Bizbits

Bizbits

Indian Branson
ANZ Grindlays, which has been taken over by Standard Chartered Bank, has finally been given the mandate for Indian Airlines privatisation. Though ANZ's name was finalised months earlier, it was not given the official mandate as the Aviation Ministry was against any privatisation. Finally, the Finance Minister and the Disinvestment Minister had to coerce the Aviation Minister into giving his green signal.

But the road ahead for ANZ will not be smooth as Jardine Fleming finds out in its bid to privatise Hotel Corporation. The Aviation Ministry is not giving relevant files to Jardine fleming which means the entire privatisation will at least take another two years to complete.

Credit card fraud:
Can you believe that railway tickets on credit cards are not available in the country's capital in New Delhi due to high degree of credit card frauds? A reader called up this newspaper to complain that in Delhi while cancelling a ticket purchased from Mumbai, he was informed that he will get refund only after three months as credit card facility is withdrawn as many passengers used fake credit cards to pay their bills.

But what takes the cake is that Standard Chartered Bank has managed to set up its exclusive booth at the Delhi station where it accepts only its co-branded card in association with Indian Railways and at the same time does not accept any of its other cards including global cards!

-- DEV CHATTERJEE