Mobile viruses could be an emerging threat in India, which is one of the "most vibrant markets" in the world for mobile phones, according to the Mobile Trends Guide compiled by SmartTrust, a device management company.

"India sits uniquely in the mobile virus threat. It is widely assumed that such viruses pose a mass market threat once the penetration of smartphones (devices that can run executable code, connect to multiple networks, use email etc) reaches 30 per cent. In India, this is likely to take some time and should provide enough time to take preventative measures", the report by Tim DeLuca-Smith says. "However, the circulation of grey-market devices and reconditioned devices means that should the threat become real, it will become increasingly difficult to protect their subscribers".

SmartTrust predicted that mobile viruses could become a threat in the next 36 months. It says that in addition to malicious code, it is likely that there will be denial of service and system unavailability attacks. Other possible threats include Trojan horses in games and other applications, resulting in false billing, disclosure of confidential information and corrupted data.

India story

The SmartTrust Mobile Trends Guide says Indians are comparatively conservative in terms of how much they spend on their mobile services. "About 58 per cent of all mobile phone users in the country spend less than Rs 500 on their mobile phone services each month.

"Penetration of technologies such as MMS, GPRS and WAP is concentrated in users over the age of 25 and among postpaid subscribers. Eighty-nine per cent of Indian respondents class in the low-income bracket (Rs 12,500 per month of less) did not have MMS capabilities and 91 per cent did not own a camera phone", Mr DeLuca-Smith says.

No Internet

A majority of Indians, 53 per cent, are clearly unenthused by the the Internet features in their phones. They apparently don’t use the functionality on account of the fact that they think it is too expensive. "However, of those that do access the Internet, 49 per cent access Yahoo! as their preferred Web site, whereas 46 per cent use the service to download games", it says. More worryingly, though, in some cases, the mobile phone is also making Indians "anti-social", the report says. "More than half the consumers who use their handsets to listen to music have done so whilst out with family and friends. Equally amazing is the fact that 21 per cent of males who listen to music on their mobile have done so while at work".

Foreign investors’ growing appetite for the booming Indian property market will enable the sector to increase its share in total FDI inflow into the country by at least ten per cent in 2006-07, a study by industry body Assocham said.

The study — Future of Real Estate Investment in India — projects that in 2006-07 the total foreign direct investments into India would be about $8 billion, of which the share of the real estate sector is estimated at 26.5 per cent. In 2005-06, the share of the realty sector in the total FDI of $5.46 billion stood at 16 per cent.

Rising demand of office space from IT and ITEs sectors is attracting overseas investors to pump money into India, the study says. The overseas investments will also be finding larger space in Indian SEZs and shopping malls.The study forecasts the Indian real estate market to grow by more than three times to reach $60 billion by 2010 from the present $16 billion, of which the share of foreign investments would be in the range of $25-28 billion.

The study attributed the massive flow of FDIs in India’s property market to China’s real estate market reaching its saturation level. Besides, foreign investors prefer to invest on freehold land, which is available more freely in India.The sector has already evinced interest from a number of foreign investors, including Royal Indian Raj, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and Emmar properties, who have announced their plans to collectively invest over $ 6 billion.

Royal Indian Raj International plans to invest $2.9 billion, followed by the Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs with $1 billion each and Emmar Properties with $800 million.