Trai announces cut in cellular rates
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has announced a reduction in monthly cellular rentals, air-time charges and the introduction of the ‘calling party pays’ system, in which the cellular subscribers do not have to pay for their incoming calls.

Cellular rentals have been reduced by 20 per cent, and outgoing call rates bby 33 per cent. These changes will be effective 1 November 1999.

Meanwhile, the Trai has also approved Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.’s proposal to charge rates based on its wireless in local loop technology. This technology uses radio signals for cellular connectivity. Radio signals are much cheaper, but may not perform so well in areas where there are tall buildings or there is a lot of traffic.
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IDBI cuts rates
Mumbai: The Industrial Development Bank of India has cut interest rates by 10 to 25 basis points across different maturities of its bonds (one hundred basis points make one per cent).

The rates offered for one, three and five year maturities are 10.75 per cent, 11.5 per cent and 12.4 per cent respectively. The financial institution has already raised around Rs.500 crore at these revised rates.
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ICICI starts ADR roadshows
Mumbai: ICICI Ltd., one of India’s premier financial institutions, has started its American depository receipt issue campaign by starting roadshows in Asia, the US and Europe.

K V Kamath, CEO and managing director, Lalitha D Gupte, joint managing director and chief operating officer, and S H Bhojani, deputy managing director, are heading three teams for the roadshows.

ICICI is yet to receive final clearance for its ADR issue from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The issue is to be subscribed through the book building route. Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch are investment bankers for the issue.
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Maturity pattern causes higher deposit costs for banks
Mumbai: The deposit costs of banks are still high. This, in spite of the reduction in bank rate from 10.5 per cent in March 1998 to 8 per cent in March 1999. Banks have also reduced their prime lending rates from 14 per cent to 12 per cent during the same period.

The reason is that a major portion of the time deposits in banks has a maturity of over two years. These continue to charge higher deposit rates.
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Amex to shed flab
Mumbai: American Express Bank has started its first voluntary retirement scheme for Indian employees over the age of 40. Applicants should have put in at least 10 years of service the bank. In India, American Express Bank has a staff strength of around 530.

This VRS move by Amex is part of the business process re-engineering plan recommended by US-based Renaissance Consulting.

So far, the foreign banks in India that have completed such VRS programmes include Citibank, HSBC, ANZ Grindlays and Stanchart.

Amex operates in 38 countries around the world.
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City vehicles must be Euro compliant: high court
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has ruled on 17 September 1999 that no more new private non-commercial vehicles will be allowed to be registered in Mumbai from 1 January 2000 if they are not compliant with the India 2000 norms.

India 2000 norms are adapted from the Euro–I norms. These norms are set to control auto emission.
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RBI wants fixed brokerage on forex deals abolished
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has written to the Foreign Exchange Dealers Association of India to consider removing the fixed brokerage rates on foreign exchange deals. Fedai will have to take a final decision in this regard.
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Meiji, Dresdner may purchase Daiwa
Tokyo: Meiji Mutual Life Insurance of Japan and a unit of Germany's Dresdner Bank will buy the investment trust wing of Japan's Daiwa Bank. These two institutions will take 50.7 and 48.7 per cent stakes respectively, in Cosmo Asset Management, a Daiwa group company.

Meiji and Dresdner have a joint invesment advisory unit in Japan since July 1998, called the Meiji-Dresdner Asset Management Company.
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