'Our priority remains brownfield expansion, and in the next few years, we plan to increase our capacity to around 6,000 beds.'
Tech major Lenovo on Thursday said it is significantly ramping up its local manufacturing capabilities in India across product categories like PCs, notebooks and smartphones to meet the increasing customer demand. While the company did not disclose the investment being made, Lenovo said it is expanding in India across all business lines, including PC and smart devices, smart phones, infrastructure solutions, and especially in the newly established services and solutions group. Lenovo has expanded its in-house PC manufacturing plant in Puducherry to include a third manufacturing line, while it has started local manufacturing of its tablet computers in partnership with Wingtech Technology in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
The Orissa government has approved four projects in the steel and power sector involving investment worth Rs 7,225 crore.
The country's leading cement maker UltraTech on Thursday said it will acquire a 23 per cent stake in its Chennai-based rival India Cements Ltd, in a deal estimated to be around Rs 1,885 crore. As part of the transaction, UltraTech Cement will acquire 7.06 crores equity shares of India Cements at a price of up to Rs 267 per share, according to a regulatory filing from the Aditya Birla Group flagship firm.
Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company, is back on a growth path after six months of challenges as it posted better than expected earnings in the December quarter, brokerages said.
After cement, billionaire Gautam Adani's group and Kumar Mangalam Birla's Aditya Birla Group are set for a face-off in the wires and cable business with both conglomerates announcing forays into the high double-digit growth sector.
The 31st meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, held in December 2018, deferred a decision to reduce the GST rate for cement from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. This was despite recognising that cement - along with automobile parts - remained among the few mass-consumption items still taxed at the highest slab, which was originally meant for luxury and sin goods.
Idea Cellular, an unlisted cellular company, will invest over Rs 1200 crore (Rs 12 billion) for network capacity expansion and coverage during the current fiscal for eight circles.
Ambuja Cements' announcement that it would acquire Hyderabad-based Penna Cement Industries could be the Adani Group company's first step for wider inorganic expansion, according to analysts.
'Interim Budget has ignited the entrepreneurial spirit.'
India's biggest telecom players, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries-backed Jio Platforms, will soon bring billionaire Elon Musk-led SpaceX's Starlink satellite services to India. According to analysts, the move could boost India's tele density, especially in the rural areas, and may be an opportunity for investors to add the two stocks on dips for long-term gains
Addressing a joint sitting of Parliament, she said commencement of train services in the Kashmir Valley from Qazigund to Baramulla demonstrates the government's commitment to development of all corners of our country.
After some enforced slowdown in offtake during April-May 2024 due to elections, the cement sector is looking at a possible demand rebound which may help it to push up prices. The April'24 offtake was muted while May'24 saw some improvement with a likely 5-6 per cent rise in demand month-on-month (MoM). In June, some price hikes seem to have been taken, which suggests more sustained improvement in demand.
The VBL board approved the purchase of SBC Tanzania for Rs 1,304 crore and SBC Beverages Ghana for Rs 127 crore. These own manufacturing/distribution rights for NARTD (PepsiCo branded) beverages in Tanzania and Ghana. The acquisitions will help VBL gain ground in East and West Africa.
For India to transform into a high-income country with a projected gross domestic product (GDP) of $23-35 trillion, will need a sustained annual growth of 8 per cent to 10 per cent. This will be powered by India's demographic dividend, technological innovation, and sectoral transformation, according to the "India@2047: Transforming India Into A Tech-Driven Economy" report by Bain & Company and Nasscom. By 2047, the services sector is expected to contribute 60 per cent of India's GDP, while manufacturing will account for 32 per cent, both playing a pivotal role in economic expansion.
Delhi-based electric vehicle (EV) ride-hailing firm Evera Cabs, which grabbed headlines after acquiring 500 cars from the now-defunct cab service BluSmart, is stepping up its presence in the EV cab segment. The company is aiming for revenue of Rs 100 crore in the ongoing financial year (2025-26), up from Rs 18 crore in 2024-25.
'There will be 200 ITIs developed as hubs, while 800 will be developed as spoke, connected with five National Skill Training Institutes.'
After subdued earnings in the first half amid global headwinds, India Inc is taking a cautious approach on their capital expenditure (capex) for the second half of the financial year ending March 2025, according to management commentary. Minutes from the October monetary policy meeting show the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) optimism about private investments picking up.
There has been no change in Tata Steel's strategy on operations in the United Kingdom (UK), company chairman N Chandrasekaran has told shareholders. The statement comes amid growing concern about the restructuring plan in the face of change in government in the UK. Tata Steel's plan for the UK entailed a 1.25 billion investment plan agreed upon by the Conservative party-led government in September last year.
To tap Indian civil aviation market's growth potential, the government on Saturday announced a modified regional air connectivity scheme UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) to connect 120 new destinations, airport projects in Bihar and upgradation of infrastructure for air cargo in the Union Budget.
Ushering in reforms, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday proposed to open up the nuclear power sector for private players and announced a Rs 20,000 crore Nuclear Energy Mission for research in the field, with an aim to set up five small and modular reactors by 2033.
Proliferation of home chargers of around 7 KWh and above, which take six to seven hours to fully charge a car depending on the model, bring running costs down by a third or so. That, coupled with the increasing range of modern electric cars, can lead to a massive increase in sales.
The Q2FY25 revenue for Coal India (CIL) was reported at Rs 30,700 crore (down 6 per cent year-on-year or Y-o-Y and 16 per cent sequentially). The blended average selling price was Rs 1,622/tonne (down 6 per cent Y-o-Y and 3 per cent quarter-on-quarter or Q-o-Q). Adjusted operating profit stood at Rs 7,200 crore (down 20 per cent Y-o-Y and 38 per cent Q-o-Q) due to lower-than-expected e-auction volumes and higher costs.
ABB reported a weak quarter. Revenue was at Rs 2,910 crore, up only 5 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), with operating profit at Rs 540 crore, up 23 per cent and net profit at Rs 440 crore.
Analysts assert that Vedanta Group's plan to demerge India-listed Vedanta Limited into six listed entities will not resolve the debt problem of its promoter entity, Vedanta Resources (VRL). They suggest that additional asset sales or stake sales by promoters will be necessary to repay the debt. Vedanta is already considering the divestment of its iron-steel division and its copper plant.
India's services sector activities touched the highest mark since April 2011 amid ongoing improvements in demand conditions, even as cost pressures in the service economy remained stubbornly high, a monthly survey said on Tuesday. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Services PMI Business Activity Index rose from 58.9 in May to 59.2 in June -- its highest mark since April 2011. For the eleventh straight month, the services sector witnessed an expansion in output. In Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) parlance, a print above 50 means expansion while a score below 50 denotes contraction.
"We require eight million cubic metres for overall expansion which is almost half the gas available at Panna-Mukta-Tapi. At present, for the 655 mw, we are using three million cubic metres a day," said Rajiv Mishra, managing director of CLP Power India, which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based CLP Group. The company had received the required environment clearance from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board in 2007.
The company has a pipeline of viral vaccines including Zika, dengue, varicella, as well as a potential Covid-19 inoculation.
Analysts remain selective on cement stocks amid the likely government's capex push ahead of the scheduled general elections in May 2024. While UBS has initiated coverage on the Indian cement sector with an anti-consensus negative view and suggests investors sell select cement stocks on a rally, those at Nomura remain selectively bullish on the sector and prefer companies with large brownfield optionality and multi-region presence. In the near-term, UBS expects strong earnings of cement companies in the next two quarters to be driven by robust demand and margin tailwinds, but suggests any sharp uptick in stock prices could offer a good opportunity for booking profits in the related counters.
Marriott International will set up a global capability center (GCC) in Hyderabad, which will be its first such offshore unit in India and will help support Marriott's various operations across its global enterprise in 141 countries and territories. Marriott Tech Accelerator is also -- in all likelihood -- the first ever GCC from a hospitality major being set-up in India. While the company did not give details of the size of the center, senior state government officials said that the company will hire 300 people by the first quarter of the calendar year 2025.
India may have to lean more on West Asian nations for supplies of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a cooking fuel, in the coming years after Indian state-run refiners drew up big plans to diversify into producing more profitable petrochemicals. This shift leads to reduced LPG output, Indian refining executives said. The mantra for state-run oil companies, from Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) to liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer Petronet LNG, which are looking to diversify their businesses from lower-margin fuels, has been value-added petrochemicals.
Telecom operator Vodafone Idea is in advance stages of processing order for network capacity expansion in six circles through Chinese telecom gear makers, according to industry sources aware of the development. The order will be only for expansion of existing telecom network capacity where the contract was already awarded to the Chinese vendors, according to the sources.
Power generation decelerated 4.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 155 billion units (BU) in August 2024. This was the first downtrend in many years, albeit on a high base - generation had increased 19 per cent Y-o-Y to 163 billion units (BU) in August 2023. The dip was partly due to excess rainfall, which pared cooling demand and also reduced need for irrigation.
The Guantanamo Bay facility, which has so far been used to hold terrorists, will now also house illegal immigrants with criminal records.
Latest GDP growth numbers a one-off development and not the beginning of a trend, says CEA V Anantha Nageswaran.
Havells India, the country's largest listed consumer electrical company, reported a mixed performance in the 2024-25 (FY25) October-December quarter (Q3). While the top line benefited from festival demand, lower margins impacted operational performance.
The services sector growth in India moderated in February amid softer expansions in business activity, sales and jobs, a monthly survey said on Tuesday. The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services Business Activity Index registered 60.6 in February, down from 61.8 in January. In Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) parlance, a print above 50 means expansion, while a score below 50 denotes contraction.
General Motors India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of General Motors Corporation, on Friday announced expansion of production capacity of its Halol facility to 60,000 units per annum.
