India's services sector activities eased in March as growth was hit by the detrimental impact of the coronavirus pandemic and input costs remained elevated, a monthly survey said on Wednesday. The seasonally-adjusted India Services Business Activity Index fell from 55.3 in February to 54.6 in March. Though the rates of expansion softened, it indicated growth for the sixth consecutive month. In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion while a score below 50 denotes contraction.
Amid the ongoing festival season in the country, the hiring of gig workers has zoomed across sectors as the businesses have begun opening up leading to an uptick in consumer sentiments and rising pent-up demand, according to experts. "In the third quarter, with the onset of festive season, we are witnessing a 400 per cent spike in the hiring for gig workers. Earlier, in the first quarter of this year, as many businesses and companies were not operating at full strength, growth was muted. "However, things began picking up and became more promising from the second quarter, as the demand for gig workers across sectors grew," Taskmo, a subsidiary of Quess Corp, co-founder Prashant Janadri told PTI.
Users well-versed in privacy laws or those concerned with their data would be worried; it could well be that many of us have already accepted the end user agreement without ado, points out Ashish Narsale.
India's services activity expanded at the fastest rate in a year during February, while employment fell further and companies noted the sharpest rise in overall expenses, a monthly survey said on Wednesday. The seasonally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index rose from 52.8 in January to 55.3 in February, pointing to the sharpest rate of expansion in output in a year amid improved demand and more favourable market conditions. The index was above the critical 50 mark that separates growth from contraction for the fifth month in a row during February as the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines led to an improvement in business confidence towards growth prospects.
The net outward foreign direct investment went up from $9.1 billion in 2017-18 to $12.6 billion in 2018-19 and moved further north to $13 billion in 2019-20.
C Vijayakumar, the reticent chief executive of HCL Technologies, India's third-largest IT services firm, was recently appointed managing director, succeeding the founder, Shiv Nadar. Back in October 2016, when CVK, as he is popularly called within and outside of HCL, was named CEO, it had been somewhat of a surprise - his elevation being the result of his predecessor, Anant Gupta, suddenly stepping down to "pursue personal interests". CVK, 53, has since taken the firm from under $7 billion to over $10 billion in revenue.
E-commerce giant Amazon and Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy's Catamaran Ventures have "mutually decided" to not continue their joint venture (JV) beyond the end of its current term. The JV, Prione Business Services, which has been running successfully for the past seven years, was coming up for renewal on May 19, 2022. The JV enabled over 300,000 sellers and entrepreneurs to go online. It also enabled 4 million merchants with digital payment capabilities, providing these small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and merchants access to millions of customers across the country.
India saw growth of around 213 per cent in the number of real-time payments processed over the past year.
A stake sale of Reliance's real estate portfolio would help it raise anything between $1-5 billion and could be one of the triggers for the company's shares to break out.
In a short span of time, with the help of Amazon, Cloudtail was able to devise a model that could protect it from the vagaries of online retail business.
The promoter-brothers, distant cousins to IndiGo's Rahul Bhatia, are eyeing Air India's ground handling subsidiary to augment their aviation services business even as they make a big play in EVs.
The country is gripped in an unprecedented economic downturn which is certainly going to spill over into the second half of this year unless the infection rate can be brought under control.
In wake of the coronavirus pandemic, US auto major Ford has asked its 10,000 employees in India, except those in business-critical roles, to work from home, a step which has also been taken up by Swedish luxury car maker Volvo. A Ford India spokesperson said, in recent days, the company has concluded that the issue of coronavirus has taken on a different dimension.
Last November, a lawyer for Future Retail Limited (FRL) told Delhi high court that Amazon is interfering with its lawful business and thousands may lose their jobs and FRL may go bankrupt. Senior advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for FRL, likened Amazon to East India Company. Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who represented Amazon, told the Future counsel to keep the "East India Company" rhetoric aside, as Amazon has invested $6.5 billion all over India and created 900,000 jobs. This drama played out in the case in which Amazon has challenged Future's $3.4-billion deal with Reliance, alleging the retailer's deal breached an agreement with the American e-commerce firm.
He said COVID-19 can be a catalyst towards the adoption of digital technologies in health and education and drive change in a way that even venture capital funds have not achieved despite pouring billions in investments.
bp had last year bought 49 per cent stake in the 1,400-odd petrol pumps and 31 aviation turbine fuel stations owned by RIL for $1 billion.
While manufacturing firms cut jobs for the first time in 20 months to sharply reduce costs, services providers continued their hiring spree.
A crackdown on shell companies, increased regulatory compliance and failure of companies to avail bank credit, and defaulting on loans are some of the reasons cited by accounting professionals for the closure of such a large number of companies
The business services sector in the United Kingdom may see over 300,000 job losses in next four years due to the impact of the recession, a report by economics consultancy Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has said.
The case may drag for a few years, experts say, as CAIT and DVM have said they will appeal against the interim relief granted to Amazon.
Bharti Airtel recently acquired a 100 per cent stake in Wireless Business Services, a company founded by US chipmaker Qualcomm. Subsequent to the acquisition, the company was renamed Airtel Broadband Services.
The move, first announced in March 2014, is expected to generate net annualised cost savings of $175-200 million once fully implemented.
India is ranked 12th in terms of services GDP among the world's top 15 countries, says the Economic Survey.
The JV between the two has won BWA spectrum in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala.
Economic Survey says Services Sector Negotiations at WTO Crucial.
The Scotch whisky industry said it exported 40 bottles per second in 2011.
Lula Mohanty, vice president, IBM India talks about the experiences that shaped her career and offers advice on how to be a good leader.
Minacs will be integrated it into SYNNEX's BPO business, Concentrix.
CAD refers to the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange that has a bearing on exchange rate.
Overall attrition jumped to 20.6 per cent in the quarter, a 400 basis points rise over 16.6 per cent in the earlier quarter.
Real Madrid and rivals Barcelona proved that passion for Spanish soccer remains undimmed despite the country's financial crisis, cementing their place as the highest revenue earners in the world's most popular sport, business services group Deloitte said on Thursday.
Tech Mahindra said the company believes in diversity and inclusion, and condemns "discrimination of any kind in the workplace".
He will be succeeded by Joginder Singh, who now heads the Business Services Centre of Ford Motor Company.
The US Bureau of Labour Statistics said among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for blacks increased to 14.3 per cent in October.
The company, which has filed its documents with the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India, is also looking to raise up to Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) by pre-IPO placement of up to 10 million shares.
Besides Surat, which will also be the world's fastest growing city during 2019-35, the other nine cities are Agra, Bengaluru Hyderabad, Nagpur, Tiruppur, Rajkot, Tiruchirappalli, Chennai and Vijayawada.
The US unemployment rate in June has remained unchanged at 7.6 per cent as more than 195,000 jobs were added to the economy this month, latest official figures said.
The year 2014 has been a milestone for the US economy with the average growth of 4.2 per cent in the last two quarters and addition of 2.65 million jobs till November, the White House has said.
The Top Employers certification is awarded to a select group of employers.
Neilson, managing director of NHS Shared Business Services, said millions of pounds could be saved by outsourcing more National Health Services administration to India.
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