India News

Ericsson case: Supreme Court to hear RCom plea on Wednesday

The Supreme Court will hear on Thursday Reliance Communications’ plea seeking permission to withdraw its appeal against initiation of insolvency proceedings by Ericsson India last year. A Bench led by Justice RF Nariman will also hear on Thursday another application by Ericsson which also wants to end the insolvency proceedings it had initiated against RCom and its two group firms – Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom – last year as the beleaguered telecom company had paid Rs 550 crore to Ericsson as per the apex court’s orders.

BSNL to hive off Rs 15,000 crore fibre assets into separate unit

Cash-strapped telecom player BSNL, which faced issues with salary payments last month, plans to hive off its fibre assets into a separate company, which is expected to have a valuation of Rs 10,000-15,000 crore.

BSNL has about eight lakh route km of fibre infrastructure across India compared with Reliance Jio with 4.78 lakh route km (including 178,000 route km that it acquired from Reliance Communications) and Airtel’s 2.46 lakh route km and Vodafone Idea’s 1.56 lakh km, according to estimates.

Tata, GIC, SSG to pick up Rs 80-billion stakes in GMR's airport unit

A consortium including India’s Tata Group, a unit of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and SSG Capital Management will invest Rs 80 billion ($1.2 billion) to buy a stake in GMR Airports Ltd.

The deal will pump Rs 10 billion into GMR Airports, a unit of GMR Infrastructure Ltd. and purchase Rs 70 billion of the airport unit’s equity shares from the parent, according to a statement. GMR operates Delhi International Airport Ltd., the country’s biggest airport.

Mindtree drops buyback plan, forms panel to evaluate L&T's open offer

The corporate battle between L&T and Mindtree entered the next phase on Tuesday with the construction-to-engineering major issuing a public statement on its open offer, which will start on May 14, while the board of the Bengaluru-headquartered firm decided to drop its buyback plan.

After its previous board meeting on March 20, the Mindtree board informed the exchanges it would constitute a committee of independent directors to evaluate the open offer proposal of L&T.

NCLAT stays DoT show cause notices to RCom for cancellation of spectrum licence

New Delhi: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Tuesday stayed the two notices issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to debt-ridden Reliance Communications for cancellation of its spectrum licence for delay in payment.

Oil PSUs profit to take a hit if govt stops price revision during polls: Moody's

New Delhi: Profitability of state-owned refiners such as Indian Oil Corp (IOC) may come under pressure if the government asks them to temporarily freeze the prices of petrol, diesel and other fuels ahead of general elections, Moody's Investors Service said Tuesday.

Trai to hold consultation with BSNL, MTNL on 4G spectrum allocation: Govt

Telecom regulator Trai will hold a consultation on spectrum allocation with state-owned firms BSNL and MTNL soon, a top official said Tuesday.

"We have received a reference from the DoT couple of days back on the allocation of spectrum for 4G services to BSNL and MTNL. We will issue a consultation paper and hold open house discussion on it," Trai Chairman R S Sharma told reporters on sidelines of an ICEA event.