Record FDI inflows in October
New Delhi: India has received $626.7 million in foreign direct investment in October, the highest in any month in 2000, a government statement has reported. Total FDI inflows in January-October were $3.58 billion. The ratio of FDI approvals to inflows stood at 47.23 per cent.

Mr. Murasoli Maran, commerce and industry minister has recently told a meeting of the Foreign Investment Implementation Authority last September that he expects actual investment inflows in 2000 would surpass last year's $4.0 billion.
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Railways to float a new entity for ticket reservation
New Delhi: The Indian railways is contemplating a move to create a separate commercial entity, in collabortion with a consortium of major private sector playersfor outsourcing its ticket reservation operations.

While the present ticket counters in railway stations and reservation centres will continue to function as usual, soon, for a few extra rupees, your friendly neighbourhood travel agent will be able to give you a valid, legal railway ticket, tell you the reservation status and do everything else that a railway ticket counter does. This could have the effect of creating a ticket reservation counter in every locality.

Interestingly, the railways will not invest a single paisa in the project and the entire cost will be borne by the private consortia.

While only sketchy details could be ascertained, it is learnt that one of the major consortia consists of Sun Microsystems, Polaris Software, global travel giants Galileo Travels, recently-formed IT solutions and incubation firm Maveric (in which Polaris MD Arun Jain holds a 45 per cent stake) and Chennaibased VSat-based messaging service provider Deltagram.

According to railways officials, a major reason for decentralising the railway ticket reservation system is reducing the burden of ticket seekers that form in railway stations. "Such a system will take a lot of load off our staff," said a railway official.

Around 30 consortia had put in their technical and business plans to the Railways for this project. Of this, the Railways has selected 10, two for each region.

Of these, five would most likely be selected for running a pilot project in each region for two years. Sources in the industry said eventually, the Railways may zero in on one of the consortia for implementing the project all over the country. Sources also added that the project would be on a BoT basis.

What industry people are unclear about is the kind of revenue model. Railway officials said the private operators could make money by charging Rs 10-15 over-and-above the price of the ticket. However, one industry source said, "The Railways wants Rs 5 of whatever extra is charged over and above the ticket price as it wants to be compensated for the loss in revenue."
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Maharashtra to renegotiate phase II of Enron project
Mumbai : The Maharashtra government is actively considering `renegotiating’ the power purchase agreement with Enron. Replying to a discussion on the power scenario in the state in the legislative assembly, Mr. Padmasinh Patil, Maharashtra’s energy minister, has said that Maharashtra State Electricity Board was suffering huge losses due to the power agreement it has with Enron. "We want to review Enron’s Dabhol power project and also renegotiate the price at which we want to buy power from the company, he has announced.

According to the energy minister, between May 1999 and November 1999, MSEB suffered a loss of Rs 259.28 crore and from December 1999 to November 2000 its losses rose to around Rs 828 crore.

The state government is seeking the review based on the provision in the original contract it had signed with the Enron, which had a clause that the phase II would be approved only after the government was satisfied with Phase I.
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