@ Economic Times: S Tel and Reliance Infratel have signed an infrastructure agreement for sharing telecom towers, transmission for BTS sites and fibre backbone for intercity connectivity. The pact covers six circles – Orissa, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Northeast, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir. S Tel, is a new telecom operator in the lndian Telecom Sector, it acquired a Unified Access Services License (UASL) and spectrum to operate in these six circles

@Economic Times: Datacom Solutions has signed an infrastructure sharing deal with Tata Teleservices (TTSL) that will allow it to lease bandwidth as well as towers across the country from the Tata group. The company is expected to launch services by the end of this year in Chennai and Tamil Nadu. Dhoots of the Videocon group hold 74% stake in Datacom. Datacom’s deal with Tata-Quippo is for 10 years, and is likely to be extended by another five years. As both Datacom and TTSL are rolling out GSM networks, infrastructure sharing will help the two operators reduce operating costs.

@ Business Standard: The Indian nuclear programme has set a target of generating a total of 21000 MW of atomic energy by 2020. Currently, the country has a total nuclear capacity of 4120 MW generated from their reactors located in Tarapur, Rawatbhata, Kalpakkam, Narora, Kakrapar and Kaiga.

It was estimated that the country needs a 10-fold growth in electricity capacity generation in the next 50 years. Towards this target, three pressurized heavy water reactors are under construction at Kaiga 4 220 Mw and two light water reactors at Kudankulam (2×1000 Mw).

It has been highlighted that one on the major impediments to growth is the lack of resources.

The Union minister for Human Resources Development (HRD), Kapil Sibal, forwarded that the Center will invest ~ INR 310 bn towards the development of State universities across India. This move will primarily be made towards enhancing the educational system prevalent in the country so as to curb the large scale brain drain which accounts for 0.16 mn students who study in foreign educational institutions every year.

Towards this expansion the government plans on encouraging establishment of educational institutions in the public private partnership mode. Beginning from the grassroots, the government plans on developing 500 model schools and 200 Kendiriya Vidyalayas in the next two years to improve the primary education. Furthermore, the Right to Education Bill is expected to reduce the drop out rate in primary education thus creating a larger consumer base for higher education.

The government also plans on creating a body which shall subsume the responsibilities of UGC, All India Council for Technical Education, National Council of Teachers’ Education and Distance Education Council.

@ Business Line: NTPC, a thermal power major, plans on large scale greenfield installations. The regions that are being considered include Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh while the total installation planned capacity is pegged at 1000 MW.

NTPC entered into an agreement with Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd. (KPCL) towards setting up wind farms with a capacity of 500 MW. KPCL will provide the land for this project with for which the total investment is estimated to be INR 25 bn. This move is primarily due to global movement towards developing environmental friendly energy projects.