And now it is the turn of Raja, who had come in as Maran’s replacement, to live up to this dubious legacy. His claim to fame has been awarding licenses to new firms such as Unitech Wireless, Swan Telecom, STel, Datacom and Loop Telecom. Pan Indian licences were handed out for just Rs 1,651 crore (rates that were set in a 2001 auction). Another criticism of these new players was that most of them had scant idea of the services desired of them. Eyebrows were also raised when licenses were awarded to these greenhorns on a first-come-first-serve basis. This cost the government dear, and the losses were estimated at a whopping Rs 2,000 crore. Then, in September 2008, still more fuel was added to the smouldering fire when Swan Telecom roped in UAE-based Etisalat to acquire 45 per cent in this venture for about Rs 9,200 crore. And Unitech Wireless and STel followed suit by disinvesting some portion of their firms to international players at astronomical prices.
Says a telecom analyst requesting anonymity: “The reason controversies have ruled the telecom sector is because it kicked off quite late, so that people became aware of the opportunities it could offer in a fairly short time. This made it a now-or-never opportunity for private players. The fast growth in the sector also meant quick bucks for certain people, which is precisely what we have been seeing.”
Indeed it is a fact that the Indian telecom sector has been growing at an exponential rate – being one of the fastest growing sectors in recent times with over 494.07 million subscribers according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Wireless telephony is definitely the in thing. Even despite the slowdown 11 to 13 million new subscribers are added every month. And this explosive growth of the sector is matched only by the cutthroat competition among the players. As an industry insider revealed, “This is a high stakes game – one in which no one is willing to become the sucker, and it explains the rampant corruption in it. If any one party loses, it perversely seeks to drag its rivals into the quagmire also.” It is more or less the same story in sectors like defense and mining, which too have high stakes and high returns.
But one thing that is special to the telecom sector is that it is not just growing in size but in its scope as well. Earlier we had just GSM-based services; now there is CDMA too. And to these will shortly be added 3G and WiMax, followed by Long Term Evolution (LTE). None of these can enter till the government gives its nod, and without State involvement and intervention at practically every stage. And the political class is well aware of this. What also helps these venal folk is the considerable opaqueness that exists in this sector. “Considering that even the telecom bills that end customers get are not transparent one can imagine how murky things must be at the top,” says Praveen Kumar, Managing Director, Vie Capital.
In such a system the regulator, the TRAI, is bound to prove toothless. For what possible power can it exercise so long as the Department of Telecom (DoT) insists on having a chokehold on the sector? Even so, there is general agreement that the TRAI was among the best things to have happened to the telecom sector, because it is thanks mainly to it that there is so much competition to corner telecom space. Besides, telecom subscribers now have a far broader range to pick from: they can choose to pay 1paise per second, or have all calls at 50 paise per minute – or be charged per call rather than on the basis of the minutes spent.
Says a telecom analyst requesting anonymity: “The reason controversies have ruled the telecom sector is because it kicked off quite late, so that people became aware of the opportunities it could offer in a fairly short time. This made it a now-or-never opportunity for private players. The fast growth in the sector also meant quick bucks for certain people, which is precisely what we have been seeing.”
Indeed it is a fact that the Indian telecom sector has been growing at an exponential rate – being one of the fastest growing sectors in recent times with over 494.07 million subscribers according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Wireless telephony is definitely the in thing. Even despite the slowdown 11 to 13 million new subscribers are added every month. And this explosive growth of the sector is matched only by the cutthroat competition among the players. As an industry insider revealed, “This is a high stakes game – one in which no one is willing to become the sucker, and it explains the rampant corruption in it. If any one party loses, it perversely seeks to drag its rivals into the quagmire also.” It is more or less the same story in sectors like defense and mining, which too have high stakes and high returns.
But one thing that is special to the telecom sector is that it is not just growing in size but in its scope as well. Earlier we had just GSM-based services; now there is CDMA too. And to these will shortly be added 3G and WiMax, followed by Long Term Evolution (LTE). None of these can enter till the government gives its nod, and without State involvement and intervention at practically every stage. And the political class is well aware of this. What also helps these venal folk is the considerable opaqueness that exists in this sector. “Considering that even the telecom bills that end customers get are not transparent one can imagine how murky things must be at the top,” says Praveen Kumar, Managing Director, Vie Capital.
In such a system the regulator, the TRAI, is bound to prove toothless. For what possible power can it exercise so long as the Department of Telecom (DoT) insists on having a chokehold on the sector? Even so, there is general agreement that the TRAI was among the best things to have happened to the telecom sector, because it is thanks mainly to it that there is so much competition to corner telecom space. Besides, telecom subscribers now have a far broader range to pick from: they can choose to pay 1paise per second, or have all calls at 50 paise per minute – or be charged per call rather than on the basis of the minutes spent.
'Water' would feature prominently in the list. But then the same word when used in movie (not as movie title!) never raises any eyebrows. The way water is wasted for shooting purposes in tinsel town is really uneconomical. The usage of water in any movie's shooting can’t be brought down to nil, but then sheer and blatant wastage of water should also not be ignored.
smelt an opportunity to capture Delhi, gathered a bunch of warriors and started marching. But he died on the way. For about six centuries, nobody from Gujarat eyed Delhi. However, since 1946, three people appeared on the scene. The first was Sardar Patel, a serious contender of Jawaharlal Nehru for the prime ministry. Nowadays, Narendra Modi’s name is doing the rounds. However, his chance of leading the nation is minimal, given the political health of BJP and bitter inter-party rivalry. The only Gujarati to go all the way was Morarji Desai. He tried in the 1960s to emerge as Nehru ‘s heir and later became Indira Gandhi’s strongest rival. He even succeeded in becoming the Prime Minister once, relegating the ‘iron lady’ to the political margins, albeit for a very short time. The tussle started in 1964 and was to last till Indira’s assassination in 1984.
Those involved in the plot or those who stood to benefit from this act will invariably say that the murder of Sheikh Mujib helped Bangladesh get rid of being subservient to Delhi and Moscow. It is true that Mujib and his party Awami League had and still has a pro-India image. India extended her hand of cooperation to Bangladesh’s struggle for independence. India gave shelter to 10 million refugees, trained the Bangladeshi liberation fighters, provided all sorts of supplies to them and finally, the Indian Army fought against the occupying Pakistani forces. So the good relations between Bangladesh and India during Mujib’s time was an obvious and logical conclusion of the nine months of bloody war.
long time been a favoured driveway. With companies like Hyundai, Toyota and even Ford choosing this country as their manufacturing hub, the sector is enjoying one of its best growth phases ever. However, one cannot deny that this is a labour intensive industry and it has hence been buffeted by recurring incidents of labour unrest in the country. Industry watchers claim that India (which is currently the second largest two-wheeler market in the world after China) is well on course to becoming the seventh largest passenger car market worldwide (currently the eleventh largest) by 2016. However, the current labour problems that are looming large over companies like Rico, Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India Limited (HMSI) and Sunbeam in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt have once again ignited the debate on whether India can indeed grow into a major hub for automotives in such a scenario. The billion-dollar quation to be asked is: will such incidents slow down the growth of the Indian automotive industry in the long run?
temporarily. Some doctors, who were rendering free services to HIV positive victims, have stopped work because they allege that they are getting no help from the government. Dr I. S. Gilada, secretary of the AIDS Society of India, blames the state government for the sudden spread of HIV/AIDS in the state.
place in Iran in the past two decades, suicide bombers targeted a delegation of Revolutionary Guard leaders. At the time of the attack the Guards were on a tour of Pishin district — bordering Pakistan — to facilitate a meeting with tribal leaders in the region.
CPI(M)’s K.K. Ragesh by a huge margin. The other aspect which makes the battle for Kannur interesting is that M.V. Jayarajan is pitted against former comrade-in-arms A.P. Abdullakkutty, who has twice represented the constituency in Parliament for CPI(M). Abdullakkutty, who joined the Congress after his controversial ejection from CPI(M), also takes this as a critical contest as nothing less than a victory could baptise him as a Congressman. However, Abdullakkutty won’t have it easy. Within the Congress itself, there is a group of disgruntled leaders who fear that a victorious Abdullakkutty can put paid to their future political careers. Both the CPI(M) and the Congress are accusing one another of preparing to rig the election. While the Congress alleges that the CPI(M) leadership, with the help of the district administration, has added bogus voters’ names to the voters’ list, CPI(M) accuses the Congress of trying to spread unrest in the constituency. A case has been registered against Sudhakaran charging him with unbailable offences including that of disrupting the duty of a tehsildar. Sudhakaran, of course, refutes the charge and alleges that the district collector has become a tool in the hands of the CPI(M). Thus, Kannur has emerged as the hottest battleground among all the three constituencies.