The document discusses several topics related to the Indian economy: 1. Telecom companies have asked for more time to monitor BlackBerry services as they do not have the ability to track corporate email. The government will grant an extension and not terminate BlackBerry services. 2. The government will not privatize state-run telecom company BSNL until its financial performance improves, as its market share has declined. Steps like voluntary retirement are suggested to improve BSNL's health. 3. A RBI report found Bank of Baroda to have the second highest profit per employee among nationalized banks in 2009-10. 4. The teaser rate for home loans is expected to remain, while

1. Economic Times(Weekend News: 19 Sep, 2010 – 26 Sep, 2010) By: Arpit Gupta

2. Telecom companies have also told the Centre that while they can monitor BlackBerry messenger (BBMS or chat), mobile operators did not have the facilities to track enterprise services – the corporate email facility offered by Canada’s Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of these high-end handsets. The telecom department officials said the Centre will not terminate BlackBerry services from Thursday for non-compliance by operators and is set to grant an extension. Put simply, the one million plus BlackBerry customers in the country will continue to avail services on this handset. Telcos seek more time to monitor BlackBerry services

3. The government has made it clear that it will not go public with state-run BSNL until the financial performance of the telecom PSU improves. BSNL, which has been facing competition from private players, saw its market share (GSM and WLL) declining to 11.44 per cent in June 2010 from 15.64 per cent in March 2008. Besides disinvestment, Pitrodacommitee also suggested voluntary retirement to over one lakh staff as part of steps to improve BSNL's financial health. BSNL listing only after financial performance improves: Govt

4. State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) is the second most productive lender among nationalised banks in terms of profit per employee during 2009-10, RBI said in a report. The RBI report released on Thursday hadc pegged profit per employee of BoB staff at Rs eight lakh,The industry average is Rs 6.05 lakh. Corporation Bank was ranked the best among 19 PSU banks in terms of employee productivity with each staff accounting for profit generation of Rs 9.52 lakh. BoB ranks 2nd highest in terms of employee productivity

5. The teaser rate in home loans is likely to stay, said HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh. On liquidity situation, he said that it would continue to be a bit stressed in September and October. "Now, the deposit rate is lower than the advances, so the banks are now borrowing from RBI," he said. However, Parekh made it clear that there is no shortage of money for government borrowing programme. Parekh hopes that the situation will ease from November. Teaser rates likely to stay: HDFC chairman

6. The Reserve Bank has postponed by a year its plan to open banking facilities in all villages with a population of over 2,000 till March 2012, thus bringing its policy in line with the government's budget announcement. Low population density, inhospitable terrain, law and order problems and non-availability of basic infrastructure had been indicated as the main impediments in providing banking facilities in these areas. The apex bank also plans to undertake quarterly monitoring of the progress in opening banking outlets in un-banked villages. RBI puts off banking outlet target in every village by a year

7. The RBI on Tuesday said banks' investments in the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the United Stock Exchange of India Ltd (USEIL) will not be counted for calculating their capital markets exposure. Within this overall ceiling, banks will also not hold direct investment in the form of holding equities, or other forms of capital more than 20 per cent of its networth. USEIL, the new bourse for currency derivatives, began operations on Monday and witnessed good volumes in the first day of trading. After the NSE and MCX, the USE is the third bourse offering currency trading in the country. RBI relaxes rules for banks exposure in NPCI and USEIL

8. Thank you…