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The Narendra Modi-headed Cabinet on Wednesday approved the recommendation of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) on the relief to the stressed telecom sector, and allowed telcos a 2-year moratorium on spectrum-related dues. "In view of the current fin stress faced by major telecom service providers and in pursuant of the recommendations by Committee of Secretaries, it is decided to defer receipts of spectrum auction installments due from the telecom service providers from the years 2020-21 and 2021-2022," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Wednesday said. The deferred amounts, according to Sitharaman would be equally spread over the remaining installments. "These deferred amounts bill be spread equally in the remaining installments to be paid by telecom companies. Interest, as stipulated while auctioning the concerned spectrum, will, however, be charged so that NPV is protected, the government in a statement said. However, telecom companies opting for a two-year deferred payment … [Read more...] about Telecom industry finally gets some good news from the government

BENGALURU: Walmart-owned online retailer Flipkart plans to focus on core categories — smartphones, electronics and its top selling brands across multiple segments — this festive season, multiple people familiar with the matter said, as it adopts stricter compliance norms that are likely to restrict supply chain capacity. The homegrown e-commerce company is limiting direct fulfilment of product selection for unstructured and low-priced items, as it goes into its busiest sale period, the people said. The etailer’s strategy stems from grappling with higher compliance norms in warehousing and last-mile centres, an increased focus on making the supply chain more efficient and also mirrors Walmart’s global strategy, five people, of which three are Flipkart executives, told ET. During audits, warehouses and last-mile delivery stations that were not meeting local laws and its own enhanced compliance standards — including fire safety, lighting, women’s … [Read more...] about This Diwali, Flipkart has ‘good news’ for buyers of these products

Monila Juneja studied in six different schools across the country and completed class 10 from Jammu & Kashmir during the peak of the conflict in the region. She believes this has made her highly adaptive and flexible. “I'm tuned to taking quick decisions and I own those completely,” says Monila, whose father retired as a squadron leader in the Indian Air Force. Today, the 43-year-old mother of two is director of R&D at semiconductor tools company Synopsys, and works on a hi-tech product line in the complex area of chip design. The $3-billion US company provides a broad portfolio of foundation IP (intellectual property) that enable chip designers to lower risk and accelerate time-to-market. Monila is part of the Foundation IP group and her team is responsible for developing high-performance, low-power speciality memories (integrated circuits made out of millions of capacitors and transistors that can store data or be used to process code). “My team and I … [Read more...] about Monila leads 340 top-class techies at Synopsys

New Delhi: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has said that the number of customers moving into its network is higher than those leaving it, making its mobile number portability (MNP) positive during 2019-20 so far, Parliament was informed on Thursday. The number of port-ins stood at 53.64 lakh, against 28.27 lakh port outs in 2018-19, and thereafter the numbers cumulative up to October 2019 was 2.04 crore (port-ins) against 1.80 crore (port-outs). "BSNL has informed that number of customers ported in to BSNL is higher than the ported-out customer of BSNL. BSNL's MNP is positive during 2019-20 (till October, 2019)," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. The number of mobile connections of BSNL stood at 11.64 crore as on August 31. In a separate reply, the minister said that with the Cabinet approving the revival plan for BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) last month, it is expected that both the … [Read more...] about BSNL ‘number portability’ positive so far in FY20; more users joining network than leaving: Telecom Minister

NEW DELHI: India's older telcos Airtel and Vodafone Idea believe that consumers should be free to decide whether they want to use 2G or 4G, even if it may be more economically beneficial to have all customers on 4G. Executives at incumbent carriers added that having a mix of technologies allows them to address voice and data demands separately, especially for feature phone users who may be willingly chosing to remain on 2G due to the affordability factor. "While operators would love to go to a single network, it saves them money as well, but we can't force people to do things that they don't want to do, we must let the market decide and let the customer decide,” said Rajan Mathews, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), that represents all three carriers - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio. Of them, Jio, which is the only one to operate a full 4G network, has called upon the government and the regulator to take policy steps to make … [Read more...] about Reliance Jio wants to make India ‘2G-free’, Airtel, Vodafone differ