Something strange has been going on at Indiabulls Group.
Even as current business operations have not fully stabilized (Mint
reported on 6 September that its retail push had run into big losses),
there is news that it has managed to land some impressive coal reserves
for power generation.
In fact, considering the equity stake
that Lakshmi Mittal has reportedly taken up in Indiabulls units, and
also considering his desire to import coal for his ArcelorMittal steel
plants from India, one wonders if the allocation of the coal reserves
could have any connection? And could that also explain why Mittal has
been lobbying hard for iron ore reserves in India?
Gujarat’s
e-governance
During the last six
months, 12,000 gram panchayats have been connected with VSATs and trial
runs have already begun. All these centres will be able to access the
Internet, use the video conference facilities and also talk with each
other.
What is even more interesting is the way Gujarat has
structured the entire deal.
The
project cost is Rs110 crore. Of this, around Rs60 crore has gone
towards, purchase of equipment—each VSAT costing around Rs56,000, which
does appear to be a bit on the higher side.
The rest of the
money has been kept aside for bandwidth and maintenance for a period of
five years. To ensure that adequate bandwidth is available, the state
government has booked three transponders from the Indian Space Research
Organisation (Isro). Thus, the network will have almost 120mbps
(megabits per second) of bandwidth 24x7 for five years.
Now
the state plans setting up another 4,000 VSATs for disseminating
education. Instead of adopting a bureaucratic approach towards what
must be taught, it has selected the Aga Khan Trust to recommend to it
the subjects and the modalities of what should be taught and for how
long. The trust has yet to submit its report.
The state is
also planning to use this VSAT network as part of its plans for
disaster management because, based on the findings of an IAS officer,
Sarosh Jha, in Orissa, the only communication systems that work when
there is a flood or an earthquake are VSATs.
Isn’t it time mainstream media began talking about this?
From airports to
airwaves?
The
Airports Authority of India (AAI) might soon become a major telecom
player in partnership with Isro. This is because both these players are
now planning to get into the business of satellite communications.
Most
satellite-based communications for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore, as
well as between other licensed parties, are usually through Inmarsat
Plc. or Iridium Satellite Llc. Earlier, the only player in this market
was Inmarsat, but when latter launched its services, and then
collapsed, and is now being resurrected, the market could see the first
stirrings of competition.
In India, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd
(VSNL) is a licensed reseller for the services Inmarsat offers, though
Indian ships (after registering with VSNL) are free to purchase their
bandwidth and service requirements from other licensed resellers (such
as Singapore Telecommunications Ltd among others). Normal tariffs have
been close Rs223 per minute—though rates vary for data services and
voice services.
Not surprisingly, anticipating AAI’s entry,
VSNL slashed its rates from an average of Rs250 per minute to less than
Rs100 per minute in December. The AAI-ISRO venture is christened Gagan
(GPS-aided geo-stationary augmented navigation system), and this
service will first be used for aircraft. However, it will soon be
expanded to cover other services as well.
Significantly, with the
launch of Gagan, India becomes the fourth player in the world in the
business of satellite communications. The other three that have already
introduced this technology are the US, Europe and Japan. Even China is
some distance away before it can launch such services of its own. The
technical demonstration of this service is reported to have been quite
successful, and commercial services are likely to be introduced before
2010.
