The government yesterday cleared 47 proposals for foreign direct investment (FDI) worth a total of Rs 5,080 million, among which is Sai Television's Rs 50 million project for producing software for television programming and communication services.

The biggest proposal that the government cleared yesterday were Banc of America's Rs 2350 million plan to launch a 100 per cent subsidiary non banking finance company (NBFC) for commencing financial investment, capital markets and merchant banking services, the Press Trust of India, quoting an official release, said.

The other being Mercedes Benz India's proposal to increase foreign equity from 84 per cent to 100 per cent in its Indian operations at a cost of Rs 840 million.

It was reported in the beginning of February that Sai Televisions, a southern-based listed company engaged in the television software business, had entered into a partnership with the US based Pointclick, which specialises in long distance voice calls through a private worldwide network.

The partnership between the two companies involved a share swap under which Pointclick would subscribe to five per cent in equity capital of Sai Television of Rs 51.5 million while Sai Television would have a 50 per cent stake in Pointclick. These were subject to getting government clearance, among other formalities.

The two companies plan to build a network in at least eight cities in India of VOIP (voice over internet protocal) centres, including a super centre designed to handle a tremendous amount of voice traffic drastically reducing the cost of long distance phone calls within India and internationally.

All the operations with regard to Pointclick both in India and abroad will be handled by the management of Pointclick and the role of Sai Television will be to provide services and financial resources for the growth of the two companies.