PowerGrid gets $100m from BoI: Following uncertainties regarding the funds from the World Bank and OECF in the wake of economic sanctions, PGCIL has secured a $ 100 million foreign currency loan from the Bank of India. Significantly, despite the prevailing market conditions, this loan has been mobilised by PowerGrid on almost the same terms and conditions as that with any multilateral or bilateral funding agency. This loan has a maturity period of 25 years, with a moratorium of five years and repayment schedule of 19years.

Indal may switch to calendar fiscal: Indal is likely to undergo a change in its financial year to a January-December period in line with its parent company Alcan Aluminium. Chairman and CEO Christopher Bark-Jones said that a change in Indal's accounting year is likely to come through which will be in sync with the accounts of Alcan. He, however, did not specify as to when this switch-over will be done. "We are examining a whole range of issues, which will take some time", he said.

Aplab chief for long-term IT policy: P S Deodhar, president and chief executive officer of Aplab, has asked for a long-term information technology (IT) policy to attract investments, talent, entrepreneurs and global business. "A national policy must be one that merely channelises development on a course that is consistent with our needs and objectives." He said said that a comprehensive policy should empower more people to get on to this vehicle to prosperity. India cannot make its industrial and economicinfrastructure efficient and globally compatible without IT.

New crop insurance plan: Prime minister AB Vajpayee has taken the initiative to kick-start a new crop insurance scheme which will be implemented by a new General Insurance Corporation subsidiary. Vajpayee had recently called a high-level meeting of policy-makers in both the agriculture and insurance ministries in Delhi. The meeting included the members of the standing committee on agriculture, and top General Insurance Corporation officials.

UTI to reduce NPAs in US-64: UTI has chalked out a two-year timeframe within which it will bring down its non-performing assets (NPA) level in its flagship scheme, US-64, to 2 per cent. The current NPA level of the scheme is 4.8 per cent. According to top UTI sources, the Trust is identifying the sticky exposures in several companies and it will make efforts to get out of these exposures over the next two years. The level of NPAs in the portfolio of US-64 is at 4.8 per cent of the total corpusof the scheme, a whopping Rs 1,056 crore.

Move to cut charges for depository participants opposed: Sebi's move to push NSDL to bring down costs for brokers to become depository participants has come under sharp attack from some prominent members of the working group on depositories. At Friday's meeting of the group, Sebi officials suggested that NSDL bring down the charge of Rs 25 lakh which is incurred by a depository participant for setting up the necessary infrastructure and systems, as this would lead to more and more brokers being able to become participants.

Inflation, WPI down despite price spiral: Despite unabated rise in prices of vegetables and pulses, the annual rate of inflation declined for the third successive week and stood at 7.98 per cent for the week ended October 17. Inflation rate fell below the 8 per cent mark during the week after shedding 0.12 percentage points from the 8.10 per cent (provisional) recorded during the week ended October 10, while a year ago it stood at4.63 per cent. However, inflation calculated on CPI-IW workers shot up to 16.3 per cent during September when WPI-based estimates stood at only 8.2 per cent.

Kayamkulam power plant test-fired: The first 115 mw unit of the Kayamkulam combined cycle power project in Kerala of the National Thermal Power Corporation was test-fired on Sunday morning. This is the first thermal unit in the state being test fired five months ahead of schedule. High speed diesel oil (hsd) is being used as fuel prior to switching over to naphtha which will be the basic fuel for the station. The unit will continue to use hsd for about two weeks and thereafter, when the system gets stabilised, naphtha firing will begin and the unit formally synchronised, NTPC sources said.

Panic buying for salt in Delhi: Panic buying started in the capital from early Sunday morning and serpentine queues were seen outside groceries shops in some areas for the most essential ingredient of the diet for the rich and the poor alike. Nearly2.25 lakh packets of salt were sold from just one shop in Kalkaji area in South Delhi, chief minister Sushma Swaraj said adding that a kg of salt was reportedly sold for Rs 25 in some areas. She claimed there was no shortage of salt and blamed rumour-mongers for spreading the panic.

No threat to government, says Vajpayee: Prime minister A B Vajpayee on Sunday asserted there was no question of his government being brought down after this month's assembly elections, saying BJP would win in three states. However, he said the elections in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were not a referendum on the BJP-led government at the centre.

Rajasthan protests exclusion from SAP: The Rajasthan government has protested against non-inclusion of Jaipur in the list of airports to be upgraded as international airports in the special action plan (SAP) drawn up by the BJP-led coalition government for the Ninth Plan (1997-02). In a communication to the Planning Commission, the state government also expressedthe fear that funds meant for upgradation of Jaipur airport as international airport and expansion of Ajmer airport would be diverted to the Amritsar airport which was high on the agenda of the civil aviation ministry.

Apple executive accuses Microsoft: An executive from Apple Computer Inc testified on Friday that Microsoft used monopoly power to muscle Apple away from Netscape Communications Corp's Web browser. The justice department and 20 states have charged that Microsoft Corporation violated the nation's antitrust laws by competing unfairly against Netscape Communications Corp in the market for Internet browsers.