The Centre on Monday decided to revoke President's rule in Bihar, paving the way for the reinstatement of the Rabri Devi government in the state. "The cabinet met this morning and decided to recommend to the President revocation of President's rule in Bihar," home minister LK Advani said in a statement in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

This is the first instance of the Government having been forced to revoke the Presidential proclamation on Article 356 in the face of a certain defeat after the Congress decided to oppose it in the Rajya Sabha on February 22. Meanwhile, Bihar Governor SS Bhandari ruled out any possibility of his resignation.

MSEB declines scrow facility to Reliance plant

The Maharashtra State Electricity Board has refused to grant escrow facility to Reliance's 410mw Patalganga power plant. This has effectively put the brakes on further negotiations between the two parties and needs to be resolved by the state government.

CorporateMonitor

HCC to bid for core projects

Hindustan Construction Company has entered into a series of joint ventures, including ones with Hyundai, Samsung, Bechtel, and Pati Berhad, to enable it to bid agressively for infrastructure projects in the country. Put together, these joint ventures are looking at projects worth over Rs 2,000 crore.

DoT puts BPL's ISP licence on hold:

The department of telecommunications has held up the Internet Service Provider licence to the BPL group, apparently on the ground that group telecom company BPL-US West had not yet cleared its outstanding cellular licence fee. A top official in BPL Telecom Business Group said that the company had not yet received the green signal from DoT.

Godrej Soaps may bid for HLL unit

Godrej Soaps, the Adi Godrej-controlled FMCG major, may emerge as a likely suitor for the animal-feeds division of Hindustan Lever. Hindustan Lever had announced last year that it was reviewing the businesses of dairy and animalfeeds.

Hinduja power project faces delay:

The financial closure for the 1,040mw Hinduja National Power Visakhapatnam power project may be delayed with its financiers and APTransco locked in a dispute over identification of the revenue stream for the project. The financiers for the $1.2-billion project have demanded that APTransco identify the high-tension consumers for the power generated by it and work out the revenue generation and their capacity to pay for the power drawn.

Birla Global to spin off finance arm

The Aditya Birla group has decided to convert its financial services flagship Birla Global Finance into an operational holding company for the group's financial services operations. One of its major businesses -- car financing and conventional hire purchase with an asset portfolio of around Rs 300 crore -- is being spun off into a separate company.