IDBI to resume lending to NBFCs
Mumbai: The Industrial Development Bank of India is planing to resume medium and long-term lending to non-banking finance companies. This is part of the development bank's plan for expansion and portfolio diversification.

The IDBI has also approved short-term loans worth Rs 1,500 crore to companies out of the current year's target of Rs 4,000 crore. The loans to NBFCs to be sanctioned by end-August will have no restriction on the end use, which means the NBFCs can use them for both retail finance and for capital expenditure purposes.
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IDBI, ICICI record low net asset growth
Mumbai: The net asset growth of the Industrial Development Bank of India and ICICI have not been showing an encouraging trend. The Economic Times, in a report, said, quoting sources, that although the two development institutions have been able to disburse Rs 6,161 crore in the first quarter of 1999-2000, their net asset growth reached only Rs 252 crore.

The report attributed the low growth of net assets to prepayment of loans by companies, while the new focus on short-term lending has pushed up disbursement levels.
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Rupee at lowest against dollar
Mumbai: The Indian rupee reached its lowest level in the financial year 1999-2000, touching 43.4050/41 against the dollar on 5 August.

The rupee has been losing ground since the last week of July although it had been steady after the Kargil conflict. But, dealers said, dollar demand from the corporate sector has caused the downtrend.
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SBI preparing for virtual banking: Vaidya
Mumbai: C.G. Vaidya, chairman of the State Bank of India, feels that the biggest challenge of the banking industry in the next millennium will be technology. Manual banking is losing its relevance and virtual banking is taking over, Mr Vaidya told the annual general meeting of the bank at Bhopal on 5 August.

Mr Vaidya said the State Bank of India is aware of this scenario, and is taking steps to expand its network of ATMs and wide area networking of branches so that the bank's clients will be able to access their accounts from anywhere in the world. The bank is also preparing itself for ushering in internet banking, he added.
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Indian Bank to roll over MF arm's scheme
Chennai: Indian Bank has approved a roll-over plan for one of the closed-end schemes -- Ind Navratna -- of Indian Bank Mutual Fund for a period of five years. The bank, itself in a financially precarious condition, has provided for Rs 46 crore in the balance sheet for 1998-99 for another mutual fund scheme, IndJyoti.

Ind Navratna has been performing poorly. Its compounded annual growth rate was minus 1.18 per cent in the third year of the fund, and worsened to minus 11.99 per cent in the fifth year.

The bank is understood to have appointed credit rating agency ICRA to draw up a strategic revival plan for all its subsidiaries.
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Public issue from SBI Caps
Mumbai: The State Bank of India will reduce its stake in its merchant banking subsidiary SBI Capital Markets to 40 per cent from the present level of 86 per cent through a public issue of shares.

SBI favours greater functional autonomy for SBI Caps, and is negotiating with the Asian Development Bank a plan to rework its earlier agreement according to which SBI Caps would have gone public at a price not less than Rs 89 per share. The ADB had acquired a 13.84 per cent stake in SBI Caps at this rate. The bank will persuade ADB to reduce the offer price, bank officials said.
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IA shortlists aircraft for fleet replacement
New Delhi: Indian Airlines has shortlisted the Boeing B737-900, Airbus A321 and A320 aircraft to replace its fleet of Airbus A300s, and Boeing B 717, B 737-600 and Airbus A319 to replace its B737-200s.

The airline has invited bids for supply of aircraft to replace existing 11 Airbus 300s and 12 Boeing B 737-200s. A techno-economic committee headed by JRD Rao will study the bids. Capt Rao is deputy managing director of Indian Airlines.
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20 million income tax payers by 2001
New Delhi: India will have 20 million income tax payers by 2001, according to the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Ravi Kant. "By 2001, we would certainly have crossed 20 million, which would mean double of what we were a few years back," he said.

Apart from traditional sources like salaries and corporate income, the tax department is targeting new areas where income is being earned and spent, he said.
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CSIR targets 1000 patents a year
Calcutta: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has set a target of 1000 patents every year from 2001. This target has been set against the backdrop of fierce global competition in intellectual property rights.

CSIR will attain this target through its 40 national laboratories, R.A. Mashelkar, director general, said.
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10-year paper auction over-subscribed
Mumbai: The Rs 3,000-crore auction of 10-year government paper on 5 August was over-subscribed by 141 per cent, enabling the Reserve Bank of India to fix a cut-off price of Rs 102.90. This will mean a yield of 11.48 per cent.

The RBI received 236 bids totalling Rs 7,253.05 crore, of which it accepted 79 bids for the notified amount of Rs 3,000 crore.

Analysts in the gilt market said nationalised banks are going in for risk-free government securities as nationalised banks led the bidding in this auction with higher price quotes.

With this auction, the government will have raised Rs 51,630 crore, which works out to 61.77 per cent of the Centre's gross market borrowing programme of 1999-2000.
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