Telecom FDI norms to come up for review

The Principal Secretary to the government of India, T K A Nair, has called a meeting of the officials of the commerce ministry, finance ministry, home ministry, communications ministry and the Intelligence Bureau on Thursday to discuss security implications of relaxing FDI guidelines in the telecom sector.

The review has been prompted by an application by Tata Teleservices, which said the requirement under the new FDI norms to have only resident Indian citizens in the senior management including managing director, chief executive officer, chief technical officer and financial officer was coming in way of an appointment made by it before the norms were notified.

The meet will also discuss the possibility of relaxing the clause in the FDI guidelines which stipulates that the appointment of any executive to a senior management post must require the consent of the "serious Indian stakeholder", who holds over 10 per cent stake in the company, sources said.

The Investment Commission headed by Ratan Tata has also written to Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Finance Minister P Chidambaram on these issues.

The commerce ministry had earlier moved a note on the issue to the communications ministry, which in turn sent it to department of economic affairs for its views.