India brings forward target of 20% ethanol-blending in petrol by 5 years ICRA says March-December negative rating actions exceed five-year average TCS third most-valued IT services brand globally, closes gap behind IBM

India has preponed the target of achieving 20 per cent ethanol-blending with petrol by five years to 2025 as it looks to cut dependence on costly oil imports, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday. "In 2014, less than 1 per cent ethanol was being blended with petrol against the target of 5 per cent. In the last sugar year, this ratio has reached 8.5 per cent and next year it is 10 per cent," he said at FIPI award function here.

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ICRA Ratings today said that about 13% of its rated portfolio underwent negative rating actions between March and December--higher than the five-year average of 9% for such rating actions. In addition to the negative rating actions, 9% of the rated entities witnessed a downgrade in their rating outlook--either from 'stable to negative' or from 'positive to stable', as per the latest credit outlook review by ICRA Research.

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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been ranked third mostvalued IT services brand globally, af ter Accenture and IBM, according to a report by Brand Finance. Four Indian IT services companies -- TCS, Infosys, HCL and Wipro -- secured spots in the top-10 global tally. "Third-ranked TCS is rapidly closing the gap with IBM following a healthy 11 per cent brand value increase to USD 15 billion," the report by Brand Finance said.

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