Media & entertainment sector to touch Rs1 trillion
Mumbai: India's entertainment and media (E&M) industry is set to touch the Rs 1 trillion-mark in four years time, according to a study. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent, the industry currently has a size of 437 billion but is expected to outgrow the country's economy according to a study conducted by FICCI and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

PwC said the growth was partly due to the several positive measures taken by the government and partly dye to technological advancements, entry of large corporate players into all segments of the industry.

According to the study, the E&M industry is growing at a faster rate than the country's economy because of its income elasticity, wherein when income rises more resources are spent on leisure and entertainment than on necessities.

The study foresees the growth being chiefly led by radio and television which will clock 28 and 22 per cent, respectively. Television will continue to contribute the largest share of revenues to the industry with its size expected to grow from the current Rs 191 billion to Rs 519 billion by 2011, it says.

TV is followed by film entertainment (16 per cent), out-of-home advertising (17) and live entertainment (16).
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Farmers prefer private traders to FCI
New Delhi: Farmers of Punjab and Haryana will start bringing their wheat crop to the market this week and a number of private companies and agents spread out in villages offering significantly higher prices for their produce than the government's procurement agencies.

The government has raised the support price for this year to Rs 850 a quintal, which includes a Rs-100 bonus, from Rs 650 last year. Private companies, on the other hand, are said to be offering more for the wheat to almost as much as Rs 1,050 a quintal to farmers in Patiala district of Punjab.

Hence corporate buying may again dent, after last year, the purchase of wheat by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which feeds the public distribution system for economically weaker sections of society and intervenes in the open market to stabilise prices.

In 2006-07, the FCI was able to procure only 9.2 million tonnes of wheat, against 14.8 million tonnes in 2005-06.
The corporation is targeting a procurement of 15 million tonnes this year (the crop output is expected to rise to 72.5 million tonnes from 69.5 million tonnes last year), but experts feel it could be an uphill task now.

ITC and Cargill have drawn up plans to buy large quantities of wheat this season, though the Australian Wheat Board has decided to stay out of Punjab and Haryana.

The companies said initially they will try and buy at the minimum support prices though later, it depends on the market.

Last year, ITC bought 600,000 tonnes of wheat to meet its requirement for flour and biscuits.

The competition from the private sector in the mandis has intensified because private companies are prepared to pick up the wheat from farmers' doorsteps, saving them transport and storage costs.

Last year of the 8.12 million tonnes of wheat sold in Punjab through the mandis, private traders bought 1.17 million tonnes or 15 per cent and are known to have bought another 1 million tonne directly from farmers.

Leading farmer associations have also come out strongly in support of traders. In fact, All India Kisan Coordination Committee chief Bhupinder Singh Mann and Shetkari Sangathan leader and Member of Parliament Sharad Joshi asked farmers to boycott FCI for the first 45 days of procurement.
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Pune to get unwired
Mumbai: Pune will become the first Indian city to have a high-speed wireless Internet network before the Centre's much-awaited spectrum policy is announced.

Once the project is complete Pune's citizens be able to access the Internet from anywhere in the city, without a cable, through their laptops or personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Christened "Unwiring Pune", the project was jointly announced by global chip-maker Intel Corporation and Pune Municipal Corporation in March 2006 and will be kick-started on Monday.

Intel, along with Chennai-based Microsense, will establish infrastructure for a wireless communication network covering the entire 280 sq km of this cultural centre of Maharashtra in a couple of years.

While Intel will provide design and planning support, Microsense will carry out network deployment. Microsense was involved in establishing a wireless Internet network at the airport here.
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CAS to be implemented in four more cities
Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India along with the ministry of information & broadcasting (I&B), is in the process of considering the extension of CAS in other cities as well as well as in remaining areas of Mumbai, Delhi & Kolkata where it has not been implemented.

The second phase of CAS should be completed by the year end, and other cities that have been included are Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bhopal and Orrisa.

CAS was introduced on an experimental basis in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata in the first phase earlier this year, and the second phase is being debated by all the stockholders - multi-system operators, broadcasters and consumer groups.

The first meeting to be held on April 5 in Delhi will tackle the success rate of CAS, penetration of STB's, quality control, and whether MSOs are geared to take on the next phase of expansion. According to recent figures of penetration by Trai, Delhi has seen an STB penetration of 40 pc followed by Mumbai at 30 pc and Kolkata which is the least CAS friendly at 28 pc.

Trai has asked the MSOs to mention in the status report the number of set-top boxes they have, the time needed to procure more sets to meet the expected demand and the time needed to set up infrastructure and encrypt the digital signals.
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