Below the line

In February Saudi Arabia’s National Oil Company, Saudi Aramco’s, CEO, Amin Al Nasser, said, “India is an investment priority for Saudi Aramco. There is a lot of growth potential. We are looking at additional investments in India. We are in discussions with other companies as well, including Reliance Industries.”

And a few days back news came that Mukesh Ambani’s RIL is reportedly in talks to sell a 25 per cent stake in its refinery and petrochem business to Saudi Aramco for an estimated $10-15 billion. This of course got the oil and trading industry talking. Why would Ambani do it? Refinery and Petrochem are his premium assets and a revenue earner he doesn’t need money for the business. Is it to revive his petroleum retail business or is it to foot the bill for Reliance Jio’s expenses?

While Aramco can fulfil its desire to tap the huge petroleum retail business of India, Ambani would get assured crude oil supply, if the deal is indeed struck.

Debates and discussions continue with some even stating that the deal will close in the next few months. While those closely associated with the developments maintain there is no finality as yet, we probably have to wait for Ambani and his core team to unravel the mystery behind this.

Missing links in the network seem to be causing disruptions for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Once a very transparent Ministry, this nodal point for implementation of clean energy projects used to regularly publish installed capacity numbers for solar and wind energy. There also used to be a column for renewable energy equipment manufacturing facilities. But, the release of this data has been on the back burner for a while. And no reason has been given. Is it because of disappointing installation numbers and stagnation in new manufacturing facilities?

The Odisha government’s ad hoc implementation of the KALIA scheme promising financial aid to small and marginal farmers could prove to be either a boon or a bane for the ruling Biju Janta Dal.

While some policy watchers are of the opinion that the inclusion of some undeserving people in the list of beneficiaries and the exclusion of many deserving farmers could result in the Naveen Patnaik government losing some votes there are others who think the opposite. They argue that those left out would want Patnaik back in the hope that he would fulfil his promise of including them in the list after the elections. Which way the tide will turn will be clear only after the completion of the election process next month. Till then the contestants might as well keep their fingers crossed!

In Delhi, AAP and Congress have been blowing hot and cold over a pre-poll alliance. For the nth time talks have broken down and both party leaders tweeted their angst. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi even said they were willing to give four seats to AAP.

According to a source the bone of contention is the East Delhi seat. AAP candidate Atishi Marlena has put in enormous work in the constituency beginning her campaign fairly early. However, reportedly the Dikshits want the seat — at first Sandeep Dikshit’s name was suggested, but that was not acceptable to the AAP.

Public sector lenders not giving a helping hand to Jet Airways has left may of us confounded. Consider this.

The government’s enthusiasm has now clearly waned, according to banking industry insiders. Moreover, several of the banks did not want good money to be thrown after bad, a lesson learnt by them the hard way in the Kingfisher Airlines saga!

And finally several bankers, it seems, have strong memories of a Bank Chief (IDBI) still behind bars for supporting the cause of the aviation industry.

Our Delhi Bureau

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