Telecom mirror 1st issue march 18 pdf for print

MR. JAITLEY, HOW WILL YOU CREATE JOB?

W Jaitley referred the independent study authored by respected Prof Pulak Ghosh (IIM Bangalore) and Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh (Group Chief Advisor, SBI) is titled, ‘Towards a Payroll Reporting in India’.

While presenting the Narendra Modi government’s last full Budget in the Lok Sabha before the 2019 General Election, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed that 70 lakh (7 million) jobs will be created this year. To display his confidence on the above-mentioned numbers, Jaitley referred to the independent study authored by Prof Pulak Ghosh (IIM Bangalore) and Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh (Group Chief Advisor, SBI) titled, ‘Towards a Payroll Reporting in India’.

It is difficulty to buy Jailyey’s speech, coming as it is after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise, in his election campaign four years ago, to people of India that he would create 1 crore jobs (10 million) annually. Given that India adds annually about 12 million job-seekers, this electoral promise played a big role in getting him into the Prime Minister's Office in May 2014.

Regrettably, since Modi government took charge in mid2014, only about 823,000 jobs had been created in the country till October 2017.

Now the moot question is: How will India create 7 million jobs in a year as FM mentioned in his budget speech when telecom sector has already lost around 40,000 people and the trend is likely to continue for the next sixnine months and may see the culling touching 80,00090,000? It is estimated that about 7 lakh people will turn jobless in IT and BPO sector by 2022.

Sanjeeb Kumar

Editor-In-Chief

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TELECOM

MIRROR

INDEX

COVER STORY

BUDGET 2018-19 : PUTTING MONEY ON EVERYONE’S BASKET

Volume : 1, Issue : 1, March, 2018

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SANJEEB KUMAR Editor-in-Chief ACHYUT NATH JHA Executive Editor SHIV KUMAR CHAUHAN Sales Head HARI OM SHARMA Sr. Photo Journalist NIRMALA SINGH RANA President

Cover Story : Quotes

ANWARUL HAQUE Design Head

HERE IS HOW THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY REACTED TO THE UNION BUDGET OF 2018

SUMIT KUMAR Legal Advisor Owned, Edited, Printed and Published by Sanjeeb Kumar published from House Number-34, Gali Number-10, South Ganesh Nagar, New Delhi110092*Printed By Modest Graphic (P) Ltd, C-52-53, DDA Shades, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-1, New Delhi-110020 All disputes to be settled in Delhi Courts only. All rights reserved. No responsibility in taken for returning unsolicited manuscripts unless a self-address stamped envelope is enclosed. Views express in articles in National Political Mirror do not necessarily those of the editorial.

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New Appoinmnets QLIK NAMES MICROSOFT’S ARUN BALASUBRAMANIAN AS INDIA HEAD

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Data analytics firm Qlik said that it has appointed Arun Balasubramanian as its Country Manager for India. In his role at Qlik, he will be responsible for leading and expanding Qlik’s operations in India.

NEWS TRAI’S DECISION ON IN-FLIGHT WI-FI WILL INCREASE REVENUE FOR AIRLINES: HONEYWELL AEROSPACE

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The TRAI’s decision to permit inflight Wi-Fi on domestic and international flights is a welcome one and a groundbreaking step for the aviation market, said Neelu Khatri, president, Honeywell Aerospace, India. |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR|

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COVER STORY

BUDGET 2018-19 PUTTING MONEY ON EVERYONE’S BASKET 8By Sanjeeb Kumar

T

o boost Digital India, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley has doubled the allocation towards the programme to Rs 3,073 crore in the Budget of 2018-19. To further the broadband access in villages, an allocation of Rs. 10,000 crore has been provided in the Budget for creation and augmentation of telecom infrastructure. The Government proposes to set up 5 lakh wi-fi hot spots which will provide broadband access to 5 crore rural citizens. The Finance Minister informed that the Phase I of Bharatnet Project has already enabled broadband access to over 20 crore rural Indians. For latest technologies, he said that Department of Science and Technology will launch a Mission on Cyber Physical Systems to support establishment of centers of excellence for research in training and skilling in robotics, artificial intelligence, digital manufacturing, big data analysis and quantum communication. Jaitley also announced that NITI Aayog will initiate a national program to direct efforts in the area of artificial intelligence. To harness the benefit of emerging new technologies, the Department of Telecom will support the establishment of an indigenous 5G Test Bed at IIT, Chennai. The Government will take all measures to eliminate the use of crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities. It will also explore the use of block-chain technology for ushering in digital economy.

CUSTOMS DUTY INCREASED ON MOBILE PHONES AND TV PARTS After the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Jaitley, in the Budget 2018-19, made a calibrated departure from the underlying policy in the last two decades, wherein the trend largely was to reduce the customs duty. FM acknowledged that there was sub-

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Developing new technologies for communication for Smart Cities Mission, he informed that 99 cities have been selected with an outlay of Rs. 2.04 lakh crore under the Smart Cities Mission

stantial potential for domestic value addition in certain sectors, like food processing, electronics, auto components, footwear and furniture. He thus proposed to reduce customs duty on raw cashew from 5% to 2.5% to help the cashew processing industry.

To further incentivise the domestic value addition and Make in India, he proposed to increase customs duty on mobile phones from 15% to 20%, on some of their parts and accessories to 15% and on certain parts of TVs to 15%. “This measure will promote creation of more jobs in the country, ‘Jaitley added. In fact, this will make the domestic items cheaper than imported ones and will generate more demand which, in turn, will create more employment opportunities for the people at large.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR EVERY SECTOR Jaitley has announced that all railway stations and trains will be progressively provided with wi-fi.

CCTVs will be provided at all stations and on trains to enhance security of passengers. Air Pollution in Delhi-NCR is a cause for concern and special scheme to be implemented to support Govts of Haryana, Punjab, UP and Delhi NCT to address it and subsidize machinery for management of crop residue For Smart Cities Mission and the AMRUT, he informed that 99 cities have been selected with an outlay of Rs. 2.04 lakh crore under the Smart Cities Mission. Projects worth Rs. 2350 crore have been completed and works of Rs. 20,852 crore are under progress. The National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) has been taken-up to revitalize heritage cities. Under AMRUT program, State level plans of Rs. 77,640 crore for 500 cities have been approved. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth Rs. 19,428 crore and sewerage work contract for 272 projects costing Rs. 12, 429 crore have been awarded. 482 cities have started Credit Rating and 144 cities have got investment Grade Rating.

CREDIT SUPPORT & INNOVATION Announcing that a provision of Rs. 3794 crore has been provided in the General Budget 2018-19 for the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) , Jaitley said that this has been done to provide credit support, capital and interest subsidy and innovations to this Sector. He added that an outlay of Rs.7148 crore has been provided for the Textile Sector.

Strongly emphasising that creation of job opportunities and facilitating generation of employment |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR|

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COVER STORY has been at the core of policy-making of the Government over the last three years, the Finance Minister mentioned that an independent study conducted recently has shown creation of 70 lakh formal jobs this year. Jaitley pointed out that the Government will contribute 12% of the wages of the new employees in the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) for all the sectors for next three years.

He also referred to the extension of the facility of fixed term employment to all sectors. He underlined that the Government will soon announce measures for effectively addressing non-performing assets (NPAs) and stressed accounts of MSMEs. In an effort to reduce tax burden on MSMEs and to create large-scale employment, Jaitley also announced measures to extend the benefit of reduced rate of 25% to companies who have reported turnover up to Rs.250 crore in the Financial Year 2016-17. “This will benefit the entire class of micro, small and medium enterprises which accounts for almost 99% of companies filing their tax returns,” the Finance Minister said. He expressed confidence that the lower Corporate Income Tax rate for 99% will leave companies with higher investible surplus, leading to creation of more jobs. Jaitley laid emphasis on the effort to provide incentive to employment of more women in the formal sector. He added that this will lead to higher take-home salary. “Amendments have been proposed to reduce women employees' contribution to 8% for first three years of their employment against existing rate of 12% or 10% with no change in employers' contribution in the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952,” Jaitley stated.

FM announced that the Government is setting up a model aspirational skill centre in every district of the country under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra Programme. He added that he proposed to onboard Public-Sector Banks and corporates on Trade Electronic Receivable Discounting System (TREDS) platform and link it to GSTN. “Online loan sanctioning facility for MSMEs will be revamped for quick decision making by the banks,” he said. FM referred to the

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The government of India launched 99 smart cities in two years. The first batch of 20 cities was selected in January 2016, and the last nine cities were selected as recently as in January 2018. As on January 17, 2018, there are 2,948 projects worth Rs 1.38 lakh crore, at various stages of implementation.

GOVERNMENT TO FOREGO RS 7,000 CRORE DUE TO THIS INCENTIVE

review of the refinancing policy and eligibility criteria set

by MUDRA for better refinancing of Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs). In this regard, he proposed setting a target of Rs.3 lakh crore for lending under MUDRA for 2018-19, as the targets had been exceeded in all previous years. The Finance Minister also referred to a Group in the Finance Ministry that is examining the policy and institutional development measures needed for creating right environment for Fintech companies to grow. He also stated that additional measures will be taken to strengthen the environment for Venture Capital Funds and for their growth and successful operation of alternative investment funds in the country.

Jaitley has proposed a reduced rate of 25% to companies that have reported turnover up to Rs 250 crores in financial year 2016-17. This will benefit the entire class of MSMES which accounts for almost 99% of companies filing their tax returns. Accepting Rs 7,000 crores as the estimated revenue forgone due to this measure during the financial year 2018-19, the Finance Minister said, “This is towards fulfilment of my promise to reduce corporate tax rate in a phased manner.” He further added, “The lower corporate income tax rate for 99% of the companies will leave them with higher investible surplus which in turn will create more jobs.” He recalled that in the Union Budget 2017, he had announced the reduction of corporate tax rate to 25% for companies whose turnover was less than Rs.50 crores in financial year 2015-16. This had benefitted 96% of the total companies filing tax returns. He also said that after this measure, out of about 7 lakh companies filing returns, about 7,000 companies, which file returns of income and whose turnover is above Rs.250 crores, will remain in 30% slab. l |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR|

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COVER STORY

HERE IS HOW THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY REACTED TO THE UNION BUDGET OF 2018

Rajan S. Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India

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We applaud the government’s vision and commitment towards Digital India and the Digital economy. The Hon. Finance Ministry Shri Arun Jaitley has recognised the importance of a resilient cyberspace and doubled the allocation for Centres of Excellence across the country to be championed by the DST. We are also enthused to see that NITI Aayog, will now be spearheading a national program to direct efforts in Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, Blockchain, Robotics, and Digital as a way of life. The industry welcomes these timely initiatives. The support extended to IIT Chennai for an indigenous 5G test bed is also a welcome move. We are also happy to see that the allocation of Digital India has been doubled and the government proposes to set up 5 lakh WiFi hotspots. On Ease of Doing Business, he has incentivised the states identifying over 3000 parameters and introduced competitiveness amongst themselves, through a ranking mechanism.

However, for realising the Hon. PM’s vision of a fully connected and empowered Digital India, we

reiterate that the telecom industry is deeply disappointed that none of our key asks have found mention in the Hon. FM’s budget. We had sought a reduction in levies and taxes, and an urgent intervention is critical for resuscitating the sector, which is currently experiencing its worst financial health and hyper competition. We reiterate our four key asks, reduction extremely high and unsustainable levies & taxes, reduction in BCD on 4G LTE Equipment, clarity on Right of Way related taxation at the state level, & clarification on lowering the tax rate to 1% on discounts extended to small dealers. While, the FM has emphasized the importance of moving to a digital economy, the actual digital highway, which is telecom has found no mention in terms of substantive support, unlike road, railway, highways, electricity, which have received substantial mention. We are saddened to see that telecom which is the bedrock for moving the Digital economy forward, continues to remain an Orphan.

The FM, while recognising infrastructure as a key to growth has pushed the implementation of the Smart City Mission & 99 Smart cities have been approved but it is critical that telecom not be paid a lip service, as it is an essential, intrinsic infrastructure core, for a resurgent India & a thriving Digital Economy. Like the emphasis on Bharat Net, we hope that the substantial asks of the telecom sector can be addressed for speedy infrastructure rollout across the country to truly serve the poorest of the poor and truly bridge the digital divide between India and Bharat.

ABHISHEK KUMAR Regional Director, South Asia, Oncam

This Union Budget 2018-19 brings in great investments in Railways, healthcare, infrastructure, and smart cities, which will certainly boost the IP surveillance industry market. With all trains to be progressively provided with state-of-the-art amenities like CCTV and significant investment going into increasing the number of airports, this will assist the industry to broaden its horizon. We at Oncam truly believe that this year’s budget will act as a catalyst to augment the growth of the surveillance industry manifold.

SOUMA DAS Managing Director, Teradata India

Leveraging these technologies will drive new insights from data to enable better policy implementation and fast-track reforms leading to improvement in citizen services and accelerating economic growth.

We are excited about the government's continued focus towards Digital India as it enables transparency, better governance and resource utilisation.

The thrust on digitization by doubling the expenditure for 'Digital India' and setting up programs to channelize research efforts in new-age technologies is definitely a step in right direction"

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COVER STORY

AMIT SINGH Co Founder and Smart City Expert, Yitsol Technologies

NIKHIL ARORA Vice-President & Managing Director, GoDaddy India

“The budget this year focused towards “Ease of Living” & “Ease of doing Business” to strengthen agriculture, health, education, employment, MSME and infrastructure sectors”. It is good to know that our economy is on course to achieve over 8% growth.

Government is recognizing the multifaceted role played by the MSME sector towards encouraging the generation of self-employment with these tax relief and subsidies on custom duty. This year’s budget also saw a huge allocation of funds to the MSME sector to help them get started and continue to grow, this allocation comes as a big relief for the sector badly in need for such encouragement. More support for MSME for NPAs and troubled enterprises and funding will indeed benefit the MSME sector at large and contribute to the Indian economy in the long run. Overall, the budget focusses on making positive structural reforms to drive India’s growth story further.”

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Smart City is “THE SOLUTION” to deal with massive population growth, rural to urban migration, and depleting city resources. I welcome the budget allocation for smart cities, and this should become the catalyst to transform our cities. However this focus for smart cities should not be just for once, but continuous.With increased government focus, we should look forward for more advanced technological innovations in the area of smart city implementation. Usage of Artificial AI to control urban management systems, including traffic lights and emergency dispatch of all services. Real-time data analysis of the traffic would enable the city authorities to plan better city traffic management.

ROSTOW RAVANAN CEO, Mindtree

The budget balances the need for fiscal discipline against the political gains required in a pre-election year. We are happy to note the Government’s interest and budget allocations to areas like Blockchain, AI, and Digital. We are also interested to learn more about the largest social insurance scheme planned by the Government – this could be a large opportunity for using technology to deliver superior outcomes.

SRIDHAR KRISHNA Chairman & MD of Sankhya InfoTech

The Union Budget 2018 presented today addressed many of the concerns of rural India and that of the MSME sector. We applaud Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, for introducing measures to alleviate some of the pain points they suffer. The outlay for healthcare and education is a much needed boost to create a more healthy and skilled & educated India. On the civil aviation front, Finance Minister unveiled plans to increase the number of airports in the country by 5 times in this year from a current total of 124. India is the third largest and the fastest growing domestic aviation market in the world with respect to the number of domestic tickets sold, and this plan will greatly aid in growing the number of trips to one billion a year. It further mentioned 56 new airports and 31 new helipads will be connected under the UDAN scheme. The massive expansion, as envisaged, will have a multiplier effect on employment opportunities in the aviation sector. It will also have a commensurate effect on training requirements which are of a critical nature. Pilots, airport staff, baggage handlers, among others will have to be given proper training to minimise untoward incidents, potential accidents and be on the ready to deal with emergencies such as that of Indigo Airlines in the recent past. The mismanagement and rude behaviour by the crew members highlights the need to improve the standard of training the professionals in the industry.

In a major step, the Budget announced the largest government-funded health insurance scheme to be implemented anywhere in the world. The sheer size and coverage of the scheme committed will require investment to train and skill additional resources and address shortage of qualified medical professionals. India lacks trained experts, and the corresponding measure to increase the number of medical colleges will provide a boost. However, this needs to also be backed by improvements in training. Technology can help bridge the gap here, with cloud and virtual reality based training modules, there are now more efficient pathways for these front of line critical care providers to be on top of their game. |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR| 13

COVER STORY

JAY CHEN CEO, Huawei Telecommunications India

SUMEER CHANDRA Managing Director, HP Inc. India

The Government has taken a very balanced approach in Union Budget 2018 with a special focus on strengthening the rural economy, infrastructure development and helping small and medium businesses. Government’s vision to move from black board to digital board schools by 2022, revitalization and upgrading of education sector through increased fund allocation and focus on education related research will create a brighter future for the young. We are enthused by the government’s focus on skills development and empowering students with the right educational tools. We are also thrilled with the Government’s emphasis on promoting research and use cases for digital manufacturing and 3D printing.

We believe this technology will enable speedy growth of the manufacturing industry and help India in becoming a major manufacturing hub.

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We applaud the forward looking Union Budget 2018 where the Hon’ble Government is extensively focusing on digitalization with further support to initiatives like Digital India, Smart Cities, Swachh Bharat among others. The Union Budget laid down plans to connect additional 1.5lakh gram panchayats with fibre optic networks under the BharatNet. This will create access and affordability and will help in bridging the digital divide even further. The Union Budget 2018 will further strengthen India’s journey towards Digital Transformation and reinforces the foundation to help us in building intelligent networks and reshaping the world

RAJA RAMAN Vice President, Sapient Consulting

With an emphasis to bring technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, 3D Printing and Blockchain in the focus, we’re positive that this move will strengthen India’s advancement towards becoming a Digital nation. We also like the move to de-hyphenate blockchain from cryptocurrencies in general and investing further in blockchain while limiting misuse of cryptocurrencies.

BALA PARTHASARATHY CEO and Co-Founder, MoneyTap

I believe that the 2018 Union Budget would have an overall positive impact on the FinTech and Financial Services sector. It is obviously a complex act to balance multiple factors such as our Fiscal deficit targets (that stayed around 3.2% this last year), GDP growth, unemployment rates, boost to our manufacturing sector and all of this in the backdrop of balancing inflation and the recapitalization of PSU Banks. The govt. is giving a strong push to domestic manufacturing, especially with the 372 new business reforms for improving ease of business. This may also show a further rise on consumption side.

Both of these factors put together would facilitate a healthy retail Credit growth. It’s possible that a lot of this credit growth may come from the private sector banks, which is a good thing as digital and technology adoption is higher with these banks. Some smart phones prices may go up, but with the push on domestic manufacturing and ease of doing businesses, we may see more phone variations coming out in the market across price points. So smartphone penetration will probably continue to see a rise and further help the various Fintech services (such as wallets, lending products, PFM’s etc.) that are built on smartphone apps and mobile protocol stacks. The focus on cleaning up balance sheets of over-leveraged PSU banks and resolving NPAs should ease cash flow burdens of these institutions and is a good signal for enabling business growth. This should encourage higher adoption of cost efficient lending practices which is the strength of FinTechs in the lending space. So Fintechs would benefit from this either as direct lending or increased collaboration with banks. On the flip side, the exchequer might also see some spending pressures. As the GST adoption picks up and new initiatives around blockchain, ML and AI see R&D spends and adoption from the Govt. as Mr. Jaitley pointed out, technology will start playing an even bigger role in driving cost efficiencies and increasing revenue for BFSI and FinTech players. It will be interesting to see how the whole cryptocurrency piece plays out as the govt. has a skeptical view of that. Overall, I think the budget is going to give a strong push to our economy in the right direction of technology adoption, higher ease of doing business, enabling consumption and credit growth and making us a more digital savvy society. |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR| 15

COVER STORY

ARCHIT GUPTA Founder & CEO ClearTax

ARJUUN BAJAJ CEO and Founder of Daiwa

According to the government notification, there is an increase of 20 per cent on complete TV set and 15 per cent on sum of the led tv parts, which is good for manufacturers.The However, now for manufacturers the biggest challenge is for them is 10% i.e. custom duty on open sell which lead to bare min gap between manufacturer and importer, and tv’s made in india more expensive. Would request the government to make it back to 0 % duty on the open cell to promote Make In India and pass benefit to the manufacturers.For further GST should be reduced to from 28 % to 18 % as TV is now a necessity and not a luxury item. Overall, the budget is development oriented fulfilling the ease of doing business and ease of living for citizens.

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Standard deduction has been reintroduced but at a cost, it takes away medical reimbursement and travel allowance. There were several demands to raise medical reimbursement from 15,000 and bring it up according to current prices (the amount has been same since more than a decade). However, now the clamour for raising this limit will die down. With this, for a salaried, the amount taxable under salary shall be reduced by Rs 5,800. While cess will go up by 1%. Senior citizens have much to rejoice and will face much lower burden of taxes, this is especially crucial in the falling interest rates from banks and deposits.

L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES CEO & MD, Dr. Keshab Panda

We welcome the government’s thrust on encouraging R&D pursuits in the areas of AI, machine learning, robotics and edge analytics. This move will further leapfrog the innovations in this space that is significantly driven by Indian companies and will place the country at the centre of global digital transformation focus.

SANJAY JALONA CEO & MD, LTI (L&T Infotech)

VIVEK AGARWAL Co-founder, M-tech Informatics Ltd

We welcome the Budget 2018 by the Honorable Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The Union Budget 2018 is a growth oriented budget with enormous push for health, agriculture, education and infrastructure, which we believe will usher in healthy economic growth in the years to come. Speaking specifically of mobile phone industry, we are glad that our demand of increasing customs duty on mobile phone CBU [completely built units] imports to 20 % from the existing 15 % has been met. This will prevent dumping of phones in the Indian market, boost domestic manufacturing and provide a level playing field to home grown brands. The announcement is in line with the objectives of the Make in India initiative.

The Budget gave major emphasis on healthcare, agriculture, education and research, which was great. Use of technology in delivering education and focused research in technologies like Blockchain, AI, Big Data, IoT & Robotic are great initiatives and will create opportunities for IT sector to contribute in making of tomorrow’s India. While reduction of Corporate Tax to 25% for a vast majority of companies is a welcome move, increase in cess from 3% to 4% will increase tax rate for larger corporates by 0.34%. The return of long term capital gains was well anticipated and the budget has brought it in a very calibrated manner which should not affect the investment sentiments. Overall a good budget, the execution remains key and to be watched for.

SAMEET GUPTE CEO, Servion Global Solutions

The key highlights of Budget 2018 have indicated that the India government’s vision for the country’s future is in line with economic, societal and technological changes that are happening across the globe. Having doubled its allocation to the Digital India scheme, the government is looking to heavily invest in R&D of new areas such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and robotics. With the push for more focused and relevant higher education, these are exciting times for young Indians as consumers and enterprises alike get ready to ride the automation wave. |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR| 17

COVER STORY

PRAKASH MALLYA Managing Director, Sales & Marketing Group, Intel India

“Today’s Budget clearly pivots on a digital-first India, and three recommendations made by the FM relate directly to the potential we see in the country. First, the NITI Aayog effort to institutionalize research and development in artificial intelligence reinforces the value that machine learning can bring to issues of national importance. If synergized with the work being done by the academia and industry, we can expect fast emerging use cases that can democratize AI in India. Second, exploring the application of blockchain in governance is a strong indicator of the government's intent to improve citizen services without compromising on security, especially as Aadhaar gets linked to citizen accounts. And finally, the DoT’s establishment of an indigenous 5G center is an encouraging sign of the government’s view of collaboration with the broader technology ecosystem as the best strategy to accelerate the rollout of 5G infrastructure in India.”

HARSHVARDHAN LUNIA CEO & Co-Founder, Lendingkart Group

The Union Budget for the year 2018 is in line with our expectations and requirements of the economy. The country is still reaping the benefits from forward-looking initiatives proposed over the previous financial year such as demonetisation, the GST rollout and the increased focus towards digitisation. The programs that have been announced for the rural, agriculture, healthcare and manufacturing sectors will drive essential growth. The continued focus on MSME’s with the allocation of over 3000 crores for credit support along with backing the efforts of FinTech companies’ will help in creating more avenues of financial inclusion for the underserved segment. Bank recapitalisation will also sustain these efforts by adding much-needed credit in the market. The emphasis on complementing existing digitisation efforts by connecting villages through high speed optic fibre networks and building Wi-Fi spots will give an impetus to upcoming digital sectors that rely heavily on connectivity like FinTech and Edtech. We are happy with the current focus of the Government, as the country continues on the path of ‘ease of doing business’ it is great to see strong emphasis being put on ‘ease of living’ for the masses.

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ATUL RAI CEO and Co-founder, Staqu

AMBIKA SHARMA Founder & MD, Instappy

The latest budget announcement holds great promise. I am particularly enthused by doubling the allocation to Digital India to Rs 3073 cr for the 2018-19 fiscal and. This move will empower the society in areas like broadband and mobile connectivity and government services on demand and will help the country's vision to be a digital-first economy.

Furthermore, the allocation of INR 10,000 crore for the 5 lakh WiFi HotSpots to provide Broadband access to 5 crore rural citizens is also promising. With nearly 70% of the country’s population living in rural and semi-urban geographies, the move will give the vision of a ‘Digital India’ a big boost and provide businesses an opportunity to upscale.

This year’s budget not only takes significant steps towards the Digital India vision but also towards inculcating the latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence for the national development. With NITI Aayog to establish a national programme for artificial intelligence, we look forward to supporting the nation with R&D support and more programmes like ABHED which is already assisting the Polices forces with AI capabilities. With the advent of new technologies and the Indian government being equally eager to adopt them, we strongly foresee the nation to be on the road to transformation and emerge as one of the leading Digital Nations on the world map.

SHAILENDRA NAIDU CEO, OBOPAY

Government’s decision to encourage blockchain in payments sector is a welcome measure. The decentralized technology will help simplify the ecosystem, mitigate security concerns and build a trustworthy network ensuring data integrity. Elimination of intermediaries and overhead costs will help in reduction of transaction costs. The ability to make data transfer simpler and easier between entities would encourage adoption of block chain as a preferred technology across industries. Blockchain with strong support from government would help reshape the way businesses transact and fuel the digital initiatives. |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR| 19

APPOINMNETS

QLIK NAMES MICROSOFT’S ARUN BALASUBRAMANIAN AS INDIA HEAD Data analytics firm Qlik said that it has appointed Arun Balasubramanian as its Country Manager for India. In his role at Qlik, he will be responsible for leading and expanding Qlik’s operations in India. Qlik’s India head Souma Das has recently resigned the firm to join Teradata.

Prior to joining Qlik, Arun was spearheading Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise business in India, and was responsible for broad set of products including Azure, SQL and IOT. He also worked closely with go-to-market and alliances teams to increase the brand’s footprint across enterprise, commercial and public sector clients. Before joining Microsoft, Arun played a vital role in delivering strong growth for Salesforce during his time as its Area Vice President – India and SAARC. With over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, Arun has a distinguished track record of sales and market accomplishments in India, and has held senior executive positions at HP, CA Technologies, and Salesforce.

TERADATA HIRES SOUMA DAS AS MD FOR INDIA Data analytics company Teradata said that it has appointed Souma Das as its new managing director for India. At Teradata, he will be responsible for providing leadership and overall strategic direction to the company’s India business overseeing field operations that include sales, customer management, marketing, professional services and customer support.

Prior to joining Teradata, Souma was the Regional Vice President and Managing Director of Qlik for its India operations responsible for driving growth, revenue and customer satisfaction for organisations leveraging Qlik’s analytics platform. Before joining Qlik, Souma was the Managing Director of Infor India. Souma is an industry leader known for building, coaching and nurturing teams to create high performing talent and driving new growth revenue lines for businesses.

POKERBAAZI APPOINTS VIJENDER SINGH AS NEW BRAND AMBASSADOR PokerBaazi.com, one of India’s pioneer online poker platforms has signed Vijender Singh as its new brand ambassador. Prior to roping in Indian professional boxer, Indian film star, actor, and model, Sunny Leone was the face of the brand. By roping in boxing champion Vijender Singh as its brand ambassador, PokerBaazi has shown its commitment towards promoting poker in India as a serious game of pure skill and talent.

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DIMENSION DATA NAMES KIRAN BHAGWANANI AS CEO FOR SOUTH ASIA, JAPAN AND NEW ZEALAND Johannesburg-based Dimension Data has appointed Kiran Bhagwanani as the Chief Executive Officer for Dimension Data South Asia, Japan and New Zealand, one of the three sub-regions in the Asia Pacific region. Bhagwanani will report to Dimension Data’s APAC CEO, John Lombard. He will be responsible for maintaining and growing Dimension Data’s business, client base and scaling outcome-driven offerings for the said countries. Before the current role, Bhagwanani was leading Dimension Data’s India business as it’s CEO since February 2011. Under his guidance and in line with his vision for Dimension Data India, Bhagwanani established a strong leadership team that has ensured that the Indian business has been amongst the fastest growing and most profitable businesses for Dimension Data. Prior to joining Dimension Data, he was the country head for HCL Technologies India and was also responsible for System Integration Sales worldwide.

F-SECURE APPOINTS KEITH MARTIN AS HEAD OF ASIA PACIFIC The Finnish data security firm F-Secure has announced that the Head of its Asia Pacific Corporate Business, Amit Nath, will move to Helsinki to take up a global leadership role within the company. In his new role, Nath will manage different aspects of sales execution related to customers, partners and internal sales for F-Secure’s global sales organization. In line with its commitment to the India, Malaysia, ANZ and Asia Pacific market, F-Secure has announced that its current Country Manager for Japan Keith Martin will be taking over the reins from Nath.

PAYTM PAYMENTS BANK APPOINTS NITIN CHAUHAN AS CISO Paytm Payments Bank said that it has appointed Nitin Chauhan as its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). In his current role at Paytm Payments Bank, Nitin will be in charge of Information Security, setting up and enhancing the firm’s enterprise security strategies, infrastructure and network design. Nitin comes with around two decades of experience across Information and Cyber Security. Prior to joining Paytm Payments Bank, he served as the CISO at RBL Bank for over 6 years and also worked with Kotak Bank and other financial institutions. He graduated in Commerce from Delhi University and holds an MBA degree in IT and International Business. |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR| 21

APPOINMNETS

SHAMIK SHARMA JOINS MONEYTAP AS ADVISOR India’s first app-based credit line, MoneyTap has announced that Shamik Sharma, Myntra’s former chief product and technology officer has joined the company as an advisor with immediate effect.

Shamik is a well-known technology stalwart with over 17 years’ of experience and has spent a significant time in the US Silicon Valley.

Along with his role at MoneyTap, Shamik will continue being a venture partner at pi Ventures, India’s first Applied Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & IoT focused early stage venture fund. In his earlier avatar, Shamik was the Chief Product and Technology officer at Myntra, where he was responsible for driving technology strategy and culture. Shamik was also the VP of Software at Lytro, a light field camera start-up in the US and has held executive roles at RockYou, StumbleUpon and Yahoo. A computer science graduate from IITKharagpur, Sharma has a Master’s degree in computers from the University of Maryland, US.

QLIK APPOINTS MIKE CAPONE AS CEO Data analytics software vendor Qlik said that its board appointed Mike Capone, former COO of Medidata Solutions, as its new CEO. Capone brings a valuable combination of customer perspective, operational expertise, and market focus to Qlik. In addition to his extensive experience in high-growth SaaS companies, Capone possesses first-hand experience in leveraging the power of data through analytics to transform businesses and entire industries, giving him the unique background to lead Qlik’s mission to be a leader in the analytics economy.

AVAYA APPOINTS GREG PELTON TO OVERSEE TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY Avaya has announced the appointment of Greg Pelton to vice president, technology strategy. He will play a key role in shaping Avaya’s technology strategy as the company continues its transformation into a services and cloud- based UC and CC solutions provider. Pelton returns to Avaya after previously serving as chief technology officer for the government solutions arm of the company from 2011 to 2014. He was most recently chief technology officer and vice president, infrastructure engineering, for Polycom Inc., where he was responsible for the company’s innovation roadmap as well leading its collaboration platform and cloud product engineering organizations. Prior to that, Pelton held several senior management positions in technology and engineering at both Cisco Systems Inc. and Nortel Networks Inc.

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NEWS

Atos signs major contract with Henkel

European IT services provider Atos has signed a contract to deliver large scale IT outsourcing services to Henkel, a global leader operating worldwide in three business areas: Adhesive Technologies, Beauty Care and Laundry & Home Care. As part of the contract, Atos will be responsible for Henkel’s Datacenter infrastructure, globally hosted in two main sites in Germany and the US. The new contract enables Henkel to react to the digitization of the market and to strengthen its position. Atos is Henkel’s partner for managing their servers for applications as well as management and support for Oracle and SAP databases, Storage & Backup, Operations for Application Data, as well as Active Directory, File- and Print servers in remote locations. Atos will develop the existing datacenter landscape. At the core of the solution is a shared private cloud, which will provide Henkel with a foundation on which to run and manage all their applications easily and flexibly. Additionally, this provides a foundation from which to use Atos Canopy Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud offering.

TRAI’s decision on in-flight Wi-Fi will increase revenue for airlines: Honeywell Aerospace The TRAI’s decision to permit in-flight Wi-Fi on domestic and international flights is a welcome one and a groundbreaking step for the aviation market, said Neelu Khatri, president, Honeywell Aerospace, India. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has suggested a minimum height restriction of 3,000 metres for mobile communication. A flight generally attains the altitude of 3,000 metres about four-five minutes after take-off. “Internet services through onboard Wi-Fi should be made available only when electronic devices are permitted to be used only in flight or airplane mode, an announcement regarding this should be made when boarding is over and the aircraft is about to taxi,” said regulator in its recommendations on ‘In-Flight Connectivity’. “It would ensure that there is no encroachment on the scope of terrestrial Internet service provided by telecom service providers as well as practically there won’t be any appreciable discontinuity in the provisioning of Internet services to the fliers,” said TRAI. According to the International Air Transport Association, India will become the world’s third largest commercial aviation market by 2025, with an estimated increase to 278 million annual passengers. This level of growth will require the Indian aviation market to be proactive in meeting the needs of its growing number of passengers, airlines and flight crews. “Honeywell Aerospace offers solutions that provide a reliable and consistent in-flight connectivity experience to airline passengers and flight crews globally.

5G phones will reach the market in 2019: Gartner Worldwide shipments of devices — PCs, tablets and mobile phones — totaled 2.28 billion units in 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. Shipments are on course to reach 2.32 billion units in 2018, an increase of 2.1 percent. Two markets will drive overall growth in device shipments in 2018. First is the mobile phone market, led by the high-end smartphone segment. Second is the premium ultramobile market, where thin and light Apple and Microsoft Windows 10 devices are stimulating higher demand. 5G phones will reach the market in 2019, when rollouts of 5G networks will start in select countries, such as the U.S. and South Korea. “We predict that, by 2021, 9 percent of smartphones sold will support 5G,” said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner. |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR| 23

NEWS AROUND

Gujarati language sees the highest online content consumption at 44.78% Times Internet has released a study titled ‘The Changing Lingual Face of Digital India’ highlighting the rapid shift of digital users towards regional content consumption. With this study, Times Internet has successfully validated the rising trend of online content consumption across the eight most widely consumed regional languages in the country. To map

the magnitude of this trend, online content consumption patterns of over 90 million netizens were evaluated, unveiling many future possibilities and the impact of content in regional languages. Key findings include: Out of the 90 million+ surveyed digital users, more than half are non-English readers and more than two third of Hindi readers are also reading English Regional languages have surpassed English with a 66% share in overall content consumption Across all regional languages, News as a genre sees the highest content consumption at 67%, followed by Sports at 17% and Entertainment at 16% Among female users, Gujarati language sees the highest online content consumption at 44.78% Results of the study highlight that content consumption in regional languages among younger audiences is fast growing, with consumption among Indians in the 25-34 age group being the highest India is inching closer to becoming a digital-first nation as affordable smartphone and low priced 3G and 4G connections are driving Internet penetration and digital literacy in the country. Access to high speed Internet connectivity is no longer restricted to metro cities, which is causing a massive shift in online content consumption patterns, across the country.

Lenovo, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi sign MoU with Qualcomm

Ola to enter Australia Australia’s ride-sharing ecosystem is set for a refreshing change after Ola, one of the world’s largest ride-sharing platforms, has today announced its plans to enter Australia, providing both driver-partners and passengers a better way to move. Founded in 2011, Ola enables smart transportation options to over 125 million users in India, through its network of over 1 million driver-partners that it hosts across 110+ cities. On an aggregate basis, Ola serves as many as a billion rides annually, through its platform.

Ola will build on these values as it launches in Australia in early 2018.

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At Qualcomm’s China Technology Day, Qualcomm Technologies said that it has signed four memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Lenovo Mobile Communication Technology., Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications, Vivo Communication Technology and Xiaomi Communications to buy its RF Front End (RFFE) components with a value of no less than $2 billion, in the aggregate, over three years. Any obligation to purchase and supply these components is subject to the execution of subsequent definitive agreements. Qualcomm Technologies’ RFFE components constitute a rich portfolio of comprehensive, system-level modem-to-antenna RF front-end platform solutions, which are designed to enable OEMs to rapidly build mobile devices at scale for easy global expansion. The scope of Qualcomm Technologies’ broad RF front-end platform include GaAs Power Amplifiers (PA), Envelope Trackers, Multi-Mode PA and modules, RF switches, discrete filters and filter-rich modules, and antenna tuners across cellular and connectivity technologies. In addition, MoUs, Qualcomm Technologies shared information surrounding its upcoming 5G Tunable RF front-end as part of its 5G roadmap. The break-through 5G Tunable RF front-end is designed to enable OEMs to differentiate their 5G products with thinner design, higher performing system-level expertise and 5G product readiness.

HCL signs global reseller agreement with SAP

India’s fifth largest IT services company HCL Technologies has announced a global reseller agreement with SAP SE. SAP will now resell the HCL next-generation maintenance, repair, and overhaul solution under the brand name SAP Enterprise Asset Management (SAP EAM), add-on for MRO by HCL for SAP S/4HANA. The agreement comes as asset operators such as aviation, aerospace, defense and related repair shops have been challenged with maximizing asset utilization, reducing cost of regulatory compliance, decreasing costs of collaboration with vendors and part suppliers, and reducing total cost of ownership of running the required system landscape. The add-on for MRO will provide an end-to-end singlesystem solution to help meet the dynamic needs of global enterprises looking for an easier path to streamline maintenance costs and optimize asset utilization.

Spirent adds BeiDou Phase-3 signals British telecommunications company Spirent Communications said that BeiDou Phase 3 signals have been added to its GNSS RF constellation simulators. The addition of these new signals to the GSS7000 and GSS9000 simulators follows the launch of the first two Beidou-3 satellites in November 2017. Phase 3 of the Chinese BeiDou system will extend its coverage from Asia to the whole world and will provide receiver developers and integrators with additional GNSS signals to make positioning, navigation and timing systems more accurate, and help to support new applications, such as autonomous vehicles. The new signals will use the same carrier frequencies as the GPS and Galileo systems, so chipset manufacturers and device developers will need to test integrated designs to avoid problems caused by confusing data from different GNSS.

Route Mobile files IPO papers with SEBI, to raise Rs 600 crore Route Mobile said it has filed draft prospectus with the market regulator for Initial Public Offering (IPO) and plans to raise about Rs 600 crore through a combination of fresh issue and offer for sale. The proceeds will be used for repayment and pre-payment of loans, acquisitions and strategic initiatives amongst others, according to a company statement. “The IPO comprises of a fresh issue of up Rs 3500 million and an offer for sale of up to 6,500,000 (shares) by Sandipkumar Gupta and Rajdipkumar Gupta (promoters),” the statement added. A total of Rs 600 crore would be raised through IPO, a company said in an email response. Route Mobile Limited is a cloud-communication platform service provider to enterprises, over-the-top players and mobile network operators. |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR| 25

NEWS AROUND

India’s enhanced economic liberalisation will bring international investment : Vodafone At World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao complimented India and Narendra Modi’s government for a marked improvement in the ease of doing business in the country during the last four years.

After the meeting, Colao elaborated and said “Digital India and Make in India are transformational initiatives. The focus of Modi’s government and India’s new progressive policy framework are ensuring their successful execution. India’s enhanced economic liberalisation will bring more international investment into its growing economy, which will in turn generate exciting opportunities and boost job creation.” Within the telecom sector specifically, Colao said “India has significantly increased the amount of spectrum which is now available to operators. The proposed increase in spectrum caps will further hasten the roll out of networks to the benefit of customers, government and industry.”

“Simplicity and transparency are key to the reforms introduced and this has been recognised by the significant im-

provement in India’s position in the Ease of Doing Business global rankings. The swift progress we have made in just under a year towards the completion of our merger with Idea Cellular is testimony to this fresh approach. India has a clear set of well-defined M&A rules and we are seeing their fair and speedy implementation”, said Colao.

Top tech firms must ensure digital access for all: Cisco CEO

Xiaomi becomes top smartphone vendor in India

As the world moves towards embracing digital economy, top technology companies must keep the competition aside and work with all the stakeholders to solve some of the real issues people are suffering from, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said on Tuesday. “The top message is that we have to put the competition aside and work with the governments and members of the civil society to solve some of the real problems like providing education, skilling people, eradication hunger and so on,” Robbins told the gathering at a session on the first day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) here. “The responsibility falls on the business community to try to optimise access to the digital economy. There may be need to embrace partnerships with competition to bring the benefit of technology to society,” the Cisco CEO added. Robbins was speaking at a session titled “How will industries, institutions and innovation shape the future of the digital economy?” “I believe the mandate going forward for us is to step up our efforts. The CEOs of 24 top tech firms met nearly three weeks ago and discussed how to utilise their cash and resources to help the society bear the fruits of digital transformation,” Robbins emphasised.

India’s smartphone market has finally seen a change at the top, with Xiaomi now leading with shipments close to 8.2 million units in Q4 2017.

Despite annual growth of 17%, Samsung failed to maintain its lead, shipping just over 7.3 million smartphones to take second place. The smartphone market in India grew by a modest 6% overall, in line with Canalys forecasts, following the seasonal dip as vendors and channel partners take stock after a busy Q3. Vivo, Oppo and Lenovo rounded out the top five, while total smartphone shipments were just shy of 30 million units.

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Reliance Jio hosts the inaugural Indian Digital Open Summit

India’s telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited hosted the first ever India Digital Open Summit in partnership with Linux Foundation and supported by Cisco Systems at its campus in Navi Mumbai. More than 500 invited technology and open source delegates including industry leaders, policy makers, global technology lead-

ers, members from academia and developer communities working through open source platforms participated in this summit. The main agenda was to deliberate on how open source networking systems and platforms would transform and foster innovation and leadership across the entire digital ecosystem. The summit featured discussions on various aspects of the Open Source framework for policy, technology and security that accelerate the expansion of the Digital India initiative across domains. Distinguished speakers including Aruna Sundararajan, Chairperson, Telecom Commission & Secretary (Telecom), Dept of Telecommunications, Dr. Gulshan Rai, Chief Security Coordinator & Advisor, PMO, NCSC, Akash Ambani, Director, and other global technology leaders addressed the gathering. The participants discussed the blueprint for India’s leadership in the Open Source ecosystem.

Some of the key topics discussed were ‘Transformation in Big Data and Analytics’, ‘Leveraging open source’, ‘Unlocking India’s Telco Ecosystem value’ and ‘How Open Source and Big Data are driving big changes in network services, policy and security transformation’. The one-day event was held at the Reliance Corporate Park campus in Navi Mumbai.

Tech Mahindra to buy 17.5% in US-based telecom software development company Indian IT company Tech Mahindra has announced it will acquire 17.5 % stake in US-based telecom software development company Altiostar Networks for $ 15 million in a cash deal. The investment committee of the board of directors of Tech Mahindra “has approved the proposal to acquire shareholding in Altiostar Networks Inc, USA, through its wholly owned subsidiary, that is, Tech Mahindra(Americas) Inc, USA,” the firm said in a regulatory filing. Altiostar Networks is a US Corporation with presence across six countries in Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin American regions. The investment will be completed by January 19, 2018.

Apple’s feature for Indian customers to create 4,000 jobs Apple Inc is developing features for Indian customers, including maps and other products, creating over 4,000 jobs, an official at the US tech giant has said. Last year, Apple launched a first-of-its-kind App Accelerator in Bengaluru and it has already trained thousands of iOS developers. iOS is the operating system that powers Apple’s suite of mobile devices. If someone is looking to build mobile applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, an iOS developer can help you get started. Indian app developers have created almost 100,000 apps for the App Store, an increase of 57 per cent in 2016. Today in India, there are 740,000 app economy jobs attributable to iOS and Apple believes that this can increase substantially. |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR| 27

NEWS AROUND

Ast TECS launches mobile cloud telephony for contact centres

Bangalore based-AstTECS said that it has launched astTECS MCTel – Mobile Cloud Telephony solution for domestic contact centres. The virtual collaboration solution, delivers carrier-

grade communication on a cloud platform and its flexibility, functionality and agility blends the competence of cloud and mobile technology that completely eliminates the need of expensive infrastructure requirements of a call center operation. AstTECS MCTel is a plug-and-play technology best suited for domestic contact centres, start-ups, special purpose campaigns, pilot campaigns and businesses who want to leverage mobile cloud telephony to enable better business performance and operate on an OPEX model. Since the calls are made via SIM, no landline or PRI is required. The key features of AstTECS MCTel include: – App based login and calling, attendance monitoring, LIVE call recordings, LIVE call reports, agent performance report, campaign analytics and real- time supervision.

Coolpad Group receives $300m funding from Power Sun Ventures Chinese smartphone maker Coolpad Group said that it has received fresh investment of $300m after separating from LeEco in 2017. With this fresh funding, the Shenzhen-based Coolpad plans to expand its capabilities in artificial intelligence. Chinese property mogul Chen Hua, Founder and Head, Kingkey Group, is leading the new investment through Power Sun Ventures, a family trust.

Power Sun is expected to invest $300m in coming years in Coolpad. Coolpad India will look forward to strengthen its position in the Indian market with some aggressive products in the coming months. The last product launched by Coolpad in India was Cool Play 6, which had been received well by the market.

Idea Q3 net loss expands to Rs 1,285 crore Telecom firm Idea Cellular posted a consolidated loss of Rs 1,284.50 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2017 versus a loss of Rs 384 crore a year earlier. The company said that its net debt stood at Rs 55,781.80 crore as of December 31, 2017. Idea’s total income on a consolidated basis fell to Rs 6,552 crore, compared with Rs 8,706 crore recorded during the third quarter of the previous financial year. In the quarter under review, the company’s net profit fell to Rs 1,352 crore on a standalone basis, from Rs 479 crore recorded during the year-ago quarter. The quarter was impacted by reduction of Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC), sustained rate pressure and industry consolidation, and hence cannot be compared with earlier period, the company said. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had slashed domestic IUC to 6 paise per minute from 14 paise, effective October 1, 2017. The fall in IUC impacted Idea’s revenue and EBITDA for this quarter by Rs 820 crore and Rs 230 crore, respectively.

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Apple ships 29 million iPhone Xs in Q4 2017 Apple shipped 29 million iPhone Xs in Q4 2017. This made it the world’s best-shipping smartphone model over the holiday season, according to by Canalys. Adoption was driven by upgrade demand in operator-centric markets, where Apple’s installed base is high and customers can finance the cost of handsets over many months. Another notable highlight for the iPhone X is that of the 29 million shipped, 7 million were in China.

Vodafone 4G service reaches more than 7,000 in Maharashtra, Goa Telecom service provider Vodafone India said that it now offers its SupreNet 4G data strong Network across 7,000+ towns covering 35 districts of Maharashtra & Goa. Since January 2017, Vodafone has rolled out more than 9,200 + sites (1 site / hour) to expand and strengthen its network, catering to the growing demand for data and voice of its over 20 million customers across the circle.

Airtel joins hands with Amazon India’s top telecom service provider Bharti Airtel and Amazon India have come together to ring in an entertaining and exciting new year for customers. Under a first of its kind offer in India, new and existing Airtel Postpaid customers with an Infinity plan of Rs.499 or above will get a one year Amazon Prime membership, worth Rs.999 and includes unlimited access to Amazon Prime Video, as part of their plan benefits (at no additional cost).

Airtel net profit tanks 39% in Q3 to Rs 306 crore India’s top telecom operator Bharti Airtel today reported a decline in consolidated net profit for the seventh straight quarter to Rs 305.8 crore for the three month period ended December 31, 2017 on account of tariff war in the industry. The cut in mobile call connection charges from 14 paise to six paise during the quarter added to the financial woes of the telecom giant. Sunil Bharti Mittal led telecom firm had registered a net profit of Rs 503.6 crore in the same period a year ago. The company – which competes with the operators like Vodafone, Idea Cellular and newcomer Reliance Jio in the highly-competitive telecom market in India – saw its overall revenue declining by 13 per cent to Rs 20,319 crore in the third quarter as compared to Rs 23,336 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. |MARCH, 2018 |TELECOM MIRROR| 29

NEWS AROUND

RCom Q3 loss narrows to Rs 130 crore due to sale of wireless assets

Debt-ridden Reliance Communications reported narrowing of its consolidated loss to Rs 130 crore for the quarter to December 2017, mainly on account of closure of its loss-making mobile telephony business. The company

had reported a loss (attributable to equity holders) of Rs 531 crore in the same period a year ago. It also sharply lowered loss from Rs 2,712 crore in the July- September 2017 period.

The company continues to operate business-to-business (B2B) solution which comprises global and Indian enterprise, internet data centres (IDC), global submarine cable network and international long distance voice with about 40,000 global and Indian customers. The revenue of the company declined by about 30 per cent to Rs 1,176 crore in the reported quarter from Rs 1,698 crore it posted in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. During the quarter, RCom announced to exit from RBIs strategic debt restructuring (SDR) framework. The company signed the agreements for sale of wireless, spectrum (excludeng 4G spectrum under sharing), tower, fiber and media convergence node (MCN) assets.

Sterlite Tech Q3 net profit up 83% at Rs 90 crore Optical fibre maker Sterlite Technologies has posted 83% jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 90 crore in the third quarter ended on December 31, 2017. The company registered a net profit of Rs 49 crore in the same period a year ago. The company’s capability-building strategy has resulted in a sustained financial performance over time. The results of the last few quarters have shown a consistent growth, and have been replicated in Q3FY’18, with all-time high performance across key financial metrics.

Jio reports Rs 504 crore profit in Q3 Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) reported Rs. 6879.42 crore revenue, up 12.7% QoQ and a net profit of 504.38 crore for the period that ended 31st December, 2017. This comes after the company reported a net loss of 270.59 crore in the previous quarter.

The company reported Standalone earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 2,628 crore, up 82.1% QoQ and EBITDA margin of 38.2%, and Standalone earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 1,436 crore, up 453.1% QoQ . Jio’s consolidated value of services stood at 8,136 crore, up 12.8% over trailing quarter) and consolidated EBIT of 1,441 crore, up 452.1% over trailing quarter.

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