New Delhi, December 26
Giving a financial breather to the beleaguered national airline Air India, the government today gave its approval to the carrier to sell five of its long-haul Boeing 777 aircraft to Etihad Airways.

The approval for the sale of the aircraft came at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In another decision, the Cabinet also approved a pension proposal for 43,000 MTNL employees.

The proposal for the sale of these wide-bodied planes is part of the national carrier's turnaround plan. The money from the sale would be utilised by Air India to partly pay off its huge debt and liabilities of over Rs 20,000 crore.

The clearance from the government came after Air India had earlier this month finalised the deal with the Abu Dhabi-based carrier, which has also picked up 24% stake in Jet Airways worth over Rs 2,000 crore. The two airlines had signed a Letter of Intent in October, which was later approved by the national carrier's Board.

As per industry estimates, the deal is estimated at $300-350 million. Air India would be selling five of its Boeing 777-200 LR (Long Range) planes which have an average age of six years.

The deliveries of these aircraft to Etihad are likely to start around March-April next year, sources said. Etihad has already announced plans to deploy them on long-haul routes like Abu Dhabi-Los Angeles from June next year.

Air India, saddled under huge debt, had put eight of these aircraft for sale, but as there were no takers earlier, it had to issue the tender twice.

The Cabinet also approved a pension proposal for 43,000 MTNL employees, who joined the public sector company from the Department of Telecom. It would cost the government an estimated Rs 500 crore annually.

"The Union Cabinet today approved that the erstwhile all categories of employees of the government absorbed in MTNL and who have opted for combined service may be given similar treatment in the matter of payment of pensionary benefits as available to the absorbed employees of BSNL," an official statement said.

The decision is likely to bring additional amount of about Rs 1,500 crore (including interest) in the books of MTNL as refund from government for the pension that the PSU paid to its employees.

This would mean pension benefits would be available for their service term at DoT as well as their rest of the period at MTNL. The total number of such employees is estimated to be 43,000, which includes 16,000 retired and around 27,000 existing employees of the PSU. 

New Delhi, December 26
A number of bitcoin operators in India have begun suspending their business following RBI's warning against use of such virtual currencies due to potential money laundering and cyber security risks.

While RBI is yet to come out with a clear regulatory framework for bitcoins, which have been gaining currency across the world over the past few months, it has issued an advisory cautioning general public against use of bitcoins and other virtual currencies.

Within days of this advisory issued on December 24, a number of entities offering bitcoin services have suspended their operations, temporarily or indefinitely, while websites of a few others have gone down.

However, some other entities continue to run their operations of offering bitcoin exchange services for rupee and other currencies.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency that can be generated through complex computer software systems with solutions shared on a network, although the process is complex and such 'mining' can be done only on very powerful servers.

Hardly three years into existence, bitcoin has already become the world's most expensive currency and its per unit value soared past $1,000 level or about Rs 63,000 recently, although the prices have now slipped below Rs 50,000 level.

There was a phenomenal surge in the exchange rate for bitcoin from little over $200 to well past $1,000 during November, but there has been an extreme volatility since then and the RBI's warning has further added to its woes in India.

One of the bitcoin operators in India, buysellbitco.in, has posted its website, "Post the RBI circular, we are suspending buy and sell operations until we can outline a clearer framework with which to work.

"This is being done to protect the interest of our customers and in no way is a reflection of bitcoin's true potential or price," it said.

Another entity, INRBTC also said "in light of RBI's notice, services of INRBTC.com are being suspended indefinitely". — PTI

New Delhi, December 26
The government today provided Rs 116.86 crore to eleven sick public sector units (PSUs), including HMT Machine Tools, towards payment of wages and other dues.

The decision to provide funds to the PSUs was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

"CCEA today approved the proposal for providing non-plan budgetary support of Rs 116.86 crore for liquidation of statutory dues (Provident Fund, Gratuity, Pension, Employees State Insurance and Bonus) and salary and wages from 01-04-2013 to 31-08-2013 in respect of 11 Central Public Sector Enterprises," an official statement said.

The PSUs which would get the funds are Hindustan Cables, HMT Machine Tools, HMT (Watches), HMT (Chinar Watches), Nagaland Pulp & Paper, Triveni Structurals, Tungbhadra Steel Products, Nepa Ltd, HMT Bearings, Hindustan Photo Films and Tyre Corporation of India, it said.

It also said the revival/closure plans of Hindustan Cables, Triveni Structurals, HMT (Watches), HMT (Chinar Watches), Hindustan Photo Films and HMT were yet to be finalised.

Further, the revival plans of Nepa Ltd and Nagaland Pulp & Paper have recently been approved whereas the revival plans of HMT Bearings and Tungbhadra Steel Products were yet to materialise. — PTI

New Delhi, December 26
The government today more than halved the minimum export price of onions to $150 from $ 350 a tonne to encourage overseas shipments amid a crash in local wholesale prices and protests by farmers.

The decision was taken after a meeting between the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister for Commerce yesterday to discuss issues related to the sharp decline in wholesale onion prices in Maharashtra and the need to review the MEP.

The government had imposed the MEP to curb exports and boost domestic supplies after a sudden and sharp hike in onion prices across the country starting in July. Prices continued to rise and had touched about Rs 100 a kg in mid-October following unseasonal rainfall and alleged hoarding by traders. — PTI

New Delhi, December 26
The board of the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) today asked promoter Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) to reduce its stake to 2 per cent, in accordance with the regulator's order.

Last week, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) had issued an order declaring FTIL and its chief Jignesh Shah unfit to run any exchange, including the MCX, following a Rs 5,500 crore payment crisis at group company NSEL.

It also charged Shah with being the "highest beneficiary of the fraud perpetrated" at NSEL. — PTI

BRIEFLY

CCEA clears Axis Bank’s proposal to hike FDI limit
New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the proposal of Axis Bank Limited for increase in foreign investment from 49% to 62%. This is subject to the aggregate foreign institutional investors holding not exceeding 49% of the paid-up equity share capital of the bank. The approval would result in foreign investment of Rs 7,250 crore approximately in the country. — TNS

Microsoft launches new app for women's safety
Hyderabad: Microsoft India on Thursday said it is introducing Guardian, a new safety application (app), available exclusively for Windows phone users in India. Microsoft IT India MD Raj Biyani said Guardian enables users to switch on a 'track me' feature in the app that lets friends and family track them in real time using Microsoft Windows Azure cloud services and Bing Map APIs. Guardian users can call for help through an 'SOS' alert button and also connect to security agencies, police and hospitals easily via this app in times of distress. — PTI

Morgan Stanley exits Jindal Saw
New Delhi: Global financial services major Morgan Stanley has exited from Jindal Saw by selling off almost all its stake in the pipe maker through open market operations. It sold 1,48,74,295 shares or 5.38% stake in the company on December 23, Jindal Saw said. — PTI

Gold drops Rs 275; dips below Rs 30,000 level
New Delhi: Gold prices dipped below Rs 30,000 per 10 gram level for the first time in over four months in the national capital today on stockists selling against fall in demand at prevailing higher levels. Gold dropped Rs 275 to Rs 29,900 per 10 grams, the level last seen on August 14. — PTI