With the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday giving its approval to the merger of Vodafone and Idea Cellular, the decks have been cleared for the two to now function as a single entity. An announcement of the date from which the new entity by the name of Vodafone Idea Limited will start functioning will be made as early as Friday.

Idea Cellular on Friday said Axiata, whose current holding in the company stands at over 16 per cent, has relinquished "all major rights" including that of nominating a director on the board.

Idea's statement comes at a time when the telecom firm has received the government's approval for merger with Vodafone.

Idea Cellular today said Axiata, whose current holding in the company stands at over 16 per cent, has relinquished “all major rights” including that of nominating a director on the board. Idea’s statement comes at a time when the telecom firm has received the government’s approval for merger with Vodafone. The combination is set to create the country’s largest mobile phone operator worth more than USD 23 billion with a 35 per cent market share.

Even though Idea Cellular has surprisingly reported a net profit of Rs 2.57 billion for the June quarter due to a one-time gain from the sale of its tower assets, key performance metrics of the company remain weak.

The Aditya Birla Group company, which will soon be merged with Vodafone India, has seen deterioration in revenues, operating profit, margins and average revenue per user (ARPU).

In its last financial result before merger with Vodafone India, Aditya Birla Group firm Idea Cellular today reported total comprehensive income of Rs 263.6 crore in the June quarter, mainly on account of one time gain from sale of mobile towers.

Blows from turbulent tariff war was, however, visible on its operational performance.

The swift way in which the Idea-Vodafone merger is progressing under a year shows the improvement in ease of doing business in India.”

That was Vittorio Colao at the World Economic Forum (WEF) governors’ meeting in Davos earlier this year. Though a vocal critic of the labyrinthian regulations and bureaucracy of the world’s largest democracy

To take the better of neck and neck competition in the telecom sector, Idea Cellular has launched a new offer for its prepaid customers. Idea Cellular is offering 300 minutes of free voice calls, 1GB of free 4g data in just Rs 75. Besides, users will also get up to 100 SMS messages per day. The plan will be valid for 28 days.

The government today gave final approval to the mega merger of Vodafone and Idea Cellular which will create the country’s largest mobile operator with 35 percent market share with around 430 million subscribers. The move comes just days after Idea Cellular and Vodafone India made a joint payment of Rs 7,268.78 crore ‘under protest’ to the Department of Telecom (DoT) for merging their mobile business.

Inching closer to the formation of country’s biggest telecom operator, Idea Cellular and Vodafone have made joint payment of Rs 7,248.78 crore under protest to the Department of Telecom for merging their mobile business. “Idea Cellular and Vodafone have made payment under protest as demanded by the DoT for the merger. Rs 3,926.34 crore have been paid in cash and bank guarantee of Rs 3,322.44 crore have been furnished,” an Idea Cellular official confirmed the development.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has rejected Vodafone India and Idea Cellular’s requests to recalculate their dues, saying its numbers are fine and that India’s second- and third-ranked telcos should pay up to get a final seal of approval on their merger at the earliest.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.