India 2018

Finance 261
not diluted; preferential allotment of shares of the CPSE to promoters as per
SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009 so that
Government shareholding does not go down below 51 per cent in all cases
where the CPSEs desire to raise fresh equity to meet their Capex programme,
the Government further approved inclusion of the following purposes to be
financed from the NIF. Investment by Government in RRBs/ IIFCL/NABRAD/
Exim Bank; equity infusion in various Metro projects; investment in Bhartiya
Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited and Uranium Corporation of India Ltd;
investment in Indian Railways towards capital expenditure.
Demonetisation of Banknotes
The Government demonetised 500 and 1,000 banknotes on November 8, 2016.
All 500 and 1000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi series ceased to be legal
tenders in India from November 9, 2016. New 500 and 2000 banknotes of the
Mahatma Gandhi New Series in exchange for the old banknotes were
announced. However, the banknote denominations of 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5 of
the Mahatma Gandhi series remained legal tender and were unaffected by the
policy. The government said that the demonetisation move was an effort to
stop counterfeiting of the current banknotes allegedly used for funding terrorism,
as well as a crackdown on black money in the country.