Internet subscriber base crosses 6-m mark
New Delhi: After the fantastic growth of the mobile segment, the net subscriber base is also galloping ahead. The dial-up Internet subscriber base has crossed the 6-million mark - three months before the date set by the government as part of its broadband policy.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI's) Internet user base grew 15 per cent from September 2004 to September 2005, with the private operators accounting for 2.6 mn users. Broadband usage has, however, had a slow growth with just over 6 lakh subscribers against a target of 3 million by end of 2005.

Overall, the telecom industry and the consumers have reasons to celebrate during the quarter ended September 2005. Tele-density reached double-digits crossing 10 per cent. Bandwidth prices, both for domestic and international, reduced by up to 70 per cent and the effective per minute charge for a mobile local call has been reduced from Rs 1.90 at the end of September 2004 to Rs 1.20 at the end of September 2005, registering a decline of 37 per cent over the year.

The gross subscriber base of the fixed and mobile services together reached 113.07 million at the end of quarter, from 104.22 million as on June 2005, registering an increase of 8.49 per cent during the quarter.

The subscriber base of fixed service (fixed line and WLL-F) increased from 46.85 million to 48 million, the additions being predominantly WLL-F and that for mobile services (GSM and CDMA) from 57.37 million to 65.07 million during the quarter.

The number of village public telephones increased to 5.35 lakh, covering 86 per cent of 6.08 lakh villages compared with 5.30 lakh at the end of June 2005.
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Infrastructure growth down to 3 pc in Nov
New Delhi: Infrastructure growth slowed down to 3.0 per cent in November 2005 from 5.7 per cent a year ago mainly due to fall in the output of crude petroleum and steel.

The six core sectors comprising crude petroleum, refinery, coal, electricity, cement and steel also posted a lower growth of 4.4 per cent during April-November 2005 as against 6.7 per cent in the year ago period.
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Israeli firm to invest in building shopping malls in India
Jerusalem: Israeli firm, Elbit Hadmaya, will invest billions of dollars in India to build shopping malls, according to report in Israeli publication Yediot Ahronoth.

The report quoted Moti Ziser, the head of the company, as saying he sees a huge untapped potential in this sector, as there are very few shopping malls for such a large population in India. The firm plans to build shopping malls in several cities across the country.

Elbit has built some 26 malls in Eastern Europe starting from one in Budapest a few years back. The company invested over $1 billion in East Europe.
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FDI hike in insurance, pension reform non-starters in 2005
New Delhi: The UPA government failed to hike FDI cap in insurance and push forward pension reforms in 2005 as the finance minister P Chidambaram promised in his budget of 2004.

However, the Government was unable to muster up support from Left parties to amend the IRDA Act for raising the FDI cap and neither could it come up with a comprehensive Bill to make the Indian insurance laws in-sync with global standards.

So much so that voicing the concerns of foreign investors, the US Ambassador, David Mulford charged the Government for 'breach of faith' to foreign investors by not hiking FDI cap in insurance from 26 to 49 per cent.
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Punjab in export deal to Europe, Gulf from 2007
Chandigarh: The state of Punjab will begin exporting potato to European and Gulf nations from early 2007, will start exporting the commodity to South Asian nations in 2006.

The Punjab State Cooperative Supply and the Marketing Federation (MARKFED), a nodal agency for agri export are the two agencies, involved in the export of potato.

MARKFED, which will try to enhance productivity and crop quality, has approximately 8,000 acres of crop area under EureGAP certification in Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts. The federation was also exploring ways to export seed potatoes to Europe.
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Bihar Government in talks for reopening of thermal power stations at Kanti and Barauni
Patna: Bihar may see a ray of light with the state government and BSEB signing an MoU on Monday with the NTPC for reopening of the thermal power stations at Kanti and Barauni.

Bihar has the lowest per capita power consumption in the country at 74.5 units per year as against the national average of 615 units.

Talking to newsmen after signing the MoU, CM Nitish Kumar said a joint venture company will be set up for the reopening, renovation and expansion of the Kanti thermal power station, while the NTPC and BHEL will work out modalities for the Barauni thermal power station.

In the joint venture company, the share of the BSEB will be 49 per cent and that of the NTPC 51 per cent.
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70 companies get nod for financial bids in FM radio
New Delhi: The I&B ministry has found 70 companies eligible to be included in the financial bidding for FM radio set for January 6. At least 30-40 companies are looking to grab frequencies in bigger cities around the country.

The cities gearing up for action include Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Bhopal, Indore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, in addition to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

The companies will have to submit a performance bank guarantee before financial bidding takes place. The expansion of FM radio is supposed to increase FM radio's area coverage in India from 30 per cent to over 55 per cent under the 10th plan.
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CERC likely to set trading margins at 6 paise per unit
New Delhi: The power regulator CERC may fix the trading margins at a higher 6 paise per unit of electricity instead of the earlier proposed 2 paise per unit, as a result of opposition from trading companies.

CERC's proposed in September this year to fix 2 per cent margins for reducing the cost of traded power. Its proposal was opposed by companies like PTC India, although deficient states such as Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Gujarat, who buy electricity through these traders, had welcomed the move.

Though the commission has so far given trading licences to 17 companies, only five companies including PTC, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam, Tata Power Trading, Reliance Energy Trading and Adani Exports Ltd - are currently active.

The average trading margins of four firms (excluding Reliance) during 2004-05 was 5 paise per unit. However, as per information compiled by the CERC, the average margins have shot up to 10 paise during the first half of this fiscal.
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SAFTA ratified by Bangladesh
Dhaka: Riding on hopes that its exports would boom when the treaty comes into effect in the coming New Year, Bangladesh has ratified the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA).

Bangladesh's export may rise by three to four times when the SAFTA takes effect on January 1, 2006, Ananya Raihan, executiv director of the Development Research Network, told a local news agency.

He said Bangladesh was likely to be the top gainer among the LDCs in the region as it has the ability to offer more products for trading regionally than countries like Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.
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CII: Manufacturing is key to growth
The Confederation of Indian Industry has said that the Government should focus on achieving a 12 per cent growth in manufacturing if the GDP has to grow by 8-9 per cent or higher on a sustainable basis.

The CII has said that a high growth in manufacturing is also necessary to generate greater employment opportunities. To achieve 12 per cent growth in manufacturing, constraints in five areas such as infrastructure, labour laws, cost and access to credit, technology and skill development need to be addressed.

The CII has also said that a major chunk of the investment in infrastructure will have to come from the government, for which privatisation of public sector enterprises appeared to be the best option for finding necessary resources. It further added that an annual target for gross capital formation in infrastructure should be announced publicly to help monitor progress and achieve real results.
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