MoF puts nominee on UTI board
New Delhi—Nearly four years after the finance ministry withdrew its nominee from the UTI board, it has reversed its decision and again inducted a finance ministry official on the board of UTI.
Thus, Jamini Bhagwati, joint secretary, capital markets division, has found a berth on the board, replacing N S Sekhsaria, managing director, Gujarat Ambuja.
Sekhsaria is one of the four IDBI nominees and has been on UTI’s board since 1993. Bhagwati apart, the other IDBI nominees now include the chairman S K Chakravarti, chartered accountant Chaitale and Prof Desai.
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2 LIC officials suspended on MRL sale issue
Mumbai—There seems to be a systems crisis in Indian public sector financial institutions. There seems to be utter chaos in the Life Insurance Corporation of India with orders and decisions being taken without the knowledge and consent of the top management. After it came to light that the corporation had gone against other financial institutions and sold its stake to Modi Rubber, LIC has gone into a vigorous damage-control campaign.
It has laid the blame on two middle-level officers belonging to the ranks of deputy secretary and assistant secretary, for selling its 12 per cent stake in Modi Rubber Ltd to B K Modi. The organisation says that the two officers concerned acted `unauthorisedly and illegally’ by tendering LIC’s holding under the open offer made by the MRL promoters.
According to a statement issued late last evening LIC said that the both the middle level officers had been suspended.
Further the corporation has filed a suit in the Bombay High Court, seeking the withdrawal of "the unauthorised and illegal transaction" of LIC’s 12 per cent holding in Modi Rubber Ltd.

It said that as the instructions offering the shares under the open offer were by word of mouth and were without the approval of a competent authority, the transaction ought to be held null and void.

Meanwhile, the promoters of Modi Rubber have picked up about 36 per cent additional stake in the company via the open offer, which closed today. This includes LIC’s 12 per cent stake as well as the stakes of the general public and other investors. Other financial institutions stayed away from the offer.
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Kapur, Basu suspended
Mumbai--Two executive directors of Unit Trust of India, MM Kapur and SK Basu were suspended by UTI on Monday. The two had earlier been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of misappropriation of public funds.

UTI sources said the suspension was in accordance with service rules and even after the two executives are released on bail, they will not be allowed to attend office. This is despite the fact they have not been convicted yet. The CBI had sealed the offices of Kapur and Basu on Saturday.

The Trust also reallocated their portfolios among other executive directors. DSR Murthy will now be in charge of the departments of funds management (equity schemes), market operations, international finance and the venture capital funds division, in addition to his existing responsibilities in the accounts department.

The department of funds management (debt schemes and US-64) and money market operations will now be with BS Pandit, who has been handling the infotech initiatives of UTI.

AN Palwankar, who was on deputation as advisor to the UTI Institute of Capital Markets, will now handle the additional charge of investors’ relations.
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Sobti to stay at ABN Amro as India head
New Delhi—Romesh Sobti, ABN Amro India representative, who resigned early last month, is learnt to have changed his mind and will continue to head the India operations of the Dutch banking major.
Sobti was tipped to join as the MD and CEO of Development Credit Bank.
According to banking sources, Sobti is being re-designated as India head of ABN Amro, a post he held for several years before he was re-designated as India Rep and head of the bank’s newly created consumer and corporate banking division in a major restructuring in December last year.
It could not be immediately ascertained what would be the role of Vishnu Deoskar, who was earlier nominated as the India Rep of ABN Amro India in the wake of Sobti’s resignation.
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Anil Khatod of Nortel steps down
New York—Anil Khatod, the chief marketing and strategy officer of telecommunications giant Nortel Networks, has stepped down.
This comes barely a month after Nortel announced that Khatod would be on Capitol Hill in Washington telling legislators how to "untether" America and create a profitable wireless internet.
Khatod says he had been planning to resign four years ago, but now the time was right. He denied any souring of relationships with anyone in Nortel, including CEO John Roth, who is also to resign after shareholders pummeled him for leading the company fast down the slippery stock market slope.
Khatod was overseeing Nortel's business and technology strategies, end-to-end solutions architecture and value proposition, strategic planning, investments, alliances, and global marketing and communications.
Nortel most recently announced a 30,000 work-force cut, and is planning to shut down several of its operations.
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