Economy continues ..

TDSAT

The "Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal" has been set up under Section 14 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 by TRAI (Amendment) Act, 2000 to adjudicate disputes and dispose of appeals with a view to protect the interests of service providers and consumers of the telecom sector and to promote and ensure orderly growth of the telecom sector.

The functions of the appellate tribunal are to adjudicate any dispute between a licensor and licensee, between two or more service providers, between a service provider and a group of consumers, and to hear and dispose of appeals against any decision or order of TRAI, the appellate tribunal consists of Chairperson and two Members. The Appellate Tribunal came into existence on 29^th May, 2000 and started hearing cases from January 2001.

NEW   EXPLORATION    LICENSING POLICY

New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) was conceptualised by the Government of India, during 1997-98 to provide an equal platform to both Public and Private sector companies in exploration and production of hydrocarbons with Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) as a nodal agency for its implementation. It was introduced to boost the production of oil and natural gas and providing level playing field for both public and private players.

TRAI TO ACT LIKE A CIVIL COURT

The apex decision-making body of the communications ministry has cleared the proposal to grant more powers to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and enable the watchdog to act like acivil court.

This puts TRAI on par with the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Competition Commission of India and permits the telecom regulator to summon persons, examine them on oath, demand documents and evidence on affidavits and, in appropriate cases, call for expert assistance in conducting inquiries.

WHITE LABELLED ATMs

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had released draft guidelines for introduction of "white label ATMs" with a view to expand banking services in the country.

White label ATMs (WLAs) are those ATMs set up, owned and operated by non-banking companies, which would like to run it as a business enterprise and earn profits. These WLAs do not display any bank logos or labels and hence they are called aswhite label ATMs and they will serve all banks' customers, as these WLAs will be interconnected with the entire ATM network in the country.

NBFCs

A Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 and is engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares/ stock/bonds/debentures/securities issued by Government or local authority or other securities of like marketable nature, leasing, hire-purchase, insurance business, chit business but does not include any institution whose principal business is that of agriculture activity, industrial activity, sale/purchase/construction of immovable property.

A non-banking institution which is a company and which has its principal business of receiving deposits under any scheme or arrangement or any other manner, or lending in any manner is also a non-banking financial company (Residuary non-banking company).

CORPORATE DEBT STRUCTURING

The reorganization of a company's outstanding obligations, often achieved by reducing the burden of the debts on the company by decreasing the rates paid and increasing the time the company has to pay the obligation back. This allows a company to increase its ability to meet the obligations. Also, some of the debt may be forgiven by creditors in exchange for an equity position in the company.

CMIE

CMIE, or the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, is a leading business information company. Established in 1976, it straddles the entire information food chain- from primary data collection through analysis and forecasting. It provides service to the entire spectrum of business information consumers that includes government, financial markets, business enterprise etc.

CMIE has built India's largest database on the financial performance of indivoidual companies; it conducts largest survey to estimate household incomes, pattern of spending and saving; it runs a unique monitoring of new investment projects on hand and it has created integrated database of the Indian economy.