India Inc is unfazed by the sharp fall of the rupee against the greenback as most big firms have already hedged their foreign exchange exposures.
With the rupee showing a freefall and hitting a 28-month low against the dollar, India Inc has yet another headache.
India Inc seems to be doing a good job of protecting investors' interests following a crackdown by the market regulator earlier this year, as the number of complaints relating to non-receipt of refunds and allotment letters have nearly halved.
Major Indian automobile companies like Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Mahindra & Mahindra seem to have put up a robust performance in Q3 FY 10, paying advance tax of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), Rs 320 crore (Rs 3.2 billion) and Rs 195 crore (Rs 1.95 billion), respectively.
Green shoots evident, but worries remain.
The drop in growth rate is subsequent to the corporate sector cutting investments by nearly Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) in 2011-12 compared to 2010-11, according to the pre-Budget Economic Survey tabled by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament on Wednesday.
Around $1.54 billion was raised by 60 companies through the automatic approval route, which does not require the approval of RBI or the government, while $520 million was raised by the Exim Bank under the approval route, to meet its lending requirements abroad.
Industry body Confederation of Indian Industry said with the government having announced a clear road map for fiscal consolidation and non-food inflation demonstrating a secular decline, conditions are conducive for RBI to have intervened with a repo and cash reserve ratio reduction.
At the annual general meeting (AGM) of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on Wednesday, shareholders made the usual request to the top management for bonus shares. But this time, the setting was different. The man at the helm, outgoing group chairman AM Naik, 82, was heard assuring shareholders that he would join the chorus soon. There were laughs and chuckles at Naik's playful remark as he addressed the last AGM, nearly six decades after he joined L&T as a junior engineer and some 25 years at the top.
India Inc's initiative to adopt Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across the country is facing problems because of low level of cooperation on the field as well as red-tapism, industry lobby groups have claimed.
The resurgence in confidence in Indian manufacturing was borne out by many examples of Indian companies going global.
Indian companies' market capitalization has grown at the fastest pace last year among major economies despite contraction in GDP, economists from SBI said, flagging the risks to financial stability it poses. Further, retail investors have shown higher interest in markets and their numbers have increased by 1.42 crore in FY21 and another 44 lakh in April and May, they said in a note, wondering if this will be a lasting behavioural change or is transitory. The economists at the country's largest lender attributed the growth in equity markets to lower returns on other financial instruments amid a low rates regime, increase in global liquidity, and even a tendency to spend more time at home because of mobility restrictions which led many to trade more.
The manufacturing sector (excluding petroleum sector) would report a 24.3 per cent PAT growth mainly on account of low raw material prices and soft interest rates, CMIE said, adding PAT of the financial and non-financial services would rise by 32.2 per cent and 20.4 per cent, respectively.
Business jets and chartered flights have been an unlikely victim of the recent corruption scandals involving India Inc.
Jobs are back and India Inc is witnessing an upsurge of 15 per cent in hiring trend, thanks to the improving economic climate. However, experts say it is too early to say that the situation has returned back to 'normalcy'.
Even as India Inc talks of increasing corporate governance norms after the Satyam scam, a study by global consultancy firm Ernst & Young has said that more than half of the companies surveyed do not take into account risk of frauds in their annual audit plans.
M&As are back on the radar for Indian companies, but with two vital changes. First, the average size of the deals are much smaller compared to the earlier years; and second, overseas acquisitions have taken a backseat.
US-based retail giant Walmart is looking to source toys, shoes and bicycles from Indian suppliers as the company is targeting to increase its exports from India to USD 10 billion annually by 2027. The company also wants to develop new suppliers in categories such as food, pharmaceuticals, consumables, health and wellness, and apparel and home textiles, a company spokesperson told PTI. Officials from the Bentonville-headquartered firm recently held a virtual meeting with several domestic toy manufacturers in India.
Average salary of the 100 best-paid directors is 1% of their companies' net profit.
Some companies say they will pass on the cost to customers.
Arguably the 'most talked about' rescue mission in recent years, the story of a Thai youth soccer team and their coach trapped in the Tham Luang Cave, prompting a global rescue effort, gripped the world.
It plans an investment Rs 20 crore.
An unstable government is the worst thing that can happen to the Indian economy grappling with the global downturn, say business leaders.
Employees of some top Indian companies were in for a pleasant surprise when they received a mail from their HR team announcing a hike in salaries and bonuses. Led by IT firms and start-ups, HR managers say that while some have offered cash and stock options, others are in a wait-and-watch mode and add the trend will pick up in other sectors. For example, IT giant Cognizant - which had an attrition rate of 19 per cent in the December quarter - has established a $30-million employee retention fund in order to bring down the high attrition rate.
The rumour verification process would now be triggered by changes in price or 'material price movements', as the paper defines it. What this means is that companies would need to verify rumours only if the share price moves significantly.
India Inc is likely to witness a continuing surge in merger and acquisition activities after a record number of M&A deals in the first half of 2006 -- aggregating to more than $25 billion.\n\n
The Ficci Survey for the second quarter of 2008-09, which was carried out during November and December 2008, revealed 52 per cent of companies feel that the overall economic conditions would weaken further in the coming six months. Further nearly 90 per cent of the 412 companies surveyed in the report feel that the economic situation has deteriorated over the last six months.
As India Inc steps up the gas to expand in the global arena, it faces the risk of stumbling on frauds, the levels of which were far higher compared to global levels, according to international consulting firm Ernst and Young.
In peace and at war, firms remain tethered to promoter families in a uniquely Indian way.
"Outsourcing is also a concern and I hope it will be addressed soon," Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on India in Gurgaon.
The private security industry expects to grow manifold in the next five years, with India Inc enhancing the protective measures after the Mumbai attacks.
Data with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion reveals that between April 2005 and July 2008, Japan Inc pumped in 50 per cent of the total investments inflows between April 2000 and July 2008. In fact, between June and October this year, Japanese companies said they would pump in $8 billion. Experts say this is not a knee-jerk reaction by the Japanese, who are known to be very meticulous with their investments.
India Inc said the Foreign Trade Policy would give a significant push to manufactured goods and agriculture- and labour-intensive exports.
In its complaint against Shah, the Congress told the EC that the home minister claimed in a speech in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon on October 16 that "...Bhupesh Baghel's government, for appeasement politics and vote bank politics, lynched Chhattisgarh's son Bhuneshwar Sahoo and got him killed..."
