For MPs

Tattle

Washington has its weekly tabloids "The Hill" and "Roll Call," both of which cover Capital Hill.

Now New Delhi too has a tabloid devoted to India's parliamentarians. S. Swaminathan ("Swami") of myiris.com fame has launched "The Indian Legislator," a 16-page tabloid that will ultimately be issued daily when the Parliament is in session.

Launched in mid-July, the weekly has excerpts from Parliament committee reports, reports on debates in Parliament, profiles of members of Parliament, a page or two that offer a platform to the chambers of commerce, columns (including an occasional one by Gerson Da Cuna), and a page on MPs' birthdays.

The newspaper is not exactly spectacularly produced but Swami says he's told his staff to improve the quality gradually by introducing one improvement every issue.

The tabloid is funded by Swami and an unidentified public relations company owner. Swami is scouting for other investors but says he won't accept investments of more than Rs 1 lakh, so that the shareholding will be widespread.

How will the tabloid make money? Through subscriptions, advertising and perhaps sponsorships.

Takeover talk

In the mobile phone services industry, it is often whispered that one company or another is up for sale and that another is in talks to buy it. Such rumours are understandable, given the financial pressures that mobile phone companies have confronted for quite some time.

So it's no surprise that the grapevine is abuzz again. We don't endorse this one or say it's true.

But cellular service companies say that at least one leading limited mobility services company has made overtures to other general system for mobile (GSM) cellular services companies on buying them.

This would make sense, sources argue, because limited mobility service companies that wish to offer fully mobile services would, after the TDSAT judgement, may have to pay a licence fee to get a licence to operate services as a fifth or sixth operator in a circle "� and the licence fee could run to anywhere between Rs 1,400 crore to Rs 2,000 crore.

On the other hand, if the limited mobility services company pays Rs 3,000 crore or more to acquire a group of GSM service companies or a company that has almost an all-India coverage, it would immediately get a large subscriber base of between two million and three million.

Yet the overtures don't seem to have made much headway "� the price that the GSM companies' principal shareholders are asking for is way too high.

Keeping vacant slots vacant

A few days ago, an advertisement in leading dailies announced that the Prasar Bharti was looking for a director general for All India Radio (AIR). And thereby hangs a tale.

About six months ago, for reasons best known to the Prasar Bharti board, Prasar Bharti issued the very same advertisement, but in the government's "Employment News."

"The employment newspaper is mostly for low-level posts and people looking for top jobs rarely look at it. It was only after we forced it to publish the advertisement in widely circulated newspapers that Prasar Bharti complied," says a senior I&B official.

"We have also asked the board to circulate the information in all government departments," he adds.

But why keep a vacancy a closely guarded secret? The ministry feels that the board probably wants to maintain the status quo. Prasar Bharti's executive member K S Sarma is the current acting director general of AIR.

He's also the acting director general of Doordarshan, a post that fell vacant recently when director general S Y Quareshi was shunted out.

So when will applications be invited for the post of director general, Doordarshan?

"In a few days, but I don't see it being filled in a hurry. The AIR director general's post has been vacant for one and a half years."