House panel rejects FDI in print media
New Delhi: The parliamentary committee on entry of foreign print media into the country has rejected any foreign equity in the print media.

The report of the standing committee on information technology did not approve the contention by some witnesses that foreign investment should be allowed with a reasonable cap put on the foreign shareholder.

It felt the foreign investor, even with a minority shareholding, can gain effective control of management and editorial board of the newspaper through shareholders agreement or loan agreement.
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Central Bank of India cuts MTLR by 0.5 per cent
Mumbai: Central Bank of India has announced a reduction in its medium term lending rates by 50 basis points to 12 per cent with effect from 1 April.

The rate would be applicable for loans of one year and above.

The bank also revised its domestic term deposit rates by 25-50 basis points for various slabs.

The new rates on domestic term deposit of less than Rs 15 lakh has been fixed at 4.75 per cent (for 15-45 days), 5.5 per cent (46-179 days) and 6.5 per cent (180-to less than one year).

For loans above one year and less than two years it would be 7.25 per cent and 7.5 per cent for two years to less than three years and eight per cent for three years and above.
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Trade deficit rises to $ 5.5 billion
New Delhi: India's trade deficit rose 23.9 per cent to $ 5.5 billion in April-October 2001 compared to $ 4.5 billion during the same period last fiscal.

The widened trade gap is due to 1.54 per cent rise in imports to $ 30.06 billion during the period in question against the previous year's $ 29.6 billion, while the exports fell 2.45 per cent to $ 24.5 billion from $ 25.1 billion.

According to the official data, there has been a fall in exports of major items like gems and jewellery, textiles, engineering goods, ores and minerals, leather products and software.
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Air France to halve frequency to Mumbai
New Delhi: Air France is cutting down its frequency to Mumbai to three flights a week as compared to the current schedule of six flights a week.

The reduction in frequency is likely to come into effect from 31 March.

Air France has also decided to fly bigger aeroplanes on the Mumbai-Paris sector and this will ensure that the drop in capacity is not 50 per cent.

Instead of the Airbus A340s used now to service the Mumbai-Paris route, the Paris-based airline would be using Boeing B747 aircraft.
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