Forex reserves cross $40-b mark
Mumbai: India’s foreign currency reserves have touched the $40 billion mark, an all-time high, for the week ended December 29. The reserves increased by $201 million to $40,008 million as compared to $39,807 million for the last week, the RBI has said in its weekly statistical supplement.

During the past eight weeks, the reserves rose from $34,734 million on November 11, 2000 to the current $40,008 million, which includes proceeds of over $5 billion from State Bank of India's India Millennium Deposits. The rise was also due to increase in foreign currency assets by $201 million taking the total to record highs of $37,254 million, the RBI said.

The foreign currency assets expressed in dollar terms include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies, such as Yen, Euro and Sterling, held in reserves, the RBI statement said. Gold reserves and special drawing rights remained static at $2,752 million and $2 million respectively. Loans and advances to the state governments was up by Rs 385 crore to Rs 4,690 crore, while those to the central government stood at nil.
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Government announces bidding process for 4th mobile player
New Delhi: The central government has announced a transparent three-stage bidding process to select the fourth cellular operator with safeguards. The guidelines will govern the issue of licences in 17 telecom circles and four metros — Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai and Chennai.

The fourth cellular operator will pay 17 per cent of its revenues to the government. Licences will be issued for 20 years, which can be extended by 10 years. Only Indian companies, registered under the Companies Act 1956, with experience in the telecom sector, are allowed to enter the fray. Foreign equity has been capped at 49 per cent, which has to be maintained during the entire licence period. It will include investment by NRIs, overseas corporate bodies and international agencies.

Successful bidders will have to deposit at least 20 per cent of the bid amount within a day and the balance within 10 days of opening of the final bid. They will have to furnish financial bank guarantees of Rs 50 crore for category A circles, Rs 25 crore for category B circles and Rs 15 crore for category C circles before signing the licence agreement. These must be backed up by performance guarantees of Rs 20 crore, Rs 10 crore and Rs 2 crore for A, B and C circles respectively.

The bidding, called the Multi-Stage Informed Ascending Bidding Process, will comprise a pre-qualification round, which will be followed by three rounds of financial bidding. The government expects to start the process by the end of this month, and the first set of licences could be handed by July.
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MTNL to launch GSM in Delhi from January 31
New Delhi: Mahangar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) will launch its cellular service, based on global system for mobile communications (GSM) technology, in Delhi on January 31 and in Mumbai on February 28. The schedule for rollout of GSM mobile phones from MTNL in the two cities has been announced. The tariffs will be announced after taking approval from Trai.

The registration in Delhi for one lakh mobile cellular phones will start on first-come-first-served basis from January 15 and the service will start on January 31. In Mumbai, the registration will begin on February 15 and the service will be launched on February 28.
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