Redesigning and Restructuring of Blog !

Hi,Folks.Thanks for the your continuous support and feedback.I was not active from last few months.I don’t know whether you liked the blog or not but I have decided to restructure the blog for more effective communication. I would like to utilize this blog for the providing the real insights into the Indian Market Potential.If you are interested to share something useful about the Future Indian Market then let me know through the Contact Us Section on the blog.

India is emerging market among the Emerging Economies!Whether you believe it or not everybody is focusing on the India,Specially the western MNC.At the same time Indian businesses are busy for the overseas Expansion.So all this mean to us? Let’s Explore !

Energy ,Environment,Infrastructure,Education,Rural Market and innovation are going to be the focus areas of my future writings.Also I would be focusing on the Strategies India should adopt for the “Inclusive development of Bharat and India”.Off course Role of India in making this a world a better place to live would be there !

So Why Blogging ?I like to share the experience ,knowledge and thoughts with others!(blog is one such medium to share) As common saying the Information is the Power.So why not make use of this wonderful opportunities !I am looking for the ways to monetize my blog as there is nothing like a Free Lunch!If any one of you have any creative solution then get in touch with me !

Technorati Tags: India,Energy,Rural Market,Development,Education,Blogging,Indian Market

Nisan to make India small car Hub

India is emerging very fast as the small car hub for production and R & D.In a move that reflects the growing stature of the Indian car industry globally, Japanese major Nissan has decided to shift the entire production of its small car, Micra, from the UK to India. After production of the Micra begins here, Nissan plans to manufacture four more models in India, involving a total investment of over Rs 2,000 crore.
The move underlines the rush among automakers to rationalize production costs and move to locations that offer the best value and quality. “We have decided to manufacture the Micra at our upcoming factory at Oragadam, near Chennai,” Nissan India MD and CEO Kiminobu Tokuyama.
The company’s Chennai plant will start production from May next year, and export markets would be catered to from autumn, Tokuyama said. Nissan, he said, plans to meet Micra’s requirements for the entire European region as well as some other markets like West Asia from the Chennai plant. “We plan to start with export volumes of 1.1 lakh units, which would be gradually scaled up to 1.8 lakh units as demand goes up,” Tokuyama said.
But what prompted the step? “There are many benefits in India, including a high-quality vendor base that is also cost-effective, leading to globally-competitive pricing,” Tokuyama said. Nissan will thus emulate companies like Hyundai and Maruti Suzuki, which make small cars in India to export to Europe.

NSE to become Market Leader in Marketcap

Riding on superior technology and FII preference, the National Stock Exchange is expected to surpass its older counterpart, the Bombay Stock Exchange, in market capitalization this year for the first time in history.
According to a report by global consultancy Celent, 2009 would be the first year when NSE's market capitalisation is expected to exceed that of BSE.
"NSE is expected to overtake BSE in market capitalization in 2009. Already far ahead in turnover, NSE is expected to further its lead over its older counterpart," the report titled, 'Indian Exchange-Traded Securities: Poised for Further Growth' stated.
NSE's market capitalization stood at Rs 47,01,923 crore at the end of trade on Friday last week, not far behind the Bombay Stock Exchange's valuation of Rs 50,12,966.76 crore, according to data available on the two bourses.
In terms of the relative size of the two main Indian equity markets, NSE has become the exchange of choice, it added.
According to Celent estimates, the market turnover of NSE for 2009 would be more than two times the turnover of BSE. On August 7, NSE turnover in value terms was around Rs 17,650 crore as against BSE's about Rs 5,443 crore.

NREG to include work done on private land

THE ambit of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has been significantly expanded by allowing under it work done on private land belonging to small and marginal farmers to create assets.

Small and marginal farmers are those with landholding of less than two hectares. Together, they constitute 80% of farm holdings and own 40% of the total cultivable land in the country.

According to a notification by the Rural Development Ministry, NREGS work will include “provision of irrigation facility, horticulture plantation and land-development facilities,” on land owned by small and marginal farmers.

This means that now these farmers can get assets built, like irrigation facilities, on their private fields with help of labour paid for by the Central government under the NREGS. All they need to do is get their “desired works” approved by the Gram Panchayat for inclusion under projects available for wage employment under NREGS.

Until now, workers were not allowed to work on private land except on plots owned by one of the following: SC/ST families, Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, beneficiaries of land reforms, and BPL beneficiaries under the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY).

The move is in tune with the Government’s announcement — via President Pratibha Patil’s address — that it would “enlarge the scope of works permitted under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act presently limited to unskilled manual work.”

This may be a welcome step to provide a social security cover to all Indian but corruption will be biggest hurdle in this.Sarpanchs(Village head) and Panchs may use this for the benefit of their relatives and a huge scam may go unnoticed if not properly executed.

Let's Hope that it will work in a efficient way and not become a way to spend public money for private benefit.

Private trust can invest in stock market

In a move that could bring in thousands of crores of rupees in investment into the stock markets, the government is planning to amend rules for private trust to permit them to park their funds in listed shares and specified debt securities. The government will amend the Indian Trusts Act 1882, and once amended, the legislation will enable the government to notify a 'class of securities' as eligible for investment by private trusts. The cabinet approved the amendment Bill for this in 2007 and the proposals were further amended in October last year. It has been introduced in Lok Sabha again in the current session. The proposed changes would also do away with the requirement of case-to-case approval by the government of investment into securities the funds largely parked in fixed-deposits and similar debt instruments. The trustees would now get greater autonomy and flexibility to take decisions by assessing the risk-return trade-offs. It is most likely that private trusts may be allowed to adopt the investment pattern specified for non-government provident, gratuity and pension funds. These funds are now allowed to directly park up to 15 per cent of their investible funds in shares or companies on which derivatives are traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange or the National Stock Exchange.

"It would be consistent with the current economic environment and the present shift from a merit-based regulatory regime to disclosure-based regulatory regime," the statement explaining the Bill said. There are thousands of trusts in India that include religious and charitable trusts as well as statutory trusts formed by the government and quasi-government bodies managing large sums of money.In addition, employee welfare trusts and religious and charitable trusts also have substantial funds. These include the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, Ramakrishna Mission, Swaminarayan Trust and the Mata Vaishno Devi Trust.

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan

The World Bank has expressed interest to support the newly launched Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) scheme for improvement of quality of secondary education in the country.

The Ministry of HRD has agreed to the proposal of the World Bank and has written to Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) for further action, DEA sources told PTI.

The Bank at present also supports the government's flagship programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which aims at universalisation of elementary education.

The Bank has taken interest in RMSA keeping in view the objective of the programme to check drop-out rate at secondary level completely by 2020.

The scheme also aims to achieve a general enrollment target of 75 per cent for classes IX-X within five years from 52.26 per cent as in 2005-06 by providing a secondary school within a reasonable distance of every habitation.

The government has allocated Rs 20,120 crore during the 11th Plan for the scheme.

The World Bank may provide soft loans for the scheme, sources said.

As per the provision of the scheme, Centre shall bear 75 per cent of the project expenditure during the 11th five-year plan while states' share will be the remaining 25 per cent.

Sharing pattern will be 50:50 for the 12th five-year plan.

For both the 11th and 12th five-year plans, funding pattern will be 90:10 for North Eastern States.

Apart from improving quality of education at secondary level by making all secondary schools conform to prescribed norms, the scheme also aims at removal of gender, socio-economic and disability barriers and ensuring universal access to secondary level education by 2017 and universal retention by 2020.

It would also provide facilities for estimated additional enrollment of 32.20 lakh children by 2011-12 through strengthening of about 44,000 existing secondary schools, opening 11,188 new secondary schools, appointment of 1.79 lakh additional teachers and construction of 80,500 additional classrooms.

The other interventions are providing infrastructure in schools such as new classrooms with furniture, library, science laboratory, computer room and disabled-friendly provisions.

Besides, more teachers would be recruited with emphasis on science, mathematics and English faculty.

Teachers would be provided in service training along with teaching aids such as ICT and special focus would be given to SC/ST/Minorities girls.

Steps such as priority for opening or upgrading of schools in areas of SC/ST/minority/weaker section concentration and enrollment drives and special coaching classes in these areas are also envisaged under the scheme.

The scheme will be implemented in a Mission mode, with a National Mission headed by the HRD Minister and a project approval board headed by Secretary of School Education and Literacy to appraise and approve state plans.

Similarly, State Missions would be set up under Chief Ministers of the States and the UTs.

The scheme envisages development of state-specific norms.

Each district will be a unit of planning. The district plan will be appraised and consolidated at the state level and the state plan will be appraised by the technical support group attached to the National Mission.

The civil construction will be through School Management and Development Committee with representation from parents, Panchayati Raj Institutions and civil society.

Network Moniters from LG

Electronic giant LG Electronics launched Network Monitors in India. For around Rs 11000 these monitors can reduce the cost of a business establishment significantly.Up to 11 monitors connect to a single host computer, reducing purchasing costs, power consumption and maintenance.

Today's multi-core computers are so powerful that the vast majority of applications use only two to five percent of an average computer's capacity. The revolutionary multi-computing solution from LG enables a single PC to be virtualized so that many users can tap the unused capacity and share it as if each person had an individual computer, without compromising performance, stability or speed. These LG Network monitor, N42 Series directly connect up to 11 users to the same computer. These multi-computing solutions include built-in keyboard, mouse, and audio connections. The monitors connect to a PCI card plugged into the host PC that creates multiple virtual workspaces in conjunction with NComputing vSpace desktop virtualization software.

"This is an ideal solution for small businesses, schools, government offices, libraries and call centers that need to provide computing capabilities but must also consider costs, maintenance and environmental impact," said Mr. Ki Wan Kim, CEO LG Electronics Middle East and Africa. "In a recent independent survey of IT managers, 70 percent of respondents expressed interest in a solution like this if it did not impact system performance."

Maximum Computing, Minimum Cost
LG's Network Monitors offer substantial cost savings compared to traditional PCs and thin clients. These monitors eliminate the need for all users to have individual computes at their desks. And unlike thin clients, they do not need expensive servers that take up valuable space in the datacenter. These monitors deliver uncompromised virtual workspaces for up to 11 users sharing a single host computer at less than $1000 per unit.

Lower Environmental Impact
Beyond being better for balance sheets, LG's Network Monitors are also better for the environment. An average computer draws over 100 watts of power, but LG's revolutionary multi-computing solutions add up to just a few watts (1-5 Watt) per user, greatly lowering power consumption. For instance, for an organization to operate ten desktop computers, it takes more than 1,000 watts of power. Using ten of LG's Network Monitors connected to a single PC only requires about 200 watts of power resulting in electricity savings of 80%. The solution also generates very little heat, reducing demand for air conditioning.

Simple Maintenance Reduces Costs and Downtime
Easier maintenance is another advantage of LG's Network Monitors, which greatly reduce time spent by IT personnel on repairs and software installation. Also, because these monitors can run off of a standard computer, rather than a server, the level of technical expertise required to maintain them is far lower. Further, monitors are much less complex than full-fledged desktop computers, meaning that they are far more reliable. Finally, setup for an array of these monitors is much simpler than for a traditional network.

LG developed its Network Monitors in collaboration with desktop virtualization provider, NComputing, based in Silicon Valley, California. NComputing is the leader in low cost desktop virtualization solutions and was recently honoured at CES with an Innovations 2009 Design and Engineering award.

LG's Network Monitors are compatible with both Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. including standard and widescreen aspect ratios, and are designed to fit the needs of a wide range of industries and organizations. The monitors can be driven via the Virtual Desktop Ready connection (RJ-45) or via a standard VGA port for maximum flexibility.

Influential Indian Leaders in Politics, Business, Sports, and Culture

In India, change is so rapid it surprises even the powerful. Fortunes vanish, markets melt down, and the most die-hard fans find someone else to love, someone else to vote for.

Take, for instance, Navin Chawla. With 712 million voters considering their ballot as Indians vote on who will lead their country, one of India's most powerful men is perhaps the Chief Election Commissioner, N. Gopalaswami. India's elections began on Apr. 15 and take place in stages nationwide over several weeks. During that time, Gopalaswami is a bureaucrat with almost unlimited powers to impose order on an unruly process, moderate hate speech, and herd the world's largest democracy through a peaceful transfer of power. But on June 16, the elections will end, and he will vanish back into the labyrinth of the Indian bureaucracy.

In modern India, even powerful reigns can be short-lived. In the newest edition of BusinessWeek's list of the 50 most influential Indians, politicians jostle for space with professors, businessmen with cricketers. The attempt is to pinpoint the shifts in power that defined India in the past year, and to predict the players to watch for in the next year.

These include political leaders L K Advani(BJPs Primeministerial candidate),Sonia Gandhi(Power of congress),Narendra Modi(A Icon for youth and Corporate world due to Powerful and Efficient tenure as CM of Gujrat),Manmohan Singh(Economist turn politician and PM of India) ,Lalu Yadav(King Maker ),Sharad Pawar,BSP Supremo Mayawati and Left icon Prakash Karat.

From Business sector inlcude tha Anil Ambani(ADAG),Mukesh Ambani(RIL),Ratan Tata(TATA Sons), Lakshmi Mittal(Arcelor-Mittal) ,Ajit Balakrishana(rediff.com and rediffusion),Dilip Shanghvi(Sun Pharma),Ajij Premji(Wipro),Narayan Murthy(Mento Infosys),Shanker Annaswamy(IBM India's managing director) and Anand Mahindra(M&M)

Sports power include the Cricket Superstar Sachin Tendularkar and Olympic Gold medalist Shooter Abhinav Bindra.

From Bollywood and entertainment sector include the Oscar award winner AR RAhman.

Also Included in list is vikram Ankola(Founder of SKS Microfinance),the poster boy of Indian Microfinance.Read full story(....)

SEBI to Join Global Regulators Group

India will soon join the high table of top securities regulators, including those from the US, the UK, France and Germany.

In recognition of the strides made by India in terms of creating an enhanced regulatory structure, International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), a global policy forum for securities regulators, based in Spain, has invited the Indian capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI), to join its technical committee. SEBI will join the committee at its next meeting in June.

India is currently a member of the Emerging Markets Committee of IOSCO and by the latter’s recent decision, it will join 15 key decision-making members.

The IOSCO membership will enable a two-way exchange of experiences in regulating markets between Sebi and other members with a view to promoting development of domestic bourses and making a united effort to establish an effective surveillance of international securities transactions.

It will also enable SEBI and other members to promote the integrity of the markets by a rigorous application of the standards and by effective enforcement against offences.

Apart from SEBI, regulatory authorities from Brazil and China have also been invited to take up membership of the technical committee.

Kathleen Casey, chairman of IOSCO’s technical committee, said, “The changing landscape of the international financial system in this time of crisis demands that organisations, such as ours, reflect such changes in the composition of its membership. It is quite proper that the technical committee now should include members from India, Brazil and China within its ranks.”

The new members were chosen on the basis of the size of their capital markets, the international nature of their markets and the development of their regulatory system and authority.

DTH Market Potential In India

India is country with variety of Culture and Geography.about 70% of Indian lives in Rural and Semi-Urban areas in which cable network are not available.Also most of people living in rural area can't afford to pay Rs 200-400 towards the cable fess monthly even if it is made available.While with the technology advances Private Companies(Dish TV) tries to introduce the concept of DTH-Direct to home which can be made available in everywhere in country it remain mostly in Urban areas due to lack of interest and unawareness about the rural market as potential revenue source.

With launch of India's First Free DTH Service -DD Direct Plus by Doordarshan on 16 December 2004 open up new dimension in this world of TV Viewing by Rural mass.This opens up the real future market of India for Brands.Response from rural and also poor and middle class urban was quite good with 6 million subscriber while Dish TV struggle for more than 15 yrs to reach 1 million.

Launch of DD Direct also opens the eyes of big corporate people about the really unexplored sector.Thanks to C.K.Prahalad for spreading the Buzzword"Bottom of Pyramid"and DD DTH which resulted in launch of 5 DTH services within span of about 3-4 years(Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Airtel digital TV and Big TV ,Videocon DTH throughout India).This really helped every Indian who watch TV in Terms of More Customer satisfaction and Better TV Viewing Experience.This also provided a platform for all products and services to reach a wider section of audience and also this resulted in flooding of new News and other Entertainment channels.

while initial expexctation about the DD DTH were very high among the Audience but Reality was something not Unexpected-Another Government Service (Indian).While initially DD was able to attract some big private channels-like Aaj TAk,Headline Today,BBC world , Zee Music.But soon almost all the channels get disappeared.Reason for this is high carriage fees partly shows inefficient management on govenrment side and other very seroius public thinking that government can't charge same fees as other private DTH Players are doing.This is despite the fact that Number of Subscriber is almost 6 times than most popular private operator.But soon the both parties realizes the mistakes thus resulting in reducation of carriage fess from 1 crore to 25 lakhs which resulted in flood of application from all types of channels including all the famous

music channels like Music India,9XM,B4U Music,Enter10,ETC and News and General Entertainment.While Music channels come first and able to secure slots but big News and GEC are unable to get their slot.Industry pressure of private DTH(all the private players are big name s sector on government may be one of reason for not allowing Heavy-weight players in Large audience reach as they want a pie of it.

I will write about "Whether DD DTH can be transformed into a profitable or no for profit venture like Freesat lauched by BBC and ITV in UK".

If you want to share any opinion then please put a comment here.Toghether we can Build a Better India.

Now, VCs to invest in rural tech

Venture capitals (VC) in India, which traditionally invested in urban segments or technology sector, have begun investing in rural-centric technology firms. Avishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund, Acumen Fund, and Rural Innovations Network (RIN) are showing increased focus on rural markets.

A non-profit investment firm E+Co, with investments in 28 countries, plans to begin operations in India. The firm with $183 million capital mobilised and $24.6 million investment portfolio will focus on clean technology.

“India has very few funds that look at investing in rural India. But what’s heartening to see is that the sector now has a few options and entrepreneurs can approach for investment,” said Arun Natarajan, MD and CEO, Venture Intelligence.

Most of these VCs get their funding from philanthrophic activities. RIN gets funding from donors such as HIVOS, The Lemelson Foundation, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, and The Rockefeller foundation. Whereas Google, Gates, Cisco and others form the investor base for the Acumen Fund.

Acumen India has been in the country since 2005 and has invested in 12 entrepreneurs. The focus is to fund innovative businesses that target the poor as consumers and demonstrate to the world the sustainable ways of bringing access to critical goods and services such as healthcare, water, housing and energy to low-income households.

So far, Acumen India’s total approved investment is $17.4 million.

“Our capital commitments range from $3,00,000 to $20,00,000 in equity or debt with a payback or exit in roughly five to seven years. Our average investment is about $1 million. We also do follow-on investments as our portfolio companies’ scale — leading to anywhere up to $4-5 million exposure to a given company,” said Clara Bardy, India Portfolio Associate, Acumen Fund.

October adds highest ever mobile subscribers at 10.42 million

During these times of cutbacks there's one thing which Indians are buying in abundance-mobile connections. During the month of October the country added the highest-ever addition to the mobile subscriber base at 10.42 million taking the total number of mobile users to over 325 million, according to the data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). India already has the distinction of being the world’s fastest growing telecom market.

During the month of September, the total (GSM, CDMA and WLL) addition was of 10.07 million.

However, the net addition of about 10.29 million users (wireline and wireless) during the month, could have been higher but for the decline in the landline user base. The landline wireline segment saw the subscriber base falling to 38.22 million in October from 38.35 million in September. During September the net addition stood at 9.79 million. The total number of both wireless and wireline users now stand at 363.95 million, Trai said.

With this, the overall tele-density stood at 31.50% at the end of October against 30.64% in September. The total broadband subscriber base rose to 5.05 million by the end of October 2008 from 4.90 million in September.

In terms of break-up of the mobile subscriber figures, during October the GSM players added their highest-ever addition of around 8 million taking their user base to 242 million. Projections are that by the year end the total GSM user base would stand at 250 million.

Commenting on the record growth, TV Ramachandran, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India had earlier said, “the ongoing, vibrant growth of the GSM sector that with the cumulative GSM subscribers already at an estimated 242 million in October, it is clear that the GSM sector would by itself cross the historic 250 million milestone by December 2008.”

Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom operator added its highest-ever 2.7 million customers during October, which is a 3.51% growth compared to the month of September. The world’s third largest in-country operator has a market share of 33.23%. It added the largest number of operators in the Rajasthan circle, adding a 350,000 subscribers during the month.

Vodafone Essar, the country's second largest GSM operator with a market share of 23.49% added around 2 million customers in the month registering a growth rate of 3.81%. The company recorded a highest addition of around 266,000 subscribers in Eastern UP circle.

The state-owned BSNL, the country's second largest telecom player with about 670,000 users, during the period registered a growth of 1.71% over the previous month. The telco has a market share of 16.5% in the GSM subscribers. Among the CDMA operators, Reliance Communications, which is the largest operator in the segment, added 1.7 million subscribers.

Fast dialling

• Total number of both wireless and wireline users now stand at 363.95 million
• With this, the overall tele-density stood at 31.50% at the end of October against 30.64% in September
• The total broadband subscriber base rose to 5.05 million by the end of October 2008 from 4.90 million in September.

8 Indian supercomps in world's top 500 list

 Bangalore: Hewlett Packard (HP), the world’s biggest maker of personal computers, on Friday said that a total of eight entries in the list of top 500 supercomputers are from India and six out of the eight entries are from HP. Among vendors, HP leads the list with a 41.8 % share of the systems, followed by IBM (37%), Dell (4%) and Cray (4%).

Supercomputer Eka, a HP-based system with a performance of 132.8 teraflops (floating point operations per second) has been ranked at number 13. Eka belongs to the Tata Group’s Computational Research Laboratories.

The rankings are released twice a year by researchers at the Universities of Tennessee and Mannheim, Germany, and at NERSC Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The HP-based Param cluster of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing has been ranked 68th.

The other supercomputers by HP from India are for an industrial research company (334), a research agency (428), IIT-Madras (436) and Paprikaas Interactive Services (478).

The two other supercomputers from India out of the eight in the list include IBM’s eServer Blue Gene Solution for Indian Institute Science ranked at 213 and a supercomputer for Digital Media Company (G) ranked at 481.

IBM’s Roadrunner has been ranked as number one in the list. The system, only the second to break the petaflop barrier, posted a top performance of 1.059 petaflops. One petaflop represents one quadrillion floating point operations per second. 

'Changemakers' award for NGO

Two financial initiatives of the Dakshina Kannada-based non-governmental organisation Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) - 'Pragathibandhu' and 'Sampoorna Suraksha' - have won the 'Changemakers' award in the competition 'Banking on social change - seeking financial solutions for all'. The award is promoted jointly by the US-based Ashoka Foundation and Citibank.

A press release by the SKDRDP said here on Wednesday that 'Pragathibandhu' model provides an alternative methodology to finance the farming activities of the small farmers. In this initiative small farmers come together to share and learn.

The model has successfully been implemented in coastal and malnad districts in Karnataka consisting of 1.32 lakh small farmers who have been organised in 23,300 self-help groups, it said.

'Sampoorna Suraksha' is a self-financing multipurpose insurance product to protect the poor against hospitalisation expenses, maternity, death, domiciliary treatment and accidents.

Giving details about the competition, the release said that the Web-based competition evoked response from 280 institutions across 43 countries. On December 1, three models comprising the 'Pragathibandhu', 'Sampoorna Suraksha', and a microfinance model from Argentina were declared the best, the release added. 

Govt to promote steps for energy conservation

The Ministry of Power has launched a report on 'Empanelment of Energy Service Companies (ESCOs)', which aims to promote large-scale implementation of energy conservation and energy efficiency measures in existing facilitates through the ESCO route.

While releasing the report, Power Secretary Anil Razdan informed that the electricity consumption in the commercial sector accounts for nearly 8 per cent of the total consumption in the country and is still increasing at more than 11 per cent per year. He added that this rapid growth is largely on account of the growth of the services sector and the increasing use of energy intensive appliances and technologies.

As regards the efficiency in energy consumption, Razdan stated that Bureau of Energy Efficiency has taken up the task of institutionalising energy efficiency services and promoting energy efficiency delivery mechanism through the development of a platform for ESCOs. 

India-Russia Sign Nuclear deal

India and Russia on Friday strengthened their ties further by inking 10 agreements, including a pact on civil nuclear cooperation and decided to intensify their cooperation in combating terrorism.

The agreements signed in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev were in diverse areas ranging from space and defence to finance, human space programme and tourism. The new Russian President is accompanied by a host of officials and businessmen from various state-run and private agencies and companies.

Describing the agreement on civil nuclear cooperation as a “new milestone” in bilateral relations, Singh told a joint press conference with Russian President who is on a three-day visit, here, “The signing of the agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with Russia marks a new milestone in the history of our cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear energy.”

Under the agreement, Russia will build four additional atomic reactors in the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu. Russia agreed in January 2007 to help India in the construction of four energy blocks at the atomic plant in Kudankulam and nuclear power plants at new sites in India.

Separately, OAO Tvel, the Russian nuclear-fuel monopoly, agreed to deliver fuel worth $700 million to other Indian power stations.

Singh, after signing a joint declaration with Medvedev, said both the countries have taken “yet another step forward” through joint action in human space flight programme.

Russia’s space agency signed a new document with ISRO on cooperation in space exploration, which includes plans to send two Indian astronauts to space on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2013.

Observing that both countries have decided to increase the trade volume to $10 billion by 2010, Singh said they discussed the possibilities of greater cooperation between Indian and Russian companies, both in upstream and down stream sectors.

The two leaders also discussed military cooperation, including technology transfer, T-90 tanks and “issues concerning creating and selling or leasing nuclear powered submarines.”

The two countries signed accords on the sale of 80 MI-17V-5 helicopters to India and cooperation in areas including space exploration, financial markets and tourism.

According to Rosboronexport officials, the helicopter deal is worth more than $1 billion.

The Russian leader expressed hope that the arms agreement would be extended for the next 10 years. “Our prime task is to move from buy-sell to joint production and development” in missile and aircraft development, he said.

“Some issues remain, but there are not many of them,” Medvedev said. “We have agreed that we will keep these issues under joint control and we’ll fully cooperate with each other.”

Russia and India have seen a growth in bilateral trade this year, which increased in the first nine months of 2008 by 41.6% to $3.8 billion dollars year-on-year.

The two countries plan to increase trade to $10 billion by 2010 from this year’s expected level of $7 billion, and diversify economic cooperation in the future.

Both the countries, partners in the BRIC nations, which also include China and Brazil, are looking to boost trade to $10 billion by 2010. The visiting leader, last month in Sao Paulo said that the BRIC countries should play a greater role in shaping up the new global financial architecture.

Also, Russian companies plan to enter into the exploration and extraction of natural resources with Indian partners, he said. The two sides are keen to develop relations in areas such as metals, machine building, pharmaceuticals, space, biotechnology and information technology.

Russia’s Statistics Service earlier said accumulated Indian investment in Russia totaled $821 million, including $718 million of foreign direct investment. Russia invested $18 million in India in the first half of 2008.

Both countries agreed that in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks efforts should be intensified against supporters and perpetrators of terrorism.

India-Russia Sign Nuclear deal

India and Russia on Friday strengthened their ties further by inking 10 agreements, including a pact on civil nuclear cooperation and decided to intensify their cooperation in combating terrorism.

The agreements signed in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev were in diverse areas ranging from space and defence to finance, human space programme and tourism. The new Russian President is accompanied by a host of officials and businessmen from various state-run and private agencies and companies.[...Read More]

Govt issues guidelines for publishing Indian edition of foreign news magazines

 The government today issued guidelines for publication of local editions of foreign magazines by Indian publishers in the news and current affairs arena. A decision to ease restrictions on inclusion of local content and advertisement was cleared by the Cabinet in September this year.

These guidelines are for the publication of Indian editions of foreign news magazines by Indian entities with or without any foreign investment, an official statement said.

Publishers of such editions will be eligible for 26 per cent foreign investment. Also, such magazines would be allowed to add local content and advertisements.

“The ceiling of total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which includes investments by non-resident Indians, Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and portfolio investments by recognised Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), is up to 26 per cent, according to the provisions of the FDI guidelines issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) from time to time,” the statement said.

This move is aimed at giving a boost to the magazine industry and the readers access to foreign news magazines at much lower prices.

Several Indian publishers have been looking at launching the local editions of foreign magazines for a long time.

Currently, the India Today group distributes the international edition of ‘Fortune’ magazine, while the Anand Bazar Patrika (ABP), the publisher of the ‘The Telegraph’ newspaper, is going to launch the Indian edition of Fortune magazine. Another international news magazine, ‘Forbes’, has already announced the Indian edition in a venture with the Network 18 group. “Several other foreign news magazines like ‘Newsweek’ and ‘Business Week’ have shown interest in the past to start a local edition. They will now be encouraged to launch these publications soon,” an industry source said.

The broad parameters for granting such permission say that the publisher or owner of the foreign magazine (of which the Indian edition is proposed to be published) should have sound credentials. Only those publishers who are registered as an Indian company with the Registrar of Companies under the provisions of the Indian Companies Act, 1956, will be eligible for the permission.

“The Indian companies would be allowed to enter into financial arrangements (such as royalty payment arrangements) with the owners of the foreign magazines subject to the rules and regulations. At least three-fourth of the directors on the Board of Directors of the applicant Indian company and all key executives and editorial staff should be resident Indians...,” the guidelines said.

It further said that the proposed publication should have been published continuously for a period of at least 5 years with a circulation of at least 10,000 paid copies in the last financial year in the country of its origin.

“The period of continuous publication and circulation must be certified by the respective Governmental authority of the country, and if there is no such Governmental authority regulating such matters, the certificate should be from respected and recognized agencies engaged in the business of certification,” it said.

According to the procedure for applying, 11 copies of the prescribed application form, duly filled in, along with the requisite documents will have to be submitted to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting along with an application fee of Rs 20,000 that will have to be deposited through a demand draft. “All new applications for publication of Indian editions of foreign magazines dealing in news and current affairs sector, shall be processed and decided in the I&B ministry on the basis of inter-ministerial consultation with the other ministries like Home Affairs, External Affairs, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, and Ministry of Corporate Affairs as may be required,” the guidelines said. 

ISRO to expand capacity to Meet DTH demand

 Bangalore: With the country’s top direct-to-home (DTH) players, including Dish TV and Tata Sky, planning to expand their channel portfolio, Indian Space Research Organsiation (Isro) has decided to increase its satellite transponder capacity in order to provide communication service to DTH players.

Isro will more than double its transponder capacity in the near future, said managing director of Antrix Corporation KR Sridhar Murthy. Antrix, the commercial arm of Isro, is an authorised government agency to offer all Indian and foreign space-related services to local players.

Talking to FE on the sidelines of Word Space Biz 2008, India’s first international conference organised by Isro, Murthy said currently the Indian satellites have 211 transponders for communication purpose that include DTH service, telemedicine and tele-education. Of this, he said, 100 transponders are leased to DTH providers. “Another 300 transponders would be added in the next five years for various communication purposes, including DTH. It is to be noted that 50-60% of Antrix revenue comes from transponder service.

India’s second largest DTH provider, Tata Sky, managing director and chief executive officer Vikram Kausik told FE, “The company is in talks with satellite providers and specialists to avail the satellite service further in order to expand the company’s DTH capacity. We require a large number of transponders in order to transmit 1,000 channels and give our viewers a wide choice. We hope to achieve the target in the next 2-3 years.”

The demand for new channels is growing very sharply in India, especially the regional markets are growing very fast. In order to have wider regional presence, we need to have more channels to offer. The country has 400 channels at present. The number is likely to double in the next 3-5 years. Hence, the DTH providers should have the capacity to accommodate these channels, he added.

Currently Tata Sky, which has 3-million subscribers, has hired all 12 Ku-Band transponders on INSAT 4A. The company will make some changes to expand its DTH platform to accommodate 200 channels against the current 167 channels with its current transponder capacity, Kausik said. “We will touch the 200-channel mark in a matter of weeks,” he added.

On the other hand, the country’s largest DTH provider with 4.8 million subscribers—Zee’s Dish TV—also has huge expansion plans. It, however, is waiting for Antrix green signal for transponder rights.

Director (Corporate) of Zee Network Amitabh Kumar said the company’s DTH arm has applied to Antrix to provide 10 transponders to help implement expansion plans. He said the company, which currently owns around 11 Ku-Band transponders on NSS-6 foreign satellite, plans to expand its DTH space to 400 channels from the current level of 200 channels. The additional transponders will also serve the company’s other planned services like high-definition channels, movies-on-demand, which would require an additional investment of Rs 100 crore, he added. He said the company is confident of getting 10 more transponder by the mid 2009.

Other DTH providers, Sun Direct, Reliance Big TV and Airtel, are also in talks with Antrix for more transponders rights....  

With 81 m Net users, India gets 4th slot

INDIA has been ranked fourth among the top 10 nations in the world with 81 million Internet users. United States leads the chart with 220 million Internet users followed by China (210 million) and Japan (88.1 m). Brazil comes next to India with 53.1 million users, UK 40.2 million, Germany 39.1 million, Republic of Korea 35.5 million, Italy 32 million and France 31.5 million.
    The Internet Governance Forum has released these statistics on the eve of its third four-day global conference that begins at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre on December 3.
    From about 70 million people (1.7% of the world population) who had access to the Internet at the end of 2007, the figure crossed 134.8 crore by 2007. Asia has the highest number of Internet users with an estimated 568.7 million people followed by the Americas with 377.9 million.
Europe ranks third in this list with 335.9 million users and Africa and Oceania close the rank with 51.8 million and 14 million users respectively, according to the IGF. India, however, does not find place among the top ten nations in terms of broadband connections where too the US stands first with 73.2 million connections.
    China has 66.4 million, Japan 28.28 million, Germany 19.6 million, UK 15.6 million, France 15.5 million, Republic of Korea 14. 7 million, Italy 10.8 million, Canada 9 million and Spain 8 million broadband connections. While there were a total of 13.5 million Internet subscribers in India, representing 1.15 per 100 people, broadband subscribers accounted for five million among them.

    However, the number of users, who have online access but do not themselves subscribe, is a whopping 81 million or 6.93 users per people.