CCI clears Rcom’s plans to sell infra assets to Jio
NEW DELHI: Debt-laden Reliance Communications’ (Rcom) proposal to sell infrastructure assets including towers, optic fibre cable and spectrum to Reliance Jio has been cleared by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). “@Cci_india approves acquisition of RCOM’S towers, optic fiber cable, right to use spectrum and media convergence nodes by RJIO,” the anti-trust regulator tweeted. In December 2017, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio had signed a pact to acquire the mobile business assets that includes spectrum, mobile towers and optical fibre network of Rcom — owned by his younger brother Anil Ambani.
SKODA MAY ROLL
OUT LOW-COST SMALL CAR IN INDIA IN 2021
Volkswagen’s Skoda division, commissioned by the carmaker to explore an entry-level car platform with a focus on India, could start selling vehicles in the country in 2021, its chief told a German business paper.
Skoda, Volkswagen’s Czech arm, has been assessing whether Volkswagen’s MQB A0 platform could form the basis for a low-cost vehicle since talks with India’s Tata Motors collapsed in August last year.
“We could start selling cars in India based on our new platform in early 2021,” Skoda chief executive Bernhard Maier told Handelsblatt in an interview, adding the new cars should be produced locally.
PEPPERFRY GETS ₹250 CR FROM STATE STREET GLOBAL ADVISORS
Online furniture retailer Pepperfry said it has raised Rs250 crore in a fresh funding round from Us-based investor State Street Global Advisors to consolidate its lead in furniture retail, by expanding its offline presence and logistics network. Pepperfry chief executive Ambareesh Murty said in an interview that the company will use the funds to expand its supply chain, invest in technology and open new stores. Murty declined to comment on the company’s valuation.
APPLE SAID TO PLAN ITS OWN HIGH-END HEADPHONES
Apple Inc.’s Airpods earphones have been a surprise hit. Now, the company is planning a push into the high end of the market.
The Cupertino, Californiabased technology giant is working on noise-cancelling, over-ear headphones that rival headsets from market leaders like Bose and even the company’s own Beats by Dre brand, according to people familiar with the product’s development.
The company plans to launch the headphones as early as the end of this year, but has faced development challenges that might push back the release, the people said.
WINDOWS 10 WILL
PLAY WELL WITH INTEL’S NEW VPUS FOR OFFLINE AI PROCESSING
Microsoft has decided to use Intel’s new Myriad X vision proc- essor units (VPU) for handling all artificial intelligence (Ai)-related processing on Windows 10 devices.
The announcement was made at the Windows Developer Day conference, where Microsoft announced its new machine learning (ML) platform for the next Windows 10 update. The new platform will allow Ai-based applications to offload most of the workload from cloud to the Windows 10 device. The platform can determine how much power an AI task requires and will allocate to the hardware that is better equipped at handling them.
JET AIRWAYS, SPICEJET TO ADD MORE PLANES TO THEIR FLEET
Jet Airways (India) Ltd hopes to order 75 narrow-bodied aircraft by March 31, chief executive of the airline Vinay Dube said at the Hyderabad aero show.
Spicejet, which has placed an order of 205 Boeing airplanes, will take the delivery of its first such aircraft by August, and another 14 by March 2019, as the airline looks to increase its domestic routes, and connect international destination which are 5-6 hours away, the airline’s chairman Ajay Singh said on Thursday.