- Sunday, March 09, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Tuesday, October 18, 2022:
5G services were rolled out earlier in October in fewer cities in India and more are expected to get them in the coming months, India Today reported. Indian telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that at least four cities of the eastern state of Odisha will get 5G by March 2023. It will fully be available all over the state by the end of next year, as per the government official. “In the first phase, four-five cities of Odisha will get 5G services by March 2023, and by the end of next year, around 80 per cent area of the states will be covered,” Vaishnaw, who represents Odisha in the Upper House of the Indian parliament, said. He added that the government is aiming to cover over 200 cities by March next year and to expand the 5G services to more towns as well as rural areas.
Job postings for 5G and telecommunications have witnessed significant uptick in the last 12 months, as enterprises are looking at 5G adoption at an accelerated pace, says a report, PTI reported. According to global job site Indeed, job postings for telecommunications and 5G have increased by 33.7 per cent between September 2021 and September 2022. “5G rollout has been eagerly anticipated in India, and businesses have already begun hiring to develop 5G-specific technology and services. With enterprises looking at 5G adoption at an accelerated pace, we will likely see an uptick in hiring for these roles in the next few quarters,” Indeed India career expert Saumitra Chand said.
Indian civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said there is a huge demand for air travel after the pandemic and urged eight states and Union Territories of the country to reduce the tax on jet fuel, PTI reported. Air traffic growth will be driven by smaller cities, he said while speaking at the civil aviation ministers’ conference in the national capital. Domestic air traffic is inching closer to pre-Covid level and in recent times, the daily passenger numbers crossed the four lakh mark twice. Scindia said that Value Added Tax (VAT) on jet fuel is still high in eight states and Union Territories in the range of 20-30 per cent and urged them to reduce the rate.
Reliance Jio has become the largest wireline player with 7.3 million subscribers surpassing the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), which has 7.1 million subscribers as per the data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday, Asian News International reported. The TRAI on Tuesday released monthly subscriber data for the month ending August 2022. As per the TRAI data, Reliance Jio also added 32.8 lakh new subscribers in August whereas Bharti Airtel added 3.2 lakh subscribers, and Vodafone Idea lost 19.6 lakh subscribers. With the latest addition of 32.8 lakh mobiles, Jio’s subscriber base has increased to 419.24 million. Airtel is in second place with 363.8 million subscribers. As per the latest data, Jio has topped in all three categories of mobile subscriber base, wireline broadband, and wireline.
As India is preparing to launch 5G services in every city of the country, global companies are showing interest in the businesses related to the country’s space, ANI reported. Elon Musk-owned SpaceX has applied to the department of telecommunications (DoT) for a global mobile personal communication by satellite services (GMPCS) licence to launch broadband-from-space services in India under its Starlink brand. SpaceX has applied for the licence, now the government will decide on the licence following the due procedure laid by the department, an official privy to the details told ANI. Official said that the global companies are now showing interest in Indian space, SpaceX is among one of them. Bharti Group-backed OneWeb and Reliance Jio Infocomm’s satellite arm have already secured licence, SpaceX is the third company to apply for the licence.
Shares of renewable energy solutions provider Suzlon Energy rose in the early trade on Tuesday after the company said it has bagged an order to develop a 48.3 MW wind power project from Adani Green Energy. Moneycontrol reported. Suzlon Energy will set up 23 units of their wind turbine generators (WTGs) with a Hybrid Lattice Tubular (HLT) tower and a rated capacity of 2.1 MW each. The project is located in Mandvi, Kutch Gujarat and is expected to be commissioned next year. The order is a repeat order from Adani Green Energy Ltd. and is in addition to the existing order of 226.8 MW as announced in August last year, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company did not specify the monetary value of the order, the report added.
