Coffees in India - Listing of new brands.

Over a cup of coffee

Coffee is an interesting drink, common to most Indian household, be it north India or south India. Coffee is not a native to India, rather in 17th century Sufi saint Baba Budan brought coffee seeds from Yemen, and started coffee plantation in Chikmagalur, a hill station on the Western Ghats, in Karnataka. Hence most of the coffee production are done in southern states like Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra and Maharashtra. Other states are Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura are also producing some amount of coffee.

Nescafé, owned by multinational company Nestlé is probably the most popular coffee brand in India. Next is Bru, now owned by Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) - which was launched in India in 1968. Tata Coffee, with history of more than 90 years is another popular name among Indian coffee lovers. Others names include Davidoff - the luxury coffee brand, Cafe based Starbucks India and Coffee Day. The later mentioned coffee cafes like Starbucks, Café Coffee Day, Costa Coffee (now owned by Coca Cola) and Barista (https://www.barista.co.in) are also creating the traction of coffee popularity across the country. 

Private 5G: BSNL Cracked Two Deals

Indian operators are banking on FWA to make 5G tech monetized, but the most effort on FWA is being played by Jio. The next monetizing factor could be deployment of private 5G networks. First trial of private 5G network was done by Airtel, back in July 2022, at Bosch Automotive Electronics India Pvt Ltd's facility in Bengaluru using trial 5G spectrum allocated by the Department of Telecom (DoT). 

But private 5G network is not getting much demand from the enterprises, as many want to deploy bypassing the present telecom operators - as the companies want their own spectrum and will bring their own technology partner to deploy private 5G. Even if the business sector starts working with the telcos, the spectrum will be another issue. 

Road to 6G: 5G to 5G Advanced and 6G

When Chromebook was first launched in India in 2013, we were yet to get 4G. That time 3G from Indian operators was patchy, slow and too much costly! Airtel just launched 4G in 2012, which was not welcomed by the users. I could not take that cloud computing in India could be a future with such slow speed. 

Cut to post-COVID era, many are still working from home with the help of Cloud computing. India got 4G in 2012 but 4G went mainstream when Jio started offering free 4G data w.e.f. December 2015. Now 5G was launched in India in October 2022 by both Jio and Airtel - and both are offering free unlimited 5G data on the top of selected 4G plans. India's 5G adoption was very fast, and at par with global rollouts. 

BSNL to Launch 4G with Indigenous Gears, Jio too Switching to Desi

Despite multiple delays to launch 4G services, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) - the state owned telecommunications service provider is seemed to be on the track to roll out the much awaited 4G-LTE services across the circles very soon.

As per the deal signed in August 2023, Tejas Networks-led consortium would be delivering 4G sites to BSNL worth Rs 7492 crore. Initially there was extensive trials run across the circles. On May 5, 2025 Tata backed telecom gear firm Tejas Networks announced that the company shipped more than 100,000 sites for BSNL's 4G/5G-ready network. This is one of the largest single-vendor RAN networks in the world ever delivered in record time. 

Jio Cracked the Code for 5G Monetization: It's Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)

JioAirFiber holds approx 85% of 5G-FWA market

While Jio and Airtel are the prominent 5G player in the country, both telcos are yet to find a case of monetization of 5G - many call it as odd 5G means poor business. But as per the latest TRAI data, Jio cracked the code - FWA helps them to generate revenue from 5G. 

As the data published by TRAI at the end of April, 2025 which is the first time for TRAI to differentiate 5G FWA separately from wireline broadband, highlighting rising importance of 5G-FWA as a key revenue stream for telcos. TRAI started counting 5G-FWA data from January 2025. 

Vi 5G Launched in Mumbai, Check out 5G Plans of Vi

Before the end of Financial year 2024-25, country's third largest wireless service provider, Vi has launched 5G in Mumbai. The company will bring 5G in other 4 circles by April 2025 - in Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka and Punjab. 

Like others, Vi has brought 5G plans starting from Rs 299 with introductory unlimited 5G data along with daily 1GB or 1.5GB or 2GB data on 4G network. All plans except the basic 299 plan, have unlimited night data, weekend data rollover and back up data of 2GB. While Jio's True5G plans, though, start with Rs 198 but comes with 2GB/day 4G data with only 14 days of validity and JioTV and JioAICloud subscriptions. Most of the Jio's True5G plans come with atleast 2GB per day data. Jio's annual 5G plan costs same as Vi's INR3599, but packs 2.5GB/day, 90 days of JioHotstar subscription, 50GB of Jio Cloud storage - but with Free Night data and Weekend rollover I would say Vi's 5G annual pack is better than Jio. 

Vi had plan to launch 5G in 75 cities of key 17 circles by March, 2025 but they missed the deadline. 

Manipal Owner Temasek to Buy a Cut of Haldiram's for a Premium Price

In an interesting move, Investment firm Temasek Holdings which owns majority shares of Manipal Hospitals, plans to enter into FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) sector of the country, as Temasek has agreed to pay $1 billion for near about 10% stakes of Haldiram's which is one of the top FMCG company. The deal translates into valuation of the company of approx. INR 84,000 cr. The deal highlights Temasek's strategic focus on expanding its presence in the Indian consumer market.

Now think like that, you are eating palm oil fried bhujia from Haldiram's and enjoying Netflix. Suddenly you have a severe chest pain and rushed to nearest Manipal Hospitals. You undergo angioplasty and by God's grace you did well - doctors at Manipal did really good job, saving you. In both ways, you are being skimmed and the money goes to Singapore via Temasek. 

Indian Telcos to Dilute Digital Divide between Rural and Urban Areas

Though sky is the limit, the urban wireless teledensity reached 124.31% and multi-SIM users are declining, the Indian telecom service providers are now looking for rural expansion as rural wireless teledensity was just 57.89% (Data at the end of December 2024).

Rural connectivity is now concentrated on access to OTT media, use of social media, content creation over different sites/apps, UPI payments. But data usage is still limited, and in coming days the usage may go sky-rocketed with carpet-coverage. In short as you offer, people will grab it more. 

For Jio, it has an advantage that it started with 4G and therefore Jio's 4G presence is quite better than the competitors, as both Airtel and Vi had ditched their 3G operations, and looking for 2G sunset which can't be done before 2027 and brought 4G and 5G in selected pockets where revenue generation is high. 

শ্রীরামপুরঃ রাজা কিশোরীলাল গোস্বামীর বাড়ি

শ্রীরামপুরে গোস্বামীরা ছিলেন মূলত ব্যবসায়ী, কিন্তু হঠাৎ এঁদের বাড়ি রাজবাড়ি হয়ে উঠল কি ভাবে? ইতিহাস বলছে গোস্বামীরা শ্রীরামপুরে স্থিতু হন শেওড়াফুলির রাজা মনোহর রায়ের অনুরোধে। সেই অর্থে শেওড়াফুলির রাজার অধীনে ছিলেন গোস্বামীরা। 

রঘুরাম গোস্বামীর সময়ে শ্রীরামপুরের গোস্বামী পরিবারের অর্থনৈতিক অবস্থা তুঙ্গে ওঠে। 'প্রিন্স অফ মার্চেন্ট' হিসেবে বিখ্যাত রঘুরাম গোস্বামী সেই সময়ে এতটাই ধনী ছিলেন যে রঘুরাম ১২ লাখ টাকা দিয়ে ড্যানিশদের থেকে শ্রীরামপুর কিনে নিতে চেয়েছিলেন। কিন্তু বাঁধ সেঁধেছিল ইংরেজরা। শেষমেশ ব্রিটিশ ইস্ট ইন্ডিয়া কোম্পানি তেরো লক্ষ টাকায় ড্যানিশদের থেকে শ্রীরামপুর কিনে নেয়। 

চুঁচুড়া : ডাচ বাংলা চিত্রকলা

চুঁচুড়া বা Chinsurah আজকে হুগলী জেলার গঙ্গাতীরবর্তী একটি শহর। কেউ আবার বলেন চুঁচড়ো। এর ঠিক পূর্বে, গঙ্গার উলটো পাড়ে আছে নৈহাটি (উত্তর ২৪ পরগণা)। এখানে ডাচেরা প্রায় ২০০ বছর ধরে ছিল (১৬২৮-১৮২৫)। 

ডাচদের সাথে স্থানীয় বাঙ্গালীদের সম্পর্ক বেশ ভালোই ছিল। স্থানীয় পটুয়াপাড়ার শিল্পীদের নিয়ে ডাচ কর্তৃপক্ষ বেশ কিছু কাজ করেন - ফলে গড়ে ওঠে 'Dutch Bengal Art'। এই চিত্রকলার ছবিগুলিতে দেখা যায় মূলত ল্যান্ডস্কেপ, পোর্ট্রেট, এবং ঐতিহাসিক বা পৌরাণিক দৃশ্য। 

Telecom Perspective: Visit to Tajpur (WB) in January 2025

In the last week of January, 2025 I took an escape to nature as I visited Tajpur - a small coastal village of East Medinipur district of West Bengal. Tajpur is not so popular sea beach, though it is near Digha - the most popular sea beach and beach tourist spot of the state. 

Vodafone Makes First Space Video Call using AST SpaceMobile's LEO Satellites, Satcom in India

Though its Indian venture, Vi is struggling to roll out 5G services across the country, UK-based multinational telecom company Vodafone has achieved something extra-ordinary -  On 29th of January, 2025 Vodafone has successfully made the world’s first space video call using normal 4G/5G smartphones and satellites that will allow multiple users in areas of no mobile coverage to make and receive video calls, access the Internet and use online messaging services.

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group-CEO & Astronaut Tim Peake

The space-partner of Vodafone remains the same AST SpaceMobile in which Vodafone invested in 2020 and since then both working closely. In December 2024 both entered into a definitive long-term commercial agreement through 2034 - which is a significant step forward in their collaboration to expand broadband connectivity globally. 

Vodafone Exits Indus Towers, Timeline of Indus Towers

As expected Vodafone Group (UK) has sold its last shares of Indus Towers and exited Indian tower business completely by multi year phased manner. The last 3% worth of 79.2 million shares in Indus was held by Vodafone's indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries, Omega Telecom Holdings Pvt Ltd and Usha Martin Telematics Limited. The valuation was Rs 2,800 cr which would be reinvested in Vodafone-Idea's joint telecom venture Vi or to pay the bank loans, network expansion projects, government dues.

In June 2024, Vodafone sold of its 15% share in Indus Towers. 

Official site of Indus Towers Ltd, now notes as Indus Towers Ltd was founded by amalgamation of Indus Towers and Bharti Infratel. But we know Indus Towers was formed by the three incumbent telecom operators of India - Airtel, Vodafone and Idea in November 2007. That time Indus was the largest tower co in the world (outside China) and till September of 2024 Indus enjoyed the title as Brookfield (who bought Jio Infratel and ATC India) based Altius became the largest tower company in the world. 

Vi Kickstarts Competition with 5G Data and New Tariffs

After 808 days of Jio & Airtel's 5G launch (1st October 2022), Vi, the joint telecom venture of Vodafone UK and Aditya Birla Group, has launched 5G services in India in selected pockets of selected cities across 17 key circles on 17th December of 2024. This launch of 5G services by Vi marked the third operator of the country enters 5G space. Though this launch is just to maintain MRO guidelines, a full-scale launch to all users is part of the roadmap of Vi.