UK-based Vedanta Resources is looking to start copper production at its Konkola copper mines (KCM) in Zambia and is eyeing to serve global and Indian markets, according to company executives. Promoted by billionaire Anil Agarwal, the miner in November 2023 regained control of the copper mines and smelter, which the Zambian administration had seized in 2019, but needed to pay creditors of the mines to revive operations. The conglomerate was locked in a legal battle over the ownership of the KCM mines prior to a September 2023 Zambia government decision to reinstate the group as owners of the mines.
India's services sector witnessed one of the strongest growth rates in over 13-and-a-half years in March on the back of strong demand that spurred sales and business activity, a monthly survey said on Thursday. The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services Business Activity Index rose from 60.6 in February to 61.2 in March, one of the strongest expansions in total sales and business activity in close to 14 years. In the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) parlance, a print above 50 means expansion, while a score below 50 denotes contraction.
The Delhi Metro will operate at 50 per cent capacity and markets and malls in the national capital will open on an odd-even basis from June 7, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday as he announced further relaxations in lockdown.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Quad is not against anyone, but for a rules-based international order and respect for sovereignty, in a veiled reference to China.
Engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is preparing the ground to begin the commercial sale of electrolysers in September, which would be 50 per cent cheaper than its European counterparts, a senior company executive has said. An electrolyser is a key equipment required for the generation of green hydrogen. Last quarter, L&T manufactured its first electrolyser as a prototype.
India's manufacturing sector activities witnessed the strongest rate of growth in three months in July amid improved demand conditions and easing of some local COVID-19 restrictions, a monthly survey said on Monday. The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose from 48.1 in June to 55.3 in July, pointing to the strongest rate of growth in three months. In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion while a score below 50 denotes contraction.
The Reserve Bank of India on Friday raised the GDP growth projection for the current fiscal to 7 per cent from 6.5 per cent earlier on buoyant domestic demand and higher capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector. Announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, however, flagged protracted geopolitical turmoil and global economic fragmentation as risks to the growth outlook. The RBI kept interest rates unchanged at 6.5 per cent in Friday's monetary policy statement.
Tata Motors will soon submit a detailed report on the upcoming manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu's Ranipet district and a decision, on whether the facility will churn out passenger or commercial vehicles, will be taken by the company on the basis of market trends, state's industries minister TRB Rajaa said on Thursday. "They are keeping the options open, and market trends will determine it (the type of vehicles the plant will make). "They will quickly come up with a detailed report on that," Rajaa said.
India may have to lean more on West Asian nations for supplies of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a cooking fuel, in the coming years after Indian state-run refiners drew up big plans to diversify into producing more profitable petrochemicals. This shift leads to reduced LPG output, Indian refining executives said. The mantra for state-run oil companies, from Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) to liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer Petronet LNG, which are looking to diversify their businesses from lower-margin fuels, has been value-added petrochemicals.
The first vaccine candidate will be an intra-muscular one, followed by intra-dermal and nasal ones, depending on test results.
Four companies - Rajesh Exports, Hyundai Global Motors Company, Ola Electric Mobility and Reliance New Energy - are eligible for receiving benefits under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for advanced chemistry cell battery storage, the heavy industries ministry said on Thursday. The allotment was made for a total of 50 GWh of battery capacity to the four successful bidders. These firms, the ministry said, will receive incentives under India's Rs 18,100 crore programme to boost local battery cell production.
The manufacturing output, which constitutes around 80 per cent of the index of industrial production, grew 12.3 per cent in May against 1.8 per cent in same month last year, official data released on Monday said.
With this contract, Adani Green now has a portfolio of 15 GW of renewable power generating assets.
'In terms of incentives, if you think about it, hybrids are a 20-year-old technology.'
Tata Motors, India's largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, is looking to launch a first-of-its-kind sub-600 kg small commercial vehicle, aiming to cater to the growing demand for efficient last-mile delivery solutions, an area currently witnessing a surge in interest from e-commerce giants. This new entrant is set to be positioned just below the marquee Tata Ace, which is popular across the country as "Chota Haathi".
Reports (not denied by India) that the USA had 'for the first time provided real-time details to their Indian counterparts on the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion' into Tawang at the LAC in December 2022, helping India thwart China's expansionist designs, show how operationally effective the USA-India friendship has become on the ground. A engaging excerpt from Sreeram Chaulia's must-read new book, Friends: India's Closest Strategic Partners.
SII would be scaling up its AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine manufacturing capacity to 200 million doses a month from 100 million a month now, reports Sohini Das.
Chip giant Qualcomm chief executive Cristiano R Amon and billionaire Gautam Adani on Monday discussed role of AI, semiconductors and edge appliances across markets in the fast changing global technology space. The two leaders met in Mumbai on Monday morning to discuss India's potential around semiconductors, AI and mobility, according to a social media post by Adani. While Qualcomm is big on designing and manufacturing semiconductors and wireless telecommunications products, Adani group had in 2022 bought a small quantity of fifth generation or 5G spectrum for private captive network deployment in ports, logistics and power generation among others.
Bharat Biotech on Thursday said it plans to produce additional 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine 'Covaxin' at its subsidiary's Ankleshwar (Gujarat) based facility, taking the overall production volume of the vaccine to 1 billion (100 crore) dosages per annum.
Crisil Ratings on Wednesday projected India's GDP growth at 6.8 per cent in the next fiscal and said the country will become an upper middle-income nation by 2031 with the economy doubling to $7 trillion. In its India Outlook report, Crisil said the Indian economy will take support from domestic structural reforms and cyclical levers and can retain -- perhaps even improve -- its growth prospects to become the third largest economy by 2031. "After a better-than-expected 7.6 per cent this fiscal, India's real GDP growth will likely moderate to 6.8 per cent in fiscal 2025," said the Crisil India Outlook report.
A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 reflects contraction.
Aircraft maker Airbus on Thursday announced awarding a contract to Indian company Dynamatic Technologies for manufacturing all the doors for its next-generation narrow body A220 planes, giving a boost to the 'Make in India' initiative. While financial details were not disclosed, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said it is one of the single-largest export contracts for an Indian aerospace manufacturing company and emphasised that the country is becoming a destination for aircraft component manufacturing activities.
Adani Enterprises Ltd, the flagship incubator of billionaire Gautam Adani's conglomerate, on Thursday reported a 37 per cent drop in March quarter net profit, bogged down by one-time past airport dues and commercial mining losses. Its consolidated net profit of Rs 450.58 crore in January-March - the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023-24 - compares to Rs 722.48 crore net profit in the same period last year and Rs 1,888.45 crore earning in the preceding quarter, according to a stock exchange filing by the company.
Had you invested Rs 10,000 each in JSW Steel, Titan Company and Bajaj Finance 20 years ago, when they were just penny stocks (trading below Rs 10), you would have become a millionaire by now.
Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover will start producing its Range Rover and Range Rover Sport in India, marking a first for the iconic models in their 54-year long history, to be rolled out from a country outside of the UK. Till now the two models were only produced in Jaguar Land Rover's Solihull plant in the UK and then exported to around 121 markets globally, including India.
'We carry 6.5 billion passengers every year. We have crossed seven billion this year, and are targeting 10 billion by 2030.'
With a large number of Indian youth aspiring to work in the railways, delays in filling up railway job vacancies were a point of criticism against the BJP in the run-up to the elections.
The services sector growth in India moderated in February amid softer expansions in business activity, sales and jobs, a monthly survey said on Tuesday. The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services Business Activity Index registered 60.6 in February, down from 61.8 in January. In Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) parlance, a print above 50 means expansion, while a score below 50 denotes contraction.
This apart, to further increase capacities, Bharat Biotech has partnered with Indian Immunologicals (IIL) to manufacture the drug substance for Covaxin. The technology transfer process is underway and IIL has the 'capabilities and expertise' to manufacture the inactivated viral vaccines at commercial scale.
Bengaluru-headquartered electric two-wheeler manufacturer Ather Energy is all set to file its draft red herring prospectus within the second week of September to the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for its maiden initial public offering (IPO), in which it is expected to raise over $450 million. On Tuesday, the fourth-largest electric two-wheeler maker in the country by volume raised Rs 600 crore from its existing investor, the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), catapulting itself into a unicorn with a valuation of $1.3 billion.
Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), India's second-largest two-wheeler maker, on Wednesday revealed its electric vehicle (EV) roadmap, which includes setting up a dedicated EV factory, launching the first two EVs in 2023-24, and establishing 6,000 battery exchange points in the country. HMSI plans to establish a specialised unit for the manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs), named 'Factory E', at its Narsapura plant located in Karnataka. Factory E will be created by converting an existing production line that currently manufactures internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, said Atsushi Ogata, HMSI managing director and chief executive officer.
'There is no reason why we should break this business up.'
'Our objective is to reach a localisation rate of 50% in the span of five years.'
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met over 40 CEOs across broad swathes of industry, ranging from makers of mobile devices, auto components, food products to telecom networking equipment and pharmaceuticals. The agenda: To discuss how to make India an integral part of the global supply chain. The focus of the discussion would be the much touted yet not so well understood production-linked incentive scheme (PLI), the centrepiece of the government's drive to massively boost the manufacturing sector. To do so, the government has created a war chest of over Rs 197,000 crore to be paid out as incentives to over 14 industries in five years. There are three objectives to the scheme, two explicitly stated, one implied.
Households are likely to remain the primary net lenders to the economy in the coming decades.
'The scheme excludes tractors, light commercial vehicles, and medium and heavy commercial vehicles.'
'There will be 200 ITIs developed as hubs, while 800 will be developed as spoke, connected with five National Skill Training Institutes.'
'His contribution not only elevates our institution but also serves as an inspiring example of how our alumni community continues to drive meaningful change.'
