rediffGURU Chocko Valliappa offers advice on how to upskill yourself to advance in your career.
Global firm Accenture's fourth quarter results prove that the worst is behind for the Indian information technology (IT) sector, said analysts on Friday (September 27). While the pace and the broadness of recovery is debatable, they said Accenture's results and revenue growth guidance for the next financial year (FY25) reduce downside risks for Indian IT companies.
The FMCG industry hopes for a revival in consumption growth in 2025 with some 'green shoots' already visible, after having a challenging year amid escalating input costs and a double-digit rise in food inflation, which ultimately slowed down the pace of the urban market growth in the second half of 2024. Soaring prices of commodities such as palm oil, coffee, cocoa and wheat forced FMCG players to go for a hike of 3 to 5 per cent or resort to shrinkflation by reducing pack sizes and grammage to retain attractive price points, fearing a volume loss.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Thursday unveiled the next phase of growth at Reliance Industries Ltd, with retail and telecom worth over $100 billion each, doubling revenues and pre-tax profit in 3-4 years, new energy business becoming profitable by 2031, and core oil and chemical business continuing to be the robust growth engine. The sprawling conglomerate with interests in refining, oil and gas, petrochemicals, telecom, retail, and media is on track to more than double in size before the end of the decade, Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance, told company shareholders.
'A credit line on UPI is going to make banks think about credit fundamentally as they digitise the credit process entirely.'
'India has undeniably become the GCC capital of the world.'
Ajit Balakrishnan offers lessons from another tech revolution not so long ago.
Take purposeful breaks, practise self care, advises Sweta Bothra, lead psychologist at Amaha Health.
FLEXI Show will give the audience the freedom to leave the movie hall at any point while paying only for the time they watched it.
Meta announced a first-of-its-kind initiative called 'WhatsApp Bharat Yatra', where the company will go to Tier-II and Tier-III cities to provide on-ground, in-person training to small businesses.
The gig economy market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 per cent to reach a gross volume of $455 billion by the end of 2024, according to a white paper by The Forum for Progressive Gig Workers. Estimates suggest the gig economy has the potential to create 90 million jobs and add 1.25 per cent to India's GDP (gross domestic product) over time.
Indian mobile and Web consumers speak in 30 languages and around 1,600 dialects.
Employees were told to return to work from Monday onwards for a fresh start for improved production.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign a series of executive orders fulfilling campaign promises, including declaring an emergency at the southern border, addressing a national energy crisis, and defining sex-related policies. The orders aim to address immigration, national security, and energy independence, with a focus on reversing policies implemented by the previous administration.
'80% of start ups fail because they don't have a support system to help them in the very early phase.' 'It's not just an idea that takes an entrepreneur through the initial three years of journey.' 'What plays a definitive role in making a start-up successful is idea+team+capital+mentors+access to a larger ecosystem.'
Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani on Thursday said his oil-to-telecom-and-retail conglomerate is not seeking short-term profit but is in the business of creating wealth for the nation. Speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting, he said all businesses of Reliance Industries Ltd continue to be key drivers of the Indian economy and have become a success story. "We are not in the business of pursuing short-term profit and hoarding wealth. "We are in the business of creating wealth for India," he said.
Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus on Thursday said it plans to invest up to Rs 6,000 crore in its India business over the next three years. The company plans to make the investment in tranches of Rs 2,000 crore annually for the next three years under 'Project Starlight'. OnePlus on Thursday announced an annual investment of Rs 2,000 crore over the next three years to accelerate innovations in products and services in India.
Tech giant Apple's highly anticipated "It's Glowtime" event is set to make waves on Monday, unveiling the new iPhone 16 along with other exciting updates.
'There is simply too much to watch, read and absorb.' 'Just online consumption (news, entertainment, social media) in India was 2.5 hours a day in November 2024.' 'Add TV (just under 4 hours), other media, and the figure is closer to 7 to 8 hours a day for over one-third of Indians,' points out Vanita Kohli Khandekar.
Air India's use of artificial intelligence (AI) has had a huge impact on the airline major's call centre volumes and the technology integration has reduced costs by 100 times, a senior company executive said on Wednesday. The airline launched its own chatbot AI.g, earlier known as Maharaja, in May 2023. The chatbot has answered approximately two million queries since its launch, handling 93 per cent of customer inquiries without needing to pass them on to call centre agents, said Sathya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Air India.
'I am very happy to see that the work is starting to bear some fruit now.'
'This is a race where every technology can be used by the bad guys and good guys.'
'Investors with foreign currency-denominated goals, such as foreign education or foreign travel, should go for US equity funds.'
'Regulatory challenges exist everywhere. What we look for is regulatory stability over time.'
Rekhachitram is the latest in an assembly line of films that use the period setting and mythic allure of the past to drive home the suspense of relatively straightforward genre stories, notes Arjun Menon.
'With Prime, TCS is making sure that we are able to secure the right high talent...' 'Colleges will make sure that students who are offered jobs in this category do not go for another company's hiring process.'
'Today's engineering graduates have to learn the skills to solve problems which is actually a higher order skill.'
Justice Kohli said the advent of artificial intelligence has caused some concerns amongst the legal fraternity.
Ask rediffGURU and tax expert Mihir Tanna your income tax-related questions.
'When I started to step into the West in 2006, I believed India was not going to be the back end.' 'I understood that no film-maker wants to believe that they are outsourcing their creativity to a low-end place.' 'The application of technology in the hands of our Indian artistes is identical to any of our artists in the West.' 'Nobody in the world can say this shot was done in India and that in London.'
It's a strategic approach in which the country's military and defence mechanisms evolve continuously in tandem with emerging threats. The new strategy anticipates events and prepares to counter those proactively.
'While investors need to be prepared for making some losses, they should not lose big money chasing euphoria amid fear of missing out.'
Research and development (R&D) spending by BSE 100 companies has grown steadily, rising from 0.89 per cent of revenue in FY20 to 1.32 per cent in FY24, averaging around 1 per cent over the period in-between, according to data compiled from Bloomberg and company annual reports. Also, these companies more than doubled their R&D spending in absolute terms over these five years: From Rs 25,041 crore to Rs 63,072 crore. While this reflects a prioritisation of innovation, corporate R&D investment remains relatively conservative.
Air India (AI)'s rise could be at the expense of three "super-connector" hubs - Doha in Qatar, and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE - as the Indian passenger would any day prefer direct flights of their national airline that is providing excellent on-time service, Arved von zur Muehlen, chief commercial officer of Saudia Airlines, said on Thursday.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says Gemini will eventually be integrated into Google's search engine, its ad products, the Chrome browser.
'Israel would make Iran and its proxies pay. They, along with Qatar, fund terror all over the world.'
'We are sure FY25 is going to be better...But to call out that all problems are behind us is a bit early.' 'The underlying business sentiment has not changed significantly.'
Retail investors have become a force to reckon with in the last 10 years with their ownership of Indian equities rising 800 basis points, or 8 per cent, to 23.4 per cent during this period, suggests a recent note from Morgan Stanley. This number, Morgan Stanley said, is set to rise in the next few years as Indian households are still underinvested in equities. India's demographics, policy framework, investor education and modest positive real rates, it said, will fuel the 'equity cult' in India.
For Yogi Adityanath the successful management of the fair is a crucial part of building 'Brand UP' and making the state a $1 trillion economy.
Ask rediffGURU and tax expert Mihir Tanna your income tax-related questions.