per minute using a card of Rs. 2,000, total inflow of Rs. 122 crore.

These
which will have a validity of three
months. Call charges on the same
card are fixed at Rs. 3.25 a minute to
France, Russia the UK and South-East
Asia, Rs. 5.50 per minute to the rest of
Europe and Sri Lanka, and Rs. 8 a
minute to the rest of the world.
Under this plan, local and STD
charges are Re. 1 per minute.
Indian Investment Deals
in US to Touch $ 35 billion
in 2007
According to a report of FICCI
and Ernst and Young (E & Y), as a
consequence of growing mergers and
acquisitions, Indian investments in
the US are expected to touch $ 35
billion mark by the end of the year
2007. These investments have been
estimated at $ 4.3 billion and $ 15
billion in the years 2005 and 2006
respectively. Report reveals that 48%
of the total 46 deals have concluded
by the companies from Information
Technology (IT) and IT enabled
Services (ITeS) sector. The rest 52% of
the total deals comprises companies
from automotive, gems and jewellery,
manufacturing pharmaceuticals and
other sectors. The report further
Top 5 Indias Investment in US
(Deals for FY 2006-07)
Acquirer Target
Tata Tea Ltd. Energy Brands
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Omimex de
(through ONGC Videsh Ltd.) Columbia
Tata Coffee Ltd Eight OClock
Coffee Company
Tatas Indian Hotels Ritz-Carlton Hotel
HOV Services Lason
states that corporate India is not only
scaling up the size of its overseas
acquisitions, but also buying out
companies abroad that are far larger
in size compared to the Indian
companies. In such cases, the acquirer
brings in the management skills and
technology and agrees to pay a
premium for acquiring the market
share of the target firm.
FDI Proposals worth Rs. 122
Crore approved
Government on June 12, 2007
cleared 17 FDI proposals involving a
FDI proposals were referred to the
Ministry of Finance after the
clearance from the Foreign Invest-
ment Promotion Board. The appro-
ved proposals include Mauritius-
based Starlight Real Estate to set-up a
wholly owned company in India with
equity investment of Rs. 42 crore to
make downstream investments in
various construction projects includ-
ing hotels, industrial parks and
hospitals. The proposal of Pune-
based BF utilities Ltd. to set up a new
joint venture with a foreign equity of
upto 26% by Singapore Technologies
Kinetics Ltd. to undertake defence
production related activities has also
been cleared.
Mumbai based First Flight
Couriers plans to induct 27.74%
equity by way of private placement
from Dunearn Investment, entailing
an inflow of Rs. 4.12 crore. The
proposal of Carlson Hotels Asia
Pacific entails setting up a joint
ventureElbrus Builders for a hotel
in Noida and involves an equity
investment of Rs. 2.6 crore.
Other FDI projects that got
the approval from the government
include those of Quipo Telecom Infra-
Sector Deal value
($ million)
Food and 677
Beverages
Oil & Gas 425
Food & 220
Beverages
Hospitality 170
IT & ITeS 148
structure, Germany based Kerstin
Rohrig Bendrof, Kolkata-based
Amalgamated Plantations Pvt Ltd,
Delta Energy Systems, Nord Drive
Systems, Value Source Technologies,
Khanna Speciality Retail and Distri-
butors, US-based I-Velozity and
Inverness Medical Innovations.
Coal Captive Blocks to Touch
100 MT production mark by
2011-12
As per the official sources of the
Ministry of Coal, the government will
Government Releases
Additional Rs. 2000 crore for
Bharat Nirmans Irrigation
Project
In order to meet the short falls
being faced in the targets of flag-
ship Bharat Nirman Scheme the
government is providing an addi-
tional funding of Rs. 2000 crore for
the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit
Programme (AIPB) during 2007-08.
The government will provide this
additional fund for AIPB over the
budgetary provisions of Rs. 3,580
crore during 2007-08 to give
momentum to the irrigation
programme. Despite all efforts
made by the government to achieve
the proposed target of creating an
additional one crore hectare of
irrigation capacity by 2008-09, only
2075 lakh hectare has so far been
brought under irrigation. Besides
providing additional funds to this
irrigation flagship programme, the
government is also likely to extend
the time period of the four year
project for one year (i.e. March 2010
instead for March 2009).
increase the number of captive blocks
alloted every year for the private
sector and as a result the coal
production from captive mines
alloted to private sector is expected to
increase five fold over the next five
years and will touch 100 million
tonne mark by 2011-12. As of now, 60
captive blocks having total reserves
of about 7.7 billion tonnes, have been
allocated to the private sectorof
which 11 have been allotted to power
companies 46 to iron and steel
companies and three to cement
companies and others. However at
present only 11 blocks are in
production, having a total output of
about 18 million tonnes and hence the
production from the captive blocks is
still a small fraction of the overall
output of about 400 million tonnes of
the government owned companies i.e.
Coal India Ltd. and Singareni
Collieries Ltd. It is also worthnoting
that the government has identified 39
blocks with mineable coal reserves of
2.8 billion tonnes for another round
of allocation of captive blocks to the
private sector of which 17 would be
for the power companies and remain-
ing for the non-power sectors.

PD/August/2007/227 Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.