Sunil Bharti Mittal, bottom, left, says he is fond of Bill Gates' famous quote: "Success is a lousy teacher." Back from a long foreign business trip, the founder-chairman of Bharti Enterprises talks to Malini Bhupta and Kiran Rathee about the challenges posed by Reliance Jio and how he is determined to come out on top once again. Mittal says , today, Airtel is as ready as Jio in pure-play 4G operations.
The rally in the equity markets in the second half of 2023 has led to a sharp surge in the cutoff for stocks to qualify as largecaps and midcaps. On the latest list put out by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), the smallest largecap stock now has a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 67,000 crore, 35 per cent higher than in July 2023. In the case of midcaps, the cutoff has surged 26 per cent to Rs 22,000 crore.
From the Sensex pack, Jio Financial Services fell the most by 4.99 per cent. Reliance Industries, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, JSW Steel, HCL Technologies, NTPC, Tata Steel, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and HDFC Bank also declined. IndusInd Bank, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank, Nestle and Axis Bank were among the gainers.
The CAG has suggested canceling nationwide broadband spectrum allocated to Infotel Broadband Services, now a Reliance Industries company, for allegedly rigging the auction and violating rules.
Data traffic generated by such tests is rivaling combined traffic other operators present for 15-20 years
The number of mobile phone connections in India rose by 1.96 million in March, after reducing by 1.06 million in February, latest data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed. The number of new connections have hit a 9-month high. In these past 9-months, the total number of wireless (mobile phone) subscriptions had reduced on 5 occasions, the data shows.
With intense competition in telecom sector, the two companies are rushing to diversify into other revenue streams, prominent among which are cloud services.
From the Sensex pack, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti, Tata Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance, Nestle, Power Grid and HDFC Bank were the major gainers. Jio Financial Services, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, ITC, UltraTech Cement and Mahindra & Mahindra were among the laggards.
Reliance Industries, construction major L&T and IRB Infrastructure are some of the top companies that have used an infrastructure investment trust structure to reduce part of their debt and generate returns for their investors. Earlier this month, IRB Infrastructure InvIT was listed on the National Stock Exchange, giving its investors an option to exit by selling their units. The listing came within months of the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) guidelines for conversion of private unlisted InvITs into listed ones were issued.
With the latest spectrum acquisition, the telecom venture would be the holder of the largest quantum of liberalised spectrum.
Gearing up for its pan-India 4G services launch in coming months, Reliance Jio Infocomm has approached the Department of Telecom for a network test conducted along with security agencies.
Consolidated net debt of Airtel increased by 24 per cent to Rs 97,395.2 crore.
Reliance Industries' (RIL's) retail arm, Reliance Retail, is now valued at nearly twice the amount of its decades-old and lucrative oil-to-chemical (O2C) division. Bernstein's latest report on the conglomerate projects a valuation of $112 billion for its retail business, dwarfing the $57 billion valuation of its O2C division. In addition, the research firm valued Jio Platforms, the company's telecom arm, at $77 billion and the renewable energy business at $17 billion.
Indian telcos have been able to garner over 20 million 5G customers in less than four months after the official launch of the service last October, according to industry estimates. With telecom operators like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel aggressively rolling out their 5G services in over 190 cities across the country to date, India is now only behind China and the US in terms of the number of cities in a country where 5G services have been extended. Top executives in telcos say that the number of 5G subscribers in India is a conservative estimate and that it will rise as the roll-out gains momentum.
'The IPL is by the biggest sports property in the country and having it will give any digital video player an edge.'
Meta Platforms Inc, the parent company of WhatsApp, will partner with Reliance JioMart for a service where WhatsApp users can buy groceries on the messaging platform from the Indian retail firm. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer (CEO) of Meta Platforms, said in a Facebook post, "[I am] Excited to launch our partnership with JioMart in India. "This is our first-ever end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp--people can now buy groceries from JioMart right in a chat." "Business messaging is an area with real momentum and chat-based experiences like this will be the go-to way people and businesses communicate in the years to come," he said in an announcement coinciding with the annual general Meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries the parent company of JioMart.
The company's revenue rose 23.9 per cent to Rs 101,169 crore
Rohit, who will also captain the side, will be expected to carry on with his ultra aggressive approach in the powerplay like he showed in the ODI World Cup.
Qatar's sovereign wealth fund is in early discussions to buy a minority stake in billionaire Mukesh Ambani's rapidly expanding retail unit for about $1 billion (Rs 8,200 crore), sources said. The Qatar Investment Authority is keen on tapping the fast-growing Indian market and has entered into a discussion to buy about 1 per cent stake in Reliance Retail Ventures, sources with knowledge of the matter said. Talks, sources said, are at a preliminary stage and being led by an executive director on the board of parent Reliance Industries Ltd.
Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, JSW Steel, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, HCL Technologies and HDFC Bank were among the major gainers. Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank were among the laggards.
Bajaj Finance was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 2.70 per cent, followed by Power Grid, IndusInd Bank, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, ITC, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Nestle, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Titan and Axis Bank. Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti and State Bank of India were among the laggards.
Reliance Industries Ltd will invest Rs 75,000 crore in rolling out 5G mobile telephony services, expanding retail network and setting up renewable energy capacity in Uttar Pradesh in the next four years, its chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Friday. Ambani also announced foray of the oil-to-telecom conglomerate into bio-energy business, converting agriculture waste into gas which can be used as fuel in industries, run automobiles or light kitchen stoves. Speaking at the Uttar Pradesh Global Investors Summit 2023 here, Ambani said his group will set up 10 GigaWatts of renewable energy capacity and roll out 5G services across the state in the next 10 months.
Mukesh Ambani has reclaimed the top position on the 2023 Forbes list of India's 100 Richest with a net worth of $92 billion. The fortune of infrastructure magnate Gautam Adani, who rose meteorically to overtake Ambani as India's richest person for the first time last year, has slipped to the second position. Adani's net worth, which includes that of his family, fell by a whopping $82 billion to $68 billion, after a report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research in January sent his group's shares tumbling.
According to the quality of service rules, not more than 2 per cent of total calls in a telecom circle on a network should automatically get disconnected.
The 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will see Disney-Star and Viacom18 competing to sell their ad space with an eye on the estimated Rs 4,000-crore advertising money.
Meaningful market share would go to those who have the distribution strength to push their products, such as banks.
Taali is an addition to the small list of films that are willing to offer respect and dignity to a marginalsed and misunderstood community, applauds Deepa Gahlot.
Reliance Industries (RIL's) annual report released on Sunday highlighted the company's focus on new energy solutions, with chairman and managing director (MD) Mukesh Ambani stating that the age of fossil fuels will not continue much longer. RIL has sought shareholders' approval to give Ambani another five-year term as MD till 2029 at nil salary. The recently demerged Jio Financial Services, which "will leverage the prowess of digital and retail businesses", was expected to be listed soon.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has moved the Bombay High Court seeking approval for amalgamating its long distance services arm Infotel with itself.
As Ayodhya readies itself for the glittering, much-awaited consecration ceremony of the Ram Mandir on January 22, and as millions of pilgrims and devotees pour into the holy city for the momentous event, companies are rushing to do their bit and be a part of the mega celebrations. Some are offering a part of their profits as donations, telcos are beefing up the number of cellular towers to ensure better connectivity, and there are those distributing jalebis and food platters.
Ambani's $15 bn bet will upend Indian telecom
The queue for mutual fund (MF) licences has thinned down due to quick clearances by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) alongside applications being withdrawn amid regulatory changes. There were, at the end of September, only two pending MF applications: By AngelOne and Unifi Capital. By comparison, there were 11 applications lying before the market regulator at the start of calendar year 2023.
Sale of Apple's iPhone 15 is estimated to have registered a 100 per cent growth compared to that of the iPhone 14 series on the first day with high demand for made-in-India iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus models, according to industry sources. Apple has for the first time made available the 'made-in-India' iPhone on the same day it started selling the devices in the country and other parts of the globe. "Till evening, 6 pm IST, the sales of iPhone 15 series have recorded over 100 per cent growth on Day 1 compared to the sale of iPhone 14.
Average data usage on Airtel India network grew about three fold to 2611 megabyte (about 2.5 GB) per customer from 904 MB on YoY basis. But the average revenue from the data services per customer declined by 22.7 per cent during the period.
Ambani said, in the telecom space, the focus will be on debt reduction, and the virtual merger did away with the need for major capex and will help towards this
Vodafone-Idea is working on a multi-pronged strategy to begin its long journey to get back in the game but much hinges on how much money it can raise following the government's decision to go for equity conversion last week. Based on discussions with sources aware of the company developments and with vendors, VIL's immediate plan is to invest in increasing 4G coverage to the level of its competitors. Currently, it covers a 1 billion population with 4G while its competitors cover 1.2 billion people.
The decision of the Telecom Commission to approve in-flight connectivity won't just bring cheer to the chat-friendly passengers, but even more to the telecom industry facing severe financial stress, says Nivedita Mookerji.
The pack is available for Rs 1,495 for existing users and Rs 1,494 for new users, and effectively brings down 4G data rates to Rs 50 per GB
The Rs 51 per GB data versus industry norm of Rs 250-plus comes with the caveat of an upfront payment of Rs 1,498 for a year
Mumbai has fastest 4G speed, Ahmedabad most consistent, says wireless coverage mapping firm OpenSignal
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