Reliance Launches 4G Jio As Rival Stocks Dive, Economy Numbers Are Gloomy And Other News From India

Jio, Finally: Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani unveiled his much awaited, much-hyped Jio service at a shareholders meeting, in a 45-minute presentation that shaved 120 billion rupees ($1.8 billion) off the market value of two of its biggest competitors. Ambani’s new mobile service offered free voice calls and cheap data (as low as 50 rupees for 1GB) which is likely to trigger a price war among telcos, straining the bottom lines of his rivals who are already struggling with massive costs. Jio’s launch was preceded by a bitter war between telecom companies which went all the way to the Prime Minister’s office and Ambani took a dig at his competitors when he said:

“Incumbent operators have advantages over new entrants, have well-established networks, customers. New entrants require fair access to both. Therefore, the onus is rightly on the incumbent operators not to misuse their market power by creating unfair hurdles.”

Growth numbers: India’s economy grew at its slowest pace in 15 months in the April-June quarter, although by global standards, the number is still very respectable. It rose 7.1 percent in the quarter, compared with 7.9 percent in Jan-March. Economists are quick to point to the base effect - a higher number in the year-ago quarter has resulted in a lower percentage growth - but that hasn’t stopped the stock market from fretting. (Pic credit: ET)

KG-Basin saga: It wasn’t all good news for Reliance though. The Justice Shah panel, which was looking into a gas dispute between Reliance and state-owned ONGC, has found that Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance did indeed make unfair gains from its partnership - essentially selling gas that belonged to ONGC - and which it has to compensate the government for. An independant consultant last year pegged ONGC’s loss from this deal at 90 billion rupees ($1.3 billion). If you’re wondering what the fuss is all about, here’s an explainer.

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Singur Case: A 10-year old dispute has finally been laid to rest by the Supreme Court. The land in Singur, which was to be the site of the Tata Nano plant, then Tata group chairman Ratan Tata’s dream small car project, was illegally acquired from the farmers and must be returned, according to the SC ruling. The land was acquired by the West Bengal state government in 2006 for the Nano plant, but the dispute with the landowners dragged on for years until Tata threw in the towel and moved base across the country to Gujarat where then chief minister Narendra Modi had dispute-free land ready to build. Here is a timeline of the Singur saga.

Cement Woes: The Competition Commission of India, the nation’s anti-trust regulator, has slapped a fine of 67 billion rupees or over $1 billion, on five cement companies for cartelization and price fixing. The CCI was responding to a case filed by the Builders Association, representing real estate developers. In response, cement shares tumbled 5% in the markets today.

Cover Picture credit: PTI Via New Indian Express

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