BSNL, MTNL respond to Vavasi despite advice to the contrary
Not too much is known about the middle-aged Arifuddin who is Vavasi's major shareholder, except for the fact that he is a civil engineer from Karnataka and started the group around a decade ago.
A decision on this issue is important because new operators would shy away from bidding for a standalone 3G licence if they are made to wait for years to get the UAS licence even though they have won bids for 3G. That would make the 3G project unviable from the very beginning.
The race for control of Kuwait-headquartered Zain Telecom has quickened with the Indian consortium led by Delhi-based Vavasi group saying it is willing to give a majority stake in the consortium to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd or Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, depending on which company gets government approval to go ahead with the deal.
In an interview with Mihir Mishra and Jyoti Mukul, Nath, who as the commerce and industry minister in the previous United Progressive Alliance government was part of the fire-fighting to minimise impact of the slowdown, says that the current year will be better than the last year.
Essar group, which is buying out the Uganda and Congo assets of Warid Telecom -- a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Group and Singtel and is present in Kenya, has also reportedly been sounded out by Zain shareholders. A company spokesperson, however, declined to comment on the issue.
The department had earlier also examined the option of a direct equity sale but opted for a PPP model because it offered revenue sharing opportunities, fertiliser secretary Atul Chaturvedi said. Chaturvedi explained that whereas the outright sale of equity will mean the government will have to wait for the plants to make profits to get a share of revenue, the PPP mode will help it do so in the first year.
Permission for dual listing would require full capital account convertibility and therefore changes in regulations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
Meeting will confine discussion to processes involved in building consensus among members.
India will be pushing for greater capitalisation of the World Bank at the meeting of G20 finance ministers in London next month. The meeting will precede the Pittsburgh meeting of G20 head of states scheduled later in September.
Besides doubts relating to round tripping of investments through Mauritius, the proposal was earlier rejected on the ground that there were no details about the offshore entity.
Work on disinvesting government holdings may gather pace after the first week of August. Administrative ministries of around 15 Public Sector Undertakings have been asked to give feedback on the feasibility of coming out with initial public offers by then.
India has managed to create ripples in the global commodities market with countries like the US and China set to follow its benchmark price for potash, a fertiliser widely used in the country. Breaking a well-entrenched global cartel, government-owned Indian Potash Ltd has managed to negotiate a potash deal with Russian company Silvinit at $460 a tonne
Development plan for K-G basin runs for 12 years, so can't supply to RNRL for 17 years, says RIL.
Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Ltd is laying claim (through a family agreement prior to the group's split) to gas from estranged brother Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd at a fixed price of $2.34 per mBtu
With deficient monsoon reducing hydropower generation in the country by around 40 per cent, the power ministry has started stressing more on power from coal and natural gas.
Sources said the company was likely to be incorporated with the four government companies holding equity in proportion to their profits, implying that the bigger the profit size, the larger their holding. The combined holding is likely to be in the range of Rs 325 crore (Rs 3.25 billion).
The rupee, which rose by over 12 per cent against the dollar this year, has slowed down the hiring plans of companies like Infosys, Satyam and HCL Technologies and also put pressure on their margins. Country's top software exporters -- TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and HCL Technologies have added 25,801 employees in the second quarter of 2007-08, against 27,000 in the second quarter of last fiscal.
Indians can look forward to availing Internet services even on low-cost mobile handsets as the world's largest cell phone maker Nokia is gearing up to offer such handsets through which the web can be accessed. Nokia also aims to be the number one in bringing the Internet to mobile devices. According to estimates, the total internet services market will be approximately euro 100 billion in 2010.
Buoyed by the growing wireless market in India, Japan-based electronics and technology major Toshiba is planning to tap the country's mobile segment by the end of this year.
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