Pakistan is on the verge of strong action by FATF, given its inadequate performance, whereby it managed to pass in only six of 27 items, an official privy to the development said.
With automation taking place at a much faster pace across industries especially in the tech space, domestic software firms that employee over 16 million are set to slash headcounts by a massive 3 million by 2022, which will help them save a whopping $100 billion mostly in salaries annually, says a report. The domestic IT sector employs around 16 million, of them around 9 million are employed in low-skilled services and BPO roles, according to Nasscom. Of these 9 million low-skilled services and BPO roles, 30 per cent or around 3 million will be lost by 2022, principally driven by the impact of robot process automation or RPA. Roughly 0.7 million roles are expected to be replaced by RPA alone and the rest due to other technological upgrades and upskilling by the domestic IT players, while it the RPA will have the worst impact in the US with a loss of almost 1 million jobs, according to a Bank of America report on Wednesday.
'India-China economic ties are likely to take a hit in the wake of the new situation, but that also provides India with a new opportunity to strengthen its manufacturing base,' points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
The Paris-based global watchdog for curbing terror financing and money laundering will hold its virtual plenary session from October 21 to 23. It will review Pakistan's progress on the 27-point action plan.
The mandates which Pakistan has failed include action against all United Nations-designated terrorists like Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Azhar, Lashker-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed and the outfit's operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
The anti-terror watchdog has decided to give respite of four months to Pakistan to help her implement remaining recommendations of the task force.
US auto major Ford Motor Co on Friday said it and India's Mahindra & Mahindra have decided to scrap their previously announced automotive joint venture and it will continue its independent operations in India as it is. The two companies determined that they will not complete a previously announced automotive joint venture between their respective companies. The decision follows the passing of the December 31, 2020 'longstop' or expiration date of a definitive agreement the organisations entered into in October 2019, Ford Motor Company said in a statement.
Other losers included Vedanta, Tata Steel, NTPC, ONGC, L&T, M&M, Coal India, Maruti, PowerGrid, Axis Bank, ITC and HDFC, dropping up to 5.75 per cent. On the other hand, Kotak Bank, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Bajaj Finance and Hero MotoCorp rose up to 0.95 per cent.
A rally in Reliance Industries and Kotak Bank helped the index recover some of the losses
'India is possibly the most fiscally constrained market in the region.'
Mid-cap information technology (IT) stocks dominate the list of companies that are trading significantly above their 200-DMA
Financials and auto stocks were the top losers while energy and IT shares recovered
NTPC was the top gainer, spurting 4.28 per cent. Other winners were Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, ITC, Hero MotoCorp, TCS, Yes Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank and SBI, rising up to 1.38 per cent.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Friday announced setting up of its second data centre region in India in Telangana that will be operational by mid-2022, and will see the tech giant investing about Rs 20,761 crore. While AWS did not comment on the investment detail, Telangana IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao tweeted that AWS will invest Rs 20,761 crore ($2.77 billion) to set up multiple data centres in the state.
Weakness in the rupee against the US dollar also weighed on domestic stocks. The local unit fell 11 paise to 70.60 against the US dollar intra-day.
India will have to show more willingness to import, and since Biden will not encourage sale of oil and gas to bridge the gap, it means there has to be more meaningful duty reduction in other areas even if Delhi baulks at a Free Trade Agreement so soon after walking out of RCEP.
Pharma major Sun Pharma remained the worst loser in the Sensex pack for the second day in a row after reports that regulator Sebi may reopen the insider trading case against the company.
Among the Sensex pack, Yes Bank, L&T, HDFC, RIL, HDFC Bank, PowerGrid and Coal India were the biggest losers -- falling up to 2.43 per cent.
Trading in Samvat 2074 on Thursday got off to a rocky start, with the benchmark indices ending more than half a percent lower and the gauge for banking stocks dropping 1.25%.
So far in 2019, India has been one of the highest recipients of foreign flows among Asian and Emerging Market (EM) economies
While Vedanta was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack rallying 4.67 per cent, others included Tata Steel, ONGC, NTPC, Yes Bank, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Bajaj Finance, L&T and RIL, rising up to 4.13 per cent.
The broader Nifty closed higher by 7.30 points
Both the indices closed at five-month highs, led by financial services, IT and metal stocks, amid persistent foreign fund inflows.
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.
The broader NSE Nifty ended at 10,888, a gain of 0.77 per cent or 83 points, after shuttling between 10,900.35 and 10,844.85.
The BSE Sensex spurted 130.00 points to end at 35,980.93, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 30.35 points to 10,802.15.
India, best-performing among emerging markets in the first four months of 2017, has since ceded this position to South Korea.
Power, oil and gas, PSU, metal, banking, auto, capital goods, infrastructure and healthcare sector stocks witnessed heavy buying through the session.
State Bank of India was the top gainer, as it climbed 4.46 per cent after it slashed interest rate on savings account deposits by 50 bps to 3.5 per cent on balance of up to Rs 1 crore.
The biggest gainers on both the bourses were Reliance Industries, Infosys, NTPC, ONGC, HUL, PowerGrid, Asian Paints, ITC and HCL Tech, rising up to 2 per cent.
Major gainers in the Sensex pack were Hero Motocorp, which rallied 7.01 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel (6.69 per cent), Yes Bank (5.30 per cent), Adani Ports (4.90 per cent), Tata Steel (3.75 per cent) and Bajaj Auto (3.70 per cent).
Both benchmark indices were driven by strong gains in IT, teck, oil and gas, pharma and banking shares amid earnings optimism.
A US Congress-constituted quasi-judicial body on Wednesday asked the Joe Biden Administration to designate four nations, including India, as "countries of particular concern", alleging that religious freedom conditions there in 2020 continued their negative trajectory.
The indices closed with losses for the week, with the Sensex declining 476.14 points, and the broader NSE Nifty falling 155.45 points during the period.
The fall was led by L&T, IndusInd Bank, PowerGrid, NTPC, TCS, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Bharti Airtel and SBI, declining up to 2.64 per cent.
For 2020 calendar year, it reduced the estimate by a similar measure to 6.7 per cent.
Among the Sensex losers, Yes Bank tumbled 5.46 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance 5.40, ICICI Bank 3.82 per cent, IndusInd Bank 3.10 per cent and HeromotoCorp 2.55 per cent.
The NSE Nifty also gained 53 points, or 0.49 per cent, to settle 10,855.15 after shuttling between 10,870.40 and 10,749.40.
Pakistan failed to fulfil six of the 27 mandates so far as a result of which the country continues to be in the grey list of the FATF.
Companies in China, South Korea and Indonesia pay 25 per cent tax, while those in Malaysia pay 24 per cent. Only Japan has a higher tax than India at 30.6 per cent. Hong Kong has the lowest corporate tax rate of 16.5 per cent while Singapore has 17 per cent rate and Thailand and Vietnam levy 20 per cent tax on companies.