THE HINDU

| 17

BUSINESS

HYDERABAD

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016

The Prime Minister has elucidated

his vision of converting red tape
into red carpet

SENSEX
08-03-16 24,659
07-03-16 24,646

RAMESH ABHISHEK, DIPP Secretary

13

POINTS

GOLD
08-03-16
07-03-16

29,400
29,400

000

/10gm

RUPEE
08-03-16 67.35
04.03-16 67.08

0.27

/$

BRENT OIL
08-03-16 40.48
07-03-16 40.85

0.37
$/bbl

projects in Diu, Silvassa

Ambanis $20 bn bet on TV, telecoms DMIC
halted due to land issues
may rekindle billionaire brothers rivalry
ARUN S

Mukesh Ambani plans to spend about $2 billion over three years to capture Indias TV sets

ndias richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is muscling into the countrys

cable TV sector as part of a media
and telecoms offensive that pits
him against his once-estranged
younger brother and threatens to
shake up both industries.
Ambani controls Reliance Industries, an oil and gas behemoth
that is Indias most profitable conglomerate. He is also now targeting Indias consumers, taking
steps most recently into telecoms,
where he has spent at least $18 billion on 4G telecoms brand RJio,
due to start this year.
Now, he plans to spend about $2
billion over three years to capture
Indias TV sets, two people with
direct knowledge of the matter
said, as he eyes an opportunity to
use his financial clout
in what is a highly
fragmented
sector.
Reliance Industries
SIBLING
declined to comment
on its plans.
RIVALRY
Home entertainredux?
ment is wildly popular in India, but its a
high-volume,
lowmargin
business
where many smaller
local operators control the socalled last mile the connection from fibre optic cable in the
street into the living room.
Mr. Ambanis television unit has
been aggressively wrapping up
deals with hundreds of small players in a street-by-street effort to
conquer that final hurdle in its cable TV drive, people familiar with
the matter said.
It could also snap up rival oper-

Mukesh Ambanis media targets dwarf the largest current player

in either cable or satellite TV. Until 2010, the sectors were,
like telecoms, the preserve of Anil Ambanis Reliance
Communications. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

ators as part of that push, those

sources and analysts said, driving
tie-ups in a densely populated sector that includes Hathway Cable,
Den Networks and Siti Cable.
One Reliance official, who
didnt want to be named because
the targets are not public, said a
mid-year goal of one million subscribers would rise to 5 million
homes in the medium-term. Within three years, the aim is 20
million.
Today, only 20 million homes in
India have a broadband or another
Internet connection indicating
huge potential in a country with a
population of some 1.3 billion.
There are just 1,70,000 subscribers
for wireless Internet through optical fibre.
Once the company manages to

Today, only 20 million homes in India

have a broadband or another Internet
connection indicating huge potential
in a country with a population of some
1.3 billion. There are just 1,70,000 subscribers
for wireless Internet through optical fibre.

Industry executives
say Reliance Industries
clout and scale of
effort will pressure
smaller rivals
crack the last mile... it will be a formidable player, said Rajev Gavi,
Managing Director of Den Satellite Network, a leading cable operator.
Reliance executives say it will
offer a bundled package with hundreds of channels and video-ondemand in high definition, along
with broadband Internet, a landline phone and home surveillance. It will also offer Jio Play, its
version of the Netflix movie and
TV series streaming service.
Lofty aims
Mr. Ambanis targets dwarf the
largest current player in either cable or satellite TV. Until 2010, the
sectors were, like telecoms, the
preserve of Anil Ambanis Reliance Communications , known
as RCom though he has dominated neither and racked up debts

Railways appoints EY to mop

up Rs. 5,000 crore ad revenue

3G data traffic
outpaces 2G for
first time: Nokia

SOMESH JHA

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways has

appointed global consultancy

firm Ernst &Young (EY) to
help the utility mop up advertising revenues worth over
Rs.5,000 crore in the next few
years.
Initiating a large-scale significant exercise to identify
and leverage pan-India advertising opportunities at railway stations and trains, Indian Railways has appointed EY
as consultant to undertake
this job on its behalf, according to a statement from the
Ministry on Tuesday.
In his Budget speech, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu
had said that the utility will
look to increase revenues
from non-tariff sources and
do away with conventional
approach of increasing passenger and freight fares. He
had not announced any increase in passenger fares and
hinted at bringing down
freight fares.
We earn less than 5 per

Indian Railways had

not been able to
increase the
average speed in
the last 10 years
cent of our revenues through
non-tariff sources. Many of
the world railway systems
generate 10 per cent to 20 per
cent of their revenues from
non-tariff sources.
Over a period of the next
five years, we will strive to reach this world average by
monetising assets and undertaking other revenue yielding
activities, Mr. Prabhu had
said
The public utility had decided to create two new directorates tasked with increasing
the speed of trainsand boosting non-fare revenues by
monetising land along the
tracks and advertising.
Members of the Railway
Board recently met to formulate a detailed plan for the two
new verticals to be called Raf-

taar (for increasing the speed

of trains) and non-fare box
revenue, senior Railway Ministry officials said.
The Railway Board met recently and decided to create
two vertical structures with
inter-departmental members
non-fare box revenue and
the other one will be named
Raftaar to bring speed as an
area of focus, an official said.
Officials said the target of
the Indian Railways would be
to increase the average speed
of freight trains by five kilometres per hour in the first
year.
At present, the average
speed of freight trains is 25 km
per hour, passenger trains 35
km, mail express 50 km and
super fast express trains 7080 km per hour, Railway
Board Chairman A. K. Mittal
had said last month.
He had also said that the Indian Railways had not been
able to increase the average
speed in last 10 years as there
was no separate department
to look into this aspect.

Mercedes rolls out blast-proof

civilian vehicle at Rs. 10.50 crore
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz unveiled Maybach S 600 Guard
in India with a price tag of
Rs.10.50 crore (ex-showroom
Delhi).
Most of the global heads of
States, top diplomats, business tycoons and celebrities
prefer a Guard vehicle. The
Mercedes-Maybach S 600
Guard is launched in India
within 15 days of its international debut. With this
launch, we continue to follow
our top of pyramid approach
for the discerning Indian customers, Roland Folger, Managing Director and CEO,
Mercedes Benz India said after introducing the car on
Tuesday.
The car, the company
claims, is the first civilian vehicle to be certified with the
highest ballistic protection
level VR10.

CM
YK

The car, Mercedes claims, is the first civilian vehicle to be

certified with the highest ballistic protection level VR10.
PHOTO: PTI

The Mercedes-Benz Guard

range in India currently comprises the Mercedes-Maybach and S 600 Guard.
The 4.7-tonne vehicle,
which is the most expensive
car from the Mercedes stable
in India, comes with the highest levels of ballistic and blast
protection, available for a
non-military vehicle.

Last month, rival Audi introduced the A8 L Security

sedan with a price starting at
Rs 9.15 crore (ex-showroom,
Delhi).
The car satisfied the criteria of the class VR 9 ballistic
protection standard, which is
one of the most stringent requirements for civilian highsecurity sedans.

of more than $5 billion chasing

growth. The two brothers fell out
more than a decade ago after the
death of their industrialist father,
eventually splitting the family empire under a truce brokered by
their mother. Mukesh took the oil
and gas interests and Anil took
control of RCom, previously run
by Mukesh.
In 2010, they reconciled and
scrapped a non-compete clause.
Within weeks, Mukesh snapped
up the only company to have won a
national licence in Indias broadband wireless spectrum auction,
now called RJio and set to launch
by this summer.
Analysts say the RJio threat
prompted RCom to buy Russian
conglomerate Sistemas mobile
business the first big Indian
telecoms deal in seven years
and it is in talks with Aircel to create the country's second-largest
mobile operator.
RCom declined to comment.
The two have, though, cooperated in some areas.
RCom has a 1,40,000 km, pan-India fibre optic cable network
which RJio will use under a 2014
deal, alongside its own 2,50,000
km network. A Reliance push into
TV will also use RComs network
of towers and cables. In January,
the two companies signed a deal to
share RComs 800 MHz spectrum
for its 4G push.
That could provide something
of a cushion, but is unlikely to ease
the pressure. As Mukeshs telecom
and cable projects take hold, analysts and industry executives say
Reliance Industries clout and the
scale of its effort will pressure
smaller rivals, including RCom.
If you look at each of these
strategies, at the core of it, it's no
different from what others have
done, said Kunal Bajaj, a telecoms
consultant. But (what) the company is planning is at a scale that
no one's done before in India.
Reuters

NEW DELHI: Plans to build a

world-class Integrated Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre at Diu and an Industrial
Park-cum-Logistics Centre in
Silvassa have come to a halt
owing to non-availability of
land, official sources told
The Hindu.
Proposals for these two facilities, part of the Delhi
Mumbai Industrial Corridor
(DMIC), were first taken up
formally in December 2014 at
a meeting between the officials of the DMIC Development
Corporation
(DMICDC) and the authorities of the Union Territories
(UT) of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli (the capital of which is Silvassa).

EXCLUSIVE
The project development
activities for the two facilities
were to be undertaken under
the auspices of DMICDC.
In April 2015, tender documents were issued to select
consultants to prepare the
technical and economic feasibility report for these two facilities. By May 25 last year,
which was the last date for
submission of bid proposals,
four bids were received for
the Silvassa facility and five
for the Diu facility.
The tender value for each
of these two facilities was
about Rs. 8 crore. The bids
were being evaluated.
However, the sources said,
the processes had to be annulled as the authorities concerned of the UTs did not give
any confirmation regarding
the availability of land required for the facilities.
The Silvassa project was to
come up on a total area of
about 100 hectares (both government and private) in Karad, Velugam, Kharadpada,
Parzai and Silvassa, they said.
These UTs together have

Land acquisition
is a major
impediment which
is time-consuming
and cumbersome

around 2,400 factories and

2,700 small scale industries,
employing about one lakh
people. The industries are
mainly in sectors such as plastics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, basic metals and chemicals. Information technology
and tourism are the leading
service sectors. The two proposed facilities were aimed at
boosting manufacturing and
manufacturing-related services there. A total area of
around 490 sq km in Dadra &
Nagar Haveli and about 122 sq
km in Diu & Daman was part
of the DMIC project influence area totalling about 4.37
lakh sq km spread across seven states and three UTs (including Delhi).
The $90 billion-DMIC project envisages industrial hubs
on either side of 1,483 km-long
Dedicated Freight Corridor
(DFC) connecting Delhi and
Mumbai, boosting employment, industrial activity and
exports.
The 2015 Industrial Policy
of the UTs of Daman & Diu
and Dadra & Nagar Haveli
had recognised Silvassas potential to be developed as a
multi-modal logistics hub,
considering it was located
close to the DFC.
Silvassa is situated at the intersection of cargo movement
between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The Industrial Policy
also sought to provide special
focus to eco-tourism in Diu
and to project Diu as an attractive events destination.
The policy had acknowledged that land availability
was becoming a key impediment to industrialisation.
These two UTs were making
efforts to create land banks

for industrial use. They had

also encouraged entrepreneurs to consider land-pooling independently or in partnership with the government.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion,
the nodal Central government agency for the DMIC
project, had also said land acquisition was a major impediment and that it was a timeconsuming and cumbersome
process requiring huge financial resources.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce
is looking into the problems,
including those related to
land acquisition, affecting all
the industrial corridors.
Other sub projects in the
DMIC project that have been
facing land acquisition problems include the PithampurDhar-Mhow Investment Region in Madhya Pradesh
(where private land owners
had challenged the government notification to acquire
around eight sq km) and the
Dholera Special Investment
Region in Gujarat.

Exchange Rates
Indicative direct rates in rupees a unit
except yen at 4 p.m on March 08

Currencies
U.S. Dollar
Euro
Pound Sterling
Jap Yen (100 Units)
Chinese Yuan
Swiss Franc
Singapore Dollar
Australian Dollar
Canadian Dollar
Swedish Kroner
Danish Kroner
New Zealand Dollar
Hongkong Dollar
Malaysian Ringitt
Kuwaiti Dinar
UAE Dirham
Bahraini Dinar
Qatari Riyal
Saudi Riyal
Omani Riyal

TT
TT
Buying Selling
67.15
67.47
73.91
74.27
95.40 95.87
59.43
59.71
10.30 10.39
67.54
67.87
48.49 48.74
50.01 50.27
50.35 50.59
7.89
7.93
9.91
9.95
45.36 45.58
8.65
8.69
16.30
16.41
223.08 224.89
18.28
18.37
176.85 180.28
18.48
18.52
17.94
17.98
173.80 175.87

Source: Indian Bank

NEW DELHI: Mobile broadband

usage in the country grew 50
per cent during 2015 with 3G
traffic outpacing 2G across
the country for the first time,
according to a report from
Nokia. The growth, it said,
was fuelled by growing subscriber appetite for multimedia services with video and
social networking now constituting 60 per cent of data
traffic.

Study
The MBiT Index study,
which tracks mobile broadband performance in India,
found that the 3G traffic in India grew by 85 per cent on the
back of network expansion,
device availability and improved content ecosystem.
Further, 3G data usage per user per month crossed 750 MB.
Aggressive expansion
Aggressive 3G network expansion in existing circles
and new launches by operators has been instrumental
in increasing data traffic in India. It is expected that this data traffic growth will be boosted in coming years by the
auction of additional spectrum, an increase in smartphone penetration and the development of the content
ecosystem, Sandeep Girotra,
Vice-President and Head of
India Market, Nokia said.
Significant growth
Mr. Girotra said the rapid
evolution of the device ecosystem, supported by a decline in prices, would present
significant growth opportunities for operators as they introduce and expand 4G LTE
networks in coming years.
The study also found that 2G
still had the potential to drive
Internet adoption in Category
B and C circles in the short to
medium term.

Bullion Rates
March 08 rates in rupees with
previous rates in brackets

Chennai
Bar Silver (1 kg)
Retail (1 g)
24 ct gold (10 g)
22 ct gold (1 g)

37,710
40.30
29,910
2,797

(37,915)
(40.60)
(29,700)
(2,777)
HY-HY