The government is planning to merge Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) with the loss-making state-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) this month, a senior official has said. BSNL chairman and managing director PK Purwar at a recent event organised by the All India Graduate Engineers and Telecom officers Association (AIGETOA) said that the government is giving the telecom firm an opportunity for a turnaround. "The government has taken a policy decision that BBNL is going to be merged into BSNL. "This means all work of BBNL at the pan-India level is going to come to BSNL," Purwar said at the All India Conference of AIGETOA on March 13.
The MP asked authorities to keep focus of investigation on scam to weed out the lobbyists from the telecom sector.
Gautam Adani's alleged proximity to Narendra Modi may dent the latter's self-styled image of incorruptibility, points out Kanika Datta.
"Look at the policies of world around, we are far less protectionist than any other country in the world. There is no question of India becoming protectionist," Indian Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said here on Monday.
Despite multiple headwinds at the start of 2023, the Indian markets delivered a strong performance, posting 19-20 per cent growth for the year. Even as new records were set, investor sentiment remains strong going into 2024, given the lower inflation, expectations of steady to lower interest rates, higher economic growth, and strong inflows. However, the overriding concern for most brokerages is valuations.
The government is not in a "crazy rush" to sell everything and it will continue to have a presence in four strategic sectors, including telecom, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. In strategic sectors, a bare minimum presence of the existing public sector commercial enterprises at the holding company level will be retained under government control. The remaining enterprises in a strategic sector will be considered for privatisation or merger with another PSE or for closure.
The Internet service policy unveiled on Saturday is likely to hit the industry hard. It may wipe off small and medium players in the country.
Far from benefitting consumers, the new rules on roaming charges have opened another front in the battle between large and small operators.
Rajasthan, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura among states that will set up an institute each.
Telecom regulator Trai on Monday announced reduction in the national mobile phone roaming charges, but said there will be no free national roaming as of now.
US President Barack Obama has nominated Indian-American lawyer and telecom policy expert Ajit Varadaraj Pai, who belongs to Republican party, as Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the country's premier regulatory body.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday issued an addendum to its consultation paper on unified license regime and said it was ready to consider all suggestions in this regard.\n\n
Shares of telecom services providers - Reliance Industries (parent of Reliance Jio), Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea - have shed up to 23 per cent so far in the current calendar year as growth in the wireless subscriber segment begins to plateau amid higher tariffs and rising costs of smartphones. By comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex, and sectoral index BSE Telecom have dipped 1.8 per cent, and 12.6 per cent, respectively, ACE Equity data shows. However, analysts expect the trend to reverse soon as telecom services providers focus on the next leg of growth -- fixed broadband (FBB) segment.
DoT though failed to implement TRAI's recommendations to levy spectrum usage charge
From the Sensex pack, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Infosys, NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Nestle, Tech Mahindra and Bajaj Finance were the major gainers. Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti, Titan, HDFC Bank, Wipro, HDFC and ITC were among the laggards.
The department of telecom has rejected any suggestion to put 74 per cent foreign direct investment under the automatic route saying it is not feasible on account of national interest.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to the US is expected to see discussion on India's possible entry into a US-led global alliance on critical minerals, officials told Business Standard. In June last year, the US, the European Union, and other G7 partners launched the Minerals Security Partnership to ensure that China did not further strengthen its grip on supplies of critical minerals the world over. Various ministries, including the Ministry of Finance, have communicated to the Ministry of External Affairs to explore the possibility of India joining the partnership, officials said.
The Home Ministry had asked the department of telecommunication to ensure access to all encrypted data, including that of international players such as Blackberry, Skype and even Gmail.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Friday came out with a revised subscriber-linked policy for spectrum allocation to GSM operators, which is in line with the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
The most important lesson is that you have to build your political proposition, and sell it yourself. You can't leave it to the courts, media, NGOs and civil society and expect them to play the role of the Opposition. That's precisely what Mr Modi's challengers have been doing and we know the results, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Huawei, the other big Chinese vendor, is yet to decide on the issue.
The government on Wednesday said foreign direct investment in IT and telecom sector is expected to go up by more than 100 per cent in 2006.
Clearly, Foxconn Chairman Young Liu and his team are looking to raise their game in India.
A healthy growth in India's services segments has helped the country's total exports and imports of goods and services to cross the $800 billion mark during the first half of 2023, despite a slowdown in global demand, think tank GTRI said in a report on Monday. According to the analysis of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), exports of goods and services rose by 1.5 per cent to $385.4 billion during January-June this year, as against $379.5 billion in January-June 2022. Imports, however, dipped by 5.9 per cent to $415.5 billion during the six months of this year, as against $441.7 billion in January-June 2022.
Dayanadhi Maran, the new IT and telecommunications minister, also announced a 10-point agenda, including revamping the telecom policy, to reduce the cost to customers.
It is assumed that the growing worry over slowing down of economic growth had prompted the government to act.
From the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Titan, Reliance Industries and Nestle were the major winners. Hindustan Unilever, Power Grid, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, State Bank of India, Asian Paints and Wipro were the laggards.
Despite the lack of policy and clear allotment of spectrum, the domestic telecom industry is all set to usher in 3G services with service and equipment providers readying infrastructure.
Disillusioned with the 'politics' in South African cricket administration, Brian McMillan decided to stay away from the game.
'Inter-ministerial coordination, information on the proposed PSUs, and due diligence are taking longer than expected to conclude the process.'
An IAS officer, who is suspected to have leaked information about government's telecom policies to corporate houses, is yet to be placed under arrest, a day after the police raided his house and office. Investigators say that Ravi Inder Singh may not have been alone in the 'conspiracy' with several officials of different government agencies being placed under the scanner.
Contrary to recommendations in the draft of the New Telecom Policy prepared by it, the Department of Telecom is not in favour of number portability
The slowdown in corporate revenue growth over the last one year has begun to reflect in India Inc's capital expenditure, or capex. The country's top listed companies are going slow on fresh investment in capacity expansion, in line with a deceleration in their top line growth. The combined fixed assets of the listed companies, excluding banking, finance services and insurance (BFSI) and the government-owned oil & gas firms, were up 10.1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) during April-September 2023 (H1FY24) - the slowest in 18 months - as against 21.1 per cent Y-o-Y growth in H2FY23 (October 2022-March 2023) and 11.6 per cent growth in the April-September 2022 period (H1FY23).
Surprisingly, RIL scrip also fell by 2.73 per cent to 1,029.15, becoming the second biggest loser in the index
Vodafone India MD & CEO Marten Pieters, 59, blames regulation and the spectrum policy for the telecom industry's troubles.
'Our mandate is to work in a transparent manner, keeping two objectives in mind - consumer interest and growth of the telecom sector.'
The recommendations on the subject will be sent in due course to the government, according to an internal communication of DoT
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