Maruti Suzuki today revealed more details about IGNIS 2019, the latest version of its small car targeted at millennials. The car has been in the news for the last two days after it was spotted at dealerships over the weekend. India’s largest carmaker said the new version of IGNIS, a car that has not exactly […]
Bharti Airtel, one of India’s top three telecom operators, said it has chosen US-based Ciena to supply the core technology on which its countrywide optical backbone will be managed. The adoption of technology from Ciena — one of the original dotcom-era startups — will help Airtel adapt to the new age of 5G and fiber-to-the-home, […]
Public sector company Bharat Electronics Ltd said it will manufacture and export $33 million (Rs 230 cr) worth of optical and infrared imaging systems to Israel’s Elbit Systems Electro-Optics Elop Ltd (ELOP). The systems are being manufactured under license from, and using the technology supplied by, the Israeli company. “With this, BEL is in a […]
The government has cut the Goods and Services Tax rate on under-construction estate properties to 1% from 8% for affordable housing, and to 5% from 12% on non-affordable housing projects. In both cases, the buyer cannot take advantage of input tax credits — the GST already paid by the builder on various expenses incurred in […]
Bharti Airtel said it has opened pre-booking for Samsung Galaxy S10+ and S10 on its online store. The S10 will be available for a total cost of Rs 81,000, including a downpayment of Rs 9,099, plus 24 equal monthly installments of Rs 2,999. In comparison, Amazon is selling it at Rs 77,850, divided into equal […]
Barely three weeks into the new pricing regime, TV18 has become the second group — after Star — to tweak its pricing and bouquet structure to make them more attractive to customers. Most of the changes are on package structuring and composition, rather than on individual channel prices. Only two channels — Comedy Central and […]
Cable and DTH users can now watch Star India’s sports and English channels at 30% lower cost as India’s largest broadcaster has introduced smaller, more affordable channel packs in these two genres. The move is seen as a reaction to the feedback given by the market to the company’s previous line up. Till now, Star […]
SpiceJet, the most aggressive low-cost airline in India, announced 12 new flights from March 31. The new daily flights connect towns such as Surat, Bhopal, Gorakhpur, Jaipur and Dharamshala to Mumbai and Delhi (see table below). It is also offering promotional fares starting at Rs 2,499 all in between Bhopal and Mumbai, Rs 3,299 on […]
Infosys said it has paid Rs 34.35 lakh to settle the investigation into the incident of the company paying over Rs 17 cr as severance pay to Rajiv Bansal, who resigned as its finance head in October 2015. There have been allegations, including from the side of founder Narayana Murthy, that everything was not well […]
Larsen & Toubro, India’s biggest construction firm, said it has secured a mega contract for design and construction of a major airport. Mega contracts are defined as those that will generate more than Rs 7,000 cr of revenue for the company. In October, Larsen & Toubro had won a Rs 3,036 cr order to build […]
Free-to-air English news channels like Republic TV and Al Jazeera have got a massive boost in their reach, while paid Hindi entertainment and movie channels have seen the biggest drop in reach after the implementation of the new TRAI tariff scheme, according to data from Chrome Data Analytics & Media, one of the world’s largest […]
D2h, a DTH brand from Dish TV India, said it will give a discount of Rs 80 to all additional connections to its existing customers under its Multi TV scheme. In other words, if you already have a D2h connection, you can get a second one at Rs 50. The first connection will cost you […]
Jawa, the retro motorcycle brand from Mahindra & Mahindra, has opened showrooms in many cities, indicating that the launch will happen within one month. Kerala, as the biggest market for such bikes, has seen the opening of several such showrooms in the last few days, including one in Kochi (see above) and another in Trivandrum. […]
Bharti Airtel has deployed LTE on 900 MHz band, which has the ability to pass through walls and other obstacles much better than other 4G bands. With this, customers with handsets that support this frequency will see an improvement in 4G signal levels. This is expected to be very beneficial for voice usage. It should, […]
Delhi High Court, hearing a challenge by DTH and cable companies against TRAI’s new tariff scheme, today expressed its displeasure over regulator modifying tariff roll-out process of the new tariff system without even informing the court. Chief Justice Rajendra Menon asked the regulator to file an affidavit within a week explaining the latest changes to […]
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India today set the cat among the pigeons among cable and DTH operators by saying that customers should be given the option of continuing with their long duration packs if they so desire. This has potential negative implications for all operators, including Tata Sky, D2h and Airtel Digital, as all […]
Akhilesh Yadav has laid into Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath after he was stopped from attending a function at Allahabad University. “Today, I was stopped from boarding a flight to attend a student union program at Allahabad University. I haven’t been given a reason why – but it seems the general impression was that […]
Customers of Vodafone and Idea networks will notice an improvement in their 4G experience in coming weeks, especially in areas like Mumbai and Delhi, as the company starts deploying massive amounts of cash to improve the networks in such areas. The network improvement will be done via several methods — by deploying extra spectrum, technological […]
Voltas, India’s largest air-conditioner maker, said it will invest Rs 500 cr to set up a AC and appliance manufacturing complex in Tirupati. The plant will initially manufacture and assemble air conditioners and related cooling products, starting from the second half of next year. It will have a total capacity of more than 1 million […]
Media regulator TRAI clarified that nothing in the new tariff regime prevents cable and DTH operators from offering discounts on the network charges payable by customers. Accordingly, it said, some of the cable and DTH operators have restarted their discounted multi TV offers. The topic of ‘multi-connections’ — or multiple connections within the same household […]
