Last year, consumers spent $2 trillion (out of a global GDP of $70 trillion) on communication and entertainment services and products, according to market research firm Gartner Inc. The biggest chunk, $1.2 trillion was spent on “paying the bills” — phone bills, broadband bills, cable bills etc.. while only $600 billion was spent on buying […]
Union human resources (education) and telecom minister Kapil Sibal has denied media reports that the Home ministry, in charge of India’s security, has objected the Indian Institute of Science’s agreement with a Chinese telecom company to develop testing standards. Sibal, who brought the Intelligence Bureau (IB) head to a press conference, denied that India’s security […]
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) has started a meeting on the Telengana developments. The Committee is the “executive” committee within the Cabinet in charge of taking sensitive political decisions and is headed by the Prime Minister of India. Besides the PM Manmohan Singh, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, defence minister A K Antony, home […]
The article on Vodafone and Idea entering into a network support deal for 3G services in Delhi, enabling Idea to launch 3G services in Delhi despite not having 3G spectrum has been temporarily taken off on the request of Ms Imprimis PR private Ltd. The firm has claimed that the article detailing how Idea has […]
As the Government of India takes its own time in approving the $6.6 billion acquisition of Cairn India by Vedanta Resources, the two have decided to go ahead as much as possible without violating the law. Cairn has also agreed to receive 9% less than initially promised by Vedanta. As a result, a further 10% […]
Cairn India, the company whose sale has apparently been approved by the Indian government today, said it has not received any intimation on sharing the production royalty arising from its production in the Rajasthan field — India’s biggest onshore oil field. “Cairn has not yet received formal confirmation of any decision that has been made […]
Former oil minister and current corporate affairs minister Murli Deora has offered to resign, according to sources. Deora sent his resignation to the Congress President several days ago. The Parliamentarian from Mumbai has been coming under increasing attack for his alleged failure to save the tax-payer’s interests from oil companies. The Comptroller and Auditor General […]
Veteran Gandhian and the head of India’s anti-corruption movement, Anna Hazare welcomed the threat by the Congress party to use force against him when he conducts the second round of fast and agitation for a tough ombudsman to fight corruption. In doing so, he seemed to hint at the possibility of the August agitation turning […]
J Jayalalitha, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has pointed towards mid-term national elections in an interview to a TV channel. Speaking to the Times Now channel, Jayalalitha (who likes to spell her name Jayalalithaa,) said she felt there might be changes at the Centre sooner than what everyone expects. The current central government, headed by […]
If you thought only the consumer was suffering from the increase in the rise of petrol and diesel prices, think again. The Federation of All India Petroleum Traders (FAIPT) has alleged that the frequent increase in petrol and diesel prices are affecting their margin. It has therefore issued a demand to the government to increase […]
The Supreme Court has issued an order restraining the Chhattisgarh government from recruiting tribal youth in large numbers as ‘special police officers” — a sort of counter-militia against the Maoists. The SPOs were drawn from the “Salwa Judum” or “Peace March” movement started by the State government in 2005. There are between 4,000-5,000 such tribal […]
Nokia E6 — the touch-cum-candybar-qwerty phone from Nokia has become cheaper even before it has been launched. While the company announced a “best buy” price of Rs 17,999 for its pre-order customers, Letsbuy.com — India’s specialist digital retailer — has just reduced the price to Rs 16,999 for those who place the pre-order through its […]
India, despite having only 10% of its citizens as Internet users, ranked the third globally in seeking identification details of Google users in the second half of last year, according to Google’s transparency report for the period. It made 1,699 such requests to Google in the second half of 2010, a rise of more than […]
Former US representative to the United Nations, Peter Burleigh has taken over as the US ambassador to India. Burleigh, a former in-charge of the US embassy in New Delhi, had been impressed by Rahul Gandhi’s political skills, as revealed by a cable authored by him in 2009 and leaked by Wikileaks. In the cable, he […]
Bollywood actor Imran Khan has decided to launch a new facebook page to gauge popular support to his recent campaign against what he sees as the interference of the Maharashtra government into personal freedoms. Imran Khan had earlier said that he will lodge a public interest litigation against the move to make it illegal for […]
VMware, the virtualization company owned by EMC, Oracle and Cisco turned out to be the fastest growing business software companies in India, according to Garnter’s assessment of the market for 2010. At 25%, Oracle recorded the fastest revenue growth among the top five firms while IBM ended up as the biggest seller of software to […]
The Congress has attacked the BJP for meeting with Civil Society activists such as Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, while refusing to come out clearly on its own stand on the suggestions by the campaigners. Abhishek Singhvi, congress spokesperson pointed out that the BJP has not come out with any clear stand, taking different excuses […]
Proving how important the thousands of crores of rupees meant for the National Rural Health Mission in UP were, the main accused in the murder of two reportedly upright officers has also been murdered. Dr Y S Sachan, Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Lucknow was found hanging in his jail cell yesterday. The Lucknow Police […]
The Congress Party has asked the opposition party BJP to “let go” off the report by the Public Accounts Committee on the 2G scam. Spokesperson Manish Tewari made the call on a day when a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee — the statutory Parliamentary body in charge of keeping a watch on government expenditure […]
Maria Susairaj, who completed her 3 year jail term for helping dispose of the body of slain Neeraj Grover, has denied that she cut her formers lover’s body into pieces. In a press conference, her advocate showed the photograph of the recovered body which showed the body more or less intact. “This photograph is part […]
