planning commission lays emphasis on capacity augmentation at the terminals in Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram in view of the growth in traffic. The ministry has identified 28 unused airports to be offered to state governments on very attractive terms. These include: Hasan and Mysore in Karnataka Khandwa, Panna, Bilaspur and Satna in Madhya Pradesh Vellore in Tamil Nadu Jhansi and Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu The AAI, till the year 2002 has projected funds requirement of US $ 831 million for airport infrastructure. These funds are meant for: New terminal buildings at Delhi and Mumbai (US $ 237.4 million ) Cargo complexes at international airports (US $ 35.7 million ) Runways and taxiways at airports other than international (US $ 83.3 million ) New communication/navigation equipment (US $ 166.6 million ) These investments of AAI are in addition to the expected investment of US $ 2.3 billion in each of the two major airport projects at Bangalore and Mumbai Navigational Systems Fingers were pointed towards the adequacy of modern navigational systems at Indian airports after the Charkhi-Dadri mid-air collision in 1996. Nearly US $ 1.2 billion have to be injected till the year 2010 for navigational equipment and navigational programme. Convergence: a paradigm shift Technology, market access and the changing industry structures are driving a worldwide phenomenon, which is now known as convergence. Convergence is happening across a wide spectrum of industries, technologies and markets. On the one hand we have digital convergence and on the other hand convergence in industry structures, media and infrastructure. Some of the examples of Convergence are: Transformation of Television into a web enabled device and Internet access through Cables. Convergence of media & publishing with Internet. Use power distribution lines for telephony and Internet access either through a technology ...
