Author: Prashant Duggal

HP retook the lead in the worldwide client PC market in Q1 2012, according to the latest figures published by analyst firm Canalys. Apple had ousted the long-time PC market leader in Q4 2011, thanks largely to record iPad shipments (in excess of 15 million units). In Q1, however, Apple shipped 11.8 million iPads, bringing […]

With the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee moving a motion to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) in the Parliament today the deck is now clear for the formation of a parliamentary committee to look into the telecom policy pursued from 1998 to 2009. The period of reference includes the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government […]

Days after Gartner predicted a 17 percent growth for the Indian PC market this year, CyberMedia Research has pegged the expansion at a more realistic 8%. The number of PCs sold in India had grown 6% in 2011, the Gurgaon-based firm said. The prediction is likely to disappoint some in the industry who were looking […]

Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), the smallest of the three state-owned oil retailers in India, refuted suggestions that a fire at its Numaligarh refinery was caused by an act of sabotage or terror. The Assamese insurgent group, the ULFA, had claimed that it set off the explosion. “The company is confident that this is not the […]

India PC shipments will rise 17 percent this year, after a 6.5% fall in numbers in the last quarter of 2011, Gartner said. The prediction is despite a recent increase in excise duty on computers and the overall slowing down of economic growth in India. The news is likely to be welcomed by the PC […]

International credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has given a ‘BBB’ rating to Reliance Industries’ latest move to raise funds in the United States to finance its shale gas activities in the country. Reliance plans to issue U.S. dollar denominated senior unsecured notes through its subsidiary Reliance Holding USA Inc, S&P said in a note. […]

Jennifer Aniston was voted the most wanted female celebrity “dream date” for Valentine’s Day, according to the annual Valentine’s Day survey by omg! website from Yahoo! She got 14% of the 2001 votes in the poll. For women, the dream date was George Clooney, who beat Johnny Depp, the last year’s winner, with 19% of […]

Japanese electronics giant Panasonic said media reports on talks over the merger of its semiconductor operations are not “official,” but it is studying “various options.” Various media reports, quoting unnamed sources, said Renesas Electronics, Fujitsu Ltd and Panasonic are in talks to merge their chip operations The talks follow a similar move by Sony, Toshiba […]

Indian consumers continued to be the most optimistic in the world while confidence levels in the United States and China rose markedly in the last quarter of 2011, according to the Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions. All three countries saw consumer confidence and optimism increasing during the last three months of […]

According to an online poll by global research company Ipsos, 28% of employees in India have a strong desire to go abroad for a full-time job and another 39 percent would “consider” the option. The survey asked employees in 24 countries to consider the opportunity of a full-time job available in another country at least […]

January was not a good month for U.S. home prices, especially in the Midwest, according to Clear Capital’s monthly Home Data Index (HDI). Home prices fell 2.6% in January on a nationwide basis, thanks primarily to a 5.2% dip in the Midwest and a 3.5% fall in Western United States, the report said. Midwest had […]

Hiring numbers in India bounced back to their ‘regular’ levels after setting off alarm bells with a steep dip in October, according to the Job Speak Index by Naukri.com. Hiring numbers had fallen more than expected in October as the usual festive lull in hiring combined with an overall cautious atmosphere in Indian economy to […]

Al Jazeera targets Indian market with Dish TV tie-up Al Jazeera, the news channel known as the voice of Middle East, has entered the Indian market through a tie-up with one of India’s biggest DTH platforms, Dish TV. The company had earlier announced its intention to beam its English language feed to the Indian market […]

The number of domestic air travelers dipped 5.3% in January to 49.4 lakhs, primarily due to the absence of festival and holiday travel witnessed in December 2010. However, Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines was the only domestic airline that did not see a decline in its occupancy level in January. It increased seat occupancy level from […]

The government released the Review of the Economy 2010-11 that predicted a slower economic growth in the second half of the current year. Against 8.9% in the first half, it predicts full year growth to be around 8.6%, indicating a 8.3% growth during the second half. Agriculture expected to grow at 5.4% in 2010-11 and […]

India’s voracious appetite for gold — the biggest in the world — is threatening the health of its foreign trade balance, trade association Assocham said in a new report. It noted that India imported a whopping 33.8 billion dollars worth of gold last year in the year ended March last year — the biggest gold […]

Weeks after Environment minister Jairam Ramesh called for abolition of subsidy to gas-guzzling diesel cars, Sunita Narain’s Centre of Science & Environment has urged the government to introduce new taxes on diesel cars in the upcoming budget. India has low taxes on diesel to keep food prices down, but the policy has led to the […]

After a string of failures to successfully launch IPTV and true video-on-demand services by telecom players, it seems to be the DTH operators who are taking the lead in India. Tata Sky, one of India’s biggest DTH operators, announced it had launched a true video-on-demand and a free recorded-TV service using broadband. To avail of […]