State-owned oil producer ONGC said it may not be able to keep up with the development schedule of its offshore oil block next to Reliance Industries’ KG D6, but said it was too early to ascertain the exact quantum of delay. The KG-DWN- 98/2 offshore block was supposed to see an investment of $5.1 bln […]
Two key personnel of Gitanjali Ltd — its chief compliance officer and its chief financial officer — resigned last week, regulatory filings on Tuesday showed. While Pankhuri Warange, the chief compliance officer and the company secretary, resigned over concerns about “absence of disclosures” from the company, Chief Financial Officer Chandrakant Karkare resigned due to a […]
Anil Ambani Group’s Reliance Communications said it is on track to complete the sale of its mobile network assets by the end of next month. Speaking in the context of gaining shareholder approval for the scheme, the company said: “RCOM’s asset monetization is proceeding on fast track to close by March 2018, subject to lenders’ […]
Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd said it would invest up to Rs 176 cr in Bangalore-based car rental firm Zoomcar for a stake of up to 16%. Zoomcar, which calls itself a self-drive mobility platform, has been offering car sharing services from 2013 for as low as Rs 65 per hour. It also started […]
Renewable energy player Inox Wind said it won orders to erect wind power turbines with a combined capacity of 200 MW in the third round of national auctions held two days ago. The third round was for a total capacity of 1,000 MW or 1 GW, and was the third of the national wind power […]
Tata Power reported a sharp decline in its pretax profit due to costs rising faster than revenue. For the quarter ended December, the company’s revenue increased by about Rs 326 cr to Rs 7,041 cr compared to last year, but total operating expenses rose faster, by about Rs 580 cr on year. As a result, […]
Google, the maker of the most popular web browser in the world, has decided to crack the whip on intrusive advertisements. Starting Thursday, said the company, all advertisements on websites that repeatedly bombard users with intrusive ads will be blocked by default. Before the blocking goes into effect, the intrusive ads will be ‘flagged’, presumably […]
Spectra, formerly known as Spectranet, said it has become India’s largest 1Gbps broadband network after carrying out a free network upgrade for all its customers in Bangalore. “Spectra’s Bengaluru customers have been upgraded to the 1 Gbps speed at no extra cost and with this, it is now the largest 1 Gbps broadband speed network […]
Star India’s digital business, Hotstar, will make content available via Bharti Airtel’s TV app. The companies did not clarify if all content on Hotstar will be available or not. Given that it costs Rs 199 per month to access all content on Hotstar, that is unlikely. This is the second tie-up that Hotstar, part of […]
A consortium of companies, including ONGC, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, have taken a 10% stake in Lower Zakum Concession. The “participation fee” paid by the Indian consortium is 2.2 billion UAE dirhams (Rs 3,850 cr). The onshore field is located inside the UAE and is owned by the Abu Dhabi […]
Ortel Communications (Ortel), the Orissa-based cable and broadband services provider, reported a loss of Rs 6.6 cr for the third quarter as its broadband business was hit by 4G providers and cable business was under competitive pressure from DTH services. The loss of 6.6 cr compared with a loss of Rs 1.5 cr last year, […]
The verdict in the crucial case filed by Star India against the sector regulator’s move to control a-la-carte pricing of television channels in India is expected to be delivered next week, a key industry official said. “The judgment has been reserved by the Madras High Court. There has been a representation by the Government, TRAI […]
Telecom minister Manoj Sinha today said that the government has ‘no plans’ to merge state-owned telecom service providers Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. Sinha also said that BSNL is going ahead with the outsourcing of operations and maintenance activities of 26,287 towers across the country to third parties. “At present, there […]
Smaller operators Idea Cellular and Telenor handily beat bigger rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel in a 4G network quality field test conducted by the telecom regulator in the Gujarati city of Surat. In fact, the survey agency was not able to get a Youtube video playing over Jio’s network in all five locations where […]
UK’s Vodafone is looking to combine its stake in Indus Towers, India’s largest tower company, with Bharti Infratel, the tower arm of market leader Bharti Airtel, on the basis of $5 bln valuation for its asset, the Economic Times reported, quoting unnamed sources. The move would seem to indicate an upcoming merger of Indus Towers and […]
Zee Group’s DTH arm Dish TV said it intends to go ahead with its merger with rival Videocon D2h, having made an assessment of the possible impact of bankruptcy proceedings against D2h’s promoter group by banks. It said it will make further filings with the Registrar of Companies on the merger. “Upon evaluation of the […]
International credit rating agency Fitch said it revised its outlook on the Indian telecom sector to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’ and sees the sector returning to revenue growth in 2018. “We expect gradual price discipline in India’s telecoms sector to drive a mid-single-digit revenue recovery in 2018, following 2017’s falls,” the firm said in the context […]
GTPL Hathway, Gujarat’s biggest cable provider, has unleashed a new set of tariffs that offer as much as 39 GB for just 1 rupee. The new tariff plans have been unveiled along with its new fiber to home service. “Currently, the services are launched in Ahmedabad only, but there are plans to progressively launch in […]
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd or BSNL, the state-owned telecom operator, said it has cancelled its order to stop unlimited free calls on its landlines on all Sundays. The order was issued two weeks ago and had said that the facility of unlimited free calling on Sundays would be abolished from February. On Saturday, the company […]
An online poll conducted by Ultra News with 1,200 respondents indicated continued strong support for incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi compared to challenger Rahul Gandhi of the Indian National Congress. The poll reached out to around 21,400 people on Facebook, out of which around 6% indicated their choice one way or the other (see below). […]
