Green Global Charger

Telecom firms to adopt green global charger Leading global telecommunications firms have agreed to introduce a universal charger that can be used for devices like MP3 players and tablet computers as well as mobile phones, the United Nations' ITU agency said on Monday. A detachable cable with standardised end connectors that can also be used for data transfer will come with the charger, avoiding the need for separate cables and reducing both cost and eventual waste, the agency said. The International Telecommunications Union, which groups governments and manufacturers in setting standards for the industry, said the decision to adopt the new system was taken at a meeting in Geneva at the weekend. Among companies already committed to the development, it said, were Telecom Italia, France Telecom's Orange, AT&T, Spanish group Telefonica, Swisscom and Belgacom, as well as the China Academy of Telecommunication Research. Others were expected to come in later, ITU spokesman Sanjay Acharya said. The new equipment will upgrade a universal battery charging system for mobile phones, also backed by the ITU and adopted as a universal standard by the industry's GSM Association in 2009. That decision, being implemented, will eliminate one of the most annoying problems for mobile phone users -- the need to have a separate charger for equipment produced by different manufacturers. It will also mean manufacturers no longer have automatically to supply chargers with new phones. The new system, the ITU said, will extend the advance to a wide range of lower-power devices including cameras, wireless headphones and GPS equipment as well as MP3s and tablets, which users will be able to power using the same charger and cable. Apart from saving energy with an ultra-efficient power adapter, the new chargers -- to be produced in billions over the next few years -- would be safer and use eco-friendly materials. It will also use a faster charging current to cut charging time. All these improvements, the ITU said, will enable a significant reduction of global energy use once upgraded chargers are in widespread use.

Wrongly Implicated

Shahid Balwa, managing director of DB Realty, was Wednesday taken to Delhi after a Mumbai court Wednesday granted a two-day transit remand to the CBI in the 2G scam but his company said he had been 'wrongly implicated'. Balwa, arrested in Mumbai late Tuesday by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), was presented before a court Wednesday morning and then taken to the airport for a flight to New Delhi. He is set to appear for a court hearing in Delhi. In its remand application, CBI said Balwa's company Swan Telecom, which allegedly got favours in the spectrum allocation, had caused the national exchequer a loss of over Rs.22,000 crore. It also said Balwa allegedly conspired with private companies to sell 2G spectrum licences acquired at a cheap rate by Swan Telecom -- part of DB Realty -- to a company in the Gulf at a huge profit. But a spokesperson of DB Realty said that 'neither Balwa nor any person or entity forming part of the DB Group has done anything illegal or inappropriate' and that he would be 'strongly contesting the proceedings' against him. Balwa became the fourth person -- and the first who is not a government official -- to be arrested in connection with the scam. Former communications minister A. Raja and two of his aides are under arrest. The scam relates to irregularities in the allocation of second generation spectrum to telecom companies when Raja was the minister. Swan Telecom is one of the companies that allegedly benefited from the spectrum allocation. Established in the early 1970s, DB Realty Ltd is the flagship company of Dynamix Balwas Group. DB Realty has said it would continue as usual under its managing director Vinod Goenkar and that stakeholders' interests would be protected.