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.
From Ranbaxy to Religare, Aashish Aryan takes you through a maze of legal cases involving Malvinder Mohan Singh and his younger brother Shivinder Mohan Singh. Both are in police custody following a complaint of fund siphoning.
Today, it holds $131 billion in assets under management.
Exchanges believe its legal status may now change, with the government pushing for digitised transactions.
As lobbying and counter-lobbying intensify, right now, it looks like a T20 match, discovers Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Markets rallied because of huge inflows by overseas investors.
China became the 56th signatory to the agreement by signing the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. With this all the G20 nations, including India, have become official partners to combat the menace of tax crimes and evasion across international borders.
With the signing of the pact, the Quad grouping of India, Japan, Australia and the US is set to gain more heft now, notes Dr Rajaram Panda.
A high-ranking US Navy official has been charged with accepting prostitutes, luxury travel and USD 100,000 in cash from a foreign defence contractor in exchange for classified and internal navy information.
'In the run-up to the summit, Trump had indicated that he might strike a nuclear deal in the course of a single meeting or over several days, but as it transpired, Trump departed Singapore soon after the meeting.' 'This raises questions if his aspirations for an ambitious outcome had been scaled back,' says Rajaram Panda.
Kochhar has been issued a showcause notice by the regulator for alleged violation of the code of conduct.
Smaller Singapore- and US-based venture capital funds, retail associations and trader bodies such as the CAIT and SJM are all planning to approach the government to put pressure on the commerce ministry.
After Singapore, Indian property developers such as Indiabulls Real Estate and Phoenix Mills among others are looking at London, German and Australian stock exchanges to list their property trusts there.
The two leaders discussed the possible US-North Korea summit.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has announced the contours of carving out of its oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business into an independent unit with a USD 25 billion loan from the parent, as it looks to unlock value by selling stakes to global investors like Saudi Aramco.
Had India agreed to join the trade pact, Indian markets would have been flooded with cheap Chinese products.
The markets regulator made it easier for banks to acquire control in listed companies.
Japan could soon be the second country after the US with which India has a logistics support agreement. Besides the LSA, India and Japan may also sign a maritime domain awareness agreement which would enable the two navies to share information. For example, if a Japanese P-1 maritime patrol aircraft detects a Chinese submarine in the Indian Ocean, it would pass on the information to the Indian Navy, reveals Ajai Shukla.
The sale will be quicker if an Indian private bank buys it; it will take longer for regulatory clearances if a foreign bank or an NBFC buys it, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The country, last year, stood at the 27th spot for effective regulation and supervision of securities exchanges.
Unitech and Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd (IBREL) have deferred the listing of their respective real estate investment trusts (REITs) on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX)owing to the liquidity crunch in the global markets. Both Unitech and IBREL have received approval from the SGX for the initial public offers (IPOs) of their trusts.
Fintechs need to behave with responsibility and transparency. A lot of mis-selling has been happening. Other issues have been plaguing the fledgling industry -- high interest rates, even higher processing fees, harsh collection process and, most critically, data leakage leading to rampant frauds, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
In a recent article, Rajan has ridiculed critics of the exchange rate policy.
India's largest private telecom company Bharti Airtel is believed to have held discussions to rope in Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, which directly and indirectly holds 30.5 per cent in the company, to bid for South African telecom major MTN Group.
Both sides also agreed at a round of talks on their heavily fortified border to hold a series of basketball matches in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on July 3-6, marking the anniversary of a July 4, 1972, inter-Korean agreement on unification, they said.
The fund is to invest in income generating assets such as malls, office complexes among others.
'Despite much hype of optimism, everyone went home empty-handed without a clear picture where they are heading in the future,' notes Dr Rajaram Panda.
Second-year students at IIM Calcutta to travel the world's universities this Septemeber. Foreign students coming to IIM-C to learn at one of India's prestigious schools.
India's stock market is still ruling only marginally lower than a month ago.
India lags behind many nations in managing exchange rates, including China and Singapore.
Signing of the pact will hopefully end stock market uncertainty that came with the mention of the M-name
Packaging major Essel Propack Ltd has entered into a share purchase agreement for acquiring 85 per cent stake in US-based Tacpro Inc and Avalon Medical Services Pte Ltd, Singapore.\n
Pune-based Bilcare Ltd, through its wholly owned subsidiary Bilcare Singapore Pte Ltd, has acquired US-based pharma research and clinical services business for an undisclosed amount.
Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government's investment arm, has sold its entire 5.26 per cent stake in healthcare major Apollo Hospitals Enterprise for Rs 133.68 crore (Rs 1.34 billion).
Manjit Rajain, Mortice's founder, will hold 75 per cent of the equity after flotation. He will use the funds raised to take the company into broader property and facilities management services across India. He said the company had looked at several stock markets, including in India and Singapore, before deciding to come to Aim because it would be cheaper, quicker and at a higher valuation.
Everything you need to know about the Chinese New Year and its traditions.
Reader Vijay Amritraj sent us this picture.
Garbine Muguruza made an imposing start to the WTA Finals by confidently swotting aside Czech Lucie Safarova 6-3, 7-6 (4) in their White Group opener on Monday.
'The rate of transmission of COVID-19 in Hong Kong was 0.7 -- anything below 1 suggests the epidemic is receding.' 'The city-State achieved this without the de facto police-State curfew that India has resorted to,' says Rahul Jacob.
