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Our Bureau

New Delhi , Nov. 17

THE Union Communications and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday said the Government would take 6-8 months to decide on the best option for synergising the operations of BSNL and MTNL based on the advice of merchant bankers appointed for the purpose. "We are in no rush as we want the advisers to take a proper time to advise us carefully. The merchant bankers will take 3-4 months to advise us on the issue.

"We will consider their advice and thereafter we will put it before the Cabinet for approval. I expect the whole process to take 6-8 months," Mr Maran said on the sidelines of an international conference on Speech and Language Systems for Human Communication.

Mr Maran said that advisers had been appointed and a committee formed to look into the various prospects.

"We have short-listed bankers and a nine member committee headed by the Telecom Secretary will be looking into the various prospects," he said. "It is not so easy to merge nearly Rs 55,000 crore," he said ruling out a merger in the current financial year.

Department of Telecom has appointed a consortium led by ICICI-Securities as advisers for merger of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL). On the long-pending issue of increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in telecom services to 74 per cent from the existing 49 per cent, Mr Maran said,

"We are still discussing it. It will take some more time, I am sure."

He, however, declined to commit a timeframe on the issue.

Earlier while addressing the conference, Mr Maran said that during his discussion with visiting Microsoft CEO, Mr Steve Ballmer on localisation of software in Indian languages, he had suggested that the company ally with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) and National Informatics centre (NIC).

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