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.