The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) will revamp its banking application (app) YONO and position it as a complete digital bank (DB) under a new rubric 'Only YONO' for enhancing customer experience and ease of use. The bank plans to bring in a consultant to help draw up the project plan, keeping in mind business goals for the next five years. With 54 million monthly active users (MAUs), SBI YONO has seen growth of over 35 per cent in MAUs in 2021.
With over Rs 55,000 crore debt, Air India management has been trying to pare burden by monetising non-core real estate properties.
The government has merged the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) with the finance ministry to give it a better control over state-owned firms and facilitate its ambitious privatisation programme. Finance ministry will now have six departments while DPE's hereto parent ministry, the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises will now be called the ministry of heavy industries. Previously, the disinvestment ministry - created under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government - was merged with the finance ministry and is now a department under it. Also, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was abolished and administration of foreign investments was given to the finance ministry (FinMin).
Maybe Modi could ask a patriarch of the stature of the late G D Birla to flesh out the details of a new company to manage government land privatisation.
RInfra, which is sitting on a debt of over Rs 6,000 crore, has been working towards monetising its assets to reduce debt.
According to reports, public transport and banking services remain partly disrupted for the second day in some states.
Essar group on Friday announced the signing of a USD 2.4 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) deal to sell certain ports and power infrastructure to ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel in one of the largest post-pandemic merger and acquisition deals in India. In a statement, the Ruia-run firm said the deal also envisages a 50-50 joint venture between Essar and ArcelorMittal for building a 4 million tonnes a year LNG import terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. Without giving details, it only identified certain ports and power infrastructure that are primarily captive to operations of the Hazira steel plant, which was acquired by ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AM/NS) in 2018-19, as part of the deal.
'Bottomline, hairline and waistline -- you have to watch them always.'
Experts disagree with the idea and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has the sole right to print money, is not comfortable with it as well.
The investment climate is going well in India and the private sector should skill their workforce in the interest of its business, Chief Economic Advisor K V Subramanian said on Thursday asserting that he does not foresee any difficulty in demand and supply of the workforce. Addressing 'Times Network India Economic Conclave', Subramanian further said job creation is part of the virtuous cycle that starts with private investments flowing into the country resulting in production, growth, job creation and increase in aggregate demand which in turn leads to more investments in the economy. The investment climate is going well in India. Other things will follow, though with a lag...it is for the private sector to start recognising that it is in their own business interest that they should skill their workforce. This, in turn, will raise the average level of skills in India," he said.
The country's two top telcos, Reliance Jio and Airtel, are working overnight to undertake one of the fastest global roll-outs of 5G services in any country just a month down the line. India might be late in the game (already 70 countries have some kind of 5G and there are 698 million 5G subscribers across the world), but it's moving at breakneck speed. In his speech at the Reliance Industries AGM, Mukesh Ambani unveiled his plan to roll out the fastest 5G network in the world, starting from four metros in October but hitting every town taluka and tehsil - there are some 5,600 of them - in the country in 18 months.
Earlier this year, the Union Cabinet gave the management of state-run companies the freedom to decide on divesting their subsidiaries. However, the very next day a meeting was held at the top level of the Government of India, for the presentation of proposals for more autonomy for state-run companies. Interestingly, no chiefs of any of these companies were invited. It is a problem that will stare the government in the face with the state-owned banks too, as talks have again begun for inviting strategic investments in these companies.
Air India has planned to monetise its unutilised and surplus immovable real estate assets over the next few years.
Gadkari said the NHAI was working on setting up an InvIT to monetise its projects for mobilising resources through capital markets.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has assured Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that the Rs 12.05-trillion gross borrowing programme for FY22 will go through smoothly.
Muzammil Patel and Rahul Murthi will answer all your start-up queries.
Very gradual fiscal consolidation glide path with looser-than-expected fiscal policy; good quality spending mix and reasonable assumption on fiscal math; and focus on privatisation, asset monetisation and long-term funding for infrastructure investments, according to Morgan Stanley, are the three key themes from the Budget 2021.
The government has reconstituted a high level committee for the disposal of enemy properties that have been left behind by those who migrated and took up citizenship of Pakistan and China.
The asset monetisation exercise in the first phase will help BSNL shave off its Rs 14,000-crore debt. The government has said that these firms are strategically important and will not be closed down or divested.
It came as a surprise to all stakeholders - competing telecom companies (telcos), most analysts and even the government's internal projections on revenues from the 5G auctions. Reliance Jio disrupted all calculations by paying a stiff Rs 40,000 crore to buy 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700-MHz band, globally considered a key band for efficient 5G service coverage, along with the default 3.5 GHz band and the ultra-high speed and low-latency millimetre band of 26 GHz band. So what made Jio pay almost 45 per cent of its total spend in this auction for the 700 MHz band - much more than what it rustled up even for the 3.5 GHz band?
The government must send out a clear signal that leadership positions at regulatory bodies are not a preserve of retired government officials, argues A K Bhattacharya.
Just a few weeks ago, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw did some tough talking with the senior managers of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the ailing state-owned telecom service provider. The message was clear: They had to perform, quit by taking the voluntary retirement package or be compulsorily retired from service. The terse message from an otherwise polite and soft-spoken minister came just days after he announced a second and bigger package of Rs 1.64 trillion as part of a four-year turnaround plan for BSNL.
Bharti Airtel aims to leverage its 180 million plus digital service customers and its wide presence in rural areas to grow its payment bank business. "We are well placed as we can leverage the 180 million plus customers we have across our digital assets. "We offer a plethora of services such as lucrative interest rates, gift cards, FASTag, telecom recharges, payments and debit cards. "Our large merchant base of more than eight million allows us to drive both engagement and monetisation.
Debt-ridden Reliance Capital ready to cede control in home finance - Blackstone, Carlyle, Brookfield, and Piramal group are in talks to buy a large stake in Reliance Home Finance.
SBI Funds Management (SBI MF) will distribute the fifth tranche of Rs 3,303 crore to unitholders of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund's six shuttered schemes during the week beginning Monday. With this, the total disbursement will reach Rs 21,080 crore, amounting to 84 per cent of assets under management (AUM) as on April 23, 2020, a Franklin Templeton MF spokesperson said on Sunday. Under the first disbursement in February, investors received Rs 9,122 crore, while Rs 2,962 crore were paid to investors during the week of April 12, Rs 2,489 crore during the week of May 3 and in the latest disbursement during the week of June 7, investors were paid Rs 3,205 crore.
Sources said SBI Funds Management will distribute the proceeds to unitholders following liquidation of some securities held under the scheme.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her third Budget on February 1.
The Railway ministry has been allocated budgetary support of Rs 140367.13 crore in the Union Budget on Tuesday - Rs 20,311 crore more than the revised figures of the previous fiscal. Overall, the national transporter is set to get a capital expenditure (CapEx) push of Rs 2.45 lakh crore in the financial year 2022-23, 14 per cent higher than the budgeted capital expenditure of Rs 2.15 lakh crore for the current financial year. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech for 2022-23 said that India will manufacture 400 new, energy-efficient Vande Bharat trains in the next three years.
Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund, which has closed six debt schemes, has said the winding-up process will be delayed in the absence of authorisation from investors and further steps will be possible only after seeking fresh approval from them. It further said that investors who do not have an e-mail ID or mobile number registered with the fund house will not be able to participate in the voting process. The date on which the voting would start has not been disclosed yet.
In mid-2020, when Kushal Pal Singh, the undisputed king of India's vast real estate market, relinquished the top post at the country's largest realtor, he left behind an empire that is best compared to the Greek myth of the Phoenix. Once the leader of Delhi's organised real estate market, DLF's steep decline in the 1970s and its majestic rise since has often been cited as a business resurrection story. Now, a year after his departure from the helm of affairs, history seems to be repeating itself at the real estate major. In the 1970s, it was the government prohibitions that had forced DLF to venture into uncharted territory; some five decades later, the Delhi-headquartered firm has set its eyes on another growth trajectory that holds immense potential.
A joint forum of central trade unions has given a call for a nationwide strike on March 28 and 29 to protest against the government policies affecting workers, farmers, and people.
'They want (the ownership and management of PSU banks) to pass into the hands of a private sector entity.' 'Ownership of these banks will go from the public sector to private sector.'
Challenge the status quo, question the why behind processes, and push yourself and your organisation. That's how you will win, even if you 'lose' is Neha Sampat's advice to wannabe entrepreneurs.
'We know that returning money to unitholders at the earliest is the first and most important step towards resurrecting our brand and regaining investor trust.'
State-owned companies have been set stiff targets to increase accountability as they get ready for divestment. Nikunj Ohri explains why meeting them will be challenging.
The government's food subsidy in the ongoing fiscal year is expected to be a little less than Rs 4 trillion.
After navigating the turbulent pandemic waves, the recovering Indian economy is now sailing through unchartered waters of rising coronavirus cases, spiralling commodity prices and spiking inflation though the lighthouse of sustainable growth remains visible. As 2022 begins, a raft of developments, ranging from Budgetary announcements to continuation of stimulus measures to monetary policy, will set the tone for the domestic economy, which is projected to grow more than 9 per cent in the current fiscal ending March 2022. The country's continuing massive vaccination drive and 'precaution' doses starting for select categories of people this month will provide a firewall against any steep spike in coronavirus cases amid the emergence of the Omicron variant.
The Centre will release Rs 95,082 crore as tax devolution to the states this month after including one advance instalment to help them push their capital expenditure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday. After a meeting with all chief ministers and state finance ministers, Sitharaman said states had said that it would be helpful for them if the tax devolution is front loaded.
It plans to use it as collateral, along with forex reserves, to print currency.