DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2
P11
BUSINESS
Reliance Jio extends free voice & data till March 2017 AAI to fill nearly 2,100 posts Mumbai, Dec 01: Industrialist Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio on Thursday announced to extend the freebies including free voice call, and data services till March 31, 2017 through "Jio Happy New Year" offer, a move seen to rapidly double the Jio subscribers to over 100 million from 52 million now. "I want to announce today... that starting 4th of December, 2016, every new Jio user will get... Jio's Data, Voice, Video and the full bouquet of Jio applications and content, absolutely free, till 31st March 2017. We are calling this the "JIO HAPPY NEW YEAR OFFER," said Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani. Jio has become the fastest growing technology company, not only in India, but in the history of the world, he claimed. "In the first 3 months since its birth, Jio has grown faster than Facebook, WhatsApp or Skype. In 83 days, Jio has crossed 50 million customers on its 4G LTE ALL-IP wireless broadband network!" said Mr. Ambani adding that on average, a Jio customer is using 25 times more data than the average Indian broadband user. Jio has signed-up over six
A look at some of the announcements: Get a Jio SIM home-delivered and activated in 5 minutes through eKYC. Jio now fully supports mobile number portability. Jio has signed up over 6 lakh customers every single day for the past 3 months. Reliance Jio has grown faster than Facebook, Whatsapp in first 3 months, become fastest growing technology company.
All existing customers will get extended benefits of Jio offer till 31 March 2017 on current SIMs.
From December 4, every new Jio user will get Jio's data, voice, video and the full bouquet of Jio applications free till 31, March 2017.
The company crossed 50 million customers in less than 90 days of launch.
Over the past months, the call block rate has come down from over 90% to nearly 20%, as of Wednesday.
Millions of touch points for JioMoney will be deployed.
lakh customers every day for the past three months due to fast-track Aadhaarbased eKYC roll-out nationally that allowed SIM activation in less than five minutes. Jio has successfully rolled out eKYC across two lakh outlets in India, equal to total number of ATMs and plans to double it to over four lakh by March 31, 2017. Besides, activating Jio Sims, these outlets are equipped to provide customer service and Aadharbased services because the digital infrastructure will have capability for supporting a variety of
offerings into the future. Mr. Ambani blamed the "anti-competitive" behaviour of his telecom competitors for call drops faced by Jio user. "In the last three months, nearly 900 crore voice calls from Jio customers to the networks of our three largest competitors were blocked. The benefits of Jio's superior voice technology have been denied to Indian customers due to such anti-competitive behaviour of incumbent operators," he said. Thanking the government and regulator for enforcing the license conditions, Mr. Ambani said, "While
we have started getting Points of Interconnect, we continue to monitor this capacity so that the Jio voice calling experience remains superior. Over the past months, the call block rates have come down from over 90% to nearly 20% as of yesterday. We are working with all our fellow operators to ensure that in the coming weeks, this will come below the specified grade of service, which is 0.2%." For enterprise and high end customers, Reliance Jio has introduced home delivery of Jio Sims that can be activated in 5 minutes through eKYC using
MyJio application available in top 100 cities by December 31, 2016. Mr. Ambani accepted that the company faced a few issues with data speeds on its network as about 8% of Jio towers have experienced congestion due to abnormally high data usage, leading to lower data speeds. "While 92% of our base stations, and customers, have been experiencing consistently high data speeds, we are not satisfied. We are working to de-congest these 8% towers, so that impacted customers go back to experiencing true-4G speeds. On the whole, Jio is not only delivering 4 times more data than all other Indian telecom operators combined, but also much faster throughputs than any other mobile network in India," he said. Signalling that there will be restrictions on data usage, Mr. Ambani said, "80% of Jio users use less than 1 GB of data a day while the other 20% of users consume disproportionately higher amounts of data, leading to the congestion. So, in the JIO HAPPY NEW YEAR OFFER, we have fine-tuned our Fair Usage Policy to ensure that all users get a fair share of Jio's network capacity."
GST, currency change to be game Indian staffing industry likely to grow 12 pc this year changers for economy: Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley said, "More money will come to the banks which will be used fruitfully for the betterment of the economy."
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Bhubaneswar, Dec 01: Rejecting apprehensions that the Indian economy would suffer due to demonetisation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday termed as "game changers" the pulling out of high-value old notes as well as
Goods and Services Tax, which is proposed to be rolled out from April 1. "I do believe that both (GST and demonetisation) will be game changers. This is because GST will ensure higher taxation as far as the Centre is con-
cerned and also higher taxation for states. It is an efficient system. It blocks leakages. It will certainly help the consuming states like Odisha," he said. Jaitley was speaking at the "Make in Odisha" conclave here. On the hue and cry over the demonetisation exercise, he said: "As far as currencychanges are concerned, once the demonetisation process is completed and the economy gets back to full stream, the size of the GDP will significantly expand, tax base will expand." He added, "More money will come to the banks which will be used fruitfully for the betterment of the economy." (PTI)
Kindle to support e-books in five Indian languages Mumbai, Dec 01: Amazon's e-book reader, Kindle will now support content in five Indian languages, including Hindi, Gujarati and Malayalam, a move that will help the USbased firm tap into the niche but growing 'digital regional content' market in India. "We are adding thousands of digital books in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati and Malayalam, including the largest digital selection of best sellers, hundreds of exclusive titles and free classics to the Kindle Book Store," Amazon Kindle Director (Content) Sanjeev Jha told PTI. Readers can access these books on Kindle eReaders as well as the free Kindle apps for Android and iOS, he added. "Subscribers of Kindle Unlimited will also have access to the Indian language content. The
new language selection is in addition to over three million books that are already available on the Kindle Book Store," he said. Kindle already supports languages such as Chinese, German, French and Japanese among others, apart from English. While Amazon does not share country specific growth numbers, Mr. Jha said India is among its fastest growing markets globally for Kindle. Amazon will make available bestseller titles like Ishq Mein Shahar Hona by Ravish Kumar (Hindi), Rajaraja Chozhan by Sa Na Kannan (Tamil), Mrutyunjayby Shivaji Sawant (Marathi), Ek Bija Ne Gamta Rahiye by Kaajal Oza Vaidya (Gujarati) and Aarachar by K R Meera (Malayalam). The exclusive titles include
Banaras Talkies by Satya Vyas, Ki.Mu.Ki.Pi by Madhan and, Draupadi by Kaajal Oza Vaidya and titles like Mayapuri by Shivani will now be available in digital format for the first time. "We are bringing features like font size adjustment, ability to add notes and highlights, and automatic save and sync of your furthest page read across all your devices," he said. According to industry reports, the print book market in India is estimated to be worth about USD 4 billion. India ranks third in English language publishing, after the US and the UK. India, which is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally, also has a significant number of people reading e-books on their phones. (Agencies)
New Delhi, Dec 01: India's staffing sector, with estimated total revenue of Rs 27,000 crore, is expected to register 12 per cent this year, says a report. According to Indian Staffing Federation, an apex body of flexi staffing industry, the sector which comprises 15 leading firms that account for Rs 270 billion in revenues is projected to grow 12 per cent this year and 10 per cent the next year. "In India, the staffing industry clearly does not have a challenge of addressable market and it is gratifying to witness the rapid growth being shown by each of the organised staffing firms to tap into this opportunity on one hand and enabling rapid job creation on the other," ISF President Rituparna Chakraborty said. The report noted that the top three firms including two home grown firms
TeamLease and Quess along with Swiss headquartered Adecco together account for 20 per cent of the total market share in India. The five largest staffing companies in India, based on 2015 revenue include TeamLease with a revenue of Rs 1,986.9 crore, Quess Rs 1,959.4 crore, Adecco Rs 1,500 crore, Randstad Rs 1,348.5 crore and Manpower Group Rs 799.1 crore. Chakraborty further said "demonetisation and implementation of GST in recent times shall definitely be a force multiplier to the growth of staffing in India." The staffing industry provides a platform for recognised employment, work choice, even compensation, annual benefits and health benefits for temporary workforce that constitute a sizeable segment of India's total workforce.(Agencies)
Sensex halts 4-day rally, slumps 93 points Mumbai, Dec 01: Market benchmark Sensex fell 93 points to end at 26,559.92, while the NSE Nifty broke below the 8,200-mark today after investors preferred to liquidate their positions at higher levels. After opening higher, the 30-share BSE barometer hovered between
26,769.32 and 26,540.82 before ending at 26,559.92, showing a fall of 92.89 points, or 0.35 per cent. The 50-share Nifty index fell 31.60 points, or 0.38 per cent, to 8,192.90 after shuttling between 8,250.80 and 8,185.05. (PTI)
No change in foodgrain prices
Maruti sales rise 12 pc to 1,35,550 in Nov New Delhi, Dec 01: Country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today reported 12.2 per cent rise in total sales for November at 1,35,550 units, as against 1,20,824 units in the corresponding month of 2015. The company's domestic sales stood at 1,26,325 units, up 14.2 per cent from 1,10,599 units in November 2015, MSI said in a statement. Sales of mini segment cars, including Alto and WagonR, increased by 8.1 per cent to 38,886 units as compared to 35,981 units in
the year-ago month, MSI said in a statement. The auto major said sales of the compact segment comprising Swift, Estilo, Ritz, Dzire and Baleno increased by 10.8 per cent to 49,431 units in November this year as against 44,626 units last year. MSI said sales of its compact sedan Dzire Tour declined by 10.3 per cent during the month under review at 3,017 units. Sales of midsized sedan Ciaz also declined by 1.4 per cent to 5,433 units during the month. Sales of utility vehicles, including Gypsy, Grand Vitara,
Ertiga, S-Cross and compact SUV Vitara Brezza, however, surged 98.1 per cent to 17,215 units in November this year, from 8,688 units in the corresponding month last year. Sales of vans -- Omni and Eeco declined by 1.6 per cent to 12,238 units in November this year as compared to 12,432 units in the same period of the previous year. Exports during the month under review declined by 9.8 per cent to 9,225 units as compared to 10,225 units in November last year, MSI said. (PTI)
No change in foodgrain prices
Chennai, Dec 1: Prices of all commodities remain unchanged for the fourth day today in the wholesale foodgrain market here. Following are the wholesale rates of various agricommodities (rates in rupees per quintal, unless
stated otherwise): Thoor Dal Rs 10,700, Urad Dal Rs 10,200, Moong Dal Rs 7,200, Gram Dal Rs 11,800, Sugar Rs 3,900, Wheat Rs 3,000, Maida (90 kg) Rs 2,700 and Sooji (90 kg) Rs 3,400. (PTI)
Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to fill nearly 2,100 posts across segments by 2016-17 as it looks to increase manpower for various projects.
To a query on whether retired employees of AAI have been re-employed on contract basis, the minister replied in the affirmative. AAI has re-employed 35 consultants on contract basis," he added.
New Delhi, Dec 01: Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to fill nearly 2,100 posts across segments by 2016-17 as it looks to increase manpower for various projects. In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the recruitment drive by AAI is to augment its manpower for timely completion of various development projects at several airports. AAI has commenced the
recruitment drive to fill approximately 2,100 posts by 2016-17 in different cadres such as ATC (Air Traffic Control), CNS (Communication, navigation and surveillance, engineering, HR (human resources), finance, operations and planning, he said. To a query on whether retired employees of AAI have been re-employed on contract basis, the minister replied in the affirmative. AAI has re-employed 35 consultants on con-
tract basis," he added. The state-owned AAI manages 125 airports, including 11 international aerodromes, and also provides air traffic management services. In a separate written reply, Sinha said AAI has undertaken work for expansion and modernisation of Chennai airport. The terminal building capacity is to be increased to 30 million passengers per annum, apart from having multi-level mechanised car parking to handle 2,000 cars, among other amenities. These works are "estimated to cost Rs 2,587 crore", he noted. Besides, AAI has started work for expansion of Rajahmundry airport in Andhra Pradesh for operation of wide- bodied aircraft there by May 2018. This is expected to entail a cost of Rs 181.45 crore. "The government of Andhra Pradesh has handed over 857.09 acres land free of cost to AAI for expansion of the airport," the minister said. (PTI)
No tax on ancestral jewellery, purchase from disclosed income New Delhi, Dec 01: Amendments to the I-T laws do not seek to tax inherited gold and jewellery as also those items that are purchased through disclosed or agriculture income, the government said on Thursday. The Lok Sabha earlier this week passed the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, which proposes a steep up to 85 per cent tax and penalty on undisclosed wealth that is discovered by tax authorities during search and seizure. Dispelling rumours that jewellery would be covered under the amended law, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said the government has not introduced any new provision regarding chargeability of tax on jewellery. "The jewellery/gold purchased out of disclosed income or out of exempted income like agricultural income or out of reasonable household savings or legally inherited which has been acquired out of explained sources is neither chargeable to tax under the
existing provisions nor under the proposed amended provisions," the CBDT said. During search operations, conducted by I-T department, there would be no seizure of gold jewellery and ornaments to the extent of 500 grams per married women, 250gm per unmarried women as also 100gm per male member of the family, it said. "Further, legitimate holding of jewellery up to any extent is fully protected," it added. The Bill, which is currently under consideration of the Rajya Sabha, will amend Section 115BBE of the Income Tax Act to provide for a steep 60 per cent tax and a 25 per cent surcharge on it (total 75 per cent) for black money holders. Another section inserted provides for an additional 10 per cent penalty on being established that the undeclared wealth is unaccounted or black money, taking the total incidence of levies to 85 per cent. CBDT said: "Tax rate under section 115BBE is pro-
HIGHLIGHTS No tax will be imposed on jewellery/gold purchased out of disclosed income. The Amended I-T Act will also not apply to tax ancestral jewellery and gold. No seizure of gold jewellery up to 500 gm per married lady, 250 gm per unmarried lady and 100 gm per male in I-T searches. posed to be increased only for unexplained income as there were reports that the tax evaders are trying to include their undisclosed income in the return of income as business income or income from other sources. "The provisions of section 115BBE apply mainly in those cases where assets or cash etc. are sought to be declared as 'unexplained cash or asset' or where it is hidden as unsubstantiated business income, and the Assessing Officer detects it as such." (PTI)
Gold hits 6-month low, loses another Rs 350
Image for representation purpose.
New Delhi, Dec 01: Gold extended its slump for the second day and shed another Rs 350 to hit a six-month low of Rs 29,000 per 10 grams in the bullion market on Thursday amid weakening global trend and considerable fall in demand from jewellers at the domestic spot market. Silver went below the Rs 41,000-mark, tumbling by Rs 735 to Rs 40,700 per kg on reduced offtake by industrial units and coin makers. Traders said sentiment was downbeat, largely in keeping with a weak global trend as the dollar
surged to its highest in at least a decade against a basket of currencies on strong economic data and signs that the US Fed is inching towards increasing rates, eroded the metals' appeal as safe-haven assets. Globally, gold fell 1.25 per cent to $1,173 an ounce in New York yesterday. Silver too dropped by 0.81 per cent to $16.48 an ounce. A falling demand from jewellers and retailers in the domestic bullion market due to paucity of funds too weighed on sentiments, traders said. The government on No-
vember 8 had scrapped 500 and Rs 1,000 rupee notes to crack down on black money, leading to a cash crunch. "Buying activity remained at a low ebb even at prevailing levels", said Rakesh Anand, a Delhibased jeweller. In the national capital, gold of 99.9 per cent and 99.5 per cent purity slumped by Rs 350 each to Rs 29,000 and Rs 28,850 per 10 grams, respectively - a level last seen on June 1. The precious metal had lost Rs 100 in Wednesday's trade. Sovereign traded lower by Rs 50 at Rs 24,350 per piece of eight grams. Tracking gold, silver ready dropped by Rs 735 to Rs 40,700 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 835 to Rs 40,000 per kg. On the other hand, silver coins, held steady at Rs 74,000 for buying and Rs 75,000 for selling of 100 pieces in scattered deals. (PTI)