31 JANUARY 2015: Coal India divestment successful by PSU support

Ø In its largest-ever disinvestment, the Centre on Friday raised Rs. 22,557.63 crore from the sale of its 10 per cent shareholding in Coal India Ltd. (CIL). The issue was however, under-subscribed in the retail investors segment; government-owned insurance companies bought a huge proportion of the shares, said sources. The government offered the shares at an auction on the stock exchanges at a floor price of Rs. 358 per share, which was 4.5 per cent less than the closing price. The sale was concluded at an indicative price of Rs. 358.5 a share that was only slightly higher than the floor price. Of the total proceeds raised, Rs. 11,360.11 crore came from insurance companies — both private sector and public sector including the government-owned Life Insurance Corporation, the official release said.

Ø Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to India increased by about 26 per cent to $35 billion in 2014, despite macroeconomic uncertainties and financial risks, according to a United Nations report on global investments. China, however, received inflows worth $128 billion and with a modest increase of 3 per cent, went on to become the world's largest recipient of FDI. Brazil, another BRICS country and an emerging market like India, received $62 billion of FDI inflows. The U.S. fell to the third position, with inflows plummeting to almost a third of the 2013 level. Global FDI flows declined 8 per cent to an estimated $1.26 trillion, down from a revised $1.36 trillion in 2013. Among the top five FDI recipients in the world, four are developing economies — Hong Kong ($111 billion), Singapore ($81 billion) and Brazil ($62 billion).

Ø India’s ambitious plan to further expand its fighter jet development programme is making steady progress, with the design of the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) frozen now. The AMCA configuration has been frozen. Now, we have to have one last dialogue with the Air Force to decide how we go about the engine choice.... We will have a strategy for building the AMCA by the middle of this year. He was speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of a workshop on ‘Embedded Systems for Defence Applications’ organised by the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory at Nedumbassery.

Ø Delhi’s poor air quality forced the US Embassy in the city to purchase air purifiers ahead of the US President Barack Obama’s visit earlier this week. The air purifiers were installed in the Embassy to allow the staff to breathe easy. The US Embassy routinely monitors pollution levels in Delhi and taking note of the high pollutions levels in the city and the risk that it poses to health, the Embassy purchased 1,800 air purifiers from Swedish company, Blueair.