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The honourable Supreme Court has hinted that it could disallow <keyword id="102342" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Public-Interest-Litigations">public interest litigations</keyword> (PILs) that involve commercial interests so that proxy corporate wars from can be prevented in the court. 
 
In the past, PILs have resulted in historic court orders that left considerable business impacts, for example group cancellation of telecom spectrum and coal block allocations. 
 After it disallows commercial interest PILs, the court might restrict its dealing to selective PILs, which would be selected after a rigorous scrutiny process. The decision was hinted at by a three-judge bench, including Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi. The bench was hearing a petition on the acquisition of <keyword id="2285630" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Infotel-Telecom">Infotel Telecom</keyword> by Reliance Industries. 
 
"In the next phase of development (in PILs), we must ensure that that the process is not abused, only used in the fittest of cases. It must be an institutional mechanism," Justice Thakur told ET. 
 
He further suggested that a credible interface between the judicial process and the civil society is needed. 
 "How do we prevent misuse of the judicial process to settle scores, commercial rivalries," the CJI asked <keyword id="6368850" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Prashant-Bhushan">Prashant Bhushan</keyword>, the advocate for the petitioner, NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL). 
 
"You must satisfy us that the information, that your process of verifying information which comes to you, must be credible. We won't allow the process to be taken for a ride," Justice Thakur told Bhushan after he told the court that the NGO had so far filed 50 cases. 
 
"We must be convinced that your petition is genuine. Otherwise (Harish) Salve (who appeared for Reliance) will say you are settlings scores," the CJI said. The case has been reserved by the court for the final order. 
 
Bhushan, on the other hand, said that public interest is a hige factor in deciding whether or not to file a case in court, and that commercial interest might be incidental. 
 
To this, the CJI rejected the view and said, "When so much time is spent on them (such cases) and litigation costs are so high, we must devise ways to keep out commercial fights and business rivalries. We may end up spending precious time to only draw a blank." 
 
<a href="http://legaltrigger.com/images/5052261194.jpg">Image source</a>

PILs with commercial interest might be disallowed, hints the Supreme Court

Telecom major <keyword id="6354287" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bharti-Airtel">Bharti Airtel</keyword> today said it has acquired the balance 26 per cent stake in <keyword id="127703" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Augere">Augere</keyword> Wireless, which holds <keyword id="955170" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="4G-spectrum">4G spectrum</keyword> in Madhya Pradesh, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. “With reference to the earlier intimation dated December 29, 2015, Bharti Airtel Ltd has now informed <keyword id="35140" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="BSE">BSE</keyword> that Airtel has acquired remaining balance paid-up share capital i.e. 26 per cent of Augere and with the said acquisition, Augere has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airtel,” the company said in a regulatory filing. 

	Earlier, Airtel had announced acquiring 74 per cent stake in Augere Wireless but did not disclose financial details of the deal.
 

	“With reference to the intimation regarding approval of scheme of amalgamation of Augere Wireless Broadband India Private Limited (Augere) with Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel or the Company) dated October 27, 2015, Bharti Airtel Ltd has now informed BSE that Airtel has acquired 74 per cent capital of Augere,” it had said.
 

	Augere holds 20 Mhz of spectrum in 2300 Mhz band in Madhya Pradesh service area, which includes Chhattisgarh state, to be used for 4G services. The company had won this spectrum for Rs. 124.66 crore in 2010 but has not rolled out services.
 

	“With the aforesaid acquisition, Augere has become a subsidiary of Airtel,” the filing added.
 

	On August 26, Airtel had said that “it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100 per cent equity stake in Augere Wireless Broadband India Pvt Ltd.”
 

	According to sources, the deal size is estimated to be around Rs.150 crore.
 

	Airtel now has 20 Mhz in 2300 Mhz band across nine service areas. The company directly won this spectrum in four service areas for Rs. 3,314.36 crore.
 

	Later, it acquired Qualcomm’s India unit which had spectrum in four circles including metros.
 Infotel Broadband, which was acquired by <keyword id="6355199" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Industries">Reliance Industries</keyword>, was the only bidder to win spectrum on pan-India basis in the 2300 Mhz band in that auction. 
	 
	(Image credits: BCCL)

Bharti Airtel acquires 100 per cent stake in Augere Wireless

The <keyword id="6359828" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="comptroller-and-auditor-general">Comptroller and Auditor General</keyword> (CAG) has suggested cancelling the broadband spectrum allocated to Infotel Broadband Services, now a Reliance Industries company, for allegedly rigging the auction and breaching the rules. 
 CAG, in a report sent to the <keyword id="62528" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Department-of-Telecom">Department of Telecom</keyword> (DoT), said, “The DoT failed to recognise the tell-tale sign of rigging of the auction right from beginning of the auction” in which a small Internet Service Provider - Infotel Broadband Services Pvt Ltd (IBSPL) emerged the winner of the nationwide broadband spectrum by paying 5,000 times of its net worth. 
 <keyword id="6484187" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="RIL">RIL</keyword>, which acquired IBSPL within hours of it winning the spectrum and later renamed it <keyword id="6354504" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Reliance-Jio">Reliance Jio</keyword>, said, “There is no final CAG report that we are aware of. That said, we outrightly reject any suggestion whereby spectrum was acquired in any manner other than through a transparent bidding process duly supervised by the Government of India.” 
 
The draft report says IBSPL submitted a modest amount of Rs 252.50 crore as deposit “through the covert and overt assistance of third party/private bank”, bid for Rs 12,847.77 crore (5,000 times of its net worth) for countrywide spectrum and then sold the company on the day of completion of the auction. This “indicated IBSPL’s collusion and sharing of the confidential information with a third party in violation of the auction conditions/rules.” 
 
An RIL spokesperson said the auction for the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum was a competitive one which resulted in the final bid price of more than six times the reserve price for the spectrum. “This was despite no visible evidence of any eco-system for the BWA spectrum at the time of auction. Any allegations of so-called collusion are bizarre,” the spokesperson said.

CAG Suggests
Scrapping Reliance Jio’s Spectrum License

<ul><li>Reliance Industries first entered the financial services business in the early 80s. </li><li>Mukesh Ambani’s RIL had tried to enter the sector again in 2011 with a JV, but it never took off. </li><li>With the might of telecom, retail and wholesale business, it can now foray into consumer and merchant businesses easily, say analysts. </li></ul>The listing of <keyword id="15323576" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jio-Financial-Services" source="Orion">Jio Financial Services</keyword> would be a momentous occasion not just for investors but also Reliance Industries. It's been a while since the Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries has had ambitions of entering the financial services sector. The idea took shape back in 1986 but that business went to Anil Ambani after the family split the businesses after the patriarch’s death. India’s fifth largest financial services company, Jio Financial Services, was born recently with a valuation of ₹1 lakh crore, right after this business was spun off from the parent, Reliance Industries. However, it was conceived at least two decades back by a young Mukesh Ambani who had seen the opportunity to provide the services ‘over the phone’ as the undivided Reliance group entered the telecom business. Dialling back the clock In 1986, Reliance Industries had incorporated a company called <keyword id="18176620" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="reliance-capital-finance-trust" source="Orion">Reliance Capital &amp; Finance Trust</keyword>. Back then, the group was run by its founder <keyword id="6418409" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="dhirubhai-ambani" source="Orion">Dhirubhai Ambani</keyword>. This was an era of public sector banks and access to credit was restricted. The company started off with annuity yielding businesses like leasing, bill discounting, and inter-corporate deposits. It also listed on the bourses in 1990, and took the name Reliance Capital in 1995. In 1993, the company diversified into portfolio investment, lending against securities, custodial services, money market operations, project finance advisory services and investment banking. Later, it obtained a non-banking finance company (NBFC) licence in 1998. It later diversified into asset management, mutual funds, life and general insurances, commercial and industrial finance, stock broking and more. Back in 2002, when Mukesh Ambani launched the group’s telecom service under Reliance Infocomm the plans for financial services were in lockstep with the telecom services for it. But before he could build this business on the back of CDMA powered telecom business, both the businesses changed hands and went into Anil Ambani as the group split in 2005. Reliance Capital went to Anil Ambani back in the day. Fast forward eight years and the elder brother Mukesh Ambani, made a second coming at the telecom <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/telecom/ril-pulls-off-a-coup-to-buy-bwa-champion-infotel/articleshow/6039789.cms?from=mdr">business by acquiring Infotel Broadband </a> in 2010. It was a dramatic coup, where he bought into the company owned by Mahendra Nahata hours after it acquired pan-India broadband wireless access spectrum to launch high speed data services or 4G broadband. Yet again in 2011, Mukesh Ambani’s RIL made another attempt at foraying into the financial services business by forging a financial services JV with global PE and hedge fund major DE Shaw. The JV had grand but futuristic plans to launch energy and carbon trading derivatives, along with PE, mutual funds and other security linked offerings. Unlike its telecom business which disrupted and took over the market, this JV progressed slowly and soon hit a wall in 2017 when both the venture partners gave up and <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/de-shaw-reliance-joint-venture-surrenders-membership-on-bourses-118070301333_1.html">surrendered their memberships at both</a> BSE and NSE. The story, however, did not end there, it merely paused. The stars have now aligned Now, the stars have aligned for the business — with a wide offline and online presence — that weaves in the rapid digitisation of financial offers across the country – it’s making a grand comeback. Jio Financial Services will be powered by the group’s wide retail presence in over 15,000 stores across formats be it supermarkets, digital stores. Its digital offerings have a vast customer base of over 400 million in telecom and over 200 million in retail, with some overlap. The financial services business has direct and indirect means to reach the consumers, and also has relationships with kirana stores, thanks to Reliance Retail’s cash and carry business — giving them an inlay into merchant business too. More importantly, it has the wealth of data – that can keep it far apart and cut above most fintechs, gathered from non-financial relationships. “It can process and analyse this data in real time, to offer financial services, similar to Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Also, unlike other fintechs, JFS will have a large balance sheet, not be asset-light and eventually manufacture most product offerings, giving it a significant competitive advantage, in our view,” says Macquarie. JFS' key advantage will be low funding cost/ better access on the back of the group's high credit rating and ownership of 6.1% stake in RIL. “In the backdrop of the group's large presence in retail &amp; telecom segments that drive a customer base of 20 million as well as vendor partnerships, JFS' first port of call could be consumer lending (esp. electronics) &amp; merchant financing,” opines Jefferies. Since the demerger, the company has been moving fast. It announced a deal with one of US’ largest investment companies <keyword id="158169" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="blackrock" source="Orion">Blackrock</keyword> to launch an asset management company. Most analysts expect it to start services by September. RIL already has a non banking financial company licence, which it can leverage to kick start consumer/merchant lending. “IRDA has been open to giving insurance licences and RIL may get into insurance verticals. JFS can be a real threat to fintech business models as well as NBFCs, in our view,” says Macquarie. And most of them believe that Jio Financial Services has the ability to disrupt the sector as it did in the telecom sector in 2016.

The legacy behind Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Financial Services

At the vast open-plan headquarters of Indian telecoms start-up <keyword id="2003276" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jio">Jio</keyword>, billionaire oil tycoon <keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword> stands in short sleeves beneath a digital tracker that logs every new subscriber to his service. 
 The 59-year-old is India's richest man, and his <keyword id="10926" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Reliance">Reliance</keyword> Industries oil &amp; gas group is the country's most profitable. 
 
Now, though, he's betting at least $20 billion on building, from scratch, a national digital empire stretching from phones and hardware to home entertainment and custom-made apps. 
 
The ambitious Jio project could make Reliance the most comprehensive provider of telecom and internet services across India - and give it unprecedented access to the country's untapped 'big data': how millions eat, shop and have fun. 
 
"For Reliance... data is the new oil, and intelligent data is the new petrol," Ambani said in March, explaining his drive to move closer to India's consumers. 
 
Reliance has said little publicly about Jio, and even less about the potential for wide-scale data mining in a country where consumers have not, to date, made a big deal about online privacy. But top executives are clear on the opportunity. 
 
"It's called Deep Packet Inspection, and what you can do with the analytics of that is mind-boggling," said a senior Reliance executive, referring to a practice that digs into 'packets' of data created by computers for efficiency, mining them for information. 
 
Jio is unlikely to contribute significantly to Reliance profits anytime soon, but is hugely significant for its future. Reliance has dabbled previously in consumer sectors, yet Jio is seen as an opportunity for Ambani to set a new course for a company still dominated by his late father, its founder. 
 
Jio is also a potentially landmark opportunity for India, where smartphone usage has ballooned and services like mobile payments and online entertainment have become commonplace. 
 
The prospect of Jio, which has not yet been commercially launched, has raised hopes of cheaper, more reliable data for Indian users. It has already drawn queues at some stores by offering free connections with unlimited data for a three-month period, allowing it to test its network. 
 
That has stirred rivals. India's largest wireless provider Bharti Airtel this week cut its 3G/4G data tariffs on prepaid connections by more than 40 percent, after halving them a month ago. 
 
ALL ABOUT AMBITION 
 
But Jio - named from a Hindi exhortation to 'live on' - is behind schedule and over budget, say several former employees, who, like current staff interviewed by Reuters, did not want to be named. It was initially expected to launch by end-2014, with total capital expenditure within $15 billion, they said. 
 
Reliance has never provided a specific date or figure, and declined to respond to specific queries for this article. 
 
According to filings at the Commerce Ministry, Jio has more than 325 billion rupees ($4.9 billion) of long-term debt, and other liabilities topping 580 billion rupees, as of March. In addition, Reliance has spent over 290 billion rupees on Jio and is expected to invest more - all adding up to more than what it has been spending on its core refining and petrochemicals business. 
 
Reliance says its oil business is pumping out cash, and any investment in Jio has to be ambitious. 
 
Two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion population are not online, and Jio hopes to capture 100 million users - nearly half of India's current smartphone users - within a year of launch. 
 
Ambani, who employees say taught himself to code, ran Reliance's nascent telecoms operations in the early 2000s, before a feud with his younger brother Anil triggered a split and a bitter non-compete deal. Mukesh took the family's energy business and Anil the communications assets, setting up Reliance Communications (RCom). 
 
Before long though, Mukesh was laying fibre cables again and set up a subsidiary, Rancore, to build its own mobile telephony technology. 
 
In 2010, Mukesh's Reliance Industries bought Infotel Broadband - on the day Infotel won nationwide spectrum - and decided it needed to offer more than a high-speed 4G network service. Instead, it would pitch an all-internet service, where even voice calls would be carried as data, cheaply, beating its rivals Airtel, Vodafone and Idea on quality and speed, according to Jio officials. 
 
Airtel, Vodafone and Idea declined to comment on Jio. 
 
Naveen Kulkarni, co-head of research at Phillip Capital, said the Jio technology was "very efficient from a cost point of view," but needs India's smartphone ecosystem to evolve, making it unlikely Reliance will make money from Jio for at least five years. 
 
RELIANCE CITY 
 
At Jio's biggest campus, a sprawling cluster of glass buildings, manicured lawns and giant Jio logos outside Mumbai, the scale of Ambani's vision is evident. Reuters was offered a rare opportunity to visit the site earlier this year. 
 
The campus has 15,000 employees working for Jio alone, plus hundreds of consultants and service providers working alongside the group. There are large guest houses and hotels. 
 
In a single hall, Reliance has put on show everything from its e-payment mechanism and music-streaming app to its messaging app, sleek Jio smartphones - sold at a fraction of the cost of an iPhone - connected cars, and even a replica home. 
 
"As they go out, they will have a very aggressive posture," said Rajan Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India. 
 
On campus, Ambani, who flies in by helicopter once a week, was flanked at his desk by his eldest son, Akash, who is Jio's head of strategy, and by Manoj Modi, a long-serving adviser, and a reminder of the influence of trusted employees, most from the oil business. 
 
One company insider said the Jio logo is actually a mirror image of the word 'oil,' reflecting in a way Reliance's journey from oil drilling to data mining. 
 
($1 = 67.0605 Indian rupees) 
 
<a href="http://stz.india.com/sites/default/files/2016/05/16/1599-reliance-jio-ians.JPG">Image source</a>

Reliance Jio: The $20 billion start-up from Mukesh Ambani's kitty

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PILs with commercial interest might be disallowed, hints the Supreme Court

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Bharti Airtel acquires 100 per cent stake in Augere Wireless

BI India Bureau

CAG Suggests Scrapping Reliance Jio’s Spectrum License

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