Latest News

In the Union Budget 2019-20 presented today, FM Nirmala Sitharaman laid out a 16-point action to set the agriculture sector up for better times. An allocation of Rs 2.83 lakh crore will be made for the agriculture sector, the FM announced. These included:— States need to consider 3 model agri laws— Comprehensive water plan for arid districts— 20 lakh farmers to be helped to set up standalone solar pumps— Govt shall encourage balanced use of all kind of fertilisers view a view to changing the current regime of using excessive chemical fertilisers.— Boost agri warehousing — things like cold storage.— A new village storage scheme to boost backward linkage. SHGs will spearhead this move, assisted by Mudra and NABARD.— Krishi Udaan on interntional and national routes— One product, one district scheme for horticulture sector, which already exceeds the production of foodgrains.— financing on negotiating warehousing receipts — to be intregarted with e-NAM.— NABARD refinance scheme to be furthe...

Presenting her second Budget in eight months, Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman today said that this Budget will boost income and purchasing power of Indians. She said that the government has taken several steps to boost growth and the current Budget aims to meet the hopes and aspirations of all sections of the society.Keep tracking this space for all the key highlights from Budget 2020:* This is the Budget to boost income and purchasing power of Indians, says Sitharaman.* This Budget is woven around three prominent themes: Aspirational India, Economic Development for All; A Caring Society* Aspirational India: Agriculture-- 16 actions points to aid farmers* Govt will help 20 lakh farmers for setting up solar pumps.* Farm market need to be liberalized.*Expand PM Kusum scheme to 20 lakh farmers.* Proliferation of technologies such as analytics, machine learning, Artifial Intelligence, bioinformatics& Number of people in productive age group at its highest, point out two cross-cutt...

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has termed the GST as a historic structural reform saying it integrated country economically.Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman listed out the benefits of the GST regime stating that the indirect tax reform has brought down the time taken by trucks to transport goods. Effective tax incidence has come down substantially. Annual benefit of Rs one lakh crore on account of GST. Average household saves monthly 4% on account of reduced GST.Simplified new returns system from April 1

NEW DELHI: The country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki posted a marginal increase of 0.3% to sell 139,884 units in January.The company had recorded sales of 139,440 units in the corresponding period of the last financial year.While sales of mini cars Alto, S-Presso and old WagonR went up 10.8% to 25,885 units, those of compact cars (New WagonR, Swift, Ignis, Celerio, Baleno, DZire, Tour S) 11.6% to 84,340 units in January. Sales of midsize sedan Ciaz declined 71.5% in the period under review.Those of utility vehicles – Vitara Brezza, Ertiga, XL6, S-Cross – too fell 26.6% to 16,460 units last month.The company sold 12,324 units of vans Omni and Eeco during the month under review, which is a dip of 18.6% of 15,145 units.

NEW DELHI: MG Motor India on Saturday reported retail sales of 3,130 units in January 2020 while forecasting a hit on sales this month due to 'significant disruption' in supply chain from European, Chinese and other Asian suppliers due to the coronavirus outbreak.Commenting on January sales performance, MG Motor India Chief Commercial Officer Gaurav Gupta said, "The robust sales momentum of our first offering, the Hector, has been very encouraging.""We are on track for BS VI transition in line with our brand belief of offering the latest technology to our customers. This transition will continue to happen over February and March 2020," he added.On the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Gupta said,"We expect significant disruption in supply chain from European and Chinese/Asian suppliers."He further said sales may get impacted in February due to the coronavirus as the firm's inventory levels have been minimum because of the bookings backlog. ...

Tata group hospitality arm Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) has added a significant number of properties to its portfolio through management contracts this financial year and will continue to scout for larger properties, including iconic assets going ahead, a top company official said. "So far in the current fiscal, we have signed 24 hotels with an inventory of over 2,800 keys. We will be signing a few more this quarter taking the total to more than last year's numbers. "We feel we are ahead of the game and so we have to focus on absorbing this growth," IHCL managing director and CEO Puneet Chhatwal told . These 24 properties include four Taj hotels, two SeleQtions hotels, nine Vivanta hotels and nine Ginger hotels. "We are looking at existing brownfield assets which we can add to our portfolio without waiting for 4-5 years for them to start generating income," Chhatwal said. A brownfield asset is a developed asset, however, it may still require ongoing capital...

NEW DELHI: One good thing about this year’s Union Budget is that Mr Market is not pricing in any big sops, say market veterans.Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala says he does not think investors are expecting anything negative either. “It would be better if the government abolishes long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax. If it can’t, it can extend the tenure to two years from one at present,” the Big Bull said in an interview to ETNOW mid-January.The domestic stock market didn’t see any pre-Budget rally this time around. Sensex and Nifty shed 1.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively, for January, the most since July. On Friday, Sensex dropped 0.47 per cent, or 190 points, to close at 40,723, while Nifty shed 0.61 per cent, or 73 points, to 11,962. On Saturday as the bourses opened for special Budget Day trading, the indices opened depressed and traded with deep cuts.Market veteran Madhu Kela says he wants to hear more on strategic divestment, and he has a solid reason for it. The governme...

ET Intelligence Group: Two consumer goods majors, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and ITC, announced their third-quarter earnings on the eve of the federal Budget. The overall performance of the former was resilient, but that of the latter disappointing.The performance of India’s biggest FMCG company HUL, however, reflected the challenges of tepid consumer demand. The company posted volume growth of 5 per cent for the third consecutive quarter, but the sluggishness in consumption demand took its toll on the overall revenue growth that stood at 3.6 per cent.HUL appears to have given more discounts to push volumes. Among the various categories, the beauty and personal care segment was singularly affected due to a more pronounced slowdown, aggravated by the delayed onset of winter. Despite the stress on its top-line, HUL’s profitability remained unaffected. Across-theboard savings on costs ensured 340 bps expansion in operating profit margin to 25.2 per cent.While the demand outlook remains unce...

With the economy in dire straits, all eyes are on finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman who will present her second budget today. While corporates have their own long wish list from Budget 2020, income tax payers, too, have their own demands. As always, most are hopeful for a rejig or a cut in income tax rates or slabs. Here is a look at possible announcements the middle-class taxpayer can expect from Budget 2020.Rejig in income tax slab rates The last meaningful change in income tax slabs was made in 2014 when the Modi government presented its first Union budget. Since then, there has not been any major change in these limits albeit some benefits and sops which were given in the years that followed. In fact, we saw the highest tax rate applicable to an individual being raised to 42.744 per cent in July 2019 when the full budget for FY 2019-20 was presented. The erstwhile maximum tax rate was 35.88 per cent - this jump of nearly 7 per cent has hurt even the super-rich.The interim Budget ...

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) late on Friday night extended the due date for furnishing GST Annual Return and Reconciliation Statement (GSTR-9 / 9A and GSTR-9C) for FY 2017-18 in a staggered manner. The last date to file the Returns was January 31, 2020.This came after thousands of taxpayers took to social media complaining about the GST portal not working. “Considering the difficulties being faced by taxpayers in filing GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C for FY 2017-18 it has been decided to extend the due dates in a staggered manner for different groups of States to 3rd, 5th and 7th February 2020 as under,” CBIC said in a Tweet. Considering the difficulties being faced by taxpayers in filing GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C for FY 2017-18 it has been decid… https://t.co/Il75gT2JNH— CBIC (@cbic_india) 1580490012000 Accordingly under Group 1, the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Other Territory has been placed and they will ne...

NEW DELHI: The government is likely to unveil, in the Union Budget 2020, a Troubled Assets Relief Programme (TARP) similar to what the US initiated during the financial crisis in 2008.Under the proposed scheme, the troubled or stressed assets of the non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) will be bought by a government fund to revive the sector.A high-level review meeting on this was held on Monday, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for a final decision on the matter.The US government had initiated the TARP at the height of the Wall Street financial crisis of 2008.The US Treasury Department created the TARP fund to stabilise the financial system and restore economic growth. TARP was rolled out to accomplish targets by purchasing troubled companies' assets and stock.September 2008 saw a worldwide freeze as global credit markets came to a near standstill as several major financial institutions, such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and American International Group (AIG), experienced ...

Brokerages maintained bullish views on the State Bank of India (SBI) stock, after India’s largest public sector lender reported highest ever quarterly profit for the December quarter on better margins. The bank expects better profitability in fourth quarter as well, led by improved asset quality, one-off gains from SBI Cards IPO and lower tax.The country’s largest lender on Friday reported a 41.18 per cent YoY rise in its standalone net profit at Rs 5,583 crore, driven by an improvement in asset quality and strong interest income.Emkay Global Financial Services maintained a ‘Buy’ rating on SBI with a 12-month price target of Rs 380.“We have raised FY20 estimates by 23 per cent, factoring in earnings beat in Q3, lumpy resolutions and one-off gains from cards IPO, partly offset by residual DHFL/ICA-related provisions,” the brokerage said.Gross non-performing assets (NPA) improved to 6.94 per cent from 8.71 per cent YoY while net NPAs stood at 2.65 per cent as against 3.95 per cent. Fresh...

Indications from statements made by President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the start of the Parliament's Budget session may presage a Budget woven around the theme of the start of a new decade and the building of a New India.PM Modi kicked off the "new decade" theme on Friday morning in his customary statement before the beginning of the Budget session.He asked the Members of Parliament to work towards laying a strong foundation for a "bright future of the country in the new decade".The Prime Minister called for wide discussions on the economic issues in the country and how to maximise benefits to India in the current global economic scenario."We should focus mostly on economic issues in this session and we should to try to see how India can benefit most out of the present global economic scenario and how it can take forward the country's economy."President Kovind laid even more emphasis on the "new decade" theme, w...

NEW DELHI: In what is being billed as a make or break Budget to revive the economy, the Modi government is likely to introduce heavy duty measures for rationalisation of key equity taxes, including scrapping capital gains on sale of property, shifting tax applicability of dividend distribution tax (DDT) to the receiver and extending the timeline of long-term capital capital gains (LTCG) tax from the current 12 months to 24 months.The breakthrough measure, if it materialises, will be doing away with capital gains on sale of property. The move has the potential to revive the real estate sector, which is in the doldrums and facing immense stress.The government is considering a proposal to do away with capital gains on selling property. Currently, one has to pay 30 per cent capital gains on the sale of a property, if the amount is not re-invested in property within 3 years.If property is sold within 24 months, one has to pay a short-term capital gains tax (STCG) on the gains as per an indi...

Indications from statements made by President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the start of the Parliament's Budget session may presage a Budget woven around the theme of the start of a new decade and the building of a New India.PM Modi kicked off the "new decade" theme on Friday morning in his customary statement before the beginning of the Budget session.He asked the Members of Parliament to work towards laying a strong foundation for a "bright future of the country in the new decade".The Prime Minister called for wide discussions on the economic issues in the country and how to maximise benefits to India in the current global economic scenario."We should focus mostly on economic issues in this session and we should to try to see how India can benefit most out of the present global economic scenario and how it can take forward the country's economy."President Kovind laid even more emphasis on the "new decade" theme, w...

New Delhi: The Economic Survey revives an old tall tale about Microsoft. A helicopter flying over Seattle loses all communication and navigation facilities. As its pilot struggles to find her bearings, she suddenly spots a tall building and quickly writes out a question in as large letters as she can squeeze in on as large a piece of paper she can lay her hands on: "Where am I?" People in the building see her plight and immediately write out a reply: "You are in a helicopter." The pilot then finds her way to a spot where she can land. Her lone passenger asks her how she managed to figure out her coordinates from that cryptic answer. She replies that she figured out she must be above the Microsoft Tower, because the answer she got, like all Microsoft technical support and documentation, was technically correct and completely useless. The survey is a bit like that.Microsoft has come a long way since then and even become the world’s most valued company. The survey does...

New Delhi: The affordability of a vegetarian thali improved by 29% between 2006-07 and 2019-20 and that of a non-vegetarian thali by 18% over the 13-year period, according to the survey.The survey has used the thali – a plate of food – as an example of something that people encounter every day in an attempt to make economics relate to the common person.Jharkhand topped the list of states with the most affordable thalis in both categories in April-October 2019. Two vegetarian thalis for a household of five in Jharkhand required about 25% of a worker’s daily wage, according to the survey.The survey analysed data from the Consumer Price Index for industrial workers for about 80 centres in 25 states/ Union Territories from April 2006 to October 2019 to arrive at the cost of a thali as part of ‘Thalinomics.’ Using the annual earnings of an average industrial worker, the survey calculated that a vegetarian household saved Rs 10,887 on an average per year, assuming five individuals had two th...

KOLKATA: The Economic Survey has proposed skin in the game for employees of public sector banks through a stock option plan.Public sector bank employees are paid fixed salaries, which, according to the survey, does not encourage risk-taking and innovation. Although PSBs control 70% of India’s banking market, they lag considerably in performance metrics when compared to their peers.“Employees can constitute one of the blocks of new owners of PSBs through ESOPs that is conditioned on employee performance,” the survey said. “Ownership by motivated, capable employees across all levels in the organisation could give such employees tangible financial rewards for value enhancement, align their incentives with what is beneficial to the PSB, and create a mindset of enterprise ownership for employees.”The proposal comes when the Indian Banks’ Association and bank unions have been negotiating wage increases. The payslip component for PSB employees is revised every five years.Bank unions agreed on...

MUMBAI: State-run banks hobbled by soaring bad loans and poor performance can look forward to have a new life with the help of fintechs to fight back and use tools like GPS to conduct better due diligence on borrowers to play a meaningful role in India’s march towards a $5-trillion economy, the Economic Survey said.With data and analytics taking the centre stage in almost all industries, state-run banks can pool all their data into one entity like in the case of GST Network, to improve their analytical capabilities that could provide them an edge over their private peers, it said. Data sciences, machine learning and artificial intelligence could help the banks, which have more than 70% market share, to make a difference to the economy, it said.“PSBs have many important ingredients in place to cater to this new demand,” said the survey. “They have local market insights and relationships based on operating histories spanning many decades. Their geographic footprint is vast. PSBs, however...

If you always predict an economic rebound you will sometimes be right. After false predictions for five quarters, which saw GDP growth slide steadily down to 4.5%, the Economic Survey has predicted a big rebound to an annual 6-6.5% in 2020-21. Much will depend on the world economy, which slowed almost everywhere in 2019 and has been hit further by a virus outbreak in China that threatens to disrupt supply chains. If the world economy recovers, so will India’s. If not, the remedies prescribed by the survey, many of which are commendable, may not do the trick.Last year’s survey emphasised the need for major reforms in the police-judicial system and education. The government did not act immediately on that good advice. It remains to be seen whether it will accept this survey’s advice to reduce government intervention in grain markets, drug price controls, trade curbs under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), and debt waivers. Political populism has long trumped economic sense on these is...

PUNE: It was at a friend’s beach party — Vishal Misra and Arvind Krishna were trying to (unsuccessfully it turned out) retrieve a kite belonging to Misra’s son that was stuck on a treetop.Misra, professor in the department of computer science at the University of Columbia, remembers this incident with the newly appointed IBM CEO vividly. Misra had first met Krishna when trying to decide between a stint in academia and a career at IBM. “We’ve known each other socially for 20 years,” Misra told ET. “What I remember from our encounter back in 2001— when I was trying to decide between Columbia and IBM — was that he sincerely wished me luck and did not badmouth Columbia or life in academia,” Misra, who recalls Krishna as a warm, friendly guy, said.Krishna, who takes over from Virginia (Ginni) Rometty on April 6, is currently Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software at IBM, which includes IBM Research, IBM Cloud, and IBM’s Security and Cognitive Applications businesses.The 57-y...

After building India's largest retail chain, Reliance Industries (RIL) is now entering the restaurant business with a Michelin-starred Armani eatery. Reliance will spearhead its food business in a tie-up with Milan-based luxury company Emporio Armani, according to two people familiar with the plan. The petroleum-to-telecommunications conglomerate plans to open the first Emporio Armani restaurant in its upcoming luxury mall in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex, according to one person. Mumbai will be the latest city where the Michelin-starred Armani opens its restaurant, after Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo, Munich and Dubai, among other cities.Reliance is building a mega-commercial complex in BKC called Jio World Centre, which will house an international convention centre, hotels, two shopping centres, including a luxury mall, a performing arts theatre, a rooftop drive-in movie theatre and commercial offices. The luxury mall will open next year, a Reliance official familiar with the pla...

The office of the Chief Economic Advisor, though advisory in nature, publishes one of the most important documents just before the Budget that lays the groundwork for the government's flagship document on its finances and policy statement.The Economic Survey, divided into two volumes, presents not just a snapshot of the economy but also gives a glimpse of what is to come ahead. The Budget is presented in the backdrop of the Survey's findings but doesn't necessarily impact it.India's current Chief Economic Advisor, Krishnamurthy Subramanian, is a staunch believer of China's growth model driven by investments and exports, a fact that can easily be gleaned from last year's Economic Survey. The document borrowed heavily from the Chinese playbook and emphasised on a virtuous cycle of growth driven by an investment push. That document laid the blueprint for Modi govt's $5 trillion GDP push.Subramanian, who was appointed in December of 2018 after Arvind Subramanian...

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel said on Friday that the government had removed it from the ‘Denied Entry List’ list after the telco "highlighted" the relevant details and documents which had been submitted to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade’s (DGFT)."We wish to clarify that the company has highlighted the relevant details and documents submitted to the DGFT and accordingly the name of the Company has now been removed from the ‘Denied Entry List’," the company said in a statement."We are actively engaged with the authorities to complete the formalities and provide additional documents for closure of the remaining cases,” it added. The telco's stock was up 1.5% to Rs496.80 in early trade on the BSE Friday.Thursday, a day after the DGFT, under the commerce ministry, put the company on the ‘Denied Entry List’ following the non-fulfilment of export obligations under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme, the telecom operator had said that it was wor...

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel said on Friday that the government had removed it from the ‘Denied Entry List’ list after the telco "highlighted" the relevant details and documents which had been submitted to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade’s (DGFT)."We wish to clarify that the company has highlighted the relevant details and documents submitted to the DGFT and accordingly the name of the Company has now been removed from the ‘Denied Entry List’," the company said in a statement."We are actively engaged with the authorities to complete the formalities and provide additional documents for closure of the remaining cases,” it added. The telco's stock was up 1.5% to Rs496.80 in early trade on the BSE Friday.Thursday, a day after the DGFT, under the commerce ministry, put the company on the ‘Denied Entry List’ following the non-fulfilment of export obligations under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme, the telecom operator had said that it was wor...

By Sunil SanghaiAmidst high expectations of reforms and reduction in tax rates, the government has a formidable task of achieving a fine balance between addressing the current slowdown and maintaining fiscal discipline. The budget on February 1 is an opportunity for the government to show its intent to revive a slowing economy. I expect this budget to be focused on stimulating consumption and growth. The government may temporarily deviate from its stated plan of maintaining fiscal discipline.Here are the 10 things that the capital markets will want:1. Revenue Enhancement: Public spending will be needed to kickstart the economy. With no significant headroom for increasing tax, the government needs to monetise assets through privatisation/ disinvestment and other innovative methods like floating of ETFs and setting up of an investment holding company to raise funds. A holding company structure will allow flexibility in decision making of timing, sequencing, valuation and borrowing agains...

New Delhi: Smartphone manufacturers have asked the government to clarify whether Chinese components pose any risk of coronavirus contamination after workers raised concerns about possible infection.“We have written to telecom secretary Anshu Prakash and MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney to take up this matter with the health department and to issue a clarification,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of the Indian Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA). The lobby group represents companies such as Foxconn, which makes phones for Xiaomi, Apple and Nokia, and Wistron, which makes iPhones, besides Vivo and Oppo.India imports mobile phone components worth Rs 7,000-8,000 crore from China every month.“There is a query from the industry on the subject of equipment sub-assemblies and components from China wherein there is a perceived threat by handlers of the supply and also workers in warehouse/plants about the spread of coronavirus,...

Bengaluru: IBM said its board of directors had appointed Arvind Krishna as chief executive officer, effective April 6, making him the latest Indian who will hold that rank at a global technology giant.IBM said current CEO Ginni Rometty would continue as executive chairman of the board through the end of 2020, at which point she would retire after almost 40 years with the company.Krishna is currently senior vice president for cloud and cognitive software and was a principal architect of the company's acquisitions of Red Hat."Arvind is the right CEO for the next era at IBM. He is a brilliant technologist who has played a significant role in developing our key technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum, computing and Blockchain. He is also a superb operational leader," CEO Rometty said in a statement Krishna studied at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and has a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois. He joined IBM in 1990.IB...

Mumbai: Mutual funds have been progressively increasing their exposure to the top ten Nifty stocks to reduce underperformance and generate alpha. In 2019, as much as 60.62 per cent of mutual funds’ equity investments were in these from the Nifty50 stock by weightage, data from Value Research showed.This exposure in the top ten Nifty stocks is at a decadal high. In 2017, the corresponding figure stood at 50.09 per cent, while in 2018, it was 49.7 per cent.There is a statistical basis for high exposure to top ten Nifty stocks. These stocks have been clocking higher growth in their earnings per share (EPS) than the Nifty index. For instance, while the Nifty is expected to post 17 per cent growth, in its EPS for FY20, this group of stocks is expected to deliver 34 per cent growth in their earnings for the same period.Besides, analysts point out that the top ten Nifty stocks, in which foreign portfolio investors have high stake, not only offer earnings growth safety but also have relatively...

By Anto Antony and Rahul SatijaAn Indian shadow bank is offering to buy back its cheapened bonds after an ongoing fraud probe and a prolonged credit squeeze helped push yields as high as 43 per cent last year.Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. will repurchase anything trading at a yield of more than 12 per cent and has already spent 15 billion rupees ($210 million) to buy its local debt in December, Chief Executive Officer Gagan Banga said in an interview at his Mumbai office. The lender has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing and Banga said the deals aim to correct pricing in an opaque and shallow market.“Unless the bond markets fully mature, I don’t know the way out,” Banga said. “That’s what we can do to send a strong message, normalize the market.”Indiabulls’s bonds and shares have slumped since September 2018, when the collapse of an infrastructure financier triggered a squeeze that’s still denying cash to all but the strongest shadow lenders. Authorities are investigating ...

New Delhi: Smartphone manufacturers have asked the government to clarify whether Chinese components pose any risk of coronavirus contamination after workers raised concerns about possible infection.“We have written to telecom secretary Anshu Prakash and MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney to take up this matter with the health department and to issue a clarification,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of the Indian Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA). The lobby group represents companies such as Foxconn, which makes phones for Xiaomi, Apple and Nokia, and Wistron, which makes iPhones, besides Vivo and Oppo.India imports mobile phone components worth Rs 7,000-8,000 crore from China every month.“There is a query from the industry on the subject of equipment sub-assemblies and components from China wherein there is a perceived threat by handlers of the supply and also workers in warehouse/plants about the spread of coronavirus,...

Many multinationals give Esops to their Indian employees and then cross charge the cost to their Indian arm. The department is questioning the valuation of Esops for the purposes of domestic and international taxation, said the persons cited above.

Mumbai: The government is discussing a proposal to double the insurance cover on bank deposits to Rs 2 lakh and an announcement to this effect may be made in the February 1 budget, said several people with knowledge of the matter. The move comes after the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) faced flak over their handling of the closure of Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC), which downed shutters in September last year, leaving thousands of depositors high and dry.The government is expected to bring about these changes through an enabling amendment that would increase the deposit cover in the future without tinkering with the Deposit Insurance & Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) Act.“Looking at the aftermath of the PMC Bank crisis, doubling of the deposit cover will be a much-anticipated breather for bank deposit holders,” said Ashvin Parekh, proprietor of Ashvin Parekh Advisory Services. “The only challenge to my mind is who will now bear the added cost ...

BENGALURU: Facebook expects to roll out WhatsApp Pay in a number of countries in the next six months, even as its payment licence remains stuck in India.Facebook is working on building technology infrastructure to turn its private messaging apps, WhatsApp and Messenger, into private social platforms where users can hang out and engage with businesses. “One example that we've been working on is WhatsApp Payments where you're going to be able to send money as quickly and easily as sending a photo,” said Mark Zuckerberg on an earnings conference call with analysts, while talking about the growth of commerce and payments on private messaging apps.“I'm really excited about this, and I expect this to start rolling out in a number of countries and for us to make a lot of progress here in the next six months,” he said.WhatsApp’s payment feature, called WhatsApp Pay, is designed to run on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) — developed by the National Payments Corporation of India ...

New Delhi: Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri called for sustainable and rational airfares that would ensure viability of the sector, while adding that it was a free market and the government has no plan to regulate ticket pricing.“You know the fares between Delhi and Mumbai are lower than what they used to be 20 years ago. Average fares used be Rs 5,100 but it’s Rs 4,600 today. Clearly, something is wrong here. It should also be our responsibility to ensure viability of the airlines,” Puri told ET in an interview.Puri said airlines were free to decide prices themselves, but the government will follow a policy of ‘administrative encouragement’. He said the Japanese had in the past followed a system of ‘administrative guidance’ and gave the example of the watch industry.“There were three major watch manufacturers in Japan and they could have done to each other what our carriers are doing to each other today. So, they divided the world into three markets for the three manufacture...

Mumbai: The government is discussing a proposal to double the insurance cover on bank deposits to Rs 2 lakh and an announcement to this effect may be made in the February 1 budget, said several people with knowledge of the matter. The move comes after the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) faced flak over their handling of the closure of Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC), which downed shutters in September last year, leaving thousands of depositors high and dry.The government is expected to bring about these changes through an enabling amendment that would increase the deposit cover in the future without tinkering with the Deposit Insurance & Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) Act.“Looking at the aftermath of the PMC Bank crisis, doubling of the deposit cover will be a much-anticipated breather for bank deposit holders,” said Ashvin Parekh, proprietor of Ashvin Parekh Advisory Services. “The only challenge to my mind is who will now bear the added cost ...

BENGALURU: Wipro said its CEO Abidali Neemuchwala has resigned due to family commitments but that he would stay on until a successor was appointed.The company said it's board has initiated a search to find its next leader."We thank Abid for his leadership and contributions to Wipro. Over the last four years, Abid helped build a strong execution mindset, drove key acquisitions and scaled our digital business globally," chairman Rishad Premji said in a statement.Neemuchwala joined Wipro from TCS in April 2015 as Group President and COO. He was elevated to CEO in February 2016.

The Centre is likely to drop the clause that mandates control of insurance companies by Indian promoters as it seeks to enhance foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in the industry to 74% from 49%, said people with knowledge of the matter.The government has held several meetings with the insurance regulator, insurers and consultants on higher FDI in the sector. Many global insurers, such as Metlife and Generali, have not raised their stakes in Indian operations due to the clause that was introduced in 2015.“The government will amend the relevant provision while dropping control and ownership clause of the Insurance Act through the Finance Bill,” said an official at the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai).73788679 Cabinet Note in the Work“It has decided to prepare a cabinet note proposing higher FDI of 74%,” the official said.The FDI increase is being evaluated very carefully, said a source close to the development. “The complexity of ‘Indian owned and contr...

The Centre is likely to drop the clause that mandates control of insurance companies by Indian promoters as it seeks to enhance foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in the industry to 74% from 49%, said people with knowledge of the matter.The government has held several meetings with the insurance regulator, insurers and consultants on higher FDI in the sector. Many global insurers, such as Metlife and Generali, have not raised their stakes in Indian operations due to the clause that was introduced in 2015.“The government will amend the relevant provision while dropping control and ownership clause of the Insurance Act through the Finance Bill,” said an official at the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai).73788679 Cabinet Note in the Work“It has decided to prepare a cabinet note proposing higher FDI of 74%,” the official said.The FDI increase is being evaluated very carefully, said a source close to the development. “The complexity of ‘Indian owned and contr...

New Delhi: Tata Global Beverages and PepsiCo have decided to revise the terms of their joint venture agreement a decade after they formed NourishCo Beverages to accommodate the two partners’ individual business expansion plans and tweaks in their strategies, two senior officials directly aware of the developments said.The key triggers for the revision include the Tata firm’s move to become a larger player in the food and beverages space that could include it stepping into PepsiCo’s turf and the fact that PepsiCo is no longer in the bottling business after selling its bottling operations to the Ravi Jaipuria group, they said.“The objective is to redraw boundaries of the joint venture; since PepsiCo has an extensive portfolio in snacks, the concern is that the JV should not step on to PepsiCo’s turf with forthcoming launches,” one of the officials said.Both Tata Global Beverages and Pepsi-Co confirmed the revision in the JV agreement for NourishCo, formed to sell products in the non-carb...