WCIS, Airtel, Mobile - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Airtel

Explanation:
Telecom major Bharti Airtel has terminated the services of its vice president and head of alliances Pallab Mitra for alleged violation of code of conduct.

The company's code of conduct is of paramount importance and it follows a policy of zero tolerance in the event of any violation of the same.

Mitra has worked with Airtel for about 12 years with a gap of around five and half years in between.

He started working with Airtel in 2001 as head of commerce for about 4 years. Mitra left the company in February 2010 to join Tata Teleservices.

His second innings at Airtel started from September 2015 onwards after his one-and-half year stint with wi-fi firm Ozone Networks.

Airtel learnt about the purported code of conduct violation by Mitra from a whistleblower.

ANSWER: Mastercard

Explanation:
Airtel Payments Bank and Mastercard, a leading global payments and technology firm has launched India’s first online debit card along with a prepaid card, both accessible via the Myairtel App.

The online debit card will enable customers of Airtel Payments Bank to make digital payments at over 100,000 online merchants.

Mastercard also has agreed to provide payment processing solutions to Airtel Payments Bank.

The platform will enable Airtel Payment Bank to provide various payment services like switching, card management along with support for reconciliation and dispute management processes.

Airtel was first to launch payment bank operations in November 2016 by launching pilot programme in Rajasthan.??

Mastercard: Know More

• CEO: Ajaypal Singh Banga
• Headquarters: Purchase, New York, United States
• Revenue: 9.66 billion USD (2015)
• Founded: 16 December 1966
• Founders: Bank of California, First Interstate Bancorp, Crocker National Bank, Wells Fargo
• Subsidiaries: DataCash, MasterCard Advisors LLC.

ANSWER: Airtel

Explanation:
Airtel launched its first payments bank in the country. The company has rolled out the service in all the 29 states of the country.

Airtel Payments Bank is a fully digital and paperless bank.

It aims to take basic banking services to the doorstep of every Indian by leveraging Airtel's vast retail network.

Airtel retail stores across the country will also function as banking points.

Customers will be able to open savings accounts, deposit and withdraw cash across any of these banking points.

No processing fee is to be charged for customers and merchant partners for digital transactions.

Accounts can be opened on Aadhaar based e-KYC and the Airtel mobile number will be the bank account number.

The account holders can keep maximum of Rs 1 lakh in their accounts which will fetch an annual interest rate of 7.25 % on deposits, while the company will charge 0.65% fees on withdrawals.

Know More on Airtel

• Industry: Telecommunications
• Founded: 7 July 1995
• Founder: Sunil Bharti Mittal
• Chairman and MD: Sunil Bharti Mittal
• Products: Fixed line and mobile telephony, broadband and fixed-line internet services, digital television and IPTV
• Revenue: ₹966.021 billion (US$14 billion) (2016)

ANSWER: Sunil Taldar

Explanation:
Bharti Airtel Limited on 5th December 2016 announced the appointment of Sunil Taldar as the Chief Executive Officer and Director for its DTH business.

Former CEO and Director Shashi Arora moved as Managing Director and CEO of Airtel Payments Bank.

Taldar will be a member of the Airtel Management Board.

He worked with Cadbury as India Sales Director and Mondelez (Indonesia) as Country Head.

Airtel Digital TV

• India DTH broadcast satellite service provider.
• Owned by: Bharti Airtel
• Launched: 2008
• Satellite services transmit TV and audio to Indian households.
• Customers: 12.4 million as per Sept 2016.
• Revenue: 21 percent as per Sept 2016.

ANSWER: Airtel

Explanation:
Airtel has launched India’s first live payments bank aimed at testing systems and processes ahead of full scale launch across the nation. The payments bank has rolled out a pilot of its banking services in Rajasthan.

Airtel Payments Bank is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel.

Account can be opened with Aadhaar based paperless e-KYC with no extra documents and customer’s Airtel mobile number which would be his/her bank account number.

Company intends to give interest rate of 7.25 percent per annum on deposits in savings accounts.

Customers across Rajasthan will now be able to open accounts at Airtel retail outlets.

These outlets will also offer banking services- banking points will be formed at 10,000 Airtel retail outlets.

Extra benefits like money transfer to any Airtel bank account in India, personal accident insurance, easy deposit and withdrawal facility from within the Airtel retail bank will be available to customers.

Company will also have a network of 100,000 merchants across Rajasthan accepting digital payments from Airtel Payments Bank.

This offers cashless purchase of goods and services using bank accounts or wallets.

Airtel now becomes the first payment bank to go live in India.

About Airtel Payments Bank

• Airtel Bank is a fully digital and paperless bank
• MD and CEO : Shashi Arora
• Pilot project to take 4-6 weeks. Services will be made available across the nation after that

ANSWER: Sunil Bharti Mittal

Explanation:
Sunil Bharti Mittal has been re-appointed as the Chairman of telecom giant Bharti Airtel for another five year, with effect from October 1, 2016.

• Mittal is the Founder of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s largest conglomerates with diversified interests in telecom, insurance, real estate, agri and food, besides other ventures.
• The Group also has JVs with global leaders like Singtel, SoftBank, AXA, Del Monte amongst others
• Bharti Airtel, the Group’s flagship company, offers mobile, fixed broadband and digital TV solutions to over 350 million customers across India, South Asia and Africa.
• Airtel is a global telecom company with presence in 20 nations including Asia and Africa.
• It is headquartered in New Delhi India
• Company ranks among the top 4 mobile service providers internationally in terms of subscribers.
• In India, the company’s product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers.
• In the rest of the world, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 307 million customers across its operations at the end of November 2014.

ANSWER: Cloudera

Explanation:
Well known telco Airtel has deployed analytics platform Cloudera to gain customer insights. The solution will permit Airtel to enhance consumer experience and leverage customer data to execute omnichannel campaigns.

• With over 256 m Indian customers, customer and network data collected has to be analysed and the implications studied
• According to the company, the aim is to improve better decisions and enhance entire customer lifecycle with customised offerings.

ANSWER: Liquid Telecom

Explanation:
Bharti Airtel announced on 23rd September 2015 that it will use Liquid Telecom’s fibre network for connecting mobile base stations in Africa, giving subscribers on 3 and 4-G networks better speeds. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Airtel serves 17 African countries. The framework agreement enables Airtel operations to leverage Liquid Telecom’s existing 20,000km-long fibre network across east, central and southern Africa, as well as enjoy new purpose-built fibre infrastructure, to connect Airtel’s mobile base stations and enterprise customers with fibre. Liquid Telecom is an independent data, voice and IP provider in Africa. It supplies fibre optic, satellite and international carrier services to mobile operators, internet service players and businesses.

ANSWER: 3rd July 2015

Explanation:
Presently, users can change their operator while retaining the same number only in the same State or telecom circle. To avail of the new facility, subscribers will have to visit a store of their telecom operator or call the customer care number concerned. The deadline earlier was May 2nd to roll out full MNP was delayed by 2 months after the Cellular Operators Association of India asked for extension from Department of Telecom as telecom operators needed to make some technical changes to their networks to implement the service.

ANSWER: 20Gbps

Explanation:
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defined the speed of 5G (Fifth Generation) standard for mobile networking as 20 Gigabits per second (Gbps). A decision was taken in this regard at an ITU conference on 5G standard held at San Diego in California of USA between 10 June and 18 June 2015.