RBI announces sale of 23 state govt. loans
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India announced on 31 August 1999 the sale of 10-year, 11.85 per cent state government loans from 23 Indian states, amounting to Rs.3,250 crore. The coupon is 26 basis points above the cut-off placed for the recent auction of 10-year government paper. A couple of weeks back, the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu raised loans of Rs.400 crore and Rs.200 crore at rates of 11.77 per cent and 11.74 per cent respectively.

Around Rs.4,000 crore will enter the money markets during the next few weeks owing to redemption of treasury bills and government securities. 
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SBI’s Rs.125.7 crore dividend
Mumbai: State Bank of India paid Rs.125.74 crore as dividend for the year 1998-99 to the Reserve Bank of India. The latter holds a 59.7 per cent stake in the former.
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IL&FS Venture closes two funds
Bangalore: IL&FS Venture Corporation has closed two of its funds – Auto Ancillary Fund and TamilNadu Infotek Fund. The first drawdowns of 5 per cent 15 per cent respectively in the two funds were made in April 1999.

IL&FS Venture has a fund base of Rs.300 crore. IL&FS holds a 19 per cent stake in the company. Other top shareholders are Bank of India, Asian Development Bank, Commonwealth Development Corporation and International Finance Corporation.

It is planning a capital restructuring exercise so as to set off its accumulated losses against its reserves, which will reduce its share capital from Rs.24 crore currently, to Rs.12 crore.
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GIC asks KPMG to help in health insurance
Mumbai: According to a report in the Economic Times, management consultants, KPMG has been asked to study and suggest the plan for General Insurance Corporation’s launch of its health insurance scheme. KPMG has already given a first set of recommendations and this is part of the second stage of the study.

Some of the key issues are the accreditation of hospitals and approval of tariff structure for treatment. Under the current plan, GIC will appoint external administrators (called third party administrator) for its metro centres. These administrators will act as the link between GIC and the hospitals and laboratories that will be approved by GIC.

GIC will be opening 24-hour cells for patients who need hospitalisation. This facility will be available for those who take the company’s healthcare policy. This will be again done through the external administrator, who will maintain the 24-hour call centres.

GIC Mutual Fund is restructuring some of its schemes which are performing badly. It is planning to make some of the schemes open-ended. As of June 1999, GIC Mutual Fund claims to have got rid of around 75 per cent of its weak shares. 
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Trai proposes huge tariff reduction
New Delhi: According to a report in the Economic Times, the Telecom and Regulatory Authority of India wants to reduce mobile phone tariffs. This is as a result of the existing cellular operators shifting to the revenue sharing system from a fixed licence fee system.

The proposed reduction in monthly rentals will be from the existing Rs.600 to Rs.475 and on outgoing airtime tariff from Rs.6 per minute to Rs.4 per minute. It also plans to increase the pulse rate from 20 seconds to 30 seconds, which means a subscriber has to pay a minimum airtime tariff as Rs.2, for calls made from a cellular phone.
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VSNL plans rate cuts
Mumbai: According to acting chairman and managing director, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., the company is planning to reduce its web hosting charges, pending approval from the board.

Mr.Kumar said that there could be also tariff reduction for renting server space in India, for which it is planning to take on lease two million square feet in Navi Mumbai, Pune and Chennai. High-end servers will be installed in these places and will be connected with a high-speed dedicated network.

He stated that with 165 mega bits band width, VSNL is currently quite comfortable since peak time requirements are around 80 mega bits.
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