"The customer needs to make a down payment of Rs 2,899 for the 4G smartphone and make 36 continuous monthly recharges of Rs 169.New Delhi: Bharti Airtel on Wednesday launched a low cost 4G smartphone in partnership with Chinese handset maker Karbonn Mobiles to counter Reliances free JioPhone offer.The dual-SIM device has 8GB memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.Karbonn Mobiles Managing Director Pardeep Jain said: "Through this association, we aim at strengthening our reach with the consumer that resides at the heart of smart telephony.Under this partnership, the Karbonn A40 Indian is being offered to customers."Airtel, he said, plans to partner with multiple manufacturers to bring affordable smartphone options to the market and build an open ecosystem of low cost devices.Raj Pudipeddi, Director, Consumer Business & CMO, Bharti Airtel said, "Airtels aspiration is to digitally empower every Indian with high speed data access.Those not wanting to opt for the Rs 169 bundled plan will have to do recharges worth Rs 3,000 within the first 18 months to claim the first refund of Rs 500, and recharge by another Rs 3,000 over the next 18 months to claim the second refund of Rs 1,000..The Airtel plan comes just when billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has started delivering to pre-booked customers a low-cost 4G-enabled smart feature phone on payment of a one-time refundable deposit of Rs 1,500."

The latest salvo from Airtel - Indias largest operator with subscriber base of over 281 million - promises to raise the competitive heat in the telecom sector, just ahead of the festive season. The real strength of our consumer base being an Indian smartphone brand is towards empowering every Indian with smart telephony and through this association we want to bring to our customers full blown smartphone experience at a price of just Rs BAR NOSE 1,399.The phone will effectively cost Rs 1,399, for which customers will have to make 36 continuous monthly recharges of Rs 169 and get two cash refunds -- Rs 500 after 18 months and another Rs 1,000 after 36 month, Airtel said in a statement.Airtel said the partnership with Karbonn is the first of several partnerships that it plans to have with mobile handset manufacturers to "bring highly affordable bundled 4G smartphone options to the market".The delivery of about six million Reliance JioPhones started in the second half of September, although the company has not provided an update of the deliveries made so far. The customer will get a cash refund of Rs 500 after 18 months and another Rs 1,000 after 36 months, taking the total cash benefit to Rs 1,500," said the statement.The Google Certified Karbonn A40 Indian has a full touch screen plus dual SIM slots, and offers complete access to all apps on Google Play Store, including YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. "This is yet another step in our ongoing journey to deeply understand customers and bring innovation that delights them," he said.

They said kite manufacturing being a cottage industry, GST on them will adversely affect small seasonal earnings made by local manufacturers.The Edappadi Palaniswami government in Tamil Nadu has introduced a 30 per cent municipal tax on cinemas for tickets that cost over Rs 100, in addition to the 28 per cent tax that is levied under GST." However, the first implication of implementing GST will be "some inflation" and nobody can deny that, he said.Reacting to reports of protests, finance minister Arun Jaitley wondered why traders were complaining about GST rates when the ultimate burden of taxation would fall on consumers.Wholesale markets across Madhya Pradesh said footfalls were few on Saturday following confusion over the duty structure under GST regime.Majority cloth shops in Gujarat also remained shut, while the few which were open, said they did not carry out any business transaction. After the "historic" launch of GST, protests erupted in many parts of the country against the new tax regime..Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram hit out at the Centre for rolling out GST in its present form, saying it has many "defects" and its full impact will be known only in "due course.Ahmedabad’s kite manufacturers also protested against GST by taking out a rally. It will be a bane for the trading community," senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee said.

There are around three lakh cloth merchants in Gujarat who will suffer losses due to the ongoing protest, cloth merchant association said.BJP chief Amit Shah, however, said that the new tax regime would accelerate the country’s economic growth and end "inspector raj"."It was at the stroke of midnight that India got freedom and again at the stroke of midnight, the trading community of our country lost their independence to license raj. So why are one or two traders complaining? Traders don’t have to pay tax, consumers have to," he said.While in Tamil Nadu, around 1,100 cinema owners have called for an indefinite strike from Monday, in Kashmir most shops and other business establishments remained shut on Saturday to protest against GST, prompting authorities to impose restrictions on the assembly of people as a precautionary measure. "Nowhere in the country is the consumer complaining because we have tried to make the basket of taxation reasonable.

In Srinagar, traders said they would not allow longer saw chain the implementation of the new tax regime in the state in its present form, claiming that it would lead to erosion of the special status and the fiscal autonomy of the state. While in several cities and towns, shops did not conduct any business as they are yet to transition to the new tax system, in others merchants and traders downed shutters or came out on the streets to express their resentment at being put into a higher tax bracket.

The world’s biggest manufacturers of urban rail systems are bidding for a share of orders worth Rs 48,000 crore ($7. Apart from civil and track, we are interested in everything. The project will encourage investments in India, he added.S. The completion of the project might take a period of six years..  "We are doubling the railways transporting capacity in the city," Madan said. This significant revamp of the city’s transport system will benefit a population of over 18 million people, as reported by NDTV. Madan, chief of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) said the project will be mostly an underground rail network saw chain 38pitch semi chisle stretching over 33.  Local units of railway systems like Bombardier Inc.U.""The Mumbai numbers are attractive enough for a number of manufacturers," Tilak Raj Seth, head of mobility at Siemens, said in an interview to NDTV.Mumbai: Mumbai, India’s richest city is planning to invest a sum of Rs 80,000 crore in launching a high-speed urban rail network to reduce the pressure on its age-old suburban railways.P., Alstom SA and Siemens AG are geared up to tender for contracts to supply rail wagons, coaches, signalling devices, non-civil equipments and electrical systems.

"Harsh Dhingra, the chief representative of Bombardier in India said MMRDA’s efforts will probably show results in the coming three to four years. "It is going in areas which are hitherto not connected to public transport.5 billion) for train coaches, wagons and other equipments from Mumbai, the report said. Both Chinese and Indian companies have expressed interest in the proposed project, said the report.5 kilometres with six elevated lines, adding up to 190 kilometres. "We are interested in all electrical and mechanical systems in the entire metro project.

At present, 1,490 cluster buses are operation in Delhi and it is proposed to add 1,000 new buses under the cluster scheme in 2016-17. Manufacturers of low-floor are saying that they would not be able to provide 1,000 low-floor buses by the end of next year, sources said. Delhi government had earlier proposed a plan outlay of Rs 325 crore for purchase of buses development of bus terminals. Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) – a joint venture between Delhi government and IDFC Limited — oversees operation of some 1,600 orange-coloured non-AC buses.The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has a fleet over 4,200 buses — ferrying nearly 35 lakh passengers every day.New Delhi: Delhiites may have to wait for new bus services as the Delhi government’s ambitious plan to 3,000 mini and midi buses on city roads is in jeopardy. But the file pertaining to procurement of these buses are making rounds in different departments for the last six months," sources said. Since 2013, the DTC had three failed tenders to procure buses."The government will procure 1,000 CARVING BAR new standard size UBS-II complaint low-floor non-AC buses during 2016-17. Our government would also introduce 1,000 buses in premium category through a purely market driven model," deputy CM Manish Sisodia had said.. Sources said that barely 200 buses have been added to the city’s roads in the last four years because manufacturers were unable to provide low-floor buses within the time frame set by the government. A file pertaining to the plan has been making rounds of offices for the last six months as officials concerned have raised objections to the feasibility of the plan, sources said.The government viewed mini and midi-buses as an alternative to low-floor buses that occupy more road space. "Due to huge shortage of buses in the city, the government was planning to rollout 3,000 mini and midi buses under cluster scheme.Despite a string of government schemes and tenders, no new buses have been added to the DTC’s ailing fleet in the last several years.