The new political set-up may result in Congress staking claim for the telecom portfolio, a sector which has not witnessed a Congress leader as minister for quitesome time now. Since the 2000's the telecom sector has witnessed the ministry being headed by BJP and DMK leaders. This was the same time that the industry went on a boom. Congress will certainly like to contribute to the growth of the sector as well. While the ministry appeals to DMK as well, some of whose leaders have immediate interests in sectors related to the ministry, the Congress may appoint one of its younger leaders to head the ministry. Jyotiraditya Scindia can fit in this role as he was the Minister of State for Communications in the last government and is well versed with the sector.

To start with, the new telecom minister is expected to take a final call on policy guidelines for 3G and wireless broadband services in the country. The last tenure of the UPA government failed to reach a consensus on the policy guidelines for these services. The reason was that the different ministries i.e. Home, Defence and Telecom where headed by leaders of different parties and there was always a trouble to work as a collective unit.

It is also expected that consensus pertaining to vacation of spectrum by the defence forces can be reached now.

Also with less dependence on allies, the Congress Party can expect to be less bothered by political leaders like Amar Singh who had pressurized the government to retrieve additional spectrum from incumbent GSM operators while extending support for the nuclear deal.

Overall the industry can expect relatively quick policy-related decisions and reduced delays over issues concerning the industry.

Welcome to a newly-wired India, where political parties are using text messages to send updates and leaders are sprucing up their pages on social networking sites in an effort to connect with the country's growing young and plugged-in generation.

With nearly 700 million people eligible to cast their votes in an April and May general election, the ruling Congress party and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are devoting more time to first-time voters and the tech-savvy middle class.

The reasons are not hard to find: a booming economy that grew at about 9 percent in the last three years encouraged rapid penetration of Internet and mobile phone ownership, giving politicians tools to connect with even far-flung areas.

"We have 100 million first-time voters in the age group 18-24, and they are all most likely connected via the Internet and mobile phones," said Diptarup Chakraborti, a principal research analyst at Gartner consultancy.

Now, after a successful presidential campaign by a youthful, tech-savvy Barack Obama, as well as the Mumbai attacks last November, a groundswell of activism and political awareness among the youth is apparent, particularly in the cities.

Both Congress and the BJP's prime ministerial candidates are elderly, but that has not stopped the parties from reaching out to the youth, using text messages, campaign tunes and videos.

L.K. Advani, the iPhone-carrying, 81-year-old leader of Hindu nationalist BJP, has posted his own blog (http://blog.lkadvani.in).

"In my own political life spanning six decades, I have enthusiastically embraced every new communication technology -- from the early simple Casio digital diary to iPod and iPhone," he wrote in a blog that drew more than 100 comments.

BJP teams have made YouTube campaign videos and their election offices in New Delhi are packed with youngsters glued to computer screens to update campaign websites.

"There are emotional and functional reasons for using technology: functionally, it is more cost-effective and more participative than say, a rally or an advertisement," said Kiran Khalap, co-founder of brand consultancy Chlorophyll.

"And emotionally, they want to be like the cool urban youth they want to connect with," he said.

A YOUNG GANDHI
The BJP's main competitor for the youth vote may be Rahul Gandhi, 38, son of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and head of the party's youth wing. He is tech-savvy, and has been doing the rounds of colleges, mingling with students and posing for pictures taken on camera phones.

Gandhi has thousands of supporters on Facebook and his portrait dominates many election billboards, even though it is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 76, who is the party's candidate for the top job.

The Congress party has bought the rights to Oscar-winning anthem "Jai Ho," whose title is Hindi for "Let There Be Victory," from the movie "Slumdog Millionaire."

But the two main parties' reach may pale with the 55,000 YouTube views of Omar Abdullah's rousing speech in parliament last year in defense of secularism and a civil nuclear deal.

Abdullah, 38, the youngest chief minister of restive Jammu and Kashmir state and seen as a rising political star, has a Facebook profile and also wrote a blog.

One-fourth of the electorate is below the age of 25, but in previous years few parties courted this segment because it was not so politically-inclined.

Now, an ad for a mobile firm shows a leader using text messages for feedback from her constituency, while a campaign (http://www.jaagore.com) aims to persuade urban youth to vote.

Only about 10 percent of urban youth voted in the last general election in 2004, said Sangeeta Talwar, an executive director at Tata Tea which is running the Jaago Re campaign.

"If the youth are made to feel they have the power to influence the outcome of the election and the future of the country, that's a very powerful motivator," said Talwar.

But a hit song and blogs alone can't do magic, said Khalap.

"Awareness may grow, but whether it will change attitudes and behavior of voters and politicians remains to be seen," he said.

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National e-Governance Plan www.negp.gov.in

This would mean allowing subscribers to choose their carrier for making long-distance calls whether domestic or international (STD and ISD).

This implies that a Vodafone subscriber can buy a prepaid long distance package from any other telecom service provider like the state-owned BSNL for a particular period. The customer is required to punch in a set of numbers specified on the calling card to get on the BSNL network and make calls.

However, the issue of internet telephony has been referred back to the telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), for its recommendations.

Internet telephony, if approved, will allow consumers to make calls from their personal computers or laptops to fixed lines or mobile phones in India or abroad. They could also make a call to personal computers from their mobile handsets.

Internet Telephone will help consumers make STD calls for as cheap as 10-40 paise per minute, apart from making free local calls from their computers or mobiles or fixed lines.

Source: thaindian.com Calling cards offer flexibility to consumers: Scindia

In yet another attempt to attract foreign capital into India and stem the fall of the rupee, the country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India or RBI on Wednesday allowed external commercial borrowings, or ECB, up to $500 million (Rs2,465 crore) per year under the automatic route for rupee or foreign currency expenditure by local firms.

The Indian government on 23 September raised the overseas borrowing limit to finance their rupee expenditure fivefold to $500 million in a move to provide easier access to funds for infrastructure firms.

This has now been extended to firms across sectors, and put in the so-called automatic route, making the approval of the regulator for such loans automatic and cutting down the procedural delays.

The new norms take effect immediately.RBI has also removed the seven-year minimum average maturity requirement for ECBs of more than $100 million by infrastructure companies.
RBI also allowed ECBs for making payments for 3G spectrum licences, a move that will help telecom companies.

Liberalizing the procedure for bringing ECB proceeds into India, RBI has allowed borrowers to keep the money with Indian banks abroad, or remit these funds to India for credit to their rupee accounts.

In A development that could completely liberalise mobile commerce, the department of telecommunication (DoT) will soon write to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking guidance on linking telephone networks with banking services.

While the RBI recently announced certain guidelines for mobile banking in India, it only provides for a few basic banking services which can be undertaken through mobile phones. The new DoT move will allow consumers to virtually use mobile phone as a debit or credit card.

Sources told SundayET that the ministry would seek RBI's consultation to provide fullfledged mobile banking services to the customers, in line with discussion held between the 13th Finance Commission team and DoT officials on September 18, 2008. According to a senior DoT official, the ministry has so far not taken any initiative on linking telephone networks with banking services, but is keen on it as it will generate revenues, in addition to giving more value to telephone customers. "These services can increase the share of value-added services from the existing 7-8% of total revenues from the sector to almost about 25% which is the case in the developed countries," DoT said to the Commission's team. SundayET has a copy of the discussion paper prepared by DoT.

Explaining how the new initiative would help Indian consumers, Romal Shetty, director at KPMG India, said it would change the entire face of banking in the country. "So far, consumers can make only a few basic transactions through the mobile, but this will mean using your mobile as your credit or debit card. All you have to do is to send a message to make a payment," he said.

The Minister of State for Communications and IT, Mr. Jyotiraditya Scindia, has called for collaboration between the Government and the private sector to empower students with technology enabled education. He was launching Intel's 5th World Ahead Community Program in the country in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh today. Mr Scindia said, this is necessary to develop citizen welfare and advance the social and economic status of India. The Minister underlined the power of the Internet to make a meaningful difference in people's lives by providing access to vast resources of learning, creating opportunities for better employment, and enhancing healthcare facilities for citizens.

The Intel World Ahead Community Program involves the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies in one place, by providing access to PCs, enabling broadband Internet connectivity, educating teachers and students on the application of technology in day-to-day life, empowering citizens to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, and access to better healthcare. Intel has already established four other World Ahead communities in Baramati in Maharashtra; Tindivanam in Tamil Nadu; Chandni Chowk in Delhi; and Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.

Intel also launched its teacher training program called Intel® Teach, aimed at training 1000 teachers in Shivpuri on applying technology in education, and also announced a donation of 50 PCs for the benefit of over 14 schools in the district. Intel has already trained over 9,02,500 teachers under its Intel Teach initiative, demonstrated the capabilities of school health monitoring and remote diagnostics solutions and has reached out to nearly 40,000 students in India under the Intel Learn Program.

All interested firms have been asked to submit their bids by September 25.

All firms bidding to be the agency to conduct the e-auction will also have to declare their shareholding pattern -- both Indian and foreign (if any).

Besides, the DoT has said that potential bidders cannot have more than 10% stake in any telecom or internet service provider in India. The guidelines also add that only those companies who have a paid up capital of Rs 2.5 crore and a networth of at least Rs 10 crore and has conducted similar auctions before will be eligible to apply.

The DoT has said that the auctions of third generation radio frequencies for telcos will be held within three months of selecting the agency to conduct the same. This implies, if the agency in selected by October, the auctions must be conducted before January, 2009.

Following the first round of auctions, the agency will also have to conduct subsequent auctions as and when radio frequencies are available, the DoT added. All bidders must also quote their fee for conducting the entire auction process. The fee will be the per cent of the of the total revenues they raise from the auction.

"All applicants that meet the eligibility criteria will have to make a presentation before the evaluation committee demonstrating their experience and capacity to conduct the auction," DoT said in a communication on its website.

The department of telecom (DoT) has started discussions on allowing telcos to share spectrum, the radio frequencies on which all mobile services operate.

In a meeting with the minister of state for communication and IT, Jyotiraditya Scindia, earlier this week, the DoT officials listed out the pros and cons of becoming the first country in the world to allow spectrum sharing.

In an internal note that was presented to Mr Scindia the DoT said that spectrum sharing would help telcos use radio frequencies in a `more economic and efficient manner'.

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.