New Delhi, October 26
The new bidding norms being formulated for power projects may not require approval from the Empowered Group of Ministers, easing regulatory hurdles for developers.

"The Standard Bidding Documents or SBDs which are almost under completion would be implemented soon for the upcoming projects, except the Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs)," a Power Ministry official told PTI.

"The new norms for Case I and Case II bidding for the projects would be in place soon. We do not require approval from the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) for implementing the new SBDs.

"But as far as the UMPPs are concerned, we would discuss the matter first in the EGoM and then the implementation would take place," the official said.

There may not be separate set of documents for the UMPPs but the portions (in the revised) covering these projects will be discussed in the EGoM and would be implemented post their (EGoM's) nod.

Case I is an open bid where the developer has to decide for fuel and location and compete against any other developers in general.

In Case II bids, the developer is expected to bid on the basis of specific fuel and location where the specifics are provided by the Central or the state government whichever is calling for the bids.

Case II bidding is also called competitive bidding, the objective of which is to encourage competition among developers and procure power at minimum price.

The ministry, which has provisionally finalised the new SBDs, has proposed no change in the present bidding norms for the upcoming imported coal-fired power projects.

In September 2011, the Indonesian government linked their fuel prices to the international market, thereby making it a costlier proposition for the Indian power companies sourcing the fuel from the island nation.

As far as the domestic fuel-based projects are concerned, the ministry has proposed to have separate set of bidding for coal linkage and captive coal projects.

The draft documents have proposed that for the projects where the location of the plant is not specified, the bidding would be done among the domestic coal linkage holders who have uncontracted capacities under long term PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) through competitive bidding. — PTI

Mumbai, October 26
India's biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank posted its highest ever quarterly profit, while state-owned Punjab National Bank disappointed investors with lower profits, sending its shares down more than 7%.

The results highlight the contrasting performance of state and private sector lenders in India. During tough spells in the economy, loans made by state-run banks, which account for 70% of the market but whose lending decisions are not always driven by purely commercial factors, are more likely to fall into default.

Many government-owned lenders are exposed to the beleaguered state electricity boards, troubled power and infrastructure projects, and debt-laden firms such as Kingfisher Airlines, Air India and Deccan Chronicle.

ICICI posted a forecast-beating net profit for the July-September quarter of Rs 19.56 billion, compared with Rs 15.03 billion a year ago.

By contrast, PNB's net profit fell 11.5% in the same quarter, with bad loans as a percentage of total assets rising to 2.69%, from 0.84% a year ago.

"It is difficult to say whether the worst is over," said K. R. Kamath, chairman of Punjab National Bank (PNB), India's second largest government-owned lender by assets.

"It is a reflection of what is happening in the economy. It all depends how the economy behaves in the next 3-6 months," he said.

Bad loans at Indian Overseas Bank, a smaller state-run lender, rose to 2.25% from 1.21% a year ago, it said on Friday, sending its shares down over 8%.

India is battling high inflation, a yawning fiscal deficit and flagging growth amid political paralysis. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has said the country faces a one-in-three chance of a downgrade over the next 24 months.

"In general, private sector banks have a larger proportion of retail assets. Retail assets, in terms of quality, have been stable and their performance has been good," ICICI chief executive Chanda Kochhar told reporters in a post-earnings call.

Punjab and Sind Bank today said its net profit for the July-September period fell by 20.8% to Rs 117.07 crore.

Its net profit over the same quarter a year ago stood at Rs 147.76 crore.

The total income of the state-owned lender grew by 10.2 % to Rs 1,885.75 crore in the second quarter from Rs 1,711.27 crore over the corresponding period a year earlier, PSB said in filing to BSE.— Agencies

New Delhi, October 26
Giving a miss to the forthcoming 2G spectrum auction, Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has approached the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for allocating telephone number series to test Voice over LTE technology on its TD-LTE network.

RIL-owned Infotel Broadband Services (IBSL) has informed the DoT that it was ready for trial runs of a technology that would enable voice calls service on its wireless broadband network. The move would not only intensify competition but would also give Ambani a choice to not to buy an existing telecom operator to become a full mobile service provider. VoIP would bring down the cost of calls further.

As per the National Telecom Policy 2012, VoIP will be opened up in India. The opening up of VoIP will be a big boost for RIL as it will look at launching 4G offering both data and voice services. It has already laid out a country-wide optical fibre network giving it an option to become a major player in the telecom sector.

There had been speculation that Videocon, which has filed a application for both CDMA and GSM spectrum could be in competition with RIL, which chose to stay away from the auction. But this move has highlighted some of the plans of the group.

Incidentally, RIL was the most notable participant at the pre-bid conference organised by the Department of Telecom (DoT) in the run-up to the auction.

Reports said the company had developed a technology in preparation of a unified licencing regime recommended by the regulator TRAI under which consumers will be able to get voice, messaging and video using a single device.

VoIP technology would enable IBSL to work seamlessly with the existing 2G, 3G, NLD and ILD networks.

Analysts said while the VoIP services will not replace traditional telephony, but will have a significant impact on telecom operators' revenues over the next eight years.

Reports said the VoIP would cost the global telecoms industry $479 billion in lost cumulative revenues by 2020, which represents 6.9 per cent of cumulative total voice revenues.

Recently, Huawei had announced the launch of LTE smartphones in India. It is also planning to unveil 4G tablet in the country next year. RIL is in talks with Huawei and other 4G smartphone players like Samsung.

New Delhi, October 26
Norway's Telenor has tied up with Lakshdeep Investments & Finance Pvt Ltd for investment into its new Indian Telewings venture to bid jointly for new mobile telephone licences.

Lakshdeep, a firm controlled by Sudhir Valia, will contribute an undisclosed amount of equity into the new Telewings joint venture, in which Telenor will hold a 74% stake, Telenor said in a statement.

Sudhir Valia, brother-in-law of Sun Pharma MD Dilip Shanghvi, has bought 26% in the JV in personal capacity.

Citigroup had been advising Telenor to identify its new partner.

Lakshdeep will replace Unitech as Telenor's Indian partner. The two together would now bid afresh for the 2G spectrum auction due in November through its new wholly owned Indian entity, Telewings Communications Pvt. Ltd.

Uninor, the name with which Telenor and Unitech were operating its telecom business had lost all its licences earlier this year after the Supreme Court cancelled 122 licences granted in the corruption-tainted 2008 licencing round.

The deal will make it possible for Telenor to take part in next month's auction of Indian mobile telephone spectrum as local rules allow a maximum 74% shareholding by foreign companies in telecom carriers.

Telenor has already submitted an application for prequalification in the upcoming auction as it aims to stay in the country despite being stripped of its permits.

New Delhi, October 26
The Centre today appealed to the states for their active participation in the nation-wide rollout of optical fibre project as it signed a tripartite agreement with 16 states and UT governments and a special purpose vehicle BBNL to expedite the mission of connecting every gram panchayat with broadband network.

The National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) aims at connecting 2,50,000 gram panchayants with high speed optical fibre network by December 2013. "It is a Rs 20,000 crore project and entire fund will be provided by central government," Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said at an event here.

"We have announced that by December 2013, broadband network across the country will be completed. The MoU has been signed for around 1,40,000 gram panchayats," he added. “The Centre will soon convene a meeting of the Information Technology ministers to finalise the process for uploading standardised data. Bharat Broadband Network Ltd will be responsible for the rollout of the project, to be executed by BSNL, RailTel and Power Grid, he stated.

The state governments will have to provide approvals for laying of the optic fibre network.