• DIPP to issue new press note in a week to clear confusion on calculating indirect foreign holding in Indian cos
• NTT DoCoMo gets nod for TTSL stake
• CCEA clears over 40 proposals
• FDI inflow in 2008-09 to exceed 2007-08’s $25 bn
• Nod for 10 SEZs, 3 to merge
• India slips 3 places in Global Industrial Performance index
• 39 foreign Net phone firms under DoT scanner
• Golden Victory - Slumdog Millionaire sweeps the Oscars
• According to sources, the Department of Industrial Policy And Promotion (DIPP) is working on a new Press Note to issue clarifications pertaining to confusions raised by Press Notes 2 and 3 in computing foreign investment. The sectors where foreign investment is prohibited (such as multi-brand retail, agriculture, lottery and atomic energy) is likely to be kept out of the reach of even indirect foreign investment. Accordingly even an Indian company (Indian owned and controlled) having foreign investment in it would not be allowed to make downstream investments in these specific sectors. The PN is likely to be issued in a week. (ET)
• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the proposal of Japanese telecom major NTT DoCoMo to acquire 27.31% equity capital of Tata Teleservices for about Rs 12,924 crore. It also approved the Japanese company’s proposal to acquire 20.25% stake in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd for about Rs 949 crore and converting the Indian entity into an operating-cum-holding company. The twin investment by NTT DoCoMo is one of the largest FDI to flow into the telecom sector in last one year. (ET)
• The CCEA, which met under the chairmanship of external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, cleared over 40 proposals in the lengthiest meeting in recent past. CCEA has, inter alia, approved:
o Establishment of 3 Petroleum Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIR) at Visakhapatnam, Dahej and Haldia;
o Additional funds to the tune of Rs 450 crore to provide immediate relief to the exporters by way of providing interest subvention to mitigate hardships on account of global meltdown;
o National Policy on Skill Development proposed by labour ministry;
o Proposal for encouraging development and commercialising of innovations that would also allow researchers to have equity stake in scientific enterprises while in professional employment;
o Proposal of National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL) for setting up a JV company with Singapore Air Terminal Services (SATS) for undertaking ground handling/cargo handling activities at various airports. NACIL and SATS would hold 50:50 equity in the new company;
o Revival of defunct telecom PSU, ITI by injecting fresh capital and roping in new JV partners;
o Development of a container terminal on a Build-operate-transfer basis, for a period of 30 years. The terminal will have a capacity of 600,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs);
o A coal terminal at Mormugao port in Goa, to be built at a cost of Rs 252.44 crore. The project is expected to be completed within 36 months of the date of awarding the contract and enable Mormugao port to handle an additional four million tonnes of coal.
o Port and regassification facilities for liquefied natural gas (JNG) at Cochin Port. The facility is expected to handle LNG up to 2.5 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA), which can be expanded up to 5 MMTPA.
• The CCEA is learnt to have postponed a decision on one FDI proposal after at least three ministers raised strong objections about the investing entity. The said item was deferred on the formal reasoning that while the front company and the shell company appeared to have bonafide operations, the identity of the promoters were not clear. Objections were raised about the company being possibly based in Mauritius and engaged in round tripping (disguising as FDI the capital which originally came from here, to get around regulations). (ET & BS)
• Govt has said that despite the financial meltdown hitting the global economy, India will receive more foreign direct investment during the current fiscal, surpassing $25 billion that came in during 2007-08. India has already received FDI totalling $25 billion and the fiscal will end with higher inflows than what was received during 2007-08. It has further stated that the sectors badly hit by the slowdown include automobiles, IT, textiles and exports. Among the large companies, Tata Motors has already taken steps to rationalise operations to combat slowdown. (ET)
• The board of approval (BoA) has cleared a proposal to set up 10 new SEZs, which include those of infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro and also given the nod for 11 investors to join as co-developers in SEZs across the country. Three SEZs in Mundra have been allowed to merge after a clearance from the empowered group of ministers (EGoM). The combined area of the three SEZs, to be developed on an investment of Rs1 trillion, would exceed the 5,000-hectare ceiling and thus required a clearance from the EGoM. The combined Mundra SEZ will induct six investors as co-developers with one SEZ among the three setting up a 300-mw power plant. (ET)
• According to United Nations Industrial Development Organisation’s Industrial Development Report (IDR) 2009, India’s position slipped to 51 from 54 in terms of Competitive Industrial Performance index (CIP). The report said South Asia did not perform well on the CIP measure while India led on the index in the region but lost three competitive positions in the global ranking. IDR captures the development during 2000-05. The report also specifically mentions Chennai’s leather cluster as the top 10 dynamic industrial locations in the world identified by UNIDO. (FE)
• Department of Telecom has issued orders to block Internet telephony services being offered by around 39 foreign firms in the country since Indian laws permit only licensed operators to offer Net telephony services. Unified access licence holders are permitted to offer all three types of Net telephony services while ISPs are allowed to offer only PC-to-PC calls and PC- to-mobile/fixed line that too on international calls. Foreign net service providers, which have been blacklisted includes voiptalk.org, sipgate.co.uk, voiplus.net, and deltathree.com. (BL)
• Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle’s paean to Mumbai through the story of an urchin’s quest for love on a game show swept the awards, winning eight Oscars including best director and best picture. While A R Rahman became the first Indian to win two of the big Oscars—for best music score and best song—the film also went on to bag the best director (Danny Boyle) and the best picture awards. Resul Pookutty won the award for sound mixing. Each Oscar gilt statuette is estimated to be worth $500 (around Rs 25,000) — which makes Rahman's 2 statuettes to value above the permitted custom duty-free allowance thus making the second one liable to be charged Customs duty (Indian Customs law allows Indians to bring in Rs 25,000 worth of duty-free baggage into the country). Home minister P Chidambaram is learnt to have made a recommendation to exempt Rahman from the rule. He has also recommended that if the Oscars carry a cash award, it should be exempt from taxation. (ET & BS)
