Government on Wednesday justified its decision to neutralise the impact of supreme court decision in the Vodafone case by amending the Income Tax Act with retrospective effect suggesting it was to prevent outflow of Rs 40,000-Rs 50,000 crore from the exchequer. Winding up a debate on Finance Bill in the rajya sabha, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said parliament is omnipotent and has
A former chief of TRAI on Wednesday told a parliamentary panel that the decision to invite limited bidders for the telecom regime change in 1999 was taken by the government and the regulator had no role in it. S S Sodhi appeared before the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) looking into the 2G issue where he was asked questions about the migration package offered by the then NDA govern
China`s Beidou Navigation Satellite System, being built to rival US global position system (GPS), will be able to provide high-quality services to most users in the Asia-Pacific region this year, an official said. "With the trial run of the Beidou navigation service, we believe that China can provide high-quality satellite navigation services for most users in the Asia-Pacific regi
As Facebook nears saturation levels in some Western countries, Asian users are helping drive the social-networking leader`s march on the 1-billion- user milestone and beyond. The Facebook-led social-networking phenomenon has profoundly impacted the region -- challenging conservative ideals, connecting diaspora communities and allowing users to circumvent authoritarian information contro
Telecom operator Idea Cellular on Wednesday said it has become the first guest operator to provide mobile connectivity across the Delhi Airport Metro Express Line. Idea has installed mobile towers at all six stations on the line.
Mobile handset maker Spice on Wednesday said the company will launch `Secure Android` handset range, which offers pre- embedded security solutions to its users. "With a visible upward trend in mobile payments and m-commerce in India we at Spice are sensitive to the situation and hence are offering security solutions to all our users," S Mobility global head devices Kunal Ahooj
Saudi Arabia`s mobile communications and technology provider Mobily has announced the award of its MVNE solution and services contract to XIUS, Limited of Hyderabad, India. XIUS is providing MVNE/MVNO network infrastructure and operations managed services as well as MVNE back-office services required for the qualification and launching of MVNO on the Mobily network and MVNE platform and
Infosys chief mentor Narayana Murthy has been felicitated with the Global Leadership and Free Enterprise award by the University of South Florida in recognition of his entrepreneurial spirit. The two awards were presented to Murthy by USF president Judy Genshaft at a ceremony in Tampa, Florida. In his interaction with USF students, Murthy talked about his current duties as Infos
With average annual growth rate of double percent digits, Indian Media and Entertainment Industry registered revenues of US dollars 16.3 billion in 2010 and is expected to be in excess of 25 billion US dollars in next four years as per Ernst and Young report. There are 600 television channels, 100 million pay TV households, 70 000 newspapers and more than 1000 films produced annually. T
Making it easy for the Indian diaspora to seek information under the RTI Act, the centre has decided to float electronic Indian Postal Order for paying RTI fee, which can be purchased using debit and credit cards. The Indians settled abroad were finding it difficult to seek information under the transparency law as IPO or Demand Draft of Rs 10 was not easily available. The depar
Telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday recommended bringing to value-added service (VAS) providers under licencing regime. "The authority recommends that the application service providers (ASP) should be covered under licensing through authorisation (LTA)," Trai said on Tuesday. It, however, said LTA holders shall neither be required to pay licence fee nor performance bank
US-based GPS device maker Garmin on Tuesday said it is targeting to increase its share in the personal navigation devices (PND) market to 30 per cent by December-end as it is expanding the product portfolio and operations in the country. "We have a 15 per share in the PND market in the country at present. We are targeting to increase our share to 30 per cent by the end of December,
The Indian IT infrastructure market comprising of servers, storage and networking equipment is expected to reach USD 3.01 billion by 2016, research firm Gartner on Monday said. The segment, estimated at USD 1.86 billion in 2011, is expected to grow 10.3 per cent to USD 2.05 billion in 2012 and further expand to USD 3.01 billion by 2016, Gartner said in a statement. "Technol
BPO major Genpact on Monday said it will acquire Atyati Technologies, a technology platform provider for the rural banking sector in India, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition of Atyati Technologies provides Genpact with a technology platform in the rural banking space with last mile functionality, Genpact said in a statement. The deal is expected to close in 3-4 weeks, s
Amid concerns over the revised Trai recommendations on spectrum auction, Malaysian telecom firm Axiata, which holds around 20 per cent stake in Idea Cellular, on Tuesday said it remains committed to a long haul in the country. It, however, added that the high spectrum reserve price will adversely impact their business case, along with the viability of the industry and pricing for the en
Over 19,000 transgenders across the country have been issued `Aadhaar` numbers by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). "Number of Aadhaar letters issued to transgenders is 19,447," the UIDAI said in reply to an RTI query. Nearly 16 crore such numbers have been issued to various individuals since the inception of the authority in 2009. Of the to
The Haryana government has constituted a state e-Governance management team (SeMT) to extend technical and professional support to various government departments in conceptualisation and implementation of various e-Governance initiatives. Apart from this, steps have also been taken to upgrade the skills of government employees for successful implementation for e-Governance initiatives.
India may be embracing latest technologies like mobility and cloud, but factors like privacy concerns and cultural fabric could restrain social media growth in the country as compared to other nations, a report by research firm Gartner on Sunday said. The report suggests that four significant forces that will shape businesses during the next five years are IT, mobile, cloud and s
Despite pressure from industry, India`s telecom regulator Trai on Sunday stood by its recommendation of high base price for auction of spectrum saying the increase in the tariff can be absorbed by operators, but gave marginal relief in the price of frequencies being used for CDMA services. In its response to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Spectrum auction proposals, Tr
The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has sought early passage of the new Companies Bill. ICSI President Nesar Ahmad has said he has requested Yashwant Sinha, Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, to work towards approval of the Bill in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament. The Bill, which will replace the Companies Act 1956, s
