Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday released Rs 20,946 crore to 10.09 crore farmers across India as the 10th installment of financial aid under the PM-KISAN scheme and said there was a need for innovation in agriculture along with promotion of natural farming. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, a financial benefit of Rs 6,000 per year is provided to the eligible farmer families, payable in three equal installments of Rs 2,000. The PM-KISAN scheme was announced in the February 2019 Budget.
'Laxmi was insistent that our homes should never have name-plates, because the name Laxmikant-Pyarelal should never be separated!'
The security forces had launched a cordon-and-search operation at Hanjin village in the Rajpora area of Pulwama following information about the presence of the terrorists there, a police official said.
Five years after demonetisation, which sought to curb black money and reduce cash circulation in the economy, 70 per cent of respondents said they paid a large component of the total payment towards a real estate transaction in cash. About 16 per cent said they paid over half the amount in cash, observes Shyamal Majumdar.
Next in line will be mega stores in cities such as Gurgaon and Bengaluru, though timelines for launch have not been specified yet. The company will also launch two more city-centre or smaller stores in 2021 in Mumbai to reach a wider audience.
In the concluding article of a six-part series, Business Standard visits Ludhiana, one of the largest industrial towns in Punjab, to assess the effect of demonetisation.
'Indices will remain range bound in 2022 as earnings catch up with the current multiples.'
The Russia-Ukraine crisis, along with general bullishness in agricultural commodities, has ensured that after a fairly long time, most of the 24 commodities for which the Centre declares the minimum support price (MSP) are trading above it. The exceptions here are chana or gram and a few varieties of pulses. This might gladden the farmers, especially those who are still holding on to their stocks from the previous kharif harvest or are harvesting the latest rabi crop. But this could stoke retail and wholesale inflation.
'Real estate loans are given in the garb of retail loans, sourcing money cheap from the NHB refinance window.' 'This loophole is being plugged,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'At the first board meeting I chaired, I sensed that corporate governance is an issue in this company.' 'I started taking steps that may have aggrieved a few.' 'This has now become a mission I intend to accomplish before I step down.'
'There will be partnerships between banks and fintech firms, but there will also be areas where they will be direct competitors.'
This is one of the largest monthly increases in the labour force, observes Mahesh Vyas.
In December 2019, the India arm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu surprised many with its ultra-competitive bid to become the transaction advisor for the country's largest strategic divestment in Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL). The multinational major quoted just Rs 1; the second-highest bidder, SBI Caps, reportedly quoted Rs 15-17 crore. For Deloitte, the motivation was to bag a prestigious deal adding a national energy company to its portfolio. No doubt, it expected BPCL to go to a marquee buyer in quick time.
If IOC is not allowed to run its own affairs, then we can see it close down in the next 10 to 15 years, warns Sudhir Bisht.
While Nifty 50 reflects changes in 40 years, it also shows what is missing: Low-cost manufacturers at one end, and deep-value players at the other. Also missing are technology players, observes T N Ninan.
With the Covid-19 pandemic showing signs of ebbing and economic activity picking up, factory owners in Jalandhar had hoped that the worst was over. However, the heat wave in April and extensive power cuts that came with it, have crushed their hopes. The city's large number of micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) are now gearing up for yet another struggle, this time to survive with the shortage of power that is severely impacting their operations.
The currency market won't care for our moans, groans, cries and sighs. The rupee will find its own level, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
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.
Here's what could be ahead for India: A $10-trillion economy by 2030-32, a Sensex at 1,00,000 by 2025, monthly GST revenues at Rs 2 trillion by 2024-25, 100 new unicorns by 2025, and poverty below 5 per cent by 2030, predicts R Jagannathan.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Friday backed the proposed data privacy and cryptocurrency bills, saying India is putting in place the most forward-looking policies and regulations. Ambani, who has been a votary of Indians owning and controlling their own data and the nation drafting strict rules around how digital information is stored and shared, said nations have the right to build and protect strategic digital infrastructure. Stating that data is the 'new oil', he said every citizen's right to privacy has to be safeguarded. "India is putting in place the most forward-looking policies and regulations," he said at the Infinity Forum, hosted by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).
Unlike the race to buy airwaves by telecom companies, airports by infrastructure companies and city gas networks by energy companies, the race to develop super apps by consumer-facing companies in India has not brushed up against any regulatory issues. Officials at the ministry of electronics and information technology and at other regulators are happy they do not have to meddle in who among the Tata group, Reliance Industries Ltd, Flipkart or Paytm will manage to build an app that sweeps in customers. Unlike separate apps a customer uses on her mobile to order groceries, buy food or airline tickets or just make payments, a super app can perform all these functions.
Amid news that the company was planning to scale down its online marketplace business and eventually exit it, Paytm Mall is targeting Rs 10,000 crore in business over the next 12 months, says Karan Choudhury.
He's betting big on small stores to help him reach 10 million households by FY21, report Abhineet Kumar and Raghavendra Kamath.
Both partners would inject $200 million each in the form of equity and hold 50 per cent stake each. They plan to raise another $600 million in the form of debt to create a corpus of $1 billion to develop malls across tier-I, II and III cities.
The RBI has created a stunted business model by which payment banks are supposed to shoulder the noble objective of financial inclusion without being able to make much money.
'RCB is a natural choice for us, mainly due to our long-standing association with Virat Kohli.'
The deal is multi-million pound multi-services telecom contract with The Carphone Warehouse, Britain's largest independent retailer of mobile communications. \n
'Walmart will source globally and more from China and will dump these cheap goods in India, making our country a dumping yard.'
Of these 8.5 million additional people employed in September, 6.5 million were in rural India, reveals Mahesh Vyas.
Brand Factory clocked in Rs 1,045 crores worth of sales in FY17, accounting for 27 per cent of the total revenues earned by Future Lifestyle Fashions Retail. But what about the future?
With auctions unable to proceed, the median onion price declined 17 per cent or Rs 6 a kg to trade at Rs 30 a kg on Monday, with arrivals of around 500 tonnes.
McDonald's said on Friday it has signed an agreement with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd to open restaurants at the latter's retail outlets in Kolkata and Delhi.
A number of smaller players are said to be gasping for breath.
'One out of three phones sold in India is a Xiaomi phone.'
The Tata group is looking to make a foray into semiconductor (also known as chips) manufacturing and it has set up a business to seize the opportunity, Chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Monday. "At the Tata group, we have already pivoted into a number of new businesses like electronics manufacturing, 5G network equipment as well as semiconductors, in all probability," he said while speaking at the annual general meeting of the IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Chandrasekaran said global supply chains, currently heavily dependent on China, would see a big change in a post-pandemic world with businesses shifting their reliance to other countries.
The API of Paracetamol, a fever and pain medication, has grown 25 per cent from Rs 450-480 per kg in December 2020 to Rs 580-600 per kg in April. When compared to the pre-Covid prices of December 2019, the surge is much steeper -- around 140 per cent, reports Sohini Das.
'This offers us many opportunities to meet people in different ways, and we will do this with full respect to India.'
The new jobs - created both directly and indirectly - will be across industries, including IT, skill development, content creation, retail, logistics, and manufacturing.
Kiran Vissa, co-convenor of National Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, said that amendments to the EC Act have nothing to do with farmers' welfare but instead meant to please big players and agriculture companies. This is because small and marginal farmers don't have the storage capacity to attract provisions of the EC Act.