British companies may join two new-age cities being planned near Bangalore, trade minister Anand Sharma said. The two cities are among the 12 being planned under India’s National Manufacturing and Investment Zones (NMIZ) policy. The zones will be a complete cities in themselves and will include large residential and entertainment areas, a large number of […]
Doordarshan is setting up a free high-definition (HD) broadcasting system in the four cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, the ministry of information and broadcasting said. Free terrestrial broadcasting of HD-quality TV channels is likely to be a novelty in a country where nearly 99% of the people watch low-definition (SD or standard definition) […]
It’s not just the youth, but also the labor class that Bharti Airtel wants to make life easy for with India’s first classifieds service for manual laborers and other blue collar workers. Called ‘saral rozgar’, the service allows “skilled, semi-skilled and un-skilled manual laborers” to register themselves on a voice-based service and get work. Workers […]
Stuxnet, widely believed to be a virus released by the Israeli government to neutralize the Iranian nuclear program, has been infecting computers in India, according to the ministry of IT and Communications. It however clarified that the virus — that hampers the functioning of Siemens industrial controllers used in the Iranian nuclear programe — has […]
There are some product launches that make you go, why? The India launch of Nexus 7 by Google is one such. Let’s see why it doesn’t make much sense in a market like India’s. First, why do people buy tablets? They buy them primarily as media consumption devices. In other words, to see videos, browse […]
Has the government gone back on the main reform involved in the Telecom Policy 2012 announced a year ago — delinking spectrum from license? It would seem so, going by the latest decision by the Telecom Commission to charge the price of spectrum also when giving out telecom licenses. It was more than a year […]
The next financial year is going to be better than the current year ending March, India’s biggest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) said at an analysts’ conference. Growth this year, however, would be slower than usual because of various factors such as uncertainty in the two main markets of the United States […]
The Congress-led government has again refused to press for a ‘Uniform Civil Code’ — a body of laws relating to items like marriage, inheritance etc. that apply to everyone in India irrespective of their religion, language etc.. Currently, such items are broadly dependent on which community or religion one belongs to, with separate laws for […]
The telecom and media regulator TRAI has taken the first step in imposing ownership controls in India’s fast-growing media sector. In a consultation paper on ‘cross media holdings’, the TRAI has suggested different approaches, all of which will make sure that a single media house will not be able to have extensive or dominating presence […]
India has a 50-50 chance of being a ‘break-out nation’ economically, Ruchir Sharma, managing director and head of emerging markets and global macro, Morgan Stanley said at an event held in New Delhi today. Being at the right stage of its reform cycle coupled with a healthy investment to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio and […]
International Data Corporation or IDC, the market research firm said it has “slightly downgraded” its expectations for the ERP market in India due to a “continued mindset of caution and tactical investments” among organizations in India. ERP or enterprise resource planning software provides large organizations a ready made way of keeping track of different assets, […]
Kerala emerged on top in per capita spending on non-food items, while Gujarat is the fastest growing, according to a survey by industry chamber Assocham. Haryana emerged on top in terms of expenditure on food-items. The numbers seem to indicate that Keralites, and South Indians in general, spend much less on food compared to others, […]
Hit by cut-throat competition and mounting losses, online retailers like Flipkart and Snapdeal in India have taken a big step towards rationalizing their offering — they have stopped offering free shipping for orders worth less than Rs 300. The move follows relentless competition in the fast-growing field, which forced these companies to offer ultra-low prices […]
If you thought the Indian Railways was getting more unsafe for women, you are not off the mark. Numbers relating to the number of registered sex crimes committed against women in Indian Railways have shown a sharp increase in the last three years — a period when mostly Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Bannerjee and her […]
It’s bad news on the face of it, but a closer look at the wholesale price inflation (WPI) numbers released today reveals that things are not as bad as they appear, and chances of an interest rate cut by RBI are not totally absent. Government numbers released today revealed that the rate of price increase […]
The coming financial year would be bad for Indian banks, but things could improve in 2014-15 as economic growth picks up and their condition would improve, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said. It predicted a loan-growth of 16%-17% for 2013-14, in line with its projection for the current financial year ending next month. Indian banks […]
Olivea Travels, India’s first and only ultra-luxury bus service, is offering 24-hour a half-price sale on its Bangalore-Chennai bus route in association with US deals website Groupon. The Rs 1,400 ticket will fetch you an experience including a multi-cuisine and beverages service, an on-board “luxury” toilet, a 10-inch TV with live DTH service, and WiFi […]
Days after finance minister P Chidambaram took to the internet to address live questions from the people about the budget, it is the turn of Planning Commission Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to face questions from the public. The event, to be held today at 5 pm, will also feature other top officials from the Planning […]
The telecom regulator has mooted the idea of having a single emergency number, like 911 in the USA, in India. In a new consultation paper, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has suggested bringing different emergency services like the police, ambulance, fire brigade, civil defense and disaster management under the same access number. Currently, […]
When Micromax Canvas HD A116 hit preorder last month, it ensured such a frenzy among the mobile-crazy that the phone is still out-of-stock on nearly all online stores and major retail outlets in India. Perhaps it was to be expected — after all, for nearly a year, the only quad-core smartphone in India, the Samsung […]
