The government has formed a high-level forum which will guide India to start 5G services by 2020, a technology that will deliver wireless broadband speed of about 10,000 mbps in urban areas and 1,000 mbps in rural belts, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said on Tuesday.
In a bid to facilitate research and development activities for the 5G service rollout, the Centre is also looking to set up a Rs 500-crore support fund.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
The Tata group is not looking to sell its telecom business in its entirety, but will retain some valuable segments within the business, said a person familiar with the company’s plans on condition of anonymity.
While the group will exit mobile telephony, a business that has been under tremendous pressure with heightened competition from new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, it is evaluating other options for more profitable businesses such as the optic fibre unit, this person added.
(Source: Livemint)
IDFC Ltd and the Shriram Group have decided to abandon the merger plan worked out in July this year as shareholder pressure and dilution fears force them to examine a new, less complicated structure.
People close to the situation said the two sides are planning to work on a new formula to salvage the deal that was supposed to bring two non-banking financial companies, one bank and an infrastructure finance company under one roof.
(Source: The Economic Times)
India remains the most competitive country in South Asia, appearing at no 40 in the global competitiveness ranking of 137 countries by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The ranking is one lower than last year’s, but the two rankings are not comparable because of a change in the methadology, the WEF said.
(Source: Livemint)
A little over a month after Vishal Sikka stepped down as chief executive of Infosys Ltd, another of his key lieutenants who had followed him from German software giant SAP SE to India’s second largest software services firm has resigned.
A senior vice-president, Budhiraja joined Infosys in August 2014, and was one of at least 16 executives from SAP to join Infosys at the rank of associate vice-president and above.
General Electric Co said if Indian officials walk away from a multibillion-dollar locomotive contract, the move would damage efforts to create jobs and chill foreign investment.
Altering the deal would “undermine one of the most promising infrastructure projects in the country,” GE said Tuesday by email. India may also be on the hook for “substantial fees associated with this project,” the company said.
The roughly $2.5 billion contract marked a major victory for GE Transportation, which has been struggling recently with a downturn in the market.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
The government collected Rs 90,669 crore goods and services tax (GST) for August, a little lower than the Rs 94,063 crore collected in July. This is also lower than the Rs 91,000 crore which should have come to the Centre and states in a month, given the Budget Estimates and assumed growth rates in receipts for 2017-18.
But, the figures should be compared cautiously. About Rs 92,283 crore GST was collected for July till 29 August, while Rs 90,669 crore was garnered till 25 September. Hence, growth in collections was flat in August, compared to July. As much as Rs 94,063 crore was paid till 31 August.
(Source: Business Standard)
RCom chairman Anil Ambani said he would fight attempts to thwart the company's revival strategy and warned that the wave of consolidation in telecom would lead to a drastic reduction in choice.
(Source: The Economic Times)
Paytm Mall has initiated discussions to raise a fresh round of Rs 3,000-4,000 crore ($460610 million), said two people aware of the development.
“Paytm Mall is planning to close the new round of funding by end of this year and is talking to financial investors from Asia and the US,” said one of the persons.
(Source: The Economic Times)
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