Tsunami toll crosses 55,000 worldwide
Chennai/Port Blair: Three days after the tsunamis struck Asia and parts of Africa itbis now being estimated that more than 55,000 people have now died.

Indonesia, which was close to the epicentre of Sunday's earthquake that measured 9 on the Richter scale, says 27,000 people have died in their country. The official number of deaths in Sri Lanka is 18,700 but this figure could rise considerably. The Lankan government fears that the death toll in their island nation could go up to 25,000.

Over 9,000 people have died in India with the Andamans and states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala bearing the brunt of the deathly earthquake-induced sea waves. Nearly 1,500 people were killed in Thailand. In Malaysia 50 people were killed and a similar number died in the Maldives. Tsunamis killed 30 people in Myanmar and more than 100 people in Somalia, which is almost 5,000 km from the epicentre of the earthquake.

In India, where more than 9,000 people are feared dead, the worst hit is the union territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and Tamil Nadu on India's southeast coast.

Three thousand people have been killed in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands but there are fears that the death toll here could also rise dramatically as thousands are still missing. In Tamil Nadu about 4,000 people have died in the deadly sea waves which struck south and south east Asia on the morning after Christmas. Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu has suffered heavily. About 2,300 people have died in this coastal town.
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Investments by mobile services to double in next five years
Mumbai: Mobile service providers are expected to make investments to the tune of Rs65,000 crore to Rs70,000 crore over the next five years as compared to Rs35,000 crore in the last five years, according to a forecast by CRIS INFAC.

Over the next five years, the mobile subscriber base will increase from 33.3 million in 2003-2004 to 155 million by 2008-2009 increasing at a compounded annual growth rate of 36 per cent, CRIS INFAC, has said.

And, in spite of a steady decline in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) figures, the profitability of mobile service providers is expected to improve due to economies of scale and the expected decline in regulatory costs.

The mobile will constitute 75 per cent of the telecom subscriber base. And mobile services, which accounted for almost 95 per cent of the additions to the telecom subscriber base in 2003-2004, will account for 90 per cent of the additions over the next five years as well. The telecom subscriber base is forecast to touch 212 million by March 2009. Teledensity would increase to 18 per cent by that time.

The fixed subscriber base has been forecast to increase from 42.6 million to 56 million.
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