India’s crude oil import bill zoomed 40% in the last financial year, due to the rising crude oil prices, numbers revealed. According to government data, India imported crude worth Rs 3.58 lakh crore in the first ten months of the last financial year, 2011-12. The number excludes the crude oil imported for processing and re-export. […]
It looks like Japanese companies cannot have enough of India. Even as the Indo-Japanese mega industrial corridor between Delhi and Mumbai remains in early stages, the Japanese are pushing for a similar ‘corridor’ between India’s IT hub Bangalore and its export-manufacturing hub Chennai. Industrial corridors are comprised of newly constructed mini and mega cities that […]
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI has revamped the entire regulatory structure of the broadcasting, cable TV and DTH industry in India, dealing with issues such as carriage fee, channel prices and channel availability. Once digitized, all channels (pay and free-to air) have to be offered on a-la-carte, or individual, basis to subscribers, […]
Market analyst firm Canalys reported today that global pad shipments more than tripled year-on-year in Q1 2012. Vendors shipped 20.3 million pads, representing 19% of all client PC shipments in the quarter. A year ago pads accounted for just 7% of PC shipments. Adoption rates, however, vary significantly across regions, shaped by differing economic conditions […]
In keeping with an overall slowing trend, India’s goods exports fell in March — for the first time since they started recovering from the recession in 2009. Exports fell 6% to $28.7 billion. However, the government can heave a sigh of relief as the overall target for exports for the full year, $300 billion, has […]
India held on to its position as the world’s most optimistic market for the ninth consecutive quarter despite worries about job security, the Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions found. Established in 2005, tracks consumer confidence, major concerns and spending intentions among more than 28,000 Internet consumers in 56 countries. Consumer confidence […]
iBall has launched a new version of its ‘Slide’ tablet, but with very few changes, making it less attractive than the Micromax Funbook or the Datawind Ubislate — which cost about half or less than the iBall Slide. Basic specs remain the same: 1 GHz single-core ARM Cortex A8 processor Multitouch 800 x 480 pixel […]
Broadcasters and their associations have questioned the right of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to frame rules restricting the number and duration of advertisements on television. In multiple responses, channels and associations have pointed out that the telecom regulator derives its mandate to regulate the media sector only from a notification by the […]
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved Jairam Ramesh’s Rs 46,000 crore project to increase India’s forest cover. The plan, called ‘Green India’ Mission, aims to add 10 million hectares of “high quality” forest cover to the existing 40-45 million hectares, the ministry of environment and forests said. “The mission aims to achieve annual CO2 sequestration […]
You may soon get your Bisleri water through a pipeline. After telephones and power supply, it looks to be the turn of water supply and sewerage services to be privatized. Responding to a question in the Parliament, the Water Resources ministry has said that the draft new water policy recommends handing over of the water […]
India’s telecom regulator the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has refused to recommend any special consideration to telecom operators who wish to “surrender” their license and get their money back. Under the terms and conditions given in the telecom license, there is no provision for refund of the initial payment of Rs 1658 crore […]
Worldwide unified threat management (UTM) revenue reached $1.2 billion in 2011, a 19.6 percent increase from 2010 revenue of $972 million, according to technology market intelligence firm Gartner, Inc. UTM is a primary network gateway defense solution for organizations. UTM combines traditional firewall into one single appliance: network firewalling, network intrusion prevention and gateway antivirus […]
Industry chamber Assocham has opposed the anti-tax evasion proposals suggested in the budget, including having retrospective laws and giving wide discretionary powers to tax officials. Assocham said issuing broad General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) — targeted at cases like the Vodafone-Hutch deal — without fine-print and safeguards is a recipe for disaster and may be used […]
Engineers prefer IBM, while non-engineers prefer Infosys, according to a new poll by a naukri.com group website. The poll, conducted among 2000 college students and recent graduates registered on one of its job portals, found that a whopping 43.7% of engineering students/graduates chose IBM as their most preferred employer, beating out competition from others like […]
New operators like Uninor (Telenor) and MTS (Sistema) will probably relook at whether they want to continue their India operations if TRAI’s latest recommendations on spectrum pricing are accepted, Kotak Institutional Equities has said. For traditional big operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, the impact of the new prices would start from the year […]
India’s finance minister Pranab Mukherjee may like to complain about how selling diesel and LPG ‘below cost’ is bankrupting the government, but the numbers tell a different story. According to data submitted by the government in the Parliament today, the state and central governments earn much more from the sale of diesel, petrol, LPG and […]
India Against Corruption, the umbrella organization led by activists Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare, has said that it seems to have foiled a ‘sting operation’ when it discovered Mufti Samoon Qasmi allegedly recording its meetings on his phone. It claimed that Qasmi’s reaction to the media — in which blasted the leadership for ‘turning communal’ […]
India’s biggest industry bodies urged the government of India to get moving on the stalled reform process, responding to global ratings agency Standard & Poor (S&P) cutting its outlook on India’s financial health. S&P also cut its outlook on at least six Indian companies, including Infosys Technologies, TCS and Wipro, following the country-wide cut in […]
Dish TV, the direct to home arm of the Zee group, announced it has crossed 1 crore (10 million) customers, becoming the first DTH player to do so in Asia and commanding an almost one-third share of India’s 32 million DTH market. Most of Dish TV’s growth happened in 2010 after the firm scapped its […]
Al Jazeera English, the Qatar-based news channel considered the best source of information on the Middle East, has tied up with DTH-operator Tata Sky, five months after it entered India with a tie-up with Dish TV. The channel was in the news recently after a ‘unfriendly broadcaster’ list submitted by the government in the Parliament […]
