News Digest: Airtel, NDS Group, DoT, Merinews, aMap, UID, Vuclip, GoI-BlackBerry

- Television audience measurement firm aMap, is reportedly shutting down its Indian operations. Read More at The Economic Times. - NDS Group Ltd. has appointed Dave Habiger as Chief Executive Officer while Dr. Abe Peled, previously Chairman and CEO, will be serving the role of Executive Chairman. Read the Press Release - The TRAI has recommended that the minimum download speeds for broadband internet connections should be 512Kbps. It will be increased to 2Mbps w.e.f 1st Jan 2015. Press Release - Does the UID infringe on privacy? Business Standard - Vuclip, the independent mobile video service, has launched in the Philippines with national carriers, Globe Telecom, Sun Cellular and Smart Communications through its local partner ThumbMOB Philippines. Press Release - Department of Information Technology under it’s “Technology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) Programme” has brought out CDs containing software tools for all the 22 constitutionally recognized Indian languages, and can also be downloaded free. Press Release - Merinews.com, a participatory news portal has launched its Gurgaon Edition, to offer hyper-local news and infotainment. Press Release - Airtel has appointed Anant Arora as CEO of the company’s B2C operations in Gujarat circle. He will report to Raghunath Mandava – Operations Director West. Via Press Release - Kapil Sibal has emphasized on the adoption of scientific guidelines for penalizing the telecom service providers. The DoT and the industry will join hands frame guidelines that are rational, relevant and objective as the entire industry is under high cost burden. Via Press Release. - The recommendations of the Justice Majithia Wage Boards are under consideration of the Government and a decision will be taken at the earliest. Press Release - A parliamentary panel has expressed discontent over several extensions given by DoT to RIM which offers BlackBerry services in highly encrypted format without a satisfactory solution for interception. Read more at The Economic Times - The Supreme Court has held that telecom operators will have to pay service tax on the sale of SIM cards as these transactions entail their processing and activation for providing cellphone services. Read more at The Economic Times