Ajit Pawar

Amid protests by a section of locals at Barsu in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district over a proposed oil refinery, senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Saturday said one should ensure that development projects do not cause any damage to the environment.
A section of residents in and around Barsu have been opposing the proposed refinery as they fear that the mega project will adversely affect the fragile biodiversity of the coastal Konkan region and also hit their livelihood. On Friday, as tempers ran high among protesters, the police used tear gas to disperse them.
Talking about the issue, Pawar, who is Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly, said, "We never opposed development projects in the state...Before implementing any projects, one should keep in mind that the environment is not harmed due to it in any manner. Apart from nature, local occupations like fishing should not be impacted due to it."
He urged the Maharashtra government to hold discussions 

Eknath Shinde

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday said the proposed refinery project at Barsu village in Ratnagiri district will not be implemented without the local people's consent, and appealed for calm in the area.
The situation in the village, where protesters who are opposing the refinery have gathered, was peaceful, he claimed while speaking to reporters here.  Earlier in the day, police used tear gas in Barsu and Solgaon villages in Rajapur tehsil to disperse the protesters and detained Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Vinayak Raut.
Shinde said he spoke to Ratnagiri collector and superintendent of police as well as district guardian minister Uday Samant, and the collector told him that there was no lathi (baton) charge at the site.
"A former chief minister himself had suggested  the Barsu site to the Union government. After losing the CM's post, he is opposing the project. One can not have such double standards," he said,  apparently referring to Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray .

Oil, Oil refinery

India's fuel demand hit its highest level in at least 24 years in February, with industrial activity in Asia's third biggest economy boosted by cheap Russian oil

chart

Six of eight key infrastructure industries report sequential deceleration

Industry, Core Sector, refinery

Output accelerated by only 0.1% in October; 4 of 8 core industries reported production contraction

Numaligarh Refinery

Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) on Wednesday said the cost of its capacity expansion project has escalated by Rs 5,432 crore to Rs 28,026 crore due to adoption of advanced technology.
In an official release, the largest PSU refiner in the northeast said the Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has already approved the revised project cost for increasing capacity from 3 million metric tonnes per annum to 9 MMTPA.
"With adoption of state-of-the-art technology in this configuration and addition of extremely complex schemes like residue hydrocracking, the refinery will be able to process heavier crude oil and maximize production of distillates.
"This adoption of technology led to an increase in the project cost from Rs 22,594 crore to Rs 28,026 crore," it added.
The initial planned configuration of the upcoming 6-MMTPA unit has been improved to make it petrochemical ready, focusing on upgradation of refinery residue by using new technology, NRL said.
"In the intervening period ...

Oil & gas, rig

State-owned oil firms plan to spend about Rs 1.2 lakh crore in the fiscal year to March 2021 on oil and gas exploration and production and refineries in a bid to boost economic activity in the nation that has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As much as Rs 5.88 lakh crore of spending is budgeted for 8,363 projects over the next few years, an official statement said.
"Out of the total anticipated cost of these projects, approximately Rs 1.20 lakh crore is targeted to be incurred as capex in FY 2020-21," it said.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan reviewed all ongoing projects of oil and gas companies in a bid to turn the crisis into an opportunity by scaling up work on the projects to create employment and revive growth.
"These projects of oil and gas PSUs, their joint ventures and subsidiaries include refinery projects, bio-refineries, exploration and production (E&P) projects, marketing infrastructure projects, pipelines, city gas distribution projects, drilling/survey ...

petrol, oil, OMC, ONGC, BPCL, HPCL, Indian Oil

State-run refiner had initially planned to complete the Rs 209.28 billion expansion in July.

IOC, BPCL, HPCL eye Rs 60k-cr refinery

Part of the MoU's signed was a partnership between Oil india Ltd and IIT, Guwahati for supporting Oil India's start up initiative

Tehran keen on joining Indian refinery projects

The Iranian oil minister said that the Indian companies are skilled in petroleum engineering &amp; meet international standards in their work.

Meanwhile, companies like HP and Acer, which do not sell mobile phones in India, are likely to miss out

Apple iPhone

The restructuring exercise will be undertaken by Arjun Mohan, who was recently elevated as chief executive officer (CEO) of its India business, replacing Mrinal Mohit, according to the sources

Byju's

To borrow Rs 6.55 trillion in second half

money, cash, rupees

Senco Gold hit a new high of Rs 590.55, rallied 11% on the BSE in Wednesday's intra-day trade and now quotes at a hefty 86% premium over its issue price in little more than 2 months.

Jewellery, Art Work

Closing Bell on September 27, 2023: Among sectors, most of the key indices settled in the positive zone with the Nifty Pharma index gaining the most, up 1.2 per cent

BSE, NSE, Sensex, Nifty, stock markets

JP Nadda further stated that developments in railways will lead to a new era of connectivity and help make progress in the realisation of a developed India

Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda

In the viral videos, Raghav was seen being joined by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and several other politicians

Not thinking about an IPO as of now, says chairman

Dr Krishna Ella

iPhone maker Apple has plans to scale up production in India by over five-fold to around USD 40 billion (about 3.32 lakh crore) in the next 4-5 years, according to government sources.
According to the official, who did not wish to be named, the company has crossed the USD 7 billion production mark in the last financial year.
"Apple has plans to increase production in India to over USD 40 billion in the next 4-5 years. It has crossed USD 7 billion in the last fiscal," the official said.
An email query sent to Apple did not elicit any reply.
Apple manufacturers iPhones in India and has plans to start manufacturing Airpods from next year.
The officer said that Apple has no immediate plans to make iPads or its laptops in India.
"They don't have any plans to participate in IT hardware PLI. They may come at a later stage but as of now their focus is to scale up existing production levels," the officer said.
The company globally sold iPhones worth USD 191 billion and products worth USD

Fractional ownership of real estate is gradually gaining acceptance among investors as assets under management have touched Rs 4,000 crore, according to a report.
TruBoard Partners, a tech-enabled real asset management company, has come out with a report on fractional ownership.
Many private companies have set up fractional ownership platforms that allow investors to own a fraction of real estate assets.
"Fractional ownership typically involves the ownership of an underlying real estate asset among multiple investors. This lowers capital requirements and facilitates participation of a larger set of players in real estate asset ownership," the report said.
Investors infuse their fund in securities issued by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), established by the fractional ownership platform.
These platforms provide a formal channel that enables a group of people to pool in money and jointly own real estate.
"Although the concept of fractional ownership of real estate is at a nascent 

Real Estate, Realty sector, Construction, Realty

The Nijjar murder is fast unfolding into treacherous scenarios that could have tragic consequences for both nations. No one stands to gain from the ongoing face-off

India Canada

International credit agency Moody's Investors Service has made sweeping assertions against Aadhaar without citing any evidence, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said on Monday.
The UIDAI issued a strong rebuttal to Moody's Investors Service which claimed that the Aadhaar system often results in service denials and the reliability of biometric technologies, especially for manual labourers, in hot and humid climates is questionable.
"A certain investor service has, without citing any evidence or basis, made sweeping assertions against Aadhaar, the most trusted digital ID in the world. Over the last decade, over a billion Indians have expressed their trust in Aadhaar by using it to authenticate themselves over 100 billion times," the UIDAI said in a statement.
The unique id Aadhaar's custodian said that the report in question does not cite either primary or secondary data or research in support of the opinions presented in it.
"The investor service did not make any

Adhaar, UIDAI

Canada has updated travel advisory for its citizens in India asking them to "stay vigilant and exercise caution" in the context of recent developments as there are calls for protests and some "negative sentiment" towards Canada on social media.
Tensions flared between India and Canada following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's explosive allegations of a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, on his country's soil on June 18 in British Columbia. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.
India angrily rejected the allegations as "absurd" and "motivated" and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa's expulsion of an Indian official over the case.
"In the context of recent developments in Canada and in India, there are calls for protests and some negative sentiment towards Canada on social media. Please remain vigilant and exercise caution," the Canadian government said in an

The leaders of both countries should encourage bilateral trade and people-to-people exchanges that can help build bridges

India's rage is misplaced and hardly serves to endear the country to those appalled by the idea that it may have had a Canadian citizen killed

Fintech firm Bright Money on Wednesday said it has raised USD 62 million (about Rs 515 crore) round of funding from a clutch of investors.
It has about 95 per cent of employees in India.
The funding includes USD 50 million in debt from Encina Lender Finance and USD 12 million in equity led by Alpha Wave, Hummingbird, and PeakXV, Bright Money said in a statement on Wednesday.
Encina Lender Finance provides lending solutions to consumer and commercial speciality finance companies across the US and Canada.
"The funding will be deployed towards building robust teams across product development, technology, analytics, and support functions like compliance and customer service," Bright Money co-founder and Co-CEO Petko Plachkov said in the statement
Bright Money app helps consumers get out of debt, with the power of AI and machine learning.
The mobile app combines all the technology needed to manage and get rid of debt. The company offers credit score building, automated debt paydown pl

rupee, indian rupee, indian currency

After securing the Gold Medal at the event, Indian all-rounder Deepti Sharma expressed her delight about the triumphant campaign at the Hangzhou Asian Games

Deepti Sharma, Indian women's cricket team

Given high competition, firms with ability to monetise projects, focus on high margin assets and healthy balance sheets are preferred plays

toll roads

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will kick off the tech giant's Connect developer conference on Wednesday with a focus on virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence (AI).
The company, which renamed itself Meta two years ago, is expected to unveil the next version of its virtual reality headset, the Quest 3 and discuss AI chat-bots and other tools and features designed to keep users interested in Facebook and Instagram as competition with TikTok continues. This remains Meta's biggest challenge, said Insider Intelligence analyst Yoram Wurmser.
A lot of this effort around chat-bots and stories and other ways just to keep engagement going (like) AI-driven personalization and stuff like that, that's the overarching challenge for the company, he said.
Squeezed by a slump in online advertising and uncertainty around the global economy, Meta has cut more than 20,000 jobs since last November.
Zuckerberg dubbed 2023 the company's year of efficiency as it reduces its workforce while ..

Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg

Aware of the challenge that awaits India against Japan, men's hockey team skipper Harmanpreet Singh said they will need to strengthen their defence and be ready to switch tactics against the defending champions during their Asian Games clash on Thursday.
India habe hardly been troubled so far, having won their first two games with big margins. India defeated Uzbekistan 16-0 in their opening Pool A game last week before mauling Singapore 16-1 in another lop-sided contest.
However, India will perhaps face their toughest challenge yet in the competition when they take on the 2018 Asian Games gold medallists.
"We are aware of the level of competition that we will face tomorrow. Japan have a strong unit and we are familiar with their strengths and weaknesses," said Harmanpreet Singh.
"We have to focus on our own style of play, but we have to also be ready to switch tactics as and when needed on the field to get a good result."
Japan too have been unbeaten in the Games, having beaten ..

India's captain Harmanpreet Singh during Men's Asian Champions Trophy match against Japan. Photo: Hockey India

Refinery projects

Ensure refinery projects don't cause harm to environment: Ajit Pawar

No initiation of refinery project at Barsu without locals' consent: Maha CM

Refiners' February crude processing stays elevated amid robust demand

Core sector output slows to 3-month low of 6% in Feb, crude production dips

Core sector output growth slows to 20-month low of 0.1% in October

NRL's capacity expansion cost escalates by Rs 5,432 crore

Govt to spend Rs 1.2 trn on oil, gas exploration and refineries in FY21

HPCL delays $3 bn Vizag refinery expansion over labour, monsoon: Report

MoU signed to set up 60 mn tonnes mega refinery project, land finalisation in 2 months

Tehran keen on joining Indian refinery projects