Padmaja Venugopal on election setback, Silverline project and Congress leadership

Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of legendary Congress leader K Karunakaran who was the chief minister of Kerala for several years is no new name in Kerala politics. She has been very active in KPCC over the past few decades and is known for taking strong stands on issues within and outside the party. In the recently […]

Happy with work-from-home, no plans to go back to office- HGS

Hinduja Global Solutions, one of India’s largest BPO providers with nearly 47,000 employees, said it was quite happy with how things are going under the ‘work from home’ mode, and has no immediate plans to shift employees back to the office. The comments come even as IT firms like TCS have asked employees to be […]

Havells sees shift to organized players as input prices rise

Havells India, one of the country’s largest electrical equipment makers, said it expects organized players such as itself to benefit as raw material price increases put pressure on unorganized players. The company, a prominent player in the switchgear, wire and lighting segments in India, also said that demand for electrical goods in India is on […]

Streaming revenue push Saregama profits to record levels

Saregama, India’s largest record label and an emerging force in the digital video space, looks all set to breach its pre-COVID revenue and profit numbers in the current financial year due to rising demand for streaming music. The company’s operating revenue had set a record in the year 2018-19 at Rs 544.7 cr, but declined […]

Kerala CPIM warns of Islamist, Christian extremism on campuses

Abandoning its long-held restraint when it comes to commenting on extremists originating from minority communities, the Kerala unit of CPIM has included warnings about ‘attempts to spread extremism’ among students belonging to Muslim and Christian communities in Kerala. The warning, contained in this year’s guidebook for student leaders, was in addition to the traditional instruction […]

Broadcasting sector declines as broadband gains ground in India

The latest industry numbers for the broadband and broadcasting industries seem to confirm what many industry watchers have been warning for years — the rising penetration of affordable and high-speed wired internet will displace cable and DTH services in India. While this has always been seen as a theoretical possibility or hypothesis, new data from […]

Hinduja’s NXTDigital signs up 3 MSOs for infra-sharing

NXTDigital, the television channel aggregator, said it has signed on three MSOs in the India for its infrastructure sharing scheme, and expects the government to start approving these deals as early as this month. “There are three partner clients,” said CEO Vynsley Fernandes, speaking to investors, promising to disclose the names once the ministry permissions […]

Airtel Broadband adding 1 town/day; Target 2000 towns in 3 years

Bharti Airtel, formerly India’s biggest telecom operator, announced plans to take its fiber-based broadband services to nearly every town in India over the next three years, except for the smallest of the small. The company, which is currently launching its fiber services in more than 1 new town per day, said it plans to take […]

RailWire introduces new plans at cheaper rates

RailWire, the wired service from Indian Railways’ RailTel Corp, has announced a set of new plans offering more data for lower monthly subscription amounts. The move comes less than a month after BSNL introduced new plans in the low-tariff category. The highlight of the new RailWire plans is the new 50 Mbps, which is priced […]

COVID drags Zensar Tech’s revenue, boosts Q1 profit

Zensar Tech, a mid-size IT and outsourcing company based in India, reported a 3.1% dip in its revenue (after adjusting for currency fluctuations) as the number of onshore employees fell sharply year-on-year due to COVID-19. Constant currency calculations measure how the company’s revenue would have performed had there been no change in currency exchange rates […]

No need for census data, will protect reservation: Govt

Government of India on Wednesday said lack of economic and social data about intermediate castes will not impact their inclusion in OBC reservations for government services and higher education. Nityanand Rai, Minister of State for Home Affairs, was replying to a question by MP TR Baalu on why the government is not collecting socio-economic data […]

HFCL to become 5G supplier, sets up dedicated unit

Telecom equipment and services provider HFCL Ltd said it plans to offer 5G equipment and turnkey services, marking a move up from its roots as a telecom contractor. The company, which has in recent years successfully diversified into manufacturing — particularly of fiber optic cables and terminal devices — said its new 5G network services […]

RailWire promises tough fight to Jio, Airtel

Railtel Corporation of India, the telecom unit of Indian Railways, said it does not expect to lose subscribers to rival operators like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, even as it promised to take its RailWire services to even the tiniest of towns this year. RailTel Chairman and Managing Director Punit Chawla said his company is […]

Puravankara believes offices will return, intros WfH tweaks

Puravankara Ltd, the biggest residential real estate brand in Bangalore, said it is making changes to its apartment designs to attract work-from-home customers, but believes that employees will shift back to the work-from-office model in another 12-18 months. STRONG DEMAND The company has been seeing strong demand for its residential flats, as buyers increasingly prefer […]

Amazon starts Fire TV broadband service in India

Amazon has expanded its Fire brand of devices and software to the service sector with the launch of its Fire TV Hotspot broadband service in India. The company started offering Fire TV branded broadband connectivity in the Indian city of Mumbai — making it possibly the only one in the world to get Amazon branded […]