Sources said a 100-day agenda for immediate steps to be taken after a new government is formed in May was deliberated upon during the meeting for its quick implementation.
India's leading steel companies hope the Modi 3.0 Budget will continue the massive capital expenditure currently underway, focusing on infrastructure development, manufacturing, and fair trade. The infrastructure segment is the largest steel user, and the government's focus has fuelled steel consumption even as international markets have underperformed. According to provisional statistics, steel consumption grew 13.6 per cent in FY24, reaching 136 million tonnes (mt), according to a CRISIL report.
'...you evaluate three key factors before committing your money.'
Electrical Consumer Durable (ECD) companies like Havells India have seen strong Q4FY24 sales and continuing seasonal demand across fans, air coolers, and room air conditioners (RAC) in addition to business-to-business sales of cables, switchgear, and professional lighting, among others. Havells India's Q4FY24 revenue rose 12 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 5,400 crore, in-line with consensus. Strong summer demand led to robust volume growth in fans and RAC and volume growth in cable and wires (C&W) due to infrastructure spending and real estate activity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the government has no business to be in business and his administration is committed to privatising all PSUs barring the bare minimum in four strategic sectors. "It is government's duty to support enterprises and businesses. But it is not essential that it should own and run enterprises," he said. Modi also said the Centre's policy is to either monetise or modernise public sector enterprises, with the intent that the government has "no business to be in business".
The net inflows into active equity mutual fund (MF) schemes registered more than a twofold month-on-month rise in August, crossing Rs 20,000 crore, the highest in five months. This rise in net inflows was boosted by an 18 per cent growth in gross investments, driven by a record Rs 15,800 crore inflow through the systematic investment plan (SIP) route and Rs 5,000 crore collected by seven new fund offers (NFOs) in the active equity space, reveals data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi). Moreover, redemptions moderated in August, declining by 19 per cent to Rs 24,580 crore, after staying elevated in the previous three months owing to profit booking.
They realised that the Portuguese were better prepared to defend Daman than Dadra and Nagar Haveli. If reinforcements from Daman were to reach Silvassa, there was no chance of defeating the Portuguese. They decided that cutting Daman's communication lines would have to be their top priority before attacking Silvassa. A fascinating excerpt from Neelesh Kulkarni's new book, Uprising-The Liberation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
India's services sector activities eased to a three-month low in April, as the rise in business activity was constrained by the pandemic and sentiment towards growth prospects faded, a monthly survey said on Wednesday. The seasonally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index fell to 54 in April from 54.6 in March, the slowest increase in output in three months. In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion while a score below 50 denotes contraction.
The Reserve Bank of India on Friday revised upwards the GDP growth projection for the current fiscal to 7.2 per cent from 7 per cent on rising private consumption and revival of demand in rural areas. Unveiling the bi-monthly monetary policy, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said estimates released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) placed India's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 8.2 per cent in 2023-24. "During 2024-25 so far, domestic economic activity has maintained resilience," he said, adding that manufacturing activity continues to gain ground on the back of strengthening domestic demand.
India's manufacturing sector continued with its robust performance in November, mainly on the back of substantial easing in price pressures and strengthening demand from clients, a monthly survey said on Friday. The strong performance of the manufacturing sector is expected to continue in 2024 as well. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 56 last month from the eight-month low level of 55.5 recorded in October.
Sunday's final promises a fitting climax to a soggy Championships, especially if it scales anywhere near the dizzy heights of last year's classic won by Alcaraz in five sets.
The labour ministry on Monday rebutted a recent report by Citigroup which forecast that India will struggle to create sufficient employment opportunities even with a 7 per cent growth rate. The ministry in a statement said the report "fails to account for the comprehensive and positive employment data available from official sources such as Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Reserve Bank of India's KLEMS data."
Bengaluru outpaced Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune in 2023 to become India's leading city for electric car registrations. The city's tech-savvy workforce, increased acceptability, zero road tax, subsidised electricity for EV charging, and a wide charging station network contributed to this surge. Electric car registrations in Karnataka's capital surged more than threefold in 2023 to 8,690 units, overtaking the growth witnessed in the other three cities, according to data from Jato Dynamics
'There are multiple ups and downs.' 'You should be able to withstand all that.' 'You need to have the temperament to run a marathon.'
India's luxury car rental market is experiencing a surge in demand, particularly in Tier 1 cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi, with executive travellers, especially from the tech sector and younger demographics like the millennials and the Gen Z, increasingly renting high-end vehicles for special occasions and domestic travel. Luxorides, a luxury car rental company, observed a 40 per cent year-on-year rise in bookings in 2024 (until April) on popular routes like Delhi-Rishikesh, Delhi-Vrindavan, and Delhi-Jim Corbett National Park, as well as Chandigarh-Manali and Chandigarh-Ladakh.
As Chandigarh braces for a fierce contest between Congress candidate Manish Tewari and the BJP's Sanjay Tandon, its industry leaders harbour a fervent wish: Replicate the success of the National Capital Region model in this Union Territory.
If the concerns over risking political capital are overcome, the long-term gains for the Indian economy will be immense, asserts A K Bhattacharya.
Kolkata Knight Riders cruised to a comfortable win over Lucknow Super Giants in the first match of the Sunday double-header.
Encouraged by a steady recovery seen in the first two weeks of February, hospitality firms expect the business hotels in metros including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad that have been lagging the leisure hotels in terms of revenue per available room (RevPar) to catch up in the coming months. Huge pent-up demand for MICE (meetings, incentives, conference and exhibitions) as companies slowly return to hosting physical events coupled with easing of the recently announced restrictions on international travel, will also help in getting closer to pre-Covid levels of revenue, they said. The Omicron wave that peaked in January had derailed the strong month-on-month recovery seen by the hotels since August.
Mohammed Nabi picked up a smart catch at the boundary ropes to end K L Rahul's knock.
'With China falling out of favour, India is where investors see the demographic and digital dividend apart from the benefits of reforms playing out.' 'Your prime minister has also done a great job of sharing this story with the world.'
Industry body CII on Thursday made a case for pushing reforms in sectors like land, labour, and agriculture by the Modi 3.0 government to accelerate economic growth, which is estimated to be around 8 per cent in the current financial year. CII president Sanjiv Puri said a lot of policy interventions in the past have put the economy on "a much stronger wicket". "The growth rate is poised to touch 8 per cent during the current year, marking the fourth consecutive year of above 7 per cent + growth.
Images from Day 5 of the 2023 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Friday.
"We are ready with our money but it's so difficult to get a business visa to India,'' said Dr Abdul Rahman A Al Rabiah, managing director of Alrabiah, a consulting and engineering services company. Quoting instances, Rehman said, "Business leaders who have five-year multi-entry visa into the UK and Europe are merely given a three-month visa for India.''
Business executives are finally dusting off their long-unused suitcases to resume travel, thanks to a good vaccination rate, a drop in fresh cases, and an easing of travel restrictions. It comes as a huge relief for the ravaged aviation, travel and hospitality sectors. "We are witnessing a 40 per cent recovery on pre-covid volumes from our business travellers, signalling the return of corporate confidence in air travel," said Indiver Rastogi, president & group head, Global Business Travel, Thomas Cook (India) & SOTC.
The proposed reorganisation plan by Reliance Industries Ltd to transfer its refining, marketing and petrochemical (oil-to-chemicals) businesses to a wholly-owned subsidiary is a step towards facilitating participation by strategic investors in the unit, Fitch Ratings said on Tuesday. The reorganisation of the business in Reliance O2C Limited (O2C) "will have a neutral impact on RIL's credit metrics and rating," it said in a statement. The transfer will be on a "slump sale basis", subject to attaining the requisite approvals.
If you think that revenue officials are going berserk, acting on their own, while the government chants the mantra of 'ease of doing business', you would be wrong. These moves appear to have full official backing, points out Debashis Basu.
The bank will now be in a position to resume normal lending activity, including corporate lending, with tightened risk management framework.
'The long-term impact of elections is minimal.'
Move to increase 90-day window to 120 days to give more time to borrowers to service loans.
The Delhi high court on Friday directed the civil aviation regulator to deregister planes leased to Go First within five working days, giving respite to the lessors. This means that the airline will have to give back all 54 aircraft to the lessors if its resolution professional (RP) does not challenge the order or ask for a stay. Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju also refused the request of the RP, represented by advocate Diwakar Maheshwari, to keep the operation of the order in abeyance for a week to enable them to file an appeal before the division Bench of the court.
Covering 37 different legislations such as the Partnership Act of 1932, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and laws on environmental protection, consumer protection and labour interests, the recommendations have been shared with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
'The private sector believes that some enablers in labour-intensive sectors like apparel, toys, tourism, and media retail, can unlock a lot of jobs.'
The compulsion behind India and Japan to deepen security cooperation is in response to China's growing political and economic clout and its assertive behaviour in disputed areas. This has been the key driver for bringing both India and Japan closer in the domain of security cooperation, explains Dr Rajaram Panda.
'Ideally, one should not time SIPs.' 'If people churn their SIP portfolios, then they are equating the concept of SIPs to lump sums.'
Purchase health insurance at an early age, before you incur a disease, as this makes access to health insurance difficult and raises the premium significantly.
'It is necessary to have a person at the top who can make strict decisions without hesitation. Modiji has done that.'
Fitch Ratings on Thursday raised its forecast for India's economic growth to 7 per cent for the next fiscal year starting April 1 on the back of strong domestic demand and sustained level of business and consumer confidence. With a stronger-than-expected 8.4 per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) during the third quarter (October-December) of the current fiscal year, Fitch saw the Indian economy expanding 7.8 per cent in 2023-24 financial year (April 2023 to March 2024), marginally higher than the government's estimate of 7.6 per cent.
Hospitality and travel sector players on Tuesday demanded infrastructure status for the hotel industry besides measures such as tax exemption on LTA annually to boost domestic tourism ahead of the Union Budget. They also recommended removal of the current TDS levied on automated bookings for internal or closed user groups such as business travel platforms and reducing the total number of licenses required to establish a hotel. "A full-blown infrastructure status for the hotel sector and further rationalisation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and a Central single window clearance for hotel projects are some of the major expectations from the Budget 2024," Roseate Hotels & Resorts CEO Kush Kapoor said in a statement.
From its lows in December, the stock of Tata Motors is up about 15 per cent. The gains came on the back of better than expected December volumes in its UK-based subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). This coupled with gradual recovery in the global passenger vehicle demand, improving profitability due to product mix and lower commodity costs are expected to be key positives for the company.