Company

• Indian Oil Corporation Ltd plans to merge with itself its subsidiary, IBP Ltd,in which it holds a 53.58 per cent stake.The IOC board will approach thepetroleum ministry for approval.
• Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) expects to more than double its turnover to Rs2,000 crore on the back of higher production of sponge iron and power. JSPL isalso expanding its power generation capacity to 255mw with the addition of 50mw by December 2004.
• Tata Motors and M&M are planning to assemble vehicles in Russia. While Tatas arelooking at commercial vehicles, Mahindras are working on their multi-utilityline-up including Scorpio to start with. M&M believes that Russia is a goodmarket for sports utility vehicles (SUVs), The company is working on making its SUV, Scorpio, suitable for meeting the harsh cold conditions in Russia.

Economy

• Inflation stood unchanged for the second consecutive week at 4.4 per cent forthe week ended April 17 despite vegetables and tea prices skyrocketing and amarginal hike in some of the manufactured products, including cement.
• Buoyed by higher operating margin and a 30 per cent growth in exports, Reliance Industries, country’ largest private sector company, has surged ahead of globalplayers after it posted a net profit of more than $1 billion in 2003-04. During the quarter ended March 2004, the company recorded a 28 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs 1,419 crore compared with Rs 1,101 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
• RBI restricted dividend declarations for banks with net non-performing assets (NPAs) of above 3%, and those that have a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of less than 11%. Moreover, banks will have to await the RBI’s nod if they want to declare a dividend out of extraordinary profits or if the dividend payout exceeds a third of their profits.