Telecom
March 24, 2013
Bharti Airtel Ltd Bharti Airtel Ltd needs no introduction of its own as the company is one of the world’s leading providers of telecommunication services with […]
February 18, 2013
Indian Telecom Industry 929 million – the number of subscribers, the Indian telecom sector has achieved to become one of the major indicators of and contributors […]
September 18, 2012
The Indian Government has been enmeshed in a never ending series of scandals and scams. The government constantly fighting the endless attacks on it by the […]
June 19, 2012
The mobile phone market has changed radically in the last few years with the advent of Apple’s iPhone. The introduction of the Apple smartphone was a […]
June 4, 2012
Corruption in India has been exposed in many forms of late and we have documented this in GWI. Politicians, Bureaucrats, Army Generals and Business Owners have […]
May 24, 2012
India has for long lacked an agency to control the monopolistic and predatory practices of Indian companies . The old MTRP Act had become quite toothless after […]
May 17, 2012
Indian Insurance Industry Story Sours with Job Losses and Exits with ULIP Reforms and FDI No-Reforms
The Indian Insurance Industrywhich was massively booming like the telecom industry at one time in India is now seeing similar troubles. The industry saw many entrants […]
January 19, 2012
The company is planning to introduce a big bang plan for broadband coupling a cheap tablet with a cheap monthly plan. This is on the lines of a mobile phone with a monthly connection. Reliance has a good chance of winning the broadband market which remains under penetretad and high cost. It poses a direct existential threat to India's telecom companies which have failed to compete on data effectively.
Reliance in continuation of its strategy in the media industry has bought a small stake in Den Networks one of India's largest cable networks though one its subsidiaries. The company is slowly and methodically capturing the entire media development and delivery network in the country. The stake in the cable companies will give it leverage to deliver its broadband and content.
January 7, 2012
Reliance has a massive balance sheet which is has used strategically to acquire 4G spectrum (Infotel) and content.The company had revolutionized the telecom space through the Monsoon Hungama campaign when it had provided super cheap telecom mobile plan with handsets. It could do the same in the Internet space through providing super cheap Talbelts like Aakash with super cheap broadband plans on 4G. It already has content to provide its subscribers.Note broadband companies in India provide poor service at high rates, so Reliance can takeover the broadband space in India easily if it executes right.
January 4, 2012
Telecom Companies in India are in general an unscrupolous lot with the 2G Scam showing the whole telecom industry of India in a Bad Light.While a number of top executives of telecom companies spent time in jail,it seems that these companies have learned nothing.They continue to find loopholes to take both their customers and government for a ride.Indian Broadband and Telecom companies have made defrauding customers an art by illegally adding value added services and charging for them.They also burn millions of dollars in subsidized diesel to power their telecom towers since there is no restriction on that.Now these comapnies have been caught again in another manipulation trick in 3G services.
July 5, 2011
The Indian telecom industry is the world’s fastest growing industry with 792 million mobile phone subscribers as of February 2011. It is also the second largest telecommunication network in the world in terms of number of wireless connections after China. The industry will reach around $80 billion in revenues by next year showing an astounding CAGR of over 25% and will employ a stupendous 1 crore employees making it one of the biggest value creators in India in recent times. The introduction of mobile phones brought a major revolution in the industry. Mobile phones have become a modern day necessity. Be it a professional, a trader, a housewife or a student, everyone has one. The availability of cheap mobiles in the Indian market, is also a major factor in making it available & affordable to the common masses. Today's mobile phone is not just a phone, it has a built in camera, music system, games & internet enabled networking. These facilities entertain you as well as make you available to work as & when required.
July 4, 2011
India's Supreme Court took the matter of hundreds of billions of dollars of Black Money stashed into foreign bank accounts into its own hands as the government has repeatedly failed to take any action stalling the case.The Indian government led by the Congress Party has been repeatedly blasted by the Supreme Court for not acting against corruption matters.Recently the Court in an unprecedented move took over the supervision of the CBI in 2G Telecom Scandal Case Investigation.Note CBI is under the Home Ministry and like other investigations was being tardy to take action government ministers.The 2G Telecom case has resulted in top ministers and corporate CEOs being jailed with prospects of more being convicted.
July 4, 2011
Not only that but with the loss of political power,Sun TV executives can no longer manage to intimidate the industry.The Sun TV COO Saxena was hauled off to jail in a cheating case filed by a film producer.Note this would have never happened in the earlier DMK regime as the police would have refused to even lodge a case let alone put Saxena in jail.Crony Capitalism is not without its dangers and betting on these stocks is not a great idea.The reason is that once the political party loses power which happens quite frequently in India then the businesses close to that party come under serious fire.Note Dayanidhi Maran is also facing the heat in the 2G Scam where he has been accused of amassing huge amounts of money by favoring close promoters.When he was the Telecom Minister the whole Sun TV group of companies used state telecom infrastructure for free.The whole lesson from this is that betting on stocks/companies close to the ruling party might not be a good idea.In fact opening an event driven hedge fund might be a good idea using power changes in crony capitalist democracies.Thanksin stocks are rallying Thailand today as his sister has won the elections.
June 30, 2011
Note Indian ministries and regulators have been found to be massively corrupt with the 2G Telecom Scandal facing the glare from the Supreme Court .Huge loss has been caused by ministers,corporate CEOs and various politicians a number of which are in jail right now.The CAG report had said that Reliance had doubled its cost in the KG-6 Basin leading to a huge loss for the Indian government.A number of other lapses (intentional) has been found by the DGH and the Ministry each time favoring the private oil and gas companies in India.Now the CBI has filed a case of corruption against the the former chief of the DGH V K Sibal for scuttling a probe by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) for showing undue favors to the private companies.Note India has been stuck by a number of scams in the stock market pertaining to mid cap and small caps.This has led to huge losses for investors with some companies like Reliance Telecom,Unitech having over 90% of their share values eroded.Reliance the biggest Indian company by market capitalization might be facing the same fate if the investigative agencies and the courts do their jobs.
June 25, 2011
However analysts as they are wont are creatures of habit and don't go out of their comfort zone.They try to stay in the territory of the obvious and don't look at deeper problems.India has been rocked by a number of corruption scandals and telecom has been one of the biggest hit.Unitech Wireless one of the new operators is one the verge of having its properties attached by the Indian state while top executives on Reliance (ADAG) are in jail for colluding to defraud the Indian government of billions along with the former telecom minister Raja.While Airtel is not facing this problems,its insidious business practises are equally problematic if the come to light.In broadband companies in India,I wrote how service providers fleece and loot consumer through systematically fraudulent tactics.This is so widespread that I have no doubt that top management is aware if not actively promoting such activities.A refresher,telecom providers in India routinely activate value added services like ringtones (costing Rs 30/month) and other such services without the consumer's consent.As the amount is small and most of the consumers are illiterate without having the knowledge of what's happening ,these companies make a killing.Airtel is also doing this and making the biggest killing of the India consumer.Only a serious investigation on the lines of 2G telecom scam can uncover this corruption scam which goes on bringing hundreds of millions of illegal for these telecom companies.
June 21, 2011
Now India's Largest Company Reliance too has seen its stock fall to a post Lehman low on concerns that it has colluded with the Oil Regulator and Ministry to gold plate its costs in the KG 6 Gas concession.Reliance is India's biggest oil and gas company with interests throughout the supply chain.Note its nothing new as Reliance has always been known to be the most powerful corporate in India .However with the government's own auditing department CAG raising allegations of collusion and corruption,Reliance too may find itself snared in the corruption scandal.Note the infamous Nira Radia tapes had ample proof of how the powerful Reliance group manages the appointment of its favored persons in key federal ministries.The company must now by hoping that the Supreme Court which is already preoccupied with a ton of corruption cases does not take a keen interest and gets the CBI to investigate the allegations.
June 21, 2011
The vendor choice itself shows total lack of judgment and good sense it seems and the contract law being what it is in India,any customer who goes to Sosasta is totally on his own if he wants to recover money which he has to pay upfront.I had personally applied to 2 vendors and nobody has been able to give the required service in the 2 months that had been alloted.After phoning Sosasta 3 times and mailing them twice I finally recieved the money back ,however in the case of the second service ,even after mailing them twice nothing has happened.On top of that the customer care phone numbers don't pick up the phone.
June 20, 2011
The Indian Stock Market saw a flash crash on the morning of 20th June at 10 am.The market which started weak at 9 am fell by almost 3% in 10 minutes.The main index Nifty which was trading at around 5350 crashed to around 5200 in around 10 minutes.The market recovery by 1% but is again starting to go down to the low levels fo 5200 .Note the Indian stock market has been hammered due to worries on inflation,massive endemic corruption which is facing protests from the civil society.The FIIs which are the main buyers of Indian equities in the last year or so seem to have abandoned the Indian stocks as QE2 starts ending and global risks like Greece,US slowdown,inflation and interest rates worries in emerging markets come to the fore.Note Indian stock markets are not the easiest to invest in with scams and scandals happening regularly and it at best remains a market in which you have to choose between the bad and the ugly.
June 1, 2011
Indian Telecom Companies are using more than $500 million in fuel subsidies meant for the poor and generating more than 6 million tons of carbon dioxide every year by using diesel gensets at telecom towers not connected to the grid.Note the Telecom Industry in India has not exactly covered itself with glory on other matters with the 2G Telecom Scam already putting top executives in jail and implicating top telecom companies as well.The issues of massive fuel wastage in telecom towers has been raised in the past in greenworldinvestor as telecom tower companies viom,gtl,airtel and others have tried to put lipstick on the pig by making a mockery of green initiatives by committing to convert only a minuscule number of total towers to renewable energy.
May 6, 2011
CBI which is India's leading investigate agency controlled by the government at the centre has been known to be a pawn in the ruling party hands.It selectively investigates cases against the opposition and the ruling alliance repeatedly messing up intentionally cases of graft against government ministers at the state and federal level.The Ruling Party has often used CBI as a powerful tool against both alliance parties as well as the opposition parties.This blantant manner of corruption had made the Supreme Court directly take the supervision of CBI in the 2G Telecom Scandal investigation which has thrown top corporate and politicians in jail.Now CBI has started acting tardily in the Adarsh Housing Scandal in which top Congress ministers in Maharashtra,bureaucrats,retired generals and admirals had conspired to usurp real estate land worth crores of ruppees.
May 5, 2011
The Tata Group which is known in India for high standards of corporate governance and doing business ethically in a country steeped in corruption too seems to have fallen.Ratan Tata appeared blemished as tapes of his conversations with the now disreputed corporate lobbyist Nira Radia were published in the media.He was caught at least listening and agreeing the the open manipulation of the Indian ministries in government formation if not the architect.Tata Teleservices which was a major beneficiary of the second round of 2G Telecom Auction during Raja's tenure has now again appeared in the news for the wrong reasons.Despite denials by the Tata Group honchos,the Tata companies seem to be complicit in the billion dollar scam that has shaken the political and business roots of India.
May 2, 2011
Lavasa is a story of corruption,looting of the poor and raping of the surrounding environment by the Indian politician-bureaucrat-businessmen nexus in a beautiful cover of a township built for the rich and well heeled.There is little concern for the law as these powerful developers know that they can get away with murder quite literally.The long term sustainability of the township is in doubt which defeats the entire purpose anyway.Any buyer of property in Lavasa should be aware of these problems and should not buy it as their investment will be eroded in the future anyway besides having the taint of being looted from the poor.However the media too has lost interest as a new scandal emerges everyday.
Lavasa Township being constructed near Pune,Maharashtra has been in the media off and on for creating a environmental disaster in the shape of a beautiful township constructed on the hills.The town which has been constructed for 300,000 residents has violated all building and environmental norms of the state and centre.With powerful politicians and businessmen backing the project,its not as surprise that the state government of Maharashtra actively helped the township in bypassing all the laws and regulations.There is no provision for permanent water supply and it would lead to a clash between the water wants of Lavasa and Pune.Note builders in India are notorious for leaving out water and waste sustainability in their plans.The residents of the buildings,apartments and other shelters have to bear the brunt later on when there is no water and problems like waterlogging.Gurgaon the millenium township suffers from both of these problems quite acutely.Note these problems are common to both million dollar homes as well as slums in India.
April 25, 2011
It is a common practice amongst these companies to add value added services like caller tunes without the customer's permission which is totally illegal.Since most of the customers do not know how the billing is happening and do not know how to turn it off,these companies make millions of dollars in illegal profits from such customers.Airtel,Reliance and other major telecom companies in India follow this practice widely and openly.Nobody is going to complain about 50c/month being charged wrongly by the telecom provider.However 50c multiplied by a 100 million customers is neat $50 million in profits for these companies.This overbilling of customers even extends to broadband customers as I recently found out .After a nightmarish experience with Tata Indicom whose pathetic customer service forced me to change to Airtel,I found a blatant case of overcharging of money in my very first bill.
April 25, 2011
India has lately become a nation known for endemic corruption rather than the world's poster growth boy with the ruling party members implicated in a number of corruption scams.With the government reluctant to take action against its own,the Supreme Court was forced to take over the supervision of the investigating agency CBI.In the first chargesheet top corporate honchos and CEOs were put under arrest alongwith the former telecom minister Raja and his cronies.With the ruling party under pressure from a civil society movement against corruption,the ability to manipulate the investigation process is limited.Not that the government is not trying put impediments in the court cases and top ministers and leaders indulging in character assassination of the eminent social activists like Santosh Hedge and others.This comes even as other chief ministers of the Congress like Gehlot get caught in nepotism.
April 22, 2011
Indian Politicians after being forced to bend against the popular support received by Anna Hazare and other civil rights activists in the recent fast unto death […]
April 19, 2011
The Indian telecom industry is the world's fastest growing industry with 792 million mobile phone subscribers as of February 2011. It is also the second largest telecommunication network in the world in terms of number of wireless connections after China. The industry will reach around $80 billion in revenues by next year showing an astounding CAGR of over 25% and will employ a stupendous 1 crore employees making it one of the biggest value creators in India in recent times.However the telecom companies in India after enjoying a boom period in the early 2000s have faced a couple of tough years with hypercompetition leading to a price war in auction of 3G spectrum.This was followed by one of the most high profile corruption scandals in the country which resulted in the jailing of the former telecom minister in the 2nd auction of 2G spectrum.Most of the telecom companies have been found to be implicated in colluding with sleazy politicians/bureaucrats in looting the Indian taxpayers.India Real Estate Sector is one of the most corrupt in the country and after the 2G Scam,the telecom sector is giving it close competition for the No.1 spot in corruption
April 15, 2011
Nira Radia the millionaire lobbyist who became a public figure overnight as tapes leaked to her phone conversations were printed by the mass media has revealed sordid details about the politician businessmen nexus.In the chargesheet presented by the CBI to the Supreme Court she has revealed the multi billion dollar realty company DB Realty is a front for Sharad Pawar and controlled by him.This hardly comes as a surprise as powerful Agri Minister Pawar has been linked to a number of corruption scandals like the Lavasa Scandal,2G Telecom Scam,IPL Scam etc.Note DB Realty CEO has been directly implicated in the transfer of bribe giving to Raja the former Telecom Minister in exchange for a Telecom License at dirt cheap prices.It is a tribute to the power of Pawar that despite such massive circumstantial evidence against him and his family,there has been no court case or police charges against him.Note a number of big companies in India are known to be secretly owned and controlled by powerful politicians.Not that politicians don't own billion dollar businesses openly and use their political muscle to further their own interests in a blatant manner.
April 8, 2011
The Government of India has been trying to put hurdles in the 2G Telecom Scam case right from Day 1.Its blatant shielding of the rich and powerful involved in the massive billion dollar corruption involving ruling party alliance members and top corporate houses has been apparent.The proof of the government malintentions was India's top court taking over the supervision of the investigation agency CBI with itself.This was a major slap for the government as CBI falls under the authority of the Home Ministry.With the CBI having filed a chargesheet which names the former Telecom Minister Raja and some billionaire businessmen,the government is again trying its stalling tactics.The government and its repsentative lawyers did not agree to the name of U U Lalit as special public prosecutor.Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Indira Jaising raised objections despite K K Venugopal, who has been appearing on behalf of CBI and ED suggesting his name.
April 5, 2011
India’s Civil Society has brought out the Jan Lokpal Bill that has been drafted has been drafted by eminent members of the civil society like Prashant […]
April 5, 2011
The Jan LokPal Bill is supposed to be the answer to India's massive endemic corruption which strikes daily in the form of a new scam or scandal.The government has proven to be woefully inadequate in taking on the corrupt politicians,bureaucrats and businessmen.This corrupt nexus has been repeatedly exposed and its structure exposed through the Nira Radia Tapes.The Indian administration has shamefully failed to take action only promising to do something without doing anything worthwhile.The Indian Judiciary has also castigated the government numerous times for its abject failure in the 2G Telecom Scam,Black Money Scandal etc.However the government instead of strengthening anti-corruption measures has only put obstacles in the way.Its no wonder when the committee meant to look after the Bill comprises of ministers tainted with a number of scams themselves.Anna Hazare has held a fast unto death to put pressure on the government to pass the draft bill but the Minister appear unconcerned.Here is a short summary and guide to the main points of the Jan LokPal Bill which IMHO deserves the support of the whole Indian civil society.