Friday, September 18, 2026
writingonblog uncensored: Tata Trusts moves to unlock Rs 25,000cr exit route...
writingonblog uncensored: Tata Trusts moves to unlock Rs 25,000cr exit route...: Chennai: Tata Trusts has put forward a proposal to help the Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group cash out part of its long-held stake in Tata Sons,...
Tata Trusts moves to unlock Rs 25,000cr exit route for Shapoorji Pallonji Group
Chennai:
Tata Trusts has put forward a proposal to help the Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group cash out part of its long-held stake in Tata Sons, in a move that could finally resolve one of Indian corporate history's most protracted shareholder standoffs.
The plan, tabled by Noel Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts, at a Tata Sons board meeting, would see the group's holding company buy back shares from two SP Group entities — Sterling Investments Corporation and Cyrus Investments — in a deal expected to fetch at least Rs 25,000 crore.
The proposal follows a series of discussions between Tata, Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran, and Shapoor Mistry, who heads the SP Group.
Under the structure understood to be acceptable to the SP Group, the share sale would be executed in two tranches over 18 months, with Tata Sons pursuing a selective capital reduction through the National Company Law Tribunal. Shares would be valued using the income-tax fair value method under Rule 11UA of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 — setting a floor, rather than a ceiling, on the eventual payout.
Tata told the board that funding could be drawn from a mix of sources: internal cash flows, sales of listed shares, bringing outside investors into newer Tata businesses, and potential listings via offer-for-sale of some group companies. He asked the board to authorise the NCLT process and instructed the Tata Sons and Tata Trusts management teams to continue talks with the SP Group and its bankers, reporting back periodically.
The move marks the latest chapter in a dispute that has simmered since Cyrus Mistry's ouster as Tata Sons chairman in 2016. The SP Group, which holds an 18.4 per cent stake in Tata Sons, has for years sought liquidity from the unlisted holding company — a request complicated by Tata Sons' private status and the absence of a ready market for its shares.
Monday, September 14, 2026
India's Reactor Ambitions Race Ahead of Safety Codes, says ASME India
Chennai:
India's rapid nuclear and hydrogen expansion is creating a growing need for new and updated technical standards, according to Madhukar Sharma, President of ASME India Private Limited, the US body whose codes underpin safety regulation for pressure vessels, piping and boilers worldwide.
India's atomic energy regulator relies on ASME Section III as the baseline code for Class 1 reactor components — the safety-critical parts of the country's pressurised heavy water reactors, a design lineage traced to CANDU (Canadian Deuterium Uranium) technology but substantially indigenised since, Sharma said on Friday on the sidelines of the second day of the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition India, held in Chennai.
He said India’s indigenously designed Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor used the French RCC-MR code. The code is used for the design and construction of mechanical components in nuclear power plants for relevant high-temperature mechanical components.
India has no Small modular reactor (SMR) specific code, and companies are operating on proprietary in-house standards while global codes — a joint effort between ASME and the Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers covering both fission and fusion — remain in draft, expected within a couple of years, Sharma added.
He said that India has published draft rules this week opening the nuclear sector to greater private participation, which ASME expects could accelerate the standards pipeline within six to twelve months. The absence of settled codes is compounding a separate supply-side constraint: India has just four or five qualified suppliers of nuclear-grade materials, against an estimated need for 50 to meet the country's target of 100 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2047, ASME said.
Sharma said that Light water reactors (LWR) are now gaining ground, and that's arguably where India should be investing next, much as it once invested in Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor technology — a choice partly shaped by India being excluded from LWR technology transfer in earlier decades. That constraint has eased considerably, and LWRs offer scalability into SMRs and even smaller, mobile reactor formats.
India has begun expanding nuclear engineering education at institutions including IIT Bombay and IIT Madras, while ASME is working with faculty at institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science on curricula, he said.
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India's rapid nuclear and hydrogen expansion is creating a growing need for new and updated technical standards, according to Madhukar Sharma, President of ASME India Private Limited, the US body whose codes underpin safety regulation for pressure vessels, piping and boilers worldwide.
India's atomic energy regulator relies on ASME Section III as the baseline code for Class 1 reactor components — the safety-critical parts of the country's pressurised heavy water reactors, a design lineage traced to CANDU (Canadian Deuterium Uranium) technology but substantially indigenised since, Sharma said on Friday on the sidelines of the second day of the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition India, held in Chennai.
He said India’s indigenously designed Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor used the French RCC-MR code. The code is used for the design and construction of mechanical components in nuclear power plants for relevant high-temperature mechanical components.
India has no Small modular reactor (SMR) specific code, and companies are operating on proprietary in-house standards while global codes — a joint effort between ASME and the Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers covering both fission and fusion — remain in draft, expected within a couple of years, Sharma added.
He said that India has published draft rules this week opening the nuclear sector to greater private participation, which ASME expects could accelerate the standards pipeline within six to twelve months. The absence of settled codes is compounding a separate supply-side constraint: India has just four or five qualified suppliers of nuclear-grade materials, against an estimated need for 50 to meet the country's target of 100 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2047, ASME said.
Sharma said that Light water reactors (LWR) are now gaining ground, and that's arguably where India should be investing next, much as it once invested in Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor technology — a choice partly shaped by India being excluded from LWR technology transfer in earlier decades. That constraint has eased considerably, and LWRs offer scalability into SMRs and even smaller, mobile reactor formats.
India has begun expanding nuclear engineering education at institutions including IIT Bombay and IIT Madras, while ASME is working with faculty at institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science on curricula, he said.
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writingonblog uncensored: Chennai FTWZs can ease customs, working capital pr...
writingonblog uncensored: Chennai FTWZs can ease customs, working capital pr...: CHENNAI: Free trade warehousing zones (FTWZs) in Chennai can help exporters reduce customs delays and ease pressure on working capital, acco...
Chennai FTWZs can ease customs, working capital pressures for exporters
CHENNAI:
Free trade warehousing zones (FTWZs) in Chennai can help exporters reduce customs delays and ease pressure on working capital, according to DP World’s 2026 India Country Report.
The report, which was released on Monday, cites Chennai’s FTWZ, along with those at Nhava Sheva and Cochin, as examples of how businesses can manage rising trade volumes amid growing uncertainty.
The report states that Indian businesses are placing greater emphasis on resilience than their global counterparts. Supplier diversification is the leading priority, followed by increasing inventory and friend-shoring.
Technology adoption and entry into new markets are also key drivers, with more than half of Indian businesses having fully digitalised customer-facing services, compared with fewer than four in ten globally. AI is already improving route optimisation, documentation and customs efficiency, strengthening supply-chain resilience, ther report stated.
New free-trade agreements with the UK and the EU are expected to support trade, while tariff changes and geopolitical tensions continue to create uncertainty. The uncertainty is prompting companies to strengthen their supply chains. About 70% of Indian executives are diversifying suppliers, compared with 51% globally, while 59% are increasing inventories to guard against disruptions, the report added.
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
writingonblog uncensored: Tamil Nadu budget promise falls short on rural hou...
writingonblog uncensored: Tamil Nadu budget promise falls short on rural hou...: CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu allocated just Rs 1,700 crore, or 48.6 per cent, of the Rs 3,500 crore promised for the Kalaignarin Kanavu Illam scheme ...
Tamil Nadu budget promise falls short on rural housing
CHENNAI:
Tamil Nadu allocated just Rs 1,700 crore, or 48.6 per cent, of the Rs 3,500 crore promised for the Kalaignarin Kanavu Illam scheme in 2024-25 to build 100,000 rural houses, according to Comptroller and auditor General report tabled in the state assembly on Tuesday.
The scheme was announced at Rs 3.5 lakh per house. Against the stipulated Rs 1,400 crore for SC/ST beneficiaries, the government provided Rs 680 crore, while the general category received Rs 1,020 crore against Rs 2,100 crore.
The audit said the shortfall showed that budget announcements were not fully translated into actual allocations.
A wider implementation gap was flagged in the Chief Minister Thayumanavar Scheme, announced with a Rs 27,922 crore outlay for vulnerable groups including destitute people, elderly persons living alone, single-parent families and orphaned children. No funds were provided in 2024-25, with the scheme sanctioned and launched only in August of the following year.
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