Ten years of mobile India
It's been 10 years since mobile telephony was first introduced in India. The mobile industry today has grown 60-fold (from the 1999's figure of 1 million), generates Rs 14500 crore per annum for the government with an annual GDP contribution of Rs 31,000 crore and offers 36 lakh jobs. The figure is likely to increase 30 per cent more over the next 12 months, as per the industry analysts.
Looking back, the industry agrees that while liberalization of the telecom sector in 1992 opened a new chapter in communications, the most defining point has been the National Telecom Policy (NTP) in 1999. It was the NTP 99, which brought the industry back from the brink of collapse. The industry then had accumulated losses nearing Rs 65,000 crore in 1998. The subscriber base was just 1.2 and the networks were making huge losses while they industry faced with the payment of 10-year licence fee amounting to Rs 20,000 crore. The operators couldn't even afford to pay their quarterly installments.
The revenue-sharing arrangement proposed by the NTP 99, miraculously helped the industry absorb some of their losses and bringing down licence fees to Rs 15,000 crore. The 1999 policy also brought down tariffs from Rs 14 to Rs 6 per minute and increased the subscriber base from 1.2 million to 1.88 million in 2000.
The second important move was to open up the sector further and bring in the third and fourth operator. This increased competition and reduced tariffs to around Rs 4 per minute. The introduction of the calling party pays (CPP) regime making all incoming calls to mobile networks free in 2003 grew the subscribers base to 13 million and brought outgoing call rates to Rs 1.60 per minute.
Despite these achievements, the industry feels that it can boost growth by tapping 800 million people, who are outside the purview of cellular networks in the country. Networking the entire country will, however, require investments of around Rs 100,000 crore, almost double the amount that has been invested in the last decade. 3G networks, enabling faster data transaction, are expected to be rolled out by 2006. These will enable next generation applications like mobile payments, telemedicine and e-education through wireless broadband.
Issues like spectrum allocation, taxes and levies, access deficit charge (ADC) and disbursement of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund still remain to be resolved.
Source: bsnl.in
posted by FunTooZ.Com @ 11:37 PM
`Creative` wannabes haunt IT majors
False claims of experience and certificates have come back to haunt the HR managers of software firms again, thanks to the boom in the sector. With no dearth of people wanting to join a top IT company, some go to any extent of trying to ‘sneak’ in through straight forward false representation. The menace was last seen during the late 90s when the industry raced towards the dotcom boom. With companies again rushing to fill vacancies in the least possible time, there is no dearth of pretenders claiming to possess good software skills. “Forgery is again becoming common,” says Madan Padaki, co-founder of MeriTrac, an HR consulting firm that assesses candidates for firms. “This is primarily rampant among software professionals in the 1-5 years of experience band and not so much in other areas like IT infrastructure management or sales professionals,” Satish Chandra R, head - resourcing, Wipro Infotech, says. Synergy Infotech faced a peculiar problem when a software major headquartered in New Jersey contacted them to verify the credentials of a candidate who had applied to them. The individual had produced a relieving letter on the letterhead of Synergy Infotech. On verifying, Synergy discovered that no such person ever existed on their rolls and the letter was forged. “Currently we ensure that we do reference checks for all our new recruits. And during reference checks, we take care that we insist on switchboard phone numbers of the companies where the referee works instead of mobile numbers. This will ensure genuineness of the process,” added Chandra. This was not always the case and even now not everybody is so careful. Recalls Chiranjit Banerjee, general partner of PeoplePlus Consulting, “It was the H1B visa hunt during the body shopping era that set off the creative CV writing industry in India.” Candidates were shortlisted on the basis of their CVs that were often doctored (even by employers) and final selection was done through a telephonic interview. Hyderabad emerged a front-runner in this. In their hurry to deploy onsite resources for Y2K, US sponsors often did away with a personal interview of the potential candidate. Today, things are more organised with job sites and recruitment consultants. But these professional players only added “finesse” in the dressing up of candidates’ CVs. Indian IT companies are also a part of the game “showcasing their resources, whose who can barely speak two sentences of error-free English as champions to their US and other foreign clients.” To stop the menace, Padaki suggests some preventive steps. First is basic resume screening where a technical person does the screening and tries to detect any disconnects in the claims of the candidate. Then comes another step of test through technologies. These tests filter out the not-so-genuine candidates. Next comes CV validation. There is a template for each type of job and the requirements for it. As a proactive measure, Wipro Infotech used an external agency to do the background checks. This is done on a random basis to check the authenticity of the educational qualifications and the last two work experiences. Says Kulkarni: “If every sector grows uniformly and if there is an all-round boom, then such situations do not arise.” There are enough jobs for everyone to be happy without recourse to creative CV writing. But when individual sectors boom, all that companies can do is to be extra careful and vet CVs more rigorously.
Source: business-standard.com
posted by FunTooZ.Com @ 11:34 PM
Now, pay electricity bills via SMS!
New Delhi: Ever thought of paying electricity bills through SMS and without the fear of online banking frauds? Better still, dreamt of recharging your mobile without walking down to the shop when you are hard-pressed for time? All this and much more is possible with Itz Cash, a multi-purpose pre-paid card that enables consumers to shop online, book railway tickets, buy Internet connection packages, play online games and pay utility bills. Itz card is a product of Intrex India Ltd, an Essel Group company. ''We are also tying up with Reliance India Mobile and Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd to offer anytime anywhere mobile recharge facility through Itz card,'' Intrex Executive Director Navin Surya told UNI here. The tie-ups will be announced next week. ''For Airtel, the initial agreement is only for the Mumbai circle while RIM subscribers across India will be able to use Itz for recharging pre-paid mobiles,'' he said. Available in denominations ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 10,000, Itz card has an account number and password, which has to be used while making a transaction online or through SMS. No processing fee is involved. Mobile users can enter the recharge amount and SMS to 7575, which is the Intrex mobility platform offering a bouquet of SMS-based applications. ''The required sum will be deducted from Itz card and the mobile will be recharged,'' he said. For payment of utility bills, Intrex will soon finalise an agreement with an electricity firm in Delhi and with another company in Mumbai. ''The announcements will be made by this month-end,'' Surya said, refusing to name the companies. ''In case of payment through credit cards and online banking, the user's whole account is at risk. And increasing number of online frauds are also discouraging people from online shopping. Itz cash is safe as the amount involved is limited to a maximum of Rs 10,000,'' he added. Exemplifying other uses of the card, Surya said if a user wants to make a donation to the Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai, he simply has to type SVT on his mobile, enter the account number and password on the Itz card and SMS to 7575, ''The user will immediately receive a confirmation and can send her address to receive prasad from the temple. Soon other temples will be added to our list,'' he said. Itz Cash is available across the country through Asian Sky Shop franchisee network, Playwin retailers, Dish TV outlets and Indiatimes shopping portal. The company has already tied up with IRCTC, Indiatimes.com, Rediff.com, Asian Sky Shop, ZEE Interactive Learning Systems, HCL Infinet, Dish TV and Playwin to provide value options to consumers. Besides Itz Cash and 7575 platform, Intrex line of business includes Trade Exchange, which is India's first-ever cashless trade exchange offering Indian businesses an integrated platform for their finance, marketing and sourcing requirements. Intrex achieved a turnover of Rs 225 crores in 2004-05 and posted a profit of Rs 70 lakhs during the period. ''We are looking at around Rs 300 crore turnover from Itz card alone this fiscal and are targeting a total turnover of Rs 450 crore,'' Surya added. Source : Sify.com
posted by FunTooZ.Com @ 11:31 PM
Fuel cells use bacteria to charge mobile phones
Carrying the charging kit along with the mobiles is no doubt a tedious affair. While scientists all over the world are busy finding the right recipe to manufacture a fuel cell that would keep the battery for a mobile phone last longer, Prof Chris Pickett and his colleagues at the John Innes Centre have come up with a brand new fuel cell. They have succeeded in building an active part of a bacterial enzyme that works like a miniature hydrogen fuel cell.
If everything works out fine, this would make the world's first efficient bacterial battery that would recharge a cell phone or any other portable electronic device within a few seconds.
This fuel cell would definitely be superior than most of the others, currently released in the market as it would replace the expensive platinum catalysts in fuel cells that break up molecules of hydrogen gas, releasing electrons that generate an electrical current.
Prof Picket et al have utilised the iron-sulphur enzymes of the bacteria that would catalyse a range of important chemical reactions that industry can only do by using precious metal catalysts and/or high temperatures and pressures.
The bacterial battery reportedly will hit the market in mid 2006 and could be used in environments where it is difficult or costly to charge the batteries.Source: Bsnl.in
posted by FunTooZ.Com @ 11:35 PM
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