All about unique identity

What?
It will be a permanent identification number -- from birth to death -- aimed at eliminating the need for multiple identifications. Photographs and biometric data will be included to make the identification perfect.

Who?
It will cover all citizens, including those below 18 years of age. To start with, the unique IDs will be given to those on electoral rolls.

Why?
It will help in establishing citizenship, reduce identity related frauds, address security issues and ensure that benefits of schemes reach the people.

Centre appoints Nilekani head of unique ID agency

New Delhi: The centre on Thursday appointed Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani as chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), an agency that will provide unique identity cards to citizens to ensure that the benefits of the government's flagship schemes reach the people.

As chairman of the UIDAI, Nilekani will enjoy the rank of a cabinet minister with a task force of 1,400 people.

Nilekani, 54, has resigned as co-chairman of the Indian software giant to lead the authority, which has been created under the aegis of the Planning Commission. Nilekani's resignation would be effective from July 9, Infosys said in a statement.
Nilekani described the appointment as "humbling". It had been a tough decision to quit "a company that I've been part of for 30 years" and the appointment was a chance to do something for the country, he told a TV news channel in New Delhi.

He is the personal choice of prime minister Manmohan Singh, who is keen on inducting talented professionals in managerial and decision-making positions in the government. Though the PM failed to get Montek Singh Ahluwalia and former RBI governor C Rangarajan inducted into the finance ministry, he had his way this time.

Singh had been keen to get Nilekani on board for some time now, but the former Infosys chairman took his time to make up his mind. According to senior government sources, Nilekani insisted on a position and status that was in keeping with his expertise and experience, besides a certain amount of functional autonomy. He agreed to head the authority only after his demands were addressed, sources said.

His appointment was ratified by the Union cabinet at its meeting on Thursday.
Infosys chairman and mentor NR Narayana Murthy said: "We are glad that an extraordinary individual like Nandan has got an opportunity to add value to India through this position. As a company that has always put the interest of society ahead of itself, Infosys will accept his absence with a sense of duty to a larger cause."

In November 2008, an empowered group of ministers had approved setting up UIDAI with an initial core team.

Under Nilekani, the new authority "shall lay down plans and policies to implement the unique identification (UID) scheme, shall own and operate the unique identification number database and be responsible for its updation and maintenance on an ongoing basis," information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni told reporters.

The authority will identify the targeted groups for various flagship programmes of the UPA government, such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, National Rural Health Mission and Bharat Nirman.

The Centre also plans to set up state units of UIDAI, headed by state UID commissioners.

The government plans to implement the project in three years. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had set aside Rs100 crore for the unique identity project in the interim budget presented before the Lok Sabha election in February.

Bharti (Airtel) has unveiled a new logo

By 2020, We will make Bharti the finest Indian conglomerate – Bharti

Bharti (Airtel) has unveiled a new logo and vision to make the next big leap. It is targeting$10bn revenue by 2010. Bharti also want to grow its non-telecom business from 15% to 50% in the next 5 years. That would make its telecom business to 50% which is at 85% now.

Simply put, Bharti wants to be the next big conglomerate and join the elite club of Tata and Reliance.

Bharti is looking for both organic and non-organic growth. Just a few months ago it looked for South Africa’s MTN which would have made it the top 10 telecom company in the world. We already know that it just entered top 25 club of global telecom companies. One of its non-telecom interests are in Insurance, where Bharti has a joint venture with France’s AXA.

Wal-mart’s joint venture for retail operations with Bharti are all set to rock India in March 2009. Bharti has just entered into a young and growing DTH space. But, until now telecom was their forte. They want to change that going forward.India already has 300 million mobile subscribers. Target for 2010 is 500 million subscribers. That is a good 200 million left on the table. But, there are too many players on the line. The recent license allocation to players and to Reliance had kicked of the second round of telecom revolution. Unlike the first round, Bharti (airtel) will not have a first mover advantage and find it tough to gain a significant share in the next 200 million. May be this is the reason for Bharti’s change in direction.

It is not just Bharti which is obsessed with conglomeration. Every company once successful in their chosen business looks to explore other options. The IT companies after successful operations have either started or acquired BPO operations. Mobile operations and value added services are the other area which IT companies look at. Same is the case with energy companies.

GMR industries is one such company which has interests in several businesses. Don’t even get me started with Future Group. They need a serious brand consolidation and new identity.

Airtel is one of the better brands in India. Not as many people relate with Bharti as much as they do with Airtel. There can be a brand confusion for Airtel (oops Bharti). That is because its brand Airtel is so successful. I just hope that Bharti does not become like Future Group with too many brands.

Disinvestment Note

Overview

Disinvestment of the Government’s equity stake in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) started in FY92, with the sale of minority shareholding in 30 CPSEs to LIC, GIC, and UTI. Later on, MTNL (FY98), VSNL (FY97 and FY99), and GAIL (FY00) used the GDR route to raise capital. Over the years, the policy for disinvestment has evolved, particularly through the budget speeches of Finance Ministers. In December 1999, the Department of Disinvestment was established to focus on all matters related to disinvestment including implementation of disinvestment decisions.

Following are the key objectives behind the Government's disinvestment plans:

* Decrease the government's restructuring spending to support financially weak CPSEs
* Induct a strategic investor with a proven record of technical, marketing, and managerial expertise
* Raise funds
* Induce operational and financial discipline through investors’ scrutiny

Till date, the Government has raised more than Rs. 510 bn by disinvesting its stakes in companies including IPCL, VSNL, MTNL, CMC, Hindustan Zinc, BALCO, Maruti Udyog, and ITDC.

Current Scenario

The re-elected United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is likely to move decisively on the disinvestment front. As the UPA has a clear mandate and the obstructive left-front is not a part of the government, there are chances of limited political resistance pertaining to disinvestment. Moreover, as the Government’s fiscal deficit is expected to balloon to more than 10% of the GDP for FY10 due to the fiscal stimulus packages, farm-loan waiver, and the pay revision for government employees, the Government is looking at disinvestment as a viable option to improve its finances.


Proposed Disinvestments in FY10

The Government has identified unlisted Oil India Ltd. (OIL) and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Ltd. (NHPCL) for its disinvestment plans in FY10. These companies are likely to proceed with their IPOs before September 2009 as their regulatory approvals for listing lapse on September 12 and September 15, respectively. According to draft red hearing prospectus, the government may dilute 11% of its stake in OIL and 13.5% stake in NHPCL. Besides, the government has proposed to dilute its stake in Mineral & Metals Trading Corporations (MMTC) and National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in the current fiscal, according to a preliminary draft of the disinvestment road map prepared by the Finance Ministry.

Govt fixes 3G spectrum reserve price at Rs 4040 cr

A consensus between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Telecom Minister A Raja was arrived today as the two met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the approval of the reserve price, based on which the process of bidding would start soon.

Initially six private operators apart from state owned MTNL and BSNL would be allowed to offer 3G services that enables high speed internet, videos and many other value-added services on mobile phone.

NEW DELHI: Paving the way for unleashing of next generation mobile telephony, the government today fixed reserve price of Rs 4040 crore for auction of 3G spectrum, a move that would help it garner at least Rs 32,320 crore.

A source close to the development said the issue would now go to empowered group of ministers for fine-tuning and hopefully the programme for bidding and other details would get a nod soon.

Raja had met Mukherjee earlier this week too as the Finance Ministry was suggesting the doubling of reserve price from Rs 2020 crore being favoured by Department of Telecom and hence the two ministries had got engaged in a discussion for consensus.

While the government would get at least Rs 24,240 crore from six operators that are chosen after the bids, Psis MTNL and BSNL would shell out another Rs 8080 crore, source said.

After the issue is cleared by EGOM, the Telecom Ministry will announce the detailed programme for the auction which will include pre-bid conference in the next couple of weeks, source said.

Sources said the auction may start by the middle of August.

The Telecom Ministry had earlier recommended a reserve or minimum price of Rs 2020 crore which was not accepted by the Ministry of Finance who had asked the Telecom Ministry to double it.

The likely contenders for the 3G spectrum may include Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communication, Tatas and a few other new private telecom operators.

Similarly, on the lines of 3G the Government will also auction spectrum for wireless broadband services known as WiMax.

The Telecom Ministry had recommended pan-India reserve price of Rs 1,010 crore for wireless broadband services whereas Ministry of Finance had doubled it in this case too.

Its was, however, not immediately ascertained where this also figured in the discussions with the Prime Minister today.

Sources, however, said there could be a consensus on this also.

Sorece: Economic Times

3G may open new biz stream for IT cos

Jessica Mehroin Irani & Ranjit Shinde
MUMBAI

IF third generation (3G) is the next big opportunity for the domestic telecom operators, it is also expected to open a whole new business stream for IT companies. 3G integrates voice, data and video on a single platform, which in turn allows video downloads and other applications that require high speed connectivity.
IT industry trackers believe that 3G will see a slew of orders for IT companies in key areas such as integration with operational systems and their linkage to internal networks. “With the advent of 3G, there will be large use of data services on both voice and video. The IT infrastructure such as data centres will play an important role,” said Gartner principal research analyst Nareshchandra Singh. As the telcos will want to outsource data centre management, this will provide opportunities for the IT vendors.
Managed services and platform solutions are the two major areas of 3G deliverables for the IT players. Vendors including IBM, Wipro and Tech Mahindra already provide end-to-end IT services to telcos and are expected to be the major beneficiaries. “IBM has a service delivery platform to efficiently launch these new 3G/data services and link them to underlying network capabilities,” said IBM VP communications (growth markets) Tim Greisinger. It has also built capabilities to integrate mobile internet services with the telecom operators’ existing operational systems, including billing, provisioning and CRM.
The 3G and broadband opportunities in the Indian telecom space have also attracted IT players such as Patni Computer Systems, which have been providing 3G related services to global telecom operators. “We have technological frameworks built for 3G and broadband to provide services in areas of service fulfilment, revenue assurance and billing,” said Patni Computers VP Siddhartha Kataki.
While the exact size of 3G opportunity for IT vendors is still not clear as it largely depends on the scope and approach of service providers, Mr. Kataki says that it could be at least 10% of the total proposed capital expenditure by telecom operators. Motilal Oswal, in a recent report, has estimated Reliance Communications’ 3G capex (including spectrum and rollout) to be Rs 7,000 crore.
IBM expects the contract size to be large, depending on the telecom provider. “Contract sizes range from tens of thousands of US dollars to multiple millions, depending on the scope of decisions and the extent to which the service provider relies upon and shares risks,” said Mr Greisinger.