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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2016
India Insight
Wire & Cable ASIA – Mar h/April 7
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:
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:
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
Website:
Up on the roof
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:
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.
KEI Industries Ltd – India
Website: