The Department of Atomic Energy has planned on importing 420 tonnes of uranium for nuclear power generation. This is expected to translate to a 30 per cent increase in nuclear power capacity. A total of 600 MW of power is expected to be generated. The government revised their forecast for growth in power generation in 2009-10 to 5.3 per cent from 4.6 per cent estimated previously.

Budget 2009-10, which allocates INR 20.8 bn to the power reforms programme over the previous year, will lead to growth in power generation. The government has increased its spending by 160 per cent for the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms programme which will further boost the industry.

The mobile value added services market is estimated to grow exponentially at 60% over 2009-2013 to hit INR 251 bn. VAS revenues are expected to account for a major fraction of the revenues of telecom operators. In India, the revenues of operators have been falling due to the falling Average Revenue Per User.  Major VAS services will include SMS, Ringtone, Caller Ring Back Tone (CRBT) and Games using SMS, IVR, GPRS and WAP as delivery platforms.

Foreign players are foraying into the Indian VAS market through an inorganic growth model in order to capitalize on the opportunities in the industry. 2ergo Group plc, a listed provider of mobile marketing, acquired UK-based mobile marketing and value-added service provider Activemedia Technologies Ltd (AMT) at an initial investment of £179,000. Activemedia’s wholly-owned Indian subsidiary Active Media Technologies Pvt Ltd has also been acquired. This will give 2ergo access to the Indian market which is estimated to be approximately six times the size of the UK market in terms of subscribers.

Nextcell, a telecom application services provider, has begun expanding with a new facility in Hyderabad equipped with state-of-the-art IT infrastructure including a data center. They plan on entering the global market by launching various value added services which includes messaging, IVR, mobile advertising and data services.

@VCCircle : Etisalat DB, a joint venture between Etisalat, leading telecommunications company in the Middle East and Dynamix Balwas Group signed a passive infrastructure sharing agreement with Reliance Infratel Limited and Reliance Communications Limited to outsource their telecom infrastructure requirements for the 15 telecom circles, encompassing end-to-end tower and transmission infrastructure. This deal is likely to accelerate Etisalat DB Telecom’s forthcoming roll-out of telecom services in India.

FnBNews : Globally the non-alcoholic beverages market is valued at USD 650 bn and is expected to hit USD 1 tr by 2020. The Indian bottled water market is currently pegged at USD 300 mn.

Some of the major drivers of the bottled water market in India have been the changing demographics & consumption and buying patterns, increasing urbanization due to migration from rural areas, shift from unorganized to organized sector. Consumer perception which associates a healthy lifestyle more with bottled water than any other bottled beverage is leading to a growing market.

The Indian nuclear power market is expected to develop in to a USD 40 bn industry by 2020. The total power generation capacity from 17 operational nuclear power plants stands at 4,120 MW. Nuclear power currently accounts for only 2.3% of India’s total electricity generation. India is planning to develop nuclear facilities in order that it contributes 5% of the total power generated amounting to 20GW by 2020 and 35% (63GW) by 2030.

Gujarat plans on installing nuclear power plants with a generation capacity of 8000 MW. This project is expected to attract an investment of INR 800 bn. A total of 6 sites have been identified including Ahmedabad, Junagadh and others in Bhavnagar district. These power plants will use nuclear reactors which will be purchased from the US under the nuclear deal. 40% of the power generated will to be used for state consumption purposes.

Two new power plants are expected to be operational by December, 2009. Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP) at Kota and at the Kaiga Atomic Power Project (KAPP) in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district. The plants will have a capacity of 220 MW each. These facilities will operate on imported uranium from Russia and France.

The growing opportunities in India are also attracting foreign players to tap in to this sector. Westinghouse Electric Co. and a venture between General Electric Co. and Hitachi Ltd. are expected to develop two nuclear power plants in India. Sweden has proposed to provide nuclear technology assistance.

In order to create larger corporate participation in this sector it has been proposed that private corporate investment in nuclear power, subject to regulation by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and the Atomic Energy Commission, should be permitted allowing up to 49% FDI in this sector.