NLD operators are allowed to carry intra-circle traffic only in a mutual agreement with fixed service providers (FSPs). That might include revenue-sharing. In most of the states, the Department of Telecommunications Services (DTS) is the FSP. Therefore, the possibility of DTS holding the NLDs to ransom cannot be ruled out. On the other hand, in some states like Maharashtra, restriction such as this was absolutely necessary to protect private FSPs. The private FSPs like Hughes Telecom in Maharashtra have paid a huge sum to get the intra-circle licence. Since the NLDs will cause a dent in the FSPs earnings, there had to be some provision for compensating them.

However, in such states the problem for NLDs will be to work out some arrangement with both of them (DTS and private FSP), which could be a difficult exercise. Since the term `mutual agreement' is ambiguous, there can be different interpretations. This will make the job of redressal machinery very difficult to figure out as to which party is right.Celluar operators' disappointment over the policy is also not without reason. They had paid heavy licence fee for acquiring the circles.

The opening up of NLD is expected to take away a reasonable chunk of their revenues. For example, a person calling on BPL mobile from Kolhapur to Pune (Maharashtra circle) might switch over to NLD as its cost will be lower. So, their arguement was based on the fact that if their legal market is opened for competition, they should get compensated in some form. The compensation asked was automatic permission for carrying inter-circle (STD) traffic. But, their hopes have been dashed.

All these point out that there could be a lot of litigation in future. Barring that, the only good news is the promise from DoT that all the applications submitted for licences will be expeditiously processed. Further, there is optimism among the industry observers that the NLDs will start functioning in a year or two. And this could be the reason to cheer for the consumers.

ICICI Bank
The market has been cold to banking stocks of late. This has been a feature not only in the domestic market but in the whole of Asian markets. Much seems to be happenning around in terms of macro-economic changes, policy shifts etc. The ICICI Bank scrip has remained sideways for the last couple of months. One of the better private sector banks around, ICICI Bank has managed to remain in the news. Its parent also has been involved in a spate of activities, tie ups, portal launches etc have ensured that it was in the media glare. However, the feature of the bank in particular and the group in general has been that though announcements and initiatives are being announced routinely, nothing seems to be coming off from these. And this could be a reason why the scrip is headed nowhere. For starters, the bank's first-quarter results for the current fiscal were hardly inspiring. This was despite a restructuring exercise announced by the bank. In a significant move, the bank launched an exercise to target school andcollege kids for wooing deposits in a big way, which has yet to yield any results.

The bank has seen a decline in the deposits in the first-quarter. The total expenditure too zoomed substantially, thereby affecting the operating profits adversely. And although the spreads have improved, the non-interest income to total income ratio has witnessed a decline. This translates into a disturbing fact: the bank is losing out on the creamiest part of the business. The tech-savvy bank with several initiatives, however, suffers from the perception that the announcements yield little and hence analysts remain apprehensive. The bank embarked on Internet banking in 1997 and currently, it boasts of 1,73,000 Net banking customers. The recent launch of the personal finance portal by the ICICI is a step further aimed at supplementing and consolidating the earlier Net initiaives.

Although, a host of utility payment services are offered on the Net, the bank does not offer third-party transfers. This means that fund transfers are allowed only between the bank's existing customers. As for the security aspect, verifying the security claims for any bank is difficult. Also, the "128 bit encryption code" feature employed for security is debatable.E-Future
Few years down the line, one will not have to go to a school for getting education. Communicating with someone on the other side of the globe would be as cheap as communicating with someone in the same city. Typing would be an activity of the past. Leaders of the industry would form an alliance to effectively service the customers and reduce cost due to benefits of large scale activity.

Seems difficult to visualise? This is going to be our future - or should I say the e-future, where everything we do and the way in which we do would be drastically influenced by the changing technology.The Internet has changed the way we live and it continues to do so. Things like e-mail which were the prerogative of a privileged few have now become a necessity.

These rapid changes have posed a challenge to the way business is being traditionally conducted. They have also created an opportunity for the enterprising few who want to leverage technology to their benefit.However, many Indian companies are yet to take a step in this direction. One cannot do business on the web by merely setting up a website. These companies will have to consider the impact of technology in conducting business or perish.

E-commerce is not a different business but a different way of doing business, said Ganesh Natrajan, CEO, Aptech at an IT convention organised by the Bombay Management Association. Arvind Thakur, President - software business, NIIT, mentioned the different stages of attaining e-business maturity. The first one being information services, where a website of the company is established providing information about the company and its products.

Interactive services in the form of making enquiries and ordering goods is the second stage in the process while conducting commercial transactions through the net is the third stage. Total enterprise connectivity, which includes all suppliers, dealers, distributors, warehouses etc is the fourth and the last step towards attaining e-business maturity. This would lead to effective customer servicing as all the information required would be available at the click of a mouse.

With the mantra of globalisation being chanted around every corner, Indian companies would survive only if they could provide better services than their global competitors which will be possible only by exploiting technology to their maximum advantage.

KSESH(with contributions from Manish Joshi, Sachchidanand Shukla and Prashant Kothari)