Vajpayee expands cabinet
New Delhi: Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee expanded and reshuffled his cabinet, inducting four ministers -- Alkali Dal’s Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajnath Singh and C.P. Thakur as cabinet ministers and former journalist Arun Shourie as a minister of state. The cabinet will now have 74 ministers.

The new portfolio allocations after the expansion and reshuffle are:

Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa – works and estates

Rajnath Singh- surface transport

C.P. Thakur – Water resources

Arun Shourie - planning, administrative reforms

Pramod Mahajan - parliamentary affairs and the newly created information technology

Nitish Kumar – agriculture

Vasundhara Raje – retaining small industries with additional charge of personnel.
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SBI arranges yen loan for NTPC
Mumbai: The State Bank of India is arranging a 8.7172 billion yen (around $80 million), two-and-a-half year syndicated loan for the National Thermal Power Corporation for refinancing the power major’s yen-dominated loan and help the company reduce the costs. The loan is being priced at 85 basis points above the London Inter Bank Offered Rate for yen and has a bullet repayment. This is the second loan sanctioned to the company in November. SBI had signed an agreement earlier with NTPC to provide a Rs 750-crore loan, the largest-ever term loan sanctioned by the bank to a single corporate entity.
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SBI plans general insurance foray later
New Delhi: The State Bank of India is seriously considering a foray into general insurance sector soon after its entry into the life insurance business.

SBI’s chairman G.G. Vaidya has been quoted by The Economic Times as saying the bank will appoint an advisor in the next 10 days to help select a partner for the life insurance venture.

Mr Vaidya said the bank can get into the general insurance any time. But it has to get into life insurance business now, as life insurance offers complete synergy with its branch network and existing fund raising and treasury management expertise. He also said the bank is giving more emphasis on Internet banking and putting a massive technology plan in place.
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New electronic credit card launched
New Delhi: MasterCard International and Citibank have launched a Citibank MasterCard electronic card. The new card is designed to work at all acceptance locations in India with an electronic point of sale authorisation terminal and at MasterCard ATMs. The features of the card include electronic authorisation transactions, where transactions have to be card-read via an electronic terminal, a non-embossed card, signature-based cardholder verification and a new brand logo, Citibank officials said. The electronic card is expected to reduce the average waiting time for a credit card transaction.
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MTNL plans JVs, to revise net rates
New Delhi: The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd is set to enter into new businesses through domestic and foreign alliances. It will also list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2000.

MTNL’s chairman and managing director S. Rajagopalan said the company will in future be not just a service provider. It will seize investment opportunities including in other companies, he said. MTNL is also planning an attractive Internet package soon.
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Dresdner plans restructuring
Frankfurt: Dresdner Bank is expecting to double its 28-billion euro market value by 2003 through a restructuring programme. The plan includes spinning off its investment banking unit.

Dresdner’s management board member Joachim von Harbou says the restructuring will strengthen the bank and make it fit for any contingency. The bank plans to spin off its investment banking unit Dresdner Kleinwort Benson into a separate company, maintaining its complete ownership.
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