Business & Economy

• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is planning to resurrect an old plan to converge telecom, Internet, and broadcasting sectors. Surprisingly, the right of center previous Government run by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had stalled this proposal for political reasons. Given the current Government requires the support of the communists who are averse to any economic reform, the passage of this proposal seems bleak. The present Government took more than a year to approve the rise of Foreign Direct Investment limit in just the telecom sector from 49 to 74 per cent. This proposal requires uniform FDI levels, licensing fees, spectrum rationalization, and creation of equal opportunities to cell phone, wireless local loop, telecom, cable, and Internet service providers to be able to address data, voice, video markets.

Environment and Health, Science & Technology

• Egyptian officials seem to have granted clearance to the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau after a tense standoff between the two Governments. It appears that the French Government has convinced Egyptians about the legality of the ship heading towards the Gujarat wreck yard. The French Government's position is that the ship is still a French property and that the Basel Convention preventing the transnational shipment of hazardous waste does not cover warships. The area of contention is the amount of asbestos on the ship; asbestos is a banned substance in France and is not to be carcinogenic. The Indian Supreme Court's Monitoring Council had advocated against allowing the ship into India. The Indian Government seemed to take a position that is closer to the French Government and seems intent on the business which is worth over USD 700 million. The environment group Green peace, which has opposed the transfer of ship to India has called the Egyptian Government's decision "political." Techno pure, the company that implemented the first phases of asbestos removal, says that the ship contains over 500 tons of asbestos. The French Government rejects that assessment and says that there is only 45 tons of toxic material on board claiming to have removed most of what was on board.

• The Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL), a Federal Government-owned public sector company complied with Supreme Court orders and stopped mining ore in the environmentally sensitive Western Ghats. The company converts all the mined ore into pellets and exports 85% of it to China. t grosses Rs.18.5 billion a year with cash reserves of Rs.13 billion. Although the company was ordered by the SC on September 30, 2002 not to mine beyond September 30, 2005 the company has not given up hopes. It has sought extensions, appealed the decision, manufactured public opinion through sponsored environment surveys, black-balled NGOs opposing the mining, and even got a national paper to publish an investigative study in its favor. But with global prices of pellets plummeting by about 50% due to China's decision to regulate import of pellets, the financial outlook for continued mining coupled with debilitating impact on the environment too expensive for the company to continue its business. However, the company is determined to keep its pellet plant running sourcing raw material from other parts of Karnataka. They are also seeking license to mine ore in the Ramanadurg area which is already seeing illegal mining for ore. Even if license is granted now, it would take KIOCL about 4 years to mine that area. In the meanwhile, KIOCL is expecting to import ore to keep its pellet plant functional.

• The Forest Department is seeking to procure 12,000 square kilometers of revenue land to facilitate the easy migration of elephants, tigers, leopards, dholes, and other non-predatory animals. The conceptual proposal, if approved, can take up to two years to implement and requires the resettling of those in Yelechatti village in Bandipur. The acquisition will widen the Kaniyanapura corridor that connects Bandipur National Park with forests of Chamarajanagar, Satyamangalam, and Dimbam. This corridor has been identified as the key elephant corridor by wildlife biologists and experts from Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Center (AERCC) at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The current corridor is hardly a few meters wide with elephant proof trenches on one side and private land leading to the Moyar Gorge on the other.

• The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is planning to enter the lucrative satellite launch business and aiming to capture 10% of the market share over the next five years. It will address the launch market, estimated at USD 2 billion, using its cost-effective Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and hope to earn USD 10 million this year. The first commercial launch in April or May this year will carry an Italian satellite Agile on the PSLV C-3. ISRO is planning one to two launches every year and plans to get self-sufficient in this space when it launches GSLV Mk III in 2008. This vehicle will be capable of carrying heavier satellites up to 4 tons. ISRO will also launch two Russian satellites for its global navigational system called Glonas. Later this year, it will also launch an Indonesian micro-satellite.