Tata Sons Private Limited, the holding company of the Tata group, witnessed a precipitous drop in its net debt to Rs 5,656 crore in the 10 months ended January this year, as its cash reserves burgeoned to Rs 9,516 crore during this period. Eight years ago, in 2015-16, Tata Sons reported a net debt of Rs 5,132 crore; from March 2017 until March 2023, this figure was above the Rs 14,700 mark, peaking at Rs 27,437 crore at the end of March 2019, according to data sourced from Capitaline. The company's gross debt nearly halved to Rs 15,173 crore until January 2024 on a standalone basis, down from a peak of Rs 31,363 crore reported in the financial year ended March 2019.
Mining magnate Anil Agarwal's conglomerate on Friday announced a major business shake-up, with flagship Vedanta Ltd approving a spin-off of its metals, power, aluminium and oil and gas businesses into separate listed entities and an overhaul of lucrative zinc unit planned as part of value creation and reducing debt load. Vedanta will issue one share of the five demerged businesses for every share held in the company, the firm said in a statement. The entire exercise, which would require shareholder and lender approval as well as a nod from the stock exchanges and courts, is expected to be completed in 12-15 months, its president for finance Ajay Agarwal said.
India will be an important country in terms of manufacturing in future, Young Liu, chairman and CEO of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) has said, his latest comment adding to a growing chorus of global voices acknowledging the country's bold moves to position itself as electronics and hi-tech production powerhouse. In an interaction with reporters in Taipei, the top honcho of the Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant said the development of the entire ecosystem and industrial chain, and opportunities for development in India are "very, very huge opportunities". "If there is no big change, India will be a very important country in terms of manufacturing in the future," Liu said.
Even as India's passenger-vehicle sales touched a record high of 3.9 million units in 2022-23, growing 27 per cent over the previous financial year, the country's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), said on Monday uncertainties in the electronic-component supplies might affect production in FY24. MSIL said the shortage of electronic components had some impact on production in FY23. "The company took all possible measures to minimise the impact.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at the India Mobile Congress in New Delhi on Friday reeled out statistics to show how India has turned into an exporter of mobile phones from being an importer and how big tech companies -- from Apple to Google -- are lining up to become manufacturers in the country. He said after the fastest rollout of 5G mobile telephony services, India will lead the world on 6G. Recalling the launch of 5G technology in the country on October 1, 2022, he remarked that within a year there are about 5 lakh 5G base stations across the country.
I hope those who underestimate Rajeev Chandrasekhar will be proved wrong in this fight for Thiruvananthapuram's future, notes Rajeev Srinivasan.
National security advisor Ajit Doval on Friday suggested that various central armed police forces of the country should have "jointness" and interoperability among themselves like the ongoing plan for the defence forces.
During the visit to the gurudwara, some pro-Khalistan elements shouted questions about Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, killed in Canada in June this year.
Driven by mega investment proposals from Tata Power, Adani group, Singapore's Sembcorp Industries and Leap Green Energy, among others, the two-day Global Investors Meet 2024 in Tamil Nadu is expecting an infusion of around Rs 6.64 trillion. This is likely to create around 2.69 million direct and indirect jobs in the state. "Due to our tireless efforts and your participation during this Global Investors' Meet, we have attracted an unprecedented Rs 6.64 trillion of investments.
The Lok Sabha contest in Thiruvananthapuram is shaping up to be a significant battle involving key candidates like Shashi Tharoor, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and Panniyan Ravindran. This three-cornered fight highlights the political dynamics in Kerala's capital city, with each candidate bringing their own vision and promises for the region's development, notes Rajeev Srinivasan.
Dixon Technologies right now is a beehive of activity. It is building a new facility in Noida to make 1.3 million laptops for Taiwanese PC maker Acer. The facility must be up and running in four months. The pace of activity will only increase. Last week Dixon won a similar contract from Lenovo, the Chinese personal computer maker and the third largest information technology (IT) hardware brand in India, to assemble laptops and notebooks. Though the clientele in these two cases is Taiwanese and Chinese, Dixon is a company reaching for the stars with its feet planted firmly in the Indian government's policy.
Lou also spoke about China's tensions with neighbouring countries without directly mentioning the eastern Ladakh border standoff with India since May 2020 which resulted in the Galwan Valley clash in June of that year.
In the technology (tech) world, especially storage, Sanjay Mehrotra is a well-known name. Co-founder of SanDisk, a flash memory storage company in 1988, it was eventually acquired by Western Digital in 2016 for a whopping $19 billion. For a boy from Kanpur, who went on to pursue higher studies in the US, becoming the chief executive officer of Micron Technology, Inc - one of America's largest memory chip makers - and now setting up the company's first plant in India, it has been quite a ride.
The global semiconductor shortage is turning into a headache for automotive (auto) and appliance manufacturers. But it is proving to be a boon for equity investors. Semiconductor stocks are among the best performers this year. The PHLX Semiconductor Index has gained more than 35 per cent year-to-date.
Indian conglomerate Vedanta has earmarked $15 billion for foray into the electronic chip and display manufacturing space, and plans to scale up the investment to as much as $20 billion, a senior company official said. Vedanta's group firm Avanstrate, which will spearhead the semiconductor business, expects to roll out electronic chips and displays from Indian manufacturing plants by 2025, the official of the group's semiconductor arm said on Friday. "Semiconductor is a long-term business. We are looking at about $10 billion on display.
'...which is possible through flexicap and multicap funds.' 'The latter has a better balance between large, mid and smallcap stocks.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday held a meeting with representatives of the semiconductor industry of the US and invited them to make further investments in India. The finance minister spoke about opportunities for companies situated in Silicon Valley and about the government of India's commitment to be a reliable player in the entire semiconductor value chain with dedicated incentive for the sector in mission mode through the Indian Semiconductor Mission. Last year, the government approved a Rs 76,000-crore scheme to boost semiconductor and display manufacturing in the country in a bid to position India as a global hub for hi-tech production, and attract large chip makers.
'Our plan to set up a semiconductor facility in India is back on the table'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed confidence that the NDA will get more than 400 seats and the BJP will win at least 370 seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
'Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka were competing for the Foxconn-Vedanta semiconductor manufacturing plant'
The Taiwanese foreign minister said the time has come for all democratic countries to find ways to deal with China's expansionist agenda and its military muscle flexing, especially in the maritime domain.
After clocking losses for seven straight quarters, Tata Motors on Wednesday posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,043 crore in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022-23. This came on the back of a strong order book, better semiconductor chip supply, tempered commodity prices, and a better product mix. "We remain cautiously optimistic about the demand situation, notwithstanding the global uncertainty.
The Shinde-led govt might even "trade Mumbai," said the editorial in "Saamana".
Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte on Monday said the G20 New Delhi declaration was clearly a compromise, which is always the case with such a multilateral forum, but he was happy with the fact that there were some key elements in it, and that India was able to broker it.
According to the survey report, the government's move to earmark Rs 76,000 crore outlay for semiconductors and display manufacturing segment will aid their production in the country. The survey said that government intervention to boost semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem in the country has come at a time when the global economy is facing acute shortage of semiconductors due to severe disruptions in supply chains.
'India is the sixth-largest market for the Kia Corporation, and contributes 8 to 9 per cent to our global sales.' 'We are eyeing 10 per cent market share over the next few years depending on customer demand and new product innovations.'
Mumbai-based Indian Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ISMC) and Singapore-headquartered IGSS Ventures have one strategy in common: They have told the government in their application for semiconductor fabrication plants that they will export the bulk of the chips they make in India in the initial five or 10 years. The third applicant, Vedanta-Foxconn, which is also building a fab plant, has said it will concentrate on the needs of consumer electronics and mobile device markets, and earmark 80 per cent of output for domestic consumption, but has not specified its customers. Finding a viable domestic market could well be the biggest challenge for India's renewed tryst with semiconductors. Fab plants do not sell directly to end users but to intermediary chip design companies - such as Qualcomm or MediaTek.
The Indian equity markets have significantly increased in importance within the emerging market (EM) basket of stocks in recent years. Since 2018, India's weighting in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) EM Index - tracked by passive funds with assets of nearly $500 billion - has doubled, while the number of domestic stocks has grown by almost 70 per cent.
In 2024 so far, 20 startups have already visited the campus with 80 placements.
The top 25 global technology (tech) firms, including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Tencent, Samsung, Oracle, and Accenture, collectively lost over $600 billion in market capitalisation (m-cap) during the July-September quarter (third quarter, or Q3) of calendar year 2023 (CY23), reveals a recent report by GlobalData, a London-based analytics and consulting company.
Here are list of some of the big ticket announcements.
Domestic passenger vehicle sales could touch a record level of nearly 40 lakh units this year on strong demand and companies finding ways to enhance production despite semiconductor shortage, a senior Maruti Suzuki India official said on Monday. Even as the chip shortage issue has improved compared to a year back, the industry is estimated to have a pending order of around 7.5 lakh units of passenger vehicles with Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) alone having around 4.18 lakh units, company senior executive officer, marketing and sales, Shashank Srivastava told PTI. "I think it would be slightly below 4 million (units mark).
India and the US on Friday said they have started talks to put in place a strategic framework for human space flight by year-end as they plan to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2024.
The previous May peak was observed in 2018 when the domestic PV wholesales stood at 301,238 units.
How much do you know about the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024?
Tata Group is in discussions with some major international companies, including those from Taiwan, for its foray into the semiconductor chip business. The Union government had earlier tried to bring in Taiwanese manufacturers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) for chip manufacturing in India. A person close to the development said the Tatas have now opened a separate channel for a possible tie-up. Currently, India mostly imports chips, which are fabricated and assembled to put into various applications, including automobiles, renewable power, mobile phones, televisions, and other electronic items.
Existing optimism about the capital goods sector has been enhanced by the Assembly election results, which were favourable for the BJP. The prospects of political continuity led to renewed interest in the sector. There are demand-supply gaps, especially in power, and visibility of improved pricing and strong order flows, including from private enterprises.
Allowing 12-hour shifts for all and night-time work for women was meant to benefit software firms, but is said to have clinched Foxconn's Rs 80 billion investment.
Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress alleging that the opposition party has become outdated and has always been against any kind of reservation.
Foxconn means serious business in India. Its delegation to India was led by its Chairman Young Liu who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.