All stories by Surajeet Das Gupta
Can Isha Do What Her Dad Did With Jio?
Rediff.com12 Aug 2023Isha's stab at the bottom of the laptop pyramid shows she is a true Ambani.
Can Akasa Break IndiGo And Tata's Stranglehold?
Rediff.com10 Aug 2023'Akasa is the dark horse and I believe Go First will be up and running soon and these two together could end up with a 30 per cent share by FY24.'
Properties In Dubai Cheaper Than Suburban Mumbai
Rediff.com5 Aug 2023Properties located between Santa Cruz and Andheri in north west Mumbai are currently available at Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 per square feet, while in Dubai luxurious, fully furnished, properties are available at Rs 34,000 to Rs 60,000 per square feet of carpet area in the best locations.
Oppenheimer Races Ahead Of RRKPK
Rediff.com2 Aug 2023'While Rocky Aur Rani is a good film, there is nothing compelling in the content for which viewers would be ready to pay a premium.'
Electric two-wheeler registrations recover in July but very modestly
Rediff.com1 Aug 2023Even though electric two wheeler (e2W) companies saw a slight recovery in July of 12 per cent with 49,518 registrations - after a wash out in June because the government slashed the FAME 2 subsidy by a third - registrations are still lower for the second month in a row compared to April FY24. The slow pace has raised doubts about whether the registrations will reach anywhere near either Niti Aayog's ambitious target of 2.4 million vehicles in FY24 or whether they will be closer to the trimmed down industry expectation of around one million. In June, e2W registrations plunged to a mere 44,253, the worst month in more than a year, as companies hiked scooter prices.
Can Exter Deliver a Knockout Punch?
Rediff.com18 Jul 2023Although it has not announced the price bookings, sources say it could be in thousands.
Tata group may acquire Wistron's $600-mn iPhone factory by August
Rediff.com12 Jul 2023The Tata group is close to acquiring Wistron's $600-million factory in southern Karnataka by next month, according to reports. The Wistron unit makes iPhones for the Cupertino-based company. Sources said that Wistron will continue to provide the Tatas technical know-how on assembling the phone and keep back some personnel during the transition process.
Dogfight In The Skies For International Routes
Rediff.com10 Jul 2023West Asian carriers are up against Air India and IndiGo in the battle for seats on lucrative international routes.
DoT to make room for 'powerful' regulator
Rediff.com26 Jun 2023The government plans to remove the definition of broadcasting services altogether from the bill to help reduce confusion among stakeholders.
How India Plans To Become A Semiconductor Giant
Rediff.com22 Jun 2023Micron plans an assembly testing, marking and packaging project of $1 billion, and talks are on to set up a memory chip plant for captive requirements.
Uber India gears up for electric future but...
Rediff.com19 Jun 2023By 2025, Uber projects that 25,000-30,000 cars -- or 12 to 16 per cent of vehicle additions -- would be EVs, reports Surajeet Das Gupta.
Swedish furnishing major IKEA to bring in funding arm, expand retail biz
Rediff.com19 Jun 2023Swedish furnishing major IKEA, part of the Ingka Group, is inviting its investment arm - Ingka Investments - to India, a senior company executive said during an interaction in New Delhi. The move suggests that the group is looking at India as a priority market. The areas of investments being considered by Ingka Investments could range from taking stake in companies across sectors such as renewables, recycling, real estate, and software which synergise with IKEA's broader retail requirements.
How Jio plans to auction spectrum required by NGSO
Rediff.com14 Jun 2023Reliance Jio has suggested an alternative plan to the The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) under which spectrum required by non-geostationary orbit satellite (NGSO) operators to run their gateway terminals should be auctioned geographically, based on districts, rather than circles as done for mobile services. For spectrum which would be required to connect user terminals (like individual homes), Jio has suggested it should be auctioned frequency-wise and exclusively to an operator at a pan-India level. The move is significant as the auctioning of satellite space spectrum has been vehemently opposed by low earth orbit satellite operators (satellites which circle at low altitudes of 200-2000 km).
India tops airfare spike in APAC, West Asia
Rediff.com13 Jun 2023India witnessed the highest increase in airfares among the 10 top aviation markets in the Asia-Pacific and West Asia collectively across both domestic and international flights Q4 2019 and Q4 2022 in nominal terms, according to research by Hong Kong-based Airports Council International (ACI). India, where fares went up by 41 per cent, was followed by the UAE (34 per cent), Singapore (30 (per cent) and Australia (23 per cent). The study, which was undertaken in collaboration with Flare Aviation Consulting, examined around 36,000 routes in the top 10 aviation markets in Asia-Pacific and West Asia.
E-com firm Meesho hints at IPO in 2025; focus shifts to generating profits
Rediff.com4 Jun 2023E-commerce player Meesho, backed by marquee investors like SoftBank Group and Meta Platforms, will look at an initial public offering (IPO) only in 2025, and till then, its focus will be on generating profits after tax and not just on being Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation)-positive, top sources in the company told Business Standard in New Delhi. In a clear shift of strategy, the company, which has reduced its cash burn by 85 per cent, is now looking to trim its annual revenue growth target to 40 per cent from the 100-plus per cent earlier. The sources, however, said even this level of growth was far higher than that of most e-commerce companies.
Global subsidy race puts a spanner in India's chip manufacturing hopes
Rediff.com1 Jun 2023The Indian government is keen to woo major semiconductor players, but a global race to attract them to countries where there is already an ecosystem is making it difficult for India to attract the biggies in the business. On Wednesday the government decided to throw open the doors to more players to participate in its semiconductor scheme. It is now looking at not only 28 nanometre (nm) chips and below, but higher nodes like 40 nm.
Will Apple Do in India What Samsung Did In Vietnam?
Rediff.com31 May 2023Apple is hoping to assemble in India 25 per cent of all iPhones produced globally to reduce its heavy dependence on China.
From electronics to semiconductor, MNCs in search of policy stability
Rediff.com29 May 2023Their favourite alternatives: Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Note, India is missing from that list. And this is despite an attractive financial incentive scheme for OSAT players. The reason, said a senior executive of a US chip company who had a meeting in Taiwan just a few weeks ago, is that "they want more predictability in government policy because they plan to put in big money."
'Our aim is to encourage global companies to shift to India from China'
Rediff.com29 May 2023'I was in the US, where I met top executives of HP and Dell, and they are very keen to come to India.' 'Acer and ASUS have also evinced interest.'
PC shipments fell by 30% in Q1, notebooks fared the worst
Rediff.com24 May 2023The India personal computer (PC) market shipment, inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations, dropped by an overall 30.1 per cent in the first quarter of CY2023 over the previous year, to only 2.99 million units, according to the latest data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker released on Tuesday. In Q1CY23, while the demand for desktops was positive, the notebook category witnessed another weak quarter as it declined by 40.8 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y). The consumer segment declined by 36.1 per cent y-o-y primarily due to slowing demand and weak market sentiment.