Private players can participate in N-power projects: FICCI

A day after the US Senate gave a resounding 86-13 approval to the historic India-US nuclear deal, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on Thursday urged the government to immediately initiate the next steps for building nuclear power generation capacity in a big way.

According to the FICCI, the Indian private sector has already acquired capabilities for participating in nuclear power projects.This will boost private investment in nuclear power sector.The country has the potential to generate 60,000 MW of nuclear power over the next 25 years, which needs an investment of over $100 billion.The government is already vetting 10 nuclear power projects.

Companies like National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC), Reliance Energy, Tata Power, Larsen and Toubro, and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd can now look forward to working as partners with international companies like General Electric, Westinghouse, Areva and Atomstroy in the field of nuclear energy generation.

Dena Bank to enter non-life insurance business

Dena Bank is in the process of forming a joint venture to foray into the non-life insurance sector along with other partners, chairman and managing director P L Gairola said on Friday.

The idea was at a conceptualisation stage and was yet to get approval of the board, Gairola told reporters on the sidelines of the Banking Conclave organised by FICCI (eastern region) here.

Dena Bank would hold 26 per cent stake in the proposed JV, he said, adding besides Dena Bank, there would be other domestic and foreign players.At present, the bank is selling products of LIC for life and Oriental Insurance for non-life.

During the current fiscal, the bank was eyeing a credit growth of 22 per cent and deposit growth of 23 per cent as compared to 27 per cent and 18 per cent respectively in the last financial year.

Gairola said that the bank was keen to maintain a capital adequacy ratio of 11 per cent during the year which at present was at 11.52 per cent.He said the bank did have headroom to raise Rs 8000 crore both in Tier I and Tier II.The bank was also in talks with State Bank of India to launch credit cards.