The Centre, on Thursday, cleared as many as 13 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals envisaging an investment of Rs 393.36 crore.

These 13 proposals, which were cleared by Finance Minister P Chidambaram following recommendations made by Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), include Maruti Suzuki Limited’s joint venture with the Japanese Futaba Industrial Company Limited.

The MUL — India’s largest car manufacture—proposes to set up a Joint venture with Futaba Industrial Co with foreign equity of up to 51 per cent amounting to Rs 45.90 crore, a finance ministry release said here.

Other proposals

The government also cleared international newswire Bloomberg’s proposal to down-link its TV programmes into India and also to increase paid up capital involving infusion of Rs 85 lakh.

Other proposals include induction of foreign equity of Rs 232.58 crore (72.5 per cent) by Secunderabad- based Aster Infrastructure offering telecom services and Hyderabad-based KVK Energy’s proposal to bring in 70 per cent foreign equity of Rs 97.06 crore to make investment in downstream operating companies.

Three proposals by Premier Travel Inn India Ltd, UK, Denso Kirloskar Industries Ltd and MTV India Ltd have been sent to Project Approval Board since they related to only royalty payment for technology transfer or brand payments only.

No FDI was involved in these proposals. Three other companies — Devas Multimedia Ltd, Manipal Universal Learning Ltd, Bangalore and IBSS Techno Park Ltd — have been asked to approach RBI with their proposals since there were certain “technical irregularities”, official sources said.  Mr Chidambaram also cleared a proposal by BPO arm of Citigroup to form a subsidiary to make investment in SEZ units.

The world’s largest financial services group is looking to form a new subsidiary — Citgroup Global Services — which would make downstream investment for setting up SEZ units. It turned down US-based financial services firm Bear Stearns Companies Inc’s request it be given two more years to increase the paid up capital of Ford Automotive Finance Co India, which it wants to acquire.

The subsidiary, Bear Strategic Investment Corp, plans to buy 100 per cent stake in Ford Automotive Finance. The stake is to be purchased from Ford Credit International, which had proposed to FIPB that Bear Stearns be taken as new entrant of 100 per cent equity in the non-banking financial company.