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Tag: Rajiv Mehrotra

  • Vihaan bags BSNL’s north-east connectivity project

    NEW DELHI: Indigenous telecom equipment manufacturer Vihaan Network Limited has bagged a Rs 16.48 billion telecom infrastructure project of state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for providing connectivity in over 4000 villages in remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

    Emerging as the lowest bidder in the tender opened for the first phase of the project yesterday by BSNL, VNL will get whole of Arunachal Pradesh which will be around 70 per cent share in the first phase of the North East mobile Connectivity.

    This project is part of the Rs 53.3618 billion worth Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the North-Eastern Region (NER) comprising eight states which was approved by the Union Cabinet in September 2014.

    The project envisages providing mobile coverage in 8,621 unconnected villages and seamless coverage along National Highways in the North-East region through 6,673 towers, and will be funded from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

    The Project earmarked by BSNL for the domestic technology players would give the remaining 30 per cent to second lowest bidder HFCL with around 20 per cent price differential at Rs. 19.7 billion, but will be executed at the same price as that of the lowest bid.

    VNL has been given the responsibility of creating the infrastructure across bordering state of Arunachal Pradesh while the other partner will execute the project in two districts (Karbi Anglong & Dima Haso) of Assam.

    VNL chairman Rajiv Mehrotra said, “It is both a challenge and opportunity for the home grown company and we consider the awarding of the project is also the recognition of our work for connecting the Left Wing Extremist areas in 10 states. We are committed to successfully complete the Prime Minister’s dream project and wish to express our gratitude to the communications minister Manoj Sinha and BSNL chairman Anupam Shrivastava for reposing faith on us.”

    Under the Phase-I of the project, which is to be executed by state owned operator BSNL, 2817 sites are to be installed to cover 4118 remotely located villages and tough terrains in Arunachal Pradesh and two districts of Assam. Projects are to be executed solely through indigenous technology. As per the project condition, the lowest bidder, Vihaan Networks (VNL) in this case, will get to roll out around 1,893 mobile towers in Arunachal Pradesh.

    “Today, such a concerted move will also fulfill the government’s vision of Make in India and bring in significant indigenization which is the need of the hour. We hope that with the successful completion of this project, the North East states will be seamlessly connected with other parts of the country through mobile coverage.”

    As part of the project Eco-friendly green Mobile towers will be erected by VNL using its own technology and will be fuelled by solar power.

    VNL had also completed successfully a BSNL project last year for creating infrastructure in LWE areas after it bagged the contract as the lowest bidder in December last year for providing voice and data connectivity in the most challenging terrain.

    The Union cabinet then chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accorded an approval to install and maintain 2,199 mobile towers in Naxal-affected states. Funding came through the USOF (universal service obligation fund) supported scheme.

    VNL was instrumental in executing a major part of this project by installing around 1,315 solar empanelled towers in the LWE region in record time.

    Also Read :

    BSNL launches FMT & Ditto TV; 4G planned this year

    BSNL leader in wireline b’band subs addition in Oct-16; Jio joins top five wireless list

    BSNL leads in wireline broadband internet subs addition in Sep-16

    Bharat Net first phase nears completion, provides b’band to village admin

  • Indian equipment makers keen to export telecom goods

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Government is keen to partner with ASEAN countries in enabling Digital Connectivity between India and ASEAN region and also for enabling broadband within ASEAN countries.

    India said these digital connectivity projects are of strategic importance and can have a transformative impact on the economy and cooperation between ASEAN and India.

    This was stated during talks between India and telecom ministers, senior government officials and industry leaders from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos PDR, Indonesia and Bhutan to commemorate the 25th year of the ASEAN India relations

    Organized by the TEPC (Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council), the inter-ministerial meeting was led on the Indian side by Communications Minister Manoj Sinha.

    India has committed to provide financial as well as technological support for projects that could include-high-speed fiber optic networks, digital villages, rural broadband, national knowledge network, secured communication networks and telecom training and skill development.

    Taking part in the discussions, Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) Chairman Rajiv Mehrotra said “To take the telecom revolution in India to its new level of growth, the domestic equipment manufacturers should come forward and take the lead. Today such a concerted move will also fulfill the government’s vision of Make In India and bring in significant indigenization which is the need of the hour.”

    Telecom Secretary J S Deepak said “The potential of partnership between India and ASEAN in the arena of telecom is significant. There is a huge demand for capacity building which the Indian partners can contribute.”

    Indian companies have created world-class products and solutions which are not only of the highest quality and are also very cost-competitive. They are therefore keen to export to customers in ASEAN region, who have similar requirements like India.

  • Election Commision wants minimum punishment of 2 years in cases of paid news

    Election Commision wants minimum punishment of 2 years in cases of paid news

    NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India has asked the Centre to impose a minimum punishment of two years to anyone found guilty of indulging in the malaise of paid news.

    Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi said during a discussion here that the Commission could only act if it was given sufficient proof. He said the Commission had set up a Media Monitoring and Media Certification Committee to keep a check on the media during elections.

    He also said new guidelines had been issued for publications owned by people associated with political parties.

    He said there was also a proposal to ban government-sponsored advertisements relating to its achievements at least two months before the elections.

    Qureshi was speaking at a discussion on ‘Paid News’ organised by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust after the screening of the hour-long film ‘Brokering News’ by Umesh Aggarwal exposing this malaise.

    The film shows examples of how news is bought and sold in both the print and the electronic media by politicians, corporate houses, sportspersons, and even film personalities. It blatantly shows the link of some of the mediapersons to Niira Radia by screening clips of the telephonically conversations, apart from showing how TV channels help the stocks of certain corporate houses to rise by the way they present the programmes. There is also an example of the same article about a politician appearing on different days in different newspapers under different names.

    The film also showed the case of Kurukshetra based print mediaperson Rakesh K Sharma who had been forced by his Hindi newspaper to collect money in the name of interviews or advertisements from politicians for almost six years, but quit his job to expose cases of paid news. Both Aggarwal and Sharma were present.

    Others who took part in the discussion included Mint editor R Sukumar, Prasar Bharati Chairperson and former editor of Dainik HindustanMrinal Pande, and NDTV managing editor, special projects, Pankaj Pachauri, The Hoot editor Sevanti Ninan, which is a media watchdog publication.

    Initiating the discussion, PSBT Managing Trustee Rajiv Mehrotra said the Trust gave full freedom to the filmmakers and did not interfere with the films once the script was given approval.

    Senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta who was one of the two-member panel of the Press Council which went into the malaise, regretted that only a five-page statement had been issued to the media on the 71-page report.

    Doordarshan Director General Tripurari Sharan said this film was very important for the public service broadcaster which would telecast the film. He said this may make people realise the importance of a public service broadcaster.

    Pande applauded the courage of the filmmaker and said the real problem lay in the ownership pattern of the newspapers – particularly when the proprietor was himself the editor. She said there were also cases in Hindi publications of the editor holding shares in the publication, which automatically meant his first loyalty was to the shareholders.

    She said part-time journalists or stringers were crucial to the malaise of paid news since their real loyalty did not lie with the newspaper.

    Pachauri admitted that self-regulation did not work, and felt cases of political paid news was worse than business paid news. The media had been hijacked by corporates and politicians, and the media had become a political party in itself. He cited the case of a sting operation run by a channel at the behest of the largest opposition party.

    He felt the need of an independent Press Commission in the country to check such issues.

    Though not very impressed by the film, Sukumar admitted that there were cases of paid news in the corporate sector but wanted more checks and balances. He regretted there was no law to prevent advertisements coming in the name of news, and admitted to huge advertisement pressure on business newspapers.

  • DTT should be completed in Delhi by 2010

    DTT should be completed in Delhi by 2010

     NEW DELHI: A sub-group on ‘Going Digital’, set up by the Planning Commission, has recommended that digital terrestrial transmission by Doordarshan should be launched with a slogan Digital Delhi by 2010 to coincide with the Commonwealth Games in that year.

    The Sub-Group headed by Rajeev Ratna Shah, Member Secretary in the Planning Commission and a former CEO of Prasar Bharati, said a phased approach should be taken for going digital covering all the seven mega cities by 2011 in the first phase and the rest of the country by 2013.

    The sub-group, comprising 17 members, was set up by the Committee on Information, Communication and Entertainment (ICE) that has been examining the larger issue of convergence and advent of modern technology. Members include the secretaries in Information and Broadcasting and Department of Telecommunications, the Prasar Bharati CEO, the presidents of Cetma, Mait, Nasscom, and ISP Association of India, co-chairman of the Ficci entertainment committee Kunal Dasgupta, chairman of the CII entertainment committee, chairman of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India, president of the Cable TV Operators Association, Rajiv Mehrotra who is the managing trustee of the Public Service Broadcasting Trust, Virat Bhatia from AT&T Communications Services, Zee Telefilms President Abhijit Saxena, Sameer Rao who is vice-president in charge of strategy, planning & regulatory in STAR India, and a representative of the Prime Minister’s Office.
     

    It was also agreed that a group chaired by BS Lalli, the CEO of Prasar Bharati who is also chairman of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, and some private broadcasters like Star, Zee, Sony, Eenadu etc. and their major MSOs will examine an 11-stage process and firm up their sequencing and put the entire process on a “digital upgrade timeline”.

    Digital migration process

    Ideally, the Sub-Group said the migration process must commence from Delhi in 2010, coinciding with the Commonwealth Games, and proceed to other mega cities by 2011 and Tier II and Tier III cities by 2012. In non-urban areas simulcast can continue for a few more years. Analogue transmission should be completely phased out by 2015 as the outer limit. It was decided that to keep the transition costs to the minimum, the switching over time as well as the simulcasting period should be kept to the minimum.

    There is need for convergence in regulation in the light of developments in technology and the I&B Ministry was requested by the sub-group to take a fresh look at the proposal for having a common communications convergence regulator with separate bureaus under it for dealing with content and carriage. A supplementary report will be submitted with regard to regulatory issues relating to going digital.

    All the content producers – Prasar Bharati as well as private operators – should provide agreed and identified channels in the digital / HDTV format to MSO / cable operators under “Must Carry” clause.

    High Definition TV should be introduced in a phased manner starting from Delhi (2008-09), extending it to all the six mega cities. Commonwealth Games should be covered in HDTV format in 2010.
     
    Spectrum planning

    The I&B Ministry, private broadcasters and service providers along with the Department of Telecommunications (WPC cell) should work in a coordinated manner to identify spectrum requirements keeping their rollout plans so that spectrum planning could be proactively made. A Spectrum Management Group could be set up to achieve this.

    Prasar Bharati should work out the financial implications of going digital, covering AIR and Doordarshan operations and submit the same to the Planning Commission.

    Prasar Bharati should digitally archive all its contents including educational contents for providing them for distribution streaming audio-video technologies. Prasar Bharati may also work out a mechanism to leverage the rich content available by appropriately pricing them and retailing them. All Prasar Bharati content of Classics or Fiction should be made web accessible with premium content accessible through payment gateway. Public service broadcasting content should be freely accessible on the web.

    Digital cinema

    The Sub-Group has also recommended amending the Cinematograph Act 1952 for inclusion of digital cinema. It said digital cinema should be seen as a means of securing the Intellectual Property Rights of the producer. Digitally recorded content taken from satellite in an encrypted conduit provides a failsafe method of delivering films to exhibitors directly, without intermediary or distributor’s interface at multiple locations simultaneously, in streaming audio-video-mode. It said this was the best guarantee against piracy. Digital cinema should, therefore, be encouraged by recourse to various fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.

    Production of cinema in digital format could be on lower tax regime and the theaters that have installed digital cinema exhibition facilities can be subjected to say lower entertainment tax. This would need to be taken up with State Governments, the Sub-Group said.

    It said all conditional access devices (and Set Top Boxes) should be built on common standards for inter-operability, so that customers are not put to inconvenience. This will also help in better absorption, acceptability of digital technology. The plain-vanilla-STB should lend itself to modular insertion of proprietary data to include value-added services.

    Content providers should be encouraged to work on creation of domain specific server farms and data depositories. The concept of digital libraries promoted by the Department of Information & Technology should also be publicly made available. Create open access platforms like Google libraries and others should also be encouraged. Memory modules could specially be created for lawyers, doctors, accountants and other professionals for instant data mining and retrieval in respect of their domain.

    Triple play services

    Triple play services riding on entertainment related applications would be able to create the most viable business models for spread of rural connectivity. Applications of Wi Max technology will allow entertainment to rural areas and this will provide ubiquitous Broadband experience to rural areas. Just as Wi Fi band has been delicensed, we need to move to the next step in encouraging proliferation of Wi Max technology for which the Wi Max band (2.5 GHz / 3.5 GHz / 700 MHz or existing Wi Fi band 2.4 – 2.48 GHz) could be delicensed for rural connectivity.

    Content creation would be a specialised area requiring thorough understanding of the local requirements and language that can only be done through local entrepreneurs. The Rural Content Provider (RCP) would provide content and other facilities, including entertainment, which will be of interest to the rural population. Delivery of services could be through home TV or Mobile telephone. The business model of such an RCP would vary from region to region and would be driven by the market. The department of IT and the Department of Telecommunications need to evolve a suitable policy framework that would encourage such RCPs.

    The Deparment of Information & Technology/National Informatics Centre should work out a comprehensive plan for rollout of statewise, regionwise and citywise GIS database and encourage private enterprise to do customized applications and value addition for various public sector as well as private sector applications.