State-run oil companies including ONGC Videsh (OVL), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Oil India (OIL) and Bharat PetroResources (BPRL) are set to clinch deals worth $2 billion with Russia’s Rosneft on Wednesday for acquiring hydrocarbon assets. Rosneft’s chief executive Igor Sechin will arrive in New Delhi Tuesday afternoon for this purpose.

In one of the deals, IOC, OIL and BPRL would acquire up to 30% stake in the Taas-Yuryakh oil and gas fields in East Siberia, an official privy to the development told FE.

The Kotak Mahindra Group and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) on Monday announced a $525-million fund, joining the growing tribe of stressed assets players in India. Senior executives said the fund, to be called Kotak Special Situations Credit Fund, would have a mandate to invest in bank non-performing assets (NPAs) as well as structured debt extended to companies directly.

The BSNL board has formally approved signing of an intra-circle roaming (ICR) pact with Reliance Jio Infocomm across all 22 circles.

A top BSNL official said the two companies will start working on the agreed ICR arrangements and are expected to close the deal in a month’s time.

The benchmark BSE Sensex fell nearly 76 points in early trade on profit-booking by investors in recent gainers, even as retail inflation fell to a three-month low in February.

At 1011 hours, the Sensex was trading down 75.97 points slightly higher than its early morning level or 0.31% at 24,728.31 on the stock exchange. In the early morning trade, the 30-share barometer, which gained 180.94 points in the past two sessions, was trading down 60.95 points or 0.25% at 24,743.33 with healthcare, FMCG, power, oil and gas and metal sector stocks leading the losses.

The country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank has hit the international bond market with a $500-million (Rs 3,346.25 crore) issue. The bond sale is part of the bank's $7.5-billion (nearly Rs 50,193.75 crore) global medium-term note programme and is the first from a private sector domestic financial institution this year.

"ICICI Bank is in the overseas debt market with a planned $500 million (nearly Rs 3,346.25 crore) bond sale which will have a 10-year maturity. The bank has given a pricing guidance of 230 basis points above the US treasury," industry sources told PTI on Monday.

A survey of corporate India by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) says the metals and mining, automobile and construction materials sectors lead in sustainable business practices.

The Sustainable Plus survey, revealed on Monday, looks at the 100 largest companies by market capitalisation across 20 sectors in the country. It is aimed at checking the environment, social and governance dimensions of business and measures the progress of Indian companies in adopting sustainable business practices.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) yesterday launched ‘Clean Street Food’ project to raise the safety standards of foods sold on streets across New Delhi by training 20,000 roadside vendors on aspects of health and hygiene, in the first phase. As part of project Clean Street Food, FSSAI will partner with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship to train street food vendors at more than 40 centres across Delhi under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) category of the Government’s flagship skills training scheme- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).

Global software major Wipro on Monday announced winning a multi-year contract to develop a new IT platform for Danish energy firm NRGi's operations.

"We have won a multi-year engagement with NRGi, one of the top five utility providers in Denmark, to transform its customer relations management (CRM), billing and service bureau operations," the company said in a statement here.

MUMBAI: Top public sector lender State Bank of India on Monday released arrears worth Rs 1,465 crore to 7.75 lakh defence pensioners under One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme, as per the government rules.

The government had in November last year formally notified the OROP scheme for the more than 24 lakh defence ex-servicemen and 6 lakh war widows in the country.

New Delhi, March 13: State-owned power equipment maker Bhel has emerged as the lowest bidder for a thermal power project in Bangladesh. The $1.6-billion project will give a boost to India's energy diplomacy.

The proposed plant at Khulna will run on imported coal with capacity of 1,320 megawatt (MW), with two units to be built each of 660MW.

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