Global Telecoms Business, a journal for communications service providers around the world, has named Tata Communications (formerly VSNL) CEO N Srinath has been as one of the 10 most influential telecom personnel. Among the top 100 telecom personnel named by the magazine, N Srinath has been positioned at number 8. He has been credited for transforming Tata Communications in an international company and for the acquisition of networks like Teleglobe and Tyco Global Networks. The list tops with Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs at number two. Other Indians in the list are Bharti Enterprises Chairman and Group CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal (at number 35), Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint MD Manoj Kohli (number 39) and CEO of Motorola’s mobile services division Sanjay Jha (number 41).
The Bharti Group is aiming to reduce its dependence on the telecom sector to 50 per cent for the group’s revenues by 2013. At the moment, telecom operations provide over 80 per cent of its revenues with new businesses which include retail, financial services and agriculture just about taking off the ground. Unveiling a new brand for the group, the third time that the group has announced mega brand changes, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group CEO, Bharti Enterprises, said, “We are breaking free from our telecom legacy. In the next five years, we hope to get more than 50 per cent of our revenues from businesses other than telecom, which constitutes more than 80 per cent right now.” Read the full story in Business Standard here.
Telecom major Bharti Group Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal on Monday denied any attempt on forming a cartel with other telecom players to distort competition. Mittal was reacting to a ‘notice of enquiry’ by anti- monopoly watchdog MRTPC last week against three big telecom operators – Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular — for allegedly forming a cartel to distort competition. Earlier this month, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) Bench had directed the three companies to file their reply within four weeks. Read the full report in ‘The Economic Times’ here.