New Delhi The Vijay Kelkar committee has outlined a programme for the Centre to keep its budget deficit in check for the next three years, leaving the 14th Finance Commission (2015-2020) to decide on the action required in subsequent years.

The committee set up by the finance minister P Chidambaram for drawing a new fiscal consolidation road map, has proposed calibrated hikes in diesel and LPG prices, proactive disinvestment and measures to increase revenue buoyancy.

Tamil Nadu government has issued a lookout notice against Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M.K. Alagiri's son Durai Dayanidhi Alagiri for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore granite mining scam.

But the state opposed a bunch of petitions in the Madras High Court seeking a CBI probe into the illegal granite quarrying in Madurai district. Advocate General Navaneetha Krishnan told the bench on Friday the government would nab the culprits behind the illegal quarrying and was not protecting anybody.

NEW DELHI, 30 AUG: Parliament today passed a Bill that prohibits transfer of specified toxic chemicals from and to a country which is not party to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Bhubaneswar: Close on the heels of the verbal duel between the state agriculture minister Debi Prasad Mishra and Union minister for chemicals and fertiliser Srikant Jena over the scarcity of fertil

New Delhi A suo motu study on drug pricing by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has revealed exorbitant profit margins on 21 common drugs manufactured by Indian companies.

The government last week allowed private companies to import urea for preparation of complex fertilisers used in agriculture. Till now, such companies could only import urea for industrial use, in preparation of chemicals.

For agricultural purposes, private companies used to source urea from imports made by government canalising agents, such as Indian Potash Ltd and state trading houses MMTC and STC. Two Indian companies, Coromondal International and Zuari Industries, are allowed to import urea for agricultural purposes. Now, these companies can directly import without involving canalising agents, official sources said.

New Delhi In a setback to government-owned NMDC’s efforts to acquire assets abroad, Australian firm Minemakers has dropped the iron ore miner as its potential joint venture (JV) partner for developing the Wonarah rock phosphate reserves in Australia.

Blaming “NMDC’s inability to make a timely decision” in forging a partnership, Minemakers said that “it can no longer prolong discussions with NMDC” which have remained inconclusive so far.

With the Rs 28,000-crore refinery project of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) at Paradip under a cloud of delay, the Odisha government has decided to ink an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the oil marketing firm to stipulate timeline and milestones for commissioning of the project.

IOCL being the anchor tenant for the PCPIR hub (Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region) to be set up in 70,214 acres of land spread over Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts, the timely commissioning of the refinery was vital for attracting investors for the mega investment hub.

The Centre is contemplating to hike retail prices of urea by 10 per cent. The proposal is likely to be put up before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs soon for its consideration.

A panel, led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had last year approved a new draft urea policy, which proposed partial freeing of retail prices, allowing companies to hike urea prices by 10 per cent in the first year of policy implementation.

The revival of the Namrup fertiliser plant depends on the finalisation of its funding pattern.