Stepping up defence cooperation, India and the US are poised to unveil a roadmap for industries in the sector to partner closely in co-production, co-development and maintaining supply change during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US beginning June 21.
Telecom operators are not opposed to over-the-top service providers like Skype, Viber, WhatsApp but looking to work in synergy with them, Bharti Enterprises Vice Chairman Akhil Gupta said on Wednesday.
India's second-largest telecom firm Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported a net profit of Rs 1,134 crore for the September 2021 quarter, and said it is witnessing strong business momentum with growth in 4G customers and increase in mobile ARPU. This is against a loss (attributable to owners of the parent) of 763.2 crore during the year-ago quarter, the company said in a statement. Its consolidated revenues for the second quarter of FY21 stood at Rs 28,326.4 crore, up 18.8 per cent year-on-year (on a comparable basis) and 13 per cent y-o-y on a reported basis, it added.
The revenue of telecom services, including that of cellular, fixed line, national long distance, international long distance, broadband, radio trunking and VSAT services, has risen to Rs 1,30,561 crore, registering a growth of 21.3 per cent, a survey by Voice&Data revealed. Among the services, cellular segment contributed a major chunk of around 59 per cent to the total revenue.
As per the service licence, three types of charges, including Per Port Transaction charge, which means the charge payable by the Recipient Operator (the operator, where the subscriber is willing to port his number) to the MNP service provider for processing the request, are applicable in case of MNP. The second charge is porting charge -- the charge payable by the subscriber for porting his number -- and the third is dipping charge.
Telecom Secretary J S Deepak has resolved the toughest issues facing the sector, but his real test will be in delivering on the govt's Digital India dream
Over the past 18 months, the number of caller tune subscribers, each paying Rs 30 a month for the service, has fallen from 100 million to 55 million.
Divestment Secretary Pradip Baijal is all set to become chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India after his superannuation this month-end with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is likely to clear his name soon.\n\n
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd climbed eight spots to the 45th rank, the highest for an Indian company on Forbes' latest Global 2000 list of public companies worldwide.
IndusInd Bank was the biggest loser in the Sensex pack, shedding nearly 2 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, SBI, HUL, Tata Motors, Nestle India and Axis Bank. On the other hand, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, Titan and L&T were among the gainers, rising up to 3.03 per cent.
Strong macroeconomic headwinds causing turbulence in the $245-billion Indian IT industry are yet to calm down. Top Indian IT services companies are likely to post a decline or just marginal growth in sequential revenue in Q1FY24 because of a soft discretionary spending environment. Though the first quarter is seasonally strong for IT firms, "June 2023 will be an exception", according to analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities.
Reliance Jio Infocomm is the only company which had in 2010 won a pan-India spectrum for 4G services but is yet to start commercial services.
Sector-wise, the study revealed that the core industries have witnessed virtually negative growth in headcount, with crude oil just about maintaining the employment level.
Benchmark indices fell on Monday with the BSE Sensex declining 306 points, mainly dragged down by Reliance Industries. Foreign funds outflow also added to the overall bearish trend in equities on Monday. The 30-share BSE benchmark fell 306.01 points or 0.55 per cent to settle at 55,766.22. During the day, it declined 535.15 points or 0.95 per cent to 55,537.08. The broader NSE Nifty dipped 88.45 points or 0.53 per cent to 16,631.
VIL, in which Vodafone holds 45.39 per cent stake, is staring at unpaid statutory dues of Rs 53,038 crore, including Rs 24,729 crore of spectrum dues and Rs 28,309 crore in licence fee, and has already warned of shutdown if no relief is given.
While Jio MF will undoubtedly grow in size, it will have to cross multiple hurdles even to emerge as the market leader, observes Debashis Basu.
At the 45th Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries (RIL) in August, chairman and managing director (CMD) Mukesh Ambani described the company as an "unputdownable book" with never-ending chapters of success. "Reliance grew from strength to strength because we internalised the founder's mindset of purpose, philosophy and passion," he said. Wednesday marked the 90th birth anniversary of RIL founder Dhirubhai Ambani.
The auction of 5G spectrum for telephony services will stretch to the fourth day on Friday after 16 rounds of bidding fetched bids worth Rs 149,623 crore. Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday said 16 rounds of bidding have been completed in three days and the auction will continue on Friday.
BSNL offers 2GB data per day, unlimited calling for Rs 339
Sensex ended above 26,000 led by telecom shares amid TRAI's spectrum sharing norms.
'We suggest an equity strategy of 5% to 10% exposure to cash, 5% to Gold ETF, close to 50% to Sensex/Nifty/large mid-cap stocks.'
With the profitability of telecom operators declining due to "low tariffs and high costs", GSM industry body COAI Chairman Himanshu Kampania has said the mobile sector cannot sustain future investments with present low margins.
Among the Sensex firms, Asian Paints, NTPC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, ITC, HDFC Bank and Maruti were the biggest winners. Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Nestle, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries and HDFC were among the laggards.
Government on Tuesday rejected two most repeated demands of the private telecom industry by saying no to opening the last mile access of Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam
Gross refining margins may decline sequentially but improving petro-chem margins will boost earnings
Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his Budget announcements proposed a hike in sectoral caps in telecommunications from the existing 49 per cent to 74 per cent. Take the Rediff Business Quiz and find out how much you know about the telecom industry.
In the biggest synergy in the Indian telecom industry, leading cellular service providers BPL Mobile, Escotel, RPG Cellular and Spice Telecom, have forged what they have named the 'MobileFirst' Alliance to provide enhanced value to their customers.
"African information and communication technologies industry is an exciting place to be. Market liberalization continues and most countries have established regulatory bodies to ensure a fair, competitive and enabling environment, Hamadoun Tour, secretary-general of the ITU said on Monday. The secretary-general was speaking at the opening of a major trade fair "ITU Telecom Africa" in Cairo inaugurated by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,183.15 million at the end of May to 1,186.63 million at the end of June.
Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty closed higher on Friday after two days of fall, helped by buying in metal, telecom and auto stocks amid a firm trend in global markets. Automakers led by Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra reporting robust wholesales of passenger vehicles and GST collections crossing Rs 1.50 lakh crore for the third straight month in May also added to the optimism. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 118.57 points or 0.19 per cent to settle at 62,547.11.
The long-awaited 5G spectrum auction is expected to be held in May this year if the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) submits by March its recommendations on the rules regarding the sale process, according to a senior official of the telecom department. Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw earlier this month said the Trai has informed that it will submit its recommendations for the 5G auction by March and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is simultaneously firming up other processes to hold the auction at the earliest. "Trai has indicated that they will send it (recommendations) by March. "Thereafter, it will take us a month to make a decision around it," telecom secretary K Rajaraman told PTI.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Monday laid bare the succession plan at India's most valuable company, identifying twins children Akash and Isha for telecom and retail leadership, and youngest son Anant for new energy unit. He, however, insisted he isn't retiring yet and will "continue to provide hands-on leadership as before". At the annual shareholders' meeting of Reliance Industries Ltd, he said the robust architecture that he has announced will ensure the firm remains "a unit, well-integrated and secure institution even as it develops existing businesses and adds new growth engines."
'The number of first-time investors into MFs can grow four times more than the current rate if we are able to accept the bank KYCs.'
No licensing system should come in the way of the country's progress: Shourie
Strategic deals like the one involving the HDFC twins accounted for a bulk $126 billion of the overall quantum, while transactions involving private equity funds stood at $37 billion, the report by Deloitte, a consultancy firm, said. Despite global headwinds like rising interest rates and elevated inflation levels leading to increased margin pressures for companies, the firm expects the overall activity to remain "strong" in the ongoing 2023.
Investors seem to be shying away from stocks of companies in the 'digital' space with most counters that comprise the Nifty India Digital index giving negative returns over the past year. The index tracks the performance of a portfolio of stocks that broadly represent the 'digital theme' within basic industries, such as software, e-commerce, IT-enabled services, industrial electronics, and telecom services. The fall in some of these stocks over the past year has been steep; the sharpest decline of around 60 per cent was seen in shares of PB Fintech (parent company of Policybazaar).