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."

India police search for perpetrators of triple Mumbai blasts

(Reuters) - Indian police searched for clues on Thursday about who was behind three coordinated bomb blasts that killed at least 17 people in Mumbai, the biggest attack since Pakistani-based militants rampaged through the financial hub in 2008.

Mumbai police blamed Wednesday's attacks on the Indian Mujahideen, a shadowy home-grown Islamist group said to have support from militants inPakistan, according to source-based media reports that could not be independently confirmed.

The government's official press office lowered the death toll to 17 from an earlier figure of 21 killed, although the number may change again.

The bombings were the biggest militant attack on Mumbai since the 2008 assaults killed 166 people, raised tensions with neighbor and nuclear rival Pakistan, and left a city on edge.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts.

Newspaper headlines voiced a mix of resignation and outrage over the latest attacks on a city of more than 10 million that is home to India's mainstock exchange.

"Attacked. Again," said the Hindustan Times. "We're All Sitting Ducks," said the Economic Times.

Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, who flew to Mumbai from New Delhi on Wednesday night and visited the blast sites as well as hospitals treating victims, was due to give a media briefing at 9:30 a.m. local time (12 a.m. EDT).

The blasts came as beleaguered Prime Minister Manmohan Singh struggles to get past a series of corruption scandals and a resurgent opposition that has led to policy paralysis in Asia's third largest economy. A cabinet reshuffle this week was criticized as too little, too late.

India's stock and commodity exchanges were due to open as normal on Thursday and schools were set to open, although heavy monsoon rains led to delays and cancellations of train services during the morning rush hour.

Mumbai has a long history of deadly bombings and Wednesday's attacks were unlikely to rattle financial markets.

"TERROR ATTACKS"

The bombings, centered mainly on south Mumbai's jewelry market area, were described by the Home Ministry as "terror attacks."

"This is another attack on the heart of India, heart of Mumbai. We will fully meet the challenge, we are much better prepared than 26/11," Prithviraj Chavan, the state's chief minister, told NDTV on Wednesday evening, referring to the 2008 attacks.

The blasts occurred at about 6.45 pm on Wednesday within minutes of each other. At least one car and a motorbike were used in the coordinated attacks in which improvised explosive devices were believed to have been used, officials said.

The biggest blast was in the Opera House area, a hub for diamond traders. Pakistani-based militants carried out the bloody rampage in 2008 near the same popular area.

Another blast, also in south Mumbai, was at the Zaveri Bazaar, India's largest bullion market which was hit twice in the past. The third blast was at Dadar, in a crowded street housing Muslim and Hindu shops in the center of the coastal city.

Targeting two markets that trade in diamonds, gold and silver could also suggest the near-simultaneous attacks may have been linked to the Mumbai underworld, some newspapers speculated.

There was no immediate indication any Pakistani group was involved. But any suggestion of attributing blame to Islamabad would complicate a fraught relationship with India -- with whom it has a long-running dispute over Kashmir -- and further unravel ties with the United States.

The U.S. has withheld some military aid to Pakistan to pressure it to buckle down in the war on terror.

President Barack Obama condemned the attacks and offered support to bring the perpetrators to justice. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani swiftly condemned Wednesday's blasts in a statement.