New Delhi, February 2
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today sought to play down the impact the Supreme Court’s decision to cancel 122 licences would have on subscribers even as Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal, while welcoming the ruling, said “it was a new beginning”.

TRAI, looking to allay fears of subscribers of the affected telecom companies, pointed out while there was the option of mobile number portability (MNP), on the other hand the status quo would be maintained for some time. The Supreme Court ruled the status quo would remain for four months for operators who hold 122 telecom licences issued after January 2008.

The TRAI statement came even as Sibal said India would attract more investments in a sector that was “crying” for investments since the last more than a year ever since “uncertainties engulfed this sector”.

Earlier, immediately after the Supreme Court’s judgment in the morning, Sibal went in an overdrive trying to ascertain how to salvage the situation for the government. He met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the government's plan of action.

Talking to reporters, TRAI chairman J.S. Sarma said: "The Supreme Court judgement will be implemented. Customers won’t be affected from the cancellation of licences as around 95 per cent market share is of those who got licences before January 2008". He pointed out subscribers have the option to port out using mobile number portability.

"Subscribers have option to port out through MNP. We will instruct operators to inform their subscribers and come out with advertisement," Sarma said while adding that TRAI would keep a close watch on the situation and ensure that there not much effect on the tariff as a result of the judgement.

Incidentally, after the cancellation of 122 licences, over 500 Mhz spectrum will become free for auction.

Sarma said the regulator had already recommended auction of spectrum for future allocation for new licences under the unified licensing regime and working of migration path for existing licence. Under the new regime, telecom players will have to pay the price of spectrum determined through an auction.

When asked whether incumbent players would be allowed to participate in the proposed auction, he said TRAI was working on it but it should be open for all. "It wouldn’t be proper to comment at this stage, but by and large it’ll be available for people in general." he added.

One of the options that TRAI may explore is issuing fresh telecoms licence norms within four months at the auction prices.

New Delhi, February 2
The GSM telecom operators’ umbrella body, the Cellular Operators Association Of India (COAI), led the startup telecom firms in the firing line of the Supreme Court in seeking a fair deal for them from the government as the apex court on Thursday cancelled a total of 122 licences issued since January 2008.

As the new telecom operators expressed "shock" and stated they were "unfairly treated", COAI said it “respects the Supreme Court’s decision as we have always stood by the principle of spectrum pricing via fair market price based auction. At the same time, it is imperative that the government is sensitive to the huge investments that have gone into the sector, the larger trade ecosystem involved; and consider protecting the sentiments of the foreign as well as domestic investors which is crucial for ensuring the financial health, sustainability and growth of this very vital industry”.

Earlier, reacting sharply to the judgement, Uninor, the Indian joint venture with Norway's Telenor, expressed "shock". Uninor was also charged a penalty of Rs 5 crore to which Unitech reacted in a statement saying: “We have been unfairly treated as we simply followed the government process”.

Even as reports suggested that the affected telecom companies may seek a judicial recourse and go in for a review petition in front of the Supreme Court, Glenn Mandelid, director of communications of the Telenor Group, said: "We look to the government to arrive at a fair outcome that doesn't jeopardize our lawful investment".

Another telecom operator affected by the ruling, Sistema Shyam TeleServices, which operates under the MTS brand in India, said it would resort to all means under the law to protect its interests. "The company would like to state that being a law abiding organization, it reserves the right to protect its interests by using all available judicial remedies."

Meanwhile, the Aditya Birla group's Idea Cellular said it had “unnecessarily been caught in this situation of cancelled licences, just because they were granted in January, 2008 which was as late as 18 months from the date of application. “It’s unfortunate a serious incumbent operator like Idea Cellular is being made to suffer, despite being fully compliant at each stage of the licence allocation process and it will study in detail the SC judgment and "explore all possibilities to protect our investment".

Meanwhile, Kiran Karnik, Chairman National Committee on Telecom and Broadband CII said, “CII has taken note of today's judgement of Supreme Court and hopes that it will remove the uncertainty that was affecting the telecom sector over the last year and more. This should now facilitate the acceleration of growth of this sector, and we look forward to conducive government policies and actions to encourage the required investments in telecom infrastructure and services. CII has always advocated that a transparent process is followed when dealing with allocation and pricing of Telecom Spectrum and Licenses. The Supreme Court judgment of this morning also says the same in terms of guidance on the way forward”.

In our understanding, less than five percent of the 900 million subscribers of mobile subscribers of India would be currently affected by today’s judgment. However, even this is a significant number. CII is certain that in the 4 months designated for the process of cancellation and allocation of licenses, the Government, TRAI and Industry would be able to work out a mechanism which ensures that the consumers of the telecom services are not inconvenienced by this development, he added.

Rajat K. Gupta, the Kolkata-born former Goldman Sachs director accused in an insider trading scheme, faces new allegations that he shared details of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble earnings earlier than first alleged by prosecutors.

Gupta has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with insider trading for illegally tipping off convicted hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam while serving on the boards of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble.

In a superseding indictment filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors said the insider-trading scheme began in March 2007 not in 2008 as alleged in October.

This information helped the Sri Lankan-born hedge fund manager’s firm secure profits or avoid losses of $23 million, prosecutors allege. Gupta has pleaded not guilty to insider trading charges. He is out on a $10 million bail. Trial has been tentatively set for April 9.

Prosecutors allege Gupta stood to gain because of his business partnership with Rajaratnam. Gupta provided the inside information to Rajaratnam "because of Gupta's friendship and business relationships with Rajaratnam," they said. Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11 years in prison in October for insider trading.

Gupta’s attorney, Gary Naftalis, said the latest charges are “totally baseless.”“The newly added charges – like the ones brought last year – are not based on any direct evidence, but rely on supposed circumstantial evidence,” Naftalis said in a statement to The Tribune.

“The facts in this case demonstrate that Gupta is innocent of all of these charges, and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity. He didn’t trade in any securities, did not tip Rajaratnam so he could trade, and didn’t share in any profits as part of any quid pro quo,” he added.

Naftalis said there were a “host of legitimate reasons for any communications between Gupta and Rajaratnam – not the least of which was Gupta’s attempt to obtain information regarding his $10 million investment in the GB Voyager fund managed by Rajaratnam”.

New Delhi, February 2
Despite registering strongest annual growth in the Asia Pacific region with demand up by 16.4 per cent, Indian carriers reported losses due to excess capacity as one of the reasons, says the latest evaluation by IATA.

According to Geneva-based International Air Transport Association, India had the strongest annual growth with demand up by 16.4% but capacity rose 18.6% and the load factor was 74.7%. “The demand/capacity gap was particularly acute in December, with traffic rising 9.3% on a 15.5% increase in capacity. The deterioration in load factors generated by this excess capacity is one of the factors behind the losses being reported by Indian airlines in contrast to the current situation in China,” the industry body explained.

In contrast, the Chinese domestic demand rose 10.9% for the year on a 7.8% lift in capacity, strengthening load factors to 82.2%, thereby helping the profitability of the country’s airlines.

Meanwhile, painting not such a rosy picture for the cash-strapped industry in times to come, IATA says capacity and economy conditions are among the issues that will continue presenting turbulence for carriers worldwide. “Cautious improving business confidence is good news. But 2012 is still going to be a tough year,” said IATA director general & CEO Tony Tyler.

In December airlines faced over $8 billion in overall losses.

Tyler said there had been heartening developments since then in the form of improving business confidence and encouraging news from the U.S. economy but it was far too early to start predicting a soft landing for the industry even in 2012.

“Given the weak conditions in Western economies the passenger market held up well in 2011. But overall 2011 was a year of contrasts. Healthy passenger growth, primarily in the first half of the year, was offset by a declining cargo market.

Optimism in China contrasted with gloom in Europe. During 2011 as a whole, the number of passengers on international routes rose 6.9% but freight was down 0.6%.

Chandigarh, February 2
Logistics and the indirect tax system is posing to be the biggest problem for the growth of the teleshopping business in India. Though this retail industry is growing at a steady pace, insiders believe the introduction of goods & services tax, replacing the other state taxes, and growth in the logistics industry would see their industry grow manifold.

Though the teleshopping industry is still at a nascent stage in India, year on year it is growing at a pace of 100 per cent. The size of the teleshopping industry in India is expected to be around Rs 1,000 crore, and industry analysts believe it will continue to grow at a rate of 100% for the next three years. Though the industry is presently dominated by two large players, many new entrants are expected to jump in the bandwagon during the next financial year.

Paritosh Joshi, CEO of Star CJ Network, which claims it has one-third of the total teleshopping business, told The Tribune though the firm was now operating in 50 cities, across six states besides Chandigarh, the problem of logistics was hindering its geographical expansion.

“As and when the logistics of supplying goods in a particular area are clear, we’ll finally decide to offer our goods there. The last major physical expansion we did was in the summer of 2011, and this year we’ll be adding major towns of western Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for delivering our goodsWe’ll also be expanding our services in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Mumbai, February 2
Gold prices firmed on Thursday, retreating from earlier eight-week highs above $1,750 an ounce as the dollar strengthened and equity markets eased, but firmly underpinned by strong investment appetite for the precious metal.

Spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,745.24 an ounce, while US gold futures for February delivery eased 50 cents an ounce to $1,749. Spot prices earlier peaked at $1,753.20, their highest since December 8.

Gold has risen nearly 12% this year, extending a correction from December's lows after the Fed pledged to hold US interest rates at rock bottom for an extended period, keeping the dollar under pressure and the opportunity cost of holding noninterest bearing bullion low.

"We have a new short-term uptrend," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital. "There is enough investor appetite, as it seems many who fear missing the next leg up in gold are ready to move in”, he added. — Reuters