China suspends India power projects

NEW DELHI: Restrictions on the import of skills are forcing Chinese companies to suspend the building of badly needed power plants in India to rid the country of its crippling energy deficit, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

A Delhi-based Chinese official said as many as 10 Chinese companies had had to suspend work on power projects ñ viewed as a top priority by the Congress party-led government ñ because of a shortage of skills and difficulties in importing their own technicians from China. “Without Chinese people the projects can’t go through smoothly,” the official said. “They (India) don’t have enough technicians and skilled workers.”

India to sell stakes in 60 state-run firms

Friday, January 08, 2010
NEW DELHI: Finance ministry is in talks with other ministries for selling stakes in around 60 state-run firms in coming years, including miner Hindustan Copper Ltd, a senior official told Reuters on Thursday.

“(Hindustan Copper) is one of the companies in which government is considering to sell its stake,” Sunil Mitra, who is in charge of disinvestment at the finance ministry, said in a telephone interview.

Indian plan to create new state hits businesses

MUMBAI: A unit of global drug maker GlaxoSmithKline temporarily halted operations in India's Andhra Pradesh state on Friday as the fallout from a government plan to carve up the southern state mounted.

India's Congress-led government approved a plan on Thursday to create a new state called Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh, home to high-tech Hyderabad city, after more than a week of violent protests and a hunger strike by a leading politician.