NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Friday cleared the setting up of a broadband wireless research centre in Chennai by French telecom major Alcatel and India's premier telecom research and development agency, Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT). The R&D centre is to be set up at a cost of Rs. 212 crores with Alcatel contributing 51 per cent of the equity and C-DOT the remaining 49 per cent.

Announcing the decision, Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the new institution would initially work on broadband wireless solutions on WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) technology suitable for rural areas, with a view to hasten the implementation of e-governance, e-education, e-health, e-agriculture and telemedicine in the rural sector.

The immediate task before the Centre would include development of customer premises equipment compliant to WiMAX technology and value addition in the infrastructure products being developed by Alcatel. The Centre will put India in the category of nations leading in research and manufacture of next generation wireless technology. It will provide jobs for over 300 researchers. It will be set up within three months.

Budgetary support

The Central Government would provide budgetary support to C-DoT to meet its equity obligations. The funds would be provided in the form of a grant of Rs. 52 crores and a loan of Rs. 52 crores. The grant would be provided over three years. The loans would be spread over four years: Rs. 13 crores per year from 2006-07 to 2009-10.

The Cabinet also decided to revise the guidelines for the constitution, functioning and procedures of Parliamentary consultative committees. Under the new guidelines, out of a total of six meetings of the panel every year, it would be mandatory to hold four meetings within India and of these at least three shall be held during the inter-session period.

In addition, the minimum strength of a committee should be 10 members and the maximum 30, with a proviso that a maximum of five permanent special invitees may be allowed on each committee.

The new guidelines also prescribe that the panels shall not constitute any sub-committee and that a committee would be formed only if at least 10 MPs volunteer to become its members.

If the strength of any committee goes below 10 for any reason, it shall be wound up. There would also be no requirement of quorum for meetings of the committees, Mr. Mukherjee said.

Changes in VAT regulations

The Cabinet also approved changes in the regulations on VAT in Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli to enable the two Union Territories to specify the points of sales at which the goods may be taxed and to provide for penalties for violation of rules.

It approved a proposal to bring together all the Government security presses, security paper mills and the mints under a single wholly owned corporation under the Department of Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry and decided to provide an interest-free loan of Rs. 700 crores in the form of working capital for the new entity.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which also met on Friday, approved the sanction of Rs. 235 crores for the en masse replacement of coolant channels in both units of the Narora atomic power station. The move is expected to make the units suitable for operation for 25 more years. The changeover will be done unit-wise over the next two years to avoid any disruption in power production at the station.

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