What: It's a huge property mall called Jaaydaad.com, where property buyers can choose from a variety of real estate products from various builders, price ranges and specifications. It deals in both ownership and rental properties.

How will it work: The firm is coming up with the business structure based on the franchise model, whereby it will have about 600 franchisee outlets across the country-one in each district, according to S.K. Jain, CMD of Jaaydaad.com. Jaaydaad is tying up with leading developers across the country to showcase their products before prospective buyers. It will be possible to buy or sell property anywhere in the country using the network. One can establish contact with the company online or at any of its physical outlets.

When: The firm will open its first shop in Greater Noida by end-November; by the end of 2006 it proposes to have 25 such outlets in the NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The entire project will be ready and functional by March 2008.

Its USP: The company, which has earmarked Rs 25 crore for publicising its brand, will guide buyers through the entire legal process of buying a property and deal only in properties that have all legal and statutory permissions in place.

-Amit Mukherjee

MS Search on Hutch

(L to R) Hutch's Asim Ghosh and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Ravi Venkatesan

What is it: Windows Live Search will now be available on mobile phones.

Who's offering it: Microsoft and Hutch have come together to offer the service.

When: By January 2007.

At what price: No one is commenting. Hutch says the potential is huge as this search will be available through the SMS function as well.

How is it unique: Both companies claim that the service will be more local-content oriented. "Fifty per cent of searches on other engines don't result in the relevant answers that people look for," says Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft.

And...: "The future of the internet in India rests on mobile (phones). This (and not the PC as is the case now) will provide a lot of people with their first experience of the internet," says Asim Ghosh, MD, Hutchinson Essar.

-Kushan Mitra

ECONOMY WATCH

INFLATION

Status: 5.01 per cent for the week ended October 28, 2006; the projected figure for 2006-07 is 5-5.5 per cent

Impact: Rising inflation will not only eat into the savings, but will also harden the interest rates in the economy. This can, over time, gradually impact the surging consumption-led demand in the economy.

SUGAR PRODUCTION

Status: Sugar production reached 21 million tones in the first seven months (April-Oct) of 2006-07, up 11 percent compared to the figure for the corresponding period of 2005-06.

Impact: Good monsoons and significant capacity expansion due to rising sugar prices have created favourable conditions for sugar production. This, however, is likely to lead to a softening of sugar prices.

-Compiled by Anand Adhikari

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

COAL SUPPLY FOR POWER IS STREAMLINED, BUT...

The forces of competition have taken a back seat in the new set of guidelines issued by the power ministry for allocation of coal blocks for power generation. The policy is still an improvement over the prevailing one where an entrepreneur cannot obtain a coal block if he plans to sell power in the marketplace and not tie up with a power utility.

In the new order, such projects, where competition is best reflected, have been relegated to the lowest priority. Projects undertaken by existing generating companies and power utilities will be given first priority.

Next in line will be joint venture projects (Centre-state or two states or public-private partnership with "substantial say in the management of the JV by the public sector"). Below this segment is a category where private producers have secured tariff approval from the regulator.

The lowest in the pecking order are projects involving expansion of existing private power capacity, captive plants and merchant power plant.

-Aman Malik

MARK TO MARKET LAND DEALS: CENTRE

The ministry of urban development is attempting to plug the revenue loss suffered by states owing to artificially low 'circle rates', upon which are based the stamp duties paid on land transactions. It is encouraging the States and Union Territories to revise the circle rates of land in line with the market prices, according to reports.

In most cases, the circle rates are way below the market prices as the government authorities have failed to revise them in line with the spiralling market prices. In order to promote legal transactions, the Centre has also asked the states to reduce the stamp duty rates. Currently, high stamp duty rates encourage black money transactions.

The Delhi government and the authorities in the National Capital Region are already in the process of hiking the circle rates and bringing down the stamp duties. Surely, the law must keep up with the market.

-Kapil Bajaj

NO FOREIGN MONEY FOR TILLING LAND

If you don't stay here, don't invest. This rule still applies to the plantation sector. Recently, the government turned down a proposal for NRIs to acquire shares in a rubber plantation firm (KVT Estates Rubber plantation). The refusal was on the grounds that NRI funds are treated on par with foreign direct investments. And, the FDI policy does not permit foreign investment in any area of agriculture except in tea plantations.

-Amit Mukherjee

BREAKS ON FIIs IN IPOs

Retailers will have a tough time pricing their IPO stocks. The government has barred FIIs from participating in their initial public offerings.

This, since it amounts to foreign direct investment and government norms cap this at 24 per cent in multi-brand retails unit.

The decision will not go down well with Reliance, Aditya Birla and Bharti, given their retail plans.

-Balaji Chandramouli

Roll on : Road laying exercise

MORE MONEY FOR INFRA

In a move to augment funding for financing infrastructure, the Finance Ministry now wants to unlock domestic resources (domestic savings make up to a third of the GDP).

It plans to allow exposure for pension funds in this sector by allowing them to invest in private sector infrastructure bonds.

Money is welcome but is the least of the issues in developing the infrastructure sector.

-Aman Malik