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Heavy Industry Ministry
The government has decided to shut SAIL's loss- making Visveswaraya Iron & Steel Plant (VISP) at Bhadravathi in Karnataka, Parliament was informed on Monday. The government had originally planned for privatising VISP and had invited Expression of Interest (EoI) for selling SAIL's 100 per cent stake in the unit in July 2019. However, in October last year, the government decided to scrap the strategic disinvestment plans of VISP due to low bidder interest. In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said the shortlisted bidders had expressed inability to participate in the sale process of VISP. "On account of old machinery, sub-optimal size, continuous losses and shutdown of blast furnace for a long time, it has been decided to initiate the process for closure of this unit," Karad said. The Cabinet had in October 2016 cleared strategic disinvestment of SAIL's 100 per cent stake in VISP.
The government is likely to invite financial bids for the privatisation of BEML in the December quarter, an official said. Earlier this month, the corporate affairs ministry approved the demerger of land and non-core assets of BEML to BEML Land Assets Ltd. The official said that every shareholder of BEML will get shares in BEML Land Assets and the process of demerger would be completed by the end of September or early October. "Once the demerger process gets over by September-end or by early October, the financial bids for strategic sale of BEML would be invited," the official told PTI. The financial bids are expected in the October-December quarter and the draft share purchase agreement too would be finalised by then, the official added. In January last year, the government invited preliminary bids for selling 26 per cent stake in BEML along with the management control. Multiple Expressions of Interest (EoIs) were received by the government, after which the process of demerger w
Union Heavy Industries Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey has inaugurated a modern, state-of-the-art data centre at BHEL's Electronics Division in Bengaluru. Established to commemorate India's celebration of 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' and as a step in BHEL's digital transformation journey, the data centre at Electronics Division (EDN) encompasses the data centres of all the three Bengaluru-based units of BHEL, namely Solar Business Division (SBD), Industrial Systems Group (ISG), as well as EDN, a statement said. The facilities at these three units have been brought together and co-located in one place leading to optimisation of IT infrastructure, better data security and reduction in operating cost. The connectivity to SBD and ISG, located about 12 kms from EDN, is provided through high-speed multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) for increasing the speed and also to control the flow of network traffic. "Mahendra Nath Pandey, Union Minister of Heavy Industries, inaugurated a modern, ...
Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday took charge as the Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, two days after Shiv Sena leader Arvind Sawant resigned from the Union Cabinet. Javadekar also holds information & broadcasting, and environment, forest and climate change portfolios. Speaking to reporters here, Javadekar said he hoped the additional charge was for a temporary period and there will be a regular arrangement in place thereafter. "I have assumed charge of heavy industries and the related ministries. I hope it's for temporary period because there will be a regular arrangement thereafter. But, as I was asked I have assumed the charge and will start functioning right from today (Wednesday)," Javadekar told reporters. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Sawant accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of reneging on its promise to the Shiv Sena for equal division of seats and power and forcing the Uddhav Thackeray-led party to snap ties. He alleged that the BJP