Coal India cancels preliminary supply pacts with as many as 60 captive power plants and independent producers, including Tatas, Essars and Bhushans, saying they did not comply with the stipulated norms.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma is now spoken of as a strong contender for the job of India's finance minister if Pranab Mukherjee goes up Raisina Hill to Rashtrapati Bhavan. He met Business Today the day before a trip to Brazil. Excerpts from the interview:

With the economic downturn and policy paralysis biting, companies are are being forced to come up with alternative strategies.

Is the economy chugging along or nearly stalled? Depends on how you look at it.

Newly nominated Rajya Sabha MP Sachin Tendulkar, if allotted the state house 5, Tughlaq Lane in New Delhi, could have Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi as a neighbour.

Qualcomm announced in May that Bharti Airtel had picked up a 49 per cent stake in Wireless Business Services, the chipmaker's BWA licensee here in India. The deal shows Airtel is serious about broadband wireless.

NTPC is currently working on over 18,000 MW new capacity and plans to become 1,28,000 MW plus company by 2032, the statement said.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday had declared the strike as illegal, but the pilots remained defiant and said the agitation would continue till their demands were met.

That bank stocks are on a comeback path is clear. What is not so clear is which of the two - public sector banks or private sector banks - will give better returns. Experts, however, say PSU banks have many things going for them.

Fiscal deficit feeds into inflation, pushes up interest rates and pulls down growth. In 2011/12, India's fiscal deficit was 5.9 per cent of GDP, 1.3 percentage points more than what was forecast in Budget 2011. This comes on the heels of a fiscal deficit of over six per cent of GDP in two of the last three years.

On March 5, the Commerce Ministry had imposed the ban on cotton exports on the grounds that the country had already shipped 10 lakh bales more than the exportable surplus and it had reduced the domestic availability.

In a strongly-worded letter to PM, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi demands to know why decisions of such importance were taken without consulting the affected states.

Reliance Industries has come up against a tough taskmaster in Petroleum Minister S. Jaipal Reddy. Several big-ticket proposals of the company are stuck at the petroleum ministry, something that people who follow the company and the ministry say is unprecedented.

Are stock markets sensing better days ahead for India Inc? Third quarter results showed India Inc in better shape than expected. The next quarter may bring positive surprises.

The Jaipal Reddy-led ministry has asked the finance ministry to waive the customs duty and slash sales tax levies on natural gas as it is a green fuel being sold to priority sectors.

In a development that will give somerelief to BSNL, the government has in principle agreed to the loss-making PSU'sproposal to surrender broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum in 13-14circles.

Hit by a delay in getting government subsidy payments, some players in the micro-irrigation sector are thinking about lending to farmers.

In the wake of corruption investigations, dysfunctional governance and a growing gulf between politicians and the people, the approaching assembly polls will circumscribe economic policy options.

An all-India bandh called by traders to protest against foreign direct investment in retail evoke partial to complete response but neighbourhood shops by and large remained open.

The interest and sensitivities of small retailers have been taken into consideration and \"they are part of the policy embrace\", Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said.