Acquisitions, tie ups and branch expansion form the main components of the strategy with regard to the international operations of Bank of India.

Addressing a press conference here the chairman and managing director of the bank Mr M Balachandran said that the bank has received approvals from RBI to set up branches in Dhaka in Bangladesh and Dubai. It would set up a subsidiary in Canada and open a representative office in Dubai and Doha.

It has finalized the acquisition of 76 % stake in P T Bank Swadesi Tbk, a listed Bank in Indonesia. The bank is in the process of setting up a subsidiary in Tanzania, representative office in Johannesburg and a branch in Antwerp, Belgium.

It has taken over the management of Almana Exchange house in Doha. Bank of India has 24 overseas offices spread over 12 countries. International operations contribute 19.4 % of its total business and 32 % of its net profit.

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Sharp differences between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) have stalled foreign venture capital real estate funds from setting up shop in India.
The RBI is insisting that funds floated by foreign venture capital investors (FVCIs) be brought on a par with real estate funds coming through the foreign direct investment (FDI) route for regulatory purposes.

At present, the FDI in the real estate sector is permitted through the automatic route and does not require the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) nod. But fund houses have to adhere to certain project and financial restrictions

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Vodafone has announced acquisition of majority 67 per cent stake in Indian mobile firm Hutch- Essar for $11.1 billion, marking the single largest foreign investment into India - one of the fastest expanding telecom markets.

Announcing the deal that puts the enterprise value of Hutch-Essar at $18.8 billion last night, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said: "We are delighted to be deepening our involvement in the Indian mobile market… We have concluded this transaction within our stated financial investment criteria."

Simultaneously, Vodafone offloaded its 5.6 per cent direct stake in India’s mobile leader Bharti Airtel to the Bharti Group for $1.6 billion.

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Close to a year after the crackdown on microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Andhra Pradesh, some of the leading MFIs in the country are facing a cash crunch due to a halt in the flow of funds from ICICI Bank under its partnership lending programme. ICICI Bank is the largest lender to MFIs, with an exposure to the sector upwards of Rs 2,300 crore. Half this amount is committed through the partnership lending model, with the rest being term loans.

Although ICICI Bank says it has not officially put funds on hold, MFIs say that their loan disbursements are in jeopardy as they have not received funds from the bank. It appears that RBI’s insistence on compliance with guidelines relating to customer identification and documentation is central to the problem.

ICICI Bank is now insisting that MFIs adhere to RBI norms before further funds are released.Nachiket Mor, deputy managing director of ICICI Bank, said, “We believe we can fully comply with the norms and our MFI partners need a higher level of automation to do so. We are working with them on that.”

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India expects overseas investment to more than double to $12 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31 from a year earlier, helped by the upgrade of India’s debt rating by Standard & Poor’s.
The overseas investment is expected to grow “an unprecedented 120 %’’ from the previous year’s $5.6 billion, Trade Minister Kamal Nath said in a statement in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Overseas investment into Indian companies in the eight months ended Nov. 30 was at $7.2 billion.

Standard & Poor’s on Jan. 30 raised India’s rating to investment grade as growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy averaged more than 8 percent since 2003, the fastest since independence in 1947. The growth in the current fiscal year is expected to be 9.2 %.

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Matt Mongia, formerly with India-focused hedge fund shop Monsoon Capital, is launching a multi-strategy India-focused fund dubbed the Vishwas India Fund. The fund is set to launch in March with some $10 million to $20 million in initial equity.

Mongia, who focused on marketing, raising capital, operations and regulatory compliance issues for Bethesda, Md.-based Monsoon, said his split with Monsoon founder Gautam Prakash was amicable. “When I joined Monsoon, my plan all along was to assist with the first fund for whatever that lifecycle turned out to be,” he said.

“Originally, I had planned to launch my own India fund with my current partner but, for a variety of reasons, things didn’t come together, and I opted to go with Monsoon. My thinking was that being part of a fund from launch to closing would better prepare me to launch my own product.”

Mongia and Prakash had discussed launching another fund within Monsoon, but Mongia decided to branch out on his own. Prakash recently closed his Monsoon India Inflection Fund, Monsoon India Inflection Fund II and the Caymans-based Monsoon India Cayman Inflection Fund Ltd. with a combined $600 million in January

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