The government yesterday cleared 47 proposals for foreign direct investment (FDI) worth a total of Rs 5,080 million, among which is Sai Television‘s Rs 50 million project for producing software for television programming and communication services.

The biggest proposal that the government cleared yesterday were Banc of America‘s Rs 2350 million plan to launch a 100 per cent subsidiary non banking finance company (NBFC) for commencing financial investment, capital markets and merchant banking services, the Press Trust of India, quoting an official release, said.

The other being Mercedes Benz India‘s proposal to increase foreign equity from 84 per cent to 100 per cent in its Indian operations at a cost of Rs 840 million.

It was reported in the beginning of February that Sai Televisions, a southern-based listed company engaged in the television software business, had entered into a partnership with the US based Pointclick, which specialises in long distance voice calls through a private worldwide network.

The partnership between the two companies involved a share swap under which Pointclick would subscribe to five per cent in equity capital of Sai Television of Rs 51.5 million while Sai Television would have a 50 per cent stake in Pointclick. These were subject to getting government clearance, among other formalities.

The two companies plan to build a network in at least eight cities in India of VOIP (voice over internet protocal) centres, including a super centre designed to handle a tremendous amount of voice traffic drastically reducing the cost of long distance phone calls within India and internationally.

All the operations with regard to Pointclick both in India and abroad will be handled by the management of Pointclick and the role of Sai Television will be to provide services and financial resources for the growth of the two companies.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said it saw no need to involve itself any further in a dispute between the Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the one hand and the Income Tax Department on the other after his counsel committed to file replies to ED queries within two weeks.

Chandra has been accused of violations under the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act (FERA) as well as the Income Tax Act, according to the Press Trust of India.

The ED queries relate to Chandra‘s passport, original intimation by him to the companies in which he was a director and copies of the company board‘s resolutions for audited balance sheets showing acknowledgement of his status as an NRI director. Chandra was also required to provide details of all assets acquired outside India as well as details of share debentures, movable and immovable properties acquired after becoming an NRI.

Zee‘s counsel told the court that complete details as required by the ED would be supplied within two weeks.

FINANCIAL RESULTS: In another development meanwhile, Zee Telefilms has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it will publish its audited financial results for the year ended 31 March on or before 30 June.

Altaf Ali Mohammed, in charge of Star‘s DTH and broadband operations in India, today rubbished reports in the press that Star had put together a $ 350 million war chest to vigorously pursue its DTH plans in India this year.

No decisions have been made regarding Star‘s DTH venture as there were still a number of issues to be clarified, Mohammed pointed out, while stating that he he had yet to get the full gist of the statement that information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj is reported to have made in parliament on Friday regarding uplinking from India.

Swaraj, in a written statement in Parliament, has been quoted as saying that since the convergence bill was still at the drafting stage, it was not possible to say whether it would have any provision for compulsory uplinking of foreign channels.

As per the DTH notification issued in March on the ground rules for companies wanting to enter DTH in India, any licensee will have to establish an uplink earth station in India within 12 months from the date of issue of license. All content provided by the DTH platform to the subscribers, irrespective of its source, will have to pass through the common encryption and conditional access system, located within the earth station, situated on Indian soil.

Asked for his reaction to strong rumours in the market that Star was the most likely partner in the DTH platform that government internet gateway provider Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) was planning to launch before the end of the year, Mohammed said he was in charge of the project and he was putting on record that nothing had been decided yet on the matter. "The fact that no one has applied for a DTH licence till now (the government notification was out in March) should indicate something," Mohammed stated.

There were still a number of issues which needed clarification before there could be any go-ahead on DTH, Mohammed said. An issue which needed further elaboration from the government was the one requiring a record of all that was aired for a period of 90 days after telecast, he said.

One of the clauses in the guidelines state: "The DTH operator will follow the advertising and programming code drawn up by the information and broadcasting ministry. And it should maintain a record of the advertising and programming for 90 days."

Mohammed also drew issue over the fixing of responsibility for the content of third party channels with the platform provider. He said that the same rules that applied to cable operators should apply here too because it was only the distribution methodology that was different in the two cases.