What: The newly-formed entertainment division of Moser Baer, which has copyright licences to 7,000 movie titles, will launch DVDs and VCDs priced at Rs 34 and Rs 28, respectively.

When: The company will release 4,500 labels between the second week of January and April, in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati and Punjabi.

And...: It will launch Hindi titles (Tezab, Zanjeer, Baazigar, Qurbani, Khakhi) in February and English movies in April.

What's the size of the market: "The size of the copyright home video market in India is around Rs 200 crore; our plan is to expand this to Rs 1,000 crore in three years. We will drive the market through content ownership and aggressive pricing," says Harish Dayani, CEO, Moser Baer Entertainment.

What about margins: Details aren't forthcoming, but Dayani asserts that the plan is financially viable.

What about availability: The company is setting up owned and branded outlets at 300 locations in metros and small cities and is also tying up alliances with several big retailers.

The long-term target: To own the rights of at least 50 per cent of the movies released in India.

-Pallavi Srivastava

For A Few Thousand Crores More

What: CBDT is intensifying tax surveys to catch evaders in the last quarter of 2006-07. Tax survey's involve inspecting the books of a business concern to look for gaps between actual and declared income and, thus, ferret out undeclared income and assets.

How does it work: The tax department can conduct tax surveys even without specific information on tax evasion. Thus, it can become something of a roving investigation and also lend itself to misuse.

Why is it being done now: This year, the CBDT has been extremely active about maximising revenues.

Who are the targets: Establishments where advance tax payments or the returns filed for the previous periods don't appear to be consistent with business and income growth.

What are the revenue projections: Huge. In just six months of the current financial year, the CBDT has managed to collect Rs 1,000 crore by following up information collected from tax surveys.

-Shalini S. Dagar

ECONOMY WATCH

CALL MONEY RATES

Status: 8.5-9 per cent as on January 5, 2006.

Impact: The tightening of liquidity in the market has been pushing up the overnight inter-bank call money rates, which zoomed to a nine-year-high of 20 per cent (intra-day) in the week ended December 31. Such high rates are a clear indication of a liquidity squeeze and may impact home, auto and other loan seekers.

EXPORTS

Status: Rs 3,60,000 crore during April-November 2006-07.

Impact: Rising exports not only strengthen Brand India abroad, but also bring in much needed foreign exchange into the country and generate a large number of jobs.

-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.

WORLD BANK REPORT SETS GOVT WORKING

With the economy chugging along smoothly at over 8 per cent per annum and FDI pouring into the country like never before, India ought to be a great place to do business. Wrong, says a World Bank report, which has ranked India as low as 134 in a survey of 175 countries. The rogue counters: enforcing contracts and closing businesses. Realising that this is one governance issue that the bureaucracy is squarely to blame for, the head of the civil service, Cabinet Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi has been holding meetings with the various economic ministries to assess the weak links in the system. While the bureaucrats believe that the perception is not in line with reality, they also realise that perception is equally, if not more, important. History has it that the government best responds to external factors-be it the forex reserves crisis in 1991 or the present World Bank report. Maybe, we need more of these reports to improve our functioning!

-Balaji Chandramouli

SOFT LANDING FOR FDI IN RETAIL PLANNED

First, it was single brand retailing. now, the government is planning to allow FDI in retail trade on a sector-specific basis. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath is advocating FDI in retail areas such as sports goods, stationery, construction material and electronics in a manner that does not affect small and neighbourhood shops.

The Ministry is currently preparing a Cabinet note on this issue, featuring details on the modalities and the percentage of foreign equity that could be permissible in sector-specific retail trading. The proposal is likely to be sent for Cabinet consideration within the current financial year, according to an official in the ministry.

The commerce ministry is also trying to encourage foreign investments in the back-end of retail activities such as logistics management, cold chain and technology. Such investments will even help the traditional domestic retailers. So, the twain do meet!

-Amit Mukherjee

CREATING MORE (FOREIGN) WAVES?

The government is considering the possibility of raising the foreign investment limit in the fm radio business from 20 per cent to 49 per cent. According to the fm station owners, this move will allow them to improve their finances.

It is estimated that Indian fm radio companies need investments of over Rs 3,000 crore to complete their rollout plans. Domestic fm radio companies registered losses of over Rs 450 crore on revenues of Rs 220 crore last year. Foreign funds in such a scenario are surely welcome.

-Amit Mukherjee

DEFENCE AIDS FLIERS

Air travellers could well be in for a reprieve from their usual predicament-delayed flights, late arrivals. The government has now signed an agreement to enable use of defence airports and airspace.

Currently, of the 450 airfields, only 125 are under civilian control, with the rest under defence control. A new public-defence partnership that the market forces demand!

-Balaji Chandramouli

Link: Transmission is the key

MORE TRANSMISSION

Emboldened by the recent success in the ultra-mega power generation projects, the power ministry is planning to put ultra- mega transmission projects on the block. It has identified 14 projects entailing investments worth Rs 22,000 crore.

The projects will transfer power from the eastern and north-eastern regions, which are rich in minerals and hydel potential, to the northern parts of the country. Besides unlocking value in these regions, the move will help consumers access cheap power. Right recipe for sure.

-Balaji Chandramouli