Three telecom companies - Spanco Telesystems and Solutions, TVS Interconnect Systems (a TVS group firm) and Acme Tele Power - have emerged as the front-runners for state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's (BSNL) Rs 30,000-crore infrastructure contract.
Move aimed at strengthening Sebi's powers to investigate market-related offences.
Though the overall environment seems to be improving, Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh tells Business Standard that the company is opting to be cautious.
The total number of agents of Reliance Life at the end of September stood at 211,293. By December-end, the numbers were down by 68,450 to 142,843, according to an investor presentation made by the company.
Watching movies on direct-to-home has become cheaper, with two major DTH operators, Airtel DTH and Big TV, slashing pay-per-view (PPV) prices of premiere (new) movies. While Airtel DTH has reduced prices of paid movie services by 33 per cent, Big TV has cut prices by around 50 per cent.
Investment banking experts and capital market advisors, who are engaged in talks with companies that are looking at fund-raising options, said that while 13 large-cap companies were looking at raising capital to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore through QIPs, rights issues and NCDs, 20 other companies had initiated talks to raise about Rs 15,000-20,000 crore. At least 10 NCD issuances are expected during the first half to raise a total of Rs 10,000-15,000 crore.
According to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority -- the body allocating IP addresses -- there were only 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses of which, 68 per cent have been already allocated and 13 per cent are unavailable due to technical issues. All IP4 addresses will run out by April 2010. This makes it necessary for users to move over to IPv6, or the next version that supports a total of 16 billion IP addresses.
It hopes to enter the business in 9-15 months. "We have plans to enter diesel generator, petrol, LPG and kerosene segment, but it will be too early to comment on any specific deal," said Kalyan Bhattacharya, president and CEO, Birla Power Solutions. "The size of the acquisition will depend on the horse power of the engines manufactured by the company. BPSL is looking at a company manufacturing diesel engines of capacities ranging between 25 horse power and 200 horse power."
The fully business-class airline is to commence services to 35 more cities, increasing its domestic routes to 50 by the end of 2010. Delhi is one of the new planned destinations, so are Imphal, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Bhopal, Nagpur, Porbander and other places in Gujarat. This is in addition to the earlier announced plans of launching services to Kolkata, Guwahati and Agartala, connecting these to the south Indian cities of Chennai, Coimbatore and Kochi.
GSM mobile service providers are opposing an 11-digit mobile numbering proposal on grounds that it would inconvenience the country's 390 million subscribers. They are also seeking to end the exclusive two-digit operator code provided to three service providers.
The mobile tariffs in the world's cheapest telecom market are set to fall further by at least 20-25 per cent during the year, more so due to increasing number of telecom operators and infrastructure overcapacity.
TCS had dropped plans to boost its headcount in Australia even though it recorded double-digit revenue growth, according to reports and blog posts from the country. The Tata group company employed around 950 people in Australia at the end of the previous year, but around 50 have since been relocated to India. This puts TCS' total employee base in that country at around 900, reports say.
IMI is close to launching a programme - Music Mobile Exchange (MMX) - mainly to curb mobile chip piracy which refers to downloading music from the web or illegally copying it from cassettes or CDs and then transferring it to mobile phones.
Market experts said on an average around 80,000 accounts were opened every month during 2008-09 as against 0.3 million accounts monthly in 2007-2008. "Investors are closing their accounts as brokerage houses have started levying annual maintenance charges. Even the depositories have increased their transaction fees. We currently open about 25,000 accounts on an average per month as compared to over 40,000 accounts during 2007-08," said an official at a large securities house.
At a time the industry is slashing headcount, citing the downturn, direct-to-home (DTH) television service providers are adding employees.
The only hope for WiMax operations in South Asia will be India, according to the Yankee Group, since even in countries like the US and other advanced nations, the technology "cannot be rated as successful".
Tech Mahindra, the highest bidder for Satyam Computer Services, has tied up Rs 875 crore funding from mutual funds and insurance companies and is in talks with banks to mobilise Rs 1,000 crore bridge loans.
Firming up their rollout plans, the new telecom licensees will invest around $2 billion in the next four months for the rollout of their services.
Total MF investments in debt papers like certificate of deposits, commercial papers and collaterised borrowing and lending obligations stood at around Rs 184,000 crore at the end of February. Industry experts said that by March-end, this corpus had depleted by over 50 per cent. "The industry would have lost around Rs 1 lakh crore as banks and institutions redeemed their investments during the last week of March," said Jaideep Bhattacharya of UTI Asset Management Company.
New services will bring the IPL to mobile phone screens.
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