It’s cellular all the way !
New Delhi: India is soon getting swamped by a global revolution that happening in mobile communications. As cell phones and the Internet try to meet for an ultimate marriage of convenience, there’s an excited buzz about creating an information-everywhere society.

According to the Cellular Operators Association, the mobile market in the country is growing at the rate of 79 per cent annually. The total number of subscribers is increasing by a whopping 50,000 every month, bringing the total number of users as of May this year to 2,041,181 as compared to 1,141,538 last May.

The four metros have been showing the fastest growth. In the four metros there’s been clipping growth. In Delhi, the number of subscribers grew 66 per cent, in Mumbai 60 per cent, to 3,38,390 from 2,11,907; Calcutta a staggering 138 per cent, and Chennai 84 per cent. The industry hopes to cross the three million-mark this year all across the country.

According to an industry expert, as cell phones get more and more net-enabled, these figures could turn out to be conservative. The industry has invested Rs 13,000 crore in installing networks, and it plans to plough in another Rs. 20,000 crore over the next four years to extend the network and make parts of it Net-ready.

Despite the bulk of the users currently being in the SEC A and SEC B categories, recent studies by the industry show that the penetration in the SEC C category has also begun.
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Air France looking keenly at Air India
Chennai: According to Mr. Gerard Petit, Air France’s general manager for India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Maldives, the French national airline is keen to to pick up a stake in India’s national carrier, Air-India. It is, however, waiting for a clearer picture to emerge from the Centre on the proposed disinvestment.

Mr. Petit was speaking on the occasion of launching the SkyTeam alliance comprising Air France, Delta Airlines, Korean Air and Aeromexico in Chennai. This alliance will enable passengers to choose from 6,402 daily flights including more non-stop destinations between the US and Europe than any other airline grouping.
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Corporation Bank to rope in foreign partner
Mumbai: Corporation Bank is said to be in talks with five consultants -- Merrill Lynch, Dresdner Kleinworth Benson, KPMG, ABN Amro and JM Morgan Stanley – for for choosing a foreign strategic partner for its proposed life insurance venture.

The bank plans to take an equity stake of 74 per cent in the proposed venture. The partner will be chosen based on the pricing the bank will receive for the proposed venture. However, the government, as the majority stake equityholder, will need to be consulted before arriving at a decision.

The bank has tied up with the National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL) for becoming a depository participant (DP). It is in the process of identifying select branches to start off its demat services. The bank has already started providing loans against demat shares and DP services will allow it to increase its customer base.
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