For once they're united. Cable operators of all hues-Multi-Service Operators (MSO) and Last Mile Operators (LMO)-are gung-ho about the move to increase cable subscription charges from Rs 75-Rs 175 now to Rs 300 a month.

''Cable services in India were under-priced all this while,'' says Sunil Khanna, CEO, Zee Turner, the country's biggest MSO. He may be right: charges, even in Malaysia and Thailand are 8-10 times what an average Indian pays for his bouquet of over 60 satellite channels.

If the move won't hamper the growth of cable and satellite television in a country where half of the 79 million-odd television-owning households don't have cable, it is because the hike will come in phases (immediately in big cities, where life without cable is unimaginable).

Even while MSOs like Zee Turner and In-Cable move ahead on the rate hike, the government may push for the conditional access system (CAS), where the subscriber gets and pays only for select channels through a set-top box. CAS will mean amendments to the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, currently waiting to be approved by the Cabinet. And even with CAS, there is a confusion on who pays for the set-top box, the broadcaster, cable operator, or the consumer. But with broadcasting and distribution interests tied closely, it is a no-brainer as to who will be poorer.

-Vinod Mahanta

THE POWER
Light Knight
A secretive Indian creates a chip that controls light. Could it launch the next Intel?

Jagdeep Singh: His company is worth about $250 million

He's on the cover of red herring as one of the three founders of a company proposed as the world's next Intel. His company, Infinera Networks, has just made what is possibly the world's first integrated photonic circuit. At 34, Jagdeep Singh's fourth company-he sold the first two for a robust total of nearly $700 million-has already pulled in $86 million in funding and is valued in these dismal times at $250 million. To this son of a former Indian diplomat, the scale of innovation makes the downturn irrelevant.

''Many of today's greatest companies were started in recessionary times,'' Singh told BT from his base in Cupertino, California. ''Technological innovation remains critically important during these times.'' Singh, a serial entrepreneur known in Silicon Valley for his secretive forays into high tech, is betting that his photonic circuit-it uses light unlike other chips that work with electrons-could cut communication costs for large networks by half, at least. ''Innovation in the telecom industry in the boom years focussed on capacity improvements," notes Singh. "Today, it must focus on cost-reduction.'' The photonic circuit could provide consumers with cheap, high-speed net access and perhaps spur the development of devices capable of projecting free-standing holograms.

For now, it seems likely that Infinera's thumbnail-sized chip-inscribed on a little-known material, indium phosphide-will reduce complex, airconditioner-sized optical communications equipment to the size of a pizza box. Infinera may or may not become the world's next Intel, but Singh is now ensconced in the optical pantheon.

-Samar Halarnkar

Q&A-II
''Stem Cells Are Shaky Business''

Martin J. Evans

Are stem cells-primordial cells that can be crafted into any body tissue-really biotech's big thing? One of the pioneers, Martin J. Evans, a Cardiff University professor and a recipient of the Albert Lasker award (termed the 'American Nobel'), warns that companies out to do a grab-job on the new biology will only delay research. He spoke to BT's E. Kumar Sharma.

On the hype and the promise: At the moment, all that we know is that embryonic stem cells are most important. What worries me is the rapid sequestration of academic research by private players. Companies want to grab biology too fast. They want patents. You don't get good science this way. You will only delay the whole process.

On a workable business model: It is important to remember that it may take at least 10 years for this to reach the mainstream medicine, though some venture capitalists may want results in four-to-five years. And this process is also going to involve huge investments in costly clinical trials.

On the way forward for India: There is a good academic research base in India. What you probably need to do now is to see the need for an ethical debate. Researchers here must understand they will be better protected by proper legislation. A few abuses could do a lot of damage. I personally think that it will always be right to ban reproductive cloning and human genetic manipulation.

BPL-TATA-BIRLA-AT&T
To Each His Own
The first signs of marital discord colour this decade's biggest cellular-merger-to-be.

AT&T's think tank in Seattle has written a letter to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee expressing concern over the introduction of wireless-in-local-loop (will) telephony in India.

A.V. Birla group Chief Kumaramangalam Birla is understood to have written several.

BPL Innovision Business Group CEO, Rajeev Chandrasekhar has been spearheading cellular operators' case against will before the Supreme Court.

Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTL) is launching its will service in Delhi in September this year.

Ratan Tata at the April launch of Idea Cellular Birla-Tata-AT&T's new avataar...

..and at the 2000 announcement of the mega merger

To put those developments in perspective, the first three are anti-will, claiming that it offers a back-door entry for basic telephony companies into cellular telephony. The fourth is pro-will. And the four corporate entities in question are part of the largest ever merger-to-be in Indian telecom's limited history.

So, at a time when BPL-Birla-AT&T-Tata will be launching GSM-based cellular services in Delhi, Tata Teleservices (TTL) will launch its basic telephony service in the city on the limited mobility plank. And if TTL manages to make a success of its second attempt to merge with Hughes Tele.com, the fixed line and will operator in Mumbai (BPL is the dominant cellular operator here), things could get interesting.

The parties make all the right noises. Says Birla-AT&T-Tata's acting CEO Sanjeev Aga: ''It is just a coincidence that it's TTL. It could have been anyone.'' And TTL's Managing Director S. Ramakrishnan maintains that ''there is only a 25 per cent overlap in the target customer base''. He adds that there has been no contact between TTL and Birla-AT&T-Tata on the issue. ''We are separate companies.'' But dig deeper and you will find unadulterated vitriol. ''The Tatas need to figure out what their business plan is,'' says an executive at one of the non-Tata constituents of the mega entity.

Tata execs point out that they have managed the situation well enough in Andhra Pradesh, where TTL runs fixed-line and will services and Birla-AT&T-Tata operates a cellular one. They, however, steadfastly refused to discuss the issue of substitutability, merely stating that GSM targets high-end users and will, low-end ones. That's hardly surprising. An insider says the will vs GSM issue hasn't yet been discussed by the four constituents of the merger and adds, ruefully, ''how can we expect the government to resolve an issue we can't get hold of ourselves?'' How indeed.

-Suveen K. Sinha

RELIANCE INDUSTRIES
Unofficial Secret
Should Reliance have been allowed to bid for IPCL?

RIL's Mukesh and Anil Ambani: Beleguered

This piece isn't about the disinvestment of IPCL, the virtues (or the lack of them) of the three candidates in the fray-IOC, Reliance, and Nirma-or about how important it is for the three bidders. In any case, as you might have realised by now, this was written before the eventual winner was announced.

The 200-odd words that follow are all about whether Reliance deserved to be in the fray for IPCL even after some of its top officials were charged with violation of the Official Secrets Act (many in business will dismiss the first two words of that act as a cute oxymoron). ''There's little doubt that Reliance should have been disqualified,'' says a Mumbai-based investment banker, obviously wishing to stay anonymous. His contention: violation of the Official Secrets Act is serious enough to call for disqualification, not just from the race for IPCL but even for BPCL and HPCL in the near future.

There are more than a few who share that view. Disinvestment Secretary Pradip Baijal and Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie obviously thought differently. And it's difficult to disagree with them. After all, charges are one thing, but proving it in a court of law is another matter. Disqualification on those grounds would be absurd. You then have to wonder what would have happened to Sterlite (which has taken part in the disinvestment exercise with plenty of gusto) if it wasn't allowed to enter the race because of charges of share price manipulation slapped on it by SEBI.

This is not an attempt to prove the innocence of Reliance, Sterlite, or any other company in the race. The short-point here is that if companies are going to be debarred from the disinvestment marathon on the basis of charges filed, very soon we won't have any pedigree players in the race (as happened in the case of Indian Airlines), and Yashwant Sinha's disinvestment target will quietly sail out of the window, yet again.

-Brian Carvalho

UNITED BREWERIES
The Beer's Flat
UB's bad year could spoil the taste of Vijay Mallya's victory in the Rajya Sabha elections.

UB's larger than life chairman, Vijay Mallya may be living it up in his new role as MP-the papers are full of his speech pulling up the government for Gujarat, his travel schedule and the people who hitch a ride with him, and details of what he does on weekends-but his flagship UB's performance must be worrying the man just a little.

The beer major reported losses of Rs 57.9 crore for 2001-02, a steep decline from its Rs 3.1 crore profit in 2001-02. This, on a 11 per cent increase in the topline to Rs 369.29 crore. UB's CFO and President Ravi Nedungadi brushes away the losses as a result of ''the huge investments we made in the course of the year in enhancing brewing capacities''.

In all fairness, UB did spend over Rs 100 crore on acquisitions (GMR, Associated Distilleries, Mangalore Breweries, Inertia) last fiscal. The acquisitions will kick in this year, promises Nedungadi, making UB's financials look healthier.

Then, there's the Scottish and Newcastle deal-the company was to pay Rs 250 crore for a 26 per cent stake in UB-which should come through sometime this year. ''The legal minutiae is being resolved,'' shrugs Nedungadi. Still, it isn't as if Mallya doesn't know how to take the rough with the smooth.

-Venkatesha Babu