Bharti Airtel and United Breweries have expressed interest in acquiring, respectively, the Delhi and Bangalore or Mumbai teams in the impending Indian Premier League for Twenty20 cricket matches.
The view follows a detailed review of the matter by DoT since March this year, after Dayanidhi Maran, then communications minister, asked officials to provide details about the possibility of the Tata-owned VSNL being allowed to retain the land. This latest recommendation, made in September, comes despite the fact that the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs had, in December 2005, approved hiving off the land bank into a separate company.
Some new sectors in which the commerce ministry has proposed to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) are credit information companies and commodity exchanges. The ministry is in favour of allowing up to 49 per cent FDI proposed in both these sectors. In proposing to open up the commodity sector, the ministry has said that FII investment be limited to 24 per cent, with a condition that a foreign investor cannot hold more than 10 per cent equity in the investing companies
As foreign fund flows have lifted the rupee to record highs against the dollar, the commerce ministry has started telling exporters to prepare for the Indian currency rising further to 38 against the dollar by December. The strong rupee is already hurting India's exporters, with companies cutting jobs and scaling back expansions. A further appreciation may have even worse consequences for sectors like textile, infotech and automobile.
Even as record foreign fund flows lifted the rupee to 39.43 against the US dollar today, the highest since 1999, the commerce ministry has started telling exporters to prepare for the rupee rising even further to 38 against the US dollar by December. The strong rupee is already hurting India's exporters, with companies cutting jobs and scaling back expansion. A further appreciation may have even worse consequences for sectors like textiles, infotech and automobiles.
Ashok Kumar Jha will step into a role that BVR Subbu, a powerful and seasoned corporate campaigner, had demitted over a year ago.
A US resident has advertised to sell land in that country to Indians here. In the process, the seller may have started a trend of US owners turning to overseas buyers as local demand for housing dries up following the serial bankruptcies from the sub-prime mortgage, or high-risk home loan, crisis.
Real estate firm Parsvnath Developers' quest for a mobile licence seems to have hit a roadblock at the Department of Telecom (DoT). Parsvnath, which is one of the seven realty firms in the fray for mobile licences, hasn't mentioned the business of "telecommunications" in its memorandum of association (MoA).
The Sixth Pay Commission is likely to significantly raise basic salaries for an estimated 4.5 million central government employees. The recommendations are expected to be submitted in January, a few months ahead of schedule, and the award is likely to come into effect from January 2006.
Umkal plans to set up 10 more hospitals in and around Gurgaon.
Going by application dates, companies like Spice, Birla-promoted Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications (through Swan and Cheetah) and Hindustan Futuristic are in the lead for licences in different circles. The only new player in the list is the little-known ByCell.Several incumbents like Idea Cellular, Maxis-Aircell, owned by a Malaysian promoter, and Vodafone-Essar lead the list of applicants for initial spectrum allocation since they already hold licences.
The rush to enter the world's fastest-growing mobile services market has attracted a wide range of applicants for telecom licences with the Department of Telecommunications.
It was discovered that state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited was given additional spectrum of up to 10 MHz for GSM technology services in over 16 circles even as private competitors have been waiting to be allotted spectrum by the DoT.
Tensions between private telecom players and the government ratcheted up a notch after it was discovered that state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was given additional spectrum of up to 10 MHz for GSM technology services in over 16 circles even as private competitors have been waiting to be allotted spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications since December 2006.
Suddenly, brand activation is big business for India's Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) FM radio industry.
Subhash Chandra making headlines is no longer news. For some years now it has been for his no-holds-barred feud with the Board for Control of Cricket in India.
Govt puts populist schemes on fast track.
It is not the urban centres alone that are powering India's phenomenal growth in mobile telephony. Data on rural telephony, compiled by the telecom regulator, shows people in villages are subscribing to mobile services in large numbers
The telecom regulator explains how he's hobbled by government policy and clarifies some parts of his latest recommendations.
Move to impact joint ventures in telecom, insurance, broadcasting.