Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the state-owned telecom services provider, has launched India’s cheapest daily-data pack at Rs 339 per month. For the amount, users will get 2 GB of 3G data plus 25 minutes of free calls per day. The closest tariff plan to this offer is from Reliance Jio, which gives 2 GB per […]
The Idea Cellular-Vodafone merger announced today will save about Rs 14,000 cr in operating expenses per year for the combined entity after four years of merger, the two companies said. However, due to the applicability of spectrum caps on the combined entity, the deal will also cost Rs 3000 cr in present value in terms […]
Anil Ambani Group said the Competition Commission of India has cleared the merger of its telecom unit Reliance Communications with the wireless operations of Aircel Cellular, owned by Maxis Berhad of Malaysia. The clearance was expected since the two companies have very small market shares. The deal had got approval from the Securities and Exchange […]
The merger deal between Idea Cellular and Vodafone India values equity shares of the Aditya Birla Group company at about Rs 109.76 at the time of completion of the merger, 2% below its present trading value. According to the terms of the contract, when the merger of Vodafone India with Idea is completed, Idea will issue a […]
Vodafone said any of its subscribers that uses its website or app to subscribe to Amazon Prime service in India will get Rs 250 cash back in the form of payment balance in their Amazon account. Technically, operators in India are forbidden from giving cheaper data access to any particular website or app, but the […]
The government’s ‘free LPG connection’ scheme, Ujjwala, has seen 60% higher demand than expected, and the objectives of the three-year scheme will be met within two years at the current pace of rollout.As of the end of February, the total number of beneficiaries under the scheme rose to 2 cr (20 mln) from 15 mln […]
With rising passenger numbers, congestion and delays have increased at India’s major airports, going by air traffic data for the first two months of this year released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation today. According to them, the number of domestic air passengers in India jumped 21% on year, with January seeing an increase […]
Various private entites have sought the central government’s permission to open 39 Ayurveda colleges in the state of Uttar Pradesh, according to data obtained from the ministry of alternative medicine or AYUSH. Uttar Pradesh is already home to 48 out of the country’s 341 Ayurveda colleges. Ayurveda, literally the study of life, is the traditional […]
High right-of-way charges levied by local bodies for allowing Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to lay underground cables are largely responsible for the telecom company’s inability to provide land phones on demand, the government said. As of January, BSNL has 12,052 landline applications kept pending and most of this is because of poor commercial feasibility issues […]
After missing its targets by wide margins in the previous two five-year plans, India is all set to comfortably meet or exceed all its power sector targets for the 12th five-year plan that ends this month. Five-year plans, borrowed from the Soviet Union, are a legacy of Nehruvian policy of setting development targets every five […]
Airports Authority of India said it has identified eight airports where it intends to carry out commercial real estate development once the government relaxes the relevant rule. The airports are Lucknow, Kolkata, Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur, Raipur and Tirupati, it said in a statement. Separately, the Airports Authority — which owns and operates most of […]
Maharashtra, home state of Nitin Gadkari, accounted for 50% of the new highway development projects sanctioned in the ongoing financial year, data from the ministry of road transport and highways showed. A total of 520 new projects — including expansions — worth Rs 53,264 cr was sanctioned by Gadkari’s ministry in the ongoing financial year. […]
Production of electricity from solar power is all set to rise 75% this year, while that from wind is on track to rise 51%, according to the latest numbers available with the ministry of new and renewable resources, government of India. Despite this, the two will only account for less than 5% of the total […]
One of Larsen & Toubro’s units in the United Arab Emirates has won a Rs 500-cr order to supply building automation and control systems for 37 stations of the upcoming Doha Metro in Qatar, the company said. The contract involves installation, testing, integration, commissioning and 5 years of maintenance of the system. “The Frame Agreement […]
India is planning to increase its nuclear power generation capacity to 44,628 megawatt, about eight times the current capacity of 5,780 MW, the Prime Ministers’ Office said today. At present, India has seven nuclear power plants. However, given that most of these were set up decades ago, most of these facilities contain individual units of […]
The Indian government will continue its talks with Westinghouse Electric Company to set up a nuclear plant in Andhra Pradesh even as the company’s parent, Toshiba Corp, said it would consider selling the unit to Chinese or South Korean companies. “The government has taken note of media reports regarding Toshiba Corporation’s plans to withdraw from […]
Facebook has made a strategic change in the way it facilitates brands, organizations and celebrities interact with their followers on the social network. It has started de-emphasizing ‘likes’ and instead promoting ‘follows’. Unlike competing platforms like Google Plus and Twitter, Facebook has, for years, allowed users to follow a brand or celebrity or organization’s updates only […]
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the publicly owned telecom services provider, announced liberalization of its plans for postpaid customers, a month after doing so for prepaid subscribers. While it offers 1 GB data plus unlimited calling to prepaid subscribers for Rs 339, for pospaid, the cost of the unlimited calling pack has been kept higher at […]
Bank of Baroda said its board of directors had approved the raising of up to Rs 1,000 cr by selling perpetual bonds. The bonds would be sold via private placement, i.e. without a public auction or book building. The timing and other details will be determined by market conditions, the Gujarat-based bank said. Bank of […]
Faced with the prospect of lower-than-expected production of sugar in the ongoing season due to drought, the government has imposed stock curbs on dealers to prevent speculation and hoarding, the food and consumer affairs ministry said today. “With the objective of keeping the sugar prices at reasonable level and to ensure smooth supply of sugar […]
