Eight telcos to bid for spectrum, Videocon, Sistema opts out
Tuesday, 17 February 2015 - 6:20am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition
The spectrum of March 4 envinced active interest with eight of the 10 private telecom operators having submitted their applications on Monday, the last date for expressing intent.
The spectrum of March 4 envinced active interest with eight of the 10 private telecom operators having submitted their applications on Monday, the last date for expressing intent.
The auction will generate revenues close to around Rs 80,000 crore for the government which will help meeting its fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of the GDP.
All major players including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Reliance Jio, Uninor, Aircel and Tata Teleservices have submitted their forms. Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL) and Videocon, however, have decided to opt out of it.
The combined market share of the two players would be less than 2% of the total mobile services market. G Krishna Kumar, telecom professional based in Bangalore, said their absence in the auction would not be of much consequence. "While, ideally, we would expect all the existing providers to participate in the auction process, it is perfectly fine for a few to drop out. In the current scenario, Videocon and Sistema together account for only about 1.5% of the wireless subscribers in the country," he said,
SSTL, which operates its services in the 800 megahertz (MHz) band, has decided to keep out of bidding because of steep reserve price fixed and its pending complaint against Department of Telecom (DoT) with the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) for making the spectrum allocated to it in the 2013 auction contiguous.
"SSTL has consistently maintained that the pricing of 800 MHz spectrum at Rs 3646 crore per MHz, is way out of line and does not merit a strong business case for buying additional spectrum. The company continues to maintain that such pricing does not take into account the realities of the prevailing ecosystem within the band," said the statement issued by the company.
The company currently holds 3.75 MHz spectrum in nine circles including Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (west), West Bengal and Kolkata. A company spokesperson said the company was waiting for the issue of non-contiguous spectrum to be resolved in TDSAT, whose next hearing was on February 18.
In the auction held in 2013, SSTL was the only bidder for the CDMA spectrum.
"Since SSTL was the sole bidder during the said (2013) auction and there is no other successful operator for rearrangement of frequencies, it is incumbent upon DoT to rearrange/reassign the frequency to make the spectrum allotted to SSTL contiguous," it noted in its statement.
The government is offering 385.75 MHz spectrum in four bands including 800, 900, 1800 and 2100.
Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Telecom, whose licenses will be expiring in the current fiscal, are expected to be aggressively bidding for spectrum to win it back
February 2, 2015 12:36 am Financial Express FE-Reflect FE Columnist
The union minister of state (independent charge) for skill development, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, recently said that India’s skilled workforce is 2%, compared to over 75% in all major economies. In this backdrop, the government us working on a new skill development policy to address shortcomings of the existing policy. Although skill development can improve “employment-readiness”, a sustainable job creation platform is urgently needed.
The job market is a factor of demand and supply. Demand-supply mismatch here is one of the biggest challenges India faces. A report indicates that there is demand in the job market, but unavailability of the right talent is costing the economy R53,000 crore.
Although India produces lakhs of graduates, the National Employability Report 2014 states that employability is a challenge with only 18.09% of this pool getting jobs. People taking up jobs for which they are overqualified amplifies the demand-supply mismatch.
The lack of skilled people is an overarching challenge, prevalent across industries, be it manufacturing or IT. We need a three-pronged approach to address the demand-supply challenge.
We need a strong vocational education and training system, the foundation of which must be set at the primary school level. We should, perhaps, adopt the German Duales Ausbildungssystem or dual system of vocational education and training (DSVET). In fact, China too has developed its own vocational education is introduced at the primary school with students in the age group of 12-14 years. In India, in addition to specific skills, communication, logical reasoning and, most importantly, cognitive skills must be taught to the students.
The prime minister’s idea of using railway stations for imparting skill development training in rural areas must be lauded. Perhaps, this should be extended and existing infrastructure in government offices like post offices, BSNL, and even colleges and schools should be used for vocational training. The Digital India campaign can help in using ICT as an enabler for skill development, evaluation and monitoring of students. With advancement in ICT, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform can be used effectively to impart vocational training.
Vocational school teachers in China are mandated to spend one month in the industry every year. This is an excellent mechanism to ensure the teachers are up-to-speed in terms of industry and technology. Can we implement this in India across disciplines/courses? This can be achieved only if we have a strong industry-academia relationship. How about getting experienced professionals from different sectors to train the teachers? Perhaps, the companies can utilise their CSR spend to provide experienced manpower for training .
Also, industry bodies should drive the syllabus (both theory and practical training). The government could invite experienced and retired professionals to contribute in developing and updating the syllabus. Introducing mandatory industrial training as part of curriculum will certainly help students’ employability prospects.
The government’s plan to start an university for skilling can wait. There are quite a few disparate skill development efforts carried out in the country. We already have thousands of ITIs, engineering and diploma colleges. In addition, we have the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework (NVEQF) addressing some of the skill gaps. There are quite a few NGOs and private players offering skill development/ entrepreneurship training. Instead of creating new organisations/systems, it makes sense to streamline and rationalise existing systems. The autonomous body NSDA (National Skill Development Authority) in the Skill Development ministry should embark on rationalisation drive.
Finally, the government should work with the Industry bodies and identify top 5 sectors and provide the necessary push for implementation. Based on the outcome of these skill development programs, additional sectors can be added. Can the government publish quarterly data on the exact number of people reskilled, job positions filled and a view of the demand for at least 12-18 months?
An AICTE report has identified about 30 different skill areas and possible requirement by 2022. This can be a good starting point to prioritise the areas/sectors where the government’s attention is needed. As per the report, automotive, healthcare, organised retail and IT/electronics are expected to generate millions of jobs.
How about focusing on agriculture for skill development, productivity improvements and innovation? President Obama during his speech in New Delhi highlighted the importance of agricultural productivity and the cascading positive effect on India’s economy.
It is intriguing that 60% of India’s population depends of agriculture, but accounts for only 14% of the GDP. India’s premier technical institutions should be accountable for providing solutions to this sector.
Although prime minister’s Make-in-India initiative can certainly spur new jobs and also in reskilling, we need a balanced approach between manufacturing and agriculture. We don’t want all our farmers to take up non-farm jobs.
Summing up, the success of skill development will be measured based on jobs created. Prioritising sectors for skill development and rationalising existing systems to create a robust demand-supply matching and monitoring system is urgently needed. Although the new skill development policy is welcome, implementation will hold the key.
By G Krishna Kumar
The author is adviser, Centre for Educational and Social Studies, Bangalore. Views are personal
