GAIL’s GDR withdrawn

The Government decided to withdraw the international equity offering of Gas Authority of India Ltd saying that the turbulent market conditions globally had impacted on the fair price expectations. The Core Group on Disinvestment headed by the Cabinet Secretary which met to review the recommendations of the Task Force decided to pull back the issue as the price offered by investors was too low at well below Rs. 125, the bottom end of the price range of Rs. 125 to Rs. 160.

Excess Rly, PowerGrid lines for ISPs

The Government announced that the Indian Railways and the PowerGrid Corporation of India would be allowed to lease out the excess capacity on their backbone networks for use by private Internet service providers. This is expected to greatly enhance proliferation of the Internet in the country. The earlier question raised by DoT was that the entry of the Railways and PowerGrid may violate the basic service licence conditions which limit the number of operator to one per circle besides DoT/MTNL.

Don’t preach, rich nations told

The group of 15 developing countries (G-15) asked the developed nations to “keep their mouths shut” if they cannot follow the rules and regulations of currency trading as a result of which Latin America and South- East Asia were facing a crisis. Earlier, (Malaysian prime minister) Mahathir announced that finance ministers and governors of central banks would meet on December 1 and 2 to suggest rules and regulations that the IMF and the World Bank should adopt to regulate future currency trading to prevent the recurrence of such disasters.

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