Maran: Higher revenues from One India plan to offset tariff losses
New Delhi: An upbeat telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran has said that he expects the 'One India' plan, announced today by state-run BSNL and MTNL, to check fixed-line phone surrenders, which reached record levels last year.

"The Re1 a minute STD tariff should be able to check the surrender of fixed phones of the PSUs which happened on a large-scale last year due to the surge in mobile usage. Now mobile and landline tariffs are same in this plan. This will plug-in the surrenders," Maran said here.

The minister also said that following the rock-bottom tariffs he expected an increase in volume of voice traffic to more than compensate any possible revenue loss from tariff reduction.

"The talk of a loss of about Rs3,000 crore due to this plan is over-exaggerated. Even if there is any minor loss it will be more than compensated due to traffic increase," he said. The average revenue per user (ARPU) would range between Rs450 to Rs500, which is considered to be very good in the industry, Maran said.
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Independent directors: Revised company law to be introduced in April
New Delhi: The Government will introduce a revised company law, mandating one-third independent directors in a company's board, in the Parliament in April.

"As far as the Government is concerned we are in the process of legislating one-third directors to be independent," the ministry of company affairs secretary, Ms Komal Anand, said here yesterday at a corporate governance seminar organised by the CII.
The revised Bill will be introduced in Parliament for legislation in April, Ms Anand said.
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Industrial production logs 5 per cent growth in Dec.2005
New Delhi: Indian industry logged a 5.0 per cent growth in December 2005, compared to 8.9 per cent in the same month last fiscal.

During the first nine months this fiscal, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew by 7.8 per cent as against 8.6 per cent in the same period of 2004-05, according to official data released today.

Mining sector witnessed a sharp decline to a negative growth of 1.8 per cent in December 2005, compared to 4.8 per cent a year ago.

The electricity sector posted a meagre growth of 2.9 per cent as against 4.5 per cent in December 2004, while manufacturing also slumped to 5.9 per cent during the month under review compared to 9.8 per cent in the same month last fiscal.
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US restructuring of diplomatic positions allots highest priority to India, China
Washington: India and China will be assigned a higher number of diplomatic posts in the first round of a broad restructuring of US diplomatic posts ordered by the secretary of state, Ms Condoleezza Rice.

Of the 74 new US diplomatic positions, China will get 15, including a dozen at the US Embassy in Beijing, followed by India with 12, seven of them in New Delhi, according to two State department lists obtained by 'The Washington Post.' Indonesia is at the third slot with five new positions in Jakarta. Other countries that are to receive at least three more US diplomatic slots include Nigeria, Israel, Lebanon, Vietnam, Tajikistan, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Ms Rice announced plans last month to shift hundreds of foreign service positions from Europe and other developed countries to more challenging assignments in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere as part of an increased American focus on battling terrorism and strengthening security in threatened regions.
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