However, the IT firms will get some benefits, as software exports from their Chinese campuses will yield more in local currency
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled a Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget with a view to fire up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic. This was Sitharaman's fourth Budget. While the taxpayers were left in the lurch, once again, was she able to cheer Corporate India?
The further expansion and upgrade of the Chinese military does not augur well for India, which continues to confront an increasingly belligerent China on its borders, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Quick commerce startups hope to race towards better days. Can they crack the execution code?
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 76,000 crore policy boost for semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in the country in an bid to position India as a global hub for hi-tech production. Announcing the decision of the Cabinet, IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw observed that electronics plays an important role in everyday life, and semiconductor chips forms a crucial part of electronics. Outlining the details of the scheme, he said the Rs 76,000 crore programme has been approved for the development of semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem.
'The government must provide more funds to enable the armed forces to fight and win tomorrow's wars,' states Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Of the 1,145 offers made this year, consulting firms made up 34 per cent, followed by banking, financial services and insurance, pharma/healthcare, IT/ITeS and FMCG/retail.
Their startup investments number 13 so far, compared to 17 deals in 2020.
Reliance announced energy asset sales worth around $ 16 billion; end of the investment cycle in telecom; bringing net-debt to zero in 18 months; value-unlocking options for real estate and financial assets; listing of telecom and retail in five years; and focus on dividends.
The race to get a New Umbrella Entity (NUE) licence for digital payments may get crowded. As many as six consortiums are said to be in the fray to apply for an NUE licence, which would create a for-profit National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)-like body for retail payments. A consortium led by Financial Software and Systems (FSS), a leading provider of payment products and payment processor, is in talks and may file an application to the RBI for an NUE license, said sources aware of the development. The other constituents of this group include Indian Bank, Central Bank of India, India Post Payments Bank, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), and a few small finance banks.
Though Google's investment is minuscule and will not move the needle, it will attract other investors to the company and be a morale booster. Pursuing Vodafone Idea would potentially pit Google against Facebook and an increasingly dominant Jio.
With this, the total penalty on RIL for missing the target in four fiscal years beginning April 1, 2010 now stands at a cumulative $2.376 billion, the Minister informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Globally, the focus has moved back to India, especially in terms of telecom assets. Vodafone Idea, with some 300 million customers, continues to be attractive with shares available at a low price.
The numbers in India may not be as big but the opportunity for serious growth is all there.
'Post-Covid world will be different from the pre-Covid world.'
Bupa and Axa have already declared their intention to raise stakes.
RIL, as well as its partner Pioneer Natural Resources Co, are seeking a buyer for their stakes in Eagle Ford Midstream venture as they focus on shale oil production.
Live commerce, quick commerce, group buying, WhatsApp commerce, dukaantech have made their mark.
Founded in 2015, Meesho is one of the country's fastest growing social commerce platforms, and provides small and independent entrepreneurs with products and tools to start, maintain, and grow their businesses. Facebook's interest in the digital commerce follows Reliance Industries' entry into the hybrid e-commerce ecosystem.
Reliance on a single model begins at about 40% and goes up to 80 % in case of some companies
The 30-share Sensex ended down 556 points at 27,886 and the 50-share Nifty ended down 158 points at 8,444.
Companies with more than Rs 10,000 crore of debt would seek refinancing.
Since January 2011, a third of firms making such offers failed to meet new floor; current penalties would have been hefty.
According to software company Mavernir, the new virtualised networks would lead to a saving of 40 per cent in capex and 34 per cent in terms of lower operations cost for operators.
During his lifetime and after, Ambani aroused extreme responses in others.
Financials were the top losers after sharp gains in the previous session along with ITC
Six consecutive profitable quarters after an equal number of losses - for Bharti Airtel, the turnaround has been quick. But it is not a result of higher tariffs or absence of exceptional items alone. Execution and strategy are playing a part, too. Bharti Airtel's chief executive officer Gopal Vittal summed it up in a post-result conference call last month. "We track the profit in each of our 237,500 (cell) sites.
Amazon's fresh investment in its India entities come at a time when the Seattle-based firm has faced losses in several of its business entities in India, such as seller services, wholesale, transportation services and digital payments, for the 2018-19 financial year.
Bulk of the medicine sales in the $22-24 billion domestic pharma market happens through offline retail chemists. With the entry of online pharmacies, this space has started to witness a shake-up. Sample this: Dawaa Dost, a Rajasthan based digital health start-up, generates medicine orders from 'kirana' stores and women self-help groups (SHGs) that operate in villages, and then service these orders through its affiliated network of pharmacies. Biddano, another health-tech start-up, has a platform that acts as an aggregator for neighbourhood chemist shops.
'We began foolishly bragging about Saudi-Emirati investment plans as indicative of the sheikhs 'distancing' from Pakistan, including on Kashmir,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Sensex rises, Nifty holds 8,900; FMCG, Pharma shares lead.
The sale of Essar Oil was India's biggest deleveraging exercise undertaken by any debt-heavy group
US auto major Ford Motor Co on Friday said it and India's Mahindra & Mahindra have decided to scrap their previously announced automotive joint venture and it will continue its independent operations in India as it is. The two companies determined that they will not complete a previously announced automotive joint venture between their respective companies. The decision follows the passing of the December 31, 2020 'longstop' or expiration date of a definitive agreement the organisations entered into in October 2019, Ford Motor Company said in a statement.
'The ability to tailor schemes to market conditions and invest in unlisted equity and real estate, as well as commodities, makes Alternative Investment Funds a sought after platform.'
As CAG found Reliance Industries was being favoured in gas exploration deal to the government's detriment, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the then top auditor Vinod Rai that audit should not hurt the private sector and RIL was one of the biggest and most respected.
The business will also see a change of guard. Shailesh Chandra, president of EV and corporate strategy, will replace Mayank Pareek as president of PV business, including EV, with effect from April 1. Pareek will be superannuating from the company after a six-year stint at the end of February 2021. Chandra and Pareek will work on transition over the next few weeks.
With an epic battle of billionaires for supremacy in one of the world's most prolific markets and a pandemic-propelled surge in online shopping in the background, India's nearly trillion-dollar retail market is hoping to touch 85 per cent of the pre-COVID business in the first half of the New Year. In a year when the COVID-19 carnage ripped apart the retail business, circa 2020 will best go down for the unravelling of the war between Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest man, and richest Indian Mukesh Ambani for pre-eminence in the booming market that is estimated to reach $1.3 trillion by 2025. It all started with Ambani's Reliance Industries agreeing in August to buy assets of the nation's second-largest retailer for Rs 24,713 crore, just a year after Bezos' Amazon purchased an indirect stake in the indebted Future Retail.
The store launches same-day delivery for its site, though analysts say others have eroded its headstart in the brick and mortar format.
Since the Centre tightened the Press Note 3 norms in April last, as many as 150 private equity/venture capital investment applications from China and Hong Kong are pending with the government, starving the country's start-up ecosystem of funds, says a report. The Press Note 3 (PN3) changes were effected in April, restricting foreign direct investment from countries that share land borders with India. Analysts are of the view that the move was primarily aimed at China as lot of private funds were investing billions into domestic companies.
Profit taking in index heavweights RIL and HDFC weighed on sentiment while ICICI Bank surged 7%.