Monday's protests in Nepal may become the forerunner to many more agitations in future since social media interests and national efforts to regulate them will often be in conflict, alerts Biswajit Dasgupta.
India has reduced the time period for foreign investors to seek international arbitration from five years to three years as part of the recently signed investment pact with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a departure from its model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). Under the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, if the Indian judicial system is unable to resolve a dispute within this shortened period, investors can resort to international arbitration. The investment pact, signed on February 13 in Abu Dhabi, came into force on August 31, replacing the previous pact.
Hutch on Thursday announced reduction in ISD and STD call rates across all plans, both postpaid and prepaid.
Spice Telecom, one of the cellular service providers in Punjab, on Friday announced a 'special ISD offer' for its subscribers in the state, reducing international calling rates from Rs 16 to Rs 3.99 per minute.
The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Friday announced up to 25 per cent reduction in ISD (international subscriber dialling) rates for calls made to destinations like the United States, the Untied Kingdom and South East Asian countries.
Bharti Airtel on Monday announced a 39 per cent reduction in International long distance tariffs (ISD) to the United States and Canada.
Touchtel, India's first private fixed line telephone service provider from Bharti Telecom Limited, on Wednesday announced the slashing of ISD and STD rates.
Initiating a fresh round of price war, Bharti, offering telecom services under the AirTel brand, on Thursday reduced long distance mobile tariffs by upto Rs 1.75 per minute for ISD and 35 paise for STD calls.
Telecom tariffs are likely to fall as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India substantially lowered access deficit charge, a levy paid by private operators to BSNL for rural operations.
Standard call rates to countries like the US, the UK and Canada has been raised.
After Airtel and Hutch, cellular operator Idea, an Aditya Birla Group Company, has lowered ISD rates by 80 paise per minute.
Close on the heels of BSNL slashing its international tariffs, state-owned MTNL on Wednesday announced a 40 per cent reduction in ISD rates to the United States and Europe for a month, as part of a festive offer.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a sub divisional engineer of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd of Roorkee, Ashok Chaudhary, and four private persons of Faridabad (Haryana) and Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh), including an NRI kingpin based in Saudi Arabia, Sayeed Zaidi, for running a racket to cheat BSNL to the tune of several crores of rupees by illegally activating unmentioned ISD facility to local landline numbers.
State-owned telecom major BSNL has awarded a major chunk of its international traffic to UK and Europe to Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti, virtually eliminating incumbent carrier VSNL.\n
Amid expectations that Thursday levy cut would greatly facilitate reduction in STD, ISD rates
It is a huge reduction for the telecom players as the existing license fee to enter the National Long Distance segment is Rs 100 crore and for International Long Distance is Rs 25 crore.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Thursday announced a 25 per cent cut in ISD rates for calls to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South East Asian countries, Gulf, Africa and SAARC nations.
The new telecom policy draft has paved the way for stoking competition and allowing customers to select their long distance operators by calling for introduction of carrier access code immediately.
The tariff war has now spread to all possible sections, with Anil Ambani group company Reliance Infocom on Wednesday announcing a 36 per cent reduction in ISD rates to all Gulf countries at Rs 6.99 a minute.
The commission sent back the proposal of unrestricted internet telephony, seeking more clarity on how it would function, highly placed source said.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will reduce ISD (international subscriber dialling) tariffs for Sri Lanka by 40 per cent and to Middle East countries by 20 per cent from October 1.
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Wednesday indicated a reduction of upto 15 per cent in international long distance call rates especially for the US and UK.
The new card is priced at Rs 1,000.
A 16-year-old Singaporean boy, a Protestant Christian of Indian ethnicity, was detained last month under the Internal Security Act (ISA) after planning to use a machete to attack Muslims at two mosques in March, on the anniversary of New Zealand's Christchurch attacks.
An Indian-American boy was held in a chokehold and allegedly bullied by a white student in a school in the US state of Texas, according to a media report.
CDMA mobile operator Reliance Communication on Wednesday reduced international calling rates upto 66 per cent for consumers using global calling cards of different denominations.
The government on Friday suspended the international long distance licence of Data Access for non-payment of over Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) due to department of telecom and other operators like BSNL and MTNL.
TouchTel, the private fixed line telecom service provider in Delhi and Haryana announced up to 70 per cent reduction in international long distance tariffs for calls to the UK, US and Europe.
In a move that could bring down national and international telecom tariffs even further, telecom regulator TRAI on Monday sought views from industry and experts to liberalise Internet telephony segment.
The rift between state-owned telecom services provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and the telecom watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India over reducing access deficit charge is likely to benefit consumers.
Encouraged by the licence fee cut in the long distance segment, Idea Cellular on Friday said it was looking at the possibility of entering that market but only if it made business sense.
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Monday slashed international long distance tariffs by up to 70 per cent on account of the festive season, beginning October 21 mid-night to November 21.
State-run telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Tuesday said it has started negotiations with Tatas-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd to work out a framework for deriving synergies on its proposed international long distance services.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited broadband users would now be able to make international long distance calls for as low as Re 1 per minute with the launch of a new internet telephony service by the operator in partnership with Aksh Optifibre.
Telecom firms earning foreign exchange on incoming overseas calls, Internet services and rentals from cable networks are not entitled to duty sops under an export promotion scheme, says the government.
Taking the challenge from limited mobility services head-on, Bharti Group on Friday slashed cellular tariffs with outgoing calls costing maximum Rs 1.99 per minute and announced 20 per cent discount on international long distance calls.\n\n\n\n
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