Haryana govt to impose licence-raj for cable TV
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has pulled up the department of revenue for rejecting all foreign direct investment proposals in which funds are routed through Mauritius and said it has taken a conscious policy decision to overrule such objections.
Traditional heavy spenders on cricket properties Vodafone, car maker Hyundai Motors, Reliance Communications and soft drink major Coca-Cola have decided to stay out of the bidding for the sponsorship of the Indian cricket team with the Board of Control for Cricket in India setting a steep base price to Rs 510 crore for a four-year deal for one of cricket's most coveted sponsorships.
Communications Minister A Raja has shifted responsibility for holding auctions for third generation or 3G telecom services to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee by requesting him, in a letter last week, to ensure that the defence ministry releases the spectrum it had promised on time.
Soft drinks and foods major Pepsico India Holdings Pvt Ltd has applied to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to invest an additional $200 million (around Rs 950 crore) as equity in its Indian operations.
With trading hours at stock exchanges set to be extended by two-and-a-half hours, the half a dozen business news channels together will get 20 percent more advertising inventory to sell, possibly resulting in an overall increase of ad revenue by 8-10 percent on an annual basis, say media agencies.
Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, is understood to be in talks with leading Indian telecom companies like Tata Communications (formerly VSNL), Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications that could bid for broadband wireless access spectrum to be auctioned by the government in January 2010.
Google, the world's largest search engine and one of the biggest internet brands, is understood to be eyeing opportunities in the third generation of mobile telephony, or 3G, in India.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India said it is 'closely watching' investments made by New York-based hedge fund Galleon, whose Sri Lankan founder Raj Rajaratnam was arrested for alleged insider trading on Friday.
Data from TAM, the audience measurement agency, show that in the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy, the India matches had average ratings of 6.2, compared to 1.3 for the non-India matches. The average event ratings for India-Australia (6.6), India-England (4.8) or India-Sri Lanka ODIs (4.6) on Neo Sports were higher compared to the average event ratings of IPL-2 (4.17), ICC Champions Trophy (2.3) or Champions League (1.2 for games played between October 8-10).
Low-cost carrier SpiceJet Airlines, promoted by a group of investors led by the Kansagra family and Delhi-based Ajay Singh, is working on a plan to start international operations next year, making it the third private Indian carrier after Jet Airways and Kingfisher to fly overseas.
BSNL, MTNL respond to Vavasi despite advice to the contrary
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is planning to put stringent entry-level restrictions on broadcasters launching new television channels. The move is to ensure only serious players enter the business and have effective utilisation of the limited bandwidth available for broadcasting.
About five new operators are ready to start operations by the end of this year, adding to the over eight incumbents slugging it out to grab a share in a mobile market that is expected to grow to 750 million subscribers by 2012 against over 450 million at present.
With no solution emerging in the legal battle between music companies and private FM radio operators over royalty rates, many of the 37 private FM radio companies have threatened to shut shop soon, restricting choices for over 200 million FM radio listeners to All India Radio channels.
Sports broadcaster ESPN India has managed to lure over a dozen advertisers for the Airtel Twenty20 Champions League, who could spend as much as Rs 270 crore (Rs 2.7 billion).
Essar group, which is buying out the Uganda and Congo assets of Warid Telecom -- a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Group and Singtel and is present in Kenya, has also reportedly been sounded out by Zain shareholders. A company spokesperson, however, declined to comment on the issue.
Slow domestic growth, global ambitions will prompt deals similar to MTN, say analysts
After deliberations with various stakeholders, including broadcasters and cable operators, the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry has decided to make the roll-out of CAS voluntary across the country, instead of being mandatory as originally planned.
Jet Airways expects to raise over Rs 1,000 crore by selling 2.5 acres of premium land it owns in the Bandra-Kurla area in Mumbai. The move will partly help the company to raise about $400 million (roughly Rs 2,000 crore) to cut its debt burden of Rs 15,885 crore.
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