India's most valuable company Reliance Industries was once fined for producing more than its licensed capacity, its owner and richest Indian Mukesh Ambani said on Monday as he pitched for a push to manufacturing to make the country 'Aatmanirbhar' or self-reliant.
The Tata group's tryst with mobile services, with either CDMA or GSM technology, did not really fly, forcing it to close operations and write off losses. Now the group is back in the big game, this time straddling the telecom equipment, network and technology space in India as well as the global market. To this end, it is leveraging the opportunities that flow from 5G technology through open radio access network, or O-RAN. Recently, the Tata Sons' subsidiary Panatone Finvest acquired 43.3 per cent in Bengaluru-based telecom equipment manufacturer Tejas Network for Rs 1,850 crore and announced it would buy another 26 per cent of the voting capital through an open offer.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries on Friday reported a 43 per cent jump in its September quarter net profit as its businesses from oil to retail fired on all cylinders, growing both sequentially and on a year-on-year basis. Net profit of Rs 13,680 crore, or Rs 20.88 per share, in July-September compared with Rs 9,567 crore, or Rs 14.84 a share, in the same period a year back, the company said in a statement. While better realisation and a sharp rise in crude oil prices benefited the old-economy business, retail saw footfalls at stores reach pre-Covid levels and per user earning from telecom business rose.
Six consecutive profitable quarters after an equal number of losses - for Bharti Airtel, the turnaround has been quick. But it is not a result of higher tariffs or absence of exceptional items alone. Execution and strategy are playing a part, too. Bharti Airtel's chief executive officer Gopal Vittal summed it up in a post-result conference call last month. "We track the profit in each of our 237,500 (cell) sites.
The Chinese, in turn, will reciprocate by procuring more iron ore from India and also set up steel plants in India in the near future.
'While consumers have benefited tremendously from rock-bottom telecom tariffs, the telecom sector has been reeling under deep financial stress,' points out Rajan S Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India.
Move to help India export hi-end vehicles.
The company raised Rs 53,124 crore through a rights issue and sold nearly 33 per cent stake in Jio Platforms Ltd - the firm that houses telecom business and apps - to likes of Facebook and Google for Rs 152,056 crore.
Revenue decline has left the operators with little money to service their mostly 3G and partly 4G infrastructure leading to poor data and voice quality.
CEO pay is not always the function of performance.
From spending a little less than three hours on making voice calls, Indians are spending well over 5 hours. So, while people make more calls, they are spending less than ever, reports Romita Majumdar.
50 per cent of the flashlights market in the country is dominated by Chinese imports, which have been increasing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the preparedness to deal with the situation arising out of the likely formation of Cyclone Jawad that is expected to hit the North Andhra Pradesh-Odisha coast and directed officials to take every possible measure to ensure that people are safely evacuated.
The new rules are aimed at providing a strong impetus to the industry and positioning India as one of the most competitive IT jurisdictions in the world.
The statement came a day after Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd announced a hike in call and data charges from next month.
PowerGrid was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding around 3 per cent, followed by Asian Paints, Axis Bank, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Auto, SBI and M&M.
In its report 'Global Top Picks', Barclays expects the current bull market in global equities to continue, generating a total return of 9 per cent in 2015.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met over 40 CEOs across broad swathes of industry, ranging from makers of mobile devices, auto components, food products to telecom networking equipment and pharmaceuticals. The agenda: To discuss how to make India an integral part of the global supply chain. The focus of the discussion would be the much touted yet not so well understood production-linked incentive scheme (PLI), the centrepiece of the government's drive to massively boost the manufacturing sector. To do so, the government has created a war chest of over Rs 197,000 crore to be paid out as incentives to over 14 industries in five years. There are three objectives to the scheme, two explicitly stated, one implied.
Equity benchmark Sensex rebounded 454 points on Thursday, boosted by gains in index heavyweight Reliance Industries amid a positive trend in global markets.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Wednesday pitched for using the USO Fund to subsidise smartphones for select groups to help penetrate the digital revolution and said India should make the rollout of 5G or the fifth-generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks a national priority. As much as 5 per cent of the licence fee paid by telecom operators goes to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund, which was set up in April 2002 for achieving universal service objectives by providing access to telephone services in rural and remote areas and creation of infrastructure for mobile services and broadband in these areas. However, according to the CAG, less than half of the funds so collected are transferred for the said purpose.
Reliance Industries has put together an aggressive plan to build its drone business which includes expanding manufacturing capacity five-fold, participating in the new drone production linked incentive scheme, and experimenting with limited logistics payloads to deliver goods. The target is to become a key player in the expected $5 billion market in India by the end of the decade. The drone business is being carried out through a Bangalore-based start up, Asteria Aerospace, in which Reliance has taken a majority stake. Asteria is a subsidiary of Jio Platforms Ltd.
Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said India will grow to be among the top three economies in the world in the next two decades and per capita income would more than double. At a fireside chat with Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg, he said India's middle-class, which is about 50 per cent of the nation's total number of households, will grow three to four per cent per year.
Investors' wealth jumped Rs 2,93,054.25 crore on Thursday as markets returned to winning ways after falling for three straight sessions. The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex zoomed 638.70 points or 1.22 per cent to close at 52,837.21. During the day, it gained 668.75 points to 52,867.26. Tracking the bullish trend, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies jumped Rs 2,93,054.25 crore to reach Rs 2,33,94,917.25 crore.
To outgoing Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao, negotiating big deals was an art form, as an international report pointed out after the $130-billion sale of Vodafone's 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless, says Nivedita Mookerji.
The Indian Navy has expressed reservations in vacating 100 Mhz of the spectrum, proposed to be sold in the tender expected next year, sources said. This could delay the Centre's plans to proceed with the 5G auctions in 2022. A department of telecom (DoT) official said, "The Indian Navy is showing reluctance in vacating the spectrum from the 3.3 GHz-3.4 GHz band that it is using. "Unless there is some traction with them on this issue, we can't seek consultation from TRAI." The 3300 MHz-3600 MHz (or 3.3GHz-3.6GHz) will be auctioned for the first time in the proposed 5G auctions, likely next year.
Will the rupee keep falling in value against the US dollar? What will be its impact?
The government is looking at a time frame within the first two weeks of July to kick off and complete the upcoming 5G auctions, according to discussions between officials and stakeholders. It is expected that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will give its recommendations on the base price by March, after which the necessary cabinet clearances will be given. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had earlier looked at undertaking the auction in the first quarter of 2022 but decided to push it back. Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had also said that the auctions are likely to take place in April-May.
'There will be a series of rate hikes, but the pace and quantum will depend on how the economy in the US and the rest of the world behave.'
Ten Indian companies led by the likes of state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals, telecom major Bharti Airtel and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries have made their way into the Forbes' list of 50 best listed companies in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur has successfully designed complete chip sets for communications and power supply sectors with technology support from Cadence Design Systems (India) Pvt Ltd.
The department for promotion of industry and internal trade has asked the telecom department and State-owned BSNL to put on hold the tender for setting up 4G network, valued at Rs 9,000 crore, after allegations emerged that the tender favoured foreign companies. The tender was floated by BSNL in March under the new management for setting up the 4G network.
The telecom industry is moving towards a five-plus one model.
Investment by US PE firm KKR will add fire to Ambani's battle for dominance in the retail market that is also being eyed by Jeff Bezos' Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart.
The acquisitions were made in areas which are closely related to Reliance's key businesses - telecom, internet, retail, digital, media, education, digital, chemicals and energy.
TCS was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 3 per cent, followed by L&T, Bharti AIrtel, HCL Tech, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto and Reliance Industries. NSE Nifty rallied 164.70 points to its fresh closing peak of 16,529.10.
As India gets ready to roll out one of the largest vaccine programmes, billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said his group is working with authorities to provide technology tools and backbone for mass inoculation against COVID-19. Ambani's telecom venture Jio was rolled out four years back, offering free voice calling and dirt-cheap data. Today, Jio is India's largest telecom operator with over 400 million users, each connected to the internet. At a Facebook event, Ambani said the government's digital push kept the country running even during the pandemic and is now helping in the rollout of one of the largest vaccination programmes.
"If we are not getting anything then I think it is end of story for Vodafone Idea," Kumar Mangalam Birla said at the HT Leadership Summit when asked about the future of Vodafone Idea in absence of a government relief on payment of Rs 53,038 crore dues.
US tech giant IBM is betting big on the India growth story and plans to open more software development centres in the country as it looks to partner with the government in its digitisation journey, its chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna said on Friday. On a visit to India, Krishna met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar to discuss deeper collaboration including skilling and workforce development. The firm that originally designed the technology and system behind ATMs, barcodes and the US social security net, is greatly enthused with the speed at which the Indian government is willing to make decisions and where it is moving, he told a select media briefing.
Vagela could not have reached this position if Narendra Modi, who'd known him from his chief minister days, had not backed the choice.
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