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 29th 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.
