State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has abolished roaming charges, starting with one of its prepaid plans. The move is the first such step by any telecom operator — removing roaming charges without charging any particular rent or payment for doing so. To avail of the feature, customers have to switch their plan to ‘Roam […]
Government of India has blocked a proposal by G’Five Telecom to invest in its Chennai-based subsidiary, even as it let in investment from Japanese logistics company Kintetsu World Express and UK-based publisher Bloomsbury. In February, local logistic comany Gati had formed a joint venture with Kintetsu and said it would transfer its Express Distribution and […]
Norway, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Denmark are the top five future destinations for medium and large datacenters in the EMEA region, according to research firm Canalys. On the other end of the spectrum, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Hungary are at risk of not being able to provide enough energy to meet the demands of datacenters. […]
After getting the ambitious grid-connected solar project off to a good start, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is about to unveil part II of the renewables thrust — the distributed projects. The ministry also painted a gloomy and dismal picture of India’s energy-less future if radical switches are not made immediately. Grid […]
Snapdeal, one of India’s most aggressive online retailers known for cut-throat prices, has launched pre-booking on the new Samsung Galaxy S3 in India. The phone is being launched in India at 1:30 pm on Thursday, you can watch the launch live The website has not declared the final price of Samsung Galaxy S III, but […]
Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 2 per cent decline from the first quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. This is the first time since the second quarter of 2009 that the market exhibited a decline. “Global sales of mobile devices […]
Many big Indian companies will take a huge hit from the rupee hitting an all-time low, while it may be good news for IT, BPO and export companies. The Indian Rupee (INR) fell to Rs 54.51 per dollar, down 22% from January 2011. As SMC Global Securities points out, this is going to make it […]
Gold prices in the domestic market may cross Rs 30,000 per 10 grams ($55,555 per kg) during the June-August quarter registering a strong recovery on account of myriad reasons ranging from slowdown in inflow by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), rising headline inflation, rupee depreciation, growing signs of fatigue in the realty sector to pent up […]
Videocon, the latest entrant into India’s DTH market, today claimed that it is now offering the highest number of true HD channels in India. The company made the claim as it added six more HD channels to its bouquet, taking the total Asli HD channels on its platform to 19, according to the company. True […]
Logitech, estimated to have nearly half of India’s PC peripherals market, said it will increasingly focus on ‘living room’ products such as ‘TV peripherals’ as its core market of assembled PCs shrinks. The firm, which refuses to share its India-specific numbers, said it has achieved sales of around 4 million pieces of ‘pointing devices’ or […]
State-run mobile operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has slashed its 3G data plan charges to a fraction of what others are charging. The company slashed its 3G data charges to just Rs 22.50 per GB for heavy users in Delhi, much much lower than what its competitors are charging. For example, Tata DoCoMo charges […]
Bharti Airtel’s cut in 3G data rates has caught the headlines, but Airtel’s 3G is still more expensive than the pre-existing plans offered by some other operators. For example, Airtel’s plan is offering 300 MB of 3G data for Rs 100. In comparison, MTNL offers 1 GB of data for Rs 76 (weekly) and Rs […]
Trade and Industry minister Anand Sharma has spoken out in uncharacteristically blunt terms against a Parliamentary Committee report suggestion on the policy for land acquisition for industries. The report had suggested excluding “manufacturing and industrial activity” and public-private project (PPP) from the definition of ‘public purpose’ for land acquisition. The recommendation, if accepted, would make […]
The Aditya Birla Group today announced that it has agreed to take a 27.5% stake in Living Media India Ltd. (India Today Group), through a private investment company. This brings the multi-national conglomerate into the company of others like Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and the Anil Ambani Group that have significant investments in the media […]
In what may be good news for thousands of fans of Mandriva Linux, the company behind the operating system has decided to set up an independent community to lead the development of the operating system. Mandriva Linux, formerly Mandrake Linux, had stopped coming out with regular updated versions of the popular operating system late last […]
More than half of India’s wells have higher-than-permitted levels of iron, while about one in six have higher than allowed levels of fluoride, according to data from the Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. The numbers, updated as of April 2012, also show the real extent of arsenic […]
Indian and Indian origin kids dominate yet another annual Google Science Fair, sweeping 18 out of the 40 places in the 13-14 year category this year. Indian kids accounted for all 13 nominations this year from the APAC region, which includes China, Australia and Japan. In all, 90 students worldwide qualified for the Science Fair, […]
After a zooming trade deficit, India may have some more bad news on the balance of trade front – slowing services exports. Services exports, jargon for payments made by foreigners in return for services in India, grew at just 5.9% in the first three quarters of the last financial year (2011-12). In comparison, services exports […]
Indian enterprise IT spending across all industry markets is forecast to reach Rs 1,910 billion (Rs 1.91 lakh crore or $37 billion) this year, a 16.4 percent jump from last year rupee terms. The growth will be less in dollar terms due to the 15-20% fall in rupee value this year, compared to the last. […]
Vehicle owners who are permanently shifting their residences can now get a refund of their road taxes when they apply for a no-objection certificate (NOC). The NOC from the Road Transport Office (RTO) or Department is required to move the vehicle from one state to another and to re-register their vehicles in a new place. […]
