Reliance will roll out Jio True 5G tomorrow on Dussehra four cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Varanasi - the company said in a statement today. It's an invitation-only offer, Jio said, adding users will get unlimited 5G data with up to 1 gbps+ speed.

"The beta trial service for other cities will be announced progressively," Jio said in the statement.

"Dussehra symbolises the triumph over hurdles caused by legacy technologies such as 2G, with knowledge and wisdom that Jio True 5G will genuinely enable," the Mukesh Ambani-owned company said.

A faster and unimaginable Internet speed, ultra-affordable tariff pricing and range of 5G-support devices and services- Jio has big plans to make India 5G-ready. While speaking at India Mobile Congress 2022, where commercial rollout of 5G was officially flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, company’s chairman Mukesh Ambani said that despite India starting late with 5G, it would be first to finish the pan-India coverage of 5G services.

“By harnessing the combined power of demography and digital technologies, India can become the world’s leading digital society, setting a benchmark for simultaneously achieving the dual goals of acceleration of growth and inclusion in development – acceleration of growth by making India a 40-trillion-dollar economy by 2047, up from $3 trillion today, and inclusion in development by increasing our per capita income rapidly to over $20,000, from $2,000 today,” Ambani said, adding that it could help trigger “a huge explosion of entrepreneurship in our country, which in turn will attract even larger investments and create millions of new jobs for our young people.”

Washington’s decision to impose sanctions on Mumbai-based petrochemical trading company Tibalaji Petrochem Pvt Ltd for dealing with Iran may pull the plug on a reported plan by Delhi to resume purchase of Iranian crude, after a four year gap.

Ever since the US announced the sanctions on Iran in 2018-19 for walking out of a nuclear pact, India hasn’t been purchasing sweet crude from the Western Asian country, which used to account for over 10% its crude imports. However, the prospect of a rethink by India looked bright after prime minister Narendra Modi met Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 16, on the sidelines of the 22nd meeting of the council of heads of states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Iranian officials have since sounded optimistic about India’s willingness to restart import of crude from Iran.

With hardening of interest rates in the country and abroad, the government on Thursday decided to pass some benefits to select depositors of certain small savings schemes – senior citizens savings scheme, Kishan Vikas Patra (KVP), monthly income account scheme, and time deposits for two and three years – between 10 and 30 basis points. One basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point.

Interest rates have not been changed for other popular schemes such as Public Provident Fund (7.1%), Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme (7.6%), savings deposits (4%) and National Savings Certificates (6.8%), according to a finance ministry notification.

The GST Intelligence, a law enforcement agency, has detected tax evasion of Rs 824 crore by 15 insurance companies, multiple intermediary marketing companies, multiple Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), and banks. They are accused of availing of input tax credit (ITC), without the underlying supply of goods and services.

The probe started after specific information against ICICI Prudential Insurance regarding availing of ineligible credit, sources in the DGGI (Directorate General of GST Intelligence) said on Thursday.  

The probe revealed that ICICI Prudential had availed and utilised ineligible tax credit without the underlying supply of goods or services. They voluntarily paid Rs 100 crore in cash during the investigation.