<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[DARK TRUTH: The gap between demand
and supply keeps widening (Bloomberg)
Year 2009-10 is expected to have a record addition to power capacity. According to a detailed study by the government on the power situation published recently, a total of 12,770 MW of fresh capacity is expected to be added during the current financial year — the highest addition ever in a single year.
Bulk of this addition will be in the form of thermal power projects (coal) amounting to 11,400 MW, while fresh nuclear and hydro power projects add up to 1,300 MW. That is some good news.
But does this mean that power shortages are going to come down? No. On the contrary, the study says that “there would be energy shortage of 9.3 per cent and peak shortage of 12.6 per cent in the country”.
This means that the growth in demand is far greater than the growth in supply. In fact, during 2008-09, the peak shortage was 11.9 per cent.
The study says that in the coming years, 10 of 28 states will face a peak power deficit of above 20 per cent. Also, peaking shortage would prevail in all the regions varying from 6.3 per cent in the eastern region to 15. 5 per cent in the northern region. Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya are expected to be the worst-hit and will face acute peak power shortages ranging from 18 to even 44 per cent.
The study highlights that the peak shortage in 2009 will be above 10 per cent in all months except in August and September. The power shortages witnessed during the first few weeks of 2009-10 probably stand testimony to the shape of things to come.
TELECOM
Costly Call
The new proposal could end the rat race to add subscribers
WRONG NUMBERS: Operators have been
issuing SIM cards without proper verification
(Bloomberg)
Telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are a worried lot. A committee set up by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has suggested a fee of Rs 800 crore for the additional 1 MHz spectrum that operators seek, beyond the 6.2 MHz they have been given so far.
The operators were huddled in a meeting on Thursday. Ostensibly, the hit is big for advocates of subscriber-linked spectrum allocation. An operator in a metro such as Delhi or Mumbai seeking 5 MHz of spectrum would have to cough up Rs 4,000 crore for the elusive 3G spectrum. Currently, the operators get additional spectrum without paying any additional fee for every 100,000 subscribers added in a circle.
The subscriber-linked criteria became controversial as operators started to inflate the subscriber numbers by issuing SIM cards without proper verification. This resulted in security concerns and despite the home ministry’s efforts to curb it, operators have been issuing SIM cards to shore up their numbers. The committee’s recommendation, if adopted by DoT, could end this rat race to add subscribers to get more spectrum.
Telecom companies and the Cellular Operators Association of India refused to comment on the issue.
M. Rajendran
GLOBAL NEWS
The US has joined the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), ending its three years of estrangement from the UN body. With this, the Barack Obama administration has reversed the Bush policy, which considered the UNHRC as ineffective. Belgium, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan and Norway have also been elected to the 47-member UNHRC.
Click here to view 'Deficit To Increase'
RBI
Wanted: Dy Governors
The top brass at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working harder these days. The central bank is now without two deputy governors — V. Leeladhar retired in December 2008, and Rakesh Mohan quit last month to pursue academics at Stanford, eight months before his term was to end.
While Mohan’s exit came as a surprise to many, the fact is that the authorities knew well in advance that a replacement for Leeladhar had to be found. In the days following the exit of Leeladhar, names of many possible successors were going around. Notable among these were IDBI Bank’s Yogesh Agarwal, Bank of India’s T.S. Narayanasami, and Punjab National Bank’s K.C. Chakrabarty.
The grapevine has it that RBI has been resisting some of the names being pushed for Leeladhar’s post. The stalemate reflects poorly on the authorities. At a time when the country requires the best available brains at the central bank to steer the economy, the posts are lying vacant due to file pushers and lobbyists.
Raghu Mohan
(Businessworld Issue Dated 19-25 May 2009)