ICICI Bank-Videocon case: ED grills Kochhars, Venugopal Dhoot

Beleaguered banker Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar were grilled by the Enforcement Directorate for the second consecutive day in Mumbai under the ICICI Bank-Videocon Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case, the Indian Express reported. The law enforcement agency also separately questioned Videocon’s Chairman Venugopal Dhoot. Kochhar and her husband had appeared before […]

States seek Centre’s funds to meet environmental norms for thermal power plants

To meet the additional expenditure required to adhere to the environmental norms for thermal power plants, the states have sought access to the Centre-operated Power System Development Fund and the National Clean Energy Fund. According to sources, many states have demanded that the capital expenditure on this account should be passed on as grants and […]

SBICap Ventures’ Neev Fund to invest $5 million in renewable energy firm Prespl

SBICap Ventures’ Neev Fund is set to infuse about $5 million in renewable energy firm Punjab Renewable Energy Systems (Prespl) to acquire a significant minority stake in what would be the Series-B funding round. Prespl has also commitments of an additional $3-5 million funding in the same Series-B round from a different investor. Prespl, which […]

India will have to wait for world’s cheapest wind power as delays hit projects

India has drawn global attention since it started awarding wind power projects at record-low tariffs, spurring optimism that renewable energy could supplant the nation’s abundant coal resources in electricity generation. But about half of the more than one gigawatt of capacity awarded in the country’s first auctions in 2017 are incomplete, almost five months after […]

Modi government makes it clear to states: Expect 24×7 power supply to all households by April

The central government expects the states to make sure that all households get 24×7 power supply by April this year, barring those in the agricultural region, Power Minister RK Singh said. Since ‘metering is inadequate’ and there is ‘need to conserve ground water’, these states would be exempt from providing uninterrupted electricity to the agricultural […]

Powering down! In first half of FY19, discoms report financial loss of over Rs 15,000 crore

State-run electricity distribution companies (discoms) reported financial losses of over Rs 15,000 crore in the first half of this fiscal — as much as the losses incurred by them during the whole of last year (see chart) — signalling a reversal of a declining trend since the UDAY scheme for these entities’ revival was launched […]