Will freeing long distance telephony pare DTS revenues?
New Delhi: As the government prepares to completely liberalise long-distance telephony, with no restriction on the number of operators, vested interests, including telecom unions, are stating that this move is likely to cause a substantial revenue loss to the government.

It is being said that the move is likely to pare the department of telecom services’ revenues by 10 to 15 per cent, besides bringing down the valuation of DTS, currently pegged at Rs 250,000 crore by some international consultants, by at least 15 per cent.

These interests are quoting examples of other countries, where such liberalisation has taken place, to prove their point. According to them, in countries like the UK, the incumbent operator, British Telecom, was corporatised first and subsequently privatised before the entry of private players. This gave enough lead-time to British Telecom to adapt, as a result of which it is still the largest operator in the UK.

Private players like Mr. Sunil Mittal, of the Bharti group, do not fully agree with this. According to Mr. Mittal, there is not much difference between total liberalisation and restricting number of operators to four. He believes that in a competitive environment, not more than four private NLD operators will survive. He also believes that, if the DTS has to survive competition, it has to change its work culture.
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New internet domain suffixes approved by Icann board
Yokohama: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the private corporation overseeing changes on the internet, approved the creation of the first new top-level domain names on the computer network since the 1980s.

These domain names will bring in additions to the existing website suffixes such as ".com" and ".org". The resolution, approving this change was passed unanimously by Icann’s 19-member board, in its recent meeting held in Japan.

The reaction across the Internet world has been unanimous. Almost everyone has hailed the move as a major step. However, a lot still needs to be done since the board has failed to set clear guidelines for the number of new names to be introduced.

Icann was chosen by the US government in 1998 to take over Internet naming duties.
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RBI may give final clearance for Stanchart’s ANZ takeover
Mumbai: Following its assurance to the Reserve Bank of India, that it will honour the ANZ Grindlay’s undertaking to the courts in the arbitration award against National Housing Bank, the country’s central bank is all set to clear the Standard Chartered Bank’s acquisition of ANZ Grindlay’s India operations.

As a prelude to the official clearance, Stanchart has furnished a comfort letter to the RBI on the arbitration case and has also agreed that no decision on redeployment or retrenchment of staff would be taken without the central bank’s permission.

As per current plans, Stanchart and ANZ Grindlays will continue to function as separate entities for a year. The two entities will have 5,000-strong staff spread over 58 branches. RBI had asked Stanchart for the details of the staff deployment policy after the acquisition as it did not want to be dragged into any litigation on labour issues.

With the RBI clearing the deal, the central banks of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, which have been awaiting the RBI decision, are also likely to follow suit, thus bringing down the curtains on the $1.3 billion acquisition deal.

Mr. Douglas Beckette, who has been with Stanchart in Indonesia and Malaysia, is likely to oversee the merger of the two entities as the chief integration officer in India. Mr. Peter Sullivan is the global integration co-ordinator.
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Bears may get upper hand if Sensex closes below 4846 level
Mumbai : According to knowledgeable market sources, the bears may have the upper hand in the coming week if the sensex breaks or closes below the 4,846 level. Already, after having topped out at 5,056, the sensex tumbled to close at 4,856 level on Friday.

These sources also say that, in the coming week, FMCG stocks and certain cement stocks like ACC, L&T, India Cement will gain strength. Infotech stocks will go through a market correction in their prices.
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