NTPC is keen to join hands with Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) to augment its generation capacity and capability, which have been hit by coal shortage.

Minutes of a July meeting of an advisory group on integrated power development, headed by Suresh Prabhu, said, “NTPC’s performance was affected in recent years, and continues to be so, by the general situation of the coal shortage in the country. While this is true, it is also a fact that NTPC could develop the coal blocks allotted to it from 2004.”

In a setback to the petroleum ministry, gas utility GAIL and refiner Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd (CPCL) have expressed their inability to deduct $115 million from the amount due to Reliance Industries (RIL) to make up for the additional profit petroleum from the flagging Krishna Godavari-D6 block.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had last month told the Parliament that his ministry has disallowed RIL from recovering $2.37 billion invested to develop offshore Krishna Godavari gas fields as output has fallen drastically and was way below the promised volumes in past four years.

When Lanco Infratech sold its 1,200 Mw thermal power plant in Udupi to Adani Power last week for Rs 6,000 crore, it divested its most profitable asset to trim debt. Now the company plans to sell another 3,000 Mw capacity for Rs 20,000 crore, wiping out its operational power portfolio.

The Hyderabad-based company, which has 16 operating firms in power, coal mining and road construction, had debts of Rs 34,297 crore in March 2014, nearly 13 times its equity.

Singapore: India on Saturday sought investments from Singapore in its infrastructure and connectivity projects along the ambitious Delhi-Mumbai and Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridors as well as in the north-eastern region.

Kicking off an year-long celebration to mark 50th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties jointly with her Singaporean counterpart K. Shanmugam, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said the occasion will be used to advance economic engagement, defence and security cooperation between the two countries.

Bangalore/Mumbai: Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd has changed the chief executive of Mahindra Retail Pvt. Ltd, which runs the Mom and Me and Beanstalk chain stores, after the kids wear retailer went on an expansion spree for several years that led to hundreds of crore in losses.

Mahindra has brought in Prakash Wakankar from its private equity arm Mahindra Partners to replace K. Venkataraman as CEO at Mahindra Retail. Wakankar is a former CEO of the Indian business of confectionery maker Perfetti Van Melle and also headed Mahindra Holidays and Resorts in a brief stint more than a decade ago.

German car maker Daimler AG's luxury brand division Mercedes-Benz has been found guilty of manipulating prices for after-sales services in China, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing authorities in Jiangsu province.

An array of industries, from milk powder makers to tech firms, have been coming under the spotlight in recent years as China intensifies its efforts to bring companies into compliance with a 2008 anti-monopoly law.

Even as the big boys of Indian e-commerce splurge on “reaching out to consumers”, spending crores on marketing and advertising, the e-tailers unanimously agree on technology being the backbone of their business. Be it hiring professionals at a premium or driving innovation through in-house technologies, the virtual platforms can not do without constant improvisation in technology.

Reiterating its bullishness on the domestic equities, Swiss brokerage UBS has said NSE Nifty will scale the 8,000-mark by December even though market expectations from government remain "unrealistically" high.

"The market direction is likely to remain positive going forward. We believe investors will be willing to give a premium for growth potential, especially as cyclical economic recovery starts manifesting in data points...therefore we maintain our Nifty target for end-2014 at 8000," UBS analyst Gautam Chhaochharia said in a note.

The benchmark BSE Sensex fell over 14 points in early trade today as funds and retail investors booked profits after four sessions of gains amid a mixed trend in other Asian markets.

The 30-share barometer, which had gained 774.09 points in the previous four sessions, shed 14.47 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 26,088.76, led by weakness in FMCG, IT, realty and tech sector stocks.

Tata Motors has rallied 2% to Rs 495, also its record high on BSE, extending its rally on the bourses.

In past one week, the stock surged 14% from Rs 433 on August 8, after reporting a robust earnings for the quarter ended June 2014 on back of strong sales of luxury Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR). The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex gain 3.3% during the same period.

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