Android 3.2 rolling out on Xoom, Motorola says

Motorola is beginning to roll out Android Honeycomb 3.2 for its Xoom tablet. The Google update includes a couple of key enhancements that will also roll out to other Android tablets in the near future.

"Google has started rolling out Android 3.2, in phases, to Motorola Xoom users," a Motorola representative confirmed for CNET today.

The update will introduce a new viewing mode, referred to as "zoom to fill," and fully enable SD card slots. Motorola will be the first tablet vendor to get this update, according to Richard Shim, an analyst at DisplaySearch.

"Imagine viewing your app at the size of a phone screen then zooming in about 200 percent," says the Android Developers blog. Stretch-to-fill is the standard layout resizing, while zoom-to-fill screen is the new screen compatibility mode, according to the blog.

Other improvements include optimizations for 7-inch designs, such as Huawei's 7-inch MediaPad, and support for Qualcomm chips--not just those from Nvidia, which have been the standard so far for tablets like the Xoom, Acer's Iconia Tab 500, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Toshiba's Thrive. Huawei's tablet, for instance, uses a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

A bunch of other tweaks and improvements are also expected, which may include performance optimizations, according to reports.

Finance Ministry asks DoT to auction broadband spectrum

NEW DELHI, JULY 13: 

With revenues under pressure and market conditions not favouring disinvestment, the Finance Ministry is putting pressure on the Telecom Department to go in for a fresh round of broadband spectrum auction this fiscal.

The Department of Economic Affairs has yet again asked the Department of Telecom to sell available broadband spectrum at the earliest to meet non-tax revenue targets. The DoT has 20 Mhz of broadband spectrum, which is enough for accommodating one operator in most of the telecom circle.

Mr R. Gopalan, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, in a letter to the Secretary, DoT, said that the Government had factored Rs 13,000 crore as non-tax revenue receipts in the Budget Estimates 2011-12.

“I hope that the DoT would have initiated the process of auctioning broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum to achieve the targets in the current financial year. I would request you to kindly intimate the status on the action taken in the matter at the earliest possible,” Mr Gopalan said in the letter dated July 8.

This is the second letter from the Finance Ministry to the DoT in the last two months indicating the level of desperation to get more revenues. In May, the then Finance Secretary, Ms Sushma Nath, had made a similar request urging the DoT to identify airwaves that can be sold immediately.

“The non-tax receipt from the auction of telecom spectrum is an important and substantial component of the overall non-tax receipts projected in BE 2011-12. I would request you to take all the necessary steps so that there is no shortfall against the projected receipts from the auction of telecom spectrum,” Ms Nath had written to the DoT.

But the DoT had so far not acted on conducting auction on grounds that the defence forces were not vacating air waves.

Mr Gopalan has therefore identified 20 Mhz in the 2.3 Ghz band to be sold as it is already available with the DoT. This frequency band is the same one which was sold in 2010 to private operators.

The Government got nearly Rs 39,000 crore from selling two slots of 20 Mhz each in this band.

Qualcomm, Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Tikona and Reliance Infotel are among those who own spectrum in the 2.3 Ghz band. These operators are planning to launch fourth generation (4G) based broadband services using this spectrum.

If the DoT acts on the Finance Ministry's proposal to sell one more chunk of 20 Mhz spectrum, then it would increase competition in this segment apart from generating revenues for the Government.

But the problem for the DoT will be to identify 20 Mhz in all the circles.

According to information available on the DoT Web site, additional spectrum in the 2.3 Ghz band is available only in about 15 of the 21 telecom circles.

The DoT does not have airwaves in States including Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Kolkata. This means that no operator will be able to get pan India airwaves, which in turn could reduce the revenue for the Government. The other issue is whether telecom companies have the appetite to participate in another auction so soon given that they have invested nearly Rs 1 lakh crore in last year's auctions.

International Finance Corporation to invest $150 million in water management, water treatment projects in India

NEW DELHI: The International Finance Corporation plans to invest about $150 million in water management and water treatment projects in India, a top IFC official said. 

The investment, to be done over the next two to three years, would focus on three areas - improving the efficiency of water usage in agriculture, industrial water and its reuse and urban water projects, and decentralised distribution for rural areas by financing small water treatment plants. 

"To sustain its robust economic growth, India needs to address its growing water challenges, and the private sector has an important role. Over the next two to three years, we expect a significant increase in private-sector water investments in India," said Bastiaan Mohrmann, IFC's South Asia head for water. The World Bank subsidiary would offer debt financing for public-private partnership ( PPP )) projects in these areas and could even pick up equity stakes in them. 

It would also offer advisory services. IFC's advisory services would include preparing bidding documents for projects, providing solutions for water issues such as leakage and illegal connections.

Eric Cantor rises fast as leader but risks overplaying hand

As he has surged to the forefront of debt-limit negotiations and faced round-the-clock scrutiny on cable and radio talk shows, a fundamental question about House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s high-stakes political maneuvering is being discussed in the halls of power.

Is he building street cred with House Republicans or overplaying his hand?

The answer may be both. Cantor’s allies note that he’s been put in the spotlight by assignment — from Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama — not by choice. And they say he has gained political capital within the GOP conference.

Cantor has a lot riding on the outcome of the debt-limit negotiations. He’ll share in the public blame if they fall apart and the economy tanks, and he’ll face recriminations from his conservative base in the House if he cuts too soft a deal with the president.

Still, there’s little question that Republicans, led by Cantor’s steadfast loyalty to their bottom line, have forced the debt-limit debate to be framed in terms of trillions in cuts instead of the clean debt increase Obama originally wanted.

With only 22 percent of respondents supporting a vote in favor of the debt increase according to a Gallup Poll, Republicans believe they’re on firm footing with voters as they push for historically deep spending cuts.

“He’s trying to negotiate the best possible position for members that can pass the House,” Cantor spokeswoman Laena Fallon told POLITICO.

He won applause from some corners of the Republican universe when he blew up Vice President Joe Biden’s deficit-reduction talks because Democrats wanted to negotiate increasing taxes. And while he’s been the target of scorn from liberal television hosts, op-ed writers and folks in his own party who don’t like what he’s saying, Cantor’s repetition of the no-taxes hard line simply echoes the firmly held beliefs of his colleagues.

“He’s telling them what they want to hear,” said one Republican who is critical of Cantor. “I suppose it helps him,” the frustrated lawmaker said, but “he’s all about Eric.”

That’s the kind of caricature Democrats are hoping to draw in an effort to gain leverage in the debt-limit talks. In particular, they’ve been working to hammer an existing wedge deeper into the relationship between Cantor and Boehner. When Cantor complained at a White House meeting Tuesday that Democrats had leaked his presentation from the previous day while the president had not shared his ideas on paper, Obama replied that he assumed talking to Boehner — which he had done — meant talking to the entire Republican Conference.

For years, Democrats from Obama on down have sought to make Cantor a whipping boy, as they think his persona is too smug for mainstream America. The Senate’s Democratic Policy and Communications Committee pulled this quotation from Cantor’s high school yearbook to portray him as unreasonable: “I want what I want when I want it."