In May 2012, the Central Government ratified National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012. The policy proposes to

do away with roaming charges and allow mobile phone subscribers to use same number across country. After the cabinet approval, Kapil Sibal, Telecom Minister said, "Target is one nation full mobile number portability and work towards one nation free roaming." However, consumers will have to wait for some time before roaming charges are abolished and one-number-one-nation concept, as Department of Telecom (DoT) will first work out modalities of the new scheme before it is brought into force. The NTP 2012 envisages increasing penetration of telecom services in rural area from current level of around 39 to 70 per cent by 2017 and 100 per cent by the year 2020.

Under the new policy broadband speed has been increased to minimum of two megabit per second (mbps). This change will come into force with immediate effect. With the NTP 2012, telecom licences have been delinked from spectrum which was earlier bundled with the licences. The NTP 2012 will allow operators to provide services based on any technology by using airwaves and will not restrict them to use it for particular service using any specific frequency band.

The salient features of the NTP 2012 are as follows: Provide secure, reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere for an accelerated inclusive socio-economic development.

Provide a predictable and stable policy regime for a period of about ten years.

The main thrust of the Policy is on the multiplier effect and transformational impact of such services on the overall economy. The thrust areas of NTP - 2012 are:

This apart, the Ministry of Power has made it mandatory to obtain transmission services for new projects through tariff-based competitive regime.

According to the ministry, the intra-state transmission projects would also be moving to the tariff-based competitive system from January 2013 as per the tariff policy. Also, a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) model has been evolved for which a Model Transmission Agreement (MTA) was developed by the Planning Commission. The ministry has asked all states and union territories to use either VGF-based MTA Document or the Standard Bidding Document for procurement of intra-state transmission services. The MTA has provision for VGF and evaluation of bids would be based on minimum grant quoted by bidders. Till now, eight inter-state transmission projects worth `14,000 crore have been allotted through competitive bidding. For implementing the tariffbased regime against cost plus earlier, the ministry has put in place a Standard Bidding Document that has been used by some intrastate transmission projects.

Further, the Central Government has asked coal companies to supply fuel to power plants that have been commissioned this year through the MoU route till issues related to fuel supply agreements (FSAs) are resolved. The latest ruling will benefit as much as 8,800 MW of electricity generation capacity that has come up between 1 January 2012 and 31 March 2012 as well as those to be commissioned during 2012-13. An MoU is not a legally binding document and now, that route will be used till the issues regarding FSA are resolved. The quantity of coal to be supplied to these power plants will be decided in consultation with the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) till FSAs for these projects are signed.

Apart from this, the Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals is mulling to implement three schemes under National policy on Petrochemicals. The first one is the schemes of National Awards for Technology Innovations in Petrochemicals and downstream Plastic Processing Industry. Secondly, setting up of Centre of Excellence and thirdly, setting up of Plastic Parks with an aim to set up need based plastic parks with requisite state-of-the-art infrastructure and enabling common facilities to assist the sector to move up the value chain and contribute to the economy effectively.

On the state front, the West Bengal Government has cancelled the SEZ policy of the state. The act set the waiver of electricity tariff in full without any restriction of period, stamp duty, registration fees, and import and export duties under state law, among other issues. Meanwhile, Infosys has reportedly kept its decision to set up a campus in the state on hold after the state government refused to grant it SEZ status. The state government has forwarded the proposal to the Commerce Ministry. The proposal is supposed to help Infosys get financial benefits without the SEZ tag. The state government has given land both to Infosys and Wipro for setting up and expanding base here with both seeking SEZ status.