Rupee should be a strong international currency: Jalan
Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Bimal Jalan, who will step down on Saturday, said the rupee should become a strong global currency and India should be the strongest in the external sector. "The rupee should become as good a currency as the dollar or the yen or the pound sterling or the euro," Dr Jalan said on Thursday in Mumbai, in his last public appearance as the governor of the RBI. He makes way for Dr Yaga Venugopal Reddy as the new RBI governor on Saturday.

Dr Jalan said central banks, especially in emerging markets, should be in harmony with the government of the day for economic policy making. "It is important to have shared objectives between the central bank and the government though the instrumentalities of achieving those objectives may be different."
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SBI seeks local loans for RIB redemption
In preparation for the imminent redemption of Resurgent India Bonds (RIB), the State Bank of India has asked various banks to return the rupee resources they had borrowed from it. Although the amount is due on 1 October 2003, SBI has sent formal letters to banks as reminders to return around Rs 6,000 crore. Most of these are foreign banks, which had borrowed rupee resources for day-to-day operations.

These banks had earlier tried to return the money, raised at a higher cost, as rupee resources at present are cheap and liquidity in the system is abundant. Banking sources added that the Reserve Bank of India had also verbally asked these banks to pay back the rupee resources in time so as to avoid any volatility in the system on redemption of the RIBs.
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StanChart plan for 100% NBFC okayed
New Delhi: The central government has allowed Standard Chartered Bank to set up a 100-per cent wholly owned non-banking financial company (NBFC) in India. Standard Chartered's Rs 250-crore FDI proposal was among the 11 cleared by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh at a meeting here on Friday.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board had earlier cleared all the 11 proposals, involving a total investment of Rs 254.77 crore, at a meeting held on 23 August.
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