Inflation goes up
New Delhi: The inflation rate measured by the wholesale price index has gone up to 2.51 per cent for the week ended 9 October 1999 from 1.95 per cent recorded during the previous week. This rise is mainly on account of rise in the prices in the diesel, power and lubricants group.
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Rural areas not to be ignored: IRDA
New Delhi: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has said that private sector insurance players will be compulsorily made to conduct business in rural areas. The IRDA will issue minimum exposure norms for the private sector in rural areas.

The private sector insurance applicants will be issued licences only when the IRDA is satisfied with the rural area business plans spelt out by the applicants.
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Automatic FDI list go up
New Delhi: The automatic approval list for foreign direct investment is likely to be expanded to include retail chain stores and retailing of imported cars. By 31 December 1999, dividend balancing, an issue widely talked about by foreign investors, is likely to be removed, as per a commitment given to the World Trade Organisation.

Non-banking finance companies may get exemption from capitalisation norms for fee-based activities.
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MTNL revokes links
New Delhi: The basic telephone services operator in New Delhi and Mumbai, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd., has cancelled the interconnect links it had given to cellular operators – Hutchison Max, BPL Mobile and Bharti Telecom. The public sector MTNL says that the decision was taken as the three companies had not paid security deposits to MTNL for inter-connection.

The cellular operators will henceforth be disallowed from routing cellular calls to the MTNL network, once the latter gets permission to delink from the communications ministry.
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Little impact of transport strike
New Delhi: The transport strike called by the All India Motor Transport Congress has weakened as some sections of the organisation are willing to withdraw from the strike. The government has refused to give in to the transporters' demand of a roll-back of diesel prices since a diesel price hike was long overdue. The oil pool deficit has widened due to the firming up of international oil prices.
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HDFC to be 74:26 partner in MF foray
Mumbai: The Housing Development Finance Corporation may offer a 26 per cent stake to Standard Life, the UK-based life insurance company, in a mutual fund joint venture. The rest of the 74 per cent stake will be held by HDFC.

According to a report in the Business Standard, Deepak Satwalekar, managing director, HDFC, has said that a final decision is yet to be taken on the issue.

Currently, HDFC is advisor to two offshore funds with a corpus of more than $70 million.
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VSNL to recover dues
Mumbai: India’s internet gateway, owned by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., will recover its dues from international carriers such as British Telecom. The total dues for VSNL are said to run into millions of dollars, according to a report in the Business Standard.

The international operators have assured VSNL of an early settlement of their dues. The delay in payment may be due to the confusion arising out of the different accounting treatment of VSNL.

Meanwhile, VSNL Seamless Services, the internet subsidiary of VSNL, will aim for 4 lakh subscribers to VSNL's internet service by March 2000,  and a million by April 2001. VSNL Seamless will have a national licence.
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‘IT’ to be spared from dual monitoring
New Delhi: The telecommunications minister will have no say in the information technology ministry. The IT ministry will focus on promoting the internet, e-commerce and knowledge-based industries. Only internet licencing operations will come under the purview of the telecommunications ministry. There will also be no transfer of powers from the existing telecommunications ministry to the infotech ministry in this respect.
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SBI plea rejected
Calcutta: The Calcutta High Court has ruled that all shareholders of the State Bank of India will be eligible to vote from 1 January 2000, notwithstanding the fact that they hold 50 shares or less. A minority shareholder had earlier filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court arguing that he should be eligible to vote. But the SBI had asked for a stay in the proceedings.

The SBI has 8.69 lakh shareholders, of whom 61,395 held less than 50 shares as of August 1998.
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Sotheby's next Indian auction in June 2000
Mumbai: Sotheby's will hold its next auction of contemporary Indian paintings in London in June 2000. Some 200 select Indian paintings will go under the hammer then. Sotheby's feels interest in Indian paintings in the international market is rising.

In the last Sotheby's auction in June 1999, several Indian works were sold at record prices. The auction had generated 446,200.
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