BIZ NEWS

Bank rate=6%, Repo rate=7.5% , Reverse Repo rate=6.5% , CRR=6%, SLR=24% , INR/1 USD=44.5855 India raised diesel and cooking gas prices for the first time in a year to reduce losses at state- owned refiners and narrow its budget deficit to a four-year low. A panel of Indian ministers, led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, allowed refiners including Indian Oil Corp., the nations biggest, to increase diesel prices by 3 rupees (7 cents) a liter, kerosene by 2 rupees a liter and cooking gas by 50 rupees for every 14.2 kilogram bottle, Oil Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said. Kolkata-based Emami is in talks with global FMCG giant Reckitt Benckiser to buy the personal care business of Paras Healthcare for an estimated deal size of up to Rs900 crore.Last year, British consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser had acquired Paras Pharmaceuticals for Rs3,260 crore ($726 million).Under the personal care portfolio, Paras Pharmaceuticals had been selling brands like Borosoft, Reconova, Livon, Set Wet and Zatak. Emami has been looking to strengthen its personal care and healthcare segments and has been scouting for acquisitions that would be of strategic fit to the company. Investor confidence in Indias oil refiners is improving the most in a year as the 8 percent drop in crude prices this month boosts the companies profit outlook.Bonds of Indian Oil Corp. are rallying the most since May 2010 and government bonds in the worlds fourth-largest importer of crude were the best performers in the so-called BRIC nations in June after Saudi Arabia increased oil supplies and Europes debt crisis clouded the outlook for the global economy. TCS launches iON in West Bengal iON, an integrated information technology solution for small and medium businesses (SMBs), by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is planning to have 1,000 clients in India by the end of this year and expects about 20-30 per cent of them to come from Eastern part of the country. Samsung signs MoU with DTU In a breakthrough step towards strengthening the academia-industry interface, Delhi Technological University (DTU), has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Samsung India Electronics Ltd (SIEL). The MoU broadly covers four areas of Collaboration-Cooperation in Knowledge Sharing through in-house tutorials, workshops conducted by DTU for employees of SIEL, sponsored doctoral and post graduate programmes at DTU for employees of SIEL, Internship opportunities for the students of DTU in SIEL and Joint Research projects.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given a conditional approval to the $9-billion Cairn-Vedanta deal. The CCEA has accepted most of the recommendations made by the Group of Ministers (GoM) that met to discuss the deal on May 27.Announcing the decision of CCEA, Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy said, "You are aware that we took the matter to the CCEA on 6th April 2011 which in turn referred the matter to GoM headed by Pranab Mukherjee. The GoM choose to recommend conditional approval and these conditions were 1) royalty should be treated as cost recoverable and 2) the ongoing arbitration case should be withdrawn. The GoM recommended that both these conditions should be enforced. The CCEA has endorsed these recommendations." Sequoia Capital Invests Rs 25 Crore in K12 Techno Services Sequoia Capital today announced an investment of ` 25 crore in K12 Techno Services Pvt. Ltd. in their second round of funding. K12 manages over 70 affordable Englishmedium schools run by 15 different trusts under the Gowtham Model School brand. K12 will utilise the funds for growth as well as modernisation of classrooms to allow teachers and students to leverage superior technology infrastructure for improving learning outcomes. K12 has also partnered with best-in-class and global specialists, CfBT UK and Brilliant Tutorials for spoken English and IIT training. The investment will also be used for expansion of the network by an additional 25 new schools across Andhra Pradesh.

Monsoon rain in India will be below normal for the second time in three years, the weather office said, potentially lowering farm output and accelerating inflation that is the highest among Asias major economies. Indias benchmark wholesale-price inflation quickened to 9.06 percent in May from 8.66 percent in April, according to data released on June 14. An index measuring wholesale prices of farm products including milk and lentils rose 8.96 percent in the week ended June 4 from a year earlier, according to the commerce ministry. Unilever, the worlds second-largest consumer-goods company, appointed the head of its Asia, Africa and central and eastern Europe unit as chief operating officer to spur growth in emerging markets.Harish Manwani will assume the new position on Sept. 1.. Manwani said this month he planned to increase the Lipton Tea makers business in China to as much as five times the current level.