SBI seeks lower RBI stake
New Delhi : The State Bank of India wishes to grow, freeing itself from the shackles of the Reserve Bank of India. It has urged that the RBI either reduce its equity in the bank from the present levels of 59.74 per cent to below 51 per cent or contribute to its rights issue.

The SBI has also sought to increase the cap on foreign equity to 30 per cent from the present 20 per cent. As per the prevailing SBI Act, the RBI stake in the SBI cannot go below 55 per cent, and foreign equity cannot go above 20 per cent. The SBI has sought an amendment in the Act.
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EPCG scheme extended
New Delhi : The export promotion capital goods scheme has been extended to give zero-duty import cover to the capital goods, bio-tech, engineering, textiles and chemical sectors. The threshold limit has been lowered under this scheme to Rs 1 crore from the earlier level of Rs 20 crores.

In the case of textiles this facility has been restricted to 41 items, most of which are not manufactured in India. The scheme for advance licensing and the duty entitlement passbook scheme has also been extended to inland container depots at Dahej, Nagpur, Cochin, Nashik, Rudrapur and Dighi.
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Govt. rules out intervention in FI sell-off
Calcutta : The government will not interfere with financial institutions’ decision to sell off their stakes in companies, finance minister Yashwant Sinha has announced. This has reference to the plea made by the two national industry chambers, Ficci and Assocham, which wanted the government to prevent institutions from selling their stake in companies in the open market without prior consultation with the promoters.

The immediate case in question is that of Modi Rubber Ltd. whose shares institutions want sell off to a strategic buyer. The Confederation of Indian Industry, another industry body is not in favour of government intervention, and has said that institutions should have the freedom to take their own investment decisions.
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Exim Bank signs MoU with China’s Exim Bank
Mumbai : The Export Import Bank of India signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Exim Bank to jointly promote and facilitate Indo-Chinese trade and investment. India’s Exim Bank believes there is huge potential for the export of select Indian items to China, especially agricultural and industrial products, oil meal, computer software, high grade iron ore, polished granite slabs, leather and leather products, chemical and allied products, and gems and jewellery.

An Exim Bank study says that China’s import structure is heavily tilted towards manufactured goods – accounting for 84 per cent – and also has an unmet demand for primary commodities like iron ore, cotton yarn, rice, spices, etc., which Indian exporters can take advantage of.
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Madurai Telecom's free access to internet
Madurai : Madurai Telecom is offering a new internet facility that would be available to all its telephone subscribers without having to separately register, obtain user name or password. A telephone subscriber who had other necessary hardware such as computer and modem, only needs to dial 172 223 to be given internet access at the Madurai node.

The subscriber would pay by usage, without having to bother about registration or time limit stipulations. Misuse is prevented by using ‘locks’ similar to those used to lock STD and ISD facilities.

However, the service does not include e-mail addresses, for which subscribers would have to opt for other e-mail services, including free services like yahoo and hotmail.
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China okays first foreign communications service
San Francisco : China has okayed entry to the first foreign online service into the country when it gave the green signal to UAC, a US-funded joint venture, to provide an online stock trading service in China. UAC is funded by Los Angeles-based Hartcourt Companies Inc and UAC Online Stock Trading Inc, a Beijing-based company that is partly-owned by Hartcourt.

The UAC stock trading network is an intranet rather than internet service and falls in the category of value added telecommunication services.
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