry, the Steel Authority of India Ltd chairman said adding that the production cost of steel in India is the highest at present. One of the major factors contributing to high production cost…
(PTI) Wipro Ltd has partnered with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) to launch the ‘Future Skills’ platform for 10,000 students from over 20 engineering colleges in India. This is a part of Wipro’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme, TalentNext which aims to enhance the quality of engineering education by preparing faculty and academic leaders to train students, the Bengaluru-headquartered company said in a statement. The programme has now been extended to students directly through ‘Future Skills’, which is a new age platform built to bridge the industry-academia skill gap and help students keep pace with the emerging technologies…
(PTI) PowerGrid Corporation on Friday said its board has approved a proposal for investment of Rs 180 crore at Kanpur, Bhiwani and Wardha substations. The amount will be utilised to handle faults at the said stations, the company said in a BSE filing. The board of directors in their meeting held on December 19, 2019 have accorded investment approval of about Rs 180 Crore with respect to schemes to control fault level at Kanpur & Bhiwani Substations in Northern Region and Wardha substations in Western Region with commissioning schedule progressively in 18 and 27 months respectively, from the date of investment approval,” it said.
(LiveMint) Bone-chilling cold conditions prevailed in north India on Friday with fresh snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, as a foggy morning in Delhi delayed 760 flights and led to cancellation of 19, while over 100 trains remained up to two hours behind schedule. The national capital also braved a cold day with minimum temperature settling at 6.4 degrees Celsius. Officials said visibility reduced to zero at some places in the morning affecting and train and plane services. “Nineteen flights were cancelled, five were diverted and 760 were delayed due to dense fog that enveloped the national capital on…
(LiveMint) Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government has corrected past weaknesses of the economy, and urged industrialists to “invest boldly”, promising protection against wrong actions in genuine commercial failures. “I want to assure the banking and corporate world that we have been able to overcome weaknesses in the system to a large extent. And so they should now take decisions fearlessly, invest boldly and spend undauntedly,” Modi told the gathering at an event to celebrate the centenary of industry lobby Assocham. Echoing Modi, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also urged India Inc to come out of its mood of “self-doubt” and unleash the…
(ET) The government is likely to issue Expression of Interest for privatisation of Air India and BPCL in January. “We are working towards issuing EoIs for Air India first and then BPCL in January and should be able to do it. If we are to sell them in March, at least backwards two months are needed for the bidders to do due diligence. Big assets like BPCL will take time as due diligence has be carried out,” a senior Finance Ministry official said here. BPCL has a market cap of Rs 1.06 lakh crore. Before the sale, the government is looking to shift…