An exclusive pre-paid plan for the paramilitary personnel was launched by the Madurai branch of public sector telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd in Madurai. BSNL General Manager, S E Rajam, said during the launch late on Tuesday that personnel from all the 18 para military forces could use the scheme. The plan would be useful for personnel when they were deployed in remote and bo
Qatar`s telecom operator, Qtel, has announced the successful landing of the Tata Global Network (TGN) Gulf high-capacity submarine fibre optic cable in Sumaismah, north of Doha. When the new link is fully functional by the end of the year, it will instantaneously route traffic from Qtel customers to Mumbai and onward to the rest of the world, via the Tata Global Network, it has announce
The Government is expected to connect five lakh villages with the internet broadband services under the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) in next two years. "We have setup a high powered committee, Sam Pitroda is heading the committee, co-chaired by Nandan Nilekani. I am told by Sam Pitroda that he will try and implement the policy within next two years (by 2013)," Telecom
Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Tuesday rejected the power ministry`s proposal of stopping e-auction of the dry fuel, saying the electronic route for selling coal needs to be continued for meeting the demands of small users. "Apart from power, steel and cement, there are a lot of sectors where coal is required. Coal India is required to meet their needs as well. Hence, it is no
Indian government may have lost as much as USD 866 million in taxes to software piracy in 2009, a study said on Tuesday. With software piracy rate at 65 per cent (more than six out of 10 computer software installed were not paid for) in 2009, the exchequer tax receipts loss was about USD 866 million in net taxes, both indirect and direct, a joint study by BSA-IDC said. "Software pi
Errant advertisers could face more heat from industry watch dog ASCI, which has jumped on the social networking bandwagon, encouraging youths to speak out against questionable campaigns through its Facebook and Twitter accounts. Within a month of making its debut on Facebook and Twitter, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has already received ten times more complaints aga
Accounting regulator ICAI on Monday said it will soon conclude the disciplinary proceedings against S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, the two auditors embroiled in the multi-crore Satyam fraud. "The Disciplinary Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) would be holding the hearing(s) in the said matter(s) at regular intervals and would try to conclud
The MCD is planning to issue "smart cards" to over 10 lakh children studying in its primary schools, containing the full details of students. Chairman of MCD Education Committee Mahinder Nagpal today said the card will have the student`s name, address, health status and blood group. These cards can also be used for availing benefits under multi-purpose schemes, he said. He sai
Closing down the investigations on Loop and Swan telecom, the Mauritius Government has agreed to provide CBI information about the shareholding patterns of the companies in the Island nation which allegedly acted as a front for routing money in the 2G spectrum scam. Highly placed sources in the investigating agency said that the CBI has asked details of Delphi Investments Limited, Murph
Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Communications on Tuesday said it has received various offers from several interested parties for acquiring a stake in its subsidiary, Reliance Infratel Ltd, which will help the company bring down its huge debt burden. Reliance Infratel Ltd is a subsidiary of Reliance Communications and is engaged in the business of building and operating communications t
The government on Tuesday deferred a decision on a request from Mukesh Ambani-promoted Navi Mumbai SEZ for splitting itself into five zones, seeking more details from the developer. The issues was taken up by the Board of Approval (BoA) headed by Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar at its meeting here. "The issue will be looked into by a committee of officials," Khullar said afte
Madurai District Collector U Sagayam on Monday summoned officials of mobile companies to enquire into complaints of people at Chokikulam area on alleged health problems due to setting up of towers. In a statement, he said the residents had also stated that the health of patients and others in nearby hospitals have also been affected. He said action would be taken against the companies u
Fast-growing South Korean Internet daily deal site Ticket Monster says it has acquired a Malaysian company in its first move overseas. Ticket Monster said on Tuesday that the acquisition of Integrated Methods Sdn Bhd heralds the beginning of its Asian expansion plans. Ticket Monster CEO Daniel Shin said, "We want to aggressively grow internationally." He told reporters the com
Tata Communications which reported consolidated loss of Rs 854 crore for 201011 on Sunday has planned a slew of measures to improve its performance going forward including a turnaround in operations of Neotel in South Africa which dragged down its performance last fiscal. Tata Communications (formerly VSNL) would strive to drive down network costs, focus on productivity gains, address s
With its helplines and open-days flooded with pre-admission queries, Delhi University today launched its Facebook page for students, giving them another avenue to sort out their questions, raise their grievances and offer suggestions. At the first Open Day at the South campus, officials of the University were bombarded by a series of questions by curious students and concerned parents a
Andhra Pradesh has requested the Government of India to set up a premier institute on the lines of C-DAC and D-DOT for exclusive design and development of the fourth generation (4G) and next-generation networks (NGN) in Hyderabad to meet the requirements of telecommunications industry. The state government will provide required land and other infrastructure facilities for the new instit
Private telecom service provider Vodafone Essar on Monday hailed the steps taken by the Department of Information Technology to leverage the power of cellphone phone through mobile-governance. The company shared its recommendations to make the process of mobile-governance seamless and will add maximum value to a citizen`s life, Vodafone said in its letter. Vodafone expressed the necessi
Sri Lanka will be introducing online visas for tourists visiting the island country within next two months on a trial basis, a senior diplomat said here. Prasad Kariyawasam, high commissioner of Sri Lanka in India, said that the online visa would be an alternative to the visa-on-arrival, which has been currently discontinued in the South Asian nation. Kariyawasam c
An English local authority said on Sunday that it had taken US micro-blogging site Twitter to court in California and forced it to release the details of a British user. South Tyneside Council, in northeast England, took the legal action in a bid to discover the identity of a blogger behind allegedly libellous statements. The blogger, known as "Mr Monkey", has levelled
Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Monday appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the 2G spectrum scam to explain how the government auditor quantified the losses in the spectrum allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Rai was asked to brief the Committee, chaired by Congress leader P C Chacko, on the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum
