A look into the challenges of selling loss-making public units.
There has been a welcome focus on fundamental reforms, time-bound programmes that fix accountability and the use of technology. The upcoming Budget could build on these initiatives, says Abhas Jha.
Fitch Ratings on Monday said uncertainty over the bidder consortiums and process complexity, including valuation, may lead to potential delays in privatisation of India's second-largest fuel retailer, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL). Affirming BPCL's rating at 'BBB-' with a negative outlook, Fitch said it continues to treat the potential divestment of the company by the Indian government as an event risk. "Bidders are conducting due diligence, but uncertainty over the bidder consortiums and process complexity, including valuation, may lead to potential delays.
Access to India's defence market must be made conditional -- available only to those who are ready to make a long-term commitment in India, argues Ajai Shukla.
French security researcher Robert Baptiste posted a screenshot suggesting the micro-blogging platform that offers a Twitter-like experience in Indian languages had Chinese connections.
Kerala will be one of those places where the line between tourism, a land, a people and their way of life will blur. It won't be tourism; it will be a visit to experience Kerala.
The levy of retrospective tax on the UK's Cairn Energy Plc is a tale of bizarre twists and turns that saw its attached shares being sold in May 2018 amid the passing of the baton from a full-time finance minister to interim one and the talks at the highest level to resolve the dispute, to claims that levy of back taxes was a result of an investigation into Panama Papers leak. The government late last month refunded about Rs 7,900 crore it had collected from selling residual shares of the British firm in its erstwhile India unit, seizing dividend and withholding tax refunds, to settle an eight-year-old dispute that had tarred the country's reputation as an investment destination. But, this did not come about easily. For seven years, the establishment vehemently justified in courts and outside seeking of Rs 10,247 crore in back taxes plus interest and penalty from a firm that gave India its biggest onshore oil discovery.
Gen Bipin Rawat's appointment, first as army chief superseding two other army commanders, and then as CDS, was the consequence of his close personal rapport with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Now, with General Rawat gone and nobody named to replace him as CDS, it is evident that no other top military officer enjoys that relationship with Doval, observes Ajai Shukla.
Tata group's hospitality firm Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) on Friday said its 'Taj' brand has been rated as the strongest hotel brand in the world. According to the 'Hotels 50 2021' report by Brand Finance, Taj topped the strongest brands list for having stood resilient in spite of the challenges posed by the pandemic, besides other achievements.
India's economy will do well once vaccination reaches a critical mass as pent up demand, global recovery and easy financial conditions will boost activities, RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Ashima Goyal said on Tuesday.
English Premier League club Manchester United said on Wednesday it had signed a partnership deal with IT firm HCL Technologies to improve its website and app as it gears up to launch a new digital media strategy.
Volkswagen's new SUV is set to lock horns with half a dozen rivals, says Pavan Lall.
'India-China economic ties are likely to take a hit in the wake of the new situation, but that also provides India with a new opportunity to strengthen its manufacturing base,' points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
UK-based Cairn Energy PLC on Tuesday said it will drop litigations to seize Indian properties in countries ranging from France to the US, within a couple of days of getting a USD 1 billion refund resulting from the scrapping of a retrospective tax law.
The government on Monday signed the share purchase agreement with Tata Sons for the sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Earlier this month, the government had accepted an offer by Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of the salt-to-software conglomerate, to pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt. Following that, on October 11 a Letter of Intenet (LoI) was issued to the Tata Group confirming the government's willingness to sell its 100 per cent stake in the airline.
India's real estate industry staged a rebound from 2020's downturn, with housing sales seen rising by over 50 per cent. The performance, though short of pre-COVID levels, has property developers hoping for stronger gains in the New Year and the beginning of a long upcycle. A strong foundation has been laid this year for revival in the Indian real estate sector, which is projected to reach $1 trillion mark by 2030 from $200 billion in the pre-pandemic year.
Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd has acquired a majority equity stake in digital pharma market place Netmeds for a cash consideration of around Rs 620 crore, Reliance Industries said in a late night statement on Tuesday.
Few people know Ratan Tata as well as R K Krishna Kumar does. Widely perceived to be among the managers closest to Tata, Krishna Kumar assesses Ratan Tata, the man and business leader, in this exclusive interview to Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
The Bengaluru-based company had registered a net profit (after minority interest) of Rs 5,197 crore a year ago, a regulatory filing said. Infosys' revenue grew 22.9 per cent to Rs 31,867 crore in the quarter ended December 2021 from Rs 25,927 crore in the year-ago period, it added.
It's always been a struggle for economists and statisticians to forecast India's gross domestic product (GDP) correctly, and say where the economy is headed before the official numbers come out. If estimating the GDP is tough, forecasting it in real time is complicated. It involves looking at tens of indicators, such as industrial production, electricity consumption and exports, to arrive at a number.
"The strategic divestment transaction of Air India successfully concluded today with transfer of 100 per cent shares of Air India to M/s Talace Pvt Ltd along with management control," DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in a tweet. A new board, led by the strategic partner, takes charge of Air India, he added.
The Left parties, Janata Dal (United), and two other Opposition members on the committee opposed raising the foreign direct investment limit in the insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
Tech is also being used to stem resignations, which have recorded a rise amid COVID-19.
A mere two-bedroom apartment - albeit quite spacious, covering 3,000 square (sq.) feet (ft) - will set you back 5.8 million. That's the asking price from the Indian-owned Hinduja Group, if you desire a nest in London Whitehall's iconic Old War Office (OWO). Its 1,100 rooms are now being converted into 85 residences and a first-ever hotel to be operated in Britain by Singapore's legendary Raffles Hotels chain. Gopichand Hinduja, co-chair of the conglomerate, said: "Every decision made on The OWO (as the building is fondly called) is underscored by our passion and respect for the heritage of the building and long-term commitment to London."
The Indian State does not believe in the rule of law. It does not even recognise the need to follow treaties that it itself signed. And so it is refusing to shell out to Cairn; and, as a consequence, has brought on the Paris humiliation, notes Mihir S Sharma.
'We do realise it is time to have a larger ambition.'
India's largest firm Reliance Industries has initiated work-from-home for its staff while keeping open consumer-facing businesses of hospital, retail stores and telecom with a minimum workforce amid increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the country. Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani will hold a meeting almost every third day to take stock of the impact of novel coronavirus (covid-19) outbreak on his employees and business, officials said.
Indian claims to the Ram story and ownership could be challenged from more places than one, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Blockchain's promise: Dramatically speeding up transactions, explains Ajit Balakrishnan.
A quaint Indian idea called face value is putting high-performing companies out of the reach of retail investors, observes Debashis Basu.
Apart from the Adani group, the Tata group, the Hinduja group, Indigo and a New York-based fund, Interups, are expected to submit EoIs.
Faced with prospect of its assets across the globe being seized just like Pakistan and Venezuela, the government decided to scrap retrospective taxation but the international embarrassment could have been avoided had 'attached' shares of Britain's Cairn Energy Plc not been sold, according to tax and legal experts. On Thursday, the government introduced a Bill in Parliament to scrap the tax rule that gave the tax department power to go 50 years back and slap capital gains levies wherever ownership had changed hands overseas but business assets were in India. The 2012 legislation was used to levy a cumulative of Rs 1.10 lakh crore of tax on 17 entities, including UK telecom giant Vodafone, but substantial punitive action was taken only in the case of Cairn.
Count among The Light of Asia's many, many admirers over 132 years: Gandhi, Tagore, Vivekananda, Nehru and Ambedkar, Tolstoy and Kipling, Yeats and Eliot, Alfred Nobel, Dmitri Mendeleev and C V Raman. Jairam Ramesh reveals why he decided to write a book on Edwin Arnold, who wrote The Light of Asia.
Vehicle prices have gone up as manufacturers gear up for the transition to stricter emission norm BS-VI from BS-IV beginning April 1.
'The new trains should be fast, but the roll-out of the privatisation plan should be slow and well-considered,' recommends T N Ninan.
The group, headed by former RBI deputy governor H R Khan, has also pitched for liberalised investment cap, review of prohibited sectors for foreign investment for FPIs, permitting FPIs for off-market transactions and review of restriction on sovereign wealth funds for investment in corporate debt securities.
Brokerages are expanding the universe of stocks they cover amid a boom in the market. Several stocks in the mid-cap universe are now tracked by more analysts than they were a year ago. For instance, SBI Cards and Payment Services is now tracked by 17 brokerages, compared to just four a year ago.
Banks are auctioning 2,362 properties in next 30 days. The foremost benefit of purchasing a property in a bank auction is that you could get it at a significant discount to the market rate.
His address comes a day after the cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses crossed the landmark figure of 100 crore in India.
However, Denmark said it is difficult to conclude on the real intention behind this.
