The country's largest life insurer has been inundated with applications from companies, including heavyweights such as Reliance, as the deepening credit crisis forces India Inc to look for new sources of funds. Many companies are issuing NCDs largely to meet their working capital requirements as well as long-term capital expenditure plans.
You can make free phone calls to anywhere in the world now. An Italian software company - Seven Rings International - is launching its Voice over Internet Protocol service in the country that provides free international phone calls, instant messages (chat) and text messages.
Standard Chartered CEO-Asia Jaspal Bindra spoke to Anirudh Laskar and Sidhartha about the bank's plans and his assessment of the situation.
Making cash payments at bank counters to settle your credit card dues is getting expensive. Credit card issuers led by ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have started levying a fee on such payments.
The hearing of the forgery case filed by British mobile solution firm Upaid against Satyam Computer Services is not scheduled for hearing during this week.
The hearing of the forgery case filed by British mobile solution firm Upaid against Satyam Computer Services is not scheduled for hearing during this week. This means no Satyam official -- neither B Ramalinga Raju who stepped down as its chairman after admitting to a financial fraud nor any other top executive -- is in the US for the case. When contacted, a Satyam spokesperson confirmed the development and added that Raju was 'very much' in Hyderabad.
But their plea for fresh measures to boost their liquidity has not found favour with the National Housing Bank, which assessed their fund requirement in the last week of December. Sources at NHB said the measures initiated by the Reserve Bank of India appeared sufficient for the requirements.
Banks led by State Bank of India are set to lower deposit rates by over 50 basis points by the middle of the month, followed by a reduction in lending rates.
While Barclaycard, the card arm of the Barclays group, has informed some of the credit card holders that the cash limit has been reduced to zero 'to help manage the credit situation'. The new entrant to the cards business in India has sent text messages to card holders informing them about the change. A customer care executive said that the limit has been lowered for all card holders.
At the start of 2008, Manoj Singh headed Tranzact Consolidated India, among the largest direct sales agents in Mumbai with about 200 employees.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has sought details of the arrangements made by Reliance Communications to restore bandwidth in case of submarine cable failure.
Sending money overseas instantly could soon become a reality with the Reserve Bank of India considering proposals to allow non-banking entities like online money transfer portals to undertake wire transfers for outward remittances from India.At the moment the facility is limited to inward remittances, while only banks are permitted to carry out outward remittance orders.
The 3G and broadband wireless access spectrum auction is running into further controversies with a section of telecom firms opposing the timing of the auction and internet companies planning to move the Prime Minister's Office.Even though Reliance Communications is ready with $1-billion investment for 3G rollout, it intends to focus on GSM rollout at the moment. The company is "receptive to the opinion that the 3G auctions should be held at a later date," a source said.
Slow internet connections will continue till Friday, even as restoration work on two cables out of the three that had severed a few days ago is under way. In India, the latency will continue till the end of the week, even for customers who have opted for redundancy bandwidth. For those who did not opt for redundancy bandwidth, the latency would be higher till the restoration.
Gone are the days when banks would treat payment delays as part of life. Instead, they are taking measures to minimise chances of any kind of payment default by doing rigorous background checks.
The MD and CEO of ICICI speaks on how life will change and the bank's strategy going forward.
HDFC, the country's largest housing finance company, is planning to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) through non-convertible debentures with a green-shoe option next week. Sources close to the development said the company would issue NCDs worth Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion), while keeping an option to raise another Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) through the green-shoe option.
Telecom infrastructure major GTL Infrastructure will use its Rs 2,200 crore cash reserves to buy back foreign currency convertible bonds.
At a time when financial institutions are in the process of cutting costs through retrenchment, the country's largest insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India, has drawn up plans to hire over 10,000 employees and around 250,000 insurance agents across the country.
However, this rule will not be applicable to companies holding licences for a period of three years, even if they acquire licences in other circles to expand their operations, according to sources close to the development. The suggestion was made by the DoT to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which will decide on making it a regulation, along with other suggestions on the lock-in period put forward by the licensor.
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