It has been in the market for close to three years, but Internet-on-TV has failed to take off in India due to the high prices of the televisions. That may be about to change. Panasonic has revamped its Smart TV range with 30 new models that cost as little as Rs. 13,990, starting at 24 […]
Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 2 per cent decline from the first quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. This is the first time since the second quarter of 2009 that the market exhibited a decline. “Global sales of mobile devices […]
Many big Indian companies will take a huge hit from the rupee hitting an all-time low, while it may be good news for IT, BPO and export companies. The Indian Rupee (INR) fell to Rs 54.51 per dollar, down 22% from January 2011. As SMC Global Securities points out, this is going to make it […]
Gold prices in the domestic market may cross Rs 30,000 per 10 grams ($55,555 per kg) during the June-August quarter registering a strong recovery on account of myriad reasons ranging from slowdown in inflow by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), rising headline inflation, rupee depreciation, growing signs of fatigue in the realty sector to pent up […]
The controversy over the allocation of 2G spectrum under former telecom minister A Raja to CDMA operators refuses to die. The latest was the turn of a government official to write a letter pointing out how two traditional CDMA operators do not have to re-buy their 2G spectrum like Uninor, MTS and others. He argues […]
The defence ministry has refused to divulge the reason for imposing a ban on construction in the Demchok area of southeastern Ladakh — part of the land disputed between India and China. However, the Chinese are building infrastructure on the other side of the line of control, including military facilities, according to local residents. Residents, […]
The government has cut the amount of gold someone can bring as personal baggage from abroad even as India’s gold imports are expected to have increased to 1.08 million kg last year, worth $55 billion at current prices. The government has cut the amount of gold a person can bring into the country to 1 […]
India Against Corruption, the rainbow coalition of activists headed by Anna Hazare, has accused all political parties of planning to pass a toothless Lokpal bill, and promised to launch an even bigger campaign against any such move. Last year, Hazare had organized the biggest political protests in India since the JP Movement of the 70s, […]
Rahul Khullar, the new chief at the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has a reputation for being a no nonsense boss. Khullar, a 1975 batch IAS officer of Delhi cadre, also has a few other qualities that will make his tenure at the TRAI second to none of those of his predecessors — he […]
As exports face headwinds from the western economies, particularly in debt-ridden Europe, India’s balance of trade or trade deficit is projected between USD 262 billion and USD 280 billion in the fiscal 2012-13, according to trade body Assocham. Trade deficit is the shortfall between how much a country needs to pay for its imports versus […]
The Economic Survey of India, the basis on which the country’s economic policies are formulated, sounds an optimistic beat for India’s growth during the next twenty years, even as short term risks remain. It forecasts 9% plus growth for the next two years and another ‘step up’ after that for the next 20. The most […]
The North European countries seem to love their Indian IT service partners. Indian IT services companies such as TCS, Cognizant and HCL scored considerably higher in a satisfaction survey among companies in the Nordic countriesin in KPMG’s Outsourcing 2012 study. “Cognizant also had not one dissatisfied client, which makes the company the top performer among […]
The Indian IT infrastructure market comprising of servers, storage and networking equipment will reach $2.05 billion in 2012, a 10.3 percent increase over 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. The IT infrastructure market is expected to reach $3.01 billion by 2016, the research agency said. Revenue growth will be primarily driven by ongoing data center modernization, […]
State-owned mobile operators MTNL and BSNL are estimated to have increased their losses by 50% to more Rs 13,000 crore last year, according to numbers from DoT. The bigger company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd or BSNL had a loss of about Rs 6,300 crore in 2010-11 and is likely to see it zoom to about […]
Indian government has extended by five months the deadline for cutting radiation from cellphone towers by 90%, the government informed the Lok Sabha today. The directive cutting radiation limits for cellphone towers was issued after a multi-year consultation between the government, the industry, scientific bodies and consumer associations. The directive was supposed to come into […]
A departmental inquiry could not find any involvement of ministry officials in the ‘gift scam’ at the ministry of external affairs and the inquiry has now been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the ministry said. The alleged scam has been pursued by RTI activist Subhash Agarwal, who filed an RTI query […]
The government of India is thinking of creating a ‘Sovereign Wealth Fund’ to make it easier to acquire coal blocks in other countries, coal minister Sripraksh Jaisawal said. “There are issues which need to be resolved urgently in regard to acquisitions abroad especially in view of the fact that other energy deficit countries are rapidly […]
If you thought you were the only one paying for your cable, think again. New research says an average TV channel pays Rs 20 per household per year to compensate the cable network for bringing it to you in the prime band. In other words, if you get 150 channels, the cable operator would end […]
Airtel has entered the online phone retailing business, entering a market already boiling over with competition. The shop primarily sells handsets. Going by the rates, however, only some handsets are priced below the rates offered by competitors like Flipkart and Letsbuy. For example, the Nokia Lumia 800 is available for 23,338 on Airtel’s shop, compared […]
Only about 6% of the families registered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MG-NREGA) got the full 100 days of work during last financial year, according to numbers from the Rural Development ministry. The numbers also revealed a sharp increase in complaints from Uttar Pradesh. While the ministry did not reveal how […]
