The Gujarat refinery of state-run Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) near here will start the process of land acquisition for its proposed Rs 6,800 crore capacity expansion project, a top company official has said.

IOC Executive Director S K Dhar Gupta said the process will start and they have received directives from the Gujarat government to purchase private land.

The Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL), that runs the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) in the city, has now got a new fleet of 123 air-conditioned (AC) buses equipped with automatic transmission from Tata Motors.

The new buses, flagged off by Tata Motors on Friday, are in addition to the order bagged by the company for 3200 buses under the JnNURM – phase II scheme. According to an official statement by Tata Motors, the buses are meant to reduce driver fatigue and provide for a superior commuting experience.

The L&T group has come forward to invest in solar and wind power projects in Andhra Pradesh.

L&T Financial Holdings Limited chairman and managing director YM Deosthali, who met chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, has sought further clarity on the government's wind power policy in this regard, according to the chief minister's office.

BJP leader Raghubar Das on Friday elected as the next chief minister of Jharkhand, becoming the first non-tribal leader to rule a state, which was carved out in 2000 of Bihar, to serve the tribal and reserved constituencies.

Das was unanimously elected at BJP's legislature party meeting in Ranchi.

Benchmark indices are trading marginally lower after losing initial momentum as the absence of any significant directional cues has limited fresh buying by investors. Losses in FMCG, auto and oil & gas shares are weighing the most on the indices.

At 11:50AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 41 points at 27,167 and the 50-share Nifty was flat at the mark 8,171.

Beachside memorials and religious services were held across Asia on Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that left more than a quarter million people dead in one of modern history’s worst natural disasters.

The devastating December 26, 2004 tsunami struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim. It eradicated entire coastal communities, decimated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches the morning after Christmas. Survivors waded through a horror show of corpse-filled waters.

Even as he was spearheading IT services major Wipro, Chairman Azim Premji built a parallel empire for himself through Premji Invest. The entity holds investments in over 40 public and private companies.

While most of the investments have remained under the wraps, Premji Invest's portfolio has a unique mix of companies ranging from sectors like technology, e-commerce, financial services, retail, fashion, healthcare to consumer goods.

Outgoing Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on categorically said there is no deal or any discussion going on between his National Conference (NC) and the BJP over the issue of government formation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Reliance Industries has signed shipping agreements with one of the world’s largest shipping companies, Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd (MOL), for transporting liquefied ethane from North America to India.

MOL will supervise the construction of six Very Large Ethane Carriers (VLECs), ordered by Reliance. MOL will also operate and manage the vessels after these are built and delivered.

State-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is planning to raise Rs 4,000 crore for the expansion of its Kochi refinery and to fund its petrochemicals venture, said three banking sources aware of the development. State Bank of India (SBI) has received the mandate to raise funds.

BPCL is planning to diversify into downstream petrochemicals with an investment of Rs 4,588 crore by using propylene. The public sector refiner is planning to produce niche petrochemicals such as acrylic acid, acrylates and oxo alcohols, which are predominantly being imported into the country, at its Kochi refinery facility, using the polymer grade propylene that will be available after the ongoing integrated refinery expansion project (IREP) is completed.

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