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Drumbeat: Ad Buzzaar

Wednesday, May 20, 1998

	Cabinet opens floodgates for ports' joint ventures The cabinet has approved guidelines permitting joint ventures between major ports and private companies for development of ports. The detailed guidelines will be tabled during the budget session. The guidelines will enable the port authorities to forge joint ventures which will result in quicker expansion of the port infrastructure.		Centre may allow foreign firms to pick up 100% stake in housing plans The Centre is planning to allow overseas firms' pick up a 100% stake in housing projects from 40% in its bid to attract foreign direct investment inflow. The new guidelines will provide automatic approval to joint ventures with a majority foreign stake. Approvals will be subject to a five-year lock-in period.
	Royal Bank of Canada snaps line of credit The Royal Bank of Canada has suspended its existing line of credit to the Bank of India despite Canada not having slapped sanctions against India. However, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubushi, the largest bank in the world, has restored the line of credit facility to Indian banks in Japan.		Depository, Unit Trust draw up plan to list US-64 on NSE The National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) and Unit Trust of India (UTI) are working on a proposal to list the units of US-64, the latter's flagship scheme, on the equity segment of the National Stock Exchange. Plans are also afoot to provide liquidity to the units by putting in place an effective market-making mechanism.

Government to permit private operators to uplink from country
The Union government is likely to issue a notification within this month allowing the private sector to uplink from the Indian soil for satellite broadcasting. Companies with 20% foreign equity will also be allowed uplinking facility.

Boeing plays down sanctions impact on country operations
Boeing, the US-based airline company, on Tuesday reiterated its commitment in selling aircraft to India. Though the recently imposed economic sanctions by the US will close doors to seeking US Exim bank guarantee for purchase of its aircraft, domestic buyers will still have various options to fund the deal against assets, Boeing India president Dinesh A Keskar said.

CORPORATE
Gujarat Ambuja turns down plan to buy out DLF Cement
HFCL likely to reduce stake in paging firm

ECONOMY
ECGC turns more cautious on covering Indonesian risk
Spectre of fresh debt crisis in Korea looms large, say economists

EXPRESSIONS
Slack investments
Talking trade

MARKETS
FISE proposes risk cover for investors
UTI to modify pure debt fund to give investors an easy exit

LEISURE
Exploit Java potential for multiple uses
Stress is everywhere, here's how to reduce it