The government now plans to auction at least three gold mines in 2016 with billions of dollars worth of estimated reserves, including Kolar in Karnataka that was shut 15 years ago on high costs, Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar said.

The firm plans to build two power units with a total capacity of 1,600 MW and construction could begin by December, a source said, adding there is a meeting scheduled in Jharkhand next week and a deal would be sealed this month.

The state-run company's productivity is estimated at one-eighth of its rivals in the United States, and as much as a fifth of its annual output is stolen, costing the company up to $1 billion each year.

Anil Swarup, the country's top coal bureaucrat, told Reuters on Friday the government has identified mines it plans to auction, and is now finalising other terms such as eligibility criteria for companies to take part and whether and how to set up revenue sharing.

\"This would improve capacity utilization of pellet plants and give necessary boost to (the) sector,\" Steel and Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar tweeted.

Gold monetisation scheme has only attracted about one kilogramme in a month, prompting the government to nudge temples to hand over their treasures.

Made secretly and given names that sometimes resemble the original, counterfeits account for up to 30% of the $4 billion pesticide market, shows the study.

\"Coal imports fell 5 per cent in October for the fourth straight monthly decline,\" said coal secretary Anil Swarup.

The whitefly attack on the Bt cotton variety in Punjab and Haryana was the first major infestation since India adopted transgenic cotton in 2002. It has stoked worries over the vulnerability of the GM seeds that yield nearly all of the cotton in the world's top producer.

\"SunEdison won the auction for a 500 megawatt project in Andhra Pradesh, bidding to supply power at Rs 4.63 per kilowatt-hour,\" Upendra Tripathy, new and renewable energy secretary, told Reuters.

Religious activists have stepped up attacks on the beef industry alleging that cows are being killed and falsely labeled for export as buffalo meat.

Vedanta has resumed operations in Goa following a 3-year gap after court action against illegal mineral extraction closed mining in the country's top iron ore exporting state.

CIL's output grew 32 million tonnes to 494.2 million tonnes in the fiscal year 2014/15, the biggest volume rise in its four-decade history.

India has rejected any absolute cuts, arguing that its per capita emissions are far below the world average and that it needs to emit more as it grows to beat poverty.

Government-backed overseas sales of sugar could help mills clear billions of dollars they owe to 50 million cane growers.

Nearly two-thirds of India's gold demand comes from rural areas where jewellery is a traditional store of wealth for millions who have no access to the formal banking system.

The steel makers have been pushing for a safeguard duty instead of an increase in an existing import tax because a safeguard duty would also apply to companies in Japan and South Korea.

To discourage exports, India has more than doubled the minimum export price on onions while some state governments are rationing subsidised sales.

Once the world's third-biggest iron ore exporter, India now resorts toimporting the steelmaking ingredient due to a court-led crackdown on illegal mining.

Softbank, Foxconn and Bharti Enterprises have already pledged to invest about $20 billion in solar projects in the country.