| (The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)
The Supreme Court has agreed to a 10-year timeline for the telecommunications companies to pay their Adjusted Gross Revenue dues and penalties totalling Rs. 1.47 lakh crore to the government, down from the 20-year formula proposed by the government. In its initial order in October 2019, the court had wanted the companies to shell out the dues in three months, resulting in major players like Vodafone-Idea and Airtel showing historic losses on their books, and the telecommunications industry in India teetering on the brink of collapse. The court had supported the government's argument that the telecos had to share revenue based on an AGR that included revenue from all sources, and not just from the core services as the companies had been doing. Based on the order there were about 16 entities that had to pay up, but the bulk of the payment rested with Vodafone-Idea and Airtel, the companies that ruled the roost during India's telecom boom in the last 20 years. While a 10-year schedule gives some relief, these payments will be a millstone around the necks of these companies at a time when a new player, Reliance Jio, is taking over the market. Global tech giants like Facebook and Google that are looking to buy into India's communications space have invested only in Jio. Vodafone-Idea and Airtel may also be forced to aim for higher average revenue per user, which may mean higher data and call charges for their users, who are about 56% of India's mobile phone user base. This could drive more users to Jio, creating a duopoly or a monopoly in the Indian market, which is never good news. The cascading effects of this case that has been running since 2005 is what makes this story important. | 
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