Who’s Bidding At The Spectrum Auction, Heightened Tensions At The Border and Other News From India

Short, but intense: Bidding at the biggest ever spectrum auction which began over the weekend has been intense but will close soon, according to news reports. The bid amount at the auction was pegged at $8.4 billion on Day 1, with Vodafone and Idea leading the charge to prop up their 4G coverage across the country to take on rivals Reliance Jio and Airtel, which are there already. Industry analysts believe that the auction may even close this week, compared to 19 days last year. The high spectrum price will hit the bottom lines of telcos, so we’ll now have to wait and see how it affects your mobile phone bill this year.

Water Wars Heat Up: The war for Cauvery waters between the two neighboring states is nowhere close to an end. Karnataka is showing no signs of releasing water to Tamil Nadu as directed by the Supreme Court and has convened yet another special session to discuss the court order. The latest deadline set by the Supreme Court is Oct 6 so all eyes are on that date. The main worry for India Inc is that unrest in Bangalore typically leads to a virtual shutdown of the IT industry, so here’s hoping a solution is found before the stand-off ends.

Tensions Heighten Once More: Two weeks after terrorists attacked an army brigade headquarters in Uri, and days after India responded with surgical strikes, there has been yet another attack by terrorists at an army camp in Baramullah in Kashmir. India has accused Pakistan of backing the terrorists, heightening tensions between the two neighbors.

Aircraft deal: Anil Ambani’s Reliance group has tied up with Rafale maker Dassault Aviation, days after India and France signed a deal to buy 36 Rafale jets for 590 billion rupees. This joint venture will cover the offset part of the contract worth about 220 billion rupees.

Whatsapp and data sharing: Whatsapp will comply with a court order issued last week that directed it to delete all data for users who deleted their account by until Sept 25. For other users, Whatsapp will only share data collected after Sept 25 with Facebook. The messaging app changed its privacy policy and announced intentions to share information with parent Facebook, which triggered a public interest litigation.

Big Sales: It’s that time of the year when e-commerce companies battle it out for leadership just as the festival season begins. But, offers this time around are muted, lower that previous year. This could be a sign of increasing fatigue on their part to outdo each other in the discount game, or the new FDI rules could be playing spoilsport here.

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