Ambani's $15 bn bet will upend Indian telecom
In a pre-Budget meeting with Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra, Ficci President Rajan Bharti Mittal said in view of the looming threat of a double-dip recession and another slowdown in western countries, the stimulus should not be rolled back in the Budget in February.
India's telecom subscriber base grew to over 1.17 billion in October with Bharti Airtel maintaining its leadership in mobile subscriber addition that accounts for over 98 per cent of total connections in the country, according to the monthly report released by sector regulator Trai on Wednesday. This is the second consecutive month when Airtel added highest number of subscribers. In September, it had regained the leadership position in subscriber addition after a gap of four years. The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company added 3.67 million new customers in October, taking its total wireless customer base to 330.28 million in October 2020, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) report said.
Total revenue dropped by 10.5 per cent to Rs 19,634 crore in the fourth quarter of 2017-18
The company faces $3-bn payout to Econet Wireless.
The dinner Jill Biden and her husband US President Joe Biden hosted for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, June 22, at the White House brought together, Indians and Americans from so many firmaments.
Not only the common subscribers but even Finance Minister P Chidambaram is also peeved over the way mobile calls drop and wanted to know from the group chairman of the largest cellular operator Bharti Airtel, Sunil Mittal, as to when they would be able to fix the problem. "When will calls not drop in Lutyens' Delhi?," Chidambaram asked Mittal at the NDTV Profit Business Award function on Monday evening.
We will introduce the Airtel brand in Africa in all the markets
The issue was raised by the visiting CII's CEO Mission led by Bharati enterprise chairman Sunil Bharati Mittal, who among others met Lawrence Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, at the White House on Wednesday. During the meeting, the delegation comprising top Indian CEOs brought to the notice the concerns about the recent developments in the US with regard to H-1B work visa programme and certain provisions in the stimulus bill.
It is of course a coincidence, but the pace of corporate news in India is accelerating while the new government, whose election last week sparked a surge of corporate optimism and a stock market boom, dithers over which ministers to appoint to which jobs.
Billionaire Gautam Adani's Group on Wednesday announced the acquisition of SoftBank Group Corp's renewable power business in India for a deal value of $3.5 billion (approximately Rs 25,500 crore), to become the world's largest solar company. In a statement, Adani Green Energy Ltd, the renewable energy unit of the port-to-energy conglomerate, said it has inked share purchase agreements to buy 100 per cent of SB Energy India from SoftBank and Bharti Group. Without giving deal details, the statement said the transaction values SB Energy India at an enterprise valuation of approximately $3.5 billion, it stated. The transaction marks the largest acquisition in the renewable energy sector in India.
An 80-member strong Indian delegation from the Confederation of Indian Industry will participate in the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, from 23-27 January 2008.
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.
Bharti Airtel said it might look at diluting some of its equity either at Bharti Airtel or at its tower subsidiary as one of the options to fund the $10.7-billion acquisition of African assets of Zain Telecom.
Traders' body CAIT on Wednesday wrote to Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani and 50 other captains of India Inc, including Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, Gautam Adani, Ajay Piramal, Anand Mahindra and Sunil Bharti Mittal seeking their support in its campaign to boycott Chinese goods. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) also urged Kumar Mangalam Birla, Vikram Kirloskar, Rahul Bajaj, Shiv Nadar, Pallonji Mistry, Uday Kotak, Nusli Wadia, Shashi Ruia, Madhukar Parekh, Harsh Mariwala, Satish Reddy and Pankaj Patel, among other prominent industrialists, to join its 'Bhartiya Samaan-Humaara Abhimaan' campaign.
The judge summoned Birla as one of the accused in the case.
Indian CEOs might like to make some serious course correction.
Responding to charges of cartelisation against the industry, newly-elected CII president K V Kamath on Thursday said corporates must ask themselves whether their actions in a demand-driven market was causing distress to others.
Union Communications and IT Minister A Raja has expressed his interest in bringing down national roaming rates to zero, further cutting international roaming rates and favouring technology neutrality in the country.
Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said introduction of mobile number portability is unlikely to affect the company's margins as it expects a major churn out of subscribers in favour of GSM operators.
As a group director and as a member of the management board, Walia's responsibility would be human resources and integration for Bharti group.
Oxford University has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Confederation of Indian Industry to set up India Business Centre.
Corporates are foraying into portfolio management services, with biggies like Reliance Money, Bharti Axa, Tata Capital and others taking the plunge.
During the two-day visit, the delegation headed by CII President Sunil Bharti Mittal is scheduled to meet key people such as UK Secretary of State for Health and Environment and interact with industry captains.
When on October 24, the Supreme Court, on a petition moved by the government, ordered payment of past dues according to its new definition of AGR, the country's second-biggest carrier Vodafone-Idea Ltd warned of shut down if no relief is given. The total dues for the industry ran into a whopping Rs 1.47 lakh crore. For an industry that has come from 7-8 operators to just three private players and state-owned fourth operator, the warning by Vodafone-Idea sounded like a death knell.
Former Indian ambassador to the US Naresh Chandra, noted litterateur Raja Rao (posthumous) and scientist S E Chandy George and civil servant V Krishnamurthy were also selected for Padma Vibhushan.
After ending its wholesale partnership with Walmart, Bharti Retail has decided to merge with the Future group
Those scheduled to attend the five-day WEF Annual meeting, beginning January 21, include more than 40 heads of state or government, including those from the UK, Australia, Japan, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Brazil, Italy, Mauritius, Republic of Korea and Switzerland, WEF announced on Wednesday at a press conference in Geneva.
The appointment of new expenditure secretary comes a month-and-a-half ahead of the Budget for 2020-21 to be presented on February 1.
Bharti Airtel, India 's leading mobile operator, said it could "move pretty quickly" if the board of MTN, the South Africa-based telecoms group, puts itself up for sale on Monday.
Providing job quotas for the socially underprivileged in private sector should be voluntary and the industry should not be forced to implement reservation, captains of Indian industry said on Tuesday.
The joint-venture's first wholesale store is expected to be opened by the end of 2008, Wal-Mart India President (Operations) Raj Jain had said.
The Aam Aadmi Party and talks about next Lok Sabha elections seem to be hogging the limelight when it comes to discussions around India at the World Economic Forum's annual talk-fest of the rich and famous from across the globe.
The student front of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has blotted its CV by allegedly instigating and engaging in violence on marquee campuses like JNU and Hyderabad Central University
The scrip had touched an all-time high of Rs 1,149 on the bourse earlier in the day. Mittal, who owns about 50 per cent stake in the group's flagship Bharti Airtel, saw his wealth soar to Rs 1,01,314 crore (about $25.51 billion), joining the league of trillionaires Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and Azim Premji.
Homegrown chat application Hike messenger on Wednesday said it will offer free voice calls to its users over 2G, 3G and wi-fi services across the globe in over 200 countries.
Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and other telecom operators may have to pay the government a whopping Rs 1.42 lakh crore following the Supreme Court order last week that sent shock waves through an industry already grappling with billions of dollars in debt and an intense tariff war to retain customers.
The move is likely to hit Bharti-Walmart, the 50:50 joint venture between the US' Walmart and Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Group that operates cash-and-carry outlets in India, the most.
