Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)-Mittal Energy Ltd, the joint venture of ONGC and steel czar Lakshmi Mittal, has relinquished an oil block in Nigeria after the African nation refused to relieve it of a $6-billion downstream investment commitment.

OMEL — a joint venture of ONGC Videsh and Mittal Investment Sarl — had in 2005 won the right to explore for oil and gas in offshore OPL-279 and OPL-285 blocks after committing to invest $6 billion in an 180,000 barrels per day greenfield refinery, a 2,000 Mw power plant or a railway line from east to West of Nigeria.

Telecom operator Reliance Communications plans to cut down expansion cost and hive off some assets in its bid to reduce debt by about 37 per cent, to Rs 25,500 crore in the next 12 months.

The Anil Ambani-led company plans to use the key infrastructure - mobile towers and optical fibre - of his elder brother Mukesh Ambani's company Reliance Jio Infocomm for future expansion rather making its own fresh investments.

After months of negotiations and intermittent unrest impacting production, Pune-based Bajaj Auto and its Chakan plant (in Pune) unions have finally reached a wage agreement under which the management has agreed to increase the wages by up to Rs 10,000 per month.

According to the revised wage agreement, permanent employees having been with the company for five or more years will get a wage hike of Rs 10,000 a month while those having spent three years or more will be given Rs 9,500 a month.

The government has asked market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to allow relaxations in rules for follow-on public offerings (FPOs), two people with knowledge of the development have said.

For the 2014-15 disinvestment programme, the Centre intends to give more weight to the FPO route than the offer-for-sale (OFS) route, to ensure better participation from retail investors.

STAR Plus, the flagship general entertainment channel (GEC) of STAR India, is set to overhaul its programming. Many shows would be replaced by new ones.

"We are looking at a renewed programming line-up. We want to position the channel to include the youth. The content will indicate a more aspirational positioning. The process will start over the next three to four weeks," says Gaurav Banerjee, general manager, Star Plus.

Google just acquired the team behind Jetpac, an app that utilizes public Instagram data to determine things like the happiest or drunkest city. Jetpac launched in 2012 as a social travel guide on iPad but later shifted focus to its Instagram-driven data on its iphone app, “Jetpac City Guides.”

Google will most likely use the Jetpac team to improve search around location information using photo data. Google already announced that it uses computer vision and machine learning to let you search your own photos for things like sunsets, food and flowers. Jetpac’s CTO Pete Warden is a computer vision expert and a natural fit for a Google acquisition here.

The BSE Sensex extended gains for the fourth straight session today soaring by 184 points to reclaim the 26,000-mark after two weeks as inflation dropped to five-month low level and foreign capital inflows rose - markets are also expecting a positive 'mini-Budget' speech from PM Narendra Modi on Independence Day on Friday.

After doubling its market share to about 7% in just two years, on the back of diesel models of Amaze and City, Honda is now gearing up for the second leg of its mass market strategy to challenge the supremacy of Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai. The carmaker is developing a 1-litre petrol engine, the smallest in its car range globally, which, it hopes, will help it gain a foothold in the small car segment, which includes the country's top-selling models — Maruti Alto, WagonR, Celerio and Hyundai Eon.

The profitability of the struggling domestic unit of Tata Motors, especially that of its passenger car division, depends on the success of the newly launched sedan Zest and the forthcoming roll out Bolt, says global rating agency Moody’s.

"The profitability of Tata Motors' passenger car business depends on its ability to sell significant volumes of its new Zest and Bolt models," Moody's said in a statement.

NEW DELHI: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has proposed setting up of new entity, sort of an asset management company, to push completion of unfinished highway projects, which are facing major delays due to non-availability of finances from private developers and financial institutions. The proposal will come up for consideration at theNHAI Board meeting next week.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.