MobileTracker has the news (or at least a rumor):

Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, may be trying to bring his successful Virgin Mobile cell phone brand to India. India is one of the largest upcoming mobile phone markets in the world and the country already has more cell phones than land lines.

An Indian Virgin Mobile would operate in Branson’s typical style—as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). This means the company would buy bulk space from an existing wireless company and resell it under the Virgin brand.

Interesting to see how Virgin uses the virtual model everywhere, keeping operating costs low and really highlighting the brand’s function as a pure marketing play. That is, if Virgin is buying service from another existing player, the margin is made because the Virgin brand can sell that airtime better than competitors in the same space. This is intentional strategy from Virgin, as they again highlighted recently in announcing upcoming 3G services in the UK— without the R&D costs because of their virtual model.