Two aborted missions, three different ministers, multiple rule changes and two decades later, Indian taxpayers will no longer have to pay Rs 20 crore per day to keep the loss-making Air India flying. While opposition Congress expectedly attacked the decision as selling the family silver, DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said what Tata is getting is not a cash cow but an airline which is bleeding where money needs to be pumped in to refurbish obsolete aircraft and dust up strangled ones while being unable to touch any employee for one year and only be able to resize staff after paying a VRS. "It won't be a very easy task there. Only advantage is they (new Air India owner) are paying the price which they think they can manage. "They are not taking the excessive debt accumulated to fund years of losses. We are continuing it as an ongoing concern.... This process has also saved huge amount of taxpayers money going forward," Pandey told PTI.
In the aviation sector, 100 per cent FDI is allowed under automatic route for MRO (maintenance, repair, overhaul), ground handling, and aircraft purchase.
For automakers, the festive season is about raking it in through ramped up sales and attractive consumer offers. However, despite the robust demand, what may spoil the party this year is a global shortage of semiconductors.
India has a history of jugaad, and retrofitting vehicles is one such manifestation of the legendary Indian skill. Not so long ago autorickshaws and small Marutis used to strap on subsidised LPG cylinders and power themselves to a cheap ride. There were the odd explosions, lives were lost, but the jugaad continued. Then compressed natural gas (CNG) was introduced in Delhi following a court order. Initially, customised CNG kits were fitted to conventional (internal combustion engine or ICE) autos cheaply, enabling commuting at less than half of what you would cough up for diesel. The industry is better organised now with Suzuki and Hyundai designing CNG-fired vehicles, and Mahindra and TVS manufacturing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)-powered three wheelers.
Leveraging global capital markets to give muscle to an innate competitive advantage in rapid mass transaction systems will lead to India becoming a petri dish for global enterprises and new-age innovation that it yearns to be.
From promoters losing their firms to consumers realising there are no free lunches, 2019 was a year of getting real,says Shailesh Dobhal.
While the company used to report bookings of 4,000-5,000 every day, following the partial lifting of lockdown, in a week, it has received around 6,000.
Foreign banks set the template in consumer banking in its infancy, but have almost vacated this booming space.
Despite a 56 per cent fall in residential launches in the first half of the year compared to the second half of 2019, Anarock Property Consultants believes that consolidation in residential real estate is expected to gain ground, and that branded players may garner a market share of 75-80 per cent.
One of Mumbai's biggest real estate redevelopment projects of Bombay Development Directorate's (BDD's) chawls (large buildings divided into many separate tenements, offering cheap, basic accommodation) has taken off in Central Mumbai, opening up a Rs 20,000-crore opportunity for real estate companies. It is expected to drive down real estate prices in Central Mumbai by up to 25 per cent, forecast real estate experts. Spread over 92 acres in Central Mumbai's prime localities of Worli, Lower Parel, and Dadar and consisting 195 four-storey houses, the BDD chawls were constructed in the 1920s.
IPL governing council chairman Brijesh Patel said "everything is on schedule currently'.
Leading two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp is going full throttle to launch a Harley-Davidson model with retro styling as it looks to enter a very profitable segment in the premium motorcycle space, according to a senior company official. The alliance between Hero and Harley-Davidson fructified last year after the iconic US two-wheeler maker announced discontinuation of sales and manufacturing operations in India, a decade after it started selling its premium bikes in the country. "There are two legs to the Harley tie up strategy. One of course is that we are the sales distributors for Harley bikes in India.
Reliance Industries accounted for Rs 6.3 trillion in wealth created since 1995; closest rival was Hindustan Unilever which was at Rs 4.9 trillion.
Experts are of the opinion that though the second half of this financial year will see some recovery, volume growth is likely to remain in single digit as compared to the double-digit rise recorded in past years.
The 29th batch of Gen Next designers presented their collection at Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2020.
Three stockmarket experts give their best picks for the New Year.
If a retail investor wants exposure to a healthcare ETF, it should be a part of his satellite portfolio, suggests Sanjay Kumar Singh.
The issue will comprise a secondary share sale worth Rs 600 crore by private equity major Everstone Capital and fresh fundraising worth Rs 400 crore.
A panel led by the secretaries of the DEA and the DIPP would conduct a quarterly review on the pending proposals.
Car deliveries during the nine-day period saw sharp year-on-year (double-digit increase for most automobile companies.
The brand new bankruptcy process is being brazenly gamed by those with connections and money. The touts and fixers of the previous regime have been replaced by a new set close to this one, observes Debashis Basu.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral free automatic loan for businesses, including MSMEs, to benefit 45 lakh small businesses. Detailing parts of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package, she said this loan will have a 4-year tenure and will have 12-month moratorium, she said.
The council decided not to levy any additional tax on small petrol and diesel cars of up to 1200 cc as well as on hybrid ones.
India's MRP and Packaged Commodities Acts are dated and not in line with the modern world's digital price mechanisms and comparisons.
India's traditional companies are now moving full scale into the renewable and alternative energy space that had been dominated by smaller players over the past decade. Companies such as government-owned NTPC and the Adani and the Tata groups restructured their businesses well in time to become major players in the green space. At the same time, other conventional companies, such as Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which have a presence both in the energy sector as well as myriad other activities - construction, technology and retailing - are tying up with new-age companies to hitch a ride to a greener path.
While reforms may translate into new opportunities for firms like ITC, Adani Wilmar and Reliance Retail, farmers are unlikely to use it for fear of upsetting commission agents.
Failure to sell Air India, IDBI may have prompted a change in strategy.
Jaitley increased the excise duty on most tobacco products by 10-15 per cent.
"The strategic divestment transaction of Air India successfully concluded today with transfer of 100 per cent shares of Air India to M/s Talace Pvt Ltd along with management control," DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in a tweet. A new board, led by the strategic partner, takes charge of Air India, he added.
Bharat Krishak Samaj demanded that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana should be replaced with a new crop insurance and compensation scheme.
India's huge digital prowess and potential will play a huge role in enabling digital lending, says Romita Majumdar.
E-commerce giant Amazon on Thursday announced a $250 million (about Rs 1,873 crore) fund that will focus on digitising small and medium businesses, and driving innovation in the areas of agri-tech and health-tech in India. "Small and medium sized businesses are often the engine and the lifeblood of economies and I think it's true in India as well. "And we are very passionate about trying to enable acceleration of SMBs in fuelling innovation and the economy in India," Amazon Web Services CEO Andrew Jassy said.
HDFC Bank on Monday said it aims to regain the two per cent market share in the credit card market it ceded to rivals during a recent ban, within a year by aggressively tapping into its existing depositor base. The bank will also focus on forging new partnerships to sell more cards and will not deviate from its conservative approach on taking credit risks as it goes aggressive in the market, its group head for payments and consumer finance, digital banking and IT, Parag Rao, told reporters. On August 17, RBI lifted the ban on HDFC Bank which had prevented it from issuing new credit cards from December 2020.
Thomas Isaac has been in and out of the national news in his role as Kerala's finance minister since 2018 for various path-breaking tax initiatives. But it is 2020 that he has become more prominent, principally in the GST council.
Indians are eager consumers of digital advertising and are five times more willing to share personal data with companies when they are delighted by their digital experience.
The going is not going to be easy for the DMK and its allies in Elections 2024. Despite the seats sweepstake in the 2021 assembly polls, the vote-share difference of 5.6% (DMK's 45.38% versus AIADMK-BJP's 39.72%) is not insurmountable on a bad day, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
A day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted its ban on HDFC Bank on issuing new credit cards, the country's largest private sector lender on Wednesday said it had resources and plans in place to "further reinforce pole position in the credit card segment" and that it would "come back with a bang". "We will aggressively go to the market, with not just our existing suite of credit cards but also new offerings in the form of co-brands and partnerships," Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director and chief executive officer of HDFC Bank, said in a letter to his employees. The bank's management had earlier indicated that the lender had been sourcing liability customers aggressively over the past few months.
With the Jaypee acquisition, the Suraksha group, which made lenders an offer of Rs 7,736 crore, will be able to expand its footprint in north India after making inroads in Mumbai's real estate market over the past year. Sudhir Valia, the promoter, was a co-founder and executive director of India's biggest pharmaceutical firm, Sun Pharmaceuticals, and is a close relative of Dilip Shanghvi.
'This is purely a brand sale. It includes the Ambassador with its variants. Peugeot is likely to relaunch the brand with multiple variants.'
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