WCA March 2017

India Insight

Strategic fibre plans A key Indian military base overlooking the Malacca Straits will benefit from a telecom connection project by the Indian government. The project will include over 1,300km of undersea cables between the base and the southern city of Chennai. India has plans to provide fast and reliable telecom connection between the mainland and the chain of Andaman and Nicobar islands. The state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has invited global bids for improving connectivity to this strategically important location in the Indian Ocean region. The government has given its approval to a direct communication link through a dedicated submarine optical fibre cable between the mainland at Chennai and the six Abdaman and Nicobar islands at a cost of $165 million. By January 2017, construction companies will have been selected. Besides being a tourist haven, Andaman and Nicobar islands are very close to the Malacca Straits, a narrow but very busy shipping thoroughfare. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited – India Website : www.bsnl.co.in Expanding local production PolyOne is to establish production of speciality engineered materials, aimed especially at automotive applications and manufacturers, at its facility in Pune, India. Production is anticipated to begin in early 2017 and will allow PolyOne to support its customers with engineered materials, complementing its existing Indian output of colour and additive products. Vikas Vij, managing director for PolyOne in India, said: “India offers many growth opportunities for our customers, and this facility provides room for expansion as well. Based on customers’ high level of interest, future additions may include Therma-Tech thermally conductive formulations and LubriOne wear-resistant materials.” PolyOne’s Pune plant was opened in 2014 and produces colourants and additives serving multiple end-use markets, including electronics, electrical, wire and cable. PolyOne – USA Website : www.polyone.com Serving Myanmar’s mobile boom Bharti Airtel has activated an international fibre optic cable link between India and Myanmar, its third international cable hook-up in the Saarc region. The company has invested an undisclosed sum in a 6,500rkm (route km) terrestrial fibre optic cable link to boost Internet speeds in Myanmar, which is seeing a sharp upsurge in demand for data services both at the retail and enterprise consumer levels. The cable link will be connected to Airtel’s landing stations in Chennai and Mumbai.

“The terrestrial cable link is a strategic fibre asset for Airtel in the Saarc region. [It] will enable the company to offer robust end-to-end connectivity solutions in Myanmar, which is seeing rapid uptake of digital services,” said Ajay Chitkara, the company’s director and CEO (global voice and data business). He added that the Indo-Myanmar link would also enable Airtel to meet capacity requirements for enterprise customers in the region, adding that Myanmar presents “a massive business growth and revenue opportunity” for the company as the country is seeing robust growth of Internet and telecom services. International Data Corporation (IDC) recently revealed that the bulk of the consumer spends in Myanmar this year have been on mobile devices. At present, Norway’s Telenor, Qatar’s Ooredoo and state-owned Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT) operate mobile services in Myanmar. Bharti Airtel – India Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) is to launch a tender for 1GW of new PV rooftop capacity for central government ministries and departments. The projects will be grid-connected and form part of India’s overall plans for 40GW of rooftop solar power plants by 2022. Under the terms of the tender, capital cost incentives provided by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) are to be linked to performance against set targets by relevant ministries and departments. MNRE has allocated 21 ministries and departments to the SECI scheme, including the ministry of human resource development and ministry of urban development. The ministries concerned have already submitted green energy commitment certificates to MNRE for implementation of grid-connected rooftop PV power plants as part of their clean energy initiatives. Power generated from the solar systems will be used to meet the requirements of the buildings and any surplus power will be fed to the respective state grid. Solar Energy Corporation of India Website : www.seci.gov.in Knowledge sharing KEI Industries rose 2.56 percent on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the company revealed it had signed a technical collaboration agreement with Switzerland’s Brugg Kabel AG. KEI Industries has signed the agreement with Brugg Kabel AG to manufacture extra-high voltage cables, above 220kV and up to 400kV, at its manufacturing facility at Chopanki in Rajasthan. Operation of the new production line began in January. Website : www.airtel.in Up on the roof

KEI Industries Ltd – India Website : www.kei-ind.com

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