Currently, ISPs pay only Re 1 as annual licence fee while Internet telecom service providers, or telecom operators providing Internet services, pay 6 per cent of their annual gross revenue as licence fee.
Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea said the Railways should not be permitted to offer commercial services like Wi-fi and voice and video communication.
Despite strong AUM growth, MFs lag behind other popular investment avenues. MFs received only 6 per cent of total household savings in 2021-2022.
The department for promotion of industry and internal trade has rejected Walmart-backed Flipkart's proposal seeking approval for entry to the food retail sector, citing a regulatory issue, an official said on Monday. The government permits 100 per cent foreign direct investment in food retail for food produced and manufactured in India.
Pakistan's electronic media regulator has suspended the licence of US-based Nickelodeon channel for airing cartoons dubbed in Hindi, days after it decided to enforce a complete ban on Indian TV and radio contents amid Indo-Pak tensions.
Vodafone had contended in its plea that DoT instead of signing and executing the ULs had at the last moment informed them that their request for deletion of 'restrictive' clauses in licence pertaining to roaming cannot be accepted.
The department of telecommunication has decided that the existing variable licence fee structure for telecom operators should be replaced with a uniform one. An departmental note suggests a uniform licence fee of 8.5 per cent for all types of services.
Trai has asked the department of telecommunication to 'keep in abeyance' the grant of new 2G (mobile) licences till the watchdog finalises its recommendations.
The announcement comes a day after the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 of the CDSCO recommended granting emergency use authorisation (EUA) to the COVID-19 vaccines Covovax and Corbevax with certain conditions.
As the Centre pushes reforms in the power sector, especially for the beleaguered electricity distribution segment, several states, especially those ruled by Opposition parties, are clamouring against it. Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerela have voiced their reservations against the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003. The irony is the states opposing the amendments on the ground of threat of privatisation already have private partnerships in power supply. The proposed Bill was slated to be placed on the floor of Parliament in the Monsoon session. But it still awaits Cabinet approval amid several states complaining that they have been not consulted on the issue.
WHO says the regulatory procedures in place for the licencing of pandemic vaccines, including procedures for expediting regulatory approval, are rigorous and do not compromise safety or quality.
India's telecom sector has been through dizzying peaks, troughs, policy U-turns, court battles, brutal competition, and daily controversies. India could go back to a private sector duopoly with just Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel surviving the mayhem. The third player, Vodafone Idea, could be history.
In a major relief to stressed assets, the Cabinet approved the proposed IBC amendment that the licences, permits, concessions, and clearances for a corporate debtor cannot be terminated or suspended or not renewed during the moratorium period. The Cabinet also allowed amending the code to streamline the corporate insolvency resolution process and protect last-mile funding to boost investment in financially distressed sectors.
'There have been many cases where clients have indicated that they feel suicidal as they feel they have no other options to deal with their financial hardship.'
The regulatory system in India has become a farce, and needs to be either scrapped, or thoroughly revamped. The way the law has been formulated, Trai is a toothless tiger -- it works well if the ministry chooses to be gentlemanly and takes the recommendations seriously; if the ministry chooses to assert its authority, there's little Trai can do, says Sunil Jain.
In stark contrast with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommendation that only Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) licence-holders should participate in 3G auctions, Communications Minister A Raja today suggested that foreign telecom companies, too, would be permitted to bid for 3G spectrum.
A paper authored by Rajan said, state-linked banks can be a first step in altering the ownership structure of some PSBs, where the government brings down its stakes to below 50 per cent, creating distance from operations of banks, and improving governance along the way.
Companies like Shanta Biotech, Panacea Biotec and Serum Institute of India are among the leading vaccine makers which have not been able to file any fresh application to the WHO due to this temporary de-recognition of the country's drug regulatory system. The WHO pre-qualification is essential for companies to supply vaccines to national immunisation programmes funded by the WHO or UNICEF outside the country.
The development comes a day after RCom posted a consolidated loss of Rs 30,142 crore for July-September 2019 due to provisioning for liabilities after the Supreme Court ruling on statutory dues.
Affordable pricing, a variety of themes, and the ease of transacting are among key reasons that have made smallcases a hit among young investors.
For years it has been evident that fibre and DTH would give tough competition to cable in India where regulatory overload has mutilated an already warped industry structure. OTT added fuel to the fire. From Rs 27,000 crore in 2010, cable's share of subscription revenues is now estimated at Rs 13,000 crore.
Tata Sons will increase its stake in budget carrier AirAsia India (AAI) to 83.67 per cent by acquiring an additional 32.67 per cent for $37.66 million from AirAsia Investment Ltd (AAIL), according to a regulatory filing. Currently, AAIL, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia-based AirAsia, holds 49 per cent stake in the Bengaluru-based AirAsia India. In a regulatory filing to stock exchange Bursa Malaysia, AirAsia said, "The board of directors of AirAsia wishes to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary AAIL and Tata Sons Pvt Ltd, India, on December 29, entered into a share purchase agreement."
DoT, has decided that it will not cancel the GSM licences of dual-technology companies.
There will be different ways of returning the money, depending on the profile of the depositors and the amount, predicts Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Seventeen firms had originally applied for the licence but the figure has since come down to 12, with several big players in the mix.
An expert panel of India's Central Drug Authority on Tuesday recommended granting permission to Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting phase 2/3 trials of Covid vaccine Covovax on children aged 2 to 17 years with certain conditions, official sources said.
Over the last four days, the Indian arm of US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Pune-based Serum Institute of India and Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech have applied to the Drugs Controller General of India seeking emergency use authorisation for their COVID-19 vaccines.
In financial year 2006-07, the exchequer earned Rs 2,090 crore (Rs 20.90 billion) as spectrum charges and Rs 6,360 crore (Rs 63.60 billion) as licence fees.
The airline, however, has not secured approval from airports to fly again.
Once the UK drug regulator gives its approval to the Oxford vaccine, the expert committee on COVID-19 at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) will hold its meeting and thoroughly review the safety and immunogenicity data from the clinical evaluations conducted abroad and in India before granting any emergency authorisation for the vaccine here, official sources said.
Since 2014, the public sector banks' branch network in rural and semi urban has grown by a mere 4,000 while for private sector banks, it doubled from 9,673 to 18,437.
The telcos have been offering 3G services through roaming agreements among themselves.
Bharti Global is planning to put up more satellites and has set a stiff deadline to launch commercial Internet services by October in the UK, Alaska, northern Russia and northern Europe.
Kingfisher, which lost its operating licence at the end of 2012 and has not flown since the start of October, is estimated to owe $2.5 billion in debt to banks, staff, vendors and others and is scrabbling to find new investors.
Though it's debatable whether power to supersede bank boards can adequately safeguard against the problems created by banks promoted by those with interests in other industries, the finance ministry has at least shed its reluctance to bulldoze the Reserve Bank of India.
Although the industry is disappointed with the government decision not to lower spectrum prices at a time telcos are saddled with over Rs 4-trillion debt and an estimated Rs 1.43-trillion licence fee dues, the DCC has relaxed the payment structure to offer some relief to the financially stressed sector.
DoT decides not to scrap dual-technology telecom licences
