SingTel assists Bharti-Zain deal

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) may help with the funding for Bharti Airtel's $9 billion acquisition of Zain's African assets, states The Economic Times.

SingTel owns 32% of Bharti and says the acquisition would be financed by debt, and there was no need for it to inject money directly into its Indian affiliate since the deal would not dilute its stake.

Bharti and Zain are in exclusive talks until 25 March for the Kuwaiti firm's operations in 15 African countries and have agreed on an enterprise value of $10.7 billion for the assets, including $1.7 billion of debt on Zain Africa.

Sustainability experts believe around 2.5 billion perfectly usable PCs will be needlessly scrapped by 2013, reports Telegraph.co.uk.

Unwanted computers are usually shipped to developing countries such as Africa for recycling, but the United Nations voiced its concerns about the growing mountains of e-waste filling landfill sites.

"The principal solution to the problem of PC e-waste is for developers and marketers to stop using strategies that contribute to bloat and enforced upgrading," says Professor Peter Swann, an expert in innovation and sustainability at Nottingham University.

Botswana is developing an innovation hub to facilitate the country's transformation into a knowledge economy, says Daily News Online.

When fully operational, the hub will provide a platform where researchers, higher educational institutions and the public sector will work together to foster innovation and new businesses.

Lerato Sedingwe, chief systems analyst at the Department of Information Technology, says the department is showcasing a number of projects such as the e-government programme to bring e-services to the public.