Direct assistance sanctioned by All India Financial Institutions (AIFI) for modernisation and expansion in 1997-98 has dipped sharply contrary to the trend witnessed in 1996-97, a Confederation of Indian Industry study said. The share of sanctions for expansion, diversification, modernisation, rehabilitation came down from 33.2 per cent in 1996-97 to 14.7 per cent and from 14.8 per cent to 6.9 per cent respectively while the share of sanctions for new projects dramatically increased from 29.2 per cent to 42.5 per cent during the same period.

BoI contribution to defence fund

Bank of India (BoI) has donated a sum of Rs 3 crore to the Prime Minister's National Defence Fund. A cheque of Rs 3 crore was presented to the prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee by chairman and managing director of BoI, S Rajagopal on July 23.

Uco Bank revamp opposed

The move by the Uco Bank to restructure its administrative set-up has hit a roadblock with theofficers' association opposing it. ``We express our extreme concern to the ill-conceived move of the bank management to restructure the administrative set-up,'' the Uco Bank Officers' Association has said. The bank is in the process of converting its 14 existing zonal offices into five local head offices to be located in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Calcutta and lucknow. ``Accordingly, the present functioning of zonal offices as well as of head office will be diluted and vital functions of these offices will be entrusted to the proposed local head offices,'' the association said. It described the management claim of decentralisation as a hoax.