FM clears FDI proposals worth Rs 77 crore

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Monday approved 34 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs 77.1 crore. These mainly pertain to sectors like chemicals and petro-chemicals, automotive components, white and brown goods, information and broadcasting, software development and IT-related services.
The proposals were cleared by Mr Singh after the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s recommendation, an official release said. It included a Rs 35 crore proposal of Washington-based International Finance Corporation, the Netherlands Development Finance Company and Deutscheinvestitions-Und of Germany to increase the foreign shareholding in Delhi-based Indian Infrastructure Equipment, to 100% from 49.8%.
The Rs 22 crore proposal for transfer of shares in Pune-based Arklite Speciality Lamps from the resident shareholders to a foreign national, Steve Dumont and non- resident indians - Anand Bhasin, Ranbir Bhalla, Harminder Bhalla, Nam Parshad Bhatia and Girish Gaitonte was also approved.
The Rs 10-crore proposal of UK-based Sethia London to establish a joint venture company for setting up tea-packaging units and procurement of tea from domestic market received the the finance minister’s nod.
Other proposals included British firm Capital International which received the go-ahead to invest Rs 3.6 crore in Thane-based Mastek BPO, a business process outsourcing provider. Mauritius-based Edgefield Securities also recieved approval to invest Rs 2.5 crore proposal in paper maker JK Corp. Another Mauritian firm, Customer Solutions has been allowed to invest Rs 1.4 crore in Delhi-based Tele Tech Services, an IT-enabled services provider.