RCom is Jio’s latest casualty, house prices go up again, and more trending news

Here's the news professionals are talking about on LinkedIn right now.  Join the conversation in the comments.

Reliance Communications is pulling the plug on its 2G operations and exiting the DTH business, multiple news reports indicate. Gurdeep Singh, its telecom chief, reportedly told wireless division staffers that November 30 will be their last working day. The reason: cut throat competition propelled by Reliance Jio’s aggressive pricing strategy. Moreover, the company was unable to pare debt worth ?47,000 crore after a proposed merger deal with Aircel fell through due to regulatory hurdles.

Be prepared to spend more for owning a house in India’s metros. Average housing prices across Mumbai, Delhi and eight other cities went up by 8.7% in the June quarter, RBI data suggests. Property prices rose the most in Kanpur (18.2%). Chennai and Kochi were the only cities where prices contracted. After three years of little appreciation, house prices are rising because of shrinking supply and buyer-friendly policy changes, that require defaulting developers to reimburse buyers.

NR Narayana Murthy is still miffed with the Infosys board, now chaired by protege Nandan Nilekani. The Infosys founder is ‘disappointed’ by Infosys’ move to absolve ex-CEO Vishal Sikka and its erstwhile board of irregularities around the Panaya acquisition and the subsequent exit of former CEO Rajiv Bansal. “I stand by every question on poor governance raised in my speech to Infosys investors,” Murthy said in an statement. Sikka quit in August after blaming Murthy for publicly questioning his conduct over governance issues.

India has identified suspicious cash deposits worth $1 billion through its crackdown on 200,000 shell companies. The government is now planning to limit property transfers made by such companies, Bloomberg reports, quoting junior Corporate Affairs Minister PP Chaudhary. The shell firms have been derostered and their directors barred from other boards. The government’s aim is to up investor confidence by cleaning India Inc of companies involved in illicit transfer of wealth.

Foreign workers asking for H-1B visa extensions will soon face more scrutiny, Axios reports. Under the current policy, if someone was approved for an initial visa they likely would be for the extension as well. Now the US Citizenship and Immigration Services have directed their staff to use the same level of scrutiny for both types of requests. It’s a blow to Indian tech companies such as TCS and Wipro, which rely on H-1B visas to hire workers with particular skills.

Idea of the day:  Being innovative isn’t just about what you start — it’s about what you stop. “You don’t have the capacity – the time, resources or energy – to do the new things because you are busy maintaining the old ones,” explains innovation expert Jeff DeGraff. Don’t get caught in this trap: Figure out what practices or ideas are no longer serving you and make room for new ones.

“Stopping things is hard. It’s full of feelings of loss, disappointment and failure. It takes more than creativity. It takes courage to stop what you’ve been doing to make room for the things your organization wants to start doing now.”

What are your thoughts? Share your thoughts on today’s stories in the comments.

Nirajita Banerjee / Share this using #DailyRundown