BUZZ-Cairn India shares fall on reports it may be merged with Vedanta

MUMBAI, June 9 (Reuters) - ** Cairn India Ltd, Vedanta Ltd's oil and gas unit, falls as much as 6 percent.

** Media reports say metals and mining firm Vedanta is close to merging its oil and gas unit with itself to get access to Cairn India's cash and help reduce debt.

** Vedanta had standalone net debt of 367.96 billion rupees ($5.75 billion) as of March 31.

** Companies in final stages of discussions and process would be completed by March 2016 - reports

** "Cairn India's market cap is now near to cash plus the loan given to Vedanta earlier. It seems like a negative for Cairn India and positive for cash-starved Vedanta," said G. Chokkalingam, founder of Equinomics, a Mumbai-based research and fund advisory firm.

($1 = 63.9800 Indian rupees)