$400-mn World Bank loan for India’s small, medium enterprises

October 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Telecom major Bharti Airtel has partnered with US-based network equipment maker Cisco Systems to offer services for small, medium and large enterprises. The alliance will use Cisco's Internet Protocol (IP) technologies and expertise to create and sell a set of unique products and services, including managed data services, hosted unified communications, connected branch services and Cisco TelePresence, Bharti said Tuesday.

September 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The prime minister's task force on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) held its first meeting here Friday to discuss the problems of the sector and formed seven sub-groups to suggest remedial measures. The task force reviewed the problems faced by these enterprises across the spectrum, particularly the lack of credit facilities available for small enterprises, a government statement said.

September 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - The World Bank on Tuesday approved a 4.3 billion dollars loan for India to finance infrastructure projects, to help maintain credit growth levels, employment growth, support social banking and help strengthen the economic recovery from the global financial crisis. The loan includes a 2 billion dollar loan, which is designed for Banking Sector Support Loan, which would to boost the capital of state banks and maintain credit growth.

August 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will give away the National Awards to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises here today.

August 11th, 2009 EU approves euro39 mln financial package for BosniaSARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — The EU says it has approved a euro39 million ($55.39 million) financial aid package for Bosnia to help it deal with the effects of the financial and economic crisis. A statement from the European Commission said Tuesday the grant is part of a pre-accession assistance package and will support the development of small and medium sized enterprises and provide investment in infrastructure in the transport, environment, and energy sectors.

July 14th, 2009 KOLKATA - Public sector lender Dena Bank is expecting a Rs.500 crore capital infusion from the central government later this year, a top company official said here Tuesday. "We will receive Rs.300 crore as preferential shares and Rs.200 crore as perpetual non-cumulative preference shares (PNCPS)," Dena Bank chairman and managing director D.L.

June 29th, 2009 KOLKATA - The city-based UCO Bank is likely to slash deposit rates by 50-100 basis points soon, a top official said here Monday. The bank cut its lending rates by 50 basis points recently to 12 percent.

June 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The World Bank will extend a $180-million (Rs.900-crore) loan to India for upgrading its polluting coal-fired power plants and bringing down carbon emission, it said Friday. "The project, which is expected to lower carbon emissions and boost power production at these plants, is co-financed with a $45.4-million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF)," World Bank said in a statement.

June 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Export-Import Bank of India is getting a $60 million international trade facility to help support export-focused small and medium enterprises, which have suffered reduced access to finance due to global financial crisis. The trade facility, shared equally by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group, and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, will improve the Exim Banks ability to provide access to short-term trade funding for smaller businesses, enabling them to carry out export orders.

April 11th, 2009 MUMBAI - The State Bank of India has slashed interest rates for new small and medium enterprise loans besides announcing several measures to improve credit flows to the segment. India's bigger lender cut the lending rates for new SME loans up to 5 lakh rupees to eight per cent, and 10 percent for loans upto 5-25 lakhs.

March 7th, 2009 KOLKATA - The state-owned UCO Bank has decided to provide 50 basis points loan rate cut to borrowers in some sectors as incentives, a top bank official said here Friday. 'We have decided to give incentives of 50 bps to particular sectors like housing, auto and consumer loans.

February 22nd, 2009 JANGIPUR - Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee Saturday flagged off the rural industries programme (RIP) in Murshidabad district and advised a cluster approach among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) players in view of the ongoing recession. 'The financial crisis has reasonably affected India's economy and we are also facing the meltdown heat.

February 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Personal computer sales rose 12 percent to 3.69 million (36.9 lakh) units in the first half this fiscal thanks to sustained demand from large and medium enterprises and households in small towns, an IT hardware industry lobby said Tuesday. According to the Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT), sales of desktops rose 12 percent to 2.91 million units, while notebooks sales stood at 770,000 units, a growth of 13 percent.

January 28th, 2009 SURAT - The Congress party Thursday asked the Gujarat government to take immediate steps to help recession-hit small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and diamond units. Addressing the media at Valsad, 270 km from Ahmedabad and 50 km from here, Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil said the central government had announced two packages but the state government was wooing only big industries and ignoring the small and medium enterprises.

January 5th, 2009 KOLKATA - The United Bank of India (UBI) has reduced its prime lending rate by 50 basis points to 13 percent effective from Jan 12, it said here Tuesday. 'With this, the existing floating rate in all corporate and retail categories borrowers such as SME (small and medium enterprises), agriculture, housing, auto and vehicle loans, as well as potential borrowers will get the benefit of reduced rate of interest,' a bank statement said.