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Telecom revolution skips rural India
Room for opposition in new patent law
Ranbaxy donates Rs 1.5 cr
Farallon acquires stake in Indiabulls subsidiary
Market continues to touch record highs
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Gratuity up to Rs 3.5 lakh exempt from tax
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Telecom revolution skips rural India
New Delhi, January 2 Everyone, including telecom regulator Trai, is happy that the country has achieved a tele-density of 8.37 per cent, and moving at a fast pace to reach the level of developed countries. But the fact remains that the telecom revolution is still to touch most of the rural India. Officially, 86 per cent of the villages have been provided at least one community telecom connection, though a large number of them remain out of order. According to the latest figures released by the Department of Telecom (DOT), about 88 per cent of the additional phones during the previous year were accounted for by the mobile phones. In fact, the annual business of the handset market in now touching Rs 10,000 crore, quite comparable to the sale of colour televisions. Villagers lament that most of the telecom operators are still
concentrating on the cities, and the villages have remained untouched from the mobile penetration. Companies are still reluctant to expand their village network even in rich states like Punjab and Haryana. As per the statistics, the number of mobile phones (including WLL-M)) as on November 30, 2004, increased to 4.60 crore from 2.67 crore as on November 30, 2003. On the other hand, the fixed line telephones increased only by 25 lakh from 4.20 crore to 4.45 crore during the same period. Out of total 1.4 crore new connections across the country by all operators, only 6.88 lakh connections were provided in rural areas by BSNL. Officials of BSNL admit that due to the high cost of providing telephone connections, they are concentrating on urban areas. On an average, the cost of one fixed line connection is Rs 20,000 in comparison to Rs 5,000 cost for a mobile connection in urban areas, they said. Further, the average revenue collection in rural areas is
significantly lower than in urban areas, thus discouraging them to enter rural areas. Despite a provision of the Rs 2,000-crore fund under universal service obligation (USO) fund, collected from all operators for rural telephony, only Rs 500 crore was utilised last year. The Left parties have called upon the government and Trai to ensure adequate funds for “taking the benefits of the telecom revolution to rural India,” besides encouraging the broadband and other telecom services in urban areas.
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Room for opposition in new patent law
New Delhi, January 2 An official statement said that the ordinance seeks to provide correctives against delays and introduces a simplified, efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly mechanism which not only facilitates expeditious grant of patents but also safeguards the interest of third parties. “It rationalises the time lines of each activity,” the statement said. Before the announcement of the new patents regime by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on December 26, there was no provision for post-grant opposition. The only recourse was going to the court of law. However, the new system provides for opportunity of hearing both before and after the grant of patents. The restructured procedures in the ordinance read with the Amended Patents Rules provide that any person, on initial publication of a patent application may file a representation for opposition within a period of three months from the date of publication of application or before the grant of patent. The opposition could be filed on grounds relating to patentability (that is, lack of novelty, inventiveness and industrial applicability), non-disclosure or wrongful disclosure. In the post-grant opposition, any person may file opposition to a patent it has been granted at any time during the life of the patents. This facility is in line with the system operating in most patents offices worldwide. The proposed system would make available both pre-grant and post-grant opposition avenues in the patent office and reduce the time frame for grant of patents in a cost-effective manner while taking care of public interest. There are already over 12,000 applications pending for grant for patents with the Patent Office. It will take at least two or three months for processing these applications under the new Act.
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Tsunami fund
Mohali, January 2 Reaching out to the thousands rendered homeless, Mr Malvinder Mohan Singh, President, Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy, said, “This national calamity has left behind a trail of death, devastation and suffering. Our heart goes out to those impacted by this grave tragedy. All Ranbaxy employees feel the same way as I do and they have also voluntarily contributed a day’s salary to help alleviate the enormous suffering.”
— TNS
BEL gives Rs 2.6 cr
Bangalore: Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) contributed Rs 2.6 crore to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for the victims of tsunami disaster. The Bangalore-based BEL said in a statement here that its employees contributed Rs 60 lakh as their one day’s salary in the Rs 2.6 crore, which was handed over to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at New Delhi yesterday.
— PTI
SBI suffers blow
Port Blair: Functioning of State Bank of India (SBI) in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has suffered a blow after the tsunami tidal waves devastated four of its major branches having a total credit outflow of Rs 86 crore. The SBI branches at Car Nicobar, Hut Bay, Bamboo Flat and R. K. Pur had either been washed away or damaged under the fury of the waves which not only engulfed the offices and the adjoining staff quarters, but also washed away all computers, records, furnitures and some of the cash and gold ornaments belonging to the bank employees. However, cash to the tune of Rs 60 lakh kept in the banks’ vaults somehow escaped the fury and remained intact, SBI Assistant General Manager, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mr Sujit Guha said here yesterday. Mr Guha also informed that the bank apart from donating Rs 10 crore to the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund handed over a draft of Rs 20 lakh to Andaman and Nicobar Lt Governor Ram Kapse here yesterday.
— UNI
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Farallon acquires stake in Indiabulls subsidiary
Chandigarh, January 2 Farallon Capital, a registered investment adviser with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, is a multi-strategy investment fund with over $ 12 billion in assets under management. Indiabulls Credit Services is focused on the booming consumer finance market in India and will offer personal loans to the middle markets under its branding ‘Easy Money’. The new funding will be utilised to increase technology and infrastructure investments in the Indiabulls Credit Services business. The company plans to add 200 retail outlets over the next year for disbursing loans to its target market. Of these,35 would be in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. With the new capital infusion from Farallon, Indiabulls Credit Services will have a large capital base of over Rs 130 crore of equity. “India is a rapidly growing economy, and consumer financing is an integral part of the booming domestic demand. Indiabulls is a dynamic company and is extremely well positioned to benefit from the explosive growth of consumer finance market,” said Mr Sameer Gehlaut, CEO of Indiabulls. Farallon Capital had also invested in Indiabulls Financial Services in February 2004 at Rs 25 per share. Indiabulls Credit Services has been valued at Rs 263 crore with the Rs 87.6 crore infusion.
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by S.C. Vasudeva
Gratuity up to Rs 3.5 lakh exempt from tax
Q.
Whether gratuity paid to an officer on resignation from a public sector bank, after continuous service of 13 years, calculated on the basis of one month’s salary (last drawn) for each completed year of service is taxable? The amount of gratuity is well below the ceiling of Rs 3.5 lakh. The gratuity paid to the officer is either as per provisions of the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 or as per Sub regulation (3) of bank (given) whichever is higher.
— Kuldip Singh, Moga A. The employee concerned would be eligible for a deduction u/s 10 (10) (ii) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 in respect of the gratuity received by him. In accordance with the said section, the maximum amount that is exempt on account of receipt of gratuity is Rs 3,50,000. This amount is also the maximum limit prescribed under the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972. You have specified in your query that the amount of gratuity is well below Rs.3.5 lakh, therefore, the gratuity received by the concerned employee will be exempt from the tax.
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