Bharti Airtel on Friday announced between 10-21 per cent hike in mobile tariffs, a day after larger rival Reliance Jio announced an increase in rates.

Airtel, in a release, said that the revision in mobile tariffs will be effective from July 3.

“We have ensured that there is a very modest price increase (less than 70 paise per day) on entry-level plans, in order to eliminate any burden on budget challenged consumers,” the Sunil Mittal-led telecom firm said announcing the revision in mobile tariffs.

Bharti Airtel said it has maintained that the mobile Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) needs to be upwards of Rs 300, to enable a financially healthy business model for telcos in India.

“We believe that this level of ARPU will enable the substantial investments required in network technology and spectrum and offer a modest return on capital,” the telco said.

Among the unlimited voice plans, Airtel has raised tariffs in the ballpark range of about 11 per cent, and accordingly rates are revised from Rs 179 to Rs 199; from Rs 455 to Rs 509; and from Rs 1,799 to Rs 1,999. In the daily data plan category, the Rs 479 plan has been increased to Rs 579 (20.8 per cent increase).

The mobile tariff hike from mobile operators comes immediately after the 10th spectrum auction, which ended in just two days with muted response from the industry.

Loss-making telecom operator Vodafone Idea will raise mobile tariffs across the board by 11-24 per cent from July 4, according to a company statement.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel will roll out increased mobile service rates from July 3 onward.

“In line with its commitment to provide its consumers with simple and comprehensive plans, Vi has curated an optimum range of feature-rich plans to meet the diverse needs of its consumers. Staying true to its philosophy of supporting entry-level users and progressively linking higher prices to increased usage, changes in entry-level plans are nominal,” Vi said.

The company has raised the entry-level plan, minimum recharge value for 28 days of mobile service, by about 11 per cent to Rs 199 from Rs 179.

Vi has raised the price of a popular 84-day validity plan with 1.5 GB data per day to Rs 859 from Rs 719 earlier.

The company has increased the price of its annual unlimited plan by about 21 per cent to Rs 3,499 from 2,899 at present.

It has made no change in its 365 validity plan with a 24 GB data limit, which costs users Rs 1,799.

“Vi is planning significant investments over the next few quarters to further enhance the 4G experience as well as launch 5G services,” the statement said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 2,777.58 points or 3.75 per cent to hit a record peak of 76,738.89 in early trade. The NSE Nifty rallied 808 points or 3.58 per cent to hit a fresh all-time high of 23,338.70.

Exit polls on Saturday predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will retain power for a third straight term, with the BJP-led NDA expected to win a big majority in the Lok Sabha polls.

The counting of votes will take place on June 4.

All the 30-Sensex companies were trading in the green. Power Grid, NTPC, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra were the biggest gainers.

India’s economy grew by 8.2 per cent in the fiscal year that ended in March, cementing the country’s position as the fastest-growing major economy in the world.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were quoting with gains while Shanghai traded lower.

US markets ended mostly higher on Friday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,613.24 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.04 per cent to USD 81.08 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark climbed 75.71 points or 0.10 per cent to settle at 73,961.31 on Friday. The Nifty advanced 42.05 or 0.19 per cent to end at 22,530.70.

New Delhi: India’s economy growth slowed to a four-quarter low of 7.8 per cent in the January-March period, but pushed the annual growth rate for FY24 to 8.2 per cent, mainly on account of good showing by manufacturing, official data showed on Friday.

The growth propelled the Indian economy to USD 3.5 trillion and set the stage for achieving the USD 5-trillion target in the next few years.

In the previous 2022-23 fiscal year, the economy grew 7 per cent.

China has registered an economic growth of 5.3 per cent in the first three months of 2024.

The economic expansion was recorded at 7.8 per cent during the January-March 2024, while it was 8.6 per cent in October-December 2023 and 8.1 per cent in July-September 2023.

The growth was 8.2 per cent in April-June 2023, as per data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

The GDP grew 6.2 per cent in the January-March quarter of 2022-23.

The NSO, in its second advance estimate released in February, had projected the GDP growth for 2022-23 at 7.7 per cent.

According to the NSO data, real GDP, or GDP at constant prices, is estimated to attain a level of Rs 173.82 lakh crore in 2023-24, against the first revised estimates (FRE) of GDP for 2022-23 of Rs 160.71 lakh crore.

“The growth rate in real GDP during 2023-24 is estimated at 8.2 per cent as compared to 7.0 per cent in 2022-23,” it stated.

Nominal GDP or GDP at current prices is estimated to attain a level of Rs 295.36 lakh crore in 2023-24, against Rs 269.50 lakh crore in 2022-23, showing a growth rate of 9.6 per cent, it added.

The real GDP in the March quarter of 2023-24 is estimated at Rs 47.24 lakh crore, against Rs 43.84 lakh crore a year earlier, showing a growth rate of 7.8 per cent.

Nominal GDP, or GDP at current prices in the March quarter of 2023-24, is estimated at Rs 78.28 lakh crore, against Rs 71.23 lakh crore in the year-ago period, showing a growth rate of 9.9 per cent.

The real GVA (gross value added) is estimated at Rs 158.74 lakh crore in 2023-24, against the FRE for 2022-23 of Rs 148.05 lakh crore, registering a growth rate of 7.2 per cent as compared to 6.7 pe cent in 2022-23.

The GVA growth in the manufacturing sector accelerated to 8.9 per cent in the March quarter against 0.9 per cent a year ago.

GVA growth in mining was 4.3 per cent in the fourth quarter compared to 2.9 per cent in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.

Construction grew 8.7 per cent in the quarter, up from 7.4 per cent in the corresponding period of 2022-23.

The agriculture sector growth decelerated to 0.6 per cent from 7.6 per cent.

The electricity, gas, water supply, and other utility services segment grew 7.7 per cent during the fourth quarter from 7.3 per cent in the year-ago period.

GVA growth in the services sector — trade, hotel, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting — was 5.1 per cent in the fourth quarter against a growth of 7 per cent a year ago.

Financial, real estate and professional services grew 7.6 per cent in the March 2023 quarter compared to 9.2 per cent in the year-ago period.

Public administration, defence and other services posted 7.8 per cent growth in the quarter against 4.7 per cent expansion in the same quarter a year ago.

Guwahati: Draped in a traditional ‘Mekhela Chador’ and jewellery, Assam’s first artificially intelligent teacher ‘Iris’ promptly answered all questions of students of a private school here.

The humanoid listened to the question – what is haemoglobin? – and replied to the student with all the details, a teacher of the school said.

“Whether the questions were from their syllabus or about anything, ‘Iris’ provided answers in no time and with examples and references,” said a spokesperson of the Royal Global School here.

The students were inquisitive and eagerly engaged in various activities of the robot, she said.

The children also enjoyed the robot’s ability to perform gestures like handshakes, which made the learning process both fun and engaging.

‘Iris’ has a voice-controlled assistant which helps it respond to student queries and provides detailed explanations.

“The children are very excited because the artificially intelligent teacher has answers to their questions,” the school teacher said.

The robot has been developed in collaboration with Makerlabs Edu-tech under the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) project initiated by NITI Aayog.

‘Iris’ marks a significant advancement in the integration of artificial intelligence in education, the school teacher said.

The introduction of ‘Iris’ marks a significant milestone in enhancing the learning experience and catering to the diverse learning styles of students, she said.

The private school looks forward to leverage capabilities of the robot to personalise learning and make education more engaging for students in the northeast region, the spokesperson added.

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank on Tuesday came out with draft guidelines to further strengthen regulations on payment aggregators, a move aimed at boosting the payment ecosystem.

The draft also covers the physical point-of-sale activities of payment aggregators (PAs).

The RBI said that given the growth in digital transactions and the significant role that PAs play in this space, the current directions on PAs are proposed to be updated and cover, inter alia, KYC and due diligence of merchants, operations in Escrow accounts, and intended to strengthen the payment ecosystem.

The payments ecosystem in India includes online PAs and PAs, which facilitate face-to-face/proximity payment transactions.

On KYC and due diligence, the draft said the payment aggregators should undertake due diligence of merchants onboarded by them in accordance with Customer Due Diligence (CDD) prescribed in Master Directions on Know Your Customer (MD-KYC), 2016.

“PAs shall ensure that marketplaces onboarded by them do not collect and settle funds for services not offered through their platform,” said the draft on which the RBI has invited comments by May 31, 2024.

For face-to-face/proximity payment transactions done using cards, from August 1, 2025, the draft said no entity in the card transaction/payment chain, other than the card issuers and/or card networks, shall store the Card-on-File (CoF) data.

“Any such data stored previously shall be purged,” the draft added.

The draft further said non-banks providing PA-P services should have a minimum networth of ₹ 15 crore at the time of submitting an application to the RBI for authorisation and a minimum networth of ₹ 25 crore by March 31, 2028.

The net worth of ₹ 25 crore shall be maintained at all times thereafter.

Mumbai: The Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested a close aide of the owner of tour and travel company Cox & Kings in connection with a Rs 400-crore fraud case involving Yes Bank, officials said on Friday.

Ajit Menon (67), a British national, was apprehended by a team of Mumbai police at Cochin airport in Kerala after he arrived from London on Tuesday, an official said.

A Look Out Circular had been issued against him, he said.

Menon was brought to Mumbai on Thursday morning and produced in a court, which remanded him in police custody till April 15, the official said.

According to the official, Menon was a close aide of Ajay Peter Kerkar, the owner of Cox and Kings.

Menon came on the EOW radar during the agency’s probe into the Rs 400-crore Yes Bank fraud case, which involved alleged diversion of money after availing a loan from the bank, the official said.

The money disbursed by Yes Bank was not used for the purpose for which they had obtained the loan, the official said.

During the probe, EOW found that Menon, who used to look after the company operations in Europe, had diverted Rs 56 crore to a UK-based company from the loan amount, the official said.

The EOW had in 2021 registered a case against Cox & Kings Financial Services Limited, a sister concern of tour and travel company Cox & Kings, for allegedly duping Yes Bank of Rs 400 crore.

The Cox and Kings Financial Services Limited was into providing foreign exchange business, holiday financing, student loans and other non-banking financial services.

The EOW had named company owner Kerkar, his wife, Menon and other individuals in the FIR, he said.

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala on Thursday launched India’s first government-owned OTT platform ‘CSpace’ with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan terming it as a decisive step in the onward journey of Malayalam Cinema.

Inaugurating CSpace, managed by the Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC), at a function at Kairali Theatre here, the chief minister said this is a pioneering initiative that gives prominence to films with artistic and cultural value without hurting the mainstream film industry.

Noting that earning profit is the prime motive of the private-sector OTT platforms that mostly go for commercial movies, CSpace is set to make a mark as a medium that brings home quality films, he said.

“Private OTT platforms give prominence to films in the most widely spoken language since their prime motive is to maximise profit. The priority of CSpace, on the other hand, is to onboard and stream contents with artistic and cultural values. This will also help the promotion of the Malayalam language and culture,” Vijayan said.

The launch of CSpace also signifies leveraging of the cutting-edge technologies which will define Malayalam Cinema in the future, he said.

The decision that CSpace will only stream films that are already released in theatres signifies that this is not a move that will harm the interests of the film industry. Its aim is to promote good cinema without hurting the interests of the producers and exhibitors, the chief minister said.

Presiding over the function, Culture Minister Saji Cherian said the launch of CSpace aligned well with the government’s policy of supporting art and artists representing diverse traditions, he said.

The films that win state, national and international awards will be streamed on the platform, he said.

General Education Minister V Sivankutty, Food and Civil Supplies Minister G R Anil, Antony Raju, MLA, and Mayor Arya Rajendran were also present at the function.

KSFDC Chairman and eminent director Shaji N Karun said CSpace is a novel initiative that seeks to help producers to get back their investment through crowd-funding route.

Total transparency in profit it earns and the number of viewers it attracts are the distinguishing features of the platform, he said.

KSFDC is a state-owned company entrusted with the promotion of Malayalam Cinema and industry, under the Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala.

For selection of the content, KSFDC has constituted a 60-member curator panel including eminent cultural personalities like Benyamin, OV Usha, Santhosh Sivan, Shyamaprasad, Sunny Joseph, and Jeo Baby.

Every content that is submitted will be evaluated by the curators considering its artistic, cultural and infotainment merit, before showcasing it on the platform.

A total of 42 films have been selected in the first phase for streaming on CSpace, including 35 feature films, six documentaries, and one short film. Films that have won national or state awards and those exhibited at major film festivals will also be streamed.

Another distinctive feature of CSpace is transparency in its operations and the overall earnings and the revenue share.

The platform, which operates on a pay per view basis, allows viewers to watch a feature film for Rs 75 and shorter contents for a much lesser price. Exactly half of the amount charged goes to the content provider.

Viewers can download the CSpace app from the PlayStore and the App Store from today onwards.

New Delhi: A court here directed online media platform “The Bloomberg”on Friday to take down an allegedly defamatory news article against “Zee Entertainment”.

Additional District Judge Harjyot Singh Bhalla was hearing the Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited’s plea against two private limited companies that operate and manage “The Bloomberg” portal for allegedly publishing a defamatory article against it on February 21.

“The said article is defamatory qua the plaintiff (Zee) and has been published in order to malign and defame the plaintiff, with a pre-meditated and malafide intention,” the plea said.

Taking note of the evidence before it, the court said Zee had established a “prima facie case for passing ad-interim ex-parte orders of injunction”.

It said the balance of convenience is in Zee’s favour and irreparable loss and injury might be caused to the company if the injunction was not granted.

“In view thereof, defendant no.1 and defendant no.2 (the companies operating and managing ‘The Bloomberg’) are directed to take down the article dated February 21, 2024 from the online platform within one week of the receipt of this order,” the court said.

“The defendants are further restrained from posting, circulating or publishing the aforesaid article in respect of the plaintiff on any online or offline platform till the next date of hearing,” it added.

The other defendants in the case include the authors and researchers of the article.

New Delhi: Vijay Shekhar Sharma has stepped down as part-time non-executive Chairman of Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL), and the board of the bank has been reconstituted.

The Reserve Bank has barred the PPBL from accepting deposits and credits from any customer post-March 15 for persistent non-compliances and continued material supervisory concerns in the bank.

PPBL has reconstituted its Board of Directors with the appointment of Ex-Central Bank of India Chairman Srinivasan Sridhar, retired IAS officer Debendranath Sarangi, former Executive Director of Bank of Baroda Ashok Kumar Garg, and former IAS officer Rajni Sekhri Sibal, Paytm said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

These persons had recently joined as Independent Directors, it said.

One 97 Communications Ltd (OCL) is the owner of the Paytm brand.

“The company has been separately informed that Vijay Shekhar Sharma has also resigned from the Board of Paytm Payments Bank to enable this transition. PPBL has informed us that they will commence the process of appointing a new Chairman,” the filing said.

OCL supports PPBL’s move of opting for a board with only independent and executive directors by removing its nominee, it added.

“PPBL’s future business to be led by a reconstituted Board,” the filing stated.

Mumbai: The RBI on Friday advised customers as well merchants of Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) to shift their accounts to other banks by March 15, giving 15 more days to the beleaguered entity to close most of its operations, including deposit and credit transactions.

The earlier deadline was February 29, 2024, which the RBI has extended by 15 days keeping in view the interest of customers (including merchants) of PPBL who may require a little more time to make alternative arrangements and in the larger public interest.

The RBI also said withdrawal or utilisation of balances by PPBL customers from their accounts, including saving bank accounts, current accounts, prepaid instruments, FASTags, National Common Mobility Cards will be permitted without any restrictions, up to their available balance even beyond March 15.

The central bank has also issued a list of 30 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), for the convenience of customers of PPBL, and the general public at large.

“After March 15, 2024, you (PPBL customers) will not be able to deposit money into your account with Paytm Payments Bank. No credits or deposits other than interest, cashbacks, sweep-in from partner banks or refunds are allowed to be credited,” the FAQs said.

It further said: “It is suggested that you make alternative arrangements with another bank before March 15, 2024 to avoid inconvenience”.

The existing deposits of PPBL customers maintained with partner banks can be brought back (sweep-in) to the accounts with PPBL, subject to the ceiling on balance (Rs 2 lakh per individual customer at the end of day).

Such sweep-ins for the purpose of making available the balances for use or withdrawal by the customer will continue to be allowed. However, no fresh deposits with partner banks through PPBL will be allowed after March 15, 2024.

Salaries and pensions too will not be credited in PPBL accounts after March 15. Those customers paying EMIs or OTT subscriptions through PPBL too need to make alternative arrangements.

According to the FAQs, those having wallet with PPBL can continue to use money from the wallet after March 15, 2024 up to the balance available in the wallet.

On FASTags, the RBI’s FAQs said one can continue to use them to pay toll up to the available balance.

“However, no further funding or top-ups will be allowed in the FASTags issued by Paytm Payments Bank after March 15, 2024,” it said, and advised the customers to procure a new FASTag issued by another bank before March 15, 2024 to avoid any inconvenience.

For merchants who accept payments using Paytm QR code, Paytm soundbox, Paytm POS terminal linked to PPBL account or wallet, the RBI said they will not be able to avail the service after March 15, and should look for other alternatives.

“In order to avoid any inconvenience or disruption, it is suggested that you (merchant) may obtain a fresh QR code linked to an account with another bank or wallet to receive payments,” it said.

They may also change your bank account details (in which you receive payments) through your service provider.

However, it said if the Paytm QR code, Paytm soundbox or Paytm POS terminal are linked to another bank account, the arrangement will continue even after March 15.

“If your receipt and transfer of funds is linked to any bank account other than Paytm Payments Bank, you can continue to use this arrangement even after March 15, 2024,” the RBI said.

Meanwhile, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm founder and CEO, in a post on X said: “Paytm QR, Soundbox and EDC (card machine) will continue to work like always, even after March 15…Do not fall for any rumour or let anyone deter you to championing Digital India!”.

In March, 2022, the RBI had barred PPBL from onboarding new customers with immediate effect.

One97 Communications Ltd (OCL) , which owns Paytm brand, holds a 49 per cent stake in PPBL, but classifies it as an associate and not as a subsidiary.

The central bank further said settlement of all pipeline transactions in nodal accounts (in respect of all transactions initiated on or before February 29, 2024) will be completed by March 15, 2024 and no further transactions will be permitted thereafter.

However, the RBI added the nodal accounts of OCL and Paytm Payments Services Ltd maintained by PPBL are to be terminated at the earliest, in any case not later than February 29, 2024.