Regulator wants the power to fine errant telecom companies.
Chinese telcos hold 60-100 MHz of spectrum, while Indian companies hold 13-15 MHz of spectrum.
Asked about the report, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, "The political judgements of Freedom House are as inaccurate and distorted as their maps."
The government on Wednesday said it has cleared Norwegian telecom firm Telenor's proposal to invest Rs 1,000 crore in a joint venture company in the telecom sector.
Launching the scheme, Modi said during the nationwide lockdown, the talent from cities returned to villages and it will now give a boost to development of rural areas. The 'Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan' will be implemented on a mission mode in 125 days in 116 districts of six states -- Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha -- that received the maximum numbers of migrant workers back.
After engaging in a war of words with industrialist Ratan Tata, Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar has now given a 7-point agenda to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal suggesting that the ministry be made "free of lobbyists and wheeler-dealers" to clean up the sector.
The investigating agency wants to ascertain the actual purpose of the deal.
The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch has pointed out that these firms pose a threat to domestic manufacturing and retailing as they do not pay relevant taxes such as GST, giving them a huge edge over local players.
Karunanidhi was convinced that using the 2G cases against the DMK and reopening the fodder case against Lalu Prasad Yadav were products of the Congress leadership's short-sightedness. A revealing excerpt from A S Panneerselvan's Karunanidhi: A Life.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade said in a directive that telecom operators will have to refund the duty sops availed under the commerce ministry's export promotion scheme for services -- Served From India Scheme.
Small cells improve coverage in areas where traffic is high.
Out of the total of 25,359 complaints received during 2010, the highest of 8,330 were against Railways, 6,520 against banks, 1,836 against petroleum department and 1,572 were against telecom officials.
The government is looking for a speedy roll out of Wi-Fi services at select public places in top 25 cities with population of over 10 lakh by June 2015.
The government on Wednesday said the guidelines for the Gen Next mobile services (3G) that includes video calls will be issued soon addressing all security concerns raised by the home ministry.
Not just in the fight against COVID-19, but also in politics, economics and society, observes Ajit Balakrishnan.
Representatives of the British telecom company on Friday met senior finance ministry officials, in search of an amicable solution.
Dismantling a legacy of United Progressive Alliance rule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has abolished all the 30 GoMs and EGoMs and told ministries and departments to take decisions on pending matters.
Terming the charges with regard to allocation of spectrum in 2008 against him as baseless, Telecom Minister A Raja on Monday said the allegations in no way have affected the day-to-day work.
On the Sensex chart, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank were among the prominent gainers.
The admission comes as it seeks to ensure approval of the deal by Indian regulators under restrictive foreign investment laws.
The exponential number of downloads can be attributed to a call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking people to have the app on their mobiles, combined with the government's push for downloading of the app through other channels, reports Neha Alawadhi.
The government announced a Rs 1000-crore (Rs 10-billion) project to convert wireless operations of defence services on Optical Fibre Cable, a move that is estimated to release 45 MHz of spectrum.
The ones who came more recently were clutching the green cards that gave them an escape hatch through which to return to green pastures: Arvind Panagariya, Raghuram Rajan, Arvind Subramanian and other perfectly honourable gentlemen like them, points out T N Ninan.
In the first secretary-level appointments by the Narendra Modi government, Rakesh Garg was on Sunday named the new telecom secretary while Jugal Kishore Mohapatra is to be secretary in the fertilizers ministry.
Sun TV had approached the Home Ministry for security clearance.
The government has projected to garner up to Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion) from sale of radiowaves, mainly 3G spectrum, to telecom operators in the current financial year.
A total of 16 secretaries have been appointed to various central government departments.
Earlier in the day, Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, who was heading the high-level committee to monitor vacation of spectrum by the defence forces, said revenues would get preference to timing for 3G auction.
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The ministry's move to intervene in the matter comes 20 days before implementation, after broadcasters complained they would suffer huge loss because digitisation was still in the first phase across the country.
Notwithstanding the Supreme Court's deferment of the Ayodhya verdict, the Centre has extends ban on bulk SMS-es till September 29 on all telecom networks.
The move gains importance after two new telecom players -- Swan and Unitech -- sold stakes to foreign companies at high premiums after the allocation of spectrum. The Left parties had also accused Telecom Minister A Raja of underselling spectrum that cost the national exchequer around Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion).
The parties have jointly applied to the Delhi high court, requesting that it accept their agreed terms of settlement, subject to such further orders as the court sees fit, it said.
Delhi Police have arrested a 1994-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, posted in the internal security division of the home ministry. Ravi Inder Singh, a deputy secretary of the West Bengal cadre, was under surveillance for over a month by the intelligence agencies.
Indian telecom sector has registered a phenomenal growth and has become second largest telephone network in the world after China.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A G Ganguly asked the CBI to apprise it of their findings on March 15.
The biggest gainers in the Sensex pack in Friday's session were Yes Bank, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, Vedanta, SBI and Axis Bank, spurting up to 3.05 per cent. The losers included HCL Tech, TCS, Infosys, Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank and Sun Pharma, falling up to 1.55 per cent.
The defence ministry has decided to release only that 3G spectrum that is to be auctioned and that too in phases. In fact, the armed forces have not released spectrum already in use as envisaged in their agreement with department of telecommunication.
Tech Mahindra was the top loser in the Sensex pack, crashing over 9 per cent, followed by Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, TCS, Infosys and HUL. On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance and Titan were the gainers.
Unlike the race to buy airwaves by telecom companies, airports by infrastructure companies and city gas networks by energy companies, the race to develop super apps by consumer-facing companies in India has not brushed up against any regulatory issues. Officials at the ministry of electronics and information technology and at other regulators are happy they do not have to meddle in who among the Tata group, Reliance Industries Ltd, Flipkart or Paytm will manage to build an app that sweeps in customers. Unlike separate apps a customer uses on her mobile to order groceries, buy food or airline tickets or just make payments, a super app can perform all these functions.
A consummate deal-maker, the former Aircel boss raked in the moolah in many, but lost a packet in several others.
