Privatization Boom: ISRO Partners With Private Players To Build Satellites; Niti Aayog Roping In Private Experts

Post-Independence, the 90s decade is often cited as the phase when India opened up their economy, removed license raj, and invited private players to join the revolution. It helped India to introduce computers, telecom services and automobiles which were out of bounds earlier.

A somewhat similar trend is now being witnessed in India, wherein private players are not only being invited by established Govt. agencies but also being sought for their niche expertise in various subject matters.

In a way, this is the new phase of Make in India, wherein the line differentiating between Govt. and Non-Govt. entities are being removed. And for a good purpose.

ISRO Taking Help of Private Players For Satellites

For the first time ever, ISRO has partnered with private players for building satellites. This is one big leap for India’s premier space agency, as never before in the history of India’s space program, private players been allowed to contribute.

Is it a direct effect of SpaceX revolution ushered in by Elon Musk?

A consortium led by Alpha Design Technologies from Bengaluru is right now building two full-fledged satellites for ISRO, which shall be used as a backup for NAVIC or the Swadeshi GPS system. Already 7 satellites are orbiting the Earth under NAVIC program, but in case any satellite malfunctions, ISRO wants to be ready to launch a replacement.

Shankar, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Alpha Design Technologies said, “It is a challenging task for any Indian company to undertake assembly, integration and testing of a satellite and that too for the first time in India..”

Rs 400 crore worth Alpha Design Technologies would thus become the first private Indian company to make satellites for ISRO. Colonel H S Shankar, the man credited to provide first Electronic Voting Machines to Indian Govt. is leading the consortium, and 70 young engineers who are working round the clock to finish this mission critical ISRO project.

Commenting on this giant leap, M Annadurai, Director of ISRO Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, said, “Basically there is a gap between what we are capable of doing now versus what we are supposed to make. There is a gap between the requirement and our capability. That gap we want to fill up with support from the industry… 16 to 17 satellites we have to make every year. So it is a really-really quantum jump and to fill that gap…, we thought the industry could come in..”

After 150 missions and 30 years of space travel, ISRO has set a new path for Indian space program. And this is just the beginning.

Niti Aayog Ropes In Private Experts

Niti Aayog, which has replaced the Planning Commission to become the leading think-tank for deciding India’s economic and social policies, has decided to invite private experts from different niches.

And again, this is one big leap for privatisation, as never before in India’s history, such private players have been allowed to take command of India’s critical economic related decisions.

Till now, IAS, IPS and IRS officers were the only officials who were invited to be part of Niti Aayog.

A Govt. source said, “The days of automatic seniority-based promotion for officers is over as Niti Aayog has come out with a path-breaking initiative to allow lateral entry at all levels, including senior advisers (secretary rank), advisers (additional secretary level), joint advisers and deputy advisers..”

And explaining the rationale, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, “The attempt is to get the best, brightest and most talented people to work for development of India,”

The allocation of the job would be based on niche experience of the concerned experts, and the pay grade would be equivalent of Govt. approved salary structure: Rs 3.64 lakh for senior officers with Govt. accommodation and Rs 2.88 lakh for advisors.

The selection shall be based on the departmental selection committee, and after interaction with Niti Ayog Vice President and clearance from the Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister.

The inclusion of private experts in a high-level department like Niti Ayog will certainly induce fresh viewpoints and perspective, in respect to India’s development.

WhatsApp May Soon Support UPI Based Payments!

It has been over a year since UPI’s launch in India and a lot of companies like Olacabs, Truecaller and Razorpay have integrated UPI on their platforms. UPI payments are advantageous because they are direct instantaneous P2P Bank to Bank transfers without the need to have a Digital wallet to store money!

A P Hota, MD & CEO, NPCI said, “This unified layer, which offers next generation peer-to-peer immediate payment just by using a personal phone, uses existing systems such as IMPS, AEPS, to ensure settlement across accounts. The usages of existing systems ensure the reliability of payment transactions across various channels.”

Now, the largest messaging app right now, WhatsApp is also in the process of integrating UPI on its platform, for peer to peer transfer of money. With over 1 billion active users on the platform and 200 million users in India, this integration can be the next biggest disruption for other similar services.

It has the potential to become the main app for users to transfer money to other people. Even those not registered on mobile wallets will definitely have a WhatsApp account and the company can take advantage of this fact.

“The initiative is seen as strategic for Facebook and currently being driven out of the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Its career page lists, among other roles, an opening for a digital transaction lead with knowledge of UPI, Aadhaar and BHIM, to be based out of Menlo Park,” reports The Ken.

How can WhatsApp Disrupt Digital Payments Market?

A platform that has over 200 million users on it already, and that relies only on phone numbers for communication is perfect for UPI payments. All you need is the phone number of the other person and transfer money within seconds.

There is no need of mobile wallets in the middle because money will be transferred directly between bank accounts, allowing you to drop the hassles of maintaining digital wallets in India. In fact, you don’t even need smartphones for this, since features phone will also support UPI integration.

If WhatsApp can introduce its service for feature phones, then it will be a big win for Indians. It can easily obliterate Paytm and other similar wallets that also has UPI integrated. This feature is still in the testing mode and WhatsApp is working on integrating UPI on their app, so it might come by the second half of the year.

Snapdeal’s Bad Luck: Softbank Refuses To Invest Funds; Kalaari Capital, Nexus Venture Partners Question Softbank’s Motives

Snapdeal, which is right now going through a rough patch, has now more reasons to worry. A possible infusion of $100-150 million by Softbank has been cancelled, thereby making the fate of Snapdeal even more doubtful.

And an intense boardroom battle has been triggered, between majority stakeholder Softbank which backed off from the funding and Snapdeal’s early investors Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners.

Snapdeal is now stuck in a deadlock, and there seems no way out.

Softbank Refuses To Infuse More Funds Into Snapdeal

Everyone knows that funds within Snapdeal has dried up, and they are in dire needs of fresh funding: Not for expansion, but to survive.

They have already conducted mass layoffs to reduce expenses, and talks about a possible acquisition by either Flipkart or Alibaba has been making the rounds since last few weeks. Such is the bad condition that their vendors are claiming that Rs 300 crore is pending as overdue payments, and even Govt. had to intervene in between to de-escalate the issue.

Amidst this chaos, Softbank, which owns 33% stake in Snapdeal reportedly offered to infuse $100-150 million into Snapdeal, in order to diffuse the tension and give some breathing space to the management.

But suddenly, Softbank has pulled its lever and refused to allocate any further funds into the troubled e-commerce portal. This means two things:

a) Softbank, which has invested $900 million into Snapdeal till now, is no more interested in throwing money into a black hole.

b) Softbank, the largest investor in Snapdeal, now wants a handsome return from their existing investment into Snapdeal. Even if we remove ‘handsome’ from the equation, they need a return back, even that means a loss.

Boardroom Brawl Can Prove Costly For Snapdeal?

This sudden pull back from Softbank has triggered a cold-war inside Snapdeal’s boardroom, and things are looking ugly as of now.

On one hand is Softbank, with their 33% stake and having two seats in the board; while on the other hand are Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, having 8% and 10% stake respectively, and having one seat each in the board room.

As per reports coming in, representatives from both Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners are angry on Softbank for ditching the company at the last moment.

One unnamed source said, “Both Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners are livid at the developments, and have questioned SoftBank about its intention with regard to Snapdeal..”

While, another person has explained Softbank’s intentions by saying: “There was a term-sheet offering Snapdeal debt financing for a period of three years, which was, inexplicably, withdrawn within days, giving credence that Soft-Bank has made up its mind about selling the company..”

In between are both the founders of Snapdeal, who have a combined stake of 6.5% in the venture.

Now, note here that Kalaari Capital had invested $27.4 million, and as per some unconfirmed reports, have already cashed in close to $100 million as return, when they sold their stake to Softbank in 2014. Meanwhile, Nexus has invested $40-50 million but hasn’t yet cashed in their investments.

As per earlier reports, Softbank was leading the negotiations to merge Snapdeal with Flipkart and get a return back from their investments.

Besides, reports also emerged that Snapdeal may opt for an IPO launch in 2019, and talks were already on with SBI Caps, Kotak Capital and other leading investment managers for executing it.

Things are still uncertain at Snapdeal, and there seems no way out.

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Tata Sky announces launch of Tata Sky HD STB , to cost Rs. 2599

Close on the football world cup launch made by Dish TV HD, Tata Sky has announced the launch of its own HD service called Tata Sky HD. It will be available to new and existing subscribers at the same cost of Rs.2599. The HD channels will be available under a new HD gold pack which will hit people with another Rs.30 per month charge.

Worth noting here is that they don’t have ESPN HD , Tata Sky has been involved in a lot of problems with ESPN Star Sports in the past, could be a reason why ESPN is giving its HD feed exclusively to Dish TV. the only HD channels announced are Nat Geo HD and Discovery HD.

Existing subscribers will get 1 year of the HD gold pack free. The dish antenna will remain the same and the only things you will need to change are the hdmi cables and STB.

Nokia 3310 arrival in United States trumped by carriers

Nokia 3310 is the talking point in the last week after HMD Global announced the return of the legend. Well, it’s not really a legend since it’s quite the different device than what the original 3310 was back in its day and is not really a return since it won’t get to the United States right away. The reason - carriers over there do not support the 900 MHz GSM band.

 Nokia 3310 (2017) is a simple phone many would love to give to their grandparents or kids since it is practically indestructible. American children and old folks would have to wait for the 2G phone because it does not support the otherwise widely-used 900 MHz connectivity band. HMD Global, owner of Nokia smartphones, and carriers are still negotiating about using the alternative 850 MHz and the 1900 MHz bands. Patrick Mercanton, head of marketing at HMD, said, quoted by CNet:

It’s not that we’re not launching in the US. It takes a little longer to ramp up.

The United States is a market where most of the phones, smart or not, are sold through carriers and a lot fewer handsets are bought through Amazon, BestBuy or the companies’ stores.

The 900 MHz band issue also relates to all the other Nokias we’ve seen at MWC - Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6, all of which we checked out at MWC in Barcelona.

Nokia wants to launch the devices globally in Q2 2017. Let’s hope it will manage to sort out the issue or the comeback won’t be as flashy as expected.

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