National Telecom Policy 2011: Free Roaming, High Speed Broadband

Kapil Sibal, Minister for Telecommunications and IT today release the draft of the National Telecommunications Policy-2011 aims to have 100% tele-density by 2020 also targets affordable and reliable broadband on demand by 2015 and Free National Roaming on Mobile Services.

The New Telecom Policy recommends one Nation, one license policy across services and service areas to abolish Roaming charges. The distinction between local and STD calls would vanish, as the policy aims at a ‘one-nation-one-licence’ regime.

Under the new telecom policy, telecom ministry also provisions for inter-circle Mobile Number Portability (MNP) i.e. Full MNP, which involves changing an operator while retaining the same phone number in different telecom circles.

NTP-2011 aims to revise the existing broadband download speed of 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps by 2011 and subsequently to 2 Mbps by 2015 and try to make 500 MHZ spectrum available by 2020. It will De-link issuances of licenses and spectrum allocation. The revenue generation will be the secondary consideration in the New Telecom Policy 2011.

Mr. Kapil Sibal says “We will seek seek TRAI recommendations on license framework under the new Telecom Policy 2011. State operators BSNL and MTNL will continue to play important role in penetration. Mission is to have special coverage of remote and rural areas. The New spectrum act will look into spectrum pricing. New spectrum act will look into spectrum pricing. Spectrum to be made available at market valuations.”

Highlights : National Telecom Policy – 2011 :

· One Nation-One License to mean removal of Roaming charges on Mobile phone service.

· Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation – Free Roaming.

· Efforts Towards ‘Right to Broadband’

· Affordable and reliable Broadband on demand by 2015 and to achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher speeds of atleast 100 Mbps on demand.

· To revise the existing broadband download speed of 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps by 2011 and subsequently to 2 Mbps by 2015 and and higher speeds of atleast 100 Mbps thereafter.

· 300 MHz spectrum to be made available by 2017

· Aim to make 500 MHz spectrum available by 2020

· Mission is to have special coverage of Remote, Rural areas across India.

· Protect consumer interest by promoting informed consent, transparency and accountability in quality of service, tariff, usage etc.

· Optimize transmission of services to consumers irrespective of their devices or locations by Fixed-Mobile Convergence thus making available valuable spectrum for other wireless services.

· Convergence of services will cover voice, data, video, Internet, VAS

· The technology neutral Unified Licenses are envisaged to be in two separate categories : (a) Network Service Operator (NSO)/ Communication Network Service Operator (CNSO)
(b) Service Delivery Operator (SDO)/ Communication Service Delivery Operator (CSDO)

· To permit resale at retail level like MVNO

· De-link licenses issuances & spectrum allocations

· Spectrum to be made available at market valuations

· Seek TRAI recommendation on license framework

· Will allow trading, sharing, pooling of spectrum

· Will enact a separate spectrum act

· Aim is to have the policy take effect by December 2011

Note : All above regulations are proposed by Telecom Ministry and would be effective if the policy comes into effect.

Holding of LDCE for LGO to the cadre of PAs/SAs - Corrigendum issued to hold the examination on 16.10.2011

It was clarified by Postal Directorate vide letter no A-34012/02/2011-DE dated 07-10-2010 that the Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for promotion to the cadre of Postal Assistants/Sorting Assistants (L.G.O Exam) for the year 2011 scheduled to be held on 15-10-2011 is postponed for one day to 16-10-2011, Sunday..

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New Pension System: Govt to strengthen PoPs

The Government is looking at ways to popularise the new pension system (NPS) by strengthening the distribution base to reach out to the informal sector, a finance ministry official said today.

Of the total 24 lakh subscribers of NPS, only around 45,000 are from the informal sector. NPS is a government-run retirement scheme for individuals, including those in the unorganised sector.

“We are aiming at increasing the subscriber base by way of strengthening Points-of-Presence (PoPs), which will enable us to reach out to people,” the official said.

PoPs are the first points of interaction with NPS subscribers. Authorised branches act as collection points and extend customer services. There are about 30 PoPs in the country at present.

The official said the ministry is looking at ways to reduce expenditure and reach out to people to increase participation.

“We need to increase awareness among people about NPS. We are trying to find ways to reduce distribution expenses and involve state agencies to reach out to the informal sector,'' the official said.

Of the total NPS subscribers, over 7.92 lakh are central government employees, 9,042 are from private companies and 41,826 are employees from central autonomous bodies. About 7.84 lakh subscribers are from state governments.

Earlier this year, a committee set up by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) had suggested substantial lowering of the cost of buying NPS, besides providing incentives to distributors.

The report also recommended bringing down the minimum annual subscription of Rs 6,000 for the main NPS to Rs 1,000 per year to ease the entry barrier for investors. It would also help attract lower-end customers towards NPS.

NPS, launched for all citizens in May 2009, failed to take-off due to lack of sales ‘push’. So far it has attracted only 50,000 individual buyers, out of the over 400 million workforce in the country.

Oct 10, 2011 Department of Posts ( Multi Tasking Staff ) Recruitment Rules 2010

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Finance ministry pushes for increase in PPF, Post office Rates:

NEW DELHI: Faced with a cash crunch, the finance ministry is moving a proposal to increase interest rates on small savings schemes such as Public Provident Fund and post office deposits but politics may play spoilsport.

Official sources told TOI that finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will decide on the proposal over the next few days as small savings instruments have lost out to bank deposits that earn higher interest. As a result, the government has been forced to borrow Rs 53,000 crore more from the market by issuing bonds, a move that can increase interest rates further and also upset budgetary calculations.

If Mukherjee approves an increase in interest rates on small savings, your PPF will fetch you at least 8.2%, instead of 8% now, while senior citizens can hope to earn around 9%. In addition, individuals will be permitted to park Rs 1 lakh in PPF accounts instead of Rs 70,000 at present. Similarly, post office deposits will fetch 50-70 basis points higher (100 basis points = one percentage point).

But politics over two schemes are holding back a green light from the finance minister. Sources said the finance ministry has received several representations from individuals urging not to abolish the Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), while nearly 5 lakh agents have opposed the move to cut the commission on Mahila Pradhan Kshetriya Bachat Yojana (MPKBY) to 1% from 4%.

Officials in the tax department have complained that KVP has become one of the biggest instruments of money laundering, a concern which was even shared by a high-level committee headed by former RBI deputy governor Shyamala Gopinath. In fact, maximum instances of misuse of KVP have been found around Amritsar, pointing to the possibility of Pakistani funds entering India. So, it hasn't come as a surprise that a significant number of petitions for the scheme's continuation have come from Punjab and Haryana.

"The ministry has received representations from various sections. They have demanded that KVP should not be discontinued as it is linked to farmers while the reduction in the commission for MPKBY scheme has been opposed on the ground that it will hurt the income of women agents in rural areas," a source, who did not wish to be identified, said.

Mukherjee faces another dilemma as MPKBY was started during former prime minister Indira Gandhi's tenure which raises fears of criticism from within the party, especially because women agents will be affected. It's a different matter, however, that the agency is in the name of a woman but the person hawking the scheme is either the agent's husband or another family member.

It is likely that the finance minister, the government's key troubleshooter, will settle for reducing commission to around 2%, which will also ensure that investors do not lose out on returns as commission eats up a certain portion of the returns every time funds are deposited.

An expert panel headed by Gopinath had recommended moving from an administered price regime to a market-linked interest rate system for small savings schemes that would translate into higher returns for now.

It has recommended closure of only one existing scheme - KVP -- while recommending continuation of all other schemes with some modifications. The committee also recommended that the investment ceiling in the popular Public Provident Fund scheme be raised to Rs 1 lakh from the current Rs 70,000.

Finance ministry officials said increase in the PPF investment limit would help garner about Rs 5,000 crore in the coming quarter if the small savings reform plans were implemented. This would also help the government tide over the tight fiscal situation and reduce prospects for any further increase in its market borrowings. The government has recently raised its borrowing against the backdrop of slowing revenues and less than expected receipts from disinvestment in state-run enterprises.

The government panel had said the continued popularity of both KVP and NSC among the urban population who are not all small savers could be prompted by an incentive to avoid tax. "As compared to NSC, KVP is more popular as it is a bearer-like certificate due to its ease of transfer. It also has an in-built liquidity due to the regulated premature closure facility offered in the scheme. In view of the recent developments on Anti Money Laundering/CFT front, the committee recommends that KVP should be discontinued," the report said.

The committee had also said that 4% commission under MPKBY was very high and was affecting the viability of the National Small Savings Fund. "The committee recognises that the RD scheme requires considerable effort on part of agents in mobilizing monthly deposits. However, 4% commission is distortionary and expensive. The committee recommends that this should be brought down to 1% in a phased manner in a period of three years with a 1% reduction every year," the report said.

Latest data shows investors are opting for bank deposits due to the increase in deposit rates. Between April and August 2011, retail investors withdrew nearly Rs 5,500 crore from small savings deposit schemes in post offices and certificates such as National Savings Certificate. Small savings schemes, most of which are exempt from tax, had attracted investment of over Rs 25,000 crore in the same period last year.

Source : The Times of India, October 10, 2011

Government's apathy to Small Savings Schemes

SUSTAINING INTEREST: Measures are needed to improve liquidity, flexibility interest rates and maturities as well as making post office schemes more attractive for small savers. File photo

The Government wants to borrow more in the second-half of this financial year. Thus, fiscal slippage has come to the centre stage along with the discussions on controlling inflation. Spiraling and unabatedly continuing inflation is a concern. But fiscal indiscipline will very much exacerbate inflation.

The reasons the government cited for this was due to lower-than-expected cash surplus at the start of the financial year and also on account of revenue shortfall under the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF). Even though the government indicated that its fiscal deficit calculations remain unchanged, one of the major sources of the budget deficit — considered at the time of the last Union Budget — was small savings schemes of the government. A report of the Finance Ministry released recently said that net small savings deposits turned negative in the first quarter of 2011-12 and it has impacted government's cash management.

Interestingly, interest rates of many savings schemes offered by the government were static since 2003, while bank deposit rates moved up many folds. Various types of small savings schemes offer interest rates between 3.5 per cent and 8.40 per cent. The only scheme which offers a higher interest rate is the 5-year Senior Citizens' Savings Scheme (SCSS) which offers 9 per cent. However, for senior citizens, many public sector banks are offering much higher rates, adding another 25-50 basis points.

Further the government's borrowing programme surprised markets. The government announced its borrowing programme for the second-half of the current fiscal which was higher by Rs.52,900 crore over the market expectations. Yields of the benchmark 10-year Government Securities (G-Sec) had been in the range of 8.28-8.35 per cent till recently. After the announcement of higher borrowing programme by the government, the yields of the 10-year government bonds have shot up by 10 basis points to close at 8.44 per cent in the previous week. Last week, it moved up further to close at 8.55 per cent against 7.93 per cent a year ago. The 5-year G-Sec also was at 8.33 per cent last Friday against 7.75 per cent a year ago.

The deposit rates now hover around 8.50-9.25 per cent as compared to 7-8 per cent a year ago. However, some banks offer higher fixed deposit rates which are floating between 9.50 per cent and 10.50 per cent for various maturities.

PRIME LENDING RATES

The Prime Lending Rates (PLRs) charged by various banks remain almost static as compared to one year ago at 11-15.75 per cent. The rate for savings bank account had also been revised by the Reserve Bank of India from 3.50 per cent to 4 per cent in May 2011, when it announced Monetary Policy for 2011-12. However, the gap between savings bank rate and other bank rates have been widened significantly. In tandem with rising interest rates, Call Money rate, which is an overnight rate, has also moved up to 8.05 per cent from 5.75 per cent around the same period in 2010.

HEADLINE INFLATION

Meanwhile, headline inflation in August accelerated to 9.78 per cent, its highest in more than a year, from 9.22 per cent in July.

Weekly food inflation as on September 24 accelerated to 9.41 per cent from 9.31 per cent in the previous week. Fuel price inflation moved up to 14.69 per cent as per the latest data of the government.

Clearly, the high interest rates being offered by banks make people move out of the small savings schemes. The Shyamala Gopinath Committee on Comprehensive Review of National Small Savings Fund recommended to the government a positive spread of 25 basis points, vis-à-vis government securities of similar maturities with a few exceptions, “taking into account the interests of small savers, and in view of the absence of social security among the unorganised sections of the society, as also the liquidity augmenting measures for various instruments”. Exceptions are recommended only in the case of 6-year National Savings Certificate (NSC) and SCSS. The Committee notes that NSC cannot be withdrawn before maturity, which affects its liquidity. Keeping in view the longish tenor of the 6-year NSC and the absence of liquidity, the Committee favours a higher illiquidity premium of 50 basis points (instead of 25 basis points as in the case of other instruments). As regards SCSS where the rate of interest is currently fixed at 9 per cent, the Committee recommended a spread of 100 basis points over and above the secondary market yield of government securities of similar maturity.

The Committee, which had given its report in June to the government agrees with the recommendations of the Reddy (2001) and Rakesh Mohan (2004) committees that the secondary market yields on Central Government securities of comparable maturities should be the benchmark for various small savings instruments (other than savings bank deposits, which do not have a fixed maturity). The Shyamala Gopinath Committee also recommended various measures to improve liquidity, flexibility in revising rates and maturities as well as making schemes more attractive for small savers.

The government's apathy towards small savings schemes is clear. If the authorities make the small savings schemes more attractive, more funds will come through this government channel. The government had borrowed Rs.2.50-lakh crore in the first-half of 2011-12 out of the announced dated borrowing programme for the fiscal at Rs.4.17-lakh crore. Taking these figures into consideration, the market was expecting the Reserve Bank of India to announce a dated borrowing programme of Rs.1.67-lakh crore for the second-half of the current fiscal. But the government announced a dated borrowing programme of Rs.2.20-lakh crore, or around Rs.52,900 crore in excess of the anticipated amount. If small savings collections do not improve by the financial year end, the government has to resort to another bout of borrowing. This will make the central bank's position further difficult while shaping its monetary stand for the year 2012-13.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/

Computer Terms Used in Technology - Study Material for IPO Examination

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ACE	Access Control Entry
ADO	Active data Objects
ALU	Arithmetic Logic Unit
ASP	Active server Page
ATAPI	Advanced technology attachment packet interface
ATM	Asynchronous Transfer mode
AUI	Attachment unit interface
B2c	Business to commerce
BASIC	Beginners all purpose symbolic instruction code
BCD	Binary coded decimal
BHTML	Broadcast Hyper Text Markup Language
BMP	Bitmap
CAD	Computer aided design
CASE	Computer aided software engineering
CCNA	Cisco certified network associate
CD	Compact Disc
C-DAC	Centre for development of advanced computing
CGI	Common Gateway interface
CIDR	Classless inter domain routing
CLR	Common language runtime
CMOS	Complementary Metal Oxide semiconductor
CRC	Cyclic Redundancy Check
CRT	Cathode Ray Tube
DAC	Digital to analog converter
DAO	Data Access Object
DBA	Database Administrator
DFS	Distributed file system
DDL	Data definition Language
DHTML	Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language
DNS	Domain Name System
DOS	Disk operating system
DPI	Dots per inch
DLL	Dynamic link library
DVD	Digital Versatile disc
EBCDIC	Extended binary coded decimal interchange
EFS	Encrypted file system
EPROM	Erasable programmable read only memory
EULA	End user license agreement
FAT	File allocation table
FO	Fiber optics
GB	Giga Bytes
GNU	GNU’s Not Unix
GUI	Graphical user interface
HTML	Hyper text markup language
IBM	International Business machines
ICMP	Internet control message protocol
I/O	Input output
IP	Internet Protocol
ISDN	Integrated services digital network
ITPL	Information technology park limited
JCL	Job control language
JSP	Java server page
LCD	Liquid crystal display
LIPS	Logical interface per second
MB	Mega bytes
MBPS	Mega byte per second
MBR	Master boot record
MAN	Metropolitan Area Network
MCS	Multicast server
MCSA	Microsoft certified systems administrator
MFT	Master File Table
MIMD	Multiple instruction multiple data
MIPS	Millions of instructions per second
MP3	Motion pictures experts group layer -3
MPEG	Motion pictures experts group
MSDN	Microsoft developer network
NDIS	Network driver interface specification
NIC	National information centre
NIIT	National institute if information technology
NNTP	Network news transfer protocol
NTFS	New technology file system
ODBC	Open data base connectivity
OMR	Optical Mark Reader
PDF	Portable document format
PLC	Programmable Logic controller
PNG	Portable network graphics
PPP	Peer to peer Protocol
RAM	Random access memory
RDBMS	Relational data base management system
RDO	Remote data object
RGB	Red Green Blue
RISC	Reduced instruction set computer
ROM	Read only memory
RTF	Rich Text format
SACK	Selective acknowledgment
SAM	Security access manager
SRAM	Static random access memory
SIM	Subscriber identification module
SMS	Short message service
SQL	Structured query language
TB	Tera bytes
TAPI	Telephony application program interface
TCP/IP	Transmission control protocol/Inter protocol
UDP	User datagram protocol
URL	Universal resources locator
USB	Universal serial bus
VAN	Virtual area network
VCD	Video compact disc
VGA	Video graphics array
VPN	Virtual private network
WAN	Wide area network
WHQL	Windows hardware quality lab
WML	Wireless Markup language
Y2k	Year 2000
ZIF	Zero insertion force
Collected by S Jayachandran , System Administrator, Mavelikara Division - 690101, Mobile - 9961464279 Please visit : http://nfpemavelikaradivision.blogspot.com

Act and Laws with Year - Study Material for IPO Examination

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The companies (amendment ) act 2006

The sale of goods Act 1930

Right to information act 2005

Personal injuries (Emergency provisions) act 1962

The administrative tribunal act 1985

The notaries act 1952

Indian Penal code 1860

The criminal Law amendment act 1961

The criminal law amendment act 1993

The child marriage restraint act 1929

The Hindu marriage act 1955

The Indian evidence act 1872

The industrial disputes (Banking companies ) Decision act 1955

The negotiable instrument act 1881

Smuggling activities(amendment ) Act 1996

Employees insurance act 1948

The life insurance corporation act 1956

The trade marks act 1999

The copyright act 1957

The patents act 1970

The Delhi land Revenue act 1954

Customs Act 1962

The Arms Act 1959

The interest Tax Act 1974

The wealth Tax Act 1957

The energy conservation act 2001

The industries (development and regulation ) Act 1951

The dangerous Machine (Regulation ) Act 1983

The Hire purchase Act 1972

The foreign exchange management act 1999

Information technology act 2000

Apprentices act 1961

Workmen’s compensation act 1923

Civil procedure code 1908

The sale of goods act 1930

The company secretaries act 1980

The consumer protection (amendment) act 2002

The bankers book evidence act 1891

The court fees act 1870

The child marriage restraint act 1929

The forest conservation act 1980

The water (prevention and control of pollution act 1974)

The monopolies and restrictive trade practices act 1969

The industrial disputes act 1947

The food safety and standard act 2006

Collected by S Jayachandran , System Administrator, Mavelikara Division- 690101, Mobile - 9961464279