ECONOMY AFFAIRS JUNE 2010

ECONOMY AFFAIRS JUNE 2010

• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended that the foreign investment limit for broadcast carriage services such as DTH, IPTV, Mobile TV, HITS, Teleport and MSOs, which are upgrading to digital and addressable environment, may be raised to 74 per cent. The existing limit for most of these services is 49 per cent. 
• The Reliance Communications (RCom) and its subsidiary, Reliance Infratel, have entered into a Rs.50,000-crore deal with GTL Infrastructure to create the world's largest independent telecom infrastructure company. 
• The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Anil Ambani-led Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) signed a revised gas supply agreement as per the directions of the Supreme Court. 
• According to a United Nations report on the Millennium Development Goals for 2010, India is expected to reduce its poverty rate from 51 per cent in 1990 to 24 per cent in 2015. 
• The Central Government made it clear that unit linked insurance products (ULIPs) will be regulated by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). This puts an end to a two-month-long turf war between the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). 
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved for the disinvestment of 10 per cent each in Coal India Ltd. (CIL) and Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL). The move would likely to generate about Rs.16,000 crore for the government. 
• During the two-day Global Investors Meet in Bangalore, the Karnataka Government has signed as many as 361 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with investors for a total investment of Rs. 4 lakh crore. 
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while releasing the UPA government's Report to the People 2009-10, said that the govt had decided to set up a National Social Security Fund for workers in the unorganised sector which would cover weavers, toddy tappers, rickshaw pullers and bidi workers with an initial allocation of Rs. 1000 crore. 
• The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry has given freedom to the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) to price the natural gas produced by them at market rates.