Laloo in jail, Rabri on bail
New Delhi: Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi, th current chief minister of Bihar, surrendered before a special court after non-bailable arrest warrants were issued against them in a disproportionate assets case. Ms Rabri Devi was granted bail while Mr Yadav was remanded to 15 days’ judicial custody and sent to Beur Adarsh Jail.
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PC sales ride Internet boom
New Delhi: In the year to 31 March 2000 the computer hardware industry doubled its growth rate. Boosted by the growth of the Internet, the industry sold about 1.5 million personal computers during the year, up 50 per cent from the 1 million it sold in 1998-99, when it recorded a 25 per cent growth rate.

The Manufacturers Association of Information Technology expects PC sales to continue to grow at the same high pace in 2000-21, and cross the 2-million annual sales mark. The industry's annual revenues are estimated around Rs 10,000 crore in 1999-2000, against the previous year's Rs 8,400 crore.
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Cement output up 15% with rising demand
Mumbai: Buoyant demand pushed cement production up 15 per cent in the year ended 31 March 2000. The Indian cement industry produced 94.01 million tonnes of cement during the year against 81.67 million tonnes in 1998-99. Despatches rose 14.65 per cent to 93.82 million tonnes from 81.83 million tonnes earlier.
The last quarter of 1999-2000 registered a decade’s high output of 9.93 million tonnes, and the cement industry recorded an average capacity utilisation of 107 per cent.

Cement Manufacturers Association figures place Indian cement manufacturing capacity at 109.97 million tonnes against 108.27 million tonnes at the end of 1998-99. During the latest period Indo Rama Cement’s 1 million tonnes per annum capacity went on stream in Maharashtra, Aditya Cement’s 4 lakh tonne expansion was completed in Rajasthan, and Chilamkur Works’s 3 lakh tonne expansion was completed in Andhra Pradesh.
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BoB, Corporation Bank, BoI and IOB cut rates
Mumbai: Four more banks have announced a cut in their prime lending rates after the Reserve Bank of India slashed key interest rates on 2 April 2000.

Bank of Baroda’s PLR is now 11.25 per cent instead of the earlier 12 per cent, or at the same level as that of the State Bank of India. Bank of India has reduced its PLR by a half percentage point to 11.5 per cent. Corporation Bank has cut its PLR by 50 basis points on loan maturities up to and inclusive of one year to 11.50 per cent; its lending rate for loans beyond one year will be 11.75 per cent, or down 25 basis points. and Indian Overseas Bank has announced a half percentage point reduction in PLR to 12 per cent against 12.50 per cent earlier.

The banks have also announced a reduction in their deposit rates.
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Birla AT&T among 57 FDI proposals cleared
New Delhi: Union commerce and industry minister Murasoli Maran has cleared 57 cases of foreign direct investments worth about Rs. 2,504.93 crore as recommended by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. The approvals cover information technology, power generation, telephone services, websites and portals, banking, cargo handling, risk management, nutritional food products, and chemicals.

The approvals include:

• Birla AT&T Communications (investment of Rs 1,016.75 crore in mobile telephone services).
• Global Electronic Commerce Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Global Telesystems (funds for value-added telecom services, Internet, and Internet-related services).
• Indiainfo.com Pvt Ltd (American depository receipts of $100 to 150 million and equity to non-residents through private placement worth $15 million)
• Moser Baer India (FDI of Rs. 387 crore, involving 15.4 per cent of overseas equity, for the setting up of a optical media recordable CDR facility).
• Silverline Technologies (FDI of Rs 228 crore for its software development plans).
• Ogden Energy India (Balaji) Ltd (74.8 per cent of overseas equity, amounting to Rs. 172 crore, in electricity generation).
• Nutricia (India) Pvt Ltd (acquisition of 51 per cent in foreign equity in the manufacture and marketing of nutritional food products, involving FDI of Rs. 1.9 crore).
• NM Rothschild & Sons (to increase its holding in its Indian subsidiary from 75 per cent to 100 per cent).
• Bayer Industries Ltd (increasing overseas equity from 70 per cent to 82 per cent, through infusion of Rs. 10 crore).

Others are BuyBuzz Inc, NetAcross Ltd, Fibcom India Ltd, GO4 Careers.com, GO4Ticketing.com and GO4I.com, Ivega Corporation Pvt Ltd, Ampersand Software Applications Ltd, CG Maersk Information Technology, eLifestyle.com Pvt Ltd, Rave Technologies India Pvt Ltd, Maxxicon Systems, Harrowgate Technologies India Pvt Ltd,

International Industries Pvt Ltd, Allianz Alpic Finance Corporation Ltd.
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RBI fixes automatic FDI approval limit
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has announced that foreign direct investment by non-resident Indians and overseas corporate bodies will get automatic approval only where the total sum involved does not exceed Rs 600 crore. The RBI has clarified that the limit covers foreign direct investment and investments by NRI and OCBs put together.

Also, automatic approval will not be available to industries in the restricted list and for companies where there is a sectoral cap. The RBI has also listed out the industries with specific caps.
According to the RBI clarification, investments by non-residents both through the FDI and NRI/OCB route in export-oriented units, export processing zones and software technology parks are fully eligible under the automatic route. The RBI notification says that all items excluding specific sectors will be eligible for foreign investment (FDI and NRI/OCB) under the automatic route up to even 100 per cent of capital.

The RBI has issued a further list of sectors where automatic approval is available only up to a certain level of investment. Investment in these sectors would have to go through the secretariat for industrial approvals and foreign investment promotion board route. The areas where investment is not allowed through the automatic route are banking, non-banking finance companies, financial services, civil aviation; petroleum (including exploration, refineries and marketing), venture capital, investing companies in infrastructure and service sectors, and print media and broadcasting.

In basic, cellular mobile, paging and value added services, and global mobile personal communications by satellite, and up to 74 per cent in the pharmaceutical industry in case of bulk drugs, their intermediaries and formulations, automatic approval from the RBI is available only up to 49 per cent.
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Uniform 12% sales tax floor for autos
New Delhi: From 1 May 2000 a uniform 12 per cent floor rate of sales tax for automobiles will become effective. A consensus on this rate was arrived at at a meeting of the Standing Committee of State Finance Ministers in New Delhi.

The result will be a further increase in the on-road prices of all passenger cars in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Chandigarh. The increases could range from Rs. 12,000 to 36,000.
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Banks’ privately placed debt seen as loans
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has issued draft guidelines classifying bank investments in privately-placed debt as ‘advances’ and not an `investment’. Banks will have to classify default in interest payments or principal on these as non-performing assets. The central bank has taken this decision out of concern over banks’ lending funds to corporates through investments in privately-placed debt.

The RBI has also proposed new guidelines on classification and valuation of debt instruments, which will curb the large debt volumes through the private placement route.
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Third-party loan norms eased
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has given banks the discretion to charge interest rates without reference to the prime lending rate on advances up to Rs 2 lakh against third party domestic and NRI deposits. Earlier they could do this only with loans against borrowers’ own deposits.
The notification for this was issued in end-March.
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ANZ opens 24-hour bank in Mumbai
Mumbai: An ANZ Grindlays Bank branch has introduced 24-hour banking for its personal finance services customers in Mumbai. The branch will have employees serving customers round the clock. The branch, located on Warden Road in south Mumbai, will remain open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and will offer the entire range of banking services. This is the second such ANZ branch in the country, the first one being in New Delhi.

The 24-hour service will be extended to other branches in other cities over the next couple of months. ANZ Grindlays has a large workforce, which it can deploy for round-the-clock service.
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Dresdner scraps merger with Deutsche Bank AG
Frankfurt: Dresdner Bank AG has cancelled its merger with Deutsche Bank AG. The Dresdner management has charged Deutsche Bank of disrupting the merger with its demand that Dresdner's investment banking unit Dresdner Kleinwort Benson be sold off entirely or in part.
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Dishnet permitted to create 7 gateways
New Delhi: Dishnet DSL Ltd, the Internet service provider, has received permission from the department of telecommunications to create seven more international gateways in India, it is reported. These gateways will be built in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Kochi, and Calcutta. They will operate on the satellite system in the c-band frequency.

Dishnet has signed an agreement with Singapore Telecom for the supply of international bandwidth.  
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