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Govt. introduces two bills

New Delhi: The government introduced the insurance bill and the amendments to the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (SCRA) that will open up the insurance sector and permit derivatives trading in the Indian markets respectively.

The Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left have dubbed the Insurance Bill as anti-national.

More than 200,000 insurance personnel throughout the country will strike work today (29 October 1999) protesting against the privatisation of the insurance sector.
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FDI limit may go up in petroleum, auto sectors
New Delhi: The department of industrial policy & promotion is contemplating an increase in the automatic approval of foreign direct investment in the automobile and petroleum sectors from the current 51 per cent to 74 per cent. It is also intending to make the sectors where the automatic approval limit is currently 74 per cent to be made 100 per cent.

Sectors such as films, roads, non-conventional energy and ports are expected to come under the 100 per cent automatic clearance system.

Other sectors where the automatic approval system is expected to go up from the current 51 per cent to 74 per cent are bulk grain and tourism.
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Minimum capital norms for LIC, GIC wings
New Delhi: Within six months of the ratification of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, the Life Insurance Corporation and arms of the General Insurance Corporation will have to increase their minimum capital base to Rs.100 crore. The Rs.100 crore capital limit is the same as that fixed for the new entrants into the private sector.
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SBI net down
Mumbai: The State Bank of India has reported a drop in net profit of around 18 per cent to Rs.702.4 crore during the first half of the fiscal year 1999-2000. During the corresponding period in the previous year, the net profit was Rs.857.7 crore.

Interest income and other income have gone up by 19.5 per cent and 10.2 per cent respectively. For the half year-ended September 1999, the interest income was Rs.10,507.3 crore while other income was Rs.1,610.4 crore.

Interest expenses and operating expenses grew by 25.1 per cent and 11.1 per cent respectively. The public sector major managed to post an operating profit of Rs.1,745.4 crore for the half-year ended September 1999 which is a growth of 4 per cent from the corresponding period in the previous year.

The bank has stated that the decision to make a larger-than-required provision for non-performing assets has caused a drop in the net profit.
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Stay awarded to MTNL on CPP
New Delhi: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. has been granted a stay on the ‘calling party pays’ or CPP system that was supposed to come into effect from 1 November 1999.

The CPP system simply means that if a call is made from a land-line to a cellular number, the caller has to pay an amount over and above the amount that is paid as normal call charges. The revenue thus arising would be shared by the land-line and mobile operators. Incoming calls for mobile phones were also to become free from 1 November.

MTNL and the consumer organisation, ‘Telecom Watchdog’, which had filed a public interest litigation against the revenue sharing system, have been told that the next hearing on the case will be on 16 November 1999.
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domain - B : Indian business : News Review : 29 October 1999 : general