Skip to main content

India's Bharti Enterprises bid with UK's satellite tech firm Under Parliament Scrutiny

A UK parliamentary panel has launched an inquiry into the UK government's successful bid to acquire satellite technology firm One Web along with India's Bharti Enterprises earlier this month.
The winning bid hailed as reflective of the scale of Britain's ambitions on the global stage by UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma has come under the scanner of the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee as "troubling and concerning" after it was alerted by a civil servant in the government's business department over concerns around the investment.  
As part of the deal, Sharma had confirmed that the UK will invest $500 million and take a "significant" equity share in London-based OneWeb, which had declared bankruptcy earlier this year.  Another $500-million will come from Bharti Global Ltd, an entity of the Sunil Bharti Mittal led Indian telecom major. Now more than ever, the government needs to ensure that it's spending tax-
payers money as prudently and wisely as possible. Using nearly half a billion pounds of taxpayers money to gamble on a commercial opportunity' whilst still failing to support manufacturing jobs with a sector deal is both troubling and concerning, said Darren Jones, Opposition Labour Party MP and Chair of the BEIS Committee, as he announced an inquiry starting in September.
The Secretary of State's [Sharma] use of a Ministerial Direction to push through the purchase of a stake in OneWeb against the advice of his own Permanent Secretary heightens concerns around this investment and about the prospects of this delivering UK jobs and value for taxpayers' money.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LG’s first flexible OLED phone due before the year is out

LG plans to launch a flexible OLED smartphone before the end of the year, the company’s VP of mobile has confirmed, though it’s unclear to what extent the work-in-progress handset will actually flex. The OLED panel in question is the handiwork of LG Display according to VP of LG mobile Yoon Bu-hyun, the WSJ  reports, with the proposed device set to launch sometime in Q4. LG Display’s work on flexible OLEDs has been underway for some time, though the company’s efforts have perhaps been overshadowed somewhat by rival Samsung’s YOUM development. Last year, according to a Korea Times report, LG Display was preparing for
Flexible displays are the Future of IT Industry! A part from 4k and smart home appliances, the CES 2013 saw a lot of attention being drawn towards bendable, flexible displays. The elasticised display idea isn’t something new as we have seen hoards of device concepts being crafted around flexible, bendable and even foldable displays. These concept devices give us a futuristic feel, be it a flexible phone to be worn around the wrist or a phone that opens up to turn into a tablet or PSP-like device. But how far is this future? Nokia has been toying with the idea ever since we remember. The technology sounds very fascinating and the possibilities and the extent to which bendable displays could be used are vast and leave us spellbound. However, these have always been concepts and we haven’t seen any device materialise in the real world. There have been several technologies that were conceived in these years and all have been put to their practical use. But the bendable d

Apple Seeds watchOS 9.2 Beta 4 to Developers| Download Now

  Apple has seeded watchOS 9.2 beta 4 to developers for testing. The build number is 20S5357b. This beta version of watchOS 9.2 contains bug fixes and improvements.  Apple notes that "This version of watchOS should only be deployed on devices dedicated for watchOS beta software development." Developers can download the watchOS configuration profile from the link below.    DOWNLOAD This update introduces a new Race Route workout that is made for bicyclists and runners, along with several new features to the Home app. The function allows you to compete against your past exercises and yourself, We are moving closer to the final release of watchOS 9.2 as this is the fourth beta, and we anticipate Apple will release the final version early next week. When will the customers get the update? The final version of watchOS 9.2 could be released the following week, assuming there are no significant issues with the Release Candidate. According to earlier rumours, Apple intends to release