PSU NEWS INDIA

The government has allowed retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to invest 5 per cent of its corpus in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which will result into an inflow of around Rs 5,000 crore into the stock markets during this fiscal. Labour Ministry has notified new investment pattern for EPFO, which allows the body to invest 5 per cent of its funds into ETFs. "We will invest 5 percent of the investible funds of EPFO into the ETF. The new investment pattern has been notified about two-three days ago," Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal told reporters on Friday. According to estimates, EPFO's incremental deposits for 2014-15 would be around Rs 80,000 crore. During the current fiscal, the incremental deposits could be around Rs 1 lakh crore as the body had increased the monthly wage ceiling for coverage under its social security schemes to Rs 15,000 from Rs 6,500 in September last year. Elaborating further, Aggarwal said:

Mumbai: Keeping in mind likely mass retirement of GMs (general manager) and DGMs (deputy general managers) in state-owned banks, the Finance Ministry has asked public sector lenders to consider promoting lower rung employees on merit to fill manpower shortage. In a recent meeting with the heads of the state-run banks and the Indian Banks Association (IBA), Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia asked public sector banks to promote Scale-II and III staff from within them. "The banks can fill the shortage of manpower at higher levels - of DGMs and GMs - due to the likely mass retirement in near future by promoting officers from Scale-II and III on merit," Mr Adhia said in a letter to PSU bank managements. Earlier in January, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had raised the issue of shortage of officers at the senior levels in public sector banks during the bankers retreat in Pune.

NEW DELHI: Concerned over rising bad loans in the infrastructure sector, the Finance Ministry has called a meeting of heads of public sector banks on April 28 to chalk out a roadmap for clearing bottlenecks that hamper implementation of large projects. This meeting would help the Department to crystalise the actions required by banks, Finance Ministry and other central ministries as well as support required from the RBI, he added. One of the major reasons for rising non-performing assets (NPAs) for PSU banks is non-implementation of infrastructure projects for reasons like, fuel linkage, environment clearance, land acquisition issue etc.

State-run NHPC has received government's approval for diversion of land for the construction of Dibang project in Arunachal Pradesh. "Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has accorded in-principle approval for diversion of forest land in favour of NHPC Ltd for construction of Dibang Multipurpose Project (3,000 megawatts) in Arunchal Pradesh," NHPC said in a statement.  The project will come up on Dibang River in Lower Dibang valley district of Arunachal Pradesh and the company has already received techno-economic clearance for the project. The 3,000 megawatts (MW) hydel project, being developed by NHPC, at was originally scheduled to get commissioned by 2017 but delays in necessary clearances have pushed it back by about two years. The project was cleared by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), last year. At present, NHPC has an installed generation capacity of 6507 MW and another 3290 MW is un

One of the major arguments against net neutrality – the principle where telcos and internet service providers are supposed to enable access to all content on an equal footing without favouring one or the other - is that different types of data are obtained at different prices, and, therefore, they cannot all be sold at the same rates. How can apples and oranges be sold at the same rate, goes the argument, when they are acquired at different costs? The issue has hit the headlines following plans by some telcos like Airtel to offer faster speeds at zero cost to users of some websites (like online shopping sites, who will pay on behalf of the user).  The critics say this will inevitable throttle smaller rivals who cannot afford to pay the telco for this privilege. Let us examine the telcos' argument in detail, and also explore how much cost they incur in getting us that 1 GB of data that they charge us Rs 250 (or thereabouts) for. First, of course, one must understand the key differ

ONGC, IL&FS Energy Development Company Limited (IEDCL) and Govt. of Tripura, three promoters of ONGC Tripura Power Company Ltd (OTPC), have entered into definitive agreements with India Infrastructure Fund II by which the latter will be acquiring 23.5% stake in OTPC. The total consideration of the transaction is about Rs. 426 crore. The agreement was signed today in New Delhi. Post this transaction, the shareholding in OTPC will stand as: ONGC - 50%, IEDCL - 26%, Govt. of Tripura 0.5% and India Infrastructure Fund II– 23.5%. This consummates the equity structure as was envisaged at the time of setting up the project. This investment by India Infrastructure Fund II (through its manager- IDFC Alternatives Ltd) brings on board a credible infrastructure partner, further strengthening the core development theme of the project. OTPC has been promoted by ONGC, IEDCL and Govt. of Tripura for implementation of a gas based 726.6 MW combined cycle thermal power project at Palatana

The Finance Ministry may relax the eligibility criteria for selection of chief executive officers (CEOs) and managing directors (MDs) of five public sector banks if applicants in the ongoing selection process fail to pass muster with the Reserve Bank of India's scrutiny. "We may relax certain eligibility criteria after the applications that we received are scrutinised by RBI," official sources said. About 40 applications were received by the Department of Financial Services for appointment as Managing Director and CEO in Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank and IDBI Bank for a fixed term of three years. If the RBI is not able to provide us adequate number of shortlisted candidates for the interview then the ministry may have to invite applications again with somewhat relaxed criteria, sources said. If at all there is relaxation, it could for board level experience or age criteria so that serving executive directors of the public sector banks

NEW DELHI: As many as 32 public sector firms including GAIL, ONGC, NTPC , SAIL and Punjab National Bank have failed to comply with regulator Sebi's norms to appoint at least one woman director on their respective boards. Bharat Electronics, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Container Corporation of India, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation are among other PSUs that have been non-compliant with Sebi directive, Prime Database said today.