Somewhere in Bengal....

India & Qatar

India and energy-rich Qatar have signed six agreements, including one on transfer of sentenced prisoners, as the two countries sought to inject a fresh momentum in their bilateral ties.
The pacts were signed after Emir of Qatar Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani held extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during which both the leaders discussed a range of issues including enhancing cooperation in energy sector and boosting trade and investment.
Under the provision of the pact on transfer of sentenced persons, Indian prisoners convicted in Qatar can be brought to India to serve the remaining part of their sentence. Similarly Qatari citizens convicted in India can be sent to their home country to serve jail term.
According to official figure, 96 Indians are currently languishing in various jails in Qatar which is home to around 600,000 Indians. The other five MoUs will provide for cooperation in areas like information and communication technology , atmospheric and ocean sciences and media.
Qatar is an important country for India in the Gulf region. It supplies 86% of India's liquified natural gas (LNG). The bilateral annual trade is around $16 billion.
The MoU in the field of information and communication technology would provide enhanced business opportunities for the Indian IT industry in Qatar. Another MoU was signed between the earth sciences ministry and Qatar meteorological department for cooperation in the field of atmospheric and ocean sciences.
A separate MoU was inked between diplomatic institute of Qatar's foreign ministry and foreign service institute of external affairs ministry to facilitate exchange of faculty members.

Mani to head GST panel

Kerala state finance minister K M Mani has been appointed as the chairman of the empowered committee of state finance minis ters on Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The chairman of the empowered committee has generally been from an opposition-ruled state. Mani fits the bill as he represents Kerala Congress (M) and is also a senior finance minister. The GST, an indirect tax regime, is to be rolled out from April 2016. The empowered committee chairman's post fell vacant after Abdul Rahim Rather, the former finance minister of Jammu & Kashmir, quit following the defeat of National Conference in state elections.

Spectrum Sale...a bonanza for the Government

The government raked in a record bounty of nearly Rs.1.1 lakh crore through a fiercely contested spectrum sale, which lasted 115 rounds and was spread over 19 days as telecom heavyweights such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio, the cash-laden newcomer owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, fought to bag a 20-year control over the airwaves.
The auctions ran under the shadow of a Supreme Court order that prohibited the government from revealing the details about the winners till the time it disposes off a series of petitions that have challenged the sale process. The apex court hears the matter on Thursday and the list of winners, the amount they spent, and the circles where they bagged the spectrum will only be known after that.
While there are no confirmed numbers, Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel are said to have spent around Rs.28,000 crore each, while Vodafone may have spent around Rs.30,000 crore and Reliance Jio close to Rs.10,000 crore. There is no official confirmation from the companies or the government on this and final figures can vary .
The fresh auctions happened nearly a year after the government bagged a little over Rs.61,000 crore through a similar sale in February 2014. The mop-up from the latest round of auction gave finance minister Arun Jaitley the ammunition to take a dig at former telecom minister Kapil Sibal, who had said that there was `zero loss' from the 2007 2G licence allotment.

Aditya Birla group company Idea Cellular, which had the most crucial spectrum holdings at stake in the auction, paid the maximum amount of Rs.30,307 crore -more than a quarter of the overall spectrum receipts by the government -to maintain continuity of business. Bharti Airtel, the largest telecom operator of the country , paid Rs.30,000 crore.
The auction, which has made the government richer by nearly Rs.1.1 lakh crore (nearly Rs.29,000 crore will flow in over the next 10 days as part of the first tranche), saw the top telecom operators fight it out to retain the highly-efficient 900-MHz spectrum in key bands to maintain operations and infrastructure.
The companies will have a 20-year control over the spectrum -spread over four frequencies -and the airwaves can be used to launch a variety of services, including the data intensive 3G and 4G offerings.
Vodafone, the country's second-biggest operator, paid Rs.25,960 crore. Together, the top three telcos contributed nearly 80% to the government's auction kitty .
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio was the fourth biggest spender with Rs.10,000 crore as the company bought 48.75 MHz in the 800-MHz band and 28 MHz in the 1,800 MHz band. It plans to launch 4G services across three frequencies -800 MHz, 1,800 MHz and 2,300 MHz.
“Jio's seamless 4G services using proven multi-band LTE technology and supported by our large spectrum footprint will provide superior user experience for voice, video and data services in line with the best service providers in the world,“ Mukesh D Ambani, chairman and MD of Reliance Industries, said.
This spectrum auction was crucial for the top operators.Idea was fighting to retain 900 MHz spectrum in nine service areas, which contribute 73% of its mobile revenues, Airtel in six service areas (35% of revenues), Vodafone in six service areas (38%), and Reliance Communications in seven circles (32%).
“Including this auction and November 2012 spectrum auction, Idea has managed to acquire renew new licenses with liberalized spectrum for 16 out of the 22 Service Areas, which is among the highest for any telecom operator. The company has next renewal of only four service areas in the year 2021 and remaining two service areas as late as 2026,“ the company said.
Tata Teleservices was a surprise buyer in this round as the struggling telco spent Rs.7,851 crore to bag spectrum in the 800-MHz and 1,800-MHz bands.

For Cement Roads

ADB forecasts

India is all set to overtake China's growth rate by clocking 7.8% GDP in 2015-16 and 8.2% during the following fiscal on the back of structural reforms and government's “pro-investment“ attitude, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said. In case of China, the GDP is expected to decelerate to 7.2% and 7%, respectively .
In the current fiscal, both the economies are expected to clock a 7.4% growth rate.“India is expected to grow faster than China in the next few years,“ ADB chief economist Shang-Jin Wei said while releasing the bank's annual publication Asian Development Outlook, 2015.
He added that the Indian government's pro-investment attitude, improvement in the fiscal as well as current account deficit situation, and some forward movement on resolving structural bottlenecks have helped improve the business climate, making India attractive again to both domestic and foreign investors.
The Indian government however, expects the growth rate to accelerate from 7.4% to 8-8.5% in 2015-16.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a growth rate of 7.5% for next fiscal.

Somewhere in Mumbai....

The IAF's Hercules C130J, one of its heavy cargo aircraft, landed and took off safely from the Juhu airport in an exercise planned to test whether its short runway could be used safely for flight operations in the event of an attack on the neighbouring, bigger Mumbai airport.
The aircraft, with two dozen IAF officials, landed before 2 pm and departed in ten minutes. “ A few departures at Mumbai airport were held over to allow the Hercules to land at Juhu. Once it landed, the departures were cleared,“ said a Mumbai airport official.
The exercise with this massive transport aircraft was crucial as the general norm is for heavier aircraft to require longer runways to land and take off. The Juhu airport's runway 08-26, on which the IAF aircraft landed is 3,750-ft-long, which is about one-third that of Mumbai airport's. But the Hercules C130J can do tactical landings on short runways and dirt runways and, hence, Juhu is eligible to play the role of an alternative airport. Earlier in August 2013, the aircraft had landed at the runway at Daulat Baig Oldie in Ladakh, one of the highest and difficult-toland runways in the world.
The exercise has raised the hopes of pilots and operators as the Juhu airport, despite being the busiest heliport in the country , has poor infrastructure. The airport does not have a night landing facility. So civilian aircraft that operate from this airport use its runway only post sunrise and before sunset.