Country’s largest telecom firm, Bharti Airtel had made it clear that it is not looking at raising fresh funds through foreign investors.

Speaking on the sidelines of an industry event, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel said, “We don't have any plans to raise money, although the headroom is there.”

It can be recalled that government recently had released new guidelines that said foreign investment made via an entity owned or controlled by a resident Indian would be considered as local investment.

The Government today sanctioned 26 foreign direct investment proposals valued at Rs 1,042.91 crore, including Neo Sports Broadcasting’s plan to invest Rs 258.53 crore.

Neo Sports will issue fresh equity or equity-linked instruments to introduce foreign funds on Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) recommendations.

Mr. Harish Thawani, chairman, Neo Sports Broadcast, said, “We will use the funds to create a programming and telecast rights corpus. We will also launch two niche channels in the last quarter of 2009, which will be in the non-sports genre.”

Union Bank of India, one of India's largest state-run banks, announced that it has raised an additional capital of Rs 140 crore through issue of subordinated perpetual bonds.

The issue opened on March 19 and was closed on March 25, as against original closure date of March 26, 2009.

The bonds allotment will be finished on March 30, 2009.

The bonds carry a coupon rate of 9.10%, which will be payable on an annual basis.

Kalpataru Power Transmission Limited (KPTL), a leading EPC player in power transmission and distribution, announced that it has pocketed three orders from Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) for 765 kv and 400 kv transmission line projects.

The fresh orders received by the company are valued at Rs 399 crore.

The scope of the orders includes supply and construction of transmission lines in Bihar, Chhatisgarh and Assam.

The company is required to execute the orders between 18 to 24 months.

The two week long placement drive at IIM Lucknow (IIM-L) concluded with moderate participation of firms across finance, real estate, media, general management and consulting firms.

Total of 105 companies made 284 offers to the 235 students with 25 students accepting pre-placement offers (PPOs) as per reports from the management institute.

Top recruiters included McKinsey & Co, The Boston Consulting Group, Proctor & Gamble, Hindustan Unilever Limited, TAS, HSBC, Axis Bank, ICICI Group, Deutsche Bank, American Express, Frost & Sullivan, Asian Paints, Alshaya, Cadbury, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline and Reckitt Benckiser.

Industry body, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) asked for lower interest rates in the range of 7 to 8 per cent for infrastructure projects in the country, blaming high lending rates a major cause of stagnation in the growth rate.

FICCI Chairman, Harsh Pati Singhania, while addressing the inauguration summit on infrastructure, said, "The rise in interest rates for project financing in the country have increased and are jeopardizing the financial viability of projects under the PPP mode."