A slowdown in the global economy and sub-prime crisis in the banking, financial and insurance services sector, its major revenue earners, force the domestic IT industry to take a relook at its hiring strategy.
India will be one of the key centres for design and development of the A350 aircraft, European aircraft manufacturer Airbus' answer to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
It is not clear, however, whether the two players are considering a majority stake or would be content as investors with 26 per cent.
Indian IT firms are now making their mark as Superbrands. Of the 74 Indian Business Superbrands selected by Superbrands - an independent arbiter on brand management - seven are IT companies. Among a total of 980 brands invited to be judged and listed in Business Superbrands, around 12 technology companies had participated.
To add to company's 'three-screen' strategy of mobile phones, IPTV and broadband.
The figure is expected to rise to over Rs 4,600 crore (Rs 46 billion) by 2010 - a compounded annual growth rate of 44 per cent. Retail has been one of the largest growth sectors for all the top IT firms. For instance, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, Wipro Technologies and Satyam Computer Services saw their retail business grow by 33.6, 45.3, 38.5 and 117 per cent respectively on a year-on-year basis.
However, operators said the chief beneficiary would be the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, which have already been given the spectrum for 3G services, as well as Reliance Communications, which is still to roll out its 2G GSM network.
The Hinduja Group-promoted business process outsourcing firm HTMT Global Solutions has set aside Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) to close two acquisition deals in the US by the end of this year.
The Rs 1,808-crore modernisation and expansion plan for Chennai airport, which was recently cleared by the Public Investment Board and expected to begin this September, may not be sufficient to cope with projected growth in passenger traffic.
Talks have failed between the Dhoots of the Videocon group and Mahendra Nahata of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd to buy out the latter's 36 per cent stake in all-India mobile licence-holder Datacom Solutions.
3G mobile services, to be launched in India on August 22, is set to have serious competition. The reason is simple: if you are looking for high quality video streaming of movies and want to play multiplayer on-line games, it's not 3G services alone you need to look at.
We will not be in the ultra-low-cost car segment. Our focus will be on the A1 and A2 segments, which are growth areas in which many of the new players like Nissan, Volkswagen or Toyota are planning to enter. Our entry-level car will remain the Maruti 800.
With 3G mobile services, which provide high-speed downloads of data, movies and videos, around six month away, mobile phone makers are getting ready to offer handsets for as little as Rs 3,500, against the currently available minimum price of over Rs 8,000.
However, portability services, which were earlier expected to be launched by the end of the year in the four metros -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai -- as well as Tamil Nadu, have now been delayed till February or March 2009 (the DoT has said that it will start operations six months after the licence is granted).
DoT identifies more spectrum, to expand auctions from earlier estimate of five in each service area.
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.
The department of telecommunications has raised questions about the merger between Idea Cellular and Spice Telecom violating key clauses on intra-circle merger and mobile licence conditions.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has mooted a proposal under which operators will pay a one-time fee for all spectrum allotments beyond 6.2 MHz.
The Department of Telecommunications is examining a proposal to auction around nine licences for 3G -- or third generation -- services among incumbents and new players in place of an earlier proposal to allow five players in this space.
The MTN-Reliance Communications merger, if it gets through, will create a telecom behemoth of 115 million subscribers in 25 countries.