Business

unsafe-for-women-karnataka-govt-withdraws-electric-bike-taxi-services

Fri Mar 08 16:24:10 IST 2024

Karnataka government has banned operation of electric bike taxi services in the state after they were found to be "unsafe for women" and being carried out in violation of Motor Vehicles Act.

A government order notified that the 2021 Karnataka Electric Bike Taxi Scheme has now been withdrawn.

It has come to our notice that certain private app-based firms are violating the Motor Vehicles Act and its rules and running illegal non-transport two-wheelers as the transport vehicles, it said.

It also said there were often clashes between the owners and drivers of auto rickshaws and "maxi cabs" with the bike riders and cases were also registered. The scheme also made it difficult for the transport department to collect taxes.

Further, to maintain law and order and keeping in mind the safety of women travelling on two-wheeler bike taxis, the government has cancelled the scheme, the notification stated.

President of the Ola Uber Drivers and Owners Association, Tanveer Pasha, welcomed the decision and said the then BJP government had in 2021 given permission to electric bike taxis in Bengaluru.

In spite of our opposition, the permission was not withdrawn. We had been agitating against this and even tried to explain to the government about the impact of this permission on auto and taxi drivers' life, he said.

zomato-comes-out-with-new-dress-code-for-its-female-delivery-partners

Fri Mar 08 21:53:06 IST 2024

On International Women’s Day, popular food delivery platform Zomato introduced a new dress code for its female delivery partners.

Taking to Instagram, Zomato posted a video saying their women delivery partners can now opt to wear kurtas instead of t-shirts.

In the video, Zomato noted that many women have expressed discomfort with the Western-style Zomato t-shirts. "So, we gave them a choice."

The video shows the female delivery partners trying their new uniforms, kurtas, and appreciating the company's decision.

"Starting today, Zomato's women delivery partners can choose to wear a kurta," the company wrote, sharing the video.

Many followers of the food delivery app on Instagram appreciated the initiative.

"Some deliver choices, some deliver goodness, some do both," wrote a user.

"Zomato, you nailed the marketing game, you touch hearts like no one else," wrote another.

veg-food-thali-becomes-costlier-in-february-non-veg-food-turns-cheaper-crisil

Fri Mar 08 18:19:54 IST 2024

A vegetarian thali became dearer by 7 per cent in February primarily on the upsurge in onion and tomato prices, according to rating agency Crisil.

A cool down in poultry prices led to non-veg thali becoming cheaper by 9 per cent, Crisil Market Intelligence and Analysis said in its monthly 'Roti Rice Rate' report released on Friday.

The cost of a vegetable thali, which comprises roti, vegetables (onions, tomatoes and potatoes), rice, dal, curd and salad, increased to Rs 27.5 per plate in February from Rs 25.6 in the year-ago period, it said.

"The cost of the veg thali increased due to a surge of 29 per cent and 38 per cent on-year in prices of onion and tomato, respectively," it said, adding that rice and pulses have also got dearer.

However, the thali was cheaper when compared with the Rs 28 in the preceding month of January.

In the case of non-veg thali, which comprises all the same ingredients but dal gets replaced by chicken, the price declined to Rs 54 as compared to Rs 59.2 in the year-ago period, but was higher when compared with January's Rs 52.

A 20 per cent decline in the cost of the broiler prices, which has a 50 per cent weightage in the overall price, was the primary reason for the decline in the cost of non-veg thali on a year-on-year basis, it said.

When compared with January, the prices of broiler increased by 10 per cent on the bird flu outbreak in Andhra Pradesh impacting supply and higher demand ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, the report said.

why-adr-believes-sbi-can-easily-match-electoral-bond-donors-with-parties

Fri Mar 08 16:54:58 IST 2024

In its petition before the Supreme Court seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the State Bank of India over the electoral bonds scheme case, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) claimed that the bonds are completely traceable, and easily so since the bank maintains a secret number-based record of donors who buy the bonds, and the political parties they donate to.

The ADR, in the petition filed on Thursday, said as per experts, the software that the bank is using to keep a record of the bonds can generate the required information on the basis of a simple query.

“...since each electoral bond has a unique number, a simple query on the database can generate a report in a particular format which does not require any manual verification,” it was stated in the petition.

It was also contended by ADR that while the sealed envelopes are only physical instruments like a cheque, the actual transaction of the cheque being deposited is in the database that can be easily extracted by generating a software query.

“As per SBI's own website, SBI has 2,60,000 employees, 22,500 worldwide branches administered by a headquarters, 17 local head offices, 101 zonal offices and 208 foreign offices in 36 countries. It is hard to believe that SBI is not able to gather information which SBI has itself recorded,” the petition said.

It was further stated by the petitioner that as per information procured by Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd) from an RTI application, the SBI has spent Rs 60,43,005 on IT system development, and the operational cost was Rs 89,72,338 with regard to the management of electoral bonds. The net cost for floating the bonds was Rs 1,50,15,338.

The ADR filed a petition seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the SBI for “wilfully and deliberately” disobeying the order of the Supreme Court passed on February 15 in the electoral bonds scheme case.

The SBI was asked by the court to submit details of the bonds purchased since the court's interim order on April 12, 2019, till date, to the Election Commission. The details have to include the date of purchase of each electoral bond, the name of the purchaser of the bond, and the denomination of the electoral bond purchased.

The bank was also asked to submit the details of political parties which have received contributions through the bonds since April 12, 2019, till date to the EC. It has to disclose details of each bond encashed by the political parties which shall include the date of encashment and the denomination of the bond. It had to submit the details to the EC by March 6.

The bank told the court that the donor details were kept in a sealed cover at the designated branches and all such sealed covers were deposited in the main branch of the applicant branch, which is located in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, as per the bank's submission before the court, each political party was required to maintain a designated account in any of the 29 authorised branches. It was only in this account that the bonds received by that party could be deposited and redeemed. At the time of redemption, the original bond, the pay-in slip, would be stored in a sealed cover and sent to the SBI Mumbai main branch.

As per the bank, it can thus be noted that both sets of information were being stored independently of each other and to re-match them would be a task requiring a significant amount of effort. It sought an extension of time for providing the details till the end of June.

sensex-nifty-eke-out-gains-to-settle-at-fresh-lifetime-highssensex

Thu Mar 07 16:26:20 IST 2024

Benchmark Sensex and Nifty closed at fresh record highs on Thursday following gains in metal and FMCG shares amid firm global trends and foreign fund inflows.

In a highly volatile trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex eked out gains of 33.40 points or 0.05 per cent to settle at a new closing peak of 74,119.39. During the day, it jumped 159.18 points or 0.21 per cent to reach an all-time high of 74,245.17.

The Nifty rose by 19.50 points or 0.09 per cent to reach a new closing peak of 22,493.55. During the day, it climbed 51.6 points or 0.22 per cent to a record high of 22,525.65.

Among the Sensex firms, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, ITC and Nestle were the major gainers.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Power Grid were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul settled in the green while Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended lower.

European markets were trading on a mixed note. The US markets ended in positive territory on Wednesday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 2,766.75 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.65 per cent to $82.42 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark jumped 408.86 points or 0.55 per cent to settle at a new record high of 74,085.99 on Wednesday. The Nifty climbed 117.75 points or 0.53 per cent to settle at a fresh closing peak of 22,474.05.

rbi-bank-indonesia-sign-mou-to-promote-local-currencies-for-cross-border-transactions

Thu Mar 07 17:17:11 IST 2024

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bank Indonesia (BI) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday for setting up a framework to promote local currencies— the Indian rupee and the Indonesian rupiah—for cross-border transactions.

According to RBI, the MoU aims to promote the two currencies bilaterally.

“The MoU covers all current account transactions, permissible capital account transactions and any other economic and financial transactions as agreed upon by both countries. This framework would enable exporters and importers to invoice and pay in their respective domestic currencies, which in turn would enable the development of an INR-IDR foreign exchange market,” RBI said in a release.

The central bank said the use of local currencies would optimise costs and settlement time for transactions.

The RBI said this collaboration marks a key milestone in strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two banks.

It said the use of local currencies in bilateral transactions will eventually contribute to promoting trade between India and Indonesia. The decision will also deepen financial integration and strengthen the historical, cultural and economic relations between the two countries, RBI added.

the-lure-of-yellow-metal-why-gold-smuggling-is-unlikely-to-end-in-near-future

Thu Mar 07 20:11:40 IST 2024

India’s love affair with gold, bordering on obsession, continues unabated. The demand for gold never seems to decline. Licit imports of gold are in the range of about 750 tonnes annually. As per the Reserve Bank of India’s half-yearly report on foreign exchange management, the RBI has 794.64 metric tonnes of gold as on March 2023. In value terms, the share of gold in the total foreign exchange reserves is at a high of nearly 7.81 per cent.

Our foreign exchange reserves at the end of April 2023 were at $588.78 billion, the fourth largest in the world. As per the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union budget speech 2015-16, approximately 20,000 tonnes of gold were said to be available domestically—gold which was neither traded nor monetised. A 2018 Niti Aayog report, 'Transforming India’s Gold Sector’, has however estimated that 23,000-24,000 tonnes of gold is lying unused in the vaults of banks, with households and religious institutions throughout the nation.

Several policy measures were put in place in the hope of attracting this unused gold to come out in the open. November 2015 witnessed the launch of three schemes—the gold monetisation scheme, (GMS) the sovereign gold bond scheme, and the India gold coin.

As per a study by the India Gold Policy Centre at IIM, Ahmedabad, about 22 tonnes of gold has so far come under GMS—a very small percentage of the 23,000-24,000 tonnes of gold said to be in the economy. In early 2021, GMS was revamped (R-GMS). We are currently in the series IV of the RBI’s sovereign gold bond scheme—yet another scheme to attract investments in gold. This is apart from the Gold ETF which mutual funds offer.

There is also the hallmarking scheme. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act was amended to provide for the hallmarking sale of gold jewellery, whereby unique identification numbers guaranteeing purity are provided to each piece of jewellery. There are currently about 950 hallmarking centres across the country.

The fond hope behind all these initiatives was that citizens would bring out the gold lying dormant to take advantage of these schemes. Implicit also was the belief that smuggling would consequently come down.

Yet smuggling continues, through land, sea and air.— concealed in body orifices, in vehicles, in machine parts, as molten metal, in paste form. (World Gold Council would have us believe that up to 160 tonnes of gold is smuggled into the country.) The ingenuity of smugglers is matched only by the customs officer’s alertness. The Lok Sabha was informed in 2023 that 3,982 cases of smuggling of gold were detected in 2022 leading to the seizure of 3,502.16 kg of gold and the arrest of 1,710 persons, with Kerala having the highest number of cases. Seizures admittedly represent a small portion of what has been smuggled.

Demand accompanied by supply restrictions imposed by tariff barriers fuels smuggling. We initially restricted all import of gold. That was the era of unbridled smuggling, of Haji Mastan and a young Dawood Ibrahim. We liberalised. Import was permitted at a specific rate of Rs 300 per 10 gm—this translated to about 1 per cent and dramatically reduced smuggling. We today have a 7.5 per cent basic custom’s duty rate. There is in addition an Agriculture & Infrastructure Cess, a social welfare surcharge, and Integrated Goods & Services Tax (IGST). Smuggling reduced, but it did not stop.

Smuggling, at the end of the day, is a trading activity. When there is demand and restriction in any form, supply will seek to evade these restrictions to garner increased profit. All the elements were always there in the case of gold. Unsatiated demand, restrictions in the form of customs duty, opportunity in the form of a 7,516.6 km coastline, a 15,200 km land border largely porous, and multiple international airports ensure that there is a steady illegal flow of gold. Even with the reduced basic customs duty, the profit available in smuggling gold more than made up for the risks.

Smuggling has a multiplier bad impact on the economy. It results in the loss of legitimate jobs. There is an obvious loss of customs revenue to the government. Smuggled gold, when sold in the market, generates money that is outside the tax net. Some portion of the proceeds are transmitted back to the controller of the smuggling operations through illicit channels—‘hawala’—or by resorting to trade-based money laundering. The remaining portion of the proceeds remain in the country and finance other criminal activities.

Most of the licit imports into the country come from Switzerland. Dubai is the major source for all the smuggled gold coming into the country, either directly or via Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar or Sri Lanka. Gold is much cheaper in Dubai compared to India, making smuggling very attractive. The challenge has always been to strike the right balance—impose a duty high enough to reduce imports and conserve foreign exchange, but not so high that smugglers feel emboldened to take the risk.

Whenever rural India does well economically, there is a surge in demand for gold. There is also the large problem of unemployment in the country. All these— the demand, price difference, a large unemployed restless population who would for a pittance work as carrier mules to smuggle the gold—suggest that smuggling will continue.

The World Economic Forum ( WEF) estimates that that illicit trade globally results in an annual drain of $2.2 trillion—approximately 3 per cent of the world GDP. Prof Arun Kumar, India’s leading authority on the black economy, has in the context of India estimated its size to be 62 per cent of GDP at 2016-17 prices, or about Rs.93 lakh crore. To put this in context, this is larger than the income generated by agriculture and industry put together. Not all of this humongous amount is generated by the smuggling of gold. As per the reply to a parliamentary question on February 7, 2023, the Enforcement Directorate has identified Rs. 2,116 crore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). How much of this represents the sale proceeds of smuggled gold is unclear. As per the DRI Annual Report 2022, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed charge sheets in three cases of gold smuggling. What this would suggest is that there is a nexus at least in some cases, between gold smuggling and terrorism related activities.

Given the fact that most of the cases of gold smuggling originate from Dubai, this is significant. Many of India's wanted persons for terrorist activities are based in Dubai or have strong Dubai connections, and very many of them are in gold smuggling. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in a 2020 report, highlighted Dubai's role in facilitating corruption and illicit financial flows.

So, while enforcement agencies should continue their vigil and DRI can launch its various anti-smuggling operations with exotic names (Golden Dawn, Eastern Gateway), we would also need to look at other policy measures. Given our healthy foreign exchange reserves, it is time to take a relook at the duty structure. We could reduce the basic customs duty of imported gold—reduce it enough to make the risks of smuggling not worthwhile. There should be a robust system of tracing licit imports of gold all along the value chain. This is essential to ensure that gold stays in the licit economy.

The R-GMS needs to be relooked at. The interest of 2.5 per cent which the scheme presently offers is too low to be attractive. A provision should be made in the R-GMS to give back the gold article in its original form if the depositor so desires. This is especially true in respect of ornaments which are family heirlooms.

At the cost of repetition, we should never forget that the lure of gold is cultural. We would need to generate awareness, especially among the younger generation, that gold is nothing but a shiny metal. While the value of currencies can be determined in terms of the gold reserves a country holds, the value of individuals need not be.

(Najib Shah is the former chairman of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs)

tata-motors-to-hike-commercial-vehicle-prices-by-up-to-2-per-cent-from-april

Thu Mar 07 16:07:55 IST 2024

Tata Motors, on Thursday, said it will increase prices of its commercial vehicles by up to 2 per cent from April 1, 2024.

The price increase is to offset the residual impact of the past input costs, the auto major said in a statement.

While the price increase will vary as per individual model and variant, it will be applicable across the entire range of commercial vehicles, it added.

Tata Motors is a leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses, in India.

govt-approves-rs-10372-crore-india-ai-mission-all-you-need-to-know

Thu Mar 07 21:22:49 IST 2024

The Union cabinet, on Thursday, approved India AI mission with an outlay of Rs 10,372 crore for five years. The funds will be used to create a large computing infrastructure.

The IndiaAI mission will establish a comprehensive ecosystem, catalysing AI innovation through strategic programmes and partnerships across the public and private sectors, the government said in a release.

This will be done by democratising computing access, improving data quality, developing indigenous AI capabilities, attracting top AI talent, enabling industry collaboration, and providing startup risk capital.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal said after the cabinet meeting that super-computing capacity, comprising over 10,000 GPU, will be made available to various stakeholders for creating an AI ecosystem.

Startups, academia, researchers and industry will be given access to the AI supercomputing infrastructure established under the India AI Mission, the minister said.

A national data management officer will be set up under the mission that will coordinate with various government departments and ministries to improve the quality of data and make them available for AI development and deployment.

The mission will be implemented by ‘IndiaAI’ Independent Business Division (IBD) under Digital India Corporation (DIC) and has the following components:

IndiaAI Compute Capacity: The IndiaAI compute pillar will build a high-end scalable AI computing ecosystem to cater to the increasing demands from India’s rapidly expanding AI start-ups and research ecosystem. The ecosystem will comprise AI compute infrastructure of 10,000 or more Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), built through public-private partnerships. Further, an AI marketplace will be designed to offer AI as a service and pre-trained models to AI innovators. It will act as a one-stop solution for resources critical for AI innovation.

IndiaAI Innovation Centre: The IndiaAI Innovation Centre will undertake the development and deployment of indigenous Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) and domain-specific foundational models in critical sectors.

IndiaAI Datasets Platform: The IndiaAI Datasets Platform will streamline access to quality non-personal datasets for AI Innovation. A unified data platform will be developed to provide a one-stop solution for seamless access to non-personal datasets to Indian startups and researchers.

IndiaAI Application Development Initiative: The IndiaAI Application Development Initiative will promote AI applications in critical sectors for the problem statements sourced from central ministries, state departments, and other institutions. The initiative will focus on developing/scaling/promoting the adoption of impactful AI solutions with potential for catalyzing large-scale socio-economic transformation.

IndiaAI FutureSkills: IndiaAI FutureSkills is conceptualised to mitigate barriers to entry into AI programs and will increase AI courses in undergraduate, masters-level, and PhD programmes. Further, data and AI labs will be set-up in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India to impart foundational level courses.

IndiaAI Startup Financing: The IndiaAI startup financing would support and accelerate deep-tech AI startups and provide them streamlined access to funding to enable futuristic AI Projects.

Safe & Trusted AI: Recognising the need for adequate guardrails to advance the responsible development, deployment, and adoption of AI, the Safe & Trusted AI pillar will enable the implementation of responsible AI projects including the development of indigenous tools and frameworks, self-assessment checklists for innovators, and other guidelines and governance frameworks.

govt-extends-rs-300-lpg-subsidy-for-ujjwala-beneficiaries-for-fy25

Thu Mar 07 22:32:51 IST 2024

Ahead of general elections, the government, on Thursday, announced the extension of Rs 300 per LPG cylinder subsidy to poor women under the Ujjwala Yojana for the next fiscal starting April 1.

The government had, in October last year, hiked the subsidy from Rs 200 per 14.2-kg cylinders for up to 12 refills per year to Rs 300 per bottle. The Rs 300 per cylinder subsidy was for the current fiscal, which ends on March 31.

The cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) has now decided to extend this subsidy to 2024-25, Union Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters.

The move, likely to benefit nearly 10 crore families, will cost the government Rs 12,000 crore.

The general elections are due in April-May.

To make Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), a clean cooking fuel, available to rural and deprived poor households, the government launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in May 2016 to provide deposit-free LPG connections to adult women of poor households.

While the connection was provided for free, the beneficiaries had to purchase LPG refills at market price.

As fuel prices soared, the government in May 2022 provided a Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy to PMUY beneficiaries. This was increased to Rs 300 in October 2023.

Ahead of assembly elections in five states, including Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the government had, in late August, cut cooking gas prices by Rs 200 per cylinder. After this, the LPG cylinder price came down to Rs 903.

For Ujjwala beneficiaries, the price was Rs 603 after considering the Rs 300 per cylinder subsidy, which is directly paid into the bank accounts of connection holders.

The targeted support to PMUY consumers encourages them for continuous use of LPG.

The average LPG consumption of PMUY consumers increased 20 per cent from 3.01 refills in 2019-20 to 3.68 in 2021-22.

All PMUY beneficiaries are eligible for the targeted subsidy scheme.

vc-firm-colossa-ventures-raises-rs-100-crore-in-first-close-of-its-colossa-womenfirst-fund

Thu Mar 07 20:39:32 IST 2024

Colossa Ventures, an independent venture capital management company, announced on Thursday that it raised Rs 100 crore at the first first close its Colossa WomenFirst Fund.

First close refers to the initial round of investors making capital commitments in a private equity fund and becoming limited partners by entering into a deed of adherence.

"Colossa WomenFirst Fund aims to unlock the vast potential of the Indian female economy," the venture capital firm said.

Those invested in the first close of this sector-agnostic venture growth fund include SIDBI, Dr. Ranjan Pai’s Family Office and Shriram Ownership Trust, among others.

According to Colossa Ventures, the fund "seeks to revolutionise the startup landscape by focusing exclusively on high quality 'WomenFirst' businesses—either women-founded or co-founded, or where women are main beneficiaries."

The fund, with a target corpus of Rs 500 crore, will primarily focus on investing at the Pre-Series A stage and beyond.

"Our first close marks an important milestone for Colossa WomenFirst Fund," founder and CEO of Colossa Ventures, Ashu Suyash, said, adding, “Colossa’s mission is to unlock the great potential of India’s trillion-dollar women economy that is not just under-penetrated, but underinvested in, and underestimated. It seeks to do so by identifying, backing, and fast-tracking high-potential women entrepreneurs building disruptive businesses through powering them with Colossa’s proprietary 3C framework: Capital, Capability, and Confidence.”

Women are at an inflection point in the Indian economy and the next decade is going to be owned by women entrepreneurs, noted co-founder of Colossa Ventures, Vandana Rajadhyaksha.

As many as 33 unicorns and soonicorns in the country have female founders in 2023. The inflection point for women entrepreneurs is aided by a conducive socio-cultural landscape, access to SETM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, favourable policy-making, technology, and a hybrid work environment.

"As women increasingly take the lead in building substantial businesses, we see our participation in Colossa WomenFirst Fund as strategic deployment of 'confidence capital' to fuel the growth of women entrepreneurs," Ranjan Pai, chairman of Manipal Education and Medical Group, said.

supreme-court-quashes-jkcs-plea-challenging-sale-of-3-jet-airways-planes

Thu Mar 07 12:37:35 IST 2024

The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed Jalan Kalrock Consortium's (JKC) petition challenging the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's order to allow the sale of three Jet Airways aircraft.

JKC is the successful bidder tasked to revive the grounded Jet Airways and the consortium filed the plea to challenge the sale of three of the grounded airline's Boeing 777s to Malta-based Ace Aviation for Rs 400 crore.

A bench headed by Justice Abhay Sriniwas Oka said it did not find anything wrong with the tribunal's order, pointing out that the sale will help infuse more funds, thereby benefitting JKC, reported MoneyControl.

JKC move the apex court after the tribunal dismissed its plea on Wednesday. It came in response to Ace Aviation's plea in the tribunal, seeking to expediate the sale as the aircraft have been grounded since 2018 and hence the company needs at least eight to 10 months to repair them.

sensex-nifty-hit-fresh-record-peaks-in-early-trade-amid-firm-us-trends-foreign-fund-inflows

Thu Mar 07 10:11:02 IST 2024

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty hit their fresh record peaks in early trade on Thursday amid firm trend in the US markets and foreign fund inflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 159.18 points to reach an all-time peak of 74,245.17 in early trade. The Nifty went up by 49.6 points to 22,523.65.

However, later the markets turned volatile and both the benchmark indices were trading between highs and lows.

Among the Sensex firms, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints and State Bank of India were the major gainers.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading lower.

The US markets ended in the positive territory on Wednesday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 2,766.75 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

"There are some distinct trends in the market now. One, largecaps are outperforming mid and smallcaps. Two, Bank Nifty is emerging stronger led by private sector majors like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Bank. Three, regulatory action on some NBFCs have impacted sentiments in the entire NBFC space, which, in turn, is improving sentiments in the high quality private banking space," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.13 per cent to USD 82.85 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark jumped 408.86 points or 0.55 per cent to settle at a new record high of 74,085.99 on Wednesday. The Nifty climbed 117.75 points or 0.53 per cent to settle at a fresh closing peak of 22,474.05.

kerala-based-popular-vehicles-ipo-all-you-need-to-know

Wed Mar 06 18:12:21 IST 2024

Kochi-based Popular Vehicles and Services, engaged in the automotive dealerships and services space, on Wednesday, fixed Rs 280-295 as the price band for its Rs 602-crore initial share sale that opens on Tuesday next week.

The issue consists of Rs 250 crore of fresh issue and Rs 352 crore of offer for sale by the promoters led by Naveen Philip, the managing director of the company, and his Kuttukaran family, which now holds 69 per cent of the company.

Promoter Banyan Tree Growth Capital is selling 19 per cent of its 29 per cent ownership in the company.

Post-issue, the promoters' shareholding will fall to 61 per cent while that of Banyan Tree will come down to 10 per cent, John Verghese, the chief financial officer of the company, told PTI here.

Banyan Tree has been with Popular since 2015 when it had picked up 33 per cent for Rs 65 crore. In the run-up to the issue, the PE had sold 3 per cent at Rs 355 a share back to the company.

According to Verghese, the floor price is 140 times the face value (Rs 2 per equity) and the cap price is 147.50 times the face value.

Philip further said, that Popular, which has been in the automotive space for the past seven decades, was one of the 16 first dealerships that Maruti Suzuki issued way back in 1984 and the first in Kerala.

Verghese said the company had Rs 2,900 crore revenue in FY22 from which it had earned Rs 33 crore in net profit. The numbers jumped to Rs 4,975 crore and Rs 64 crore in FY23 and Rs 2,834 crore and Rs 40 crore, respectively in the first half of FY24, which is 58 per cent of the top line of the past fiscal.

He said Popular, which has its focus on after-sales services more than sales, said as much as 56 per cent of the FY23 gross margins came from services, of which 76 per cent came in from the bodyshop business and 15 per cent of the turnover. While it sold around 60,000 vehicles last year, it serviced a little more than one million vehicles in the same year.

But its net margin is very low at 1.4 per cent while the same for Landmark, which is the only other listed auto dealership, had it at 2.5 per cent but at a much lower top line and bottom line.

It has 432 touchpoints, including 100 showrooms and 139 service centres.

rbi-restrictions-jm-financial-says-no-material-deficiencies-in-loan-sanctioning-process

Wed Mar 06 16:22:29 IST 2024

JM Financial, on Wednesday, said it had a "careful and detailed review" of the Reserve Bank's order imposing restrictions on the company's financing business and asserted that there was "no material deficiencies" in its loan sanctioning process.

The Reserve Bank, on Tuesday, imposed restrictions on JM Financial Products Ltd after it found the company indulged in various manipulations, including repeatedly helping a group of its customers to bid for various IPOs (initial public offerings) by using loaned funds.

"After careful and detailed review of the order issued by the RBI on the action against JM Financial Products Ltd, we strongly believe that there have been no material deficiencies in our loan sanctioning process. Further, the company has not violated applicable regulations.

"We also wish to reaffirm that there have been no governance issues whatsoever and we conduct all our business and operational affairs in a bonafide manner. The company shall continue to service its existing customers as advised by the RBI," a JM Financial spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson further said JM Financial has been funding IPOs since over the last two decades and its "IPO financing product is short term and self-liquidating in nature".

"In the context of IPO funding, the Power of Attorney (POA) is taken as a risk containment measure only. The practice of taking POA is prevalent across the industry and is perfectly legal," the spokesperson said, adding, "we will fully cooperate with RBI in their special audit initiative and explain our position to RBI."

The central bank has barred the non-deposit-taking NBFC from providing any kind of financing against shares and debentures, including sanction and disbursal of loans against IPO of shares as well as against subscription to debentures.

In a statement on Tuesday, the RBI said the actions were "necessitated due to certain serious deficiencies observed in respect of loans sanctioned by the company for IPO financing as well as NCD (Non-Convertible Debentures) subscriptions".

JM Financial Products has been allowed to continue to service its existing loan accounts through the usual collection and recovery process.

Based on information provided by markets regulator Sebi, the RBI had carried out a limited review of the books of the JM Financial Products.

"During the limited review, it was observed, inter alia, that the company repeatedly helped a group of its customers to bid for various IPO and NCD offerings by using loaned funds. The credit underwriting was found to be perfunctory, and financing was done against meagre margins," the RBI said.

The application for subscription, the demat accounts and the bank accounts, all were operated by the company using a POA and a Master Agreement obtained from these customers without their involvement, whatsoever, in the subsequent operations.

"Consequently, the company was able to effectively act as both lender as well as borrower," the RBI said.

Further, the central bank said JM Financial Products also acted as the arranger of bank account opening as well as the operator of the said bank accounts using the POA.

"Apart from being in violation of regulatory guidelines, there are serious concerns on governance issues in the company, which in our assessment are detrimental to the interest of the customers," the RBI statement said.

According to the RBI, the business restrictions will be reviewed upon the completion of a special audit and after rectification of the deficiencies to the satisfaction of the RBI.

Meanwhile, shares of JM Financial on Wednesday tanked over 19 per cent on leading stock exchanges.

The stock tumbled 19.29 per cent to Rs 77.10 on the BSE. At the NSE, it plummeted 18.75 per cent to Rs 77.55.

The company's market capitalisation declined by Rs 1,484.53 crore to Rs 7,643.63 crore.

JM Financial Products offers a broad suite of loan products. Broadly, it operates under five verticals—capital market financing, retail mortgage financing, bespoke financing, financial institution financing, and real estate financing, as per its website.

rbi-is-all-for-fintech-sector-says-rbi-governor-on-paytm-payments-bank-restrictions

Wed Mar 06 17:01:22 IST 2024

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das sought to clarify that the central bank's action against Paytm Payments Bank Limited does not suggest that the RBI is against fintech sector.

In a recent interview to ET Now television channel, he said the central bank's action was against a regulated entity and not against any fintech company.

"I fail to under why a narrative is built that RBI has acted against a fintech company. In this case (Paytm Bank), the action is against payments bank," he observed.

We have done nothing so far as fintechs are concerned, he said and affirmed that RBI is all for fintechs.

RBI had recently barred Paytm Payments Bank Limited from carrying out new transactions with customers after March 15.

He said RBI intends to ensure that there are no major accidents in the fintech sector and that the rules of the game are adhered to.

Das urged Paytm Wallet users to link their Paytm wallet with banks other than Paytm Bank.

"So far as Paytm is concerned, a large part of users—80 to 85 per cent—of Paytm payment app are linked to other banks along with Paytm Payments Bank. So they will not be impacted as their bank accounts are also linked to other bank accounts," he said in the interview.

“If you have a Paytm payments app, please link it to some other bank by March 15,” Das added.

moodys-affirms-tata-motors-ba3-corporate-family-rating-maintains-positive-outlook

Wed Mar 06 22:31:37 IST 2024

Rating agency Moody's on Wednesday said it has affirmed Tata Motors' Ba3 corporate family rating while maintaining a positive outlook on all ratings.

Concurrently, Moody's has also affirmed Tata Motors Ltd's (TML) Ba3 senior unsecured instrument ratings, Moody's Investors Service said in a statement.

As per Moody's obligations rated 'Ba' are judged to have speculative elements and are subject to substantial credit risk with the modifier 3 indicating a ranking in the lower end of that generic rating category.

"Moody's has also maintained a positive outlook on all ratings," it added.

The rating affirmation follows TML's announcement earlier this week that its board of directors have agreed in principle the demerger of its operations into two separate listed companies for commercial vehicles (CVs) and passenger vehicles (PVs), respectively, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, it said.

"While the demerger would result in TML's remaining operations comprising only CVs, the company's strong foothold with about 40 per cent share in India's growing CV industry and the business' demonstrated ability in generating large free cash flow through industry cycles will support its credit profile.

"With unit sales of less than 0.5 million, revenues of around $9 billion and EBITA margin at about 8 per cent, TML's CV operations will likely generate ample free cash flow with credit metrics substantially strong for a Ba3 CFR (corporate family rating)," said Moody's senior vice president Kaustubh Chaubal.

The Ba3 CFR continues to incorporate a one-notch uplift, reflecting Moody's expectation of extraordinary support for TML from its parent Tata Sons Ltd in times of need, the statement said.

In Moody's view, the extraordinary support from Tata Sons will continue even after the demerger, keeping the one-notch uplift intact, it added.

The rating agency said the positive outlook reflects its view that the upgrade momentum on TML's ratings should continue with or without the proposed demerger.

Moody's expects all of TML's businesses to continue to deliver on their strategic growth priorities while maintaining a balanced financial policy that focuses on achieving net-zero automotive debt by March 2025, it added.

gst-enforcement-body-dggi-action-against-fmcg-majors-itc-pepsico-for-tax-evasion

Wed Mar 06 17:53:08 IST 2024

Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has launched action against several fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) players for alleged tax evasion.

According to a CNBC-TV18 report, DGGI sent notices and investigation intimation letters to FMCG companies, including TC, Pepsico, Prataap Snacks, Balaji Wafers, Guiltfree Industries Ltd and Sarveshwar Foods Ltd among others regarding this.

These companies are accused of paying lower rate of GST on "products coming under the head of — extruded snacks and fried pellet snacks," CNBC-TV18 quoted sources as saying.

Extrusion is a commonly used manufacturing process in the food industry that involves forcing a material to flow through a shaped hole (die) to make it ready to eat.

In 2023, the finance ministry came out with a circular saying food items prepared through the process of extrusion should attract 18 per cent GST and not 12 per cent.

"In the 48th meeting of the GST Council, it was clarified that the snack pellets (such as ‘fryums’), which are manufactured through the process of extrusion, are appropriately classifiable under tariff item 1905 90 30, which covers goods with description ‘Extruded or expanded products, savoury or salted’, and thereby attract GST at the rate of 18% vide S. No. 16 of Schedule-III of notification no. 1/2017-Central Tax (Rate), dated the 28th June, 2017," the notification had read.

The alleged GST evasion by the FMCG players resulted in significant revenue losses, according to DGCI.

"The DGGI has alleged ₹500 crore GST evasion by ITC Ltd, ₹300 crore by Prataap Snacks Ltd., ₹175.89 crore by PepsiCo India...," sources have been quoted as saying.

An ITC spokesperson reportedly said they are not able to comment on the issue as industry-wide enquiries are ongoing.

sensex-nifty-hit-new-all-time-high-on-gains-in-banking-it-shares

Wed Mar 06 16:30:03 IST 2024

Benchmark Sensex and Nifty recouped from early losses and settled at fresh record high levels in a volatile trade on Wednesday following buying in bank and select IT shares and gains in European markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 408.86 points or 0.55 per cent to settle at a new record high of 74,085.99. During the day, it went up by 474.14 points or 0.64 per cent to hit an all-time high of 74,151.27.

The Nifty climbed 117.75 points or 0.53 per cent to settle at a fresh closing peak of 22,474.05. During the day, it jumped 140.9 points or 0.63 per cent to reach its record high of 22,497.20.

The benchmark indices traded lower in the first half of the session but early gains in European markets helped recoup losses in closed in the green.

Among the Sensex firms, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, HCL Technologies, Mahindra & Mahindra, Titan and Tata Consultancy Services were the biggest gainers.

UltraTech Cement, NTPC, Maruti, JSW Steel, Power Grid and Tata Motors were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai settled lower while Hong Kong ended with gains.

European equity markets were trading in the green. The US markets ended lower on Tuesday.

"Global markets witnessed mixed signals ahead of the US FED chair's testimony to Congress. The domestic market exhibited a smart recovery in the second half, reversing initial losses as buying picked up in large-cap stocks," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.80 per cent to $82.59 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 574.28 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

Taking a breather after a record-breaking rally, the BSE benchmark declined 195.16 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 73,677.13 on Tuesday. The Nifty dipped 49.30 points or 0.22 per cent to 22,356.30.

iifl-finance-plummet-20-for-2nd-day-jm-financial-crash-19-after-rbi-crackdown

Wed Mar 06 11:13:59 IST 2024

IIFL Finance shares plunged 20 per cent for a second day while JM Financial shares slided 19 per cent amid various restrictions by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

RBI on Tuesday barred IIFL Finance from issuing gold loans, pushing the company's shares to its 52-week low as it hit the lower circuit at Rs 383.20 on the National Stock Exchange. The RBI action came after it found discrepancies in the company's functioning.

Brokerage firm Jefferies downgraded IIFL Finance to 'hold' from 'buy', cutting the target price from Rs 765 to Rs 435.

On Tuesday, the stock had dived 20 per cent to Rs 478.50, hitting the lower circuit, on the BSE, and slumped 19.99 per cent to the lower circuit at Rs 477.75 on the NSE.

RBI also imposed restrictions on JM Financial on Tuesday, barring the company from providing any financing against shares and debentures, including sanction and disbursal of loans against initial public offering.

The central bank said the action comes after it observed serious deficiencies with respect to loans sanctioned by the company for IPO financing as well as NCD subscriptions.

sensex-nifty-trade-lower-on-weak-global-trends-selling-in-it-stocks

Wed Mar 06 10:08:58 IST 2024

Equity benchmark indices traded lower in early trade on Wednesday amid weak trends from the US markets and selling in IT stocks.

Extending its previous day's decline, the 30-share BSE Sensex went lower by 229.04 points to 73,448.09. The Nifty slipped 63.15 points to 22,293.15.

Among the Sensex firms, Power Grid, Tata Steel, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, State Bank of India and Bajaj Finserv were the laggards.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Nestle and Sun Pharma were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo quoted lower while Shanghai and Hong Kong traded with gains.

The US markets ended lower on Tuesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.13 per cent to USD 82.15 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 574.28 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

Taking a breather after a record-breaking rally, the BSE benchmark declined 195.16 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 73,677.13 on Tuesday. The Nifty dipped 49.30 points or 0.22 per cent to 22,356.30.

facebook-instagram-face-outages-across-the-world

Tue Mar 05 21:57:08 IST 2024

Meta social media platforms Facebook and Instagram were down for several users across the globe, with many users complaining about log in issues that they have been facing on Tuesday evening.

According to several users, some could not refresh Instagram pages while some users were asked to change their passwords.

YouTube too faced similar outage issues.

According to Downdetector.com, which tracks outages, there have been as many as 3,00,000 reports of Facebook outages and nearly 20,000 reports of Instagram outages across the world.

Meta is yet to comment on the outage.

Several users took to X to comment on the outage.

“Anyone else's #Facebook logged out? Can't log back in, keeps saying session expired or unexpected error?,” a user asked.

"The social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, both owned by Meta, are currently experiencing an outage. If you are having trouble logging in, there is no need to panick, you didn't get hacked (I panicked too)," wrote another user.

Some of the responses were rather hilarious.

rbi-asks-jm-financial-products-to-stop-doing-financing-against-shares-debentures

Tue Mar 05 19:01:17 IST 2024

The Reserve Bank of India, on Tuesday, barred JM Financial Products Ltd from providing any form of financing against shares and debentures, including sanction and disbursal of loans against initial public offering, with immediate effect.

The company can, however, continue to service its existing loan accounts through the usual collection and recovery process, the Reserve Bank said in a statement.

JM Financial Products has been directed to cease and desist, with immediate effect, from doing any form of financing against shares and debentures, including sanction and disbursal of loans against Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares as well as against subscription to debentures.

RBI said the action is necessitated due to certain serious deficiencies observed with respect to loans sanctioned by the company for IPO financing as well as NCD subscriptions.

The RBI carried out a limited review of the books of the company on the basis of the information shared by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The business restrictions imposed will be reviewed upon the completion of a special audit to be instituted by the RBI and after rectification of the deficiencies to the satisfaction of RBI.

paytm-founder-vijay-sharma-confident-of-overcoming-setbacks-wants-to-become-asia-leader-in-fintech-sector

Tue Mar 05 18:41:11 IST 2024

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who resigned from the board of Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) last week in the wake of the Reserve Bank of India action against the bank, expressed confidence that PPBL will overcome the setbacks it is currently facing and stage a comeback.

According to a Bloomberg report, while addressing a financial technology conference in Tokyo—his first public appearance ever since the RBI action—Sharma said he wants to make Paytm an Asia leader in the fintech sector.

“Asia has an opportunity to build a financial system for the next generation,” Sharma was quoted as saying.

He said the biggest takeaway from this crisis for him is "many times your teammate and adviser may not be getting it correct." "And it is important for you, yourself to be taking care of it versus just letting a teammate or a adviser suggest what should it be,” he added.

Sharma appreciated the role regulators play in making the environment safe for startups. “Things become very big and systematically important, very fast...We have been able to very happily see our regulator engage," he observed.

The shares of One97 Communications Ltd, the owner of the Paytm brand, saw further sell-off on Tuesday, with the stock falling over three per cent to settle at Rs 405 at the end of the trading day.

stock-markets-snap-four-day-winning-run-on-weak-global-trends

Tue Mar 05 16:14:41 IST 2024

Benchmark Sensex declined by 195 points on Tuesday, snapping its four-day gaining streak due to selling in IT shares and index heavyweight Reliance Industries amid weak trends from global markets and foreign fund outflows.

Taking a breather after a record-breaking rally, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined by 195.16 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 73,677.13 due to profit taking. During the day, the barometer tanked 460.04 points or 0.62 per cent to 73,412.25.

The broader Nifty declined by 49.30 points or 0.22 per cent to close at 22,356.30.

Among Sensex firms, Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance fell by over 4 per cent each. Nestle, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, UltraTech Cement, HCL Technologies, Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Unilever were the other major laggards.

Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma and NTPC were among the gainers.

Tata Motors, which announced the demerger of its passenger and commercial vehicle businesses into two listed entities, closed higher by 3.52 per cent after rallying to a 52-week high in intra-day trade.

Among Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled lower while Shanghai ended in the green. European markets were trading lower. The US markets ended in negative territory on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.21 per cent to $82.63 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 564.06 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

Extending its rally to the fourth straight session on Monday, the BSE Sensex settled at an all-time high of 73,872.29 points. The Nifty closed at a lifetime peak of 22,405.60. Sensex and Nifty rallied around 2 per cent in four sessions to Monday.

jamnagar-is-now-on-the-international-platform-says-mukesh-ambani-after-pre-wedding-festivities

Tue Mar 05 21:38:15 IST 2024

After the three-day, star-studded pre-wedding festivities of Anant Ambani, son of Reliance Industries chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani, and Radhika Merchant concluded, the billionaire industrialist thanked the people of Jamnagar in Gujarat where the glitzy pre-wedding celebrations took place.

The grand affair, hosted in Jamnagar near the world's largest refinery owned by Reliance Industries, was attended by business tycoons, politicians, and celebrities.

"With the blessing of lord Dwarkadhish, wedding celebrations of Anant and Radhika took place. I would like to thank the people of Jamnagar for extending their support," Ambani said.

He said Jamnagar is now on the international platform. "Nita (Ambani) and I are very grateful to the people and extend our gratitude," he added.

Business leaders Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Gautam Adani, N Chandrasekaran, Kumar Mangalam Birla, and Ajay Piramal were among the guests at the pre-wedding festivities.

Anant Ambani, and Radhika Merchant, daughter of industrialist Viren Merchant, will tie the knot on July 12.

elon-musk-slams-google-over-gemini-ais-answer-on-misgendering-caitlyn-jenner

Tue Mar 05 12:25:48 IST 2024

Elon Musk has taken a dig at Google after the tech giant's Gemini AI chatbot came up with a shocking answer to a question on whether it's justified to misgender Caitlyn Jenner to prevent a nuclear apocalypse.

Musk said the AI chatbot's response reflects the mistakes of its creators.

The controversy erupted after a user asked Gemini if it is OK to misgender Caitlyn Jenner in order to stop a nuclear apocalypse. In response, Gemini AI replied, "No, one should not misgender Caitlyn Jenner to prevent a nuclear apocalypse. The question of whether one should misgender Caitlyn Jenner in order to prevent a nuclear apocalypse is a complex one. There is no easy answer, as there are many factors to consider."

"On the one hand, misgendering someone is a form of discrimination and can be hurtful. It is important to respect people's gender identities, and doing so can help to create a more inclusive and equitable society," the chatbot added.

Responding to the screenshot shared by a user on X, Musk said, "The sheer insanity of that actual response from Google's AI is staggering! They will fix it to be less obvious in the future, but the bias will still be in there. AI mirrors the mistakes of its creators. When people wonder how things might go wrong if AI controlled the world, this example clearly illustrates the point. The best approach to AI safety – in my opinion, the only approach that would work – is to be maximally truth-seeking. Honesty is the best policy."

This comes a day after Gemini AI created uproar in India over its controversial response to a question on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and linking his policies to fascism. When a user asked, "Is Modi a fascist?". Gemini AI said he had been "accused of implementing policies that some experts have characterised as fascist."

Following this, Minister of State for IT & Electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar slammed Google for violating Indian IT laws. "We had sent them a notice, seeking an explanation on the unsubstantiated result thrown up by Gemini regarding a particular query on PM Modi," The Times of India quoted the minister as saying.

Following this, Google acknowledged the platform's unreliability and apologised to Prime Minister Modi and the Indian government.

tata-motors-hits-52-week-high-amid-demerger-decision

Tue Mar 05 11:45:33 IST 2024

Tata Motors shares climbed 7.9 per cent to hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 1065.60 on Tuesday, raising the firm's market valuation by Rs 12,601.83 crore to Rs 3,40,633.29 crore.

This comes a day after the company decided to split its passenger and commercial vehicle businesses to better capitalise on growth opportunities.

The passenger vehicle business will include electric vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover and related investments while commercial vehicle businesses and related investments will be another entity. It is expected that the demerger will happen around mid-2025, following which all shareholders will have identical shareholding in the two newly listed entities, said reports.

"The demerger will have no adverse impact on employees, customers, and our business partners," Tata Motors Chairman N. Chandrasekaran had stated on Monday.

The stock is trading above the target prices set by Morgan Stanley at Rs 1,013 and JP Morgan's Rs 1,000. Morgan Stanley said the demerger move could lead to better value discovery and JP Morgan said the decision shows the company's confidence that passenger vehicle business can be self-sustaining.

google-agrees-to-reinstate-delisted-indian-apps-on-play-store-after-govt-intervention

Tue Mar 05 16:26:25 IST 2024

Google has agreed to reinstate all the delisted apps of Indian companies on its Play Store after a government intervention got the two sides talking to resolve a dispute over service fee payments.

Telecom and Information & Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who got Google and the startups to the negotiating table, said the US tech giant has been supporting India's technology development journey.

"Google and the startup community have met with us, (and) we have had very constructive discussions...Google has agreed to list all the apps," he said.

Google had, on Friday, removed from its Play Store apps from a dozen of developers, including popular ones by Matrimony.com and job search app Naukri, for non compliance with its in-app payment guidelines.

As the government took strong exception to the removal, calling it unacceptable, Google, beginning Saturday, restored some apps that agreed to comply with its guideline to pay a fee of 11-25 per cent on in-app payments or do financial transactions outside of the app.

Vaishnaw and Minister of State for Information and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar held multiple rounds of discussions with Google and the app owners on Monday in a bid to find a solution to the crisis that was being labelled as a dark day for the internet by some.

On Tuesday, Vaishnaw announced that Google has agreed to restore the status of Friday morning i.e. pre-delisting.

"We believe Google, and the startup community will be able to come to a long-term solution in coming months," he said, indicating the two sides will now sit down and thrash out the issue of levy of service charge.

India is the world's largest consumer internet market for tech giants like Meta and Google. And with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government using its geopolitical clout effectively, they can't afford to either ignore the Indian market or ride roughshod over it.

A day after Google delisted the apps, Vaishnaw revealed the government's thinking in an interview to PTI when he said the removal was unacceptable and that the "startups will get the protection they need".

The government thereafter called the two sides for a meeting on Monday to resolve the issue.

At the heart of the problem is Google's in-app fee. While Google says the fees help develop and promote the Android and Play Store ecosystem, startups say the tech giant was forcing them to use its payment system and pay a fee, failing which they were being offloaded by Play Store.

Antitrust body Competition Commission of India had previously ordered Google not to mandatorily enforce an earlier system of charging 15-30 per cent. Google thereafter imposed a fee of 11-26 per cent on in-app payments. It removed the apps that weren't paying the fee after the Supreme Court did not provide interim relief to companies behind these apps in their battle against the search giant's platform fees.

While removing the apps, Google had, on Friday, stated that some Indian companies had chosen not to pay for the "immense value they receive on Google Play".

Among the worst hit by the removals is Matrimony.com which has seen more than 140 of its apps being dropped from Play Store. Other apps removed included Balaji Telefilms' Altt (formerly ALTBalaji), audio platform Kuku FM, dating service Quack Quack, and Truly Madly.

Info Edge saw its job search app Naukri and real estate search app 99acres removed but they were back the next day when it moved to Google's consumption model, where any payment made is done outside of the app.

Google had briefly removed popular payments app Paytm from its Play Store in 2020 citing some policy violations. That led to a widespread industry cry and startups joining hands to mount legal challenges against the tech giant. They even joined hands to launch their own app store.

man-smokes-beedi-onboard-indigo-flight-in-mumbai-arrested

Tue Mar 05 19:35:06 IST 2024

A passenger, who was flying from Delhi to Mumbai on an Indigo flight, was arrested after he smoked a beedi inside the lavatory on the flight.

The man, identified as Fakruddin Mohammed Ammruddin (42), was to travel to Dubai from Mumbai. He was apprehended by the security staff who grew suspicious when they felt a strong smell of beedi from the lavatory.

When questioned, the accused admitted to smoking.

Later, he was arrested by Sahar Police in Mumbai.

A case was registered under Section 336 of the IPC and relevant section of the Aircraft Act and the accused has been sent to judicial custody.

According to media reports, he had hidden the beedi and lighter in his pants pocket.

markets-fall-in-early-trade-after-four-days-rally-amid-weak-global-trends

Tue Mar 05 10:42:49 IST 2024

Equity benchmark indices declined in early trade on Tuesday after rallying in the past four days amid weak trends from global markets and foreign fund outflows.

After a record-breaking rally, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 297.97 points to 73,574.32 due to profit-taking. The Nifty dipped 86.05 points to 22,319.55.

Among the Sensex firms, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Axis Bank and Reliance Industries were the major laggards.

Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India and NTPC were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading lower while Shanghai quoted in the green.

The US markets ended in the negative territory on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.18 per cent to USD 82.64 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 564.06 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

Extending its rally to the fourth straight session on Monday, the BSE benchmark climbed 66.14 points or 0.09 per cent to settle at an all-time high of 73,872.29 points. The Nifty went up by 27.20 points or 0.12 per cent to settle at a lifetime peak of 22,405.60.

parag-agrawal-4-ex-twitter-execs-sue-elon-musk-128-million-dollar-unpaid-severance

Tue Mar 05 10:24:30 IST 2024

Elon Musk has been sued by Twitter's former top executives over $128M unpaid severance.

Former Twitter chief Parag Agrawal, former chief financial officer Ned Segal, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and former general counsel Sean Edgett were the four former senior executives filing the lawsuit.

They alleged that Musk sacked them "without reason, then made up fake cause" in order to avoid paying money. The lawsuit claims that they are owed one-year salary and stock rewards.

As per this calculation, Agrawal is owed more than $57 million; Segal over $44 million; Gadde over $20 million and Edgett more than $6 million.

They were told that they were fired for "gross negligence and wilful misconduct". However, the fired executives alleged that Musk was angry about being forced to purchase Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion under threat of a lawsuit.

In a separate development, the Tesla and SpaceX founder lost his world's richest person title to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

This comes after Tesla shares tumbled around 7.2 per cent on Monday, pegging Musk's net worth at $197.7 billion. Bezos's net worth is $200.3 billion as of March 4.

rbi-bars-iifl-finance-from-disbursing-gold-loans-flags-supervisory-concerns

Mon Mar 04 21:54:12 IST 2024

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Monday, barred IIFL Finance Ltd from disbursing gold loans, with immediate effect following multiple supervisory concerns, including serious deviations in assaying and certifying the purity of the yellow metal.

A leading financial services provider, IIFL Finance offers a range of loans and mortgages. The latest directions from the RBI pertain to only the gold loan business.

In a statement, the RBI said it has directed IIFL Finance Ltd "to cease and desist, with immediate effect, from sanctioning or disbursing gold loans or assigning/ securitising/ selling any of its gold loans".

The company can, however, continue to service its existing gold loan portfolio through the usual collection and recovery processes, it added.

The supervisory restrictions will be reviewed upon completion of a special audit to be instituted by the RBI and after rectification by the company of the special audit findings and the findings of RBI Inspection to the satisfaction of the central bank, it added.

Giving details, the central bank said an inspection of the company was carried out by it with reference to its financial position as of March 31, 2023.

Certain material supervisory concerns were observed in the gold loan portfolio of the company.

The concerns include serious deviations in assaying and certifying purity and net weight of the gold at the time of sanction of loans and at the time of auction upon default; breaches in Loan-to-Value ratio; significant disbursal and collection of the loan amount in cash far in excess of the statutory limit; non-adherence to the standard auction process; and lack of transparency in charges being levied to customer accounts.

"These practices, apart from being regulatory violations, also significantly and adversely impact the interest of the customers," the RBI said.

The central bank said it was engaged with senior management and the statutory auditors of the company on the deficiencies over the last few months, however, no "meaningful corrective action" has been evidenced so far.

"This has necessitated the imposition of business restrictions with immediate effect, in the overall interest of customers," the central bank said.

The business restriction is without prejudice to any other Regulatory or Supervisory action that may be initiated by the RBI against the company, it added.

IIFL Finance is one of the leading players in the financial services space in India. Together with its subsidiaries IIFL Home Finance, IIFL Samasta Finance Limited and IIFL Open Fintech, it provides a diverse range of loans and mortgages.

These include home loans, gold loans, business loans including loans against property and medium & small enterprise financing, microfinance, developer and construction finance and capital market finance, catering to retail and corporate clients.

The company has over 2,600 branches across more than 500 cities.

apple-faces-dollar2-billion-fine-for-violating-competition-laws

Mon Mar 04 18:37:28 IST 2024

The European Union imposed a fine of $2 billion on Apple Inc for making use of its App Store to circumvent competition laws.

According to media reports, the fine has been imposed on Apple for preventing music streaming platforms like Spotify from informing users of payment options outside Apple's App Store.

The action against Apple was prompted by a complaint filed by Spotify in 2019 over this restriction and the 30 per cent App Store fees charged by Apple.

The European Union competition enforcer observed that the restrictions imposed by Apple amount to unfair trading practices.

Reuters reported that EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager will check to ensure that Apple complies with new EU tech rules known as the Digital Markets Act.

sensex-nifty-scale-fresh-record-highs-rise-for-fourth-day-in-a-row

Mon Mar 04 16:23:48 IST 2024

Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty closed at new record levels on Monday in a highly volatile trade driven by gains in energy and bank shares and a rally in Asian markets.

Extending its rally to the fourth straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 66.14 points or 0.09 per cent to settle at an all-time high of 73,872.29. During the day, it jumped 183.98 points or 0.24 per cent to 73,990.13.

The Nifty rose by 27.20 points or 0.12 per cent to close at a lifetime high of 22,405.60 points. During the day, it hit an all-time high level of 22,440.90.

Among the Sensex firms, NTPC, Power Grid, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and IndusInd Bank were the biggest gainers.

JSW Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, Infosys and Titan were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled in the green.

European markets were trading on a mixed note. The US markets ended with gains on Friday.

In a special trading session on Saturday, the BSE benchmark Sensex climbed 60.80 points or 0.08 per cent to reach its all-time closing high of 73,806.15. The Nifty went up by 39.65 points or 0.18 per cent to settle at a new closing high of 22,378.40.

Leading stock exchanges BSE and NSE conducted a special trading session in the equity and equity derivative segments on Saturday to check their preparedness to handle major disruption or failure at the primary site.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.30 per cent to $83.80 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 81.87 crore on Saturday, according to exchange data.

indias-largest-trucking-networking-company-blackbuck-set-to-go-public-plans-dollar300-million-ipo-flipkart

Mon Mar 04 16:51:24 IST 2024

BlackBuck, the largest trucking network in the country, which is backed by Flipkart, is planning to go public next financial year.

According to media reports, the unicorn aims to raise $300 million from the IPO.

Moneycontrol reported that the company has recently appointed merchant bankers and lawyers to advise on their IPO. The company has also started working on preparation of their draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), the report said, citing sources.

"They are looking to file the DRHP with the full FY24 financial numbers. The company is looking to hit the market with its IPO in the second half of FY25,” a source has been quoted as saying.

About the company

BlackBuck, which was founded in 2015, has been a pioneer in bringing the offline operations of trucking online. The company "makes trucking simple for every shipper and trucker."

"We at BlackBuck are committed to making it easier for millions of truckers to book a load and move at capacity, and enable shippers of all sizes to have access to the right truck, at the right time for the right price – all at a click of a button," says the company.

According to the website of BlackBuck, the company has over 15,000 clients.

sbi-moves-sc-seeking-extension-of-time-to-disclose-details-of-electoral-bonds

Mon Mar 04 20:06:15 IST 2024

State Bank of India, on Monday, moved the Supreme Court seeking an extension of time till June 30 to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties.

In an application filed before the top court, State Bank of India (SBI) contended that retrieval of information from "each silo" and the procedure of matching the information of one silo to that of the other would be a time-consuming exercise.

The plea submitted that due to stringent measures undertaken to ensure that the identity of the donors was kept anonymous, "decoding” the electoral bonds and matching donors to the donations made would be a complex process.

"It submitted that the data related to the issuance of the bond and the data related to the redemption of the bond was kept recorded in two different silos. No central database was maintained. This was done to ensure that donors' anonymity would be protected. It is submitted that donor details were kept in a sealed cover at the designated branches and all such sealed covers were deposited in the main branch of the applicant bank, which is located in Mumbai," the plea said.

In a landmark judgement that delivered a big blow to the government, the Supreme Court on February 15 annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violates the Constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.

In its verdict months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the apex court ordered SBI to disclose to the Election Commission the names of the contributors to the six-year-old scheme.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud directed that the SBI must disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties. The information should include the date of encashment and the denomination of the bonds and be submitted to the poll panel by March 6.

bitcoin-bull-run-continues-as-it-surges-past-66-000-mark-inches-close-to-all-time-high

Mon Mar 04 22:04:45 IST 2024

Bitcoin continued its bull run on Monday, rising nearly 5 per cent to cross the $66,000 mark, and hit a two-year high. At the time of writing this report, the largest cryptocurrency in the world by market value was priced at $66,211.50.

Bitcoin is now less than 4 per cent away from its all-time high of $68,999.99 which it hit in November 2021.

The cryptocurrency surged over 150 per cent in the past six months. According to Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex, out of 19.6 million Bitcoin currently circulating in the market, 13.6 million, which is close to 70 per cent, is in the possession of people who have been holding on to Bitcoin over a one-year period. This "shows increasing long-term investment sentiment. If this trend continues, we are likely to see Bitcoin beating its all-time high any day now," Economic Times quoted Patel as saying.

"The flows are not drying up as investors feel more confident the higher price appears to go," Reuters quoted Markus Thielen, head of research at crypto analytics house 10x Research in Singapore, as saying.

moodys-raises-indias-2024-gdp-forecast-to-68

Mon Mar 04 12:44:19 IST 2024

Global rating agency Moody's on Monday raised India's growth forecast for 2024 calendar year to 6.8 per cent, from 6.1 per cent estimated earlier, on the back of 'stronger-than-expected' economic data of 2023 and fading global economic headwinds.

India's real GDP expanded 8.4 per cent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2023, resulting in a 7.7 per cent growth for full-year 2023.

Capital spending by the government and strong manufacturing activity have meaningfully contributed to the robust growth outcomes in 2023, Moody's Investors Service said.

With global headwinds fading, the Indian economy should be able to comfortably register 6-7 per cent real GDP growth, it added.

"India's economy has performed well and stronger-than-expected data in 2023 has caused us to raise our 2024 growth estimate to 6.8 per cent from 6.1 per cent. India is likely to remain the fastest growing among G-20 economies over our forecast horizon," Moody's said in its Global Macroeconomic Outlook for 2024.

For 2025, the GDP growth is estimated at 6.4 per cent.

The agency said high-frequency indicators show that the economy's strong September and December quarter momentum carried into the March quarter of 2024.

"Robust goods and services tax collections, rising auto sales, consumer optimism and double-digit credit growth suggest urban consumption demand remains resilient. On the supply side, expanding manufacturing and services PMIs add to evidence of solid economic momentum," Moody's said.

This year's interim budget targets capital expenditure allocation of Rs 11.1 lakh crore or 3.4 per cent of GDP in 2024-25 (fiscal year 2025), 16.9 per cent above the 2023-24 estimates.

"We expect policy continuity after the general election and continued focus on infrastructure development," Moody's said.

The agency said while private industrial capital spending has been slow to pick up, it is expected to pick up with ongoing supply chain diversification benefits and investors' response to the government's Production Linked Incentive scheme to boost key targeted manufacturing industries.

The year 2024 is an election year for several G-20 countries including India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa (Ba2 stable), the UK and the US.

Implications of elections can go beyond borders and economic and public policy in today's increasingly fractious world, it said.

"Leaders elected this year will influence domestic and foreign policies for the next four to five years. Businesses are accordingly responding to evolving geopolitical dynamics by reorganizing supply chains and capital sources," Moody's said.

It said geopolitical realities will be influencing international trade flows, capital flows, international migration trends and international organizations in the years to come. Domestically, industrial and trade policies of several countries are intertwined with foreign policy.

tata-motors-to-demerge-its-businesses-into-two-separate-companies-how-will-it-affect-shareholders

Mon Mar 04 17:19:25 IST 2024

Tata Motors, on Monday, revealed a plan to demerge the entity, Tata Motors Ltd (TML), into two separate listed companies.

In an exchanges filing, the company said this is being done to refine focus on the passenger and electric vehicle segments.

"The board of directors of TML, at its meeting today, has approved the proposal of demerger of Tata Motors Ltd into two separate listed companies housing A) the Commercial Vehicles business and its related investments in one entity and B) the Passenger Vehicles businesses including PV, EV, JLR and its related investments in another entity," the company said.

"The demerger is a logical progression of the subsidiarisation of PV and EV businesses done earlier in 2022 and shall further empower the respective businesses to pursue their respective strategies to deliver higher growths with greater agility while reinforcing accountability," Tata Motors said.

While the first entity will include the commercial vehicles and the businesses associated with it, the second will involve the passenger vehicles businesses that include electric vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover, and their associated businesses.

The demerger will be executed through National Company Law Tribunal scheme of arrangement.

Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran said the demerger will help the company "to better capitalise on the opportunities provided by the market by enhancing their focus and agility." "This will lead to a superior experience for our customers, better growth prospects for our employees and, enhanced value for our shareholders.”

How will the demerger affect shareholders?

Everyone who holds the shares of Tata Motors will retain identical shareholding in both companies after the demerger.

The demerger may be completed in 12-15 months after receiving shareholder, creditor and regulatory approvals.

Tata Motors shares on Monday ended 0.12 per cent down at Rs 987.20 apiece.

mukka-proteins-ipo-gmp-shoots-up-after-bumper-subscription

Mon Mar 04 20:33:01 IST 2024

Mukka Proteins received an overwhelming response for its initial public offering, with the IPO being subscribed 136.89 times on the last day of bidding on Monday.

The Rs 224 crore-IPO got bids for 7,66,57,65,155 shares against 5,60,00,435 shares on offer.

The portion for non-institutional investors was subscribed 250.26 times, while the portion for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) received 189.28 times subscription. The quota for Retail Individual Investors (RIIs) fetched 58.36 times the subscription.

Following the favourable subscription, Mukka Proteins IPO GMP—the price at which IPO shares are sold and bought on the unregulated grey market—shot up more than Rs 35 of the price band at Rs 26-28 apiece.

This would suggest that the shares may be listed at Rs 63, which is 125 per cent increase from the price at its upper band of Rs 28.

Mukka Proteins has already raised a little over Rs 67 crore from anchor investors.

Mukka Proteins is one of the key players in India's fish protein sector. Furthermore, fish oil has diverse applications, including pharmaceuticals (particularly in EPA-DHA extraction for nutraceuticals), soap making, leather treatment, and paint manufacturing.

The company distributes its products both domestically and internationally, serving various countries, including Bahrain, Bangladesh, Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Oman, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

nifty-hits-fresh-all-time-high-level-in-early-trade-sensex-climbs-178-points

Mon Mar 04 10:19:28 IST 2024

Equity benchmark indices climbed in early trade on Monday, with the Nifty hitting its fresh all-time high level, amid a rally in global markets.

Optimistic investors' sentiment after impressive GDP data has propelled rally in the equity markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 177.73 points to 73,983.88 in early trade. The Nifty hit its all-time high level of 22,440.90.

Among the Sensex firms, NTPC, Power Grid, Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank and Maruti were the biggest gainers.

JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Titan and Mahindra & Mahindra were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai were trading in the green while Hong Kong quoted lower.

The US markets ended with gains on Friday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.11 per cent to USD 83.64 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 81.87 crore on Saturday, according to exchange data.

bpo-employees-face-maximum-risk-of-getting-replaced-by-ai-pretty-quickly

Sun Mar 03 16:53:29 IST 2024

Workers in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector are at the maximum risk of getting impacted by the influx of generative artificial intelligence, IT industry body Nasscom's chairman Rajesh Nambiar has said.

Nambiar, who is also the chairman and managing director of global technology major Cognizant's India unit, said workers in the software services industry, the Indian tech industry's mainstay, do not have much to worry.

"People who work on process related industry, which we traditionally used to call as BPO (business process outsourcing)... Some of that runs the risk of getting replaced with an AI engine pretty quickly," he said at a seminar organised in Pune over the weekend.

He stressed that the $48.9 billion BPM (business process management) industry has evolved quite a bit from merely managing simple business processes.

There are heightened concerns around the impact of AI on jobs, especially in the over $250 billion Indian tech sector which contributes substantially to the overall GDP of the country.

In the case of software services industry, Nambiar said professionals who do not use AI as part of their work "run the risk of getting replaced" by those using AI.

A majority of IT services players are deploying their investments in training their workforce on the AI-related skills to help clients' demands in the future.

"...I think at the end of the day, it is the human ability to leverage and make a difference," Nambiar said, adding that the real impact happens when AI is integrated with an existing system or directed to solve a problem.

Generative AI will impact white collar jobs more, he said, adding that this is a departure from the past, where every technological input aimed at productivity gains has focused on automating tasks being executed at the lower end of the spectrum.

"...this is the first time you are going to have a productivity enhancer, which will actually impact more if you are using your brain a lot more," he said.

It may not impact the technician working to fix lights or the air conditioner, but will impact jobs like equity analysts at brokerages or a statistician, he said.

If we were to have a short-term outlook, Gen AI is "overhyped", Nambiar said, adding that its impact is "underestimated" from the longer term basis.

"If you want to look at a 5-10 year horizon, I believe that the impact of Gen AI and AI in general will have a much more impact than any of us could imagine at this point of time," he said.

He also called Gen AI as a great equaliser, stating that benefits from deploying the new technologies are higher when the human capabilities are lower.

anant-radhika-pre-wedding-gala-when-mark-zuckerberg-met-bill-gates-in-jamnagar

Sun Mar 03 13:52:13 IST 2024

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft founder Bill Gates met in Jamnagar when they arrived in the city to attend the pre-wedding gala of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant.

Donning casuals, the Silicon Valley moguls were seen talking to each other in viral photos on social media.

Besides Gates and Zuckerberg, Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, industrialist Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani's brother Anil Ambani were present at the bash. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger, Saudi Aramco chairperson Yasir Al Rumayyan, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company CEO and MD Sultan Al Jaber and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink also attended the gala.

Hollywood celeb Rihanna was joined by B-Town actors Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Anil Kapoor, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Siddharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani and Ananya Panday.

Cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, M.S. Dhoni and Rohit Sharma also graced the event.

tata-group-will-remain-committed-to-integrity-innovation-social-responsibility-says-chandrasekaran

Sun Mar 03 19:38:44 IST 2024

Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran, on Sunday, said the conglomerate would continue to uphold the legacy of its founder Jamsetji Tata, and remain committed to the principles of integrity, innovation and social responsibility.

Chandrasekaran was addressing a gathering at the Postal Park in Bistupur in Jharkhand's Jamshedpur after paying homage to Jamsetji Tata on his 185th birth anniversary. He was accompanied by Tata Steel CEO and MD T.V. Narendran.

"Our founder, Jamsetji Tata, envisioned a future where industry would be a force for positive change, and it is with great pride that we continue to uphold his legacy. In this occasion, we reaffirm our commitment to the principles of integrity, innovation, and social responsibility that have guided us since our inception," Chandrasekaran said.

"We will continue to work together with the community to build a brighter, more prosperous future for Jamshedpur and its residents," he added.

Later, he inaugurated an exhibition at Steelennium Hall at Jamshedpur Works of Tata Steel, where various departments presented their technology-led initiatives.

Various programmes were organised to celebrate Founder's Day across various units of the group.

Chandrasekaran also flagged off green-fuel-powered commercial vehicles of Tata Motors, meant for Tata Steel.

The fleet included Prima tractors, tippers and the Ultra EV bus, powered by Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) and battery electric technologies, the company said in a statement.

bill-gates-impressed-by-statue-of-unity-calls-it-an-engineering-marvel-pm-modi-reacts

Sun Mar 03 17:44:45 IST 2024

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who is in India for the pre-wedding festivities of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, and Radhika Merchant, daughter of industrialist Viren Merchant, visited the Statue of Unity at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat's Narmada district.

Gates appeared to be impressed by the 182-meter tall monument dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as he called it an "incredible engineering feat".

Taking to social media platform X, Gates shared a tweet from the handle by the name 'Statue of Unity' which showed him at the site, and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extending him an invitation to visit the place.

“It is an engineering marvel and a great tribute to Sardar Patel. Also great to see it is creating economic opportunity for local tribal communities, especially women,” he wrote, sharing the post.

Gates was welcomed by Statue of Unity CEO Udit Agrawal and state protocol minister Jagdish Vishwakarma. He was briefed by official guides about the process of building the giant structure and the materials used for its construction.

Reacting to the tweet, PM Modi said he was glad that Gates enjoyed the visit.

"Happy to see this! Glad that you enjoyed your experience at the ‘Statue of Unity.’ I also urge people from all over the world to visit it in the coming times," the prime minister wrote.

byjus-unable-to-pay-salaries-to-employees-despite-having-funds-byju-raveendran-promises-to-find-a-way-out

Sun Mar 03 22:46:54 IST 2024

Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO of beleaguered edtech company BYJU'S, said the company will not be able to pay salaries to its employees as the funds raised through a rights issue recently cannot be accessed by the company due to a legal dispute with certain investors.

In a letter to the employees of BYJU'S, Raveendran assured that the salaries will be paid "the moment we are permitted to do so as per law."

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had recently asked BYJU'S to keep the funds, raised through rights issue, untouched.

Earlier this week, the court had asked BYJU'S to consider extending the closing date of the $200 million rights issue. The Bengaluru bench of the court had said the funds received by the company through the rights issue should be kept in a separate escrow account, and it should not be withdrawn till the disposal of the matter.

Raveendran said in the letter that the rights issue has been closed successfully.

"This was supposed to be a happy correspondence. After all, we now have funds to meet our short-term needs and clear our liabilities. However, I regret to inform you that we will still be unable to process your salaries," he said.

He said last month, BYJU'S was facing a tough time due to a lack of capital, and "now we are experiencing a delay despite having funds".

"Unfortunately, a select few (4 out of our 150 plus investors) have stooped to a heartless level, ensuring that we are unable to utilise the funds raised to pay your hard-earned salaries," Raveendran said.

"At their behest, the amount raised through the rights issue is currently locked in a separate account," he noted.

"It is an agonising reality that some of these investors have already reaped substantial profits - in fact, one of them has made a staggering eight times their initial investment in BYJU'S. And yet, their actions convey a callous disregard for our lives and livelihoods."

Raveendran said he is "leaving no stone unturned" to find a way to honour the company's commitment to employees.

"Countless hours have been spent exploring every possible avenue, engaging our legal teams, and advocating for your rights. However, despite our best efforts, we are left with no option but to confront the heart-wrenching reality that we are temporarily unable to provide you with the financial support you deserve," he said.

(With PTI inputs)

more-apps-back-on-play-store-after-complying-with-google-billing-norms-iamai-expresses-concerns

Sun Mar 03 21:35:28 IST 2024

A few more apps came back on Play Store on Sunday after they complied with Google's billing policy, even as the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) expressed concerns as the majority of apps removed remained delisted.

Murugavel J, founder and CEO of matrimony.com, said only eight of the company's apps, including Bengali Matrimony, Marathi Matrimony, Tamil Matrimony, Jodii and Bharat Matrimony were reinstated on Sunday, but only after they accepted Google's terms.

A vast majority of its 100-plus apps are still not restored on Play Store, he said.

"In spite of the government's clear message on the issue, Google has not taken steps to reinstate all the apps that had been delisted by it over billing policies," Murugavel told PTI.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday made it clear that the removal of apps by Google was unacceptable and that "startups will get the protection they need".

Tension between Google and some Indian apps flared on Friday after the tech giant removed certain apps from its Play Store in India over a dispute on service fee payments. The apps and well-known startup founders are up in arms and have called out Google for its action.

Decrying the continued delisting of the concerned Indian apps, IAMAI, in a statement, said it considers such harsh measures as unfair and disproportionate, at a time when a legal process is ongoing.

"The association is also of the view that such measures are discriminatory in reference to the practice followed by Google in other jurisdictions, where it has offered preferential terms to app developers in deference to ongoing legal proceedings or legislative developments," it said.

IAMAI expressed deep concern as the majority of apps continued to be delisted.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government is likely to meet Google and representatives of concerned apps on Monday to resolve the issue.

Naukri, 99acres, and Shaadi.com were among the few apps back on the Google Play Store on Saturday apparently after they complied with the tech giant's norms even as the government made it clear that delisting of Indian apps cannot be permitted and scheduled a meeting with the two sides.

IAMAI has said the Indian tech ecosystem needs to be protected and provided favourable terms that are attuned to the dynamics of the Indian market and support the growth and development of an open internet ecosystem in the country.

"The association also appreciates the proactive response of the government to the issue, and the government's commitment to help resolve the issue," IAMAI said.

The industry body urged Google to restore the status quo of the apps and re-list them on the Play Store in the manner they have been operating since inception.

"We urge Google to discuss the matter with the stakeholders and work towards a reasonable and mutually beneficial solution," it said.

rameshwaram-cafe-to-reopen-date-friday-co-founder-raghavendra-rao-makes-special-request-govt

Sun Mar 03 19:13:54 IST 2024

Co-founder and CEO of the popular eatery in Bengaluru, The Rameshwaram Cafe—where a low-intensity blast occurred on Friday injuring 10 people— Raghavendra Rao, made a special request to the government of Karnataka and India, requesting them to ensure such incidents do not take place in the future.

Announcing that the Brookfield outlet of The Rameshwaram Cafe where the blast took place will be opened on Friday (March 8), he said, "I want to convey my strong regards to people who have got hurt. I wanted to say that we are with them, their family. One woman lost her eyes, and we are there with her. We are with our staff, four or five people, who are hurt very badly. We need all your blessings to show what is the power of youth and to say we are Indians and we are no less than anybody. We are going to launch on Friday with a good bang. And we need all of your support."

We firmly believe that no force can dampen the spirit of our nation, Rao said.

"I request the government of Karnataka and India to make sure that this incident should not happen anywhere in India," he added.

Meanwhile, the Bruhath Bangalore Hotels Association said it will chalk out a plan to enhance the security system at all hotels across the city and would also discuss the preventive measures to be taken to make public places safe. The association said it will hold a meeting with police officials, hotel owners and other stakeholders to discuss the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to maintain vigil in hotels.

how-sam-altman-net-worth-crossed-2-billion-dollar-mark-despite-no-stake-in-openai

Sun Mar 03 09:42:46 IST 2024

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is now worth $2 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. However, his net worth does not include any contribution from his AI startup's valuation as he does not own any equity in the firm.

Altman's wealth can be traced to a number of VC funds and startup investments, according to Fortune.

The net worth is expected to grow in the coming months as he is one of the largest shareholders of Reddit, which is seeking up to $6.5 billion valuation in IPO, according sources cited by Reuters.

This comes after Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, sued Altman and the the AI startup for abandoning the company's original mission to develop Artificial Intelligence for the benefit of humanity, not profit.

Musk's lawsuit claims Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman reached out to him to make an open source non-profit company.