Varun Dhawan, Shruti Haasan to be Fossil brand ambassadors
NEW DELHI: Watchmaker Fossil has roped in actors Varun Dhawan and Shruti Haasan as its first brand ambassadors in the country. For Fossil Group, India is the third market after the US and South Korea, to have roped in a brand ambassador.
"Both actors will endorse our latest Gen 3 touchscreen smartwatches in a multi-media campaign which will soon kick off. We firmly believe this engagement will open up new avenues for us to engage with a broad set of young consumers," Fossil India Managing Director Johnson Verghese said. Fossil Gen 3 touchscreen smartwatches are priced between Rs 19,995-21,995. NEW DELHI: The Telecom Commission is likely to consider BSNL'S Rs 1,648 crore bid for setting up mobile towers in unconnected villages of the North East in its meeting on Friday, official sources said.
Mobile towers will be installed under the Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the North-eastern Region (NER) which was approved by the Cabinet in September 2014.
Under the plan, 8,621 villages out of 9,190 unconnected villages are to be covered by installation of 6,673 mobile towers with total outlay of Rs 5,336.18 crore.
"Telecom Commission is likely to consider BSNL'S part of North East telecom project on Friday," a government official, who did not wish to be named, said The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), which is handling the project, is likely to submit bid proposal for installing around 4,000 out of the 6,673 mobile towers.
The state-run BSNL has been entrusted with task of installing network in tough terrain of Arunachal Pradesh and two districts of Assam -- Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao.
It has submitted bid received from Vihaan Networks Limited and HFCL for installing around 2,000 towers for Rs 1,648 crore. These two domestic telecom equipment firms had rolled out mobile network project for BSNL in Left wing extremist areas across nine states.
Rest of the project was to be rolled out with help of private telecom operators. After no show by private telecom players for the tender, the USOF finally received a bid from Bharti Airtel this year which was cleared by the Telecom Commission in its last meeting on September 8.
Airtel has placed a bid for installing around 2,000 mobile towers for around Rs 1,660 crore. According to sources, the USOF has deferred plan to roll out mobile towers in Meghalaya for time being and will work on the project through separate tenders. NEW DELHI: Investments in the domestic capital market through participatory notes (P-notes) plunged to seven and a half year low of Rs 1.25 lakh crore at August- end because of stringent norms put in place by regulator Sebi.
The total value of P-notes investments in Indian markets -- equity, debt and derivatives -slumped to Rs 1,25,037 crore at August-end after hitting a fiveyear low of Rs 1,35,297 crore at the end of July, according to Sebi data.
This is the lowest level since February 2010, when the cumulative value of such investments stood at Rs 1,24,177 crore.
P-notes are issued by registered foreign portfolio investors to overseas players who wish to be part of the Indian stock market without registering themselves directly.
They, however, need to go through proper due diligence.
Of the total investments in August, P-note holdings in equities were at Rs 88,911 crore and the remaining in debt and derivatives markets.
Besides, the quantum of FPI investments via P-notes fell to 4.1 per cent in August from 4.4 per cent in the preceding month.
In July, Sebi had notified stricter P-notes norms stipulating a fee of $1,000 that would be levied on each instrument to check any misuse for channelising black money.
Also, the regulator prohibited FPIS from issuing such notes where the underlying asset is a derivative, except those which are used for hedging purposes.
The move is a follow- through of Sebi board approval of a relevant proposal in June. These measures are an outcome of a slew of other steps taken by the regulator in the recent past.
In April, Sebi had barred resident Indians, NRIS and entities owned by them from making investment through P-notes.
The decision was part of efforts to strengthen the regulatory framework for P-notes, which have been long seen as being possibly misused for routing black money from abroad.