Vedanta Group firm Sesa Goa would stop mining in Karnataka’s Chitradurga with immediate effect, following the Supreme Court’s order banning mining in Chitradurga and Tumkur districts. It will adversely affect to some extent the performance of the company. The annual permitted capacity of the said mine (in Chitradurga) at present is 6 million tones. The apex court had extended the ban on mining to Tumkur and Chitradurga districts, while acting on a recommendation by its expert panel for halting extraction of iron ores in the two districts of the state. Mining in Bellary region had already been banned by the court on July 29. The Central Empowered Committee in its recommendations to the bench on August 19 said the mining operation was going on recklessly and in an environmentally unsustainable manner with the prime objective to exploit the iron ore mines merely for short-term gains. Sesa Goa, which has produced 18.8 million tonnes of iron ore in the last fiscal, had said earlier that ban on mining in Chitradurga will affect its gross revenues by up to 15 percent.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is likely to start oil and gas production from Krishna-Godavari basin field GS-15, off the Andhra coast, next month. While production from some oil wells in the GS-15 field is set to commence from September, ONGC has also drawn up plans to initiate production from its G-1 marginal field in the KG Basin from July, 2012. ONGC has asked the Petroleum Ministry to identify users for the gas and approve a price of $ 4.75 per million British thermal units. About 0.19 million standard cubic metres per day of gas would be available for sale from September. The gas availability would go up to 1.52 mmscmd from July next year (subsequent to the G-1 field coming onstream) and to 1.72 mmscmd in 2013-14. ONGC cited the Oil Ministry’s gas pricing order, which had fixed a base price of $4.50 per mmBtu for gas from the KG Basin and given an additional $0.25 per mmBtu if the gas was coming from offshore fields, to demand a gas price of $4.75 per mmBtu.
Tata Chemicals accused Hindustan Unilever (HUL) of violating the professional code of business and indulging in smear campaigns against competition, as the rivals fight for supremacy in the water purifier segment. On the other hand, HUL, which makes Pureit brand of water purifier, hit back by saying Tata Chemicals makes ambiguous and misleading claims about its product Tata Swach. Claiming that advertising industry watchdog ASCI has upheld its complaint against leaflets circulated by HUL, Tata Chemicals said the rival was denigrating its product. Violating the professional code of business, Pureit, the water purifier brand from the Hindustan Unilever, had been misleading consumers through persistent smear campaigns against competition, Tata Swach, the water purifier from the house of Tatas, stated. The company said the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) through Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) directed HUL to withdraw leaflets from the market that had negative claims against Tata Swach. The CCC considered the technical data submitted by Tata Swach and concluded that the statement made in the leaflet circulated by Pureit denigrates Tata Swach.
Source: www.indothai.co.in
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