ITV

Tag: Reserve Bank of India

  • Sports recognised as infrastructure sector, eligible for private investment

    Sports recognised as infrastructure sector, eligible for private investment

    NEW DELHI: Alarmed by India’s performance in the recent Rio Olympics, the Government appears to have pressed the panic button: which may help sports persons on the long run.

    After appointing two committees – one for pointing out why India failed, and the other to prepare for the next two Olympics, the Government included Sports in the harmonized master list of infrastructure sub-sectors.

    The proposal was mooted by the Sports Ministry so that the sports sector becomes eligible for obtaining long term financial support from banks and other financial institutions on the same principle as is available to other infrastructure projects.

    The Finance Ministry after a series of meetings and discussions with different agencies including Reserve Bank of India has decided that sports infrastructure will be included under the Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure Sub sectors and it “includes the provision of Sports Stadia and Infrastructure for Academies for Training / Research in Sports and Sports-related activities”

    In this connection Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs, had issued a Gazette Notification dated 9 September 2016.

    This inclusion would encourage private investment in a public good which has socio-economic externalities in a country with young population. It will also bolster investment in sports infrastructure sector which will contribute to the economy and help in promotion of health and fitness of the people of this country as also provide opportunities for employment in the new and exciting sectors. It goes without saying that investment of the private sector will widen the platform from where the country can become a sporting power in future.

  • Sports recognised as infrastructure sector, eligible for private investment

    Sports recognised as infrastructure sector, eligible for private investment

    NEW DELHI: Alarmed by India’s performance in the recent Rio Olympics, the Government appears to have pressed the panic button: which may help sports persons on the long run.

    After appointing two committees – one for pointing out why India failed, and the other to prepare for the next two Olympics, the Government included Sports in the harmonized master list of infrastructure sub-sectors.

    The proposal was mooted by the Sports Ministry so that the sports sector becomes eligible for obtaining long term financial support from banks and other financial institutions on the same principle as is available to other infrastructure projects.

    The Finance Ministry after a series of meetings and discussions with different agencies including Reserve Bank of India has decided that sports infrastructure will be included under the Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure Sub sectors and it “includes the provision of Sports Stadia and Infrastructure for Academies for Training / Research in Sports and Sports-related activities”

    In this connection Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs, had issued a Gazette Notification dated 9 September 2016.

    This inclusion would encourage private investment in a public good which has socio-economic externalities in a country with young population. It will also bolster investment in sports infrastructure sector which will contribute to the economy and help in promotion of health and fitness of the people of this country as also provide opportunities for employment in the new and exciting sectors. It goes without saying that investment of the private sector will widen the platform from where the country can become a sporting power in future.

  • PayUmoney launches industry’s first-of-its-kind POS business terminal

    PayUmoney launches industry’s first-of-its-kind POS business terminal

    MUMBAI: An innovative POS terminal which promises to connect even the smallest corner shop to the world of paperless payment has been launched by PayUmoney. With no monthly rental, no minimum balance, and the option to link any bank account, costing a mere Rs 7,000 (as opposed to Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 charged by traditional channels), and accepting all credit/debit cards, the new terminal seeks to convert the retail experience across millions of small merchant outlets across India.

    The POS terminal is easy to set up, can be operated using a pre- or post-paid SIM, and does away with the use of paper receipts—making it cost and battery effective, and environment friendly. With a simple and hassle-free documentation policy, a merchant can start using a PayUmoney POS terminal within 48 hours of signing up for the service. Interested users may sign up at the website or by calling 9069143747.

    To explain the approach behind developing the POS terminal, PayUmoney CEO and co founder Nitin Gupta said, “If we look at the Reserve Bank of India’s December 2015 data, there are 644 million debit card holders in India. The number is 22.75 million for credit cards. Against these, there are only 1.2 million POS terminals, which shows the huge opportunity that exists in the POS payments services sector. Our objective is to bring the smaller merchants into the ambit of payment processing services—the class that has so far been ignored by the traditional players.”

    “When we developed our product, we kept in mind the unique demands of the Indian merchants—whether in cities, or in the country’s vibrant villages. We decided to do away with paper transaction slips: and a transaction acknowledgement will be sent to the buyer’s mobile with a link that opens up a soft copy of an e-slip. The merchant gets an email copy of the same every time a transaction takes place,” he added.

    This helps merchants to save on unnecessary costs and makes the POS terminal extremely energy efficient, durable, and ideal for locations with frequent power outages.

    With flexibility as the key development buzzword, PayUmoney’s POS terminal does not come with bundled SIMs. Giving merchants the liberty to choose the operator and connection type (pre- or post-paid), the POS terminal of PayU is unlike traditional players that force merchants to subscribe to costly bundled connections.

  • PayUmoney launches industry’s first-of-its-kind POS business terminal

    PayUmoney launches industry’s first-of-its-kind POS business terminal

    MUMBAI: An innovative POS terminal which promises to connect even the smallest corner shop to the world of paperless payment has been launched by PayUmoney. With no monthly rental, no minimum balance, and the option to link any bank account, costing a mere Rs 7,000 (as opposed to Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 charged by traditional channels), and accepting all credit/debit cards, the new terminal seeks to convert the retail experience across millions of small merchant outlets across India.

    The POS terminal is easy to set up, can be operated using a pre- or post-paid SIM, and does away with the use of paper receipts—making it cost and battery effective, and environment friendly. With a simple and hassle-free documentation policy, a merchant can start using a PayUmoney POS terminal within 48 hours of signing up for the service. Interested users may sign up at the website or by calling 9069143747.

    To explain the approach behind developing the POS terminal, PayUmoney CEO and co founder Nitin Gupta said, “If we look at the Reserve Bank of India’s December 2015 data, there are 644 million debit card holders in India. The number is 22.75 million for credit cards. Against these, there are only 1.2 million POS terminals, which shows the huge opportunity that exists in the POS payments services sector. Our objective is to bring the smaller merchants into the ambit of payment processing services—the class that has so far been ignored by the traditional players.”

    “When we developed our product, we kept in mind the unique demands of the Indian merchants—whether in cities, or in the country’s vibrant villages. We decided to do away with paper transaction slips: and a transaction acknowledgement will be sent to the buyer’s mobile with a link that opens up a soft copy of an e-slip. The merchant gets an email copy of the same every time a transaction takes place,” he added.

    This helps merchants to save on unnecessary costs and makes the POS terminal extremely energy efficient, durable, and ideal for locations with frequent power outages.

    With flexibility as the key development buzzword, PayUmoney’s POS terminal does not come with bundled SIMs. Giving merchants the liberty to choose the operator and connection type (pre- or post-paid), the POS terminal of PayU is unlike traditional players that force merchants to subscribe to costly bundled connections.

  • Govt. bows to votaries of free social media, withdraws controversial draft on Encryption Policy

    Govt. bows to votaries of free social media, withdraws controversial draft on Encryption Policy

    NEW DELHI: Following protests by votaries of a free social media, the government today withdrew a draft of an encryption policy, thus exempting mass use encryption products, which are currently being used in web applications, social media sites, and social media applications such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, etc

     

    In a statement, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology said that it had “noted public sentiments viz-a-viz this draft. It is clarified that the above mentioned draft is not the final view of the Government on the matter.”

     

    The draft had been prepared by a High-level Committee as part of an attempt to ensure secure transactions in Cyber Space for individuals, businesses and Government and prepare a National Encryption Policy. 

     

    The statement said the Department had also taken note of the ambiguity in some portions of the draft that may have led to misgivings. “Hence, the draft has been withdrawn and will be put up for consultation after appropriate revision.” 

     

    The removal of the draft also amounts to exemptions to SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/ Transport Layer Security) encryption products being used in Internet-banking and payment gateways as directed by the Reserve Bank of India and SSL/TLS encryption products being used for e-commerce and password-based transactions.

     

    Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told newspersons that the draft was not the final view of the government. “The policy will consider the views of the public,” he said.

     

    Under the draft, which has now been withdrawn, every message that is sent through e-mail, Whatsapp or SMS was required to be stored in plain text format for 90 days from the date of transaction and made available to the law enforcement agencies on demand.

     

    The draft was to help introduce a New Encryption Policy under Section 84A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and had called for public comments by 16 October.

     

    The stated mission of the policy is to provide confidentiality of information in cyber space for individuals, protect sensitive or proprietary information, ensure reliability and integrity of nationally-critical information systems and networks.

     

    “Users or organisations within B2B group may use encryption for storage and communication. Encryption algorithms and key sizes shall be prescribed by the government through notifications from time to time… On demand, the user shall be able to reproduce the same plain text and encrypted text pairs using the software or hardware used to produce the encrypted text from the given plain text,” the draft said.

  • Hathway Cable gets board nod to hike FII limit to 74 per cent

    Hathway Cable gets board nod to hike FII limit to 74 per cent

    MUMBAI: It was in 2012, when the government had relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in direct to home (DTH), cable TV industry and teleports from 49 per cent to 74 per cent. In keeping with this, Hathway Cable & Datacom which early this week became the first multi system operator (MSO) to have crossed the $1 billion mark in terms of enterprise valuation, is now probably looking at attracting overseas capital into the company.

    The MSO has in an announcement to the BSE informed that its Board of Directors have approved and passed the resolution to increase the foreign investment limit from the current 49 per cent to 74 per cent, this subject to approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board of India, Ministry of Finance and/or the Reserve Bank of India.

    “Subject to receipt of approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board of India, Ministry of Finance (FIPB) and / or the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and all other applicable authorities, increasing the foreign investment limit only by Foreign Institutional Investors, Foreign Portfolio Investors, etc. under the Portfolio Investment Scheme in accordance with Schedules 2 and 2A of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Transfer or Issue of Security by a Person Resident Outside India) Regulations, 2000 in the Company from 49 per cent to 74 per cent of the issued arid fully paid-up share capital of the Company,” reads the announcement.

    The Hathway Board has also passed the resolution of a postal ballot notice along with the explanatory statement and calendar of events for seeking approval of the shareholders of the Company by postal ballot for its foreign investment proposal.

    According to Hathway Cable & Datacom CEO and MD Jagdish Kumar Pillai, the cable TV sector is becoming lucrative for foreign investors. Pillai had earlier told Indiantelevision.com, “With broadband and cable TV getting more transparent, the market is viewing this as a great industry to invest in the next five years, and that’s reflected in the balance sheet. It is a promise of a good potential.”

    With the industry getting more organised courtesy its digitsation drive, Pillai expects more foreign investors to pump in funds into the cable TV sector.

     

  • Banks occupy moderate news space on TV compared to advertising budgets: Esha Media

    Banks occupy moderate news space on TV compared to advertising budgets: Esha Media

    KOLKATA: Commercial banks in the country hold a relatively negligible news space in the television spectrum compared to their advertising budgets. 

     

    Also, CNBC TV18 continues to occupy the top slot in banking news space followed by Bloomberg TV.

     

    According to a study conducted by Esha Media Research, State Bank of India (SBI) among all the other banks including the regulator –the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) occupied the maximum space on TV of 20.30 hours in the month of May 2014 that was equivalent to spending Rs 32.73 crore on advertising.

     

    “In other words, SBI, which has an annual budget of close to Rs 400 crore as per its annual report, got itself covered on the merit of news worth Rs 32.73 crore,” said media monitoring agency Esha Media Research managing director RS Iyer.

     

    “Even if the annual budget of SBI is shared in equal proportion between print and TV, the gap between news space and advertising space is extremely wide,” Iyer added.

     

    The study covered around 10 banks, both from the public and private sector. The total coverage cumulatively achieved in terms of advertising replacement value on TV was Rs 231 crore in May 2014 compared to Rs 214 crore in April 2014, Iyer informed referring to the study.

     

    During the month of May, there was a trend reversal with public sector bank occupying more space than private sector banks, who had in April occupied more TV news space.

     

    The Reserve Bank of India followed SBI in occupying more TV space though there was no credit policy statement during the month.  Fourth quarter earnings of banks were key topics that governed the news spectrum during the month.

     

    Among the individual spokesperson, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan occupied the top slot followed by Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank.

  • Zeel shares see demand following RBI approval for FII investment

    Zeel shares see demand following RBI approval for FII investment

    MUMBAI: Interest in the Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) appears to be rising. The stock witnessed a 52 week high of Rs 301.90 on 21 May 2014 and has been trading in the Rs 270 plus range today, rising Rs 7 plus in today’s trading.

     

    Not only did the company announce healthy results and a 200 per cent dividend on 21 May 2014, it has also got approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)  for Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) to invest up to 100 per cent in the company under the portfolio investment scheme on 2 June 2014. The investment limit has been revised from the earlier 49 per cent ceiling. The announcement was made by Zeel through a statement issued to the BSE on yesterday. 

     

    “The said communication is based on the proposal approved by the Board of Directors of the Company on 22 May 2013 and by the shareholders by passing a special resolution at the Annual General Meeting held on 25 July 2013,” stated the release on BSE.

     

    The Reserve Bank, through a press statement said, “The Company has passed resolutions at its Board of Directors’ level and a special resolution by the shareholders, agreeing for enhancing the limit for the purchase of its equity shares and convertible debentures by FIIs. The purchases could be made through primary market and through stock exchanges and would be subject to Regulation 5(2) of FEMA Notification No.20/2000 RB dated 3 May 2000 (as amended from time to time) and other terms and conditions stipulated by the Reserve Bank.”

     

    The approval has been given subject to the condition that “the onus of compliance with FDI policy and FEMA regulations including downstream investment would continue to remain on the Indian company, Zeel,” said the RBI in its statement.

     

    The Reserve Bank has notified this under FEMA 1999.

     

    FIIs so far held 48 per cent stake in the company while the promoter and the promoter group’s shareholding was 43 per cent as of March 2013.

     

    Zee Entertainment’s channel portfolio comprises: Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Music, Zee Premiere, ETC, ETC Punjabi, TEN Sports, Zee Studio, Zee Classic and Zee Sports.

     

  • I&B sector brings in over Rs 7965 crore between April 2010 and May 2013

    I&B sector brings in over Rs 7965 crore between April 2010 and May 2013

    NEW DELHI: The total foreign direct investment inflows between April 2010 to May 2013 into the country in the sector of information and broadcasting (including print and media) was Rs 7,965.34 crore.

     

    This included Rs 598.2 crore in the current year from April 2013.

     

    The inflow in 2012-13 was Rs 2,215.87 crore, while it was Rs 3,264.09 crore in 2011-12.

     

    The inflow in 2010-11 was Rs 1,887.17 crore. The Parliament was informed of these developments by Commerce and Industry minister Anand Sharma today.

     

    Complete/separate data on NRI (non-resident Indian) investment is not maintained by the Reserve Bank of India. However, the above FDI inflows data on NRI investment, includes investment by NRIs, who have disclosed their status as NRIs, at the time of making their investment.
     

  • Zee Business wins coveted ABCI award

    MUMBAI: Zee Business has been conferred the ABCI award for its popular automobile show Wheelocity. The 46th Awards Night of the Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI), was organized on Friday, 12 th January 2007. The award was conferred on Senior Correspondent & the Producer of the show Shweta Bajaj.

    Wheelocity is India’s most watched automobile show and has been consistently leading the ratings pack for auto shows. Incidentally, Wheelocity was the first auto show in Indian news television in its journey of over 200 episodes, it has traveled to all parts of the globe. Its easy to understand language and informal style of presentation has made it a pioneer in its genre.

     

    “The channel is performing exceptionally well. This award is a representation of the viewer’s opinion about Zee Business. Through its persistent efforts, today, the channel enjoys the “most preferred channel” status amongst the elites of the country. We are striving harder to empower our viewers with more such informative programmes,” said Mr.Harish Doraiswamy, CEO, Zee News Ltd..

     

    ABCI is the only association in India promoting excellence in Business Communications. The association has member list featuring steel majors like Tata Steel, SAIL, automobile industries like Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, banks like Reserve Bank of India, State Bank, Union Bank, Canara Bank, IDBI, Aditya Birla Group Companies.