New Delhi: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has introduced a new refinance product for warehousing. The refinance scheme incentivises banks to accelerate the pace of creation of quality warehousing facilities for agricultural commodities. The scheme will help in creation of around 9 million tonne (MT) of additional storage capacity in the country.

New Delhi: The US$ 16 billion media giant Bertelsmann has opened its India Corporate Centre in Delhi. Through this, it will identify investment opportunities and build new businesses here. Education and digital media are two key areas the company has identified in India.

Chennai: Former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes, has volunteered to promote South African tourism in India as a brand ambassador. India is one of the most 'vibrant' markets to attract tourists to the Rainbow Nation, according to Hanneli Slabber, Country Head, South African Tourism.

Mumbai: Amazon.com on February 2, 2012, flowed into India by launching a website called Junglee.com. It is being positioned as an online shopping service that will help customers discover products from other websites (including Amazon.com). When users select or choose to buy a product from Junglee.com, they would be redirected to the seller's website.

Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has approached the international markets, to raise funds for its ambitious US$ 11 billion mega petrochemicals project (J-3) in Jamnagar. RIL officials were in Rome to sign an agreement for US$ 400 million loan facility from Italian insurer and finance group SACE Spa.

Kolkata: Bharti Airtel has launched its mobile money platform, christened, 'Airtel Money' in Uganda. "Airtel Money's new platform will provide customers with a useful offering of products that cuts across Mobile banking including ATM transactions, utility bill payments, Airtime top ups and Money Transfer services," as per V G Somasekhar, Managing Director, Airtel Uganda.

Kolkata: Idea Cellular Ltd has inked a deal with Opera Software ASA, to offer a customised Opera Mini mobile web browser to subscribers. Opera Mini is a mass-market web browser providing a rich web experience for smartphone users. "In emerging markets like India, the mobile phone will soon become the primary way of accessing the Internet," according to Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software.

Mumbai: Binani Industries Ltd (BIL), the holding company of the US$ 1.6 billion Braj Binani Group, has acquired 3B, a Belgian fibre glass major, for €275 million (US$ 362.04 million). This is the third such global acquisition of the group in six years.

New Delhi: India is an important market and IKEA would like to be involved in strengthening of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India, conveyed Mikael Ohlsson, Chief Executive Officer, IKEA Group, in his meeting with Mr Anand Sharma, the Indian Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles, in Paris.

Hyderabad: French hospitality major Accor is upbeat on India's convention business and is on course to expand its portfolio of convention centres. "We plan to manage 90 properties in India by 2015 across all brands," as per Paul Archer, General Manager Delegate, Accor (Hyderabad).

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to allow all private sector banks to undertake Central and State Government business, where RBI pays agency commission, at par with public sector banks. According to the regulator, this move is aimed to enhance the quality of customer service in Government business.

New Delhi: The Ministry of Finance has developed a new sovereign comparative rating method called Comparative Rating Index for Sovereigns (CRIS), to measure the country's economic performance vis-a-vis other nations. This index is based on Moody's ratings and data on the gross domestic product (GDPs) of different nations.

New Delhi: Swedish truck maker Scania will be investing Rs 1.5 billion (US$ 30.32 million) in 2012 to set up a plant in Bengaluru. This plant will serve as a completely-knocked down (CKD) assembly unit for truck and bus chassis during first phase of operations.

New Delhi: State-run Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) plans to invest Rs 7,700 crore (US$ 1.56 billion) by 2015 to expand its pipeline network. IOC plans to lay more than 20 new pipelines to expand its network from 10,900 kilometer (km) to 15,000 km, according to KK Jha, Director (Pipelines), IOC.

Bengaluru: Global biotech major Novozymes has partnered with Bengaluru-based biotech start-up—Sea6 Energy—for exploratory research and to jointly develop a process for the production of biofuels from seaweed. "In our partnership with Novozymes we look forward to developing an efficient enzymatic process to convert seaweed to sugar," according to Shrikumar Suryanarayan, Chairman, Sea6 Energy.

Chennai: Chile wants India to partner with it in the development of renewable energy industry on its soil. "India would be welcome to set up power plants that generate energy from renewable sources," said Mr Guido Girardi, President of the Senate of the Republic of Chile.

Kochi: Petronet LNG Ltd plans to set up its third terminal in the east coast of India. The terminal will come up at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh. The 5 million tonnes (MT) capacity terminal will cost approximately Rs 4,500 crore (US$ 909.55 million).

Mumbai: Airport retail business in India has topped US$ 1 billion in revenue during 2011, according to a boutique retail consultancy. The business is growing at 17-18 per cent annually, emerging as a viable platform for retailers and operators of the new airports, according to consulting firm Asipac Projects.

New Delhi: India has signed an international agreement—Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters—that could help it to combat tax avoidance and evasion. The convention covers all taxes (direct and indirect), all forms of exchange of information and provides for assistance in tax assessment and actual collection.

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has lifted restrictions on broad-based institutions subscribing to preferential issues of companies. "It has been decided to exempt insurance companies and mutual funds, which are broad-based investment vehicles representing public at large, from regulations related to sale and lock-in of their pre-preferential shareholding in issuer companies," as per a Sebi release.