The telecom industry topped the chart in terms of merger and acquisition deals, valued

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at $ 22.73 billion, across all sectors in the April-June quarter of 2010-11, a study by industry body Assocham said.

"Three major outbound and domestic merger and acquisitions deals worth $ 22.73 billion took place in the telecom sector during April-June 2010, representing 67.19 per cent share in the total valuation of the deals that occurred during that period," the Assocham study said.

During April-June 2009, the sector had witnessed mergers and acquisitions deals worth $ 439.4 million, it said.

In the telecom sector, the biggest deal was cracked by Anil Ambani Group's flagship company, Reliance Communication Ltd, which merged its telecom tower business with GTL Infrastructure for $ 11 billion, the study added.

The other major deals included Bharti Airtel signing a deal to acquire Kuwait-based Zain Telecom's African business for $ 10.7 billion and Reliance Industries acquiring Infotel Broadband for $ 1 billion, it said.

"The merger and acquisition activity in the past three months indicate that the Indian telecom industry is all set to take on the global markets," Assocham said.

The other sectors, including pharmaceutical, banking and finance, metal and mining, energy, steel, media and entertainment, aviation, real estate and IT-ITeS, witnessed 57 mergers and acquisitions pegged at $ 111.02 billion -- altogether contributing a 32.81 per cent share in the total merger and acquisitions deals.

It further said that during the first quarter of 2010, the volume of merger and acquisition deals involving Indian firms increased three-fold.

"The activity registered an increase of 256.72 per cent to $ 33.83 billion in April-June 2010 from $ 9.49 billion in April-June 2009. The number of deals also recorded an increase to 60 from 43 during the corresponding period," the study said.