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 […]
With the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee moving a motion to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) in the Parliament today the deck is now clear for the formation of a parliamentary committee to look into the telecom policy pursued from 1998 to 2009. The period of reference includes the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government […]
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 […]
HP retook the lead in the worldwide client PC market in Q1 2012, according to the latest figures published by analyst firm Canalys. Apple had ousted the long-time PC market leader in Q4 2011, thanks largely to record iPad shipments (in excess of 15 million units). In Q1, however, Apple shipped 11.8 million iPads, bringing […]
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 […]
80% of LPG users in most parts of India do their cylinder booking through SMS, going by what the junior minister for petroleum and natural gas told the Parliament today. According to RPN Singh, in most of the cities, “more than 80% of the customers are using the system successfully whereas, it is more than […]
The western Indian state of Gujarat has pulled well ahead of others, including the long-time favorite Rajasthan, in investing in solar technology and projects. According to the latest industry numbers, Gujarat alone has a solar power production capacity of 200 million watts (200 MW) at peak (noon.) In comparison, India as a whole had a […]
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 […]
Blackberry’s new Blackberry Curve 9220, priced at just Rs 10,990, will help the Canadian smartphone maker RIM to further increase its presence in India, Cyber Media Research said. Earlier in the day, Research in Motion announced that it was launching the Blackberry Curve 9220, targeted at the ‘mass’ market. Unlike the usual Blackberry, the Curve […]
Google Plus has expanded its ‘update and track via SMS’ feature to most of the countries in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. The feature, which lets you update and follow others’ updates on SMS on mobile phones, was initially available only in the US and India markets. Others like Facebook and Twitter already […]
Call it the 3G effect, or the result of a relentless and ruthless assault on call rates by leading operators in India: today, the contribution of call revenues to overall sales has fallen below the 50% mark for most Indian telecom operators. An analysis of numbers crunched by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of Inda (TRAI) […]
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 […]
TRAI’s decision to recommend steep auction reserve prices may have rattled the industry, but the telecom regulator had its own reasons for suggesting the relatively high price. It recommended a spectrum auction reserve price roughly double that of actual prices discovered in 3G auctions in 2010 for the 800-900 MHz band that has so far […]
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 […]
