I-T heat on thousands of firms for unusual cash deposits.
The manner in which India has allowed the rule of law to be subverted for over eight years is tragic, notes former additional solicitor general of India Bishwajit Bhattacharyya.
Further telecom tariff reduction is on the anvil as department of telecom is in the process of issuing direction to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to come out with the revenue-share based access deficit charge.
Also said if some govt bodies have already been allowed to enter business, the Central Govt should provide appropriate exit route.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a new job creation scheme by giving subsidy to those establishments that make new hires. The subsidy would be to cover for retirement fund contributions by employees as well as employers for two years, she said. Employees contribution (12 per cent of wages) and employer's contribution (12 per cent of wages) totalling 24 per cent of wages would be given to establishments for two years, she said. Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, every Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)-registered establishment taking new employees would get this subsidy.
"As the existing licensees have already made huge investments in the infrastructure and their systems are in place, therefore, they will be in a better position to deliver 3G services efficiently at low incremental cost," Trai said in its views on permitting new entity for 3G Services.
Leading telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone and the Tatas are understood to have been slapped penalty for non-verification of subscribers in the J&K and Assam circles.
The auction will continue on Tuesday as there is still some spectrum left.
The auction will continue on Monday.
The spectrum auction has already generated record amount.
The petition filed by a host of GSM operators along with COAI also sought quashing of department of telecommunication's decision, dated October 19, to allow enhanced subscriber-linked criterion for spectrum allocation. They also sought non-implementation of these decisions terming them unfair, unjust, illegal, arbitrary and violative of level-playing field and principles of natural justice.
While everybody is talking about the vast potential of 5G, the uptake of such services in India depends on operators getting around 100 Mhz 5G spectrum. At the reserve price proposed by Trai, getting this spectrum will cost a telco around Rs 490 billion. Which amount could be difficult for operators to mop up, given the financial stress they are undergoing, says Kiran Rathee.
Expressing concern over the abysmally poor rural tele-density of one per cent, the government is exploring the option of creating telecom infrastructure itself and then letting it to be shared by mobile operators who want to provide telecom services
The government has accused Reliance Infocomm of violating the licence by illegally routing international calls as local ones to avoid payment of levies to telecom PSUs.
In a sharp contrast to the boom in the telecom sector, the revenue of public sector BSNL may take a hit of Rs 6,500 crore (Rs 65 billion) in the current financial year adversely affecting the telecom monolith's profitability.
Facing flak over its order to block access to 857 pornographic and humour websites, the government on Tuesday lifted ban on all those websites that do not feature child pornographic content.
The much-talked merger of the two state-owned telecom giants -- Mahanagar Telecom Nigam and Bharat Sanchar Nigam -- is understood to have been put on hold
DoT has rejected the demand of Vodafone India for licence extension in three circles.
The party unanimously elected veteran Duraimurugan as general secretary and senior leader T R Baalu as treasurer. Former Telecom Minister A Raja and seasoned party leader K Ponmudi were elected as deputy general secretaries.
In a jolt to Internet service providers, telecom tribunal TDSAT on Tuesday upheld the government decision that virtual private network offered by them was not part of their ISP licence
Kick starting the process of allotting new telecom licences, the government on Tuesday sought clarifications from all the applicants on as many as 25 issues relating to eligibility criteria. The department of telecom (DoT) has asked all the companies to submit by December 13, clarifications, information or supporting documents as on date of application.
The decision had been communicated to the department of telecommunications, a senior official of the department told Business Standard.
Pitroda, who pioneered the telecom revolution in India, added that government will open four large data centres to enable the flow of information up to the panchayat level.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has asked UK-based Vodafone Group, which is facing a tax liability of over Rs 11,200 crore in India, to give its view on the long-pending matter in writing, a senior official said.
'The failures of private businessmen have set back the process of market-oriented reform, though that is the only way forward,' argues T N Ninan.
The government has suffered a loss of Rs 12,488.93 crore (Rs 124.88 billion) due to under-invoicing of gross revenue by six telecom companies including Reliance Communications, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, the CAG said in a damning report on Friday.
Vodafone on said it is seeking legal advice to challenge the Bombay High Court order that dismissed its plea against the I-T department's Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) demand in tax and penalty on the company's acquisition of Hutchison Telecom in a deal of about Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion).
Aditya Birla group company Idea Cellular and US-based wireless operator Verizon are all set to get the Letters of Intent for long distance services following clearance of their applications by the Department of Telecom (DoT). Official sources said the applications have been put forward for the Telecom Minister's approval. Idea is awaiting LoI for International Long Distance services while Verizon's application is for both National and International Long Distance services
Currently, MNP is only available within a state/circle.
The Department of Telecommunications is set to issue guidelines for telemarketers in order to check unsolicited commercial calls.
The Department of Telecommunications has raised demand of around Rs 877.6 crore from Vodafone as spectrum charges for the period between 2008-09 and 2011-12, sources said.
The draft guidelines prepared by the Telecom Engineering Centre and under consideration of the department of telecommunication have suggested, among other things, that children below 16 years should be discouraged from using cellular phones.
Maybe Modi could ask a patriarch of the stature of the late G D Birla to flesh out the details of a new company to manage government land privatisation.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher, referring to a Supreme Court order on a plea of Bharti Cellular Ltd in a similar case, asked the Department of Telecommunications not to take any coercive steps in pursuance of its notices issued to the telecom companies asking them to stop providing 3G services to mobile users in the circles for which they lacked licences.
Taking the government head on, four GSM mobile operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Spice -- have decided to "unitedly" approach the Delhi High Court against telecom tribunal TDSAT's interim order not to stay the spectrum allocation process.
BSNL on Wednesday denied allegations that it was blocking calls of private telecom operators like Reliance and Tatas, even as Trai asked all operators to maintain "status-quo" till the interconnection norms are announced.
Karunanidhi was convinced that using the 2G cases against the DMK and reopening the fodder case against Lalu Prasad Yadav were products of the Congress leadership's short-sightedness. A revealing excerpt from A S Panneerselvan's Karunanidhi: A Life.
Bringing to the limelight some of the brilliant ideas and innovative projects from campuses is a unique initiative by Startup Village, India's first telecom incubator.
Even as Left parties have demanded a review of the tax concessions provided to SEZs, the DoT has sought extension of excise duty exemptions to industrial units set up in telecom-specific SEZs.
The move will help telcos, including Reliance Jio, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular
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