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Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday hinted that public sector firms such as Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) may not be allowed to bid for buying government stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), for which a buyer may have to shell out as much as Rs 90,000 crore.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had on Wednesday decided to sell the government's entire stake in the country's second-largest state refiner BPCL and India's largest shipping company Shipping Corporation of India (SCI).

It also approved privatisation of Container Corporation of India while also giving nod to paring stake below 51 per cent in select public sector undertakings but without losing control.

"Since 2014, we have a clear vision that the government has no business to be in business," Pradhan told reporters here. "We have examples of 2-3 sectors such as telecom and aviation where ushering in private participation has led to customers benefiting from price cuts, efficiency, and better service. And yesterday (on Wednesday), several reformist decisions were taken."

BPCL will give buyers ready access to 14 per cent of India's oil refining capacity and about one-fourth of the fuel marketing infrastructure in the world's fastest-growing energy market.

It, however, will be sold after carving out Numaligarh Refinery from its portfolio and given to a pubic sector unit.

"Numaligarh refinery was set up as per Assam Accord and it will remain a public sector unit. Assam Chief Minister had requested Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) to retain public sector character of Numaligarh Refinery and that has been accepted," he said.

Pradhan, however, did not say if IOC or Oil India Ltd, which already has a stake in the refinery and also supplies crude oil to it, will take over the unit.

"The details have to be worked out," he said. "Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) has stated that the privatisation of BPCL will happen this fiscal and we hope to adhere to the timeline."

Asked if public sector units will be allowed to bid for the government's 53.29 per cent stake, he said: "Nitty gritty and details of the disinvestment process will have to be worked out but when I say the government has no business to be in business, it is indicative of possible future course of action."

At the current trading price of BPCL, the government's 53.29 per cent stake is valued at a shade less than Rs 62,000 crore. On top of this, the acquirer will have to make an open offer to buy an additional 26 per cent stake from minority shareholders for about Rs 30,000 crore.

Last year, the government had sold its entire stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) to state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) for Rs 36,915 crore.

Pradhan said the privatisation of BPCL was following the policy of ushering in greater competition in sectors that can sustain on their own.

Greater private participation, like in the telecom and aviation sector, will bring about efficiencies and better service to consumers, he said.

The CCEA had on Wednesday also approved the sale of an entire 63.75 per cent government holding in SCI and 30.8 per cent out of the government's 54.80 per cent stake in Container Corp of India (Concor).

Besides, the government will sell its entire holding in THDC India Ltd (THDCIL) and North Eastern Electric Power Corp Ltd (NEEPCO) to state-owned power generator NTPC Ltd, the finance minister has said.

The government holds 74.23 per cent in THDCIL and 100 per cent NEEPCO.

Parallelly, the Cabinet had also approved reducing government stake in select PSUs such as IOC to below 51 per cent while continuing to retain management control.

The management control will continue to be retained with the government after considering equity held by other state-owned companies in the divested firm.

The government, currently, holds 51.5 per cent in IOC and another 25.9 per cent through state-owned Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC), and explorers ONGC and Oil India Ltd (OIL), and the government can potentially sell 26.4 per cent for about Rs 33,000 crore.

A similar formula can also apply to ONGC and gas utility GAIL India Ltd.

The stake sales are critical for the government to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore set for the current financial year.

At current prices, the government's 30.8 per cent stake in Concor is worth about Rs 10,800 crore, while stake sale in SCI will fetch just over Rs 2,000 crore.

BPCL operates four refineries in Mumbai, Kochi (Kerala), Bina (Madhya Pradesh) and Numaligarh (Assam) with a combined capacity of 38.3 million tonnes per annum, which is 15 per cent of India's total refining capacity of 249.4 million tonnes. After removing three million tonnes capacity of the Numaligarh refinery, the new buyer will get 35.3 million tonnes of refining capacity.

It also owns 15,177 petrol pumps and 6,011 LPG distributor agencies in the country. Besides, it has 51 LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) bottling plants. The company distributes 21 per cent of petroleum products consumed in the country by volume as of March this year and has more than a fifth of the 250 aviation fuel stations in the country.

The government is keen to get international energy majors such as Saudi Aramco, Total SA of France and ExxonMobil to operate in the downstream fuel marketing business so as to bring in greater competition.

Currently, 95 per cent of retail petrol and diesel sales and near 100 per cent of cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene sales are controlled by the public sector units.

As on March 31, BPCL reported cash and cash equivalents of around Rs 5,300 crore, against Rs 10,900 crore of debt maturing over the next 15 months.

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Union Minister V K Singh on Wednesday said infrastructure sector could play a mega role in bolstering the economy and the government is ready with a basket of highway projects worth Rs 15 lakh crore to be offered in next five years. He said infrastructure encompasses areas that can generate huge employment and kick off economic progress.

Regarding the slowdown in the economy, the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways V K Singh said, it is a "temporary phase".

He noted that "the sector that is going to make a difference in ensuring that the recovery is fast and the recovery is big is the infrastructure sector - whether it is railways, whether it is road, whether it is airports or whether it is communication".

Addressing 'Infra Awards 2019' by Dun and Bradstreet India (D&B India), a provider of global business information, Singh said infrastructure encompasses areas which bolster the economy, generate employment and kick off growth.

"We have a basket of approximately Rs 15 lakh crore projects which have to be given out in this 5 years that are coming up. These include economic corridors, port connectivity, connecting important places, SEZs and tourists places," he said.

He further noted that the role of infrastructure in reviving economic growth could be understood from the fact that this was the sector which pulled out the US from the great depression in 1930s.

He said with the government's focus on infrastructure, it was possible to achieve the USD 5 trillion economy target.

Project award winners on the occasion included HCC for Bogibeel Rail-cum-Road project and Larsen & Toubro for Nagpur Smart City Soultions Project.

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The Reserve Bank employees unions on Tuesday urged the government to hike the insurance cover on bank deposits from the present Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

The demand for increasing bank deposit insurance cover, which was last revised in May 1993, has come to the fore after the ongoing crisis at Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank.

Over the weekend, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said government would bring in a legislation during the ongoing Winter session to increase the deposit insurance cover from Rs 1, but did not specify a number.

"We had earlier suggested hiking the insured deposit cover to at least Rs 10 lakh, covering all types of deposits of an individual, which we reiterate and urge the government to consider," the All-India Reserve Bank Employees Association said in a statement.

In dollar terms, the proposed cover at around USD 14,000 is much lower than in many other countries, it added.

At present, the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation insures each bank depositor up to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh for both principal and interest as on the date of liquidation or cancellation of a bank's licence.

According to a recent report by SBI Research, at Rs 1 lakh, the cover is one of the lowest and is at only 0.9 times per capita income. As against this, in Brazil and Russia, the same stands at Rs 42 lakh and Rs 12 lakh respectively.

Noting that raising the coverage has been long overdue, the RBI union noted that the Rs 1 lakh cover was set in May 1993, during the time the value of rupee has eroded sharply, necessitating an immediate hike.

Last week, Sitharman had also said the government would bring legislation to better regulate multi-state cooperative banks.

The union also demanded bringing urban co-operative banks, which have dual regulation now by the states and RBI, exclusively under the jurisdiction of the RBI.

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Singapore should put in place a billion-dollar funding arrangement for investments in Indian start-ups that are poised for exponential growth, according to experts.

Technologist and venture capitalist Mohandas Pai sees good potential for Singapore-India partnership in building the start-up ecosystem.

He called for a billion-dollar fund of funds for investments in at least 1,000 start-ups in India, which has a spread of over 40,000 such entities with 5,000-6,000 start-ups joining the industry every year.

"By 2025, we will have 1,00,000 start-ups and create USD 500 billion of value and employ 3.25 million people,” Pai said on the sidelines of Singapore Fintech Festival 2019.

Echoing similar view, Girija Pande, Chairman of Apex Avalon Consulting, who currently mentors four Indian start-ups in deep technology from Singapore said "we want much more investment in start-ups from Singapore."

The two IT stalwarts noted that Japan, constrained in developing domestic start-up ecosystem due to a small and stagnant economy, is working on a USD 200 million fund of funds for start-up investments in India.

According to Pai, India is expected to have 100 unicorns, up from 34 as of now, 18 of which are registered outside India for ease of raising funds from global markets.

Both Pande and Pai see the Indian IT industry growing from software services hub into a large base of manufacturing unique IT products for global markets.

Indian IT industry will remain competitive with a large number of engineers joining every year in a small domestic IT services economy.

India produces 800,000 engineers a year, with top 20 per cent becoming software engineers. Moreover, the average age of Indian software engineer is 27 and is trainable in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Pai said.

The US is the world's largest IT country with a mammoth economy and demand, but it is short on skilled engineers, Pai said adding that every two in six US-based engineers are from India.

"India clearly dominates this field and will keep dominating. There is no other country that can match India in software skill," Pai said at the FinTech Festival that was attended by 43 Indian companies.

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The Department of Telecom (DoT) has issued notice to telecom operators to pay their revenue share dues within three months as directed by the Supreme Court, according to an industry source.

The DoT has given option to telecom operators to clear all the dues on self-assessment basis.

The apex court had upheld the definition of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) calculation as stipulated by the DoT.

The apex court had upheld the definition of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) calculation as stipulated by the DoT.

According to an internal estimate prepared by the DoT, total dues on the telecom service providers arising out of SC order are around Rs 1.33 trillion.

As per DoT's estimate, liability of Bharti Airtel Group stands at Rs 62,187.73 crore, Vodafone Idea  at Rs 54,183.9 crore and BSNL and MTNL at Rs 10,675.18 crore.

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The Department of Telecom (DoT) has issued notice to telecom operators to pay their revenue share dues within three months as directed by the Supreme Court, according to an industry source.

The DoT has given option to telecom operators to clear all the dues on self-assessment basis.

The apex court had upheld the definition of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) calculation as stipulated by the DoT.

The court held that all revenues, except for termination fee and roaming charges, will be a part of the AGR while telcos argued that non-telecom, non-core revenues should not be a part of the AGR.

In the next two weeks, the telecom department will seek the Cabinet's nod on the panel's proposals, the official said. Vodafone's decision to halt further investments in India has also given rise to concern, the official added.

According to an internal estimate prepared by the DoT, total dues on the telecom service providers arising out of SC order are around Rs 1.33 trillion.

As per DoT's estimate, liability of Bharti Airtel Group stands at Rs 62,187.73 crore, Vodafone Idea  at Rs 54,183.9 crore and BSNL and MTNL at Rs 10,675.18 crore.

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The government on Monday gave sugar mills three months more till December to export the last year's balance quota of the sweetener.

Mills were able to export about 3.8 million tonne of sugar during the 2018-19 marketing year (October-September) due to depressed market conditions, against the target of 5 million tonne under the Minimum Indicative Export Quota (MIEQ) scheme.

"Now, it has been decided by the central government to allow those sugar mills, which had partially exported their MIEQ of 2018-19 till September 2019, to export the balance quantity of their MIEQ by December 31, 2019," said a fresh notification issued by the food ministry.

This will be over and above the quota allocated for the ongoing 2019-20 marketing year.

A senior food ministry official said that much of the sugar during the last year was exported to the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

For the current year, the government has fixed an export quota of 6 million tonne under the MIEQ. Mills are hopeful that the quota will be fulfilled as the global market is facing 4 million tonnes of deficit.

India has started the 2019-20 marketing year with an all-time high opening stock of 14.5 million tonne against a requirement of 3-5 million tonne.

The government has pegged sugar output to decline to 28-29 million tonne for the current year from 33.1 million tonnes during 2018-19 due to sharp fall in cane acreage in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Whereas industry body ISMA has projected the country's output to touch a three-year low at 26 million tonne during 2019-20.

There are 534 mills in the country. Mills in Uttar Pradesh have started the crushing operation, while it is delayed in Maharasthra and Karnataka.

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With the mining leases of 329 private mines slated to expire on March 31, apex mineral body FIMI believes that iron ore, a raw material used in steel-making, will be the worst hit from the move.

The 329 mines, including 48 operative and 281 non-operative ones, are spread across 10 states, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) said.

"Raw material for steel industry, iron ore, would be the worst hit, since out of 329 mines 232 are of iron ore alone - 24 operative and 208 non-operative iron ore mines," FIMI Secretary General R K Sharma said in a statement.

"Things are not that simple as the government might be thinking. It is going to be a panic situation for a lessee if it is not able to retain the mine.....On one side steel industry is looking to produce 300 plus million tonne and here we have a situation where supplies of raw material are bound to get disrupted for a long period," Sharma said adding that the current capacity is of about 100 million tonne.

When India is looking to achieve this target, the blues in iron ore mining will be a major roadblock for steel producers, he rued.

The mining leases of 48 operative mines - 24 in Odisha, six each in Jharkhand and Karnataka, five in Gujarat, three in Andhra Pradesh, two in Rajasthan, and one mine each in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh - will expire on March 31, 2020.

Mining leases of 184 non-operative mines in Goa, 42 in Karnataka, 12 each in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, nine in Maharashtra, seven in Odisha, six each in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, two in Rajasthan, one in Himachal Pradesh will also expire.

Majority of non-operative iron ore mines are in Goa which has a blanket ban on mining.

Besides iron ore, the mining leases of 21 mines of manganese, 14 of bauxite, 23 of limestone, four of chromite, two of graphite, one of garnet and 32 of other minerals will expire on March 31.

"FIMI does not understand the logic behind such discrimination. For captive mines the expiry is March 31, 2030 and for non-captive mines it is March 31, 2020. Ultimately the raw material is being used to make final products. These bottlenecks are nothing but hinderance in economic growth and need to be removed," Sharma said.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will review the state of economy at a meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) on November 7 to be attended by sectoral regulators, including RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. The FSDC is the apex body of sectoral regulators, headed by the finance minister.

According to sources, the meeting will take stock of various measures taken by the government to boost the sagging growth which hit a six-year low of 5 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

The meeting will review the current global and domestic economic situation and financial stability issues, including those concerning banking and NBFCs, sources added.

Besides RBI Governor, Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman Ajay Tyagi, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India(IRDAI) chairman Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) chairman M S Sahoo and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Ravi Mittal will attend the meeting.

This would be the second meeting of the FSDC after the Modi 2.0 government assumed office.

The government has announced several short and long-term measures to boost the economy in three phases between August 23 and September 14.

Out of the total 44 measures announced, 16 have been fulfilled while the rest of the announcements are under consideration by relevant ministries.

Further, it said action on one out of three announcements made for the housing sector has been completed and the other two are being taken up.

According to experts the slowdown is primarily due to moderation in demand and steps are being taken to infuse liquidity in the financial system to aid loan growth.

Sources said the FSDC meeting will also be attended by Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur, Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar, Economic Affairs Secretary Atanu Chakraborty, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey and other top officials of the finance ministry.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday reviewed the state of economy including stress in the financial sector at the meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC). The FSDC is the apex body of sectoral regulators, headed by the finance minister.

"The meeting was very constructive and it took stock of entire financial system and other issues," said Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar after the meeting that lasted nearly two hours.

RBI and other regulators are looking at financial at it holistically, he said when asked about stress in the financial sector.