India Inc (excluding trading and financial services companies) was sitting on a cash mountain of Rs 456,700 crore (Rs 4,567 billion) as on September 30, up 21 per cent from the same time a year before.
The first such interaction would be in Mumbai on Monday.
Captains of the industry, including Adi Godrej and Anil Ambani, were among the early birds from India Inc to cast their votes in the financial capital.
Seeking to cut costs in the wake of the current economic scenario, India Inc is increasingly adopting a differential salary structure based on performance and is also trying to attract the employees with intangible benefits like a favourable work environment, a new study says.
Mukesh Ambani, the patriarch of Reliance Industries (RIL), and Gautam Adani, the chairman of Adani Group of companies, have secured the top positions on the Fortune India Rich List, created in partnership with Waterfield Advisors, with respective wealth of $99.7 billion and $63.71 billion. With a wealth of $34.6 billion, the Mistry family of Shapoorji Pallonji Group holds the third position on the list, while the Poonawalla family, owners of vaccine maker Serum Institute, with a wealth of $32.9 billion, stands fourth. Stockbroker and founder of D-Mart-branded grocery stores, Radhakishan Damani, claims the fifth spot on the India Rich List with a wealth of $23.4 billion
India Inc on Tuesday welcomed the 0.25 per cent interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank saying it would help revive confidence of industry and hoped for further cuts in the coming days.
The Dun & Bradstreet Composite Business Optimism Index stands at 81.1 during the 2nd quarter of 2016
CEOs are not happy with scorecard so far but are ready to invest more as they think one year is too short a time to revive the economy
India Inc's hiring activity picked up by 1.3 per cent in July with improvement in recruitment in IT, real estate and retail sectors, says a survey by job portal Naukri.com.
"Lady candidates need not apply." So read the postscript in a job notice from Telco (now Tata Motors) on a notice board in the corridors of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), in 1974. Irked, Sudha Murty, who was then pursuing her masters in computer science at the institute, wrote a postcard to JRD Tata, expressing her surprise at this gender discrimination, especially since the Tata Group were pioneers on many fronts. Shortly, Murty became the first woman on the firm's shop floor.
Exit polls have a way of going horribly wrong, as they did in 2004. And India Inc is hoping it stays that way this time, too. That's because industry is concerned that the fractured verdict predicted by various media channels on Thursday would mean continued uncertainty on the economic policy initiatives that need to be taken up on a war-footing.
Admen Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Joshi, who were behind BJP campaigns including famous 'Achhe din aane waale hai', were present too.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday made a double pitch for public sector companies. First he urged private sector companies to enter into joint venture partnership with PSUs
With the exception of infra, IT & ITes - the employment outlook seems flat across sectors.
Volatility in local share markets have hit India Inc's equity fund-raising plans, with the total deal value this year set to fall below the level seen in 2008.
"The package addresses a wide range and should hopefully give boost to the slowing economy," said Amit Mitra, secretary general, FICCI. The chamber expected the government to review the impact of these measures and fine tune policies on a continuous basis. "We further hope that these measures would be followed by a series of measures as we go along and as the situation demands."
India Inc is seeking at least quarterly interactions with senior government representatives to establish a channel of communication and help change the opinion at the highest level.
India Inc expects huge business opportunities to open up with the Nuclear Supplier's Group sanctioning an India specific waiver on Saturday.
The government has already notified 28 accounting standards for Indian corporates and would assess more standards for notification, an official release said. "The government would examine further accounting standards to be followed by companies, on the basis of the standards proposed by ICAI, subject to the recommendations of NACAS thereon, for notification in accordance with the procedure laid down under the Companies Act, 1956," it said.
Global slowdown has dampened hiring prospects of India Inc, causing its outlook to hit the lowest ebb, with only 19 per cent employers having positive recruitment plans in the next three months, according to global staffing services firm Manpower.
Most expect a 25 bps rate hike today, but want pause.
Industry houses are emphatic with the RBI pruning repo rate and CRR by 0.25 per cent each after a long nine months in its third quarter monetary policy review.
Industry chamber Ficci said, Japan as a nation would overcome the calamity to reassure its place in the comity of most prominent economies of the world.
The US corporate world wanted India to address issues relating to foreign investment in infrastructure and insurance sectors.
The benefit coming in from the Rs 1.45 lakh crore tax giveaways will also help companies to cut prices by up to 5 per cent to boost consumer demand, which has been sagging and is one of the prime reasons for the deepening slowdown.
Indian companies raised over $3.41 billion overseas in December through external commercial borrowings (ECBs) and foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said.
"A committee is working on it. We have also asked the MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) to broaden the scope of section 55 of Companies Act 1956 which is now clause 22 of Companies Bill," SEBI Executive Director Usha Narayanan said at an Assocham event in New Delhi.
The Business Confidence Index formulated by NCAER stood at a seven-year low of 91.4 points in January 2009, plummeting 41 per cent compared to a year ago period. On a quarterly basis, the index lost 24 per cent compared to October 2008. 'This (BCI) is the lowest since January 2002,' the NCAER said in its quarterly review of the business expectations survey. It said the slowdown in the markets appears to be a leading factor in influencing the fall in business expectations.
Most of the Adani Group companies fell in the morning trade on Friday and flagship Adani Enterprises tumbled 10 per cent after index provider MSCI decided to reduce the weightage of four firms in its indices following a review. Amid volatile trading in the market, seven Adani Group firms were in the negative territory while three others were in the green. Adani Enterprises plunged 10 per cent to Rs 1,734.60 per share, its lower price band on the BSE, and the company's market valuation dropped to Rs 2.14 lakh crore.
"We created a sense of a team, not individuals. We designed team measurable and not individual measurable. At the end of the day, we created a happy environment," said Gary Kirsten, coach of the World Cup-winning Indian cricket team.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the country's economic growth is picking up pace again and the domestic industry needs to enhance its risk-taking appetite. Noting the recent reforms taken by the government, the Prime Minister said that bringing reforms is a matter of conviction for his government, which is ready to take all risks in the national interest. "We have taken bold decisions. Reforms continued even during pandemic. "The government is doing reforms not out of compulsion but out of conviction," he said while addressing the CII's annual meeting.
A day after the Trinamool Congress said it was withdrawing support to the UPA government, in protest against the reform measures announced by the government, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry held a press conference to buttress its views on the importance of sustained reform process.
India Inc on Friday said major announcements made by government, including operationalisation of 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail, are huge "mood lifters", besides dispelling the impression of any policy paralysis in the government.
