The board also cleared Fiat Spa's proposal to pick up preference shares worth Rs 106 crore of Ind Auto Ltd. If converted, this would hike up the Italian giant's stake from 51 per cent to 81.4 per cent in the company. FIPB however, rejected General Motor's proposal envisaging royalty from its wholly-owned subsidiary in India on the grounds that foreign companies can not seek royalty from their 100 per cent subsidiaries.

The proposals related to the I&B ministry cleared by the board included the application of Walt Disney India Ltd, Sony and Bloomberg. Walt Disney has been allowed to expand activities by setting up a 51:49 joint venture in the country.

Sony has been allowed to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary for production and export of commercial and featurefilms. The board allowed Bloomberg to collect information from official sources and export them on to its parent company in the US.

The other media related proposals cleared included applications by RK Swamy, Zen, Optima, Mudra Communications and Chaitra Leo Burnett. Publicis Worldwide BV of Holland will be holding 60 per cent stake in Zen while, Kadar group will have 51 per cent share in Optima. Vertigo Asia of Hong Kong has been allowed to pick up 49 per cent in Mudra and Leo Burnett would hike its stake up to 74 per cent in Chaitra.

The board also permitted Royal Dutch Shell group to set up a wholly owned subsidiary for manufacturing photovoltaic cells for non-conventional energy systems. The project would have an inflow of FDI up to Rs 10 crore.

Further, Powergen has been allowed to buy out Torrent group's 46.34 per cent stake in Gujarat Torrent by bringing in Rs 300 crore. Powergen already holds 27.77 per cent stake in the company. The board also allowed Marubeni Construction to hike equity in itsventure to $15 million from $5 million.

Hoechst of France has been permitted by the board to set up a joint venture here with MIL group to foray into agrochemical. Hoechst would be bringing in Rs 51 lakh to pick up 51 per cent stake in the venture.