MSEB stops buying power from DPC
Mumbai: Citing reasons of the Dabhol Power Company considering the power purchase agreement void as stated in its letter of 25 May, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MESB) has stopped taking power from the former.

This was stated by the state government at hearing before the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission. MSEB also sought a stay on the arbitration being sought by DPC on this issue. DPC, on the other hand, has questioned the jurisdiction of the MERC is resolving the ongoing dispute with MSEB.
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BSNL forms panel to give views on CPP regime
New Delhi: In response to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) call to industry for comments on its "calling-party-pays" (CPP) regime, the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam has set up a six-member committee to review the draft rules and prepare its reactions.

While the CPP is largely for cellular services, this move by BSNL is assumes significance as it likely to be impacted with future developments on the CPP issue, despite being a fixed line operator. The commitee has members drawn from different fields such as finance, operations, technical and commercial amongst others.

Under the CPP regime, the cellular subscriber does not pay for an incoming call. Instead, a supplementary charge is levied on the party making the call and a share of this is passed on to the mobile operator.

Following the receipt of comments from various sections of the industry, TRAI would proceed further to complete the process of making recommendations on the important issue of CPP, which would have an impact on the affordability of mobile telephone services.
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Dun & Bradstreet to invest in Credit Information Bureau
New Delhi: The world’s largest credit information provider, Dun & Bradstreet Information Services, and US-based Trans Union have picked up 10 per cent stake each in State Bank of India and HDFC-promoted Credit Information Bureau of India. Both SBI and HDFC have 40 per cent stake each in the company.

Cibil is the first attempt in this country to collect and disseminate data on creditworthiness of individuals and companies. Such services are very common in the US and form the bedrock of financial activities like issuance of loans or mortgage in that country.

Cibil has also entered into software development and licensing agreements with the two foreign investors — TU and Dun & Bradstreet — for licensing and providing training services.

While Trans Union will provide the technical support for maintaining database of corporate accounts, Dun and Bradstreet will provide assistance for retail accounts.

The availability of a credit information bureau will enable financial service providers to speed up credit decisions for both consumer credit as well as corporate loans.
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IndusInd plans for reverse merger quashed
New Delhi: The country’s apex bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has quashed the application made by IndusInd Bank for approval to its plans of reverse merger of the bank with its subsidiary IndusInd Enterprise Finance Ltd in its present form.

The central bank has instead asked the private bank management to rework its proposal so as to bring down the promoter stake to less than 40 per cent at one go. The original proposal planned to bring down the promoter’s stake in two tranches.
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