Talebearer

Buoyancy in exports

Exports growth may not be severely hit, after all. Worried Commerce Ministry officials had lowered export projections for 2007-08 from $160 billion (Rs 6,40,000 crore) to $140 billion (Rs 5,60,000 crore) a few months ago on the back of an appreciating rupee. But, Commerce Ministry sources told BT that now, there is every possibility that exports may not be far short of the original target.

By the end of January, exports were at $124 billion or Rs 4,96,000 crore. This is largely due to the impressive performance by the engineering and pharmaceutical sectors.

— Rishi Joshi

Spectrum scarcity

Despite repeated assertions by the Ministry of Telecom that there is adequate spectrum available for all operators, the buzz in the industry is that the rollout plans of the new mobile operators will be hampered due to a scarcity of this resource. As a result, as many as nine telcos are likely to be affected. This is the fallout of a delay by the defence forces to vacate spectrum for mobile service providers.

— Manu Kaushik