We understand the electoral compulsions, the desperate need for the BJP to have at least 50 per cent of the Hindus vote for them in Uttar Pradesh in a few months. For that, you need polarisation, put your own Muslim compatriots on the 'other' side. This is how your domestic politics runs contrary to your national, strategic interest, warns Shekhar Gupta.
Mittal's salary in 2019-20 was Rs 26.97 crore, unchanged from the previous fiscal year. However the value of perquisites was Rs 99.8 lakh, down from Rs 1.87 crore a year back. His retirement benefits were unchanged at Rs 2.15 crore.
Telecom sector has seen phenomenal growth over the past decade or so, says the prime minister.
Bharti Global is planning to put up more satellites and has set a stiff deadline to launch commercial Internet services by October in the UK, Alaska, northern Russia and northern Europe.
India is today the second-largest telecom market in the world with over a billion customers and close to 600 million Internet users. New connections are available on the tap, calls are virtually free and it's hard to imagine anyone without a mobile phone today. Globally, there would be few parallels to this success story that truly democratised telephony and empowered a billion-plus people, observes Airtel's Sunil Bharti Mittal.
DoT, has decided that it will not cancel the GSM licences of dual-technology companies.
India's telecom sector has been through dizzying peaks, troughs, policy U-turns, court battles, brutal competition, and daily controversies. India could go back to a private sector duopoly with just Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel surviving the mayhem. The third player, Vodafone Idea, could be history.
The government is expecting Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) from the second round of spectrum auction later this fiscal,
it will allow users to retain their numbers even if they move from one state to another.
These circles account for 23 per cent of Bharti's revenues and armed with additional spectrum, it will eat into rivals' share
When on October 24, the Supreme Court, on a petition moved by the government, ordered payment of past dues according to its new definition of AGR, the country's second-biggest carrier Vodafone-Idea Ltd warned of shut down if no relief is given. The total dues for the industry ran into a whopping Rs 1.47 lakh crore. For an industry that has come from 7-8 operators to just three private players and state-owned fourth operator, the warning by Vodafone-Idea sounded like a death knell.
Close on the heels of Nokia announcing its plans to set up a plant in India, Hyundai India Telecom Ltd on Friday said it will set up a manufacturing unit and R&D hub in India.
'The government is unwilling or unable to provide the kind of relief that Vodafone India is asking for.'
Earlier, the Telecom Commission, a decision-making arm of the Telecom Ministry, had recommended that the government pick up a majority stake in the special purpose vehicle created to execute the sale of surplus land lying with VSNL (now Tata Communications).
'A lack of strategic trust and the 'persistent security dilemma' prevails between India and China,' points out Dr Rup Narayan Das.
Handset firms Karbonn and Lava International launched their smartphones, while Maxx Mobiles introduced its feature phone targetted at the rural market.
Gandhi, 47, begins his nearly two-week trip to the US with an address at the University of California, Berkeley, tomorrow on contemporary India and the path forward for the world's largest democracy.
The latest row -- termed as independent India's largest financial scam -- is centered on the allocation of scare 2G spectrum at throwaway prices.
A consortium comprising India's telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, among others, on Monday said it has started negotiations for acquiring control of Kuwait's biggest phone company Zain Telecom that has presence in 24 countries.
The IT industry has to fight vigorously against economic disparities in India, says Pitroda, asserting on reducing disparity of income, galvanizing the younger Indians and creating an overall development.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday described the failure of talks between India's telecom giant Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN on the $23 billion merger deal as "part of the game".
Users, however, can still make free Skype-to-Skype calls worldwide and international calls to mobiles and landlines.
According to analysis done by Icrier, the teledensity of a country/state plays a big role in determining its economic growth.
On receiving the award at a glittering function, Mittal said: "This is a tremendous honour and I would like to thank the GSM Association for considering me worthy of this award."
Non-bailable warrant was issued by a local court against bollywood star Suniel Shetty for not appearing before it in a cheque bounce case filed by a city-based shop owner.
The launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd last September, particularly the tariff war it has unleashed on its competitors, has deepened the crisis facing India's telecom sector. One offshoot of this is the major drop in earnings reported by industry leaders Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular with each passing quarter. Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com tells the story in numbers.
The telecom sector is likely to garner revenues to the tune of $35 billion by 2010 even though its profit margins have been declining, a study said.
From a policy point of view, India's telecom industry is getting exciting once again. After a lull of a few years, we're back to the same half-truths from regulators/policy makers, and the all too familiar attempts to help favoured firms.
China-based telecom equipment supplier Huawei Technologies, which has bagged a $200 million contract from Reliance Communications, is upbeat on India and expects to clinch other multi-million dollar outsourcing deals in the country.
Among the new guidelines under discussion, DoT is looking at raising the net worth criterion of companies applying for a pan-India UASL licence from Rs 1,380 crore to Rs 1,500 crore.
Facebook is fast learning the limits of tech exceptionalism.
India's telecom regulator TRAI on Wednesday slashed mobile roaming tariffs by up to 56 per cent and also scrapped rental for roaming services.
Sunil Mittal, chairman & group managing director of the Bharti group, is Business Standard's CEO of the Year for 2005-06.
Formally throwing its hat in the Reliance Communications said it was looking to acquire its rival Hutch-Essar and has received funding support for the proposed deal.
There were opportunities in having these people to open bank accounts and use phone banking, said Pitroda.
Telecom tariffs expected to fall from April 1st with TRAI lowering interconnection charges between two networks by 23-29 per cent.
Many companies are now doing product development from India. There are a lot of products and applications being developed in India, which are suitable for this market.
Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran said that free broadband service in India could soon become a reality. He also said that zero-rental landline phones too might soon see the light of day.
The government on Thursday unveiled its vision for the telecom sector up to 2010, listing plans to initially take total telephone connections to 250 million.
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