Corporate Affairs and Government Policy News. Regular salary vs consultancy: Here's how the tax treatment differs. 26/11 Mumbai terror attack anniversary: Is India any safer now? Sometime in the dark hours of 23rd November 2008 a small cargo vessel slipped out of Karachi harbour; its passengers-ten non sea faring men who had been specifically trained for a purpose and indoctrinated for martyrdom.
This ship reached the waters off Porbander in the early hours of the 25th. One of our many powered fishing boats, Kuber, was called alongside, ostensibly to exchange fish for diesel, a practice not uncommon. As it tied up alongside, four of its five crewmen were killed, and the ten men transferred to it along with several sacks of equipment. The boat was ordered to steer for the coast of Mumbai which it did arriving there soon after sunset on the 26th. As night fell, the intruders inflated the rubber craft carried by them, lowered it in the water and boarded this small boat each armed with an AK 47 rifle, ten loaded magazines, and ten grenades. This brings us to the more relevant question of whether such a thing can happen again. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse slowly turn positive on Indian equities. Global brokerages – Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley – are slowly turning positive on Indian equities despite the uncertainty regarding the state and general election outcome over the next few months.
Besides Japan, Brazil, Thailand and Indonesia, analysts at Morgan Stanley have reiterated their overweight stance on India for 2019 and prefer utilities, IT services/software and capital goods sectors in the Indian context. “Alongside a managed slowdown in China, our economists are particularly upbeat on India and Indonesia, which will benefit from easier external conditions and macro-financial policies positioned for sustainable growth. India looks to be seeing a nascent recovery in capex spending,” the Morgan Stanley report co-authored by Jonathan Garner, their chief Asia & emerging markets equity strategist said. Credit Suisse Wealth Management that advised investors book profit in equities in the beginning of September has also changed its stance.
Aircel-Maxis case: We've got sanction to prosecute Chidambaram, says CBI. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's meteoric rise tainted by crisis after crisis. Facebook Inc. crises this year have put immense pressure on Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, undermining her authority and tainting an image that was burnished by the social-media company’s meteoric rise.
Some of her staff, who saw the executive as larger than life, now blame her for Facebook’s woes. At times, she prioritised her own brand over Facebook’s; surrounded herself with trusted lieutenants who filtered bad news; and didn’t address problems quickly enough or treated them as perception issues not opportunities for real change, according to eight current and former Facebook employees from her side of the organization. ALSO READ: Focused Facebook ads drove fence-sitters to vote for Trump in 2016 US polls Ever since the 2016 US presidential election, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has been criticised for his failure to understand the potential downsides of Facebook's products. ALSO READ: Facebook to train five million people with digital media skills by 2021. IndiGo clarifies on web check-in procedures, says some seats not chargeable. Amid reports of a government review of Indigo's decision to charge passengers for web check-in, the no-frills airline on Monday issued a clarification saying it has not changed the web check-in practice.
The government had earlier said it was reviewing airlines' decision to charge passengers for seats at random, selected at the time of web check-in, to ascertain whether the move is in compliance with existing rules. Against the backdrop of questions being raised about IndiGo's move, especially on social media, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has said it would review the decision. Netflix, Amazon slug it out in India's competitive video streaming market. Telangana's trickle-down politics: Scarce water and surplus power.
The June of 2000 was a terrible time to be in Andhra Pradesh.
In most parts of the states, especially in and around the capital Hyderabad, the heat was searing, the land gasped for water. Six-hour power cuts a day in domestic areas, nine hours in agricultural areas were routine, and frequently without notice. Farmers would sleep with an ear to the sound of water, so that they could scramble to turn on pumpsets to collect and store water. A two-day industrial holiday had to be observed every week to conserve power.
In the midst of all this, the Chandrababu Naidu government, in power in united Andhra Pradesh at the time, had negotiated a loan from the World Bank and upward revision of power tariff was an important element of the package. Cloud computing to help generate over 1 mn jobs in India by 2022: Report. With cloud computing becoming more prevalent in companies, both large and small, the global requirement for professionals is steadily on the rise and over a million jobs in the sector will be created in the country by 2022, according to a report.
Companies are currently investing 4.5 times the rate of traditional IT spending in cloud infrastructure, and it is expected to grow even faster by 2020, according to a report by ed-tech platform for executives Great Learning. The report is based on conversations with senior cloud experts, recruiting managers as well as subject matter experts and is supplemented by data from high-quality industry research reports.
In the coming years, however, nearly all IT expenditure will be on a private, public or hybrid cloud environment, making all IT roles, in some sense, cloud computing roles, it added. US' advice to allies: Shun China's Huawei as it poses a security risk. How IIFCL manages to keep afloat despite infrastructure stress. The government-owned India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) wrote off 16 accounts from its balance sheet last year, which was also the year when it reported its first loss at Rs 11.56 billion, since inception in 2006.
Though this may be a reflection of the financial stress in the infrastructure sector, the company’s balance sheet is more an outcome of provisioning requirements than a distress. A full blow from the lending slowdown has also been shielded with the company turning its focus to hybrid annuity model (HAM) projects in the road sector from 2015 onwards. Air Odisha loses contract to fly in 3 states for poor show in UDAN scheme. Airports Authority of India (AAI) has cancelled the UDAN contract of private airline Air Odisha for Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, citing the airline’s poor performance in the central government's regional connectivity scheme.
Air Odisha, through an agreement with AAI, had to operate 70 per cent of planned flights in three months, but the low-cost airline hardly managed to keep its commitment. “A letter (of termination) has been sent to Air Odisha issued by our corporate headquarters who had an agreement for RCS (regional connectivity scheme) operations in these states”, said SC Hota, director of Bhubaneswar’s Biju Patnaik International Airport. Air Odisha officials could not be reached for comments. Sources said that Air Odisha had financial, crew and aircraft-related problems that constrained it from flying in the three-state network. The cancellation also puts in doubt the viability of the newly built Jharsuguda airport. Manipal-TPG-Temasek may sign 90-day exclusivity agreement with Medanta soon. TPG and Temasek backed Manipal Hospitals is all set to sign a time-bound exclusivity agreement to acquire a controlling stake in Naresh Trehan's Medanta Hospitals in the next eight to ten days.
Sources indicate that post due diligence (which is expected to complete in 90-days), Manipal and its investors would take a final call on the deal. Market sources peg the deal size (for over 80 per cent stake in Global Health, which owns, manages and operates Medanta) to be around Rs 60 billion. "The due diligence is about to begin. The race to avoid financial catastrophe is approaching the finish line. There was no announcement but word still made its way to European bankers as summer turned to autumn: For them, Brexit day was the end of 2018, not March 29, 2019, when the U.K. splits from the European Union.
Attack on Chinese consulate due to Pak-Beijing trade deals, says Imran Khan. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said Friday’s assault on China’s diplomatic mission in Karachi was due to trade deals signed between the two nations earlier this month. “The failed attack against the Chinese Consulate was clearly a reaction to the unprecedented trade agreements that resulted from our trip to China,” Khan said on Twitter. “The attack was intended to scare Chinese investors -- these terrorists will not succeed.” Separately, a bombing in northwestern Orakzai killed at least 25 people on Friday, local media reported.
The former cricket star condemned both attacks and said were “part of a planned campaign to create unrest in the country by those who do not want Pakistan to prosper.” PSBs get more power to ask govt for look-out circulars against defaulters. The Union government has empowered chief executives of public sector banks (PSBs) to request a look-out circular (LoC) against wilful defaulters of loans in an effort to prevent them from fleeing the country, senior finance ministry officials said on Thursday. This is a significant step, given it will enable PSBs to alert authorities to stop wilful defaulters from escaping even before an FIR is registered against them by enforcement agencies. Big businessmen have fled the country in recent times, to avoid prosecution, thus leaving the government red-faced.
Business Standard. Business Standard. CEOs of public banks empowered to stop wilful defaulters from fleeing India. To check wilful defaulters and fraudsters from fleeing the country, the government has now authorised CEOs of public sector banks (PSBs) to make request for issuance of look-out circulars (LOCs) against suspects. The move comes against the backdrop of defaults by Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi and thereafter, fleeing the country. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recently made changes in the circular by including CEOs of PSBs in the list of officials who can make request for issuance of LOCs to the ministry. The inclusion by MHA was done following the recommendation of an inter-ministerial panel under Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar that made a case for empowering the heads of PSBs to request for the opening of LOCs.
When asked about the changes made in the circular of MHA, Kumar said it was a continuation of the government's clean-up drive of the banking sector. Low on opex, high on benefits: Vodafone Idea readies to fight rivals. Gearing up to fight rivals, the country’s largest telecom player, Vodafone Idea, on Thursday said it plans to retain the best of both Vodafone and Idea infrastructure across markets. The company will enhance consumer benefits while reducing operational expenses (opex), said a senior official in Mumbai. Talking to the media for the first time since he took charge as the chief executive officer of Vodafone Idea, Balesh Sharma said the combined entity would embark on tower network rationalisation across geographies and that the current ‘unsustainable’ market conditions would not last as consumers have the capacity to spend.
IL&FS effect: Mutual funds build liquidity pockets in debt schemes. Birla flags liquidity, spectrum payment issue at meet with telecom minister. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Vodafone Idea Ltd, has flagged concerns about severe liquidity crunch in the telecom sector and high spectrum payments at a recent meeting with Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha, an official said.
Telecom sector has been battered by falling tariffs, eroding profitability, and mounting debt, in the face of stiff competition triggered by disruptive offerings of Reliance Jio, owned by richest Indian Mukesh Ambani. UN environment chief Erik Solhiem resigns over excessive travel expenses. 2019 elections mere 'interruptions', stocks will climb in 2019: Edelweiss. New safety rules may force 50% ATMs in India to close: Industry association. Nearly 50 per cent of the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) may be shut down by March 2019 due to unviability of operations, hitting hard both urban and rural population, the Confederation of ATM Industry (CATMi) warned on Wednesday. Indirect tax evasion of Rs 291 billion detected between April and Oct: Govt. The investigation arm of the Finance Ministry has detected tax evasion worth Rs 290.88 billion in 1,835 cases during the April-October period of the current financial year, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Trump wanted to prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey: Report. President Donald Trump told his counsel's office last spring that he wanted to prosecute political adversaries Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey, an idea that prompted White House lawyers to prepare a memo warning of consequences ranging up to possible impeachment, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Then-counsel Don McGahn told the president he had no authority to order such a prosecution, and he had White House lawyers prepare the memo arguing against such a move, The Associated Press confirmed with a person familiar with the matter who was not authorised to discuss the situation. McGahn said that Trump could request such a probe but that even asking could lead to accusations of abuse of power, the newspaper said.
Apollo Hospitals, a $2 bn health empire run by 4 sisters makes a comeback. Will not contest Lok Sabha elections in 2019, says Sushma Swaraj. External Affairs Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) senior leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday announced that she will not contest next year's Lok Sabha elections. Company News, Business News, Economic News, Market News, Share Market News, Stock Price, Corporate Results, Financial Data - Business Standard. Reveal details of all properties in India, abroad by Dec 3: SC to Amrapali. "Writing is very clear on the wall", the Supreme Court warned the embattled real estate firm Amrapali Group on Tuesday over its repeated non-compliance and "hood-winking" of the court's order. The top court asked the realty firm to reveal by December 3 the details of all its properties in the name of directors, their family members, relatives, Chief Financial Officers and statutory auditors in India and abroad.
Why the govt's initiative to disburse subsidies via DBT could fall flat. Almost a million payroll additions in September, highest in 13 months. RBI not alone: India in spotlight as global central banks battle populists. India's GDP train may have slowed down but has more gravy for job seekers. Company News, Business News, Economic News, Market News, Share Market News, Stock Price, Corporate Results, Financial Data - Business Standard. Plan to buy beleaguered Jet Airways flies into rough winds with Tata bosses. Indian-origin professor of US university used students as servants: Report. Economist D H Pai Panandiker passes away following prolonged illness. Maldives set to drop China free trade deal, leader calls it 'one-way' GAIL, GETCO move NCLT seeking rejection of ArcelorMittal's Essar Steel bid. RIL considers plan to expand world's largest refinery at Jamnagar by half.
Apple slashes production orders for all 3 new iPhone models, reports WSJ. Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn arrested, company moves to sack him: Report. RBI board meeting LIVE: Section 7 off the table; meet may continue tomorrow. Beauty and the Backlash: Walt Disney's modern princess problem. Short-term outlook for market looks positive; Buy Maruti, Bharat Forge. Commodity outlook by Tradebulls Securities: Buy crude oil, lead. MphasiS: A classic turnaround story. IDBI Bank and 10 other banks under PCA near asset quality stability. The Kilogram is dead! After a vote, standard measure for mass is redefined. MARKETS LIVE: All eyes on RBI board meet; rupee to be closely watched. Law introduced in US Congress to protect work authorisation of H-1B spouses. India's central bank dilemma: Here's why RBI's Urjit Patel should hold firm. RBI vs Govt: Will the Centre have its way by invoking an 83-year-old rule? Govt wants to 'capture' RBI to control its Rs 9-trn reserves: Chidambaram.
FPIs invest over $1 bn in Nov so far on easing oil prices, rupee recovery. PSBs' losses up 3.5 times to Rs 147 bn in Q2 on bad loans; PNB hit hardest. Seven of top 10 firms add Rs 708 bn in m-cap; RIL tops chart, overtakes TCS. Business Standard. Business Standard. Apple partners with movie studio A24 to make feature-length films. Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal govts revoke general consent for CBI probe.
Tatas confirm talks to buy Jet Airways; lenders to back the acquisition. Facebook's morale, already hurt by share drop, suffers another setback. Bigbasket eyes $200 mn investment in fresh funding in next few months. Business-standard. Mahindra to invest Rs 5 bn in electronic vehicle research, drivetrain plant. IndiGo seeks one-stop Europe flights via Tbilisi, Baku at 30% lower fare. Fitch affirms India's sovereign rating, sees significant macro risks ahead.
Exports bounce back in October to 17.86%, trade deficit widens to $17.13 bn. RBI-govt row not a happy situation, should stick to Basel norms: Gurumurthy. Why India, China can't keep dodging trade deals and let RCEP talks fail. No liquidity crunch in the NBFC segment: SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar. Binani insolvency: Dalmia Bharat moves SC against NCLAT nod to UltraTech.
NCLAT approves UltraTech's revised bid for debt-ridden Binani Cement. SpiceJet posts net loss of Rs 3.89 bn in Q2 on higher fuel cost, weak rupee. Rafale price can be discussed only if facts on deal can be made public: SC. Oil prices, not 2019 election key risk for Indian market: CLSA's Chris Wood. Essel Group may divest up to 50% of promoter share in Zee Entertainment. Ashok Leyland's Vinod Dasari steps down as CEO after a 14-year stint. Meet the robot who knows how to trade bonds better than a human investor. On RBI, Modi govt should avoid the bug of moving fast and breaking things. LS polls 2019: In India, CEO Jack Dorsey says Twitter fighting fake news. As PM Modi pushes waterways, PepsiCo sails from Kolkata to Varanasi. Netflix to test lower-price plans as it seeks more users in India and Asia. Chhattisgarh polls LIVE: Voting ends; Naxals fail as state sees 70% turnout.
Hit by fuel costs, Jet posts 3rd straight quarterly loss at Rs 12.97 bn. IIP grows marginally to 4.5% in September; October CPI inflation at 3.31% E-wallets preferred most for mobile recharges, utility bill payments: Study. California bar shooting: 12 killed, gunman who fired 30 shots dead too. There was a simplicity to my life in Chennai, says Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Google announces changes to sexual harassment policies, Pichai writes note. India opens Padur strategic reserves for foreign oil companies. Moody's places Airtel on review for a possible rating downgrade. RBI is duty-bound to release names of wilful defaulters, says CIC Acharyulu. Telcos seek till Nov 20 to bring new e-KYC in place of Aadhaar-based system. Dhanteras gold jewellery sales indicate consumer optimism ahead of Diwali.