Each 3G user on average currently consumes close to 300 percent more data than a 2G user, chalking up 434MB per month while a 2G user clocks 115MB per month. MBit Index study is based on Nokia Siemens' internal analysis of aggregated data from multiple sources in India. 

"The fact that data consumption by 3G users has tripled in one year clearly shows the rapid and steady increase in mobile data consumption in India," Sandeep Girotra, the vendor's head of India region, said in the statement. "This translates into the need for high-quality mobile broadband services with improved speed and service quality to satisfy mobile broadband users."

In the first half of the research period, data traffic generated by 3G services increased by 78 percent while 2G services increased by 47 percent. In the second half, data traffic generated by 3G services grew 54 percent while 2G services increased by 18 percent on a larger base.

"Hence, the growth rate of 3G data in the second half of 2012 was almost triple that of the growth rate of 2G," according to a statement released by Nokia Siemens Networks. "In the second half, 2G data growth stabilized due to high-end 2G users migrating to 3G services."

Reduction in 3G tariff by operators in mid-2012 led to the significant growth in 3G data consumption across the country, with category A circles seeing the maximum impact. "3G services generated one-third of the total mobile data in the country in the second half of the year, up from one-fourth in the first half," it said.

Data over smartphones

The study further revealed that in category A circles, there is a strong tendency to access mobile data using smartphones. Some 45 percent of total data consumed in A circles was accessed by smartphone users, but half of the users here still access mobile data on 2G networks.

"This provides operators a huge opportunity to encourage 2G users to go for much faster 3G services," the report added. "It also underscores the need for operators to make 2G/GSM networks more smartphone-friendly in order to ensure better customer experience."

The report further revealed that data currently accessed by smartphones using 3G services in category B and C circles were much lower than the national average, with category B circles recording 75 percent of mobile data consumption using only 2G services.

The trends in various circles highlight the need for a special focus on enhancing 3G network coverage in A, B, and C circles across the country. Girotra said: "Constantly improving the quality of data services and fulfilling growing expectations of mobile broadband customers will be a win-win for both operators and data customers."

Like me, anyone who has been travelling to the smaller cities of India would have found 3G connectivity--which was first launched in late 2010--to have improved over the last year.

"It takes around three years for any technology to mature," Rishi Tejpal, principal research analyst, Gartner, told me in a phone interview. Going by Tejpal's statement, 3G appears to finally be taking off in India. In fact, today one can buy a 3G-enabled phone for around INR 4,000 (US$72).

The growing popularity of 3G in India can also be gauged from the financials of mobile operator Vodafone India. The company reported a three-fold increase in profit for the year ended March 31, 2013, and earned INR 20 billion (US$361 million) from data during the same period. This marks a 50 percent growth when compared with its data-related revenues during the previous financial year.

Now, the Indian arm of Vodafone wants to build a pan-India 3G network and is open to buying airwaves from other mobile operators, according to a news report published in The Economic Times. Vodafone has 3G airwaves in 11 circles and offers nationwide high-end data services through roaming pacts with Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular. 

However, it has been restrained from adding new data customers in circles where it does not own 3G bandwidth.

"The purchase price Vodafone will settle for (3G spectrum) will be based on a commercial negotiation and depends on how desperately they (other telecom companies) are willing to sell," Vodafone India's managing director, Marten Pieters, said in The Economic Times report. 

According to a press statement issued by Times Internet, the official digital partner of IPL along with YouTube, IPL season 6's online viewership (across both www.boxtv.com and www.youtube.com/indiatimes) recorded a 52 percent growth over 2012 (75.2 million versus 49.3 million last year's IPL season 5).

What this means is that cricket lovers are not just glued to their TV sets, an increasing number of them are watching the matches, along with match highlights and analysis on their computers, mobile phones, tablets, and etc.

Boost from tier 2 and 3 cities

According to Digivive, a company that has won the live mobile screening rights for the IPL 2013, viewers have so far consumed more than 900,000 hours of video feed averaging at over 42,000 hours daily.

According to statistics by mobile TV service nexGTv, IPL viewership has seen a sharp upward turn from day one of IPL 6 and so far has received more than 15 million hits, averaging at 747,959 hits per match day. The season started early April and ends this month.

"An increasing number of cricket enthusiasts are watching IPL on their mobile devices," Kesavan Kanchi Kandadai, CEO of Tangerine, a company that creates, packages and delivers video content for the IPL, told ZDNet Asia in a phone interview. Tangerine works closely with Digivive.

"With the advent of 3G and smartphones, we see an increasing trend in mobile video consumption as well," Kandadai said.

Moreover, mobile video consumption is on the rise even in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. "However, Mumbai and Delhi still steal the show in viewership figures," Kandadai said.

In response to IPL season 6's viewership statistics, Praveen Sharma, head of media sales at Google India said in a statement: "Better streaming experience, increased mobile and tablet device access and growing awareness about the availability of IPL online is fueling the growth in viewership."

Companies are adopting desktop virtualization as well as mobility management and security tools to deal with challenges thrown by BYOD. For instance, Thermax last month implemented Citrix's desktop virtualization offering. The Pune-based energy environment major has five manufacturing facilities in India and abroad. Companies like NDTV, HDFC Bank, Genpact, Essar Group, Perfetti Van Melle, and Indraprastha Apollo Hospital are also stated to have deployed the software. 

Commenting on the deployment, Thermax CIO Anil Nadkarni said in a statement: "After a thorough market assessment, instead of an IT infrastructure upgrade we decided to deploy the Citrix desktop virtualization solution. The biggest advantage has been that our organization has now become BYOD-ready and the anytime, anywhere access has enormously improved the company's decision-making."

Security is the top concern for BYOD. The risk of data leakage on mobile platforms is particularly high. Some mobile devices are designed to share data in the cloud and have no general-purpose file system for applications to share, increasing the potential for data to be easily duplicated between applications and moved between applications and the cloud.

Adoption of BYOD varies widely across the globe. According to Gartner, companies in the United States are twice as likely to allow BYOD as those in Europe, where BYOD has the lowest adoption of all the regions. In contrast, employees in India, China and Brazil are most likely to be using a personal device, typically a standard mobile phone, at work.

BYOD tools tackle challenges

On Wednesday, SAP unveiled SAP Mobile Secure, an enterprise mobility management software portfolio designed to provide customers with enterprise-grade security for devices, apps, and content. This new portfolio optimizes the mobile experience for users of today's most popular mobile devices.

SAP Mobile Secure also offers a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) product with the cloud edition of its mobile device management tool, SAP Afaria, to help companies quickly and easily secure and manage mobile devices for 1 euro per device per month.

Similarly, on Tuesday, NetApp expanded its portfolio by announcing a new product--Net App Connect--which touts secure, instant, and easy mobile access to data stored on NetApp storage systems.

By keeping all data securely behind the corporate firewall and never copied to the cloud, NetApp Connect offers mobile access to corporate data while maintaining the tight security and control that enterprise IT requires. 

Another vendor i7 Networks on May 2 launched Peregrine-Guard. The software allows IT departments to monitor devices accessing the networks by using a triangulation method, which taps information coming out of devices and network packets and the devices' behavior. For example, when a device attempts to connect to the company's Wi-Fi network, the software can identify what device is attempting to connect to the network. It can also identify if the device is jail-broken or rooted. It can also determine if there is malware on the device.

Moreover, telecom services providers such as BlackBerry, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone India have their own BYOD products that are touted to address security concerns. BlackBerry has its "Balance" technology which allows IT administrators to remotely lock and wipe off data, thereby protecting sensitive corporate information. Airtel has Airtel Dynamic Mobile Exchange (DME) for companies to allow employees to segregate official and personal data on the same device by compartmentalizing information such as e-mail, data applications, and documents. Vodafone India has a similar product, Vodafone Secure Device Manager, which also allows tracking of device usage such as application downloads, voice, and data.

On Tuesday, Cisco published results of its Customer Experience Report that focused on the automobile buying and driving experience.

According to the survey, more than half of global consumers (57 percent) said they would be likely to ride a car controlled entirely by technology that does not require a human driver. The most trusting consumers in this regard were in Brazil (with 96 percent of those surveyed in the country), India (with 86 percent), and China (with 70 percent).

The study polled more than 1,500 consumers across 10 countries. The global report examined consumer preferences of technology used while buying and driving an automobile. 

It reveals how information and technology are crucial throughout the car experience--from buying to maintaining it. "From the car purchasing experiences to service maintenance, consumers are using more advanced communication technologies (such as mobile, text, telephone, Web sites, embedded communications devices) to engage with manufacturers and car dealerships," a Cisco statement said. 

Results show roughly half (47 percent) of global consumers valued the brand's reputation for adopting technology when purchasing a vehicle.

Andreas Mai, director of product marketing for Connected Industries Group at Cisco, said in a statement: "Most consumers expect to be connected to the Internet wherever they are. Since they may spend much of their time in their car, it stands to reason they want their car to be more connected.  This consumer survey confirms that it is time to take the Internet to the road and into our cars."

Globally, consumers are eager to see more transportation changes in customization, safety, time, and cost savings. Brazil, China and India show significantly more willingness to provide information on driving habits, in exchange for cost and time efficiencies.

Here are some other key findings:

•          Most consumers begin their car purchasing process online--83 percent of global consumers prefer to research online for information on a car, versus only 17 percent of consumers that prefer to call or go to dealership.

•          52 percent of consumers want to track gas prices from a vehicle. Gas-price tracking was the highest priority, compared to 46 percent of consumers wanting to track insurance prices, 35 percent wanting to track roadside assistance availability, and 32 percent wanted to track recall information.

•          74 percent would allow their driving habits to be monitored in order to save on insurance or service maintenance or costs.

•          60 percent would provide biometric information such as fingerprints and DNA samples in return for personalized security or car security.

"Despite global economic challenges, India provides strong growth opportunities across segments including infrastructure [which] alone is expected to surpass US$2.9 billion in 2017," Naveen Mishra, research director at Gartner said in a statement.

"The nexus of forces--big data, cloud, social and mobility--are finding real-time business-driven use cases, bringing a paradigm shift in the way IT is delivering business impact and, hence, changing the role of an Indian CIO," Mishra added.

The Indian IT infrastructure market is driven by hardware refresh, optimization, and consolidation efforts. New data center buildout, primarily driven by service providers, is providing added impetus.

The server segment accounts for the biggest chunk of the market totaling US$753 million in 2013. It is expected to increase to US$962.3 million in 2017.

"New datacenter implementations to meet server consolidation and virtualization needs, combined with campus upgrades, and growing adoption of multimedia applications and mobility, are driving the networking market," said Naresh Singh, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Future demand and dynamics of the market will also be heavily influenced by these trends as they intensify, and other disruptive technologies like cloud, social and big data take centerstage."

Indian IT infrastructure revenue by technology (in US$ millions)

Source: Gartner, May 2013

In a note prepared for the consideration of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the DoT has said that both public sector undertakings (PSUs) faced stiff competition from pan-India private operators. The private players were in a position to extend benefits especially to enterprise and business customers, while the two PSU telco were not in a position to do the same.

"Merger of BSNL and MTNL into a national telecom service company may be considered for strategic and operational synergies," the DoT note to the EGoM said. This is part of the telecom ministry's plans to revive the two telecom companies.

Financial results for 2012-13 indicate BSNL would make a loss of 82 billion rupees (US$1.5 billon), while MTNL recorded a loss of 33.3 billion rupees (US$610 million) for the year up to December 31, 2012.

MTNL's net worth is likely to be eroded completely in the first quarter of 2012-13, while BSNL's net worth is in excess of 500 billion rupees (US$9.17 billion), most of which is locked in fixed assets.

DoT backs voluntary retirement schemes

One of the key problems facing the two PSUs is the rising employee costs. "Employee cost as a percentage of revenue is over 103 percent for MTNL and 49 percent for BSNL against the industry average of less than 5 per cent," the DoT note said.

The DoT has proposed short-term and long-term strategies to help the two PSUs fight competition from the private players. This includes making a one-time payment of 59.25 billion rupees (US$1.08 billion) to MTNL towards settling its pension liabilities. Pension contributes 86 percent of the salary costs at present and is expected to exceed salary costs by 2014-15. DoT has also backed BSNL's Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to reduce the workforce by 100,000.

DoT said the VRS can be funded through various options, including from the money generated by selling land owned by the company or through interest-free loans by the government. The department has also suggested that government institutions and employees should be asked to use telecom services only from the two PSUs.

Need for clear action plan

This is not the first time the DoT is talking about reviving BSNL and MTNL. The proposal to merge the two companies was floated back in 2004. In 2007, it was put on the back burner after issues related to de-listing of MTNL shares and employee parity were raised.

Back in 2004, Sam Pitroda, currently advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, had said the divestment of the government's stake was the only solution and asked the government to give them more autonomy by lowering its stake to below 51 percent. "Merger [of BSNL and MTNL] is not the only solution. You have to make them more independent. You have to sell the bigger piece to the public," he had said.

Apart from many other reasons, one of the biggest reason behind the financial mess of the two PSUs is inefficiency. Both the PSUs have an outstanding arrears of 62.15 billion rupees (US$1.14 billion).

In fact, in 2010, a committee headed by Pitroda, had suggested a number of steps that could revive BSNL. This included getting the best professionals from the market (at market rates), changing the board of BSNL, changing the procurement process, divesting 30 percent government stake, enhancing rural communications, hiving off tower-related infrastructure, hiving off the real estate assets and providing 30 million high speed broadband connections in the next three years.

Even today, these recommendations hold immense value for both the PSUs. What is even more important than merging the two PSUs is to spell out a new role for the merged entity. It's important to see how the merged entity will help the consumer, and in what ways can it service the consumer. The need clearly is of increasing broadband penetration in rural India.

It's high time the government had a concrete roadmap for the two companies. There is a need for political will. The more time the country wastes in taking action, the more damage we will cause to these two government-owned telcos.

Following that incident, many young women raised concerns about feeling unsafe in the Indian capital. In fact, several IT applications were launched since then to provide security for women. I had blogged about this in January.

On International Women's Day held March 8, Meru Cab's--a radio cab service in the country--launched "trip tracker", which is an SMS-based service to ensure safety of women. According to a statement from the company, the service has rapidly grown to become Meru's most popular service. In less than 45 days since launch, over 100,000 customers have signed up for this service.

Through this service, an appointed person or family member of the commuter will receive SMS alerts about the passenger's cab location and journey details, thereby, ensuring a sense of safety and providing assurance especially for lady travelers and their loved ones. This is an opt-in service and is available free of charge to Meru customers.

On activating the cab tracking facility, the following SMSs are sent to the mobile number provided by the customer:

- a message delivered at the beginning of the trip, detailing the journey start-time and location where the trip began;

- regular SMS updates every 15 minutes during the journey with details of the location of the cab; and

- an SMS alert sent at the end of the trip with the location where the trip ended. 

Once implemented, this will be the next big leap for the government under its direct cash transfer scheme--it will bring 140 million LPG consumers under its ambit. It is aimed at directly putting the subsidy component of the domestic cylinder into the bank account of the consumers to eliminate the leakages in the system and address the problem of diversion of domestic cylinders for commercial market.

But there have been many glitches so far--both on the Aadhaar side, as well as on the banking side.

Goof ups and hurdles

Let's look at the goof-ups of the UIDAI and the hurdles facing the Aadhaar scheme.

Last month, there was news that thousands of people across the country received Aadhaar letters with photographs of trees, animals or buildings in place of their own. In addition, 14,817 cases of Aadhaar letters bearing photos of wrong people had been detected. And then in Hyderabad, there was news that Aadhaar data prior to April 1, 2012 had been lost and those people must re-enroll.  The UIDAI has to resolve all such issues prior to October for smooth roll out of the LPG subsidy scheme.

There is also the issue of Aadhaar penetration, which is very patchy in different parts of the country. For instance, in Kolkata, only 55,000 people have received Aadhaar cards which amounts to less than 1 percent of the population.

Moreover, enrolments by the banking sector have to pick up fast. According to news reports, while about 320 million Aadhaar cards have been issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), only 8 million bank accounts have been linked to the unique identity numbers so far.

There are hurdles even at the customer-end.

The oil marketing companies have started asking customers to register their Aadhaar card numbers with them. However, several consumers are refusing to share their data with the banks. While consumers are ready to give their Aadhaar numbers to the oil companies, they are not willing to share these with the banks.

Last week, the government convened a meeting of 121 district magistrates from various parts of the country to discuss the launch of the LPG subsidy scheme in phases from July 1. The plan is to extend it to majority of the LPG consumers on the rolls of the oil marketing companies (OMCs) by October 1, subject to their coverage under the Aadhaar scheme.

Under the scheme, a consumer has to seed his or her bank account with the Aadhaar number to get the LPG subsidy transferred directly into the account. The annual subsidy per consumer is around 4,000 rupees (US$74). The supply of subsidized LPG cylinder has been capped at nine cylinders a year per consumer.

While the LPG scheme, as well as several other cash transfer schemes, could help the ruling government in the general assembly elections next year, a lot depends on how the various sectors--such as banks, oil companies, the UIDAI--work over the next few months to implement these schemes across India.

WHAT ARE H-1B VISAS?

H-1B visas are temporary visas that allow foreign nationals to work in the United States on short-term projects, for longer-term work or as a prelude to a green card (permanent residence). H-1B status is generally good for up to 6 years (with a renewal after three years).

A reason H-1Bs visas are economically important is that without such visas skilled foreign nationals generally could not work or remain in the United States.

(source: NFAP)

While Indian IT firms operating in the U.S. have long maintained the H-1B visas do not lead to outsourcing of jobs or shrink the job market for Americans, few were willing to pay heed to their arguments. This new study by the National Foundation for America Policy (NFAP) argues H-1B visas are actually good for the U.S. economy.

The study by Stuart Anderson, executive director of the NFAP, was put up the NFAP Web site on May 1. Here are a few excerpts:

"…Rather than harming U.S. workers or the U.S. economy, H-1B visa holders contributed 'between 10 and 25 percent of the aggregate productivity growth… that took place in the United States from 1990 to 2010,' according to economists Giovanni Peri, Kevin Shih and Chad Sparber."

"[Then-research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta] Madeline Zavodny found each added 100 approved H-1B workers were associated with an additional 183 jobs among U.S. natives."

The study attacks the basic premise of the H-1B outsourcing argument that the foreign workers are cheaper. The bill would artificially inflate the minimum required wage paid to H-1B visa holders under the belief that H-1B professionals are generally paid below that of comparable U.S. workers.

The study said: "In fact, the law already requires employers to pay H-1B professionals at least as much as comparable U.S. workers. Moreover, the Government Accountability Office found the median salary for H-1B visa holders age 20-39 was US$80,000 compared to US$75,000 for U.S. workers in electrical/electronics engineering, and US$60,000 for H-1B professionals age 20-29 in systems analysis/programming vs. US$58,000 for U.S. workers."

In the letter, Sibal drew Singh's attention to his expectation that MTNL's net worth may be completely eroded in 2013-14 while BSNL is likely to post a loss of around INR 100 billion (US$1.86 billion) in the 2012-13 fiscal year. The government has convened a group of ministers to recommend possible measures for the revival of the two state-controlled telecom companies.

In fact, MTNL has asked consultant Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu to recommend ways in which its fortunes can be revived. According to news reports, Deloitte has been asked to submit a report of recommendations by July 2013, which will be taken up by an internal committee comprising of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officials and MTNL executives.

Over a decade back, when the Indian government was in a privatization overdrive, there was a lot of talk of privatizing BSNL and MTNL. Sometime around the end of 2002, the government decided that both MTNL and BSNL would not be sold off to the private sector.

Around that time, MTNL had been given the Navratna, or "nine jewels", status by the Indian government. Navratna was the title given by the Indian government to public sector undertakings (PSUs) that have comparative advantages, giving them greater autonomy to compete in the global market so that they could emerge as global giants. To retain the coveted Navratna status, the PSU has to be a profit-making company. In case it makes losses for two consecutive years, the company loses its Navratna tag.

MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai, has been reporting losses since 2009. The telco lost its Navratna status after posting losses for more than two consecutive years. Specifically, it had posted a loss of INR 26.1 billion (US$484 million) for fiscal year 2009-10, INR 28 billion (US$520 million) for 2010-11, and INR 41 billion (US$760 million) for 2011-12.

In January 2013, MTNL hired property consultants DTZ and Feedback Infrastructure Services to help it monetize some 780,000 square feet of office space and land in Mumbai and Delhi.

As for BSNL, another report said it is expected to lay off its employees by offering voluntary retirement.

If the government bails out MTNL and BSNL, the private players are likely to cry foul. Several private players are heavily in debt and their margins have been under pressure for quite sometime now.

Kamlesh Bhatia, research director at Gartner, is of the view that market forces have done their job and communication has been made available to a vast majority of people in the country. Therefore, the two telecom companies need not be government-owned.

"Today, the role of BSNL and MTNL is diluted," Bhatia said, adding the government needs to now change their role. "There is need for development around communication infrastructure," he added.

Privatization leads to both innovation and increase in efficiency. But is today a good time to privatize MTNL and BSNL? The industry is very different from what it was a decade ago. The industry is facing several challenges such as falling average revenue per user (ARPU), fierce competition, rising debts, drooping profits and low investor interest. There is every possibility that the two PSU may go for a song, if the government decides to privatize it in the near future.

"The government needs to take a broader view. It needs to promote innovation in the telecom industry," Bhatia said. According to him, privatization is still an option for the government.

It would be interesting to see what Deloitte recommends in its report.

Information collected from informal sources often serves as the benchmark, but this leads to disastrous consequences.

But now, jobseekers could have complete information on salaries, labor market data and other relevant information such as minimum wages and working conditions. Monster India, a leading online career and recruitment solutions provider, in association with the Wage Indicator Foundation, on Wednesday announced the launch of the "Monster Salary Index". This industry benchmark has been created in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management , Ahmedabad (IIM-A), which will act as the research partner.

This index aims to empower jobseekers with benchmarking tools to compare their salaries with millions of anonymous profiles across a broad spectrum of parameters such as industry domains, work experience and functional groups both in India and other global markets.

The initiative offers those currently employed, employers and trade unions with information related to salary, working conditions, minimum wages and other work-related issues.

At the core of the index is an online salary survey launched by the Wage Indicator Foundation in 2005, with IIM-A as research partner, to understand and develop salary and wage indicators for the Indian market. The Wage Indicator Foundation's surveys cover 70 countries.

"Our customer research and market studies over the years indicate a strong need for a benchmark that provides both employers and jobseekers with comprehensive information pertaining to labor market and salary trends from a single source," said Sanjay Modi, managing director of Monster.com for India, Middle East, Southeast Asia, in a press statement.

"With the launch of the Monster Salary Index, we aim to empower jobseekers to 'find better' by enabling them to make informed decisions regarding job opportunities, influence their professional decisions and assist them to understand the level of remuneration they deserve. In addition, this information will help employers analyze the labor market and optimize employee remuneration thereby fostering a more transparent work culture," Modi added. 

While giving out these numbers to a news channel during his visit to India in February this year, Toshiyuki Shiga, COO of Nissan Motor, said there was considerable environmental damage being done by increased use of fossil fuel, which could lead to the shortage of energy.

The only way out is to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy with zero-emission vehicles such as electric vehicles that utilize natural or renewable energies.

India, China and Brazil are witnessing increased production as well as demand for automobiles (due to both economic growth as well as high population). So it's these markets that need to shift their focus to renewable sources of energy. 

India, on its part, adopted the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 (NEMMP 2020) in August last year.  The NEMMP 2020 lays the vision, sets the targets and provides the roadmap for achieving significant penetration of electric vehicles (including hybrids) in India by 2020.

The NEMMP 2020 has set a target of 6 to 7 million units of new vehicle sales of full range of electrified vehicles, along with resultant savings of liquid fuel of 2.2 to 2.5 million tones to be achieved in 2020. This will also result in substantial lowering of vehicular emissions and a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions by 1.3 percent to 1.5 percent in 2020 as compared to a status quo scenario.

Manufacturers keen on EVs

Last week, Japanese auto giant Toyota announced its plans to introduce new hybrid vehicles in India, encouraged by gradual increase in sales of its only such model 'Prius' in the country.

In an agency report, a Toyota spokesperson from Tokyo said: "We have already introduced the Prius in the Indian market and we will continue to study the Indian market to introduce new hybrid models in India at appropriate times."

The company, which is present in India through a joint venture with the Kirloskar Group, may also consider assembly of hybrid cars if demand for such vehicles increases in future. "Depending on the future market dynamics, we will study and take a decision accordingly," the spokesperson said.

As part of a global initiative to develop fuel-efficient and environment-friendly vehicles, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) will launch 18 new hybrid models by 2015. Out of these, 13 are new vehicles and five are model changes of existing hybrid vehicles.

The company currently sells only one hybrid model in India--Prius--as a fully-imported vehicle. The sales of the model increased over 70 percent to 12 units in 2012-13 from 7 units in the previous financial year. Even Nissan has shown its keenness to launch green vehicles in India. So has Tata Motors, which has showcased several electric vehicle prototypes in the past at various auto expositions.

Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles has an electric car for the Indian market--e2o--that can clock 100km per one full recharge of five hours. The e2o is powered by lithium-ion batteries and runs on a three-phase electric motor on auto-drive mode.

Besides regular recharge of batteries through a 15A socket either at home or office, the battery can be recharged though solar panels too. The car is available for about 600,000 rupees (US$11,094) on road in Delhi, thanks to subsidies there, but costs over 700,000 rupees (US$12,944) in Bangalore. The cost of electricity, according to the company, is around 600 rupees (US$11.09) a month.

Huge investments needed for electrification

Today, there are huge barriers to the adoption of newer technologies, especially electric vehicles. First is the higher cost of acquisition. Second, is the consumer acceptance of the newer technology. And third is the lack of charging infrastructure.

As per the national mission, the government will provide the initial impetus through demand support measures to facilitate faster consumer acceptance of these newer technologies which have a higher cost of acquisition. In addition, government will also facilitate automotive R&D and put in place charging infrastructure.

It is estimated that the total investment required will be in the range of 200-230 billion rupees (US$3.6–US$4.1 billion), of which the support required to be provided by the government will be to the tune of 122.5–138.5 billion rupees (US$2.2–US$2.5 billion) over the next five to six years.

Aside from the benefits by way of liquid fuel savings, lowering of carbon emissions, lowering of other emissions, and job creation, the intervention is projected to also encourage the Indian industry to shift to newer, cleaner technologies so that it builds its future competitive advantage around environmentally sustainable products, high-end technologies, and innovation, thereby helping to improve the competitiveness of domestic automotive industry.

The government of India has also set up a high-level apex structures--National Council for Electric Mobility (NCEM) and the National Board for Electric Mobility (NBEM)--for faster adoption of electric vehicles and their manufacture in India.

Now, it's the turn of the auto industry to spend on R&D and come up with newer electric vehicles suited for the Indian conditions. The industry needs to partner the government and make large investments for developing the products and creating the manufacturing eco-system.

Some months back, my old and inexpensive Samsung handset suddenly stopped charging. It was a rather basic smartphone that had served me nearly 15 months. I rejoiced. I finally had a reason to buy a new smartphone.

That same evening, I bought the Samsung Galaxy S3. I chose the maroon option with a matching case. After making the payment, I asked the shopowner if he would buy back my old phone. He said yes and offered 2,000 rupees (US$37) for it.

I didn't tell the salesperson the old handset was faulty. I thought he'd figure it out and return it to me. Or, he might lower its resale price to 500 rupees (US$9.2). But he didn't do either of that. He repaired the phone within a few seconds and gave me 2,000 rupees in return.

It takes approximately 165 pounds of raw materials to manufacture a cellphone, and over 8 gallons of water to produce one microchip.

It was, of course, too late to return the S3 (and keep the old newly-repaired one) and I did want a new phone. But it made me realize that we give up old handsets at the drop of a hat, and most people don't even wait for a fault in their handsets to buy a new one. And manufacturers love them for doing so.

According to IDC's global mobile phone tracker report, vendors will ship more than 1.7 billion mobile phones in 2013, and this number is forecasted to grow 1.4 percent year-over-year.

There is a considerable environmental impact to manufacturing this volume of cellphones when you consider that it takes approximately 165 pounds of raw materials to manufacture a cellphone, and over 8 gallons of water to produce one microchip.

A media statement issued Monday by experts from the IEEE identified repairs as an important environment-friendly "R-world", especially in consumer electronics, alongside the other "Rs" like "reduce", "reuse", and "recycle"--considered the foundation of sustainable living.

Unlike most developed countries, mobile repair is a flourishing business in India. I see small outlets repairing old handsets for a fraction of the cost that the service station of a handset manufacturer may charge. In a diverse country like India, there is always a market for second-hand goods, ranging from appliances to mobile phones, cars, and even old clothes. 

There is a lot that manufacturers need to do in order to improve the repairability of its products.  "Through modest design changes, cellphone manufacturers can improve the repairability of its products and streamline the upstream manufacturing process, thereby, minimizing environmental impact while also improving global commerce and social development," the IEEE statement said.

In a country like India, improving the repairability of mobile handsets would go a long way in increasing the penetration of high-end mobile phones, especially smartphones.

Make cellphones more repairable

While innovations are made to improve the sustainability of this process, cellphone manufacturers can garner more immediate environment-friendly benefits by making their products more repairable.

A 2003 paper from the IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, titled "Life cycle assessment of the mobile communication system UMTS: Toward eco-efficient systems", indicates that extending the service life of the phone from one to four years decreases the environmental impact by about 40 percent.

"Cellphone companies manufacture a wide range of devices to meet the technological and budget requirements from early adopters to first-time cellphone owners in leading world markets and developing nations across the globe," Stu Lipoff, IEEE fellow and president of IP Action, said in the media statement.

According to IEEE, upstream cellphone manufacturing can be reduced by employing designs that enable easier and more economic device repairability, "so refurbished phones from the first market can have an extended life through use in secondary and tertiary markets".

This process would not only help reduce the environmental impact from the manufacturing process, but also provide more advanced technology for developing nations, helping to stimulate global commerce and improve the quality of life around the globe.

Advancements in technology are enabling manufacturers to make devices smaller and sleeker. However, along with this trend, they are also employing more closed designs and using materials that are making devices nearly unfixable.

"Regardless of size, there are numerous design features that manufacturers can use to improve the repairability of their products," said Kyle Wiens, IEEE member and CEO of iFixit. "Simple things like utilizing openable cases, using screws rather than adhesives, and providing easy access to parts that are most likely to break, like screens, greatly improve the repairability of cellphones and significantly extend their life."

It is imperative for designers to incorporate sustainable features into their products not only to make them last longer, but to help promote a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future.

Another news report on Tuesday outlined the proposed overhaul of the U.S. immigration law. Together, the two reports indicate tougher times ahead for the Indian IT industry.

Let's first look at the Citibank development. While on-site mandates are not new to the Indian IT industry, they were restricted mainly to U.K. government contracts. This is the first time a large financial player has included this stipulation. 

According to the news report, the Citibank contract will entail application development, analytics, and mobility services for the bank's global operations. "Bidding for the contract has already begun and players like TCS, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Wipro, and Cognizant have put in their bids. Global players like IBM, Accenture, and Dell are also involved in the race," the TV report said.

Citibank is likely to announce the name of contract winner in July or August this year.

Typically, the average ratio for a financial services contract is 50:50, thus, equally divided between offshore and on-site. The Citibank contract indicates a trend where offshoring is gradually disappearing and increased amount of local hiring is taking place.

This will undoubtedly increase the cost for Indian IT companies and immediately impact their margins. Going forward, other banks and companies in other sectors as well could begin including demands for a higher on-site support.

U.S. immigration changes a big blow

The Indian outsourcing industry's long-held fears of a backlash are close to being realized. Provisions in an overhaul of U.S. immigration law will close loopholes that allow outsourcing companies, Indian and American, to pay guest workers in the U.S. at rates often below wages for equivalently-skilled Americans.

Indian outsourcing companies now use more than one-third of the 65,000 high-skill visas allowed under U.S. regulations.

The proposed changes are in line with U.S. president Barack Obama's vows to make it tougher for American companies to replace American workers with cheaper labor abroad--either by opening factories overseas or by subcontracting their work to outsourcing companies.

"The cost to the Indian companies, which do everything from running call centers to managing the massive amounts of transactional data generated by banks, could run into several hundred million dollars in lost profits," a report in The Economic Times said on Tuesday.

"At issue in the U.S. are high-skill worker visas, called H-1B, that have been dubbed the 'outsourcing visa' by critics who say the system allows companies to bring in cheaper tech workers from abroad instead of hiring Americans," the report added.

The immigration bill, the larger point of which is aimed at boosting border security and providing a path to citizenship for 11 million people living illegally in the U.S., would impose steep fees for companies such as Indian outsourcers that have more than half their U.S. staff on the permits and also require them to pay higher salaries.

The Indian government and the country's outsourcing industry are gearing up for a fight during the debate on the bill, which could take weeks or months due to its other contentious issues. The draft law is now in hearings before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Indian outsourcing companies now use more than one-third of the 65,000 high-skill visas allowed under U.S. regulations. The U.S. branch offices of Indian outsourcers rely on bringing in their own tech experts from home, saying they are most familiar with the software and other technology developed in India to streamline American companies' payrolls, record-keeping, and other outsourced functions.

The proposed new visa regulations, hammered out in negotiations among eight U.S. senators who drafted the bill, would raise the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 110,000 initially to satisfy technology companies which argue they need the foreign workers.

"However, seeking to prevent undercutting American salaries, the bill would require those foreign workers to be paid more than under current law, impose steep fees of US$10,000 per visa on big companies with more than half of their staff under such visas, and, starting in 2014, completely ban new H-1B visas for large firms with more than 75 percent of staff as guest workers," The Economic Times report said.

According to a study released this week by consulting firm Zinnov, Indian PSUs are expected to witness a turnover of more than US$1 trillion by 2020, from US$383 billion in 2011-12. A large part of the growth will be attributed to investments in modern forms of IT including cloud, big data, and mobility.

Praveen Bhadada, Zinnov's director of market expansion, said in a statement: "India is a hub of 225 PSUs operating across verticals, with 16 of these companies featuring in the global list of top 2,000 companies. With their growing size and dominance, PSUs have started looking at IT to address global competition."

He cited the example of State Bank of India which has deployed one of the largest core banking implementation globally as well as oil-PSU Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) which has made early investments in big data.

IT is viewed as an enabler for cost reduction through the automation of processes and integrated IT setups. "Today PSUs are looking at IT to analyze customer information efficiently and develop targeted and customized offerings for customers," Bhadada added.

According to the Zinnov report, IT spend accounts for about 2 percent of total PSU revenue, which is higher than most other verticals, and was valued at US$8.5 billion in 2011-12. Energy and BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) are major PSU verticals for IT investments.

The PSU sector gives employment to 1.4 million, with 40 percent of companies operating in the manufacturing sector. Indian PSUs have been witnessing revenue growth of 11 percent since 2009.

"PSUs are looking at investing in technology to help address the challenges they faced in early years of transition toward establishing a more transparent and accountable organization, reduce the cost of production, and enhance productivity and customer reach," the report stated.

It also looked at some of the challenges faced by the Indian PSU sector, pointing to talent as one such challenge. Lack of performance incentives in terms of recognition and accelerated growth paths for workforce gives rise to productivity challenges, said Zinnov.

In addition, other challenges like lack of quantitative benchmarks against domestic private companies or global equivalents is affecting the performance of the sector. The broad-based decision-making structure, with stakeholders holding overlapping responsibilities, among PSUs also results in lack of accountability.

In recent times, the sentiments these quarterly results generate have had a huge impact on lives of those who rely on the IT sector for their livelihood, in some form or the other. And Infosys's (till recently the bellwether of Indian IT) results have a huge role to play in the general sentiment for the IT industry.

Infosys's earnings this quarter were rather disappointing. As usual, there was a lot of analysis in the media. But this time, there were more serious concerns.

Just two days back, a news report in The Economic Times said it could be a potential acquisition target. The logic: its market cap is down and it is sitting on piles of cash and liquid assets. In fact, a fifth of its market cap is now represented by cash and liquid assets. So logically, this cash pile reduces the enterprise value or the "price" the company wanting to acquire Infosys would have to pay.

Personally, I do not believe that Infosys could be a target for acquisition. A lot of Indian companies have been in a similar situation in the past. And they have not been gobbled up. It's not all that easy to acquire a company, and definitely not a company the size of Infosys.

However, the management's inability to deliver results like its peers, TCS and HCL in particular, does raise concerns. Infosys began the new year by posting stronger-than-expected profits for the October-December 2012 quarter. But it seems that the worst may not be behind Infosys as yet.

For many middle-class Indians, like me, that's not good news. Many of us have grown up reading stories of how Infosys was formed in a garage; how co-founder Narayana Murthy generously gave employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) to all his employees (including his driver) and created millionaires; how the company was committed to corporate governance and how it beat analyst expectations quarter after quarter and became the favorite stock of investors in both India and abroad.

Over time, it became much more than just an IT company. It stood for values, it stood for giving more power to its people. It became an icon. So one only hopes that this is just a passing phase, and Infosys will spring back, and soon.

Because in the case of Infosys, there is much more to its disappointing results than just the numbers.

On Wednesday, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, a part of the US$15.9 billion Mahindra Group, and Vodafone Business Services (VBS), the enterprise arm of Vodafone India announced a machine-to-machine (M2M) communication partnership, the first of its kind in India.

This partnership will enable Vodafone to provide M2M communication services to power the recently-launched electric vehicle--Mahindra e2o. The e2o is among a select few cars in the world to support telematics. This will be the first 'connected car' in India.

Mahindra Reva has developed a host of connectivity technologies in the e2o to help its owners remotely access various features and functions of their vehicle using a smartphone app or from a dedicated webpage.

With the help of Vodafone's services and a smart phone (or any Internet-connected computer), e2o owners can access the following services:

• Know the state of charge in the battery of their car and how far they can travel with the available charge.
• Remotely control its air-conditioning and set schedules to pre-heat or pre-cool the car before using it.
• Lock or unlock the car doors.
• Find the nearest charging stations.
• Receive alerts on various events with the car such as a disruption in charging due to power cuts, safety-related reminders such as a door being left unlocked or a parking brake not applied.
• Get an emergency boost charge with a command on the smartphone to go an extra 8 km to 10 km. This is the result of Mahindra Reva's patented technology – REVive. REVive is the first of its kind remote emergency charge activated through the smartphone app or a call to RIA (remote interactive assist). In the rare event of running low on charge, customers can use the app on their smart phones to remotely activate the reserve energy that can get them going.
• Have the Mahindra Reva Tech Help Desk remotely do prognosis and diagnostics of the car.

Commenting on the partnership, Naveen Chopra, director, Vodafone Business Services said: "Vodafone is renowned globally for being a specialist in M2M solutions and a market leader in telematics. Leveraging our global expertise, we are the first telecom service provider to offer the M2M service platform in the Indian market today."

Chetan Maini, chief of strategy and technology, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles said in a statement: "The e2o is the first and only Indian car, and among the few worldwide, to have telematics-based features that enable 'anytime, anywhere connectivity' between our customers and their cars. Going forward, connected car technologies will make a difference to convenience and safety, thereby making a positive impact on the way people commute and interact with their cars."

Reva was the first electric vehicle in India, launched by Reva Electric Car Company (founded in 1994), a joint venture between the Maini Group of Bangalore and AEV LLC of USA. Reva Electric Car focused on creating affordable electric cars through advanced technology and launched its first model in India (Reva) in 2001 and in London in 2004. In May 2010, the Mahindra Group acquired a majority stake in the company, which was renamed Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles.

Digitization is carried out in four phases. In the first phase--which ended on December 31, 2012--the four metros switched to set-top boxes (STBs). In the second phase, 38 cities in 15 states moved to STBs by March 31, 2013. In the third phase--the deadline for which is September 30, 2014--all urban areas of India have to switch to STBs. By December 31, 2014, the entire country will have to switch to STBs.

While this has led to more demand for digital cable services (via STBs) and digital DTH services, competition too is hotting up. Estimated to have 30 million subscribers today, the DTH industry today has six operators--Dish TV, Airtel Digital TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Reliance Digital TV, Videocon D2H, and DD Direct. Four of these players--Airtel Digital (owned by Bharti Airtel), Tata Sky (a joint venture between Tata Sky and STAR), Reliance Digital TV (owned by Reliance Communications), and Videocon D2H (owned by the Videocon group)--also offer mobile telephony services.

And these telecom players see the rising demand for DTH services in India as an opportunity for them to unlock the value of this business. This way, they can reduce the strain on their finances. News reports reveal that two players in the DTH business--Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel--are planning to sell their stake in the DTH business due to tough competition.

Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications is said to be in talks with South-based Sun Group to sell its DTH business for an estimated 20 billion rupees (US$367 million). Similarly, there have been reports Bharti Airtel is in talks with Liberty Global and a couple of private equity firms to sell 25 percent stake of its DTH business. Both are reportedly looking to exit from satellite business due to financial issues.

According to the news reports, the main aim of Reliance Communications is to reduce debt which is estimated at 370 billion rupees (US$6.8 billion). Reliance Digital TV currently has 4.6 million subscribers, with 9 percent share of the DTH market in India. Sun Direct has 8.5 million DTH subscribers.

Bharti Airtel reportedly also has started the process to sell up to 25 percent stake of the company's DTH arm, estimated to be valued at US$1 billion.

Reports also noted that U.S.-based DTH players like Comcast and Liberty Global are in talks with Bharti Airtel to buy a stake in its DTH arm. Some of the private equity players like KKR, Providence, Bain Capital, and GAAP are also said to be in the fray. Bharti is looking to raise over US$200 million from the sale.

Two other players--Tata Sky and Videocon--are planning to raise funds through the IPO (Initial Public Offering) route. Tata Sky, which has over 10 million subscribers, is looking for an IPO with a valuation of around 80 billion rupees (US$1.5 billion). Even Videocon is looking to raise funds through the IPO route. Tata Sky is planning to raise 20 billion rupees (US$367 million) by putting on offer 25 percent stake.

Digitization pushing up STB demand 

Television viewing services in India is currently provided mainly by three mediums--analog cable services, digital cable services (through the use of STBs), and digital DTH services. 

Analog cable services have existed in India for nearly 30 years, but it offers limited number of channels and no extra features or value-added services. Due to the digitization drive, consumers are fast switching to digital cable services and DTH. Both offer superior audio and video quality as opposed to analog cable services.

Earlier this week, Infonetic Research issued a statement regarding the growth of STBs. Julien Blin, directing analyst for consumer electronics and mobile broadband at Infonetics Research, said in the statement: "Contrary to popular opinion, the set-top box market is alive and well." Revenue from these devices grew almost 10 percent in 2012, a considerable rebound from a year ago, according to Infonetic.

The market for STBs is expected to remain healthy in the near-term as operators in China, India, and Latin America introduce new digital services, the market researcher added.

"India is one of the fastest-growing IT services markets in the world. Indian service providers have an opportunity to capitalize on planned increases in IT spending among Indian enterprises in 2013," Gartner said in a statement today. The market researcher surveyed 1,523 large enterprises worldwide, with over 1,000 employees, between June and September 2012 to determine their IT spending plans. Of these, 153 respondents were in India.

Indian companies' IT priorities in 2013 are the cloud, particularly infrastructure-as-a-service (Iaas), virtualization, datacenter consolidation, and IT modernization, said Arup Roy, research director at Gartner.

Compared with other markets, India offers a welcome opportunity for service providers looking for new business. "Indian IT budgets continue to rise, and the categories of spending continue to widen in the coming year," Gartner said. According to the research firm, approximately 10 percent of spending in 2012 was allocated to external services, 14 percent of which funded cloud-related initiatives.

"Similar ratios are expected in 2013. There is a greater inclination toward private cloud contracts, more than in any other market this year," Roy added.

About 30 percent of large Indian companies said control of IT budgets was shifting toward business units, including marketing, the CFO office, and lines of business. "As budget-control shifts occur, when all budgets become IT budgets, service providers must take a multipronged approach and not target only CIOs," Gartner said.

In line with the trend observed in other countries, the biggest IT spending in India was in the communications industry, followed by banks and securities. As banks embark on their next phase of transformation into more competitive customer-friendly institutions, key opportunities are likely to come up in the areas of core banking systems and upgrades or integration with other peripheral systems.

Near-term opportunities in the banking sector will be in the areas of collections, contact center services, business intelligence, mobility and IT outsourcing.

Relatively poor spending was seen in the vertical industries of insurance, government and utilities, setting India apart from other countries. Nevertheless, these markets are likely to offer strong opportunities for service providers.

"Some of the largest IT deals are starting to come from central and state government," Gartner said. Specifically, opportunities are emerging in state and central government bodies that relate mainly to efficiency, transparency, and e-enabling projects for citizen-facing services, as well as workflow-related projects.

Roy said:  "In most organizations the IT department controls the budget, which is centralized, but some control is shifting. This is more or less in line with other emerging and mature markets.

"The pace of this shift will be quite fast as cloud-based delivery methodologies mature, and organizations gain trust and confidence in them. In the next five years, we are likely to see more IT spending coming from the CMO's office, the CFO's office, and other lines of business."