Iran can now unlock $4.2 billion of payments for its oil stuck with major clients including India, China, Japan and South Korea after it reached an interim deal with six world powers in November over its nuclear programme.
Google had started the Station as a five-year partnership with the Indian Railways and RailTel in 2015 to provide fast, free WiFi in over 400 stations by mid-2020.
The Indian startup ecosystem has lauded the inclusion of startups in the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration for the first time ever in the history of G20. Industry stakeholders say that the move will lead to easier access to capital, reduce regulatory hurdles, and may revive funding activity. The Declaration, through the Startup20 initiative, recognised startups as "natural engines of growth" and key to socio-economic transformation by driving innovation and creating employment.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to step up efforts to boost consumption and rural economy while keeping inflation under check when she presents her sixth straight Budget on February 1. Experts said one way to boost consumption is to put more money in the hands of people, and one of the possible ways of doing it is by reducing the tax burden through tinkering with tax slabs or increasing the standard deduction. Another proposal is related to increasing the funds under the rural employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA and higher payout for farmers.
Top Australian women cricketers could earn more than A$1 million ($666,600) a year with increases from a new pay deal.
'To the believers of crypto regulations, I have only one question to ask, how will you regulate it?'
For the startup ecosystem in India, the scorecard so far has been a mixed bag, observes Akhil Gupta.
Crypto assets should not be granted official currency or legal tender status, the much-awaited synthesis paper by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Financial Stability Board (FSB) has said ahead of the G20 leadership summit under India's presidency. However, the report has argued against a blanket ban on activities linked to crypto assets, explaining that such a move can be costly as well as technically demanding to enforce. Central banks should avoid holding crypto assets in their official reserve as they pose a risk to monetary and global financial stability, according to the synthesis paper.
Byju's is set to go the way of Housing.com and Zilingo. It is only a matter of time. Indeed, the coup attempted by investors will ensure that, says Debashis Basu.
Most analysts have downgraded the stock of SBI Cards and Payments (SBI Card) as the credit card issuer posted weak results during the December quarter (Q3) of financial year 2023-24 (FY24). The sub-par show, analysts said, was for the eighth straight quarter. With this, they have slashed their earnings estimates by as much as 20 per cent over FY24-26 amid near-term pressure points in the company's growth outlook.
In a set of FAQs on applicability of Goods and Services Tax on banking, insurance and stock brokers sectors, the revenue department has clarified that transactions relating to securitisation, derivatives, future and forward contracts are exempt.
The Reserve Bank on Monday asked banks to put in place additional arrangements for export and import transactions in Indian rupees in view of increasing interest of the global trading community in the domestic currency. Before putting in place this mechanism, banks will require prior approval from the Foreign Exchange Department of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the central bank said in a circular. "In order to promote growth of global trade with emphasis on exports from India and to support the increasing interest of global trading community in INR, it has been decided to put in place an additional arrangement for invoicing, payment, and settlement of exports / imports in INR," it said.
Prosus NV, which owns PayU, has terminated a $4.7 billion (about Rs 38,400 crore) deal to acquire Indian payments firm BillDesk, saying certain conditions precedent were not met. Prosus, the global investment arm of South African multinational Nasper, had on August 31 last year announced acquisition of BillDesk in an all-cash deal to expand its footprint in India's booming fintech sector under the umbrella of its payment gateway PayU.
Slapped with a second hefty fine for anti-competitive practices, Google India on Wednesday said it remains committed to users and developers and is reviewing the antitrust body's order to evaluate next steps. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday slapped a Rs 936 crore fine on Google for "abusing" its dominant position on its Android mobile app store and ordered it not to prevent app developers from using third-party billing or payment processing services in India. That penalty came just days after a Rs 1,337.76 crore fine was imposed on it for abusing the dominant position of its Android smartphone operating system. Commenting on Tuesday's CCI order, a Google India spokesperson said Indian app developers have benefited from the technology, security, consumer protection, choice and flexibility that Android and Google Play provide.
Indian consumers are very much interested in owning and using pre-paid payment cards which affords a great opportunity for Indian banks and other financial institutions in this segment, a survey said here.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to bring global payment systems such as MasterCard International and Visa International under its regulatory framework.
Indian imports of Russian crude oil may stabilise or even decline in 2024 from record 2023 levels amid shrinking discounts, lower output, and a rebound in West Asian supplies, according to the ship-tracking data and industry executives. This may impact the billions of dollars in annual savings that India made last year. Imports of Russian oil jumped by a record 140 per cent in calendar 2023 to 1.79 million barrels a day (b/d) from 740,400 b/d in 2022, when Russia marched into Ukraine in February, and from just 102,000 b/d in 2021, according to the data from Paris-based market intelligence agency Kpler.
'Our discussions with investors and the market's multiples suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi winning 2019 is being priced in,' says a UBS report.
rediffGURU Ramalingam Kalirajan answers your personal finance queries.
Tata Steel was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, cracking over 6 per cent, followed by SBI, IndusInd Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank and ONGC. Bajaj Auto, Maruti and Asian Paints were the only gainers.
The 61-year-old MLA from Islampur seat of Maharashtra was issued the first summons for appearance on May 12 but he had sought deferment for about 10 days citing some personal and official engagements.
According to the WHO, countries should join the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX Facility) by September 18 but not later than October 9 with upfront payments.
In October, media reports suggested that the World's largest retailer Wal-Mart made "suspicious payments" totalling millions of dollars to local officials in India.
'A key reason for the strong interest in IPOs has been an increased focus on profitability and reasonable pricing of deals.'
'This year's detection of frauds and probable recovery will be mainly driven by several compliance measures put in place, and amendments made to the GST regime to plug revenue leakages particularly in new-edge sectors.'
Prosecutors had accused Blatter, a Swiss who led global soccer body FIFA for 17 years, and Platini, of unlawfully arranging for FIFA to pay the Frenchman two million Swiss francs ($2.06 million) in 2011.
The ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict has disrupted India's efforts to gain from a recent fall in crude oil prices. Since Hamas' invasion of southern Israel on October 7, petroleum has become costlier by around $5 per barrel, threatening to stoke prices and impact growth. Brent crude was trading at $89.8 per barrel on October 9 (9.15 pm IST), up over 4 per cent, thwarting India's anticipation of a period of declining oil prices - after the leading global petroleum benchmark declined by around 11 per cent last week.
Twitter has replaced its recognisable bird logo with the letter 'X' as its new official mark marking the latest major shift since Elon Musk's takeover of the social media platform.
Now that the economy is growing at a higher-than-expected rate, it is time to accelerate the pace of fiscal consolidation, and the Budget could be a good starting point, argues Rajesh Kumar.
At Rs 30.88 lakh crore, the currency with the public is 71.84 per cent higher than the level for the fortnight ended November 4, 2016.
11th-hour debt restructuring programme offered no concessions to creditors
Nokia Technologies will receive royalty payments from HMD for sales of Nokia-branded mobile products, covering both the brand and the intellectual property rights.
Many of India's fintech entities and banks have stored all their customer data in India; however, many do use foreign servers, for operations, providing services and for data analytics.
Walmart-owned digital payments firm PhonePe has decided to halt its proposed acquisition of Goldman Sachs- and Xiaomi-backed ZestMoney, a Bengaluru-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform. The deal, which was poised to fetch anywhere between $150-200 million and $300 million, has hit a snag over lapses in due diligence, disagreements over valuation, sustainability of the business, and shareholding structure of ZestMoney, according to people familiar with the matter. The collapse of the deal is also being attributed to a slowdown in the financial technology (fintech) sector in the midst of a funding winter, difficult regulatory environment, and macroeconomic uncertainty, informed other sources.
'They have since only tried to improve systems. Also, with regulatory guidance from time to time, we are in a position to assess a situation and react in time.'
With debt woes and a legal case in the US courts, educational technology (edtech) giant Byju's is expected to be laying off more employees, according to media reports. According to The Morning Context report, Byju's intends to lay off 1,000 employees. This number, however, could not be confirmed by Business Standard independently. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on the reports.
Jio Financial Services, the demerged financial services unit of Reliance Industries, will be listed on bourses on August 21, according to an exchange notification. Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL) demerged from Reliance last month and is currently listed under a dummy ticker after its price discovery at Rs 261.85 but there is no trading happening in the scrip. The listing on BSE and NSE has been scheduled a day before FTSE Russell plans to drop JFSL from its indices.
India's unabated tryst with Russian crude oil is slowly coming to an end. The time has come for Indian refiners to navigate, creatively, the choppy waters of the post-honeymoon period, and for Indian policymakers to take cognisance of the broader impact on India from the spillover of the Russian crisis - after Washington's warning to transgressors last week. Shipments from Russia to India have averaged over 1.8 million barrels a day since February, according to data from Paris-based market analytics firm Kpler. But much of the crude shipped to India was non-sanctioned because it traded below a price cap set by the US led G-7 nations in December.
The government on Thursday imposed import restrictions on laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, ultra small form factor computers, and servers with immediate effect. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a notification said exemption from import licensing is provided up to 20 items per consignment for R&D, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and return and product development purposes.
Global payment system company Visa International on Friday said all Visa debit cards issued in India will be protected against any monetary losses, liabilities or claims due to fraudulent use of the card in case it was lost, stolen or misplaced.
