The government on Wednesday cleared a fresh Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) financial package for the crisis-ridden paging industry, amid the ongoing general elections, after getting clearance from the Election Commission.
Patni Computer Systems Ltd said on Friday its wholly owned subsidiary Patni Computer Systems Inc has signed a multi-service contract with US-based Disney Mobile.
The iPhone was not the first touch-driven handset when it launched last year, or even the fastest for internet browsing over standard cellular networks but the impact of Apple's consumer smartphone on the world's handset business still reverberates through the telecom industry.
Software industry body Nasscom expects the country's information technology (IT) services sector to grow 13-14 per cent in the current financial year and to touch $225 billion (Rs 13.22 lakh crore) by 2020.
'I was in the US, where I met top executives of HP and Dell, and they are very keen to come to India.' 'Acer and ASUS have also evinced interest.'
Investors became poorer by Rs 1.36 lakh crore on Friday as the markets witnessed a sell-off amid weak global trends. Benchmark stock indices Sensex tanked 671.15 points or 1.12 per cent to close at 59,135.13, as 21 of its scrips declined. The sharp decline in equities eroded Rs 1,36,037.96 crore from the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms and that now stands at Rs 2,62,94,723.65 crore.
Investors have gained Rs 335,770.71 crore in two days of market rally, with the Sensex scaling its fresh lifetime peak on Wednesday. Rising for the second day, the 30-share BSE benchmark jumped 476.11 points or 0.82 per cent to close at its new all-time high of 58,723.20. During the day, it gained 529.97 points to 58,777.06, its intra-day record.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Friday said it has paid Rs 15,519 crore to the government towards prepayment of its entire deferred liability pertaining to spectrum acquired in the 2014 auction. The company had acquired 128.4 MHz spectrum (including Telenor spectrum) for a consideration of Rs 19,051 crore in the 2014 auction, Airtel said in a statement. The company estimates that the prepayment to Department of Telecom (DoT) will likely result in interest cost savings of at least Rs 3,400 crore over the residual life for fully substituted capital.
Poor broadband penetration, high priced set-top boxes and last-mile (to the home) connectivity problems are delaying the telecom industry's much-touted plan of rolling out Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services.
Reliance Industries (RIL) has been distilling its investment strategy to meet new goals. The share of the new energy vertical - its key focus area - accounts for more than a fourth (26 per cent) of the total war chest of $6.4 billion, ploughed into acquisitions and picking up stake from 2018 to date, reveals the latest Morgan Stanley data. Nearly half the incremental investments made on deals by RIL between August 2020 and September this year ($3.3 billion) has been spent on new energy - acquiring global companies with technology and expertise.
Terming the ongoing telecom controversy as "hiccups of the learning curve", Planning Commission member N K Singh on Monday said it is for the regulator or the appellate bodies to see that the consumers are not affected.\n\n\n\n
The early bird results for the January-March quarter of 2022-23 (Q4FY23) show a pick-up in earnings growth, despite a slowdown in revenue growth, thanks to a decline in input costs and lower provisioning for bad loans by banks. The combined net profit of 66 companies that have, so far, declared their quarterly results was up 15.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in Q4FY23, an improvement from 4.3 per cent YoY growth in Q3. Net sales growth of these companies, however, slowed down to 11.5 per cent YoY in January-March 2023, the slowest rate in eight quarters.
Reliance Industries (RIL's) annual report released on Sunday highlighted the company's focus on new energy solutions, with chairman and managing director (MD) Mukesh Ambani stating that the age of fossil fuels will not continue much longer. RIL has sought shareholders' approval to give Ambani another five-year term as MD till 2029 at nil salary. The recently demerged Jio Financial Services, which "will leverage the prowess of digital and retail businesses", was expected to be listed soon.
A year after Bharti Airtel launched 4G services, there are only 6.5 mn users in the country
After creating a 'level-playing field' for Chinese telecom companies doing business in India, New Delhi has asked Beijing to reciprocate by creating opportunities for its IT and pharma industry.
India's second largest IT services company Infosys on Thursday reported a 3.1 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit to Rs 6,215 crore for the September 2023 quarter. The earnings (before minority interest) of the Bengaluru-based company stood at Rs 6,026 crore in the year-ago period. The company - which competes in the IT services market with TCS, Wipro, HCL Technologies and others - saw its revenue rising 6.7 per cent to Rs 38,994 crore for the just-ended September quarter.
Domestic markets conduct a special one-hour Muhurat trading session on Diwali every year to mark the beginning of the traditional Hindu calendar year, called 'Vikram Samvat'.
The basic and cellular industry seems to have agreed to workout a long-term solution to resolve the controversial Wireless in Local Loop issue, and the Group constituted by Communications and IT Minister Arun Shourie
Apple's decision to launch the eSIM-only iPhone 14 series in the US has American buyers puzzled. Surprisingly, it stumped some Indian folks, too, despite the availability of a physical SIM slot in the India-centric iPhone 14 series. This is because a large number of Apple consumers in India get their iPhones at considerably cheaper rates from the US through visiting relatives, friends, family, et al. Their apprehensions are mostly about compatibility with Indian networks and eSIM availability in India.
Paving the way for consolidation in the telecom industry through mergers, de-mergers and acquisitions, the government has amended cellular and basic service licences clause.
The prime minister, who is visiting the US at the invitation of President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, will join them for the state banquet along with a number of dignitaries on Thursday.
The 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will see Disney-Star and Viacom18 competing to sell their ad space with an eye on the estimated Rs 4,000-crore advertising money.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will foot the entire bill of a Rs 1,000-crore (Rs 10-billion) project to release 45 Mhz of spectrum from defence to civilian use, after providing the armed forces alternative equipment for their communication needs.
Telecom industry expert Sam Pitroda met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday and discussed a number of issues, including e-governance, education and science and technology.
The long-overdue consolidation makes indebted RCom an even more attractive partner for a soon-to-launch upstart led by older brother Mukesh.
5G ambulances will not just allow remote consultation, but would also be able to transit data and video to hospitals in real time, saving precious time for critical patients. 5G technology would also support the development of new educational applications, improve agriculture productivity, and aid search and rescue missions with high resolution cameras in disaster recovery zones.
Mamata Banerjee said availability of land won't be a problem in Bengal as the state government has a land bank.
RIL is setting up infrastructure for a full-fledged horizontal e-commerce offering - internally called the New Commerce - to simultaneously launch pan-India by October-November.
Sources say companies will have to keep the market share of merged entities below 50% in all circles
This State-corporate 'cooperation' didn't begin with the arrival of the Modi government.
Many of the big licences, contracts, and even environmental clearances for the Adani group had come in the UPA's time, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'Especially if their investment horizon is over two years.'
Trai's move is seen as a relief for the debt ridden sector and the industry body COAI expects that continuing with six paise mobile call termination charge will not have any impact on consumers as operators have already absorbed this charge in their recently increased mobile call and data rates.
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow to India declined to $74.01 billion in the calendar year 2021, which is 15 per cent lower from $87.55 billion recorded in the previous year, the ministry of commerce & industry said on Wednesday. The FDI inflow includes equity inflow, equity capital of unincorporated bodies, re-invested earnings and other capital. "FDI is largely a matter of commercial business decisions and FDI inflow depends on a host of factors such as availability of natural resource, market size, infrastructure, political and general investment climate as well as macro-economic stability and investment decision of foreign investors.
High spectrum charges would lead to rise in mobile services rates and adversely impact government's Digital India initiative by impeding telecom network expansion.
The government said on Wednesday that it will come out with a 'technology-neutral' spectrum policy in tune with global practices while looking forward to introducing the next generation 3G mobile services in the country.
The auction for the 5G spectrum is likely to take place around April-May next year, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday. While relief measures announced in September this year for telecom operators marked the first set of reforms, the government will bring out a series of further reforms and "telecom regulatory structure should change in coming 2-3 years", Vaishnaw said. Speaking at the 'Times Now Summit 2021', the minister said India's telecom sector regulation has to be benchmarked with the global best, and added that "so, we will come with a series of reforms in this, such that the global benchmark of regulations is achieved in India".
It was Arun Sarin's first and only press conference in India on October 28, 2005. Vodafone had just bought a 10 per cent stake in Bharti.