What: Infrastructure sharing between telcos

Really?: Yes, although the deal, presumably brokered by Union IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran (left), will only apply to new cell sites (for which the operators will pool in money). There is a proposal to share existing sites, but the modalities of this are yet to be worked out

When: Immediately, and the minister believes a difference in the quality of service will be seen in the next four to five weeks

Benefits: A 50-per cent reduction in incremental costs for cellular operators, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India, and a clear skyline in the metros (Maran is especially proud of this)

-Shaleen Agrawal

Rainbow Pie

What: The shareholding pattern of Hutchison Essar, the company that is slated to go public in a couple of months

Why: Because the issue of beneficial stakes in the company is mind-boggling

The facts: Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited (HTIL)'s beneficial stake in the company itself is 49.60 per cent. Egyptian telco Orascom's 19.3 per cent stake in HTIL gives it a beneficial 9.57 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar. Analjit Singh's 38.78 per cent stake in Telecom Investment India (TII) gives him a beneficial 7.56 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar. And Asim Ghosh's 23.97 per cent stake in TII, gives him a beneficial 4.67 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar. Phew!

Problem: Essar has written to the government calling for clarity on the rules concerning indirect holding structures; the group isn't exactly happy about Orascom's beneficial stake in Hutchison Essar

Insight: Multi-tiered holding structures were common in the telecom industry when the ceiling on foreign direct investment was 49 per cent. That number is now 74 per cent. The Hutch Essar imbroglio, then, belongs to an earlier era

--Krishna Gopalan

Citizen Kumaraswamy

CM Kumaraswamy: Making news

Ie's media-savvy and before he jumped into the world of politics, he was a successful producer and distributor of Kannada movies, with two blockbusters to his credit. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, then, that Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy is all set to launch a Kannada news and entertainment channel, albeit, through his wife Anitha, who is tipped to be the channel's MD. Today, the Kannada television market is dominated by Kalanidhi Maran's Sun Network (through several channels such as Udaya, Ushe and Udaya News), and Ramoji Rao's ETV network (ETV Kannada). That, says an aide of the CM, is reason enough to launch a channel. "Why should the Kannada TV market be dominated by Tamil (Sun is headquartered in Chennai) and Telugu (ETV is headquartered in Hyderabad) people?" Then, perhaps realising that this sounds a bit jingoistic, he adds, "Kumaraswamy wants to be long-term player on the state's political scene and feels that owning a channel helps."

-Venkatesha Babu

P-WATCH
A bird's eye view of what's hot and what's not on the government's policy radar.

NEW INCENTIVE SCHEME FOR EXPORTERS

The government is putting the finishing touches to yet another incentive scheme for exporters. On the chopping block: the Target Plus Scheme (TPS), which was introduced in 2004. On the anvil: incentives for exporting some products to the world at large or all products to some "key" countries. The TPS scheme, which benefited barely 1,000 exporters, was reportedly being misused. The cost to the exchequer is likely to be Rs 8,000 crore, though official estimates put the total value of credits till date at a modest Rs 3,000 crore. Moreover, it was not compliant with World Trade Organization rules. "The scheme is expected to benefit many more exporters than TPS," says Ajay Sahai, Director General, Federation of Indian Export Organisations. The new policy will help the Indian export community break into new territories such as Africa, Latin America and the CIS countries, and help the country achieve the export target of $150 billion (Rs 6,75,000 crore) by 2009.

-Shalini S. Dagar

NEW GUIDELINES FOR COMMODITIES TRADING

The forward markets commission (FMC) is planning to bring out a common platform for trading by drawing up uniform contracts for commodities trading in the country. Similar norms prevail on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. FMC is also planning to standardise contract specifications for commodities and will soon announce common delivery centres for all commodities. Once this policy is implemented, it will phase out illiquid commodities from the exchanges and ensure that contracts for the same commodity have the same expiry dates across exchanges. The logic behind these moves: price discovery will become more efficient, the market will gain depth, trading volumes will rise and arbitrage opportunities will increase. A final decision on when these new features will be introduced will be taken in due course.

-Mahesh Nayak

CECA WITH SINGAPORE AMENDED TO SIMPLIFY PROCEDURES

The comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) between India and Singapore, which came into effect on August 1, 2005, is being amended to further reduce transaction costs, simplify procedures and encourage a deeper integration between the financial systems of the two countries. The new CECA will lay special thrust on the tourism, information technology, telecom, audio-visual products, health, education, transport, construction, financial services, legal, architectural and engineering services, and environmental services sectors. The amendments are expected to be ready by the end of this month.

-Ritwik Mukherjee

Oil Minister Deora: Just sort it out

DEARER LPG SOON

Petroleum minister Murli Deora says public sector oil retailers IBP, BPCL and HPCL will go bankrupt in two months, two years and three years, respectively, if the oil subsidy issue is not sorted out. The Rangarajan Committee has recommended raising LPG prices by Rs 75, petrol prices by Rs 1.21 per litre and diesel prices by Rs 1.96 per litre. A final decision is expected to be taken only after the elections in five states in May.

-Shalini S. Dagar

7 MORE NAVRATNAS

Seven more PSUs-power finance Corp., Rural Electrification Corp., PowerGrid Corp., National Hydroelectric Power Corp., Bharat Sanchar Nigam, National Aluminum Co. and Hindustan Aeronautics-are likely to be granted navratna status soon. This will give them more operational autonomy and make them "board-managed companies". They will also be allowed to raise funds from domestic and international debt markets, subject to approval from the appropriate authorities. How 16 companies can still be called navratnas has not been explained.

-Ritwik Mukherjee