Lifetime validity schemes come under TRAI scrutiny
New Delhi: Telecom regulator TRAI has initiated an exercise to go deep into the plethora of lifetime validity offers being offered by all the telecom operators and asses their viability.

TRAI has decided to see whether the concept of lifetime validity, being offered by the mobile operators on pre-paid cards with one time entry fee, was viable and is likely to give its verdict in a day or so.

Tata Teleservices was the first player to offer a two-year validity on its pre-paid card, which the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) termed as predatory pricing. However, no operator could stand losing the race in adding new subscribers to their fold and this virtually triggered tariff war among the service providers.

Airtel went one better and came out with a lifetime validity card with a one-time fee of Rs999 followed by Hutch, Reliance Infocomm, Tatas and also by the state run companies MTNL and BSNL to join the war.

Tata-Birla owned Idea cellular went a step ahead of others by offering similar services in both pre-paid and post-paid segments raising doubt over the viability of these schemes.
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Chennai project on schedule: Baalu
Chennai: T R Baalu, union minister of shipping, road transport and highways has said that the Rs400 crore-project aimed at restructuring of Chennai city traffic and widening of roads due to recent floods, was progressing as per schedule.

He said the 19-km four-lane Chennai bypass between suburban Tambaram and Maduravoyal and the 13-km new four-lane bypass between Maduravoyal and Madhavaram was making progress as scheduled.

The foundation stones for seven projects on the North-South corridor of the National Highways Development Project would be laid in January and February, he said.
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SC issues notice on Reliance Infocomm issue
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notices to the center, CBI and CVC, after a PIL sought an investigation into the permission granted to Reliance Infocomm to launch its WLL services as full mobility services without paying the requisite licence fee for entering fully mobile services. This was during the tenure of Pramod Mahajan as communication and IT minister.

The petitioner also alleged that it had come to light that Reliance Infocomm allotted one crore shares to three front companies at Re1 each as against the Rs55 each paid by Reliance Industries itself for the same share at that time.

The allotment of these shares raises the suspicion that the real beneficiary of these shares was Mahajan and his family members, petitioner's counsel Prashant Bhushan alleged.
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VAT computing software launched
Kannur: A new accounting software that can compute VAT and claims to be "highly user friendly" for all categories of traders, has been launched.

The new software, branded as 'Trade-Easy,' and priced Rs5,000, was launched by Rediff.com chief executive officer Ajith Balakrishnan at a function.

"The new software could be easily operated by any person having a little knowledge about computer operations and would remove the hassles involved in the complex computing in the calculation of VAT," the software developer M V Iqbal told reporters on Sunday.
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Civil Aviation likely to get Rs.3 crore in '06-'07
New Delhi: The Civil Aviation ministry is likely to get an allocation of Rs3,046.93 crore for the next fiscal, including a gross budgetary support (GBS) of Rs130 crore, for acquisition of training aircraft and equipment by the Aero Club of India, pilot training and for Airports Authority of India.

The GBS for the sector was fixed at Rs119.21 crore by the commission, but the Ministry asked for an additional Rs13 crore for the Aero Club of India.

Of the Rs130 crore, AAI would get Rs42.91 crore and DGCA Rs29 crore.
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Assocham predicts 36 per cent growth for retail sector by '08
New Delhi: According to a study by industry chamber, 'Retail and it Prospects,' the overall retail market is expected to grow by 36 per cent by 2008 while the organised sector will grow three-fold to Rs15,000 crore by 2008.

The total size of the market is expected to increase to Rs14,79,000 crore from the current level of Rs5,88,000 crore.

Assocham said that the unorgansied retail sector would continue to have its edge over the organsied sector, as the government is yet to decide on opening up of the sector for foreign direct investment.

The study said of the entire retail sector estimated at Rs5,88,000 crore, the unorgansied market is worth Rs5,83,000 crore. The organised sector, which accounts for Rs5,000 crore, would touch Rs1,60,000 crore by 2008, the study said.
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