The Gwalior SPU will produce TMT bars in 8 mm to 25 mm diameter from billets supplied by Steel Authority of India's Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP). Being built at a cost of around Rs 83 crore, the unit will have a mill of 100,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) capacity.

Other major facilities will include a pusher-type reheating furnace, mill trains, crop-cum-cobble shear, TMT line, cooling bed, dividing shear, cut-to-length and bundling and tying facilities for TMT bars. The SPU will also have warehousing facility. The entire project is expected to be completed in 18 months.

This will be SAIL's third SPU in Madhya Pradesh. Mr Paswan had earlier laid the foundation stone for an SPU in Hoshangabad district, which will produce angles, channels, beams/joists and TMT bars, being set up with an investment of around Rs. 154 crore.

The other SPU at Ujjain, being set up with an investment of around Rs 100 crore, will produce TMT bars in 8 mm to 25 mm diameter.

State chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Union minister of state for telecommunications and IT Jyotiraditya Scindia, Gwalior MP Yashodhara Raje, members of the Vidhan Sabha, SAIL chairman SK Roongta and MD of BSP R Ramaraju were also present on the occasion.

The company, which had signed a deal with the state government in this regard in Gwalior, has asked for 300 acres. It also has reportedly, plans to set up a maintenance facility and a technical training institute in Tamot village of Raisen.

"The apex empowered committee on investment today cleared the proposal and has offered a customised package for the company and others in accordance with the industrial promotion policy. The company will have to acquire land, for which the process is going on," said Praveen Garg, managing director of Madhya Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation.

Hero Associate Managing Director Pankaj Munjal had in Gwalior confirmed setting up the facility but declined to divulge details on the project.

The committee has also cleared SPJ Steel Ltd's Rs 2,250 crore integrated steel plant project in Damoh district, Rs 2,800 crore integrated steel project of Rashmi Metaliks, Rs 674 crore expansion plan of Bridgestone Tyres in Pithampur (near Dhar), Rs 26 crore proposal of Parakh Industries in Nimrani Food Park (district Khargone), Rs 91 crore food park project of SKM Infrastructure near Mandideep (Raisen district), Rs 121 crore ethanol project of Dollex Industries in Sagar, Rs 300 crore polyfilm project of Nahar Polyfilms and Rs 60 crore project of Surya Roshni in Chhindwara district.

The committee also extended the deadline of registration for investment promotion incentives till March 31, 2009. The company may apply for incentives and concessions till next year.

Further, the committee has also approved a proposal of awarding `C' category to Sehore district (near Bhopal) to offer maximum concessions to industrial investment.

Companies that make investment in the `C' category backward district are offered more concessions and sops. This was the last meeting of the empowered committee on investment. The Election Commission will declare the code of conduct next month.

"There is no plan to privatise BSNL, but thinking is going on coming out with an IPO with a cap of 10 per cent only," Scindia told reporters here yesterday.

The money generated through an IPO would be used to strengthen the BSNL network in far-flung areas, he said.

He said that there is a gulf between privatisation and IPO and added that to capture investment and market share, IPO is necessary.

But what took everybody by surprise was former state unit Congress chief Subhash Yadav's proposal to contest the upcoming assembly elections under the leadership of Kamal Nath, describing him as the future chief minister before the people. This was seconded by former chief minister, Digvijay Singh, who gave the call for formation of a Congress government in the state.

"The rally was attended by almost all the senior party leaders including Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Suresh Pachauri, Jamuna Devi and others," state Congress general secretary Rajiv Singh told IANS. Central minister Arjun Singh, however, could not attend the meet due to health reasons, but his son and MLA Ajay Singh was present.

National leaders like the party's in charge for Madhya Pradesh and union Parliamentary Affairs State Minister Narayan Sami and Congress spokesman Veerappa Moily were also present.

The state-level convention, organised at the Dussehra Maidan, saw a huge gathering. Senior leaders took a pledge to form the next government in the state.

They said corruption would be the main poll plank against the ruling BJP.

The Congress leaders promised to waive off farmers' loans for five years and provide free electricity up to 5 HP motors if their party is voted to power.

They also promised to implement the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission for state government staff and removing discrepancies in the Fifth Pay Commission.

`Senior party leaders, including Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh, Ajay Singh, Shrinivas Tiwari, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Suresh Pachauri, Kantilal Bhuria and others, have already given their consent to attend the meet at Chhindwara on Aug 22,' state Congress general secretary Rajiv Singh told IANS.

`Central Minister Arjun Singh will not be able to attend the meet due to health reasons, but his son and MLA Ajay Singh will be present,' he said.

The meet reminds many of the Dabra convention.

`The Dabra convention, organised in 1993 at the behest of the late Madhavrao Scindia, is considered a milestone in the recent history of the Congress in the state as it led to the public reposing faith in the party during the 1993 and 1998 assembly polls as it conveyed a message of unity among state leaders,' recalled a state Congress leader.

`The need of a similar convention was being felt to bring all the warring factions in the state Congress together if the BJP is to be thrown out of power,' he said.

While talking exclusively with SundayET, minister of state for communications & information technology Jyotiraditya Scindia agreed that finance minister P Chidambaram had every right to clarify things. "We will raise a huge amount of money through this auction, and the money is not going to be with the telecom ministry. Whatever amount we raise, it will go to the consolidated fund of India, which is very much under the finance ministry. They (finance ministry) have every right to raise questions if they have any concern. We will answer their queries," Mr Scindia said.

The minister, however, said that there was no question of being non-transparent in the 3G auction process. "We have prepared the guidelines in the most transparent manner and are ready to answer any question that the finance ministry might have," Mr Scindia further said.

Earlier, the finance ministry had raised objections to the ministry of communications' formal announcement of auction process for services that will enable operators to provide facilities such as fast Internet access, video calls, games and a host of multimedia content on cell phones. The finmin officials argued it had not been consulted before the guidelines were issued, a mandatory step for government policies with fiscal implications.

There was a feud between the communications ministry and telecom regulator TRAI over the reserve price for pan-India 3G spectrum auction. The ministry has now doubled it to Rs 2,260 crore. The finance ministry's opposition, however, is because of the breach of protocol.

"Let us see what type of alliance takes shape between SP and Congress in Uttar Pradesh. The ties between the two parties in Madhya Pradesh will be based on the outcome of the alliance in UP," Scindia told reporters on Monday.

Asked whether the ruling BSP in Uttar Pradesh would be a challenge for the Congress in the state, he said, any party could be a force during the polls.

"Political parties should not take their rivals lightly," he said.

Referring to the declaration of party candidates, Scindia said, keeping in view the recommendations made by the Future Challenges committee, the Congress may declare its candidates for the coming assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh a month in advance.

On party's agenda during the assembly polls, the Union Minister said, the issues will be power, water, roads and corruption.

"I have decided to connect all villages through IT with the rest of the world. Accordingly, Madhya Pradesh will get Rs 375 crore to provide IT network to its rural areas," Union Minister for Communications and IT Jyotiraditya Scindia said while launching the e-district project here on Monday.

With the launching of e-district project there would be transparency in government departments and people will get benefit of several schemes of the government at their doorstep only, he said.

Initially, the project would be implemented in five districts in Madhya Pradesh in which 9,232 e-kiosks will be set up to provide host of facilites to the people.

On the occasion, Scindia also handed over a letter appointing Wipro's Devendra Punia as Consultant of the e-district project.

The condition of Grameen Dak Sewaks is considered very poor as they aren't getting as much social security and status as other Centrals government employees get.

As the next general election is not far away, somewhere around the first quarter of the next year, the UPA government has taken the right step to entice the three and half lakh Grameen Dak Sewaks across the villages in the country.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development on the request of Minister of State, Communications & Information Technology Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, has decided to treat the children of postmen equivalent to that of Central Government/ Defence employees in terms of giving admission in Central Schools.

`From the next academic year, the children of Grameen Dak Sewaks would also get similar opportunity as given to other central government employees in terms availing better and quality education,' said an official release.

The Minister for Communications, Mr A. Raja (right), and the Minister of State, Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia, addressing a press conference in the Capital on Friday.

3G services are expected to facilitate higher speeds and data throughputs, which enable the delivery of a wide range of multimedia services, including video telephony, e-commerce and television on mobile devices like handsets, smart phones and palm tops. For instance, a 3-minute song can be downloaded in 15 seconds using 3G compared with the 8 minutes needed in existing mobile technologies. Consumers will, however, have to pay extra for the service and also buy a 3G-compatible handset.

To start with, only 4-5 operators per circle will be selected from the auction process due to limited availability of spectrum. Delhi and Mumbai will each have only two 3G operators of which one slot has already been given to the State-owned MTNL. Given that there are at least 9-10 private players in the fray, the lower number of slots could make the bidding more aggressive, especially in the two metro cities. That could in turn make 3G services expensive for consumers.

But operators said they would make 3G affordable in a price-sensitive market like India. "If 3G has to succeed in India, then operators will have to take the affordability plank. We have seen this in voice services where the uptake was low as long as the tariffs were high. In other countries, 3G may be a premium service but here it could be a different story," said Mr T.V. Ramachandran, Director-General, Cellular Operators Association of India.

Mr Raja said that while 2-3 CDMA players will also be given 3G spectrum, the total number of operators may go up to 10 subsequently if the Defence releases more spectrum. The Government will clarify the total number of slots up for grabs based on the spectrum availability, before the auction begins. Mr Raja said the Government hoped to rake in close to Rs 30,000 crore from the auction process.

The Minister said that the Department of Telecom will appoint an independent agency to carry out the global online auction within 15 days. The agency will be asked to work out the modalities of the auction within 45 days.

The auction will be open to both existing and new players. Existing operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone will have to pay a minimum base price of Rs 2,020 crore if they want to offer 3G services across the country. But new and foreign players such as AT&T and NTT DoCoMO will have to pay an additional entry fee of Rs 1,650 crore to acquire a unified access licence to qualify for 3G services.

Analysts said that the policy may act as deterrent to many foreign players. "A foreign player will have to commit a minimum investment of $1 billion for 3G in India. That will make sure that only a few serious players will come in," said Mr Prashant Singhal, head of telecom practice at Ernst & Young.

DoT has also made it mandatory for the new players to have prior experience in rolling out 3G services. This means that some of the Indian companies such as Hindujas, Jindal and DLF, which had earlier sought a telecom licence, will have to partner with a global player with 3G experience if they want to participate in the auction.

The biggest gainers are State-owned BSNL and MTNL, which have already been given 3G spectrum ahead of the rest. The two companies are planning to launch services within the next 3-6 months.