India, with a projected annual growth rate of 7 per cent, has the potential to be the world’s fastest growing economy over the coming decade, surging ahead of its South Asian economic rival China that will continue to see a slowdown, according to Harvard researchers.

“India has the potential to be the fastest growing economy over the coming decade… India tops the global list for predicted annual growth rate for the coming decade, at 7.0 per cent,” new growth projections presented by researchers at the Centre for International Development (CID) at Harvard University showed.

Consider these numbers. Vodafone has 1.56 million sq ft under retail, with 9,880 exclusive stores. The country’s largest private telecom operator Airtel has 2,350 branded stores covering approximately 1.41 million sq ft.

Idea Cellular has 800,000 sq ft of retail space in the market, putting together 7,200 stores in 5,200 towns. Telenor, which currently operates in six circles, has 2,000 small format stores each measuring 130 to 150 sq ft, covering approximately 280,000 sq ft of retail space.

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: Infosys, which a few months ago won a landmark Rs 1,380-crore contract from the government to develop a stateof-the-art technology platform for the proposed goods and services tax (GST), is going ahead with the project despite the delay in the GST Bill getting passed, according to ministers and executives directly familiar with the matter.

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, on Monday said its board of directors had authorised the bank to raise up to Rs 12,000 crore of tier-II capital through Basel-III compliant bonds by way of private placement.

Announcing the committee of directors' decision through a notice on the exchanges, the bank did not mention anything about the timing for the issuances, but said it would do so at an appropriate time while the coupon would be decided at the time of actual issuance.

With uncertainty around diesel engines because of rising pollution in the cities, Tata Motors is moving towards hybrids and electric vehicles. The Mumbai-based company, traditionally been dependent on diesel engines, is working on partial hybrids and fully-electric systems for its future range of passenger vehicles. It is also working on a new generation of less-polluting petrol engines.

Aiming to reduce debt, Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications (RCom) has sold about 150 residential flats in Navi Mumbai for Rs 330 crore.

RCom has already received more than 50% of the sale proceeds and the balance amount will be realised in the next 2-3 months, the company said in a statement.

Internet users in India seem to be putting Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in a dilemma. According to fresh reports, the regulator has already received over 540,000 comments on its second consultation paper over ‘Differential Pricing for Data Services’. Most of these comments are in support of Free Basics initiative by Facebook. TRAI will keep the inputs open until December 30.

While TRAI doesn’t use the phrase ‘net neutrality’ in its paper, the subject of differential pricing itself has been at the core of the debate over net neutrality in India, ever since Airtel announced its Zero Platform. The first consultation paper on this matter had received over 1.2 million emails when several media platforms & Internet firms had actively been supporting the concept of net neutrality, and had launched ‘Save the Internet‘ campaign.

Mumbai: Indian stocks advanced, with the benchmark gauge rebounding from its biggest loss in a month, as lenders and metal producers climbed.

ICICI Bank Ltd, the country’s biggest private lender, climbed to a two-week high. The stock was the best performer on the S&P BSE Bankex, which jumped 1.4%. Tata Steel Ltd rallied to a four-month high, while Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC), the largest state-owned explorer, increased to its highest price in nearly three weeks.

Japan’s Toshiba Corp said on Monday it will cut nearly 7,000 consumer electronics jobs after a $1.3 billion accounting scandal, in an overhaul that will streamline the sprawling conglomerate into a company focused on chips and nuclear energy.

Toshiba also said it would sell its television manufacturing plant in Indonesia, and that eventual job cuts spanning the entire PC-to-nuclear company could be over 10,000 including previously announced cuts and those seeking voluntary early retirement.

To speed up customer acquisition, state-owned telecom firm BSNL has slashed mobile rates by up to 80% for the first two months under a scheme for new customers.

"BSNL has revamped its infrastructure now. We have decided to cut mobile call rates by up to 80% for new customers so that they get experience of our revamped services," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava told PTI.

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