Non-resident Indian businessman C Sivasankaran's Sterling Infotech group is in talks with the Seychelles government to lease an island for 99 years, on which it plans to build an integrated mega township and tourism project.
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel, who held this portfolio in the first government of the United Progressive Alliance, too, has so far followed a liberal open-sky policy, sharply increasing the number of seats offered to West Asian airlines on flights connecting India. According to internal figures available with airlines, the total number of seats offered to West Asian carriers rose from 2.5 million in 2004 to 7.5 million last year.
Wockhardt Chairman Habil Khorakiwala can breathe easy, as bankers have approved the debt restructuring package he had sought three months ago.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under the Ministry of Commerce has called a meeting on July 10 to discuss the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in the cigarette industry.
Reliance Power Ltd, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, is in talks with five leading global power companies to sell 15 per cent equity stake in the company. Preliminary talks have started with three Chinese power companies, which include China Light and Power Holdings, and French and Canadian companies.
Tata Teleservices' GSM innings is likely to be a tough one despite its innovative offerings and tie-up with the Japanese market leader, NTT DOCOMO.
During the past 30 days, prices of medium residential apartments rose by Rs 300-500 per square feet across various nodes in the city. The present prices range at Rs 2,500-3,000 per square foot across nodes like Kamothe, Panvel, Kharghar, Khandeshwar and CDB Belapur, said Srikanth Puduval, a real estate agent.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has made it clear that Press Notes 2 and 4 issued in February 2009, which changed the way indirect foreign equity would be treated in calculating foreign investment levels in Indian corporations, cannot take effect retrospectively for proposals before the board.
The clearances are for three proposals submitted to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board by Bharti Telemedia, which offers direct-to-home television services, Tata Teleservices, in which Japan's DoCoMo has picked up 27.3 per cent equity, and SKR BPO Services, which has made downstream investments in Sparsh BPO. Press notes 2 and 4, issued in February this year, changed the way indirect foreign equity is treated while computing the total foreign investment.
In February, Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile's chairman and CEO, told Business Standard at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the company was keen to expand to India. China Mobile has over 450 million subscribers. RCom, which offers CDMA mobile telecom services and started GSM services a few months ago, has over 70 million customers. An RCom spokesperson declined to comment and an email query to China Mobile was unanswered.
The sole exception would be the Rajasthan circle (which can accommodate only two operators). The West Bengal and North-East circles would be able to accommodate only four operators. The numbers are based on the latest note prepared by the DoT. The availability of spectrum is a key element that determines the auction price of spectrum. Higher availability means a lower price.
For the second time since Press Note 2 and 4 were issued in February 2009, the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry has raised questions on their implementation, this time over an application before the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
Apple has authorised Bharti Airtel to 'unlock' its 3G iPhones, launched earlier, enabling the Indian company to sell it through their stores to any user, not necessarily only an Airtel subscriber.
According to a study by analyst firm Angel Broking, once the MNP facility is operational, mobile operators' average revenues per user, the benchmark of a telecom operator's financial strength, would get adversely impacted by around 5 per cent. Telecom companies' margins would also drop by 100-150 basis points and even earnings per share estimates would be pruned by 9-21 per cent.
Apple's decision to slash its entry-level iPhone (8 GB version) in the US market will not trickle down to India anytime soon.
A pirate can assemble a system -- including a dish, a receiver and a decorder (together called an STB) for as low as Rs 900-1,000. This, tuned into different frequencies, can steal signals of most of the DTH operators. According to IMI, which represents over 50 companies including big labels like Saregama, Tips, Venus and Sony Music, the music industry derives a substantial amount of their revenues from TV and Internet rights.
In what could be one of the largest outsourcing deals in the Indian telecom space, Reliance Communications is close to awarding a $500-600 million (Rs 2,500-3,000 crore) operations and maintenance contract to Foprench telecom infrastructure provider Alactel-Lucent.
While a number of players invested more in Indian companies, another set exited the market, making profits after March. The companies that invested included Saif Partners, which made a $24 million investment in Network18, and Times Private Treaties, which acquired 12 per cent in Jiny & Jony (for an undisclosed sum), according to data with analysts and brokerage firms.
The company is likely to increase buy-back offer from Rs 351 to Rs 425-450. The open offer price is likely to be revised from the earlier Rs 351 to between Rs 425 and Rs 450, as the current share prices of Novartis India are above the present open offer price, the sources added.
The BSNL board had last year approved a plan under which the government would divest 10 per cent of its shares to the public. But opposition from the unions backed by the Left parties -- which supported the United Progressive Alliance in the last Parliament -- had stalled the process. That opposition has abated, now that the Left is no longer a factor in the current ruling alliance.
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