Long term foreign investors seem to be regaining confidence in India, according to the latest FDI or foreign investment numbers. After falling by a drastic 32% during the first three months of 2011, foreign direct investment (which excludes stock market) has risen 77% in the first two months of the financial year. FDI is considered […]
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 […]
The big players of telecom equipment industry, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens and ZTE saw their India revenues take a big hit in the last financial year due to the controversy over security standards and ‘trap doors’ in Indian telecom equipment last year. Total sales of telecom equipment to mobile operators fell by a drastic 24% […]
Despite a bustling mobile handset market in the country, top Indian phone-brand Nokia failed to grow its revenues during the last financial year, according to the Voice & Data survey of the telecom market for 2010-11. However, number two in the mobile handset market — Samsung — managed to see its revenues grow by a […]
The Home Ministry headed by P Chidambaram has written to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), under the Finance Ministry, seeking information about the assets owned by former chief justice of India KG Balakrishnan and his dependents and relatives. The move has come after the Law Ministry said that since the allegations against KG […]
Gopinath Munde, the rebel Maharashtrian leader of the Bhartiya Janata Party has said he does not intend to leave the Bhartiya Janata Party. He has been in talks with Congress and NCP leaders, allegedly to explore the option of joining them, but seems to have found nothing worthwhile to take up in those parties. “I […]
Anna Hazare has rebutted government’s arguments against including all government servants under the upcoming anti-corruption ombudsman, Lokpal. He also reaffirmed that the second round of agitations will begin on August 16. He pointed out that unless all the officials of the Government are brought under the watchful gaze of the Lokpal, India cannot get rid […]
