Telecom

Sale Sale Sale!


Sorry if you thought there are discounts on some e-commerce platform! We're actually talking about the "up to 40% off" on telecom spectrum being sold by the government.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) yesterday recommended a 39% reduction in the reserve price for the sale of mobile spectrum, including the latest 5G tech.

The reason is that basically telcos in India cant afford to pay much more than this. Almost 60% of the spectrum put up for sale remained unsold at the last 2 auctions in 2016 and 2021. Telecom companies have been looking for 'realistic prices' in what's basically a 3-player market (Jio, Airtel, and Vi).

We've already seen what's happened with VI because of the huge amounts it owed the government as part of the AGR case and also previously pending spectrum dues.

Keeping all this mind, TRAI has recommended a cut in prices, and they're hoping to lay the groundwork for spectrum auctions later this year, which will enable the rollout of 5G in India by private telecom companies.

We wont go into all the technical details talking about MHz etc. But if you're interested, check out this article here 

Corporate

Go Green or Go Steel


JSW Steel has got government approval for setting up a Rs 65,000 crore steel plan in Odisha.

They're now waiting on the government to hand over the land, and will then begin setting up a 13.2 million tons per year plant.

This is a bit of a controversial site, because POSCO, the South Korean steel giant had tried to build a plant on it, but had faced a huge backlash from the local people who were concerned about pollution.  So POSCO had to abandon their plans but JSW steel thinks they can make it work.

They've got all environmental clearances from the gov, and have also promised to set money aside for improving public health, social infrastructure and waste management in the surrounding areas.

But activists are not convinced and are planning to challenge the environmental clearance in the National Green Tribunal. The president of an NGO called Lok Shakti Abhiyan said that JSW's project is "more dangerous than Posco's project" because it's bigger and also included a cement plant and a coal-fired power plant.

Let's see what happens now, but if it does go through it will be one of the largest projects in the manufacturing sector in India.

Tech

Almost There!


We didn't have much tech news yesterday barring one – Lenskart apparently has raised $100 million as per Entrackr. They're getting closer to our famous 'Paanchacorn' club with their rumoured valuation at around $4.3 billion.

Lenskart, as you all probably know, sells spectacle lenses and frames online through their own platform. But now they've also decided to start listing products on Nykaa, Myntra etc.
In addition to online sales,  Lenskart also has over 1,000 franchise stores and is now looking to add another 400 outlets!

As you'd expect in pandemic times, Lenskart’s sales haven't grown much. But even with almost flat revenue growth in FY21 (Rs 900 crores), annual profits were up by nearly 4.6x to Rs 28.92 crore.
We don't know yet, but our guess would be that FY22 sales would be better, considering everyone's screen time has gone through the roof since Covid!

Lenskart is one of the Indian startups that was supposed to go public this year. We're not sure what the progress on that front is like, but chief Peyush Bansal has said they're still considering whether to list in India or abroad.

But don't worry, we'll let you know the latest on this once they make a decision. 

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