The Reserve Bank of India has left unchanged the cash reserve ratio (CRR), Bank Rate and repo rate. Instead it has opted for improving the health of the banks by tightening provisioning and capital adequacy norms. In a communication to the chairmen of all scheduled commercial banks today, the RBI said it decided to keep the CRR and interest rates unchanged as "industrial slowdown is still persisting, and as far as possible, nothing should be done to dampen emerging signs of incipient recovery in the real sector". In its Mid-Term Review of Monetary and Credit policy for 1998-99, the RBI has pushed for a structural package to tone up the health of the banking system based on the Narasimham Committee report.

IA for temporary freeze on fleet expansion

In view of the lacklustre market conditions, Indian Airlines is planning to suggest to the Ministry of Civil Aviation to order a temporary freeze on fleet expansion by all domestic airlines. Consequently, Jet Airways and Sahara Airlines may be asked to defer the induction of even those aircraft for which they have already secured the go-ahead, until the situation looks up. IA has already postponed its move to induct three Airbus A320 planes this season.

DoT, US institute deal for hi-speed network

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with lUNet, a US-based educational institute, to establish a national high-speed inter-university data network, dubbed Sankhya Vahini. The MoU follows the concurrence of the IT Task Force for establishing such a network which will operate at 2.5 to 10 gigabits per second (gbps). The network will be connected to the international university network being established by the Carnegie Mellon University.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW