Briefly business

The government will soon set up an inter-ministerial task force to rationalise coal sourcing so as to help key consumers in the power,steel and cement sectors optimise transportation costs.

Inter-ministerial panel on coal sources

NEW DELHI: The government will soon set up an inter-ministerial task force to rationalise coal sourcing so as to help key consumers in the power,steel and cement sectors optimise transportation costs. It has been decided to constitute an Inter-Ministerial Task Force with members from ministries like Coal,Power,Steel,Railways,Central Electricity Authority,Coal India Ltd and other state-owned coal firms,NTPC,and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Jaiswal said.

India,Finland to cooperate in roads

NEW DELHI: India and Finland have agreed to cooperate in building roads and highways and share information on attracting more investments for public-private-partnership PPP projects in the sector. A Memorandum of Cooperation MoC in this regard was signed between Transport Minister Kamal Nath and his Finnish counterpart Anu Vehvilainen in Helsinki.

Sebi clears StanChart IDR,issue by May-end

NEW DELHI: Market regulator Sebi has cleared Standard Chartered Bank8217;s proposed Indian Depository Receipt IDR issue,which will help the UK-based lender raise 1 billion about Rs 4,500 crore from the domestic capital market. StanCharts IDR,the first issue of its kind,is likely to open for public subscription by the end of the month.

FlyDubai to launch India operations

MUMBAI: Dubai-based budget air carrier FlyDubai said it would start its proposed India operations with a flight service between Dubai and Lucknow from June 2. The Dubai-Lucknow flight would operate three times a week,it said in a press release. The flight would operate on Mondays,Wednesdays and Fridays,while the return service would run on Tuesdays,Thursdays and Saturdays.

Volvo invests Rs 90 cr in Bangalore facility

BANGALORE: Volvo Construction Equipment said it has invested Rs 90 crore in its facility here for the production of excavators. This is part of the companys objective of supporting customers in the growing BRIC Brazil,Russia,India amp; China markets,it said in a statement.

Duty exemption on small cigarettes goes

NEW DELHI: The government has withdrawn the excise duty exemption on small-sized cigarettes,a move that may lead to increase in prices of the sticks. Cigarettes of less than 60 mm length were given excise duty benefits of Rs 150 per thousand sticks in February.

RBI issues norms for detecting unfit notes

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MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank on Tuesday came out with guidelines for mechanical detection of notes unfit for circulation and replacement with new bills. Prescribing the parameters for declaring a currency note unfit for circulation,the new guidelines said that soiled notes would have to be identified by cash-handling machines being used by banks.