The Budget, to be presented on February 1, is likely to be less worried about fiscal deficit and will be focused more on nursing the fragile growth, according to a Wall Street brokerage report. Bank of America Securities India expects the budget to peg "fiscal deficit at a high 5 per cent of GDP for FY22 and 7.2 per cent for FY21, as it is likely to step up capex, recap public sector banks, push asset sales to break government monopolies, offer sops for real estate, tax cuts for lower income groups and creation of a bad bank". Its house economists expect these spends to be funded by debt and partly by imposing a cess on high income groups and also by some non-fiscal measures like tapping the central bank's revaluation reserves and bank recapitalisation and infra bonds.
The Indian economy, severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, is projected to contract by a massive 10.3 per cent this year, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. However, India is likely to bounce back with an impressive 8.8 per cent growth rate in 2021, thus regaining the position of the fastest growing emerging economy, surpassing China's projected growth rate of 8.2 per cent, the IMF said in its latest 'World Economic Outlook' report.
Ratul Narain -- the entrepreneur behind Bempu -- tells Shobha Warrier that despite the challenges and frustrations, he is living his dream.
Striking a different note from its peers, US brokerage Bank of America Securities has maintained that the Reserve Bank will leave rates unchanged next week, recognising growth-focused and capex-driven fiscal expansion, which though poses huge price pressure and interest rate risks later. The RBI's rate setting panel Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will begin its deliberations next Monday and announce the policy moves on Wednesday (February 9) in the backdrop of a massive spike in bond yields post the Budget. Almost all major central banks are in the process of hiking rates to tame inflation.
The newly-appointed Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Wednesday Reserve Bank of India will offer a window to banks to swap the fresh FCNR-B dollar funds, mobilised for a minimum tenor of three years and over, at a fixed rate of 3.5 per cent per annum. According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, "the move should fetch $8-10 billion", adding that the move would help in shifting rupee risks away from NRIs at a time of extreme volatility.
Osaka takes equity stake in crypto exchange FTX
The country's demographic dividend is dissipating, with seriously adverse consequences for young India, asserts Shankar Acharya, former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India.
Aditya Chopra may be a household name in India, but few have seen his face, recognise his voice or know the brain behind the business outside his tight inner circle. The Romantics makes sure it has its own to brag about when he, finally, appears before the camera, notes Sukanya Verma.
Tan said that China has always stressed that military cooperation of relevant countries, especially on exercises and training activities, should not be targeted at any third party, but rather serve to help maintain regional peace and stability.
Among the many exits from the billionaire's club in 2022 are D Uday Kumar Reddy of Tanla Solutions (net worth down 66 per cent), Sushil Kanubhai Shah of Metropolis Healthcare (down 65.7 per cent), Vijay Shekhar Sharma of One97 Communications (down 66 per cent), and C K Birla (down 43.4 per cent).
'When the gold price rises rapidly, India's physical gold market remains on standby.'
A global group of government anti-money-laundering agencies said that financial institutions have not done enough to police suspicious financial activity by officials at soccer's global governing body FIFA.
In the start-up world, hitting the $1-billion mark, which accords the "Unicorn" tag, is a milestone. Enterprises typically reach the milestone only by series C or series D, or three to four funding rounds later. Zeta achieved it at the first one. On May 25, the six-year-old banking tech firm raised $250 million from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, at a post-money valuation of $1.45 billion. "This is the first time we have raised institutional money," Zeta co-founder Bhavin Turakhia beamed on the conference call. This trajectory is uncommon in start-ups.
The Sensex has hit its lowest level since August 29, 2016 whereas the Nifty hit its lowest level since Sep 12, 2016
'They fear their caste privilege will be exposed if there is an OBC caste census.'
The agreement, dubbed "LaLiga Boost", buys CVC an 8.2% stake in a new company that will get broadcasting revenues and sponsorship rights for 50 years.
'Overtightening of monetary policy by central banks and the spread of new Covid variants, which may force governments to restart lockdowns or restrict mobility.'
A month-long national lockdown to arrest the spread of COVID 2.0 could shave off 100-200 bps of GDP, leading to a 300 bps risk to annual growth, a brokerage report has flagged while expressing doubts over the ability of local lockdowns to control the pandemic. The second wave of the coronavirus inflection has caught the government off-guard with the daily cases jumping over 6.5 times in the past 30 days. With close to 3.53 lakh fresh daily infections, the country is the worst hit globally.
While a lot of Hollywood celebrities attended the 93rd Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, others celebrated the grand event on social media by sharing lovely memories and throwback pictures.
Bengaluru-headquartered IT services major Wipro Limited on Thursday announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Capco, a global management and technology consultancy to the banking and financial services industry, for USD 1.45 billion.
Roopam Asthana, CEO and whole-time director, Liberty General Insurance Ltd, answers your queries on HEALTH and AUTO insurance.
Raj Sharma, 49, a senior vice president and a private wealth advisor with the Private Banking and Investment Group at Merrill Lynch in Boston, has been recognised for the third consecutive year as one of the best advisors in the US.
IT company Wipro posted a 17 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,930.6 crore for the quarter ended on September 30, 2021. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2,484.4 crore in the same period a year ago. Wipro said that it has surpassed $10 billion (around Rs 75,300 crore) annualised revenue run rate.
'Putting tanks on the Ladakh border is not enough to combat China, what is needed to ensure resilience against any cyber-attacks or attacks in outer space or China flexing its economic muscle, as it did with Australia.'
172 firms participated in the final placement process.
China has been an aggressor against India along the Himalayan border, a top American diplomat nominated by President Joe Biden as his next envoy to Beijing has told lawmakers, stating that the US must hold the Chinese government accountable for failing to play by the rules.
"The largest displacements in the context of disasters in 2021 occurred in China (6.0 million), the Philippines (5.7 million) and India (4.9 million). Most disaster displacements during the year were temporary," it said.
Reliance Jio's decision to acquire 700 MHz in combination with the possible use of an advanced standalone (SA) 5G network could give it an edge over its rivals, according to most analysts. The dissenters argue that the stiff price tag touching Rs 40,000 crore to grab 10 MHz of spectrum in 700 to provide coverage for its SA 5G network which offers ultra-low latency (unlike non-standalone or NSA), has a long way to go in India in terms of finding use cases that can be monetised. Globally, 700 MHz is a pivotal band which provides huge coverage, indoor penetration (especially useful in India where walls are thick) and is already considered by the European Union to be the 'pioneer band' for 5G, with 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz, both of which were auctioned in India recently.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Friday reported a 14.1 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 9,624 crore in the September 2021 quarter, aided by broad-based growth across geographies and verticals. The Mumbai-based company had logged a net profit of Rs 8,433 crore (excluding adjustment towards a legal claim) in the year-ago period. Its revenue grew 16.7 per cent to Rs 46,867 crore for the September 2021 quarter from Rs 40,135 crore in the year-ago period.
M&M, which owns a 75 per cent stake in SYMC, rescued the sport-utility vehicle (SUV) maker from near-insolvency in 2010 but has struggled to revive its fortunes.
The sale will be quicker if an Indian private bank buys it; it will take longer for regulatory clearances if a foreign bank or an NBFC buys it, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
If New Delhi finds itself out in the cold in Afghanistan, both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA have only themselves to blame. Each has been in power for a full decade from 2001, without reaching out to the Taliban, points out Ajai Shukla.
'I was not scared because I knew I had not done anything wrong. And I was walking for a good cause.'
The coming together of the Quad and the Australia-UK-US grouping would be a formidable adversary, moving toward the creation of a 'thousand ship navy' that reins in the PLA navy in the Indo-Pacific.
Soon after Biden concluded his speech, Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff joined him and his wife Jill Biden.
Bajaj Finance was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, soaring over 8 per cent, followed by Kotak Bank, IndusInd Bank, HDFC, PowerGrid, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and L&T. On the other hand, Maruti, ITC, NTPC and Nestle India were among the laggards.
The country's two top telcos, Reliance Jio and Airtel, are working overnight to undertake one of the fastest global roll-outs of 5G services in any country just a month down the line. India might be late in the game (already 70 countries have some kind of 5G and there are 698 million 5G subscribers across the world), but it's moving at breakneck speed. In his speech at the Reliance Industries AGM, Mukesh Ambani unveiled his plan to roll out the fastest 5G network in the world, starting from four metros in October but hitting every town taluka and tehsil - there are some 5,600 of them - in the country in 18 months.
There is mounting evidence that suggests that Omicron subvariants -BA.4 and BA.5 - are infecting people who have been vaccinated.
'Our family philosophy is to build a bridge between India and Britain.'
Analysts at foreign brokerage Bank of America Merrill Lynch said the RBI will cut rates by 0.25 per cent in December, and follow it up with a 0.15 per cent in February.