The central Indian state of Chhattisgarh has come out as a leader in India’s quest to take electricity to remote villages where grid-based power cannot be supplied due to economical reasons. The state accounts for 550 of the 852 ‘decentralized distributed generation’ schemes set up with central assistance so far, according to data sourced from […]
Patanjali Ayurved, the consumer products company headed by yoga exponent Baba Ramdev, has scaled up its agreement with Ruchi Soya, which has been facing financial stress due to high debt levels. Ruchi Soya said the two companies have agreed to expand their initial agreement — signed last month — to two Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat […]
ABB, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of large electrical equipment, said it crossed the 4.5 GW milestone in terms of sales of wind power generators in India, and that the country is likely to add 4 GW of capacity this year. India has a target of having 60 Gigawatt of wind-power capacity and 220 […]
A large chunk of under-development coal-based power units have their construction stalled due to the paucity of funds, according to numbers obtained from the power ministry. In total, projects that have a design capacity of 18,420 megawatt, or 18.42 gigawatt, are classified as ‘stalled’ due to financial reasons, the ministry said. This is equivalent to […]
Private equity and venture capital firms are largely bullish on India in the context of big economic reforms, but are awaiting the results of the ongoing Uttar Pradesh elections to assess the level of popular support that such policies enjoy, according to a survey by VCCircle. VCCircle, which tracks private investment activity in India, said […]
Reliance Jio’s much anticipated ‘Prime Recharge’ has created consternation on day 1 as the company faced an unexpected rush of users eager to seize the offer. Many users are facing problems activating the offer and have taken to social media with their complaints. The offer, which needs to be availed before the end of this month, […]
About a week ago, India witnessed an event that environmentalists in India, and perhaps many across the world, have been waiting for — the achievement of grid parity between solar and coal in India. India depends on coal for meeting about 75% of its power needs. The country accounts for about 7% of the world’s […]
After having met its solar power installation target for last financial year with relative ease, India could end up missing its target for the year ending March 2017. India had around 6 GW of installed solar power generation capacity at the end of March 2016, and by this year, it was supposed to rise to […]
As expected, Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom operator led by Mukesh Ambani, has totally overhauled its 4G tariffs ahead of ‘going commercial’. The firm had unveiled one set of tariffs in September, and said that these would apply when it started charging for its services several months later. However, many had said that the tariffs […]
Den Networks, one of India’s top three cable companies, is planning to introduce4K services and ‘open’ set-top-boxes with gaming support this year, CEO S N Sharma said. “We definitely are aware that 4K is also around the corner and the box development is already in progress may be in next three to four months’ time,” […]
Bharti Airtel has abolished roaming charges for its subscribers within India, after new rival Reliance Jio adopted a similar policy. The move will come into effect on April 1, the date on which Jio will start its services on a commercial basis. With this, incoming calls will be free and outgoing calls and SMS will […]
Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom operator by revenue, has increased the data allocation on its unlimited plan to 0.5 GB per day from 4 GB per month. First noted by Credit Suisse, the schemes have been rolled out since Reliance Jio unveiled a 1 GB/day scheme last week. Airtel had, a couple of months ago, […]
SpiceJet said it will start daily flights to Dhaka from Kolkata on Mar 23, its first to the Bangladeshi capital, and said it plans to introduce more international flights soon. With the Dhaka service, the total number of international destinations served by the company has reached seven. Last month, the airline announced a deal to […]
Sun Direct, the DTH arm of Sun TV Network, could soon emerge as the No. 1 provider of HD TV channels in India, according to a distributor privy to the company’s plans. The DTH operator has recently acquired several transponders on a new satellite owned by the ISRO, the Indian space agency, next to its primary […]
Investors are only now starting to realize the plan that Mukesh Ambani and his telecom brainchild, Reliance Jio, have put into practice, and are therefore driving stock prices of his company higher, said Angel Broking, a retail-only stock-broker. Reliance Industries share prices surged 11% on Wednesday, the first time it has moved so much in […]
In a surprise announcement, Bharti Airtel said it was taking over Telenor India, marking the first such transaction since Idea took over Spice Telecom several years ago. Typically, companies in Indian telecom sector sell only assets, such as spectrum, and never the whole unit, due to the high debts on telecom companies’ balance sheets in […]
Spectranet, one of India’s oldest internet service providers, has entered Bangalore, its first market in South India, with aggressively priced broadband plans. The company, which started in Delhi more than a decade ago, is offering ‘truly unlimited’ 50 Mbps plan for Rs 1,349 per month. Including taxes, however, the monthly bill will come to around Rs […]
Reliance Jio’s new 303 4G data and voice plan will hit revenue and profits at rivals like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular, financial services firm Credit Suisse warned, dismissing optimistic interpretations of yesterday’s development. On Tuesday, Jio Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that his company will make available a new plan that offers 1 GB of […]
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the publicly owned telecom operator, is now ‘MNP positive’, its chairman and managing director Anupam Shrivastava said, without giving details. “BSNL’s MNP ratio is positive,” Shrivastava said at a customer interaction event today. It is not clear whether the executive was talking about all-time figures or monthly or yearly numbers. In […]
Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom company, is likely to match Reliance Jio’s one-year promotional 4G tariff of Rs 303 per month, according to industry and analyst sources. “They have been maintaining that they will match once Jio starts charging for customers,” said a stock analyst based in Mumbai. “That time has come. If they don’t […]
