Rs.250 crore for hydrogen energy projects
New Delhi: The Government has decided to allocate Rs.250 crore for projects taken up under the hydrogen energy programme over the next three years.

The projects include a Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) plan to make available hydrogen-blended CNG fuel in Delhi, Mathura and Faridabad by June 2005.

The Planning Commission has also recommended an additional corpus fund of Rs.200 crore. This was decided in the second meeting of the National Hydrogen Energy Board (NHEB) set up by the Government.

The NHEB discussed three proposals - one each from the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, The Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers and the Atomic Energy Commission.

The Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers has submitted a proposal as per which it will roll out 1,000 fuel-cell-based vehicles by 2008. The industry body has sought Rs.150 crore for the proposal.

The Atomic Energy Commission has submitted a long-term proposal to produce hydrogen by thermal splitting of water. The heat produced as a by-product of nuclear reactors can be used to split water and produce hydrogen," according to the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources.

The meeting was chaired by the Minister for Non-Conventional Energy Sources, V. Muttemwar. It was attended by Planning Commission Member (Energy) Kirit Parikh; Tata Sons' Chairman, Ratan Tata; Mahindra & Mahindra's Vice-President, A. Mahindra; CII President, S.K. Munjal; and Assocham President, M.K. Sanghi, among others.
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SIDBI venture fund and credit rating for SMEs
Bangalore: The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is setting up a venture capital fund targeted specifically at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country. SIDBI says that the corpus of the fund would be Rs.500 crore. Six banks and financial institutions would participate in creating the corpus.

The participating banks in the fund include the Punjab National Bank, the Bank of India, SIDBI and the Canara Bank. Two banks, including BoI, have agreed in principle to participate in the fund. The fund would be operationalised by this month-end, without awaiting for the full contribution to the corpus.

In addition, SIDBI is also taking the initiative to set up separate credit rating agency aimed specifically at SMEs. It would set up this rating agency in association with PNB, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce and one of the credit rating agencies. This rating agency would be used to assess lending risks to the SME sector and restricting the build up of non-performing loans in the sector.

According to SIDBI there were 11.52 million small enterprises in the country contributing to an output of Rs.3.5 lakh crore.
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Bombay High Court restrains BCCI from granting telecast rights
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) not to award the broadcast rights for cricket matches from October 2004 to September 2008 till the petition filed by ESPN-Star Sports is heard and disposed of.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice D.C. Bhandari and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud on Wednesday passed an order that the status quo be maintained and telecast rights not be granted to any party.

Lawyers representing ESPN-Star Sports and Zee Telefilms Ltd on Wednesday brought to the court's attention media reports that BCCI is likely to give the rights to a third party because of the ongoing court case. The judges accordingly asked BCCI to give a commitment that it will not award rights to anyone.

The petition filed by ESPN-Star Sports is expected to come up on Thursday before Chief Justice Bhandari and Justice Chandrachud.
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