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Keeping the Foreign Hand at Bay

A chronology.

  • 1955: Cabinet committee bars foreign investment in print.

  • 1994: A ministerial review wants the restriction revoked. Review never came up before Parliament.

  • 1999: FEMA Bill cleared by Parliament, replaces FERA.

  • May 2000: RBI issues FEMA regulations, prohibitingautomatic FDI in 13 sectors including print media, but imposing no restrictions on foreign portfolio investments.

  • October & November 2000: Mid-Day Multimedia seeks and gets RBI approvals under these regulations for issuing shares to FIIs and NRIs from itsIPO.

  • Feb 11, 2001: A newspaper raises questions about the IPO possibly violating policy barring foreign investment in print.

  • Feb 12-15, 2001: Mid-Day decides voluntarily not to accept FII bids.

  • Feb 16, 2001: Government gets RBI to amend the regulations, barring foreign portfolio investment in print.
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