Jet Airways, Kingfisher shift flights to low-cost platforms; experts expect a fare war. "Every year, airlines come up with cheap fares in the summer season, but not like this year. I had never seen airlines offering 50 per cent cash-back offers. Now with Jet Konnect and Kingfisher Red, there are more flights to the routes where LCCs used to dominate," says Bhawna Agarwal, co-founder and head of air business, Yatra.com.
One reason why mobile subscribers haven't shifted companies is that the service is uniformly bad. But now, with new players coming in, the picture could be different, says Sunil Jain.
Decisions are also being pushed on free allotment of additional spectrum to telecom firms, on extending the licence period for 'dual technology' firms like Reliance Communications/Tata Teleservices etc, and on revising merger and acquisition norms. Given how each of these cases is so controversial, even apart from the issue of propriety, it is unacceptable that a government on its last legs should be taking such decisions.
The government has decided to raise the viability gap funding (VGF) for certain projects under the fifth phase of the National Highway Development Project (NHDP V), owing to poor response to the first few projects put up for bids in December last year.
To expand its services in the five-player private direct-to-home market, Reliance Big TV Ltd, the promoter of Big TV DTH services of the Reliance ADA Group, plans to sell up to 49 per cent to foreign private equity companies and global DTH players.
Vote for the BJP if you have to, but not because they're going to bring back Rs 25,00,000 crore and use this to develop roads or provide piped water to India's villages. That's a pipe dream.
With Arvind Jadhav, principal secretary, in the department of infrastructure development of the Karnataka government, emerging as the frontrunner in the race to replace Raghu Menon as the chairman and managing director of the state-owned National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs Air India, informed sources said Menon lost the coveted job because of his opposition to the airline's proposed joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).
There is little doubt that the global economic crisis has worsened Indias growth prospects, but the slowdown began long before the US financial meltdown began.
The agreement with the new owners of Satyam Computer Services will incorporate restrictions to prevent mass retrenchment of employees, according to a top functionary of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
You can make millions, if you are a celebrity and are willing to license your name to other people's business ventures.
Mumbai is a distant number two with 90 per cent, followed by Delhi at 83 per cent. The fourth metro, Kolkata, is way behind with 67 per cent. The four metros account for 16 per cent of the country's mobile subscriber base, but 25 per cent of the total revenue. That means their residents use their phones more and pay fatter bills than subscribers elsewhere in the country. This is the user profile that rings a bell for mobile phone marketers.
It'll only be when other states start following this discrimination for a large enough number of products, presumably, that the political class will wake up to it. Hopefully, the courts will too.
Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car company by sales, is working on an ambitious plan to launch electric cars and compressed natural gas variants for three or four models in the domestic market.
Three leading international pharma companies have started due diligence to acquire Wockhardt Ltd's wholly-owned Irish generic drug company, Pinewood.
Wockhardt will divest a 24 per cent stake in its unlisted subsidiary, Wockhardt Hospitals.
Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest car maker, continued its three-month dream run by notching up a 15 per cent jump in domestic sales in March. Maruti's March sales follow a 19 per cent growth in February, when it sold a record 70,625 cars -- the highest ever by the company. In March 2008, the car maker sold over 64,000 cars.
The telecom tower-transmission business is going to see a shake-up with cash-rich and independent companies moving in with aggressive plans.
The decision to relocate the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament to South Africa has prompted several key advertisers such as Hyundai, Havell's and Reebok, among others, to consider cutting back budgets or pulling out.
"The scene will be a bit like the Maruti 800 days. Those who are lucky enough to be allotted cars this year can resell it immediately at a premium of Rs 30,000 due to the anticipated shortage," an executive at a Motors dealer said. Supply, Tata Motors dealers say, would be between 40,000 and 50,000 cars, with 100,000 being the most optimistic estimate. This would mean customers may have to wait for up to two years to get delivery if all the bookings are accepted.
India's growth rates may be crashing, but the rates of growth of crashing on the country's roads, and those dying in these crashes, are growing by leaps and bounds.
