After a long wait, Tata Teleservices on Thursday launched the premium Blackberry mobile services that offers customers e-mail, SMS messaging and Internet-based applications.
Market regulator SEBI on Wednesday imposed a penalty of Rs 17.5 lakh on Delhi-based broker Suresh Bharrat for alleged irregularities in trading of scrip of firms like Essar Oil, Suzlon and Tata Consultancy S in the future and options market.
With this, Vodafone prepaid customers can now avail 500 free local or national SMS daily with a bonus card of Rs 89 with a validity of 30 days, the company said.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has asked the Department of Telecommunications to reconsider its decision to issue Mumbai-based Loop Telecom an all-India mobile services licence, suggesting the company had links with Essar Group that violate restrictions on telecom cross-holdings by groups.
"Online portals are also bleeding heavily and have huge accumulated losses. There is pressure from investors to cut down on discounting."
The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday tabled a bill that would make it difficult to file "irritating" litigation against a single person.
Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain), the third largest telecom operator in West Asia and a leading operator in Africa, has initiated talks with several Indian telecom service providers to buy stakes.
BPCL's impending privatisation and RIL's stake sale to Saudi Aramco raise questions about the future of the West Coast Refinery, once touted as the world's largest.
Etisalat, which is mulling an Indian foray, has since started discussions with several telecom companies including the Videocon Group's Datacom Solutions and Essar-controlled Loop Telecom for equity. Ravi Sharma, CEO of Datacom confirmed that Etilasat was one of the companies to which the company was talking but declined to offer details. Loop Telecom declined to comment.
GSM operators added 8.89 million subscribers in June, taking the total number of subscribers using the technology to 315.8 million.
The department had sent a notice to the company seeking details and clarifications on a host of issues besides the original agreement between Hutch and Vodafone to establish the jurisdiction of the tax authorities to determine the tax liability. This follow an SC order in January 2009 to the effect that Vodafone should present its case to the tax authorities first and submit a copy of the share purchase agreement, the deadline for which expires by the end of this month.
Bharti Airtel Ltd led the signings, adding 2.73 million subscribers in February to take its mobile customer base to 91 million. Vodafone Essar Ltd, controlled by Britain's Vodafone, added 2.5 million users in the month, to take its subscriber base to 65 million, data from the Cellular Operators Association of India showed.
Delhi Police on Thursday arrested 2 more persons in connection with the corporate espionage case.
While some such as Hindalco, JSW Steel, India Cements, Essar Oil, Tata Steel and Jet Airways have already announced plans to raise a combined Rs 70,000 crore, there are many who are redrawing proposals to enter the market to raise money.
The agreement, which will be reviewed at the end of five years, will boost profitability of the steel firms who had been buying expensive LNG or naphtha to meet feedstock shortage at their plants, a senior official said. The ministry of petroleum and natural gas had last week asked Reliance to sell natural gas to steel firms like Essar, Ispat and Vikarm Ispat to help the nation's most prolific gas field to produce at optimum level.
Netcore offers the service 'MyToday' to 3.8 million mobile phone users in the country. Jain was the founder of IndiaWorld Communications, a small start-up, which was acquired in 1999 by IT major Sify Technologies for around Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).
Apple has authorised Bharti Airtel to 'unlock' its 3G iPhones, launched earlier, enabling the Indian company to sell it through their stores to any user, not necessarily only an Airtel subscriber.
Jatinder Mehra, chief executive officer, Essar Steel said, "I believe, in July, there will be some push in the market. In the Indian market, revival has already begun. Auto, fabrication, capital goods and white goods are doing very well." In the flat products segment, hot rolled coil prices have not seen a hike since September last year. Last month, long product, cold rolled and galvanised prices were raised.
During a hearing before the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) last month Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, and government-run BSNL and MTNL agreed to submit the undertaking.
The world's largest mobile operator by revenue, Vodafone, which operates in India with a joint venture with Essar Group, on Monday said it will invest more in India as it sees more opportunities in the country.
Many top corporate groups hit hard, in penalties and sunk investments, beside loss of future revenue
An empowered group of ministers on April 9 decided to give any unutilised KG-D6 gas to steel plants who are currently not being supplied their full share of administered price fuel, official sources said. After gas-based steel plants, allocations would also be made to existing gas-fired power plants and to other power plants, including captive power plants depending upon the availability of the unutilised gas.
Telecom major Bharti Group Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal denied any attempt on forming a cartel with other telecom players to distort competition. Bharti Airtel had received a 'notice of enquiry' by anti- monopoly watchdog MRTPC. Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular too had received such notices. It was alleged that 3 GSM operators, by colluding, have simultaneously increased the price. Mittal said that MVNOs will not work in India due to existing tariffs.
The government has ruled out banning Blackberry services in India. This was stated by the telecom secretary in New Delhi on Friday.Security agencies had said that they should have access to data that are being encrypted by services like BlackBerry on mobile phones and then decrypted when the phone reaches its destination. The government had cited security concerns as it could not monitor the content on RIM's servers, which were located in Canada and other foreign locations.
If crude oil prices stay at current levels, the Indian government would not be required to issue additional oil bonds to the four state-run oil marketing companies in the current financial year, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday. Oil retailers, however, are unlikely to cut prices of petroleum products in response to falling crude prices unless private retailers like Essar Oil and Reliance Industries Ltd restart operations and offer a lower price.
These together account for 40 per cent of bad loans of around Rs 4 trillion.
The total admitted claim of financial creditors of these 88 companies stood at Rs 1.3 trillion, of which they recovered Rs 65,635 crore.
In a bid to increase efficiency, telecom major Vodafone Essar is set to relocate over 1,500 of its employees to Ahmedabad from all over the country.
Indian companies, led by the Tata group, Essar and HCL Technologies, among others, have created more than 30,000 jobs and made large investments in the United States, a joint report of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the US India Business Council said.
This follows the expiry of its brand-use agreement with the BPL Group. The company, which faces an ownership battle between the Ruias of the Essar Group and the UK-based Vodafone, does not expect 'any issues' to arise from the change. "Loop is an extension of an ongoing campaign, Get in the Loop, and it will be easy for our subscribers to identify with this new brand name," said BPL Mobile Director and CEO Sanjeev Chachondia.
Steel firms are aiming to clear their piled up inventory as they fear a further fall in prices, which have already nosedived globally; buyers have withheld their bulk orders anticipating a further correction in the rates. JSW Steel said it would reduce total production by around 20 per cent from November. Essar Steel and Ispat Industries are already operating below optimum capacity. Jindal Steel and Power Ltd said it is looking to bring down cost of production.
"There are eight companies (who have put in expression of interest)... RNRL is one of them," said A K Ahuja, managing director, Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd, the company that operates the nation's biggest gas-fired power plant and the adjacent LNG import facility. Others in the fray include state power utility NTPC and GMR. Ahuja said RGPPL will frame the bidding criteria and call for financial bids by next month.
The broad idea is to help freshers and high-potential employees develop soft skills not generally taught at universities, and simultaneously increase retention rates in an industry that has attrition rates between 30 and 50 per cent. The industry, according to Nasscom estimates, accounts for almost $11 billion and employs slightly over 700,000 professionals (in terms of direct employment).
The company plans to hire 1,000 people every month in India and across United States, Philippines, Costa Rica and Africa where it currently has operations. US President Barack Obama had last month announced end to years of tax incentives to those US companies, which create jobs overseas in places like Bangalore.
Executives would analyse information and pass it to seniors.
Four former Indian CEOs - three of them with telecom companies and one from soft drinks major Coca-Cola - have come together to start an angel partner firm, the Phi Group. Interestingly, the group has roped in two former bosses of global telecom companies for its international foray.
The Department of Telecommunications' Wireless Planning and Coordination arm has moved a note to issue start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz to four leading service providers offering GSM technology, whose applications have been pending from December 2006.
Though the controversy over the security of BlackBerry services is yet to be resolved, the four operators that offer these services - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BPL Mobile and Reliance Communications - have added over 50,000 customers in the four months since the problems began. Before this, the push-mail service, which was introduced in India in October 2004, had 400,000 subscribers according to industry estimates.
The operators are willing to accept auction of second generation spectrum beyond what has been contracted. According to them, they are allowed to have spectrum up to 10 Mhz.
Indian corporates have raised around $11.9 billion through overseas borrowing in the first five months of 2007-08, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data on external commercial borrowings (ECB).