Mukesh Ambani has driven 45% of India Inc's capex since FY14. Uber to settle US lawsuit filed by Delhi rape victim for breaching privacy. Uber Technologies Inc and a woman who accused top executives of improperly obtaining her medical records after a company driver raped her in India have agreed to settle a civil lawsuit the woman filed against Uber in June, according to a US federal court filing on Friday.
The Uber driver was convicted of the rape, which occurred in Delhi in 2014, in a criminal case in India. He was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison. The Indian woman had previously settled a civil US lawsuit against Uber in 2015, but sued the company again in a San Francisco federal court saying that shortly after the incident, a US Uber executive "met with Delhi police and intentionally obtained plaintiff's confidential medical records. " Uber kept a copy of those records, the lawsuit said. The woman was living in the United States when she filed the lawsuit.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed in the court document. China factory inflation eases. China’s factory inflation moderated as consumer price gains remained tepid, further reducing a potential source of pressure for policy makers to boost borrowing costs.
While this year’s surge in raw-materials prices will feed through to consumer products next year, headline factory price growth is seen slowing amid higher year-ago base comparisons and moderating investment demand. As top leaders step up pledges to ensure financial stability amid soaring debt, economists say moderate inflation and an outlook for tame price gains gives the authorities less cause to pursue a broad tightening of borrowing costs. Slowing inflation helps ease concerns on tighter monetary policy,” said Tommy Xie, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking in Singapore.
“The CPI drop was mostly driven by the decline in food prices, while PPI fell because the base last year was too high. Modi govt set to unveil a policy in Parliament to make petrol cheaper. Union Roads Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said the government will be soon announcing a policy, which calls for 15 per cent blending of methanol in petrol to make it cheaper and also reduce pollution.
"In the upcoming Parliament session, I am announcing a policy of blending 15 per cent methanol in petrol," Gadkari said at an event organised by Moneycontrol and Free Press Journal here. He said methanol gets made from coal and costs only Rs 22 per litre as against the prevailing price of about Rs 80 per litre for petrol and added that China is making the coal byproduct for Rs 17 per litre itself. Direct tax collections rise 14% to Rs 4.8 lakh cr in Apr-Nov: CBDT. Direct tax collections increased by 14.4 per cent to Rs 4.8 lakh crore during April-November this financial year.
"The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections up to November, 2017 show that net collections are at Rs 4.8 lakh crore, which is 14.4 per cent higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year," Central Board of Direct Taxes said in statement. According to the statement, the net direct tax collections represent 49 per cent of the total Budget Estimates of direct taxes for 2017-18 (Rs 9.8 lakh crore). The gross collections (before adjusting for refunds) have increased by 10.7 per cent to Rs 5.82 lakh crore during April-November, 2017. Ad world waits to make the most of Virat-Anushka wedding.
It was four years ago that cricketer Virat Kohli and actor Anushka Sharma first featured as a couple for Hindustan Unilever’s Clear Shampoo commercial.
Now, as the two gear up to tie the knot, the celebrity pair could take their advertising relationship to the next level. While the two have appeared together for the second time in a recent ad for apparel brand Manyavar, they are sure to be much more in demand as soon as they marry, celebrity management sources told Business Standard. Real estate, jewellery, cars, and consumer goods are among the categories where the couple could appear together over the coming months, sources said. Gujarat polls: High turnout amid complaints of faulty EVMs in Phase I. Bitcoin enters overseas remittances space. Sebi should prosecute Infy board over Panaya, Bansal issue: Whistleblower. Twins case: Delhi govt cancels licence of Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh. 5G can reduce data cost for telcos substantially: Huawei. With preparations on for the commercial roll-out in the telecom sector of fifth-generation technology (5G) by 2020, data prices are likely to drop quite substantially.
Beside people-to-people communication, it will expand applications to connect things (the internet of things) and address vertical businesses. Chinese network gear maker Huawei Technologies says the early stage of 5G roll-out will see a boost in internet connectivity, at a much more affordable price. “We believe that 5G, once commercially rolled out, can help operators reduce the cost of data production to a tenth of the current cost, depending upon fulfillment of conditions like carrier bandwidth and use of cutting-edge technologies like Massive MIMO,” Emmanuel Coelho Alves, wireless marketing director at Huawei, told Business Standard.
Ola eyes financial services, taps PayU India's Nitin Gupta to head biz. Frames per second: Shashi Kapoor, the producer and the poet. Veteran actor Shashi Kapoor’s death on Monday prompted a flurry of obituaries and remembrances, both from his fans as well as his contemporaries and colleagues.
Amitabh Bachchan, who acted with Kapoor in 14 film including Manmohan Desai’s Suhaag (1979) where they played twins, wrote: “With men like him around, I stood no chance.” Perhaps an exaggeration; but Shashi — son of Prithiviraj and brother of Raj and Shammi — was a beneficiary of the kind of nepotism and insider advantage in which Bollywood revels. With his matinee idol looks and acting chops, he probably did not need it but one of the first things almost everyone seemed remember about Kapoor was how handsome he was. Yet, Kapoor was more than a matinee idol. New debit card charges may push retailers back to cash transactions.
In 16 states, T&D losses have gone up from 20% to 56%: R K Singh. A day after R K Singh, Union minister of state for power (independent charge), hosted his first state power ministers’ conference in Delhi, he spoke to Shreya Jai & Jyoti Mukul on the debt-restructuring plan of discoms, tariff reforms, renewable energy initiatives and more.
Edited excerpts: Has UDAY (the scheme to revamp distribution companies or discoms) been a success? What needs to be done by the laggard states? We have set January 2019 as the deadline by when (transmission and distribution or T&D) losses should be capped at 15 per cent. Many states will be less than that and we are confident we will achieve it.
How will the direct benefit transfer of subsidy work? We are saying if states want to give subsidy, they should do so through direct transfer but the power (supplied) should be metered and valued, so that the consumer is more responsible and there is a tendency to save. When will the Electricity Act be amended and what will be its focus? Capital goods, infra order book doubles in December quarter. The order inflow trend for capital goods and infrastructure companies in the country has shown significant improvement, with the order value having more than doubled on a year-on-year basis in the December quarter so far.
Between October 1 and December 6, various infrastructure, construction and capital goods companies announced orders worth Rs 55,814 crore as new order wins. In the third quarter of 2016-17, this number stood at Rs 27,324 crore. Two major orders — Bharat Heavy Electricals’ win of Rs 20,400 crore power project in Telangana and Larsen & Toubro bagging the Rs 8,650-crore order for the Mumbai trans-harbour link — helped the overall order book growth. The data has been compiled based on new orders reported to the stock exchanges by various companies. A senior official at a leading infrastructure company said, “India’s economic growth story is on a positive track and many infra projects are on the anvil.”
Action against Unitech a wake-up call for realtors. The government’s seeking to take over embattled real estate developer Unitech would send a strong message to the industry, developers said.
“It is a wake-up call for all corporates to not do business at the cost of customers, shareholders and vendors,” said J C Sharma, vice-chairman and managing director of Bengaluru-based realty developer Sobha. “It will send a message to the industry that if you mismanage your company you will lose it,” said an executive with a Delhi-based real estate company.
With court cases and government policies like RERA there was now a perception that real estate was becoming a buyer’s market, the executive added. Niranjan Hiranandani, chairman and managing director of Hiranandani Communities, said a government takeover could be justified if there was fraud involved but not because of the failure of the company. Other developers said the move was unfair. Gujarat Assembly election: Things to know about today's phase 1 of polling. Amid powerful rallies, heightened emotional drama and continuous exchange of dialogues, 89 constituencies of Gujarat are set to exercise their right to franchise in the first phase of Assembly elections 2017 on December 9. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left no stone unturned to help his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) return to power in his home state, Gujarat will also be an important factor for the soon-to-be Congress President Rahul Gandhi's political stature.
Here are a few things to look out for in the first phase of polling on Saturday: Election in numbers This phase is crucial for Gujarat, as the state will see the first phase of Assembly Elections for 89 of its 182 seats. Govt moves to take control of Unitech; NCLT supersedes board. The corporate affairs ministry has moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking management control of debt-ridden real estate company Unitech on the grounds of alleged mismanagement and diversion of funds. If the government has its way, this could be the third instance in history, after the Satyam and NSEL cases, where the government takes over the board of a company and makes efforts to turn it around.
The move will help thousands of Unitech homebuyers who are yet to receive possession of their houses. The government can take over a company in public interest. Unitech said in a statement that any interference in the working of the current management would be detrimental to the cause of all stakeholders. The NCLT on Friday morning debarred all eight Unitech directors and allowed the government to appoint 10 nominee directors. The NCLT has issued notice to Unitech, directing it to file its reply, and will hear the matter on December 20. Bitcoin plunges 25% in 10 hours, hovers around $16-k ahead of futures debut.
Bitcoin lost almost a fifth of its value in 10 hours on Friday, having surged more than 40 per cent in the preceding 48 hours, sparking fears the market may be heading for a price collapse. In a hectic day on Thursday, bitcoin leapt from below $16,000 to $19,500 in less than an hour on the US-based GDAX, one of the biggest exchanges globally, while it was still changing hands at about $15,900 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp. Some market watchers attributed the lurch higher to the coming launch of bitcoin futures on major exchanges. Having then climbed to $16,666 on Bitstamp at around 0200 GMT on Friday, it tumbled to $13,482 by around 1200 GMT - a slide of more than 19 per cent. It was last down 8.2 per cent at $15,232.32 On Sunday, the Chicago-based Cboe Global Markets exchange is due to launch a futures contract on the digital currency, to be followed by CME Group the next week.
Microsoft sees Alibaba as third rival in Indian cloud market. Gujarat polls: First phase of campaigning ends today. The high-octane campaign for the first phase of the crucial Gujarat Assembly polls, viewed as a prestige battle for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a litmus test for the leadership of soon-to-be Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, will come to an end on Thursday. A total of 89 seats — out of 182 — spanning the Saurashtra and South Gujarat regions, are up for grabs in the first phase with 977 candidates in the fray, including Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. Voting will be held on December 9. While the BJP is fighting anti-incumbency and struggling to alter a seemingly negative perception about demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout, the Congress, galvanised by an assertive Rahul Gandhi, has mainly targeted the "hollow Gujarat development model" to slam Modi.
India stumped in efforts to clear Delhi's toxic smog as cricketers throw up. Why Procter & Gamble is a slow mover in India. Doklam detente over? Indian drone 'invaded' our airspace, says China. Bitcoin blasts past $14,000 in new all-time high. Business Standard. Top 10 equity schemes give 27.5% returns this calendar yr, HDFC Equity tops. India’s top 10 largest equity schemes, which collectively manage an asset size of nearly Rs 1.7 lakh crore, have made an average return of 27.5% so far this calendar year. During the same time, key stock index Nifty50 returned about 23.6%. HDFC Equity continues to be the largest pure-equity scheme. Infosys files settlement plea with Sebi over Bansal pay. RBI MPC keeps repo rate unchanged at 6%, tells banks to shape up. GST jolted biz confidence in Q2: NCAER survey. India Inc’s confidence dived due to goods and services tax (GST) trouble in the second quarter (July-September) of the current financial year, according to the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
Its Business Confidence Index (BCI) fell 12.9 per cent from the earlier quarter. RK Nagar bypoll: EC rejects nominations of actor Vishal, Jaya's niece Deepa. After twists and turns, actor Vishal Krishna's nomination to contest the December 21 by-election to the Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency here was finally rejected on late Tuesday by the Returning Officer. Japan to help finance China's Belt and Road projects: Nikkei. The Japanese government plans to cooperate with China on its Belt and Road initiative by financially supporting private-sector partnerships, as Tokyo seeks to improve bilateral ties with its Asian neighbour, the Nikkei reported on Wednesday.
Cooperation will centre on the environmental sector, industrial modernization and logistics, according to guidelines compiled by the government, the Japanese business daily said. Assistance will include loans through government-backed financial institutions to promote cooperation among private Japanese and Chinese firms working on projects in third-party countries, it said. More Chinese lenders likely to pursue RCom in insolvency court. Babri demolition, 25 years on: Rising hopes, renewed tensions. The air in the dusty and run-down town of Ayodhya, which, on December 6, 1992, saw a mob razing the historical Babri Masjid to the ground, is filled with fresh hopes and renewed tensions.
Monetary policy meet: RBI expected to maintain status quo today. There is a consensus in the market that the six-member monetary policy committee won’t change the policy repo rate in their two-day meet that concludes on Wednesday. Not only rising inflation, but hardening bond yields, and tightening liquidity also reduce the scope for the central bank to go lenient on rates for now. Own a car? Say goodbye to LPG subsidy soon. If you own a car, you might soon have to forgo the subsidy on your LPG cylinders. By eliminating 36 million fake connections through Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL), the government has saved nearly Rs 30,000 crore of cooking gas subsidy.
Onus on rating agencies to reveal loan defaults. In a substantial dilution of its earlier stand that listed companies should make public any loan default within 24 hours of missing the repayment obligation, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is working on a new disclosure framework, which could put the onus on credit rating agencies to recognise payment defaults. Foreign Trade Policy: More incentives for exports, focus on ease of trading.
FM Jaitley may present first post-GST Budget on February 1: Govt official. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is likely to present India's first post-GST and the current government's last full Budget on February 1 next year. FPIs pump in Rs 19,700 cr into markets in Nov, inflows hit 8-month high. Foreign investors pumped over Rs 19,700 crore into the country's stock markets in November, the highest in eight months, mainly due to government's plan to recapitalise PSU banks and surge in India's ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business. Meet Infosys' new CEO & MD Salil Parekh: A perfect fit for future vision. Nine of top 10 firms take Rs 81,804-cr hit in m-cap; Maruti only gainer. Iran inaugurates Chabahar: Pak isolated, Indian commerce to get a big boost. Kisan Sansad: Farmer protest to hit Delhi today. How to link Aadhaar to various financial instruments.
Asia's dividend payouts set for biggest increase in 6 yrs as profits surge. Auto exporters under pressure as over Rs 1,000-cr GST refund gets stuck. Act fast on GST rate cut or face action: Hasmukh Adhia. OnePlus 5T launched with 6-inch screen, face unlock feature from Rs 32,999. Visa woes: Why Americans, Chinese students outnumber Indians at Oxford Univ. From smog cutters to diet tips: Vadra, Kohli and other celebs on Delhi smog. HDFC Standard Life extends gains post debut, spikes 27% against issue price. 'Tumhari Sulu' review: Vidya Balan's strong act elevates this pleasant film. What do higher oil prices mean for India? Sebi to investigate possible leak of company earnings on WhatsApp chats. Business Standard. SBI, HDFC Bank, EXIM Bank and IRFC also get Moody's rating upgrades. Moody's upgrade: CEA Arvind Subramanian hopes other agencies follow suit. Business Standard. Moody's rating upgrade positive for India's financial ecosystem: Analysts.
Business Standard. NGT to take call on lifting construction ban in NCR tomorrow. Congressional committee votes to increase minimum salary of H1B visa. Structural reforms could change the glide path: Jaitley. GST regime, low industrial growth pulled down Q2 net by 1.5%: Care Ratings. Business Standard. Co-location controversy: I-T searches on NSE officials, brokers in Mumbai. Modi govt increases carpet area of houses under PM Awas Yojana. Cabinet clears Indian Railways' plan to seek dividend waiver for 2016-17. India Inc raises Rs 1.4-lakh crore via equities in CY17. Consumers to get GST rate cut benefits; Cabinet nod for new panel. MARKETS LIVE: Sensex marginally lower, Nifty below 10,200; IT index falls. No undue insistence by govt on dividend payout by PSUs: Geete. Women, 2-wheelers not exempt: NGT turns down Delhi govt plea on odd-even. Wholesale inflation at 6-month high of 3.59%; vegetables get 37% costlier. ATC to buy Voda, Idea towers for Rs 7,850 cr: What this means for industry.
Bharat 22 ETF opens today, aims to raise Rs 8,000 crore. Jaitley rules out single GST rate but hints at further rate cuts. Bitcoin tumble erases $38 bn as rival cryptocurrency gains. India Inc gets a governance push from Kotak panel. GST Council meets today: Relief for exporters, SMEs on the cards. Kishore Biyani to buy HyperCity for Rs 911 crore.
Sensex snaps 4-day gaining streak, Nifty ends below 9,900 amid lack of cues. Arundhati Bhattacharya made SBI more relevant in just 4 years. Here's how. Forbes India rich list is out: Ambani richest with $38 bn net worth, Premji 2nd. Wind power tariff fall to historic low of Rs 2.64/unit. Shell companies crackdown: 450,000 lakh directors may face axe. Of Shalya, economic slowdown: Modi out attacking critics of his Mahabharata. Sensex at 32,500 by yr-end? 0utlook solid but gains to slow: Poll. Economy on right track: PM Modi. With Gujarat taking lead, states vie to attract electric vehicle makers. Gravitational wave pioneers win Nobel prize for physics. News digest: RBI monetary policy review, Mallya held in UK, and more. Vijay Mallya arrested and then granted bail in money laundering case.
Tax department to engage with corporates to spur receipts. Monetary policy review: Why RBI might not cut rates today. Excise duty on petrol, diesel cut by Rs 2/L; Govt may suffer Rs 26k-cr loss. Govt wants early warning system on shell companies: How it will work.