• India Inc raises over Rs 150,000cr in 2009- Companies knocking on government doors for bailout funds may have been the norm in the West, but India Inc begged to differ from this rule by raising over Rs 1,50,000 crore of capital for expansion from investors across the world in 2009. Nearly two-thirds of these funds are estimated to have come from investors in overseas markets, which themselves were in shambles and where companies were in dire need of capital, forcing them to beg their respective governments for money. Also, Indian companies took the quickfire QIPs to meet their immediate capital needs, instead of the time consuming IPO route. As a result, the funds raised by Indian companies during 2009 were more or less equal to the levels seen in 2008, when economic downturn was not a reality for most part of the year.

• India 3G auction to start as scheduled on Jan 14- India, the world’s fastest growing mobile market, plans to start auctioning third-generation wireless spectrum as scheduled from Jan. 14. Auction will be according to the schedule. Allotment of spectrum to maintain the level playing field will be by August 2010. Allotment to the four service providers will be simultaneous. Ratan Tata, chairman of Indian conglomerate Tata group, has urged the government to allocate spectrum simultaneously to all winners of the forthcoming auction

• Oil PSUs’ Q3 books set to go red as govt holds back bonds: The three stateowned petroleum refiners — Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL)— are set to slip into red in the third quarter ending December 31 as the government is unlikely to compensate them for losses on account of selling petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas below cost. Government issues bonds to oil companies for meeting part of the losses of oil marketing companies for selling below cost. “Their combined losses (in the third quarter) could be around Rs 900 crore, based on the current average crude oil price of $70 a barrel,”Total revenue loss of the three companies on sale of four fuels is estimated at around Rs 29,000 crore over Apr-Dec 2009 and the total revenue loss for 2009-10, at an average crude oil price of $67 a barrel, is pegged at Rs 45,000 crore. Petroleum ministry has asked the finance ministry issue oil bonds worth Rs 20,000 crore to the three companies to meet their under-recoveries (revenue losses) on subsidising kerosene and cooking gas for three quarters (Apr-Dec 2009).