By end-September 2013, the four nations involved in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project agreed to form a company for implementing this purpose. All the four nations agreed to this at a recent meeting of the Steering Committee on the TAPI gas pipeline project in Ashgabat. The meeting was attended by Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily, Rashid Meredov, Depu
Category: Infrastructure Finance
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Rupee depreciation to hit Indian firms badly
A note from CRISIL Research shows that only half of the foreign exchange exposure of Indian companies is hedged. As on March 31, Indian companies had $200 billion of foreign currency debt and 45 per cent of this was short-term, a study by rating agency CRISIL shows. Mukesh Agarwal, President, CRISIL Research, said a significant portion remained unprotected from the volati
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Rupee strengthens against dollar due to regulatory steps
Owing to a slew of measures taken by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and SEBI and also because of improvement in foreign capital inflows, Indian rupee is strengthening marginally against dollar. After depreciating to a record low of 61.21 some days ago, the Indian rupee strengthened to 59.65 against the dollar, the most since June 28. The recent strengthening of rupee is also helped by the sale of dollar by banks and exporters, reports indica
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PEs invested $168 mn in microfinance firms in FY13
Data released by Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) shows private equity investors (PEs) invested $168 million (close to Rs 10,000 crore at current value) in the microfinance sector in 2012-13. Besides PEs, investors multilateral and government-supported funds like SIDBI and IFC also invested in the sector during the year. In fact, reports suggest that these kinds of investors contributed a large part
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Plan panel’s move irks ministries
The move by the Planning Commission to initiate the mid-term appraisal process for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan at a time when the plan document is not even fully printed has irked central and state government departments. While the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period began in April 2012, the strategy document was finalised and approved by National Development Council only in late December 2012 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prepared the foreword for the Plan document only
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Minister invites French investment in infrastructure
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma welcomed French government and companies to invest in infrastructure, transport, high technology, energy and other sectors in India. He discussed mutual cooperation in the field of economy and business during his meeting with French Minister for Foreign Trade Nicole Bricq in Paris. Sharma also requested the French Minister to enco
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OMCs oppose finance ministry proposal on pricing method
Public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) like Indian Oil (IOC) opposed the proposal of the finance ministry to adopt export pricing method for calculating under-recoveries on cooking gas and diesel. State-run OMCs argue that if the finance ministry's proposed formula for subsidy sharing is accepted, they stand to lose out on compensation and it will also impact their investment and expansion plans
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State-run banks take efforts to recover bad loans
In order to recover bad loans from borrowers, some public sector banks are putting pressure on the guarantors of wilful loan defaulters. One such incidence happened when Allahabad Bank published a public notice exposing the guarantor of a borrower who defaulted on his loan. The state-run bank published the photographs of two guarantors as well in the newspapers as part of a publi
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RBI tightens trading norms to curb volatility in currency mkt
In a bid to curb volatility in the currency market, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prohibited banks from taking proprietary position in the currency futures and exchange-traded currency options market. This effectively restricts them to transact only on behalf of clients. Banks carry out currency trading on behalf of their clients while they have a separate desk to trade in the foreign exchange market of their own. The latter is
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KKR to invest substantial amount in Indian ventures
A large portion of the $6 billion raised by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) in its Asian II Fund could be deployed in Indian business ventures, reports suggest. It may be learnt that the American private equity (PE) fund KKR raised $6 billion through Asian II Fund and this became the largest pan-Asian PE fund raised so far. KKR invested over 25 percent of its first Asian fund in India, picking up stakes in half-a-dozen companies for $1.1