Government wants to settle telecom wrangle
New Delhi: The government is taking initiative to settle the wrangle between Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and the department of telecommunications on the one hand and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on the other. The ministry of communications has called a meeting of MTNL, DoT and Trai on 21 November to discuss the issues and evolve a consensus so that court cases in this regard can be resolved.

MTNL and DoT had approached a court against Trai contesting the latter’s order implementing a calling party pays regime for cellular phone operators in the country, governed by a formula of revenue sharing between the cellular and land-line operators. The new regime was to come into force on 1 November, but the court had stayed it.

The issues to be discussed at the meeting include the CPP regime and possibly a machinery to settle disputes in future.
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RBI seeks changes in NPA norms
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India, in a report on trends and progress in banking in India, has observed that there is need for tightening asset qualification and income recognition norms for non-performing assets as well as for more transparency in bank operations. The central bank feels that timely disclosure will help reduce the risk of failures in the banking system.

The report says the present norm of 18 months for categorising a sub-standard asset as doubtful should be changed to 12 months. For income recognition norms, the RBI has suggested that the international norm of 90 days be implemented in a phased manner by 2002. The current norm is 120 days.
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NPAs shoot up
Mumbai: Gross non-performing assets in the banking sector increased by Rs 7,739 crore to Rs 58,554 crore in the year ended March 1999. Net non-performing assets during the year increased by Rs 4,013 crore to Rs 27,774 crore.

According to the Reserve Bank of India report on trends and progress of banking in 1998-99, the NPAs of public sector banks showed a marginal decline, while NPA levels have gone up in the case of all other banks. The public sector banks have been able to reduce their NPA levels mainly on account of an increase in the share of standard assets and a decline in the share of doubtful and sub-standard assets.
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Comsat Max to offer VSATs to UTI Bank
New Delhi: UTI Bank has tied up with Comasat Max, a satellite service provider, to set up a communications network to interlink its banking operations. The plan covers a network of 50 VSATs at strategic locations so that reliable and consistent connectivity is established.

UTI Bank has 38 branches in the country, each with an ATM on its premises. Besides it has 12 off-site ATMs in five cities, which are connected to a central switch. The bank claims to be the first to connect all ATMs to the central switch located at its central office in Mumbai through a TCP/IP protocol on a distributed database. The satellite-based network will allow the bank to integrate all its ATMs, enabling its account holders to withdraw money from any of its ATMs.
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China, US sign deal on WTO
Beijing: China and the United States have signed an agreement paving way for China's entry into the World Trade Organisation. The final document was signed by US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky and Chinese trade minister Shi Guangsheg after six days of talks and intervention by Chinese prime minister Zhu Rongji.

China hopes that with this agreement it will be able to join the WTO this year. Ministers of WTO’s 134 members are meeting in Seattle on 30 November to launch a new trade round.
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