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.
The airline, however, has not secured approval from airports to fly again.
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.
The telcos have been offering 3G services through roaming agreements among themselves.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Senvion SE will give Suzlon licence for off-shore technology for the Indian market.
Pakistan's defence ministry on Wednesday filed a complaint before the media regulatory authority accusing the Geo News channel of indulging in anti-national activities by smearing the image of intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence.
In a jolt to Internet service providers, telecom tribunal TDSAT on Tuesday upheld the government decision that virtual private network offered by them was not part of their ISP licence
The regulator has also agreed to the one-nation, one-licence proposal, which will make roaming free across the country. But it wants to decide the modalities of the issue.
The private cellular operators have asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to consider fixing the annual licence fee at 6 per cent across all segments, as part of full unification of telecom services.
Lifting restrictions on airing news and current affairs and permitting licensees to own multiple licences are among a host of issues Trai has put up in its first consultation paper on FM radio privatisation on Wednesday.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Wednesday pitched for using the USO Fund to subsidise smartphones for select groups to help penetrate the digital revolution and said India should make the rollout of 5G or the fifth-generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks a national priority. As much as 5 per cent of the licence fee paid by telecom operators goes to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund, which was set up in April 2002 for achieving universal service objectives by providing access to telephone services in rural and remote areas and creation of infrastructure for mobile services and broadband in these areas. However, according to the CAG, less than half of the funds so collected are transferred for the said purpose.
The Delhi circle licence will be available in the efficient 900 MHz spectrum, which is why Videocon is interested.
The recommendations on the subject will be sent in due course to the government, according to an internal communication of DoT
On production capacity of Covishield, the vaccine being manufactured and supplied by Serum in India under a licensing agreement with Oxford and AstraZeneca, he said the present capacity is 130 million doses per month and always try to increase it further.
Cellular industry's hopes for a compensation in lieu of unified licence may be dashed with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India finding no merit in it since the cellular operators have already been given sops over Rs 30,000 crore.
Chinese tech unicorn ByteDance co-founder billionaire Zhang Yiming on Thursday announced that he will step down as CEO, in a surprise move that signalled a major leadership shake-up at the nine year-old technology firm which created popular global short-video app TikTok. Zhang, 38, who is one of China's wealthiest entrepreneurs, said he is ready to step down after nearly a decade of running the world's largest unicorn, becoming the latest among the country's technology founders to quit in their prime. Zhang will step down from his role as CEO of the Beijing-based ByteDance, giving up his day-to-day responsibilities to "be more impactful on longer-term initiatives," the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted the company announcement on Thursday.
The absence of a transparent telecom regulatory environment not only makes life difficult for service providers, but also impacts investors' confidence in the sector, a senior Bharti Airtel official said.
Its order also includes a direction for the channel to broadcast a statement of Ofcom's findings on a date and in a form to be determined by the watchdog and also for KTV not to repeat the music video or the discussion programme found in breach of its rules.
Telecom operators can look forward to offering all telecom and broadcasting services, including cable TV, DTH, STD, ISD and radio, through a single licence by paying a one-time fee of Rs 107 crore (Rs 1.07 billion).
The basic telecom operators accused Trai of not following the process of transparent consultation on matters as significant as amending the licence terms of one set of operators, and urged the government not to implement Trai's recommendations.
Virtual currencies don't have any intrinsic value and are not backed by any kind of assets.
Reliance Industries on Friday said that their offer of roaming facility across 673 cities on WLL phones was "well within the licence conditions" and the company has communicated this to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Monday proposed a high reserve price for telecom spectrum to be auctioned, at nearly Rs 3,622 crore (Rs 36.22 billion) per MHz in the 1,800-MHz band (for GSM services).
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The inter-ministerial body will take the final decision on October 29 taking into account Trai's reply.
The sale will be quicker if an Indian private bank buys it; it will take longer for regulatory clearances if a foreign bank or an NBFC buys it, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Telecom regulator Trai on Monday recommended about 39 per cent reduction in the reserve or floor price for the sale of spectrum for mobile services, including the latest 5G offering, as it looked to match revenue expectations with the industry's paying capacity. With large swathes of spectrum remaining unsold in the last two auctions, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommended to the government for selling airwaves in all existing bands of 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz and new slots of 600 MHz, 3300-3670 MHz and 24.25-28.5 GHz. It has suggested a lower reserve price for all bands, compared to the prices proposed in the previous recommendations in 2018.
