The whole country broke into an impromptu celebration and by the evening, four state governments had announced cash rewards that added up to Rs 1.4 crore. Cash-rich BCCI also announced a reward of Rs 50 lakh for Bindra and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad issued him a lifetime AC first-class travel pass. Not to be left behind, budget carrier SpiceJet gave him free unlimited travel for life.
Monetary tightening by the Reserve Bank of India to control the sharp rise in prices has checked the march of Indian consumers up the consumer electronics value chain.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is recommending the cancellation of sports broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports' downlinking licence for non-compliance with the DTH platform's pricing formula.TRAI's proposed action follows its direction and a show cause notice to ESPN Software India in the last two months asking it to fall in line with its DTH pricing formula.
Price-wary customers, waiting for good bargains in the festival season this year, are likely to be disappointed.
This follows the show-cause notice that was issued to the company last month by the ministry of informaton and broadcasting and the response given by the company. According to highly placed sources, the letter of suspension of Bharti's DTH licence has been moved within the I&B ministry because it is not satisfied with the response sent by Bharti Telemedia.
It's going to be a field day for the 40-odd news channels in the country as they gear up to cover the UPA Government's trust vote on July 22.
With an aim to increase its exports business, biscuit maker Britannia Industries is betting big on new international markets.
Apparel, fast-moving consumer goods and healthcare retailers are all moving to their own brands to ease the squeeze on their profit margins. Till not so long ago, only a handful of retailers like Shopper's Stop had their own labels. Now, private labels have become core to every retailer's strategy.
The government's 2006 directive making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share the feed of sports events of "national importance" with state-owned Doordarshan seems to have backfired.
IPTV and Mobile TV, the new cable distribution platforms that have emerged recently. A clarification issued by the ministry of information and broadcasting recently makes it compulsory for all broadcasters to immediately share their channels with Wire & Wireless India Ltd, the HITS licence holding company of Essel Group.
The sharp rise in flexible packaging prices, thanks to the crude oil spiral, has become a new headache for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies.
The health ministry plans to oppose the application from Japan Tobacco International Ltd, the world's third largest tobacco company, to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to raise its stake in its Indian venture from 50 to 74 per cent. The application is slated for consideration in the FIPB meeting on Tuesday.
Winds of change are blowing across the fast-moving consumer goods market.
In a clear indication of things to come, homegrown FMCG major Dabur India has decided to increase prices 5 per cent across most product categories to accommodate the sharp rise in the price of flexible packaging material made of polymers. This is the sharpest price rise effected by the company in eight years.
Liquor firms introduce innovative packaging to push sales and save costs.
At least half a dozen foreign satellite firms with over 100 C-band transponders have initiated their talks with domestic media firms which are interested in launching headend-in-the-sky cable distribution platform.
In a sure sign that recent changes in the business of cricket are here to stay, Saturday's India-Pakistan one-day final of a tri-series failed to attract television viewers to the extent recent Indian Premier League matches did.
Sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports and direct-to-home operator Tata Sky may soon get entangled in a legal battle as Tata Sky has dropped ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket from its basic package offerings. The move, according to ESPN's lawyers, may go against a recent Delhi high court order that restrains Tata Sky to do so, but the second largest DTH operator maintains that it is operating within the permissible rules.
This means the cable companies engaged in last-mile distribution of TV channels will qualify for the existing 49 per cent FDI limit, while operators of DTH, HITS, IPTV and multi-system operators will be able to bring in up to 74 per cent FDI, a limit proposed by broadcast regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Cobra Beer owner Karan Bilimoria told Business Standard that he will introduce 500 ml cans across beer categories this year. However, he believes that packing beer in cans will be good for exports too. "I see a great potential in the canned segment. It will also help us export Cobra from India," he said. The company already has the required infrastructure to package India-brewed Cobra beer in cans at its Bihar brewery.