The Ministry of Health& Family Welfare, Govt. of India has taken a serious action against Paras HMRI Hospital in Patna. According to an office memorandum issued by Dr. T.A.K. Singh, Addl. Dtr. CGHS, Patna, an Office Order No.- 2-149/2022/Paras Hospital/CGHS/4312 dated – 12-04-2024, several serious complaints and medical negligence etc. received against Paras HMRI Hospital, Patna. As per recommendation of Grievance Section (Hospital Cell), under CGHS Patna and as per recommendation of High Power Committee for action against HCOs under CGHS Patna, the Addl. Dtr. (CGHS Patna) decided to suspend the Paras HMRI Hospital from the panel of empanelled HCOs under CGHS Patna with immediate effect for a period of six months or till further orders.

The CGHS beneficiaries already admitted in the hospital for treatment prior to the issue of this order shall continue to be provided treatment of CGHS rates till their discharge within a period of seven days.

According to a court filing, Chippewa’s amended plan will reorganize Mesabi Metallics with a $1 billion proposal from a consortium of investors. The proposal includes project completion commitments and provides over $350 million of distributable value to the pending debtors for work already done on the site. In the court filing, Chippewa also indicated that they wish to build three DRI plants in Minnesota, and that they will pay back up to $65 million to the state for Essar-related infrastructure investments.

Chippewa also has control of ERP Iron Ore, formerly owned by Magnetation, and has agreed to join forces with the Essar project.

The confirmation hearing on the reorganization plan and state’s mineral leases are scheduled for May 22. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has filed for the leases to be released from the bankruptcy proceedings.

According to Forbes, Essar Steel Minnesota went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday as the State of Minnesota withdrew the state licences for the taconite the company was preparing to mine. It might seem a little odd that an Indian owned mine in Minnesota will go out of business as a result of the Chinese steel industry slowing down but that is what has happened. This globalization thing really does mean that the international markets are connected in this manner. The basic background here is that taconite is a low grade form of iron ore used to make steel. As China’s steel industry has grown less fast than other iron ore miners thought it would the price of high grade ore has fallen. That in turn has knock on effects on the low grade ore. There is a way out of this but not for the current owners, Essar.

The story:

Essar Steel Minnesota, a sister company to Essar Steel Algoma and an expected future supplier of taconite to the Sault steelmaker, has filed for U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Minnesota news media are reporting.

The action was taken after Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton terminated Essar’s lease agreements with the state Friday.

The company pretty much ran out of development money a year back and has littered the area with unpaid bills. So, the Governor gave them a warning that unless they showed they could finance the project to completion then those leases would be pulled:

Essar Steel Minnesota, which once promised the state’s first new taconite plant in decades and the state’s first direct-reduced iron plant, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday after falling short of both of those promises.

The company filed in federal court in Delaware on the same day that Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton refused to extend a deadline to terminate Essar’s state mineral leases that gave the company access to the iron ore at the proposed mine site outside Nashwauk.

No real evidence of being able to complete the financing arrived and thus the pulling of the leases.

In his statement, Gov. Dayton said Lourenco Goncalves, the chief executive of iron-ore miner Cliffs Natural Resources CLF +11.80% Inc., has expressed a “strong desire” to take over the existing Essar Steel Minnesota project if Cliffs is assigned the state mining leases. Negotiations continue, the governor said, adding that he and Mr. Goncalves will meet again Tuesday.

Here’s what the essential problem is:

The difference this time is the Chinese economic juggernaut has slowed, says Andrew Lane, an analyst for Morningstar MORN +0.04%.

“The significant decline in iron ore spot prices since about 2011 is largely a function of fading Chinese demand,” he says.

At the same time, Lane says, the world’s three largest iron ore mining companies have all ramped up production over the past decade.

Everyone thought China would keep growing as it has done, keep swallowing the iron ore to build a new economy. So, production of the high grade ore that China generally uses was increased. And increased rather faster than China’s consumption, leading to a price crash. $190 a tonne to, at some points, $50 a tonne.

These Minnesota mines produce taconite pellets. That’s a lower grade ore worth a little less and it’s not quite a prefect substitute. You can’t just switch from one to another although with a little adjustment a blast furnace can take either. What has happened here is that the price that can be gained for taconite pellets has fallen below the cost of developing the new mine. Thus no more money is being spent upon developing it of course, investors aren’t willing to put in more money.

Reuters reports that the CBI has registered cases against the two operators and two former telecoms ministry officials, among others. The case relates to alleged irregularities in spectrum auctions under the previous government (formed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is now in opposition), which stands accused of showing “undue favour” to some operators and costing the government about INR5.08 billion (US$98 million) in lost spectrum revenue between 2001-2007.

The CBI said the former telecoms ministry officials (with approval of the then-telecoms minister Pramod Mahajan, who died in 2006) took an alleged “hurried decision” in 2002, to grant additional spectrum beyond 6.2MHz to the two operators in violation of the report of a technical committee.

According to Reuters, Bharti Airtel said over the weekend that all spectrum allocated to it had been in line with government policy, while Vodafone said its documents were in “complete compliance with the governing laws.” However, the report notes that shares in Bharti – India’s largest mobile operator – fell as much as 3.6 percent this morning following news of the CBI probe.

The latest investigation comes on the back of a high-profile investigation by India’s Supreme Court into the separate (and much more serious) licensing scandal concerning the sale of 2G spectrum in 2007 and 2008, which is estimated to have cost the government up to US$39 billion in lost potential revenue. Reuters notes that a trial recently began in this case, which involves a former telecoms minister, a lawmaker and several other government and company officials.

His questioning comes a day after ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani was called to the CBI in connection with its probe into the 2G scam as the agency has to inform the Supreme Court by March 1 about the beneficiaries in the case.

According to official sources, Ruia was quizzed about the alleged association of Essar with Loop Telecom which came under the scanner in the CBI case registered in October 2009.

The Essar CEO was called amid allegations that Loop Telecom acted as a front company for Essar which has nearly 33 per cent stake in Vodafone-Essar joint venture.

If the allegation were found to be true, it would make Loop Telecom ineligible to get telecom licences.