The payments industry is at a crossroads with the banking regulator on two pressing issues, neither of which seems headed towards an amicable solution. Depending upon which side accommodates the other, customers in India will have to choose between convenience and ironclad safety. In the end, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which regulates both banks and all payments services providers, will prevail. But the question is: will it do so by bending a little or by sticking to its firm stand? The two issues - one concerning payment facilitators storing customers' card details and the other about auto-renewal of payments - appear similar but aren't.
The move to allow payments through digital wallets could give a fillip to distribution and reach for these investment vehicles, say experts.
While traditional automakers in India are reeling under a global shortage of semiconductors, the country's electric vehicle (EV) makers, too, are now facing a shortage of lithium-ion batteries, a key raw material. The soaring prices of metals like lithium, nickel and cobalt, which are the primary constituents of the cell, as well as supply chain bottlenecks, are also pushing up the cost of batteries. Battery manufacturers say that prices have been increasing every quarter since the beginning of 2021.
On the Sensex chart, Bajaj Finance, HUL, RIL, ONGC and HDFC emerged as the top gainers.
As the country moves towards creating a spot gold exchange, markets regulator Sebi's whole time member G Mahalingam on Wednesday suggested routing all the imports of the precious metal through the exchange ecosystem in the future. Such a "funnelling" would ensure that gold monetisation takes place right at the source as the metal enters the country, he said while addressing a conference organised by industry lobby Ficci. However, he also noted that the issue has not been dealt with in the papers floated by Sebi.
The stimulus package announced by the government for the revival of the pandemic-hit economy has been found to be "inadequate", according to a Parliamentary panel report. The report of the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector has noted that in the process of economic recovery post-first wave of the pandemic, the second wave has even more vigorously ripped the economy particularly the MSME sector. "The committee observes that the stimulus package announced by the government for the economic revival from the pandemic hit economy has been found to be inadequate as the measures adopted were more of loan offering and long-term measures instead of improving the cash flow to generate demand as immediate relief," it said.
With supply of mobile chipsets running dry, manufacturers here are left with no option but to hike prices once again, making it the fourth round of increase in 2020.
One of Apple's suppliers, Salcomp, will invest Rs 2,000 crore over the next five years to make components at a Nokia plant in Chennai. The facility, which has been closed for nearly 10 years, will be revived and made operational from March 2020.
In a major push towards 'Make in India', Apple Inc is manufacturing 70 per cent of the mobile phones, in value terms, that it sells in the domestic market, in India, according to sources aware of the development. This is a sharp rise from the figure of 30 per cent just two years ago and marks a major shift in Apple's strategy following the government's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme that kicked off in FY'21. One of Apple's three vendors here, Foxconn, is currently manufacturing the best-selling model, the Apple 11, along with the Apple 10 and the Apple 12. Another contract manufacturer, Wistron, makes the Apple SE 2020. (The third, Pegatron, has yet to start production). The only models that are imported (they have limited volumes but high value) are the Apple 12 Pro and Pro Max.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
About 50 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Nigeria and Panama, have shown interest in having a Co-WIN like system to run their vaccination drive, a senior official said on Monday, adding India is ready to share the open source software free of cost.
'I knew one day I will explode if I don't get some sanity with making music.'
This upgrade will allow air operations by military and civil aircraft even in poor visibility and adverse weather conditions.
Three TMC leaders Amit Mitra, Bratya Basu and Rathin Ghosh were sworn-in virtually. Mitra is unwell and both Basu and Ghosh are recuperating from COVID-19.
'If you are dark, you can't be a hero.' 'If you have curly hair, you can't be a hero.' 'If you were muscular, you had to become a fighter.' 'Today if you are muscular, you can be a hero.' 'Salman Khan made being muscular fashionable.'
The growth momentum that started during the festival season is likely to sustain in the new year, reports Arindam Majumder.
Mumbai-born Veena Sahajwalla has developed a microfactory in Australia to upcycle electronic waste.
The settlement offer has been made for 13 out of the 15 Videocon group companies that are currently under Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process.
The Supreme Court Wednesday directed the Centre and states to ensure implementation of the decisions taken in a meeting to curb air pollution, observing that it cannot get into the 'nitty gritty' and the bureaucracy has developed a 'sort of inertia' of not taking decisions which are left to the courts.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The unmanned aerial vehicle has been developed for surveillance and broadcasting and is ready for commercialisation.
He said, clothing, footwear and electronic sectors are large job creators and need big reforms.
CEAMA will include the proposal in its pre-budget memorandum to the government.
At the heart of the issue is the way e-commerce is defined in the current draft policy.
Industry insiders believe that the 32-year-old's earnings will see a quantum jump of Rs 75 crore per annum.
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group has struck acquisition deals worth $4.2 billion with a dozen companies in just two years to expand its retail business. The latest purchase was of a majority stake in Justdial for Rs 3,497 crore. Elaborating on his acquisition strategy a few weeks ago during the AGM, Ambani stated that one of the key planks would be to acquire businesses that enhanced Reliance's offerings and experiences to customers and that they would be both physical and digital.
5G networks in India can be deployed in three months but in limited areas as the optical fibre based infrastructure to support the technology is not ready yet, telecom industry players said on Tuesday. Nokia India head of marketing and corporate affairs Amit Marwah said that India has to take a call on deployment of 5G services otherwise it will miss to take advantage of the next generation technology that it can bring for the economy.
The Congress MP from Sivaganga also slammed the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and said the people of Tamil Nadu do not want a government which has any "stain, scent or shadow" of the BJP as its 'Hindi-Hindutva' agenda "irritates" them.
The move, however, is unlikely to prompt its rivals in India - Chinese manufacturers like Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi - to do the same.
'There is no doubt at all that Jio's disruption of the mobile broadband market was a turning point for India's digital economy.'
The top-100 wealth creators generated Rs 49 lakh crore during 2014-19, the highest-ever quantum of wealth added, according to Motilal Oswal's Annual Wealth Creation Study 2019. According to the study, Reliance Industries, Indiabulls Ventures and IndusInd Bank are the biggest, fastest and most-consistent wealth creators, respectively. The number of PSUs in the top-100 wealth creators is only nine, namely IOC, BPCL, HPCL, Power Grid Corporation, Petronet LNG, Indraprastha Gas, LIC Housing, Bharat Electronics and NBCC.
Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association Consumer has also welcomed the move saying the it would improve the sentiments and strengthen the growth.