Apple Inc. laid off many of its contract-based recruiters in the past week, part of a push to rein in the tech giant’s hiring and spending, according to people with knowledge of the matter. About 100 contract workers were let go in a rare move for the world’s most valuable company, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. The recruiters were responsible for hiring new employees for Apple, and the cuts underscore that a slowdown is underway at the company.

Workers laid off were told the cuts were made due to changes in Apple’s current business needs. Bloomberg first reported last month that the company was decelerating hiring after years of staffing up, joining many tech companies in hitting the brakes. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook confirmed during Apple’s earnings conference call that the company would be more “deliberate” in its spending — even as it keeps investing in some areas.

Telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea will collectively make annual savings of Rs 4,934 crore this fiscal onwards on account of a lower spectrum usage charge (SUC). Under the new policy announced by the government in September 2021, spectrum acquired in the recently-concluded auction and even future ones will not attract any usage charge.

According to analysts, apart from being beneficial for the operators, who have been able to bring down their spectrum outflow cost, the move will also be good for consumers as the former will have more cash in hand for investments in networks. Further, it will be in the interest of the operators to buy more spectrum in future auctions.

At Rs 2,216 crore, Bharti Airtel will save the most, followed by Jio at Rs 2,078 crore and Vodafone Idea at Rs 640 crore.

Realty firm Prestige Estates Projects is targeting to sell properties worth at least Rs 12,000 crore this fiscal, up 16 per cent annually, amid consolidation of housing demand towards credible developers.

Prestige Estates Projects Ltd has a strong presence in South India and the company has made its foray into Mumbai market.

In the last financial year 2021-22, the company’s sales bookings rose 90 per cent to an all-time high of Rs 10,382.2 crore.

Digital payments and financial services player Paytm said on August 11 that the company will be changing its internal systems to ensure that loan disbursals and repayments are routed directly to and from the bank accounts of the borrowers and the lending partners, as per the latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved norms for digital lenders.

The company's CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said in an investor call that besides the one change, the company is already in adherence to the rest of the norms approved by RBI.

The 5G auction is over and with this we await the rollout of the 5G network in the country. Jio became the highest bidder, closely followed by Airtel and Vodafone. After spending over Rs 88,078 crore, Jio has acquired 24,740 MHz spectrum across bands. The Reliance-owned telecom giant also became the only operator to have acquired airwaves at the premium 700 MHz. The airwaves remained unreserved because of the high price. So, now that Jio has been allocated the maximum network, it is imperative to know when the services will be launched in India, which cities will it and how much people will have to pay for the services.

Jio is expected to roll out 5G services on the occasion of Independence Day i.e. August 15. The company did not formally announce the roll out, but Akash Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Jio, announced that they will celebrate "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav" with a 5G rollout across India.