Telecom honchos Sunil Bharti Mittal, Anil Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Vittorio Colao are expected to meet IT and Communications Minister Kapil Sibal tomorrow to discuss various issues impacting the sector.
'YamaTough', the activist behind the 'Lords of Dharmaraja' hackers group, told Infosec Island, an information security Web site, 'Our goal is Bharti Mittal go off political arena and stop manipulating our government.'
The Minister was talking to media on sidelines of a function organised by Department of Telecommunication for new version of Internet addresses, IPv6.
The government should lower the interest rates in the long term to increase supply as a move to check inflation, which touched a three year high of 7 per cent last week, Bharti Group chairman and managing director Sunil Bharti Mittal said.
India's second-largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday posted more than twofold year-on-year jump in its consolidated net profit for the March quarter to Rs 2,008 crore, buoyed by a lift in average revenue per user and an exceptional gain. The telco said its Q4 scorecard was backed by strong performance delivery across the portfolio and its CEO Gopal Vittal, in a statement, exuded optimism about opportunities in the coming years and Airtel being "well-poised" as a company. Airtel, which competes in the market with Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, as well as state-owned BSNL/MTNL, promised to maintain razor sharp focus on financial flexibility, optimising the capital structure and finance cost.
In a show-cause notice, the information and broadcasting ministry asked Bharti Telemedia to furnish explanation failing which the government could consider suspending the licence till such time the company obtains necessary approvals from FIPB and meet the eligibility conditions. A Bharti spokesperson said the company has complied to all licence conditions in its DTH venture and the same has been communicated to the government.
Industrial output growth rate remained flat in April.
It's celebration time for Bharti Airtel, which last week became the third telecom brand in the world to cross the magic 100 million-subscriber mark in a single country. The gap between Airtel and its nearest competitor, Vodafone, is now about 26 million subscribers.
Bharti's undersea fibre-optic cable connecting Chennai with Singapore has not been affected by the deadly tsunami waves, triggered by the massive quake off the Indonesian coast, its CMD Sunil Mittal said on Tuesday.
The company, according to industry sources, is hoping to get an FIPB approval before that. Market sources said the sales team has sounded out October 8 as the launch date. Government had earlier asked Bharti group to seek a separate FIPB approval within three months for its upcoming DTH services.
Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha Tuesday along with senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and former minister Upendra Kushwaha.
UK telecom giant Vodafone has offloaded its 5.6 per cent direct stake in India's mobile leader Bharti Airtel to promoter Sunil Mittal's group for $1.6 billion, coinciding its acquisition of controlling stake in Hutch-Essar.
Telephone subscribers in the country is expected to reach 300-400 million by 2010 from 100 million currently, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and MD, Bharti Airtel said.
Bharti Enterprises, which had last year announced a $2.5-billion investment for its retail venture, is expected to announce its final plans, including that of opening of the first store, within the next two months.
In a dig at Jio's Rs 1,500 4G-enabled feature phone, the Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company said its smartphone would be made available for the price of a feature phone
Total revenue dropped by 10.5 per cent to Rs 19,634 crore in the fourth quarter of 2017-18
Sunil Mittal is seeking subsidies from the Indian government to revive the dying fixed-line phones in the country. The chairman of Bharti Airtel, the leading private sector GSM service provider, has sought the removal of licence fee and service tax that are burdening the sector.
Bharti group-backed OneWeb and New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation, have entered into an agreement that will help ensure OneWeb completes its satellite launch programme. The first launch with New Space India is expected in 2022 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The launches will add to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications firm OneWeb's total in-orbit constellation of 428 satellites -- 66 per cent of the planned total fleet -- to build a global network that will deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity.
Demanding a level playing field for the old operators, Bharti group chief Sunil Mittal told PTI: 'our view is that the spectrum given to us and other operators from time to time is under a policy and there is no question of any additional payment for this.'
Tesco has admitted that its plan to be the first multinational supermarket retailer in India has unravelled.
The police had filed charges in December against Bharti Airtel and Vodafone's India unit.
Bharti Walmart, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Walmart, the world's largest retailer, is also expected to open cash and carry stores in the South in the next 12-24 months.
Bharti Airtel will start talks for "disengagement" from its partner Vodafone once the UK company decides on its future course of action in India.
The two also met corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid, who asked them to keep his ministry in the loop.
Bharti Enterprises, the holding company of Bharti Airtel and other businesses such as insurance and retail is aiming to achieve $10 billion revenue by 2010 and become a strong conglomerate a decade later, its chairman Sunil Mittal said on Monday.
Bharti Enterprises on Tuesday said it expected to start its life insurance venture with French major Axa by June end.
With investors seeking clarity from the market tribunal SAT on Bharti Airtel's proposed mega deal with MTN, the Sunil Mittal company today said it is still in discussion with the South African firm.
Mittal said that overall, he expected that by March 2018, the "dust will settle down" for the entire industry.
Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of Airtel's Sunil Mittal, speaks about why he came back to India from the UK, his new business venture, paying for mobile apps and the need for co-founder support.
Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Group has formed a consortium with Changi Airport of Singapore (a 50:50 joint venture) to bid for the development and management of Delhi and Mumbai airports.
The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was attended by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Industry leaders, including Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, who are members of the council, also participated in the discussions.
After the transaction with Temasek, Singtel will hold 47.39 per cent in Bharti Telecom.
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal on Thursday said he had reached out to Vodafone's Nick Read after bold telecom reforms were announced by the government and will also speak to RIL's Mukesh Ambani, as the telecom czar vowed to take the lead in bringing the industry together to unleash India's telecom dream. Mittal exhorted the industry to collaborate in areas such as infrastructure sharing to reduce costs but vehemently ruled out possibility of any cartelisation among players. Amid reports of its potential tie-ups with handset makers to counter Jio's upcoming ultra low-cost smartphone, Mittal said Airtel is in a state of "readiness" on an affordable smartphone "should a need arise".
Taking advantage of liberalised norms for external commercial borrowings to raise upto $500 million through the automatic route, Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti Group is planning to tap the overseas market next fiscal.
Further stimulus measures are expected in the upcoming Budget where the focus is likely to be on reforms, including some structural measures such as reducing red tape and boosting foreign direct investment. The meeting with industrialists is in the series of discussions that Modi has had during the last couple of weeks to seek suggestions to revive growth.
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