Flight safety is at risk: Jet Airways' a...

A lobbying body of aircraft engineers at Jet AirwaysNSE 3.43 % has written to the airlines regulator Directorate General of Civil and the aviation ministry saying the stress from months of unpaid salaries has put the safety of the airline’s flights at risk. “We the engineers who inspect, troubleshoot and certify the public transport airplanes for its airworthiness are in tremendous stress due to non-payment of salaries on time, since last 7 months. As of now 3 month’s salary is overdue to us,” Amit Kelkar, vice president of Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association wrote in the letter. “It has been arduous for us to meet our financial requirements, result of which have adversely affected the psychological condition of Aircraft Engineers at work and therefore the safety of public transport airplanes being flown by Jet Airways across India and the world is at risk,” he added. Jet has delayed salaries, defaulted on loan repayments and lease rentals, grounded planes and cancelled flights in the worst financial crisis in its existence. A resolution plan drawn up with lenders has hit a dead end as its strategic investor partner Etihad has pulled out and refused any further investment. Meanwhile, minister Suresh Prabhu has called for an emergency meeting on Jet grounding its flights. “Jet Airways’ senior management had a series of meetings with us to resolve our overdue salaries and after much deliberation, finally released a payment schedule in Dec 2018 which would clear our dues in full, by the end of this financial year. However, it defaulted on it and our confidence in the company’s commitments has been shaken,” Kelkar wrote in the letter. In a later mail, Kelkar said the planes were safe to fly are being maintained “at the higest levels of safety standards since 25 years.”

23-03-2019 TO 31-03-2019

Like it or not, you can't avoid our prod...

India's manufacturing industry is still underdeveloped and it doesn't have the ability to produce competitively, the Global Times has opined. That's why its long-running attempt to boycott Chinese products has failed so far, an opinion piece in the state-run newspaper says. "Some Indian analysts have been appealing for a boycott of Made-in-China products. Especially after India's latest bid to list Masood Azhar as a global terrorist in the UN was suspended by China, the hashtag "#BoycottChineseProducts" has become popular on Twitter. But why has the boycott attempt failed for so many years? This is because India cannot produce the products by itself," said a blog published yesterday. "Like it or not, they still have to use Chinese-made products because India still lacks the ability to produce on a large scale," it added. The paper, which is affiliated to China's ruling Communist Party, said that it's the "forces inside India" that is hampering the country's reform process. Quoting Rahul Gandhi, the paper said Indian politicians should not use China to solicit votes. "New Delhi should understand this: Diverting Indian people's attention towards China will only make its internal problems more serious," said the piece. Relations between China and India have improved over the years and Beijing is also trying to address the trade deficit issue, it said. "And it would be dangerous if candidates in the coming general election use the "China threat theory" to hype up nationalism and gain popularity. Sensationalising China affairs may help political careers, but it will not help improve India's economy, manufacturing or people's livelihoods," it warned. The paper further advised Indian politicians to improve the country's real strength instead of just shouting slogans on Twitter.

23-03-2019 TO 31-03-2019

Lok Sabha elections 2019: PM Modi launch...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' campaign for upcoming Lok Sabha elections, urging everyone, who cares of the country, to come forward to fight corruption, dirt, social evils. The Modi-led BJP has launched this campaign to counter the Congress's 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' jibe. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has time and again hurled the 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' barb at PM Modi over the alleged scam in the Rafale fighter jet deal. While sharing a video with a hashtag #MainBhiChowkidar, PM Modi urged people show how all Indians were "chowkidars (watchmen)" and kick-started the BJP's campaign for the 2019 General Elections.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Lakshmi Vilas Bank raises Rs 459 crore v...

Private sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank Saturday said it has raised Rs 459.59 crore through qualified institutions placement (QIP). The Chennai-headquartered lender said it has raised funds at the rate of Rs 72 per share. "This fundraising via QIP will help the bank in strengthening its capital base and will enable the bank to further raise tier II capital," Lakshmi Vilas Bank said in a statement. The QIP closed on March 15, 2019. SREI Capital Market Ltd acted as the book running lead manager to the QIP issue.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Reserve Bank of India not in favour of c...

The IDBI Bank's proposal for changing its name has not found any favour from the Reserve Bank of India, sources said. The board of IDBI Bank last month proposed a change in the name of the lender to either LIC IDBI Bank or LIC Bank, following its takeover by Life Insurance Corporation. According to the sources, the RBI is not in favour of changing the name of IDBI Bank. The board had proposed LIC IDBI Bank Ltd as the first preference followed by LIC Bank Ltd. Besides the RBI, change of name requires clearance from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, shareholders, stock exchanges, among others. In January, the insurance behemoth LIC completed the acquisition of 51 per cent controlling stake in IDBI Bank, marking the entry of more than 60 years old state-owned insurer into the banking space. In August last year, the Cabinet approved the acquisition of controlling stake by Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) as a promoter in the bank through a combination of preferential allotment and open offer of equity. LIC had been looking to enter the banking space by acquiring a majority stake in IDBI Bank, as the deal is expected to provide business synergies despite the lender's stressed balance sheet. For the third quarter ended December 2018, IDBI Bank posted widening of loss by nearly threefold to Rs 4,185.48 crore as bad loans surged. The bank had reported a net loss of Rs 1,524.31 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Total income decreased to Rs 6,190.94 crore for the quarter, compared to Rs 7,125.20 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Lok Sabha elections 2019: India now has ...

"Bharosa Party", "Sabsi Badi Party", and "Rashtriya Saaf Niti Party" are some of the 2,300- odd political parties that India has on the eve of the 2019 general elections. The Election Commission of India's latest data on political parties, registered till March 9, a day before the Lok Sabha elections were announced, reveals that the country is having a total of 2,293 political parties. They include seven "recognised national" and 59 "recognised state" parties. In fact, 149 political parties were registered with the poll panel between February and March on the eve of the announcement of the poll schedule. Till February this year, the country had 2,143 political parties registered with the Commission, with 58 of them getting registered ahead of the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh during November-December last year. Some of the recently registered 149 parties include Bahujan Azad Party from Sitamarhi in Bihar, Samoohik Ekta Party from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Rashtriya Saaf Niti Party from Jaipur, Rajasthan, Sabsi Badi Party, Delhi, Bharosa Party from Telangana and New Generation People's Party from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. These registered but unrecognised political parties do not have the privilege of contesting elections on a fixed symbol of their own. They have to choose from a list of 'free symbols' issued by the poll panel. According to the latest EC circular, there are 84 such free symbols available currently. To become a recognised political party either at the state or national level, a party has to secure certain minimum percentage of polled valid votes or the certain number of seats in the state legislative assembly or the Lok Sabha during the last election. Fearing misuse of the provisions for financial contributions to political parties, the Election Commission had in 2016 asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes to look into the finances of 255 registered but unrecognised political parties it had "unlisted" that year for not contesting polls in the last one decade between 2005 and 2015. There have been fears that most of such parties are used to 'round trip' the black money into white. The EC had found that some of the parties were "no longer in existence or functioning". While the poll watchdog has the mandate to register a political party, the electoral laws deny it the power to deregister any party. With its demand to get power to deregister a party being pending with the Law Ministry, the Commission had used its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to "unlist" parties for being dormant and not contesting elections for a long time.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

FSSAI recruitment: Applications open for...

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has invited application for Assistant Director, Administrative Officer, Hindi Translator, and ten other job posts. According to the official notification, there are total 275 vacancies and both freshers and experienced candidates can apply for these posts. Among 13 posts, the highest vacancies are for Technical Officer, that is 130 vacancies, while for the Central Food Safety Officer's post, there are total 37 vacancies. The link for the online application will be functional from March 26 Tuesday on the official website of Fssai, fssai.gov.in. Last date to apply online is April 14 Sunday. Earlier, the application process was to start off from March 15, 2019 which was postponed due to some administrative reasons. Currently, FSSAI has its offices and labs in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Guwahati. All the job posts are transferrable throughout the country.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

ICICI Lombard, MobiKwik join hands to pr...

ICICI Lombard and Mobikwik Monday announced a partnership to offer cyber-insurance cover of Rs 50,000 to protect against online frauds. General insurer ICICI Lombard and digital financial services platform Mobikwik said the partnership aims to provide protection against unauthorised and fraudulent transactions online, across bank accounts, debit/credit cards and mobile wallets. The cyber-insurance can be availed digitally through an app at only Rs 99 per month and with a sum insured of Rs 50,000, said a release. MobiKwik users can avail the 'Commercial Cyber Insurance' policy underwritten by ICICI Lombard and enjoy the benefit of a stress-free and secured transaction for its users who opt for this cover, it added. "This relationship with MobiKwik further strengthens ICICI Lombard's endeavour to provide innovative and unique products against the new-age risks and cater to the needs of the customers of our business associates," Sanjeev Mantri, Executive Director, ICICI Lombard said. MobiKwik users can enrol under this insurance product at the time of loading money into their wallet or in a standalone format. Also, the claims can be lodged digitally.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Swiggy, Zomato served notices for delive...

Food safety section of the Uttarakhand Health Department has served notices to Swiggy and Zomato for delivering non-vegetarian food in restricted areas of the holy city of Haridwar. The food department claimed that both the leading food delivery aggregators have violated the bylaws of the city by delivering non-veg food which also hurts the sentiments of the locals. While giving out details, RS Pal, the deputy food safety officer in Hardiwar said, "Local residents had complained to city magistrate Jagdish Lal recently. Following which, we were asked to investigate the matter. The two companies failed to show Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) licence to the teams that had gone to inspect their offices. The firms also had not obtained no-objection certificates from the municipal corporation to deliver non-veg products." He added, "The bylaws of Haridwar municipal corporation prohibit sale of non-vegetarian food, including meat and meat products, within the city limits. This also goes to areas such as Kharkari, Har-ki-Pauri, Kankhal, Jawalpuri, Motichur and Haripur areas of the city." Reportedly, both the food aggregators have issued statements regarding the issue. They apologised for hurting the religious sentiments and said that the incident would not happen again. The Zomato's statement read, "We respect the religious sentiments of the holy city and will oblige with the directives set by the authorities." Zomato further added that they've applied for the licence in Haridwar and were working with FSSAI to ensure there are no complaints. A spokesperson from Swiggy said that they deeply regret the omission for delivering non-vegetarian food in the restricted areas of the city. "We have addressed the issue and would like to reiterate that as of March 16, Swiggy is delivering only vegetarian food in Haridwar. Swiggy has a central FSSAI licence and only lists FSSAI registered restaurants on the platform," the statement quoted.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Xiaomi bets big on India, invests Rs 3,5...

Xiaomi is betting big in India and is going all out to maintain its leadership position with an investment of Rs 3,500 crore into its Indian business unit. Xiaomi entered the Indian market four years ago and has invested the money into Xiaomi Technology India in two tranches. According to a report by ET, the amount was invested in two tranches this year - Rs 1,500 crore on January 17 and Rs 2,000 crore on March 1. It is reportedly the highest amount invested by Xiaomi in India since it started its operations in the country. After dominating the smartphones market, Xiaomi is planning to enter the white goods sector in India. Xiaomi also sells water purifiers, washing machines, laptops, refrigerators and other smart equipments. The funds would go into the expansion of Xiaomi's product line and its Mi Home retail stores to stay ahead of the competition in the Indian market. The company has already planned to introduce its foldable phone in India as early as April or June this year. The phone is very competitively priced at Rs 74,999. India's smartphone market is currently a key battleground for both Xiaomi and Samsung. Samsung India has upped the ante and has introduced several new reasonably priced smartphones in an attempt to take the top spot back from Xiaomi. Xiaomi India too has let go off its conservative strategy in India with the latest round of investment. The current investment has been made by the Xiaomi Singapore Pte Ltd, which owns 99.9% of the Indian entity - the balance 0.1% is owned by Xiaomi HK Ltd, which did not make any fresh investment. According to the Economic Times, under the first transaction in January, 3,786 shares of Xiaomi Technology India were offered to the holding company at a premium on a rights basis, while for the second one, in March, 6,959 shares were allotted. According to Counterpoint Research, Xiaomi was the leader in the Indian smartphone market with 28% market share in 2018. On the other hand, Samsung, Vivo and Oppo had a market share of 24%, 10% and 8%, respectively in 2018.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Facebook removes 1.5 million videos of t...

Facebook has said it has removed 1.5 million videos of the shooting at the mosques in New Zealand's Christchurch from its platform. A total of 1.5 million videos were being removed by the social media platform, out of which 1.2 million were 'blocked' at upload which means they were not being seen by users. Mia Garlick, spokeswoman for Facebook New Zealand, said in a statement that the company "continues to work round the clock to remove violating content from our site, using a combination of technology and people". Out of the 1.5 million videos of the massacre, 1.2 million were blocked on upload. This comes after New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern questioned Facebook regarding live-streaming of the mosque attack. She said in a news conference that there were "further questions to be answered" by Facebook and other social media sites over their response to the incident. She said in a statement that her country had done as much as they could do to "remove or seek to have removed some of the footage" circulated in the aftermath of the attack but that the removal of the violent content ultimately has been "up to those platforms". The alleged shooter Brentan Tarrant's Facebook followers were the first to know about the horrific incident as he live-streamed his assault, from the time he started driving over to Al Noor Mosque to the moments when he first opened fire. Long after his arrest along with other suspects, many others still continued to upload videos on YouTube and other online video platforms. The New Zealand Government, on Sunday, informed various online platforms that sharing any version of the footage, even the edited, non-graphic versions is a violation of the law.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Bombay Dyeing shares rally 11% after Mum...

Shares of Bombay Dyeing rallied nearly 11 per cent in early deals on Monday after the Wadia Group's flagship company said its Mumbai real estate project received part occupancy certificate from Mumbai Municipal Corporation. "The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai has granted the part occupancy certificate for company's residential building project on plot bearing C. S. No./CTS No. 120, 1/128 & 223 of Division Dadar - Naigaon at G. D. Ambekar Road, Mumbai on March 15," Bombay Dyeing & Mfg Company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Following the announcement, shares of Nusli Wadia-led textile company surged as much as 10.95 per cent to touch an intra-day trade high of Rs 147.90 apiece, against its previous close of Rs 133.30 on the BSE. The stock has gained upto 29 percent this month. In a similar trend, stock of the company was trading at Rs 144.55, up 8.28 per cent on the National Stock Exchange. During the day's trade so far, it touched an intra-day high of 147.80 after making a positive start on the local bourses. The company also said that occupancy certificate is an important document for a project and signifies that building is fit for an occupation. Last month, the Mumbai Bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had approved the scheme of arrangement between Seal Services and the Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company and their respective shareholders with effect from the appointed date of July 1, 2018. The Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company is a holding company engaged primarily in the business of real estate development, polyester staple fibre and retail. The company's segments include real estate, polyester and retail/textile. Meanwhile, the benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, were trading in the positive terrain, led by gains in the banking and oil and gas stocks.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

GST Council to streamline implementation...

The all powerful GST Council in its 34th meeting to be held Tuesday is expected to take up various issues including the implementation of lower GST rates for the real estate sector. The meeting is likely to deliberate only the transition provision and related issues for the implementation of lower GST rates for the real estate sector, sources said, adding, no issues related to rate is in the agenda as the model code of conduct is in force. In the previous meeting (February 24), the high-powered GST Council slashed tax rates for under-construction flats to 5 per cent and affordable homes to 1 per cent, effective April 1. The council is expected to give its nod on new rules on how far builders can make use of credit for taxes paid on raw materials and services in settling their final tax liability as the real estate sector moves to a new tax regime from April 1, sources said. Currently, the goods and services tax (GST) is levied at 12 per cent with input tax credit (ITC) on payments made for under-construction property or ready-to-move-in flats where completion certificate is not issued at the time of sale. For affordable housing units, the existing tax rate is 8 per cent. The new rules are expected to specify under what circumstances sale transactions initiated in the current tax regime but concluded after April 1, will be eligible for Input Tax Credit on taxes paid on raw materials and services. GST collections in February dropped to Rs 97,247 crore from Rs 1.02 lakh crore in the previous month. Of this, Central GST was Rs 17,626 crore, State GST (SGST) stood at Rs 24,192 crore, Integrated GST Rs 46,953 crore and cess was Rs 8,476 crore. GST collections in the current fiscal till February totalled Rs 10.70 lakh crore. The government has lowered the GST collection target for the current fiscal to Rs 11.47 lakh crore in the Revised Estimates, from Rs 13.71 lakh crore budgeted initially. GST collection stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore in April, Rs 94,016 crore in May, Rs 95,610 crore in June, Rs 96,483 crore in July, Rs 93,960 crore in August, Rs 94,442 crore in September, Rs 1,00,710 crore in October, Rs 97,637 crore in November, Rs 94,725 crore in December 2018 and Rs 1.02 lakh crore in January 2019. For the next fiscal 2019-20, the GST collection target has been fixed at Rs 13.71 lakh crore.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Government warns against fake websites f...

The government Monday cautioned against fake websites claiming to be registration portal for Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) scheme and said such websites may be misusing the collected data. The scheme, formulated by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), aims to promote the use of solar energy among the farmers. "It has been noticed that few websites have cropped up claiming to be registration portal for KUSUM scheme. Such websites are potentially duping the general public and misusing data captured through fake registration portal," the ministry said in a statement. The MNRE further said that DISCOMs or electricity distribution companies and state nodal agencies shall implement the KUSUM scheme for which the detailed guidelines will be issued soon. All potential beneficiaries must avoid depositing any registration fee or sharing important data on fake websites, it said, adding "they can contact their DISCOMs/state renewable energy nodal agencies or can visit the official portal of the ministry for necessary information related to the scheme." Last month, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the launch of KUSUM scheme with the objective of providing financial and water security to farmers. The scheme consists of three components -- 10,000 MW of decentralised ground-mounted grid-connected renewable power plants, installation of 17.50 lakh standalone solar powered agriculture pumps, and solarisation of 10 lakh grid-connected solar powered agriculture pumps.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

What went wrong with Indian higher educa...

The first generation of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) came up between the 1960s and 1990s, a different world. Today, we are not only in the middle of Industry 4.0, but also wide-spread disruption due to other factors. Of course, there is automation that is changing the nature of jobs and learning. There is climate change too, higher urbanisation, growing income equalities, and anti-globalisation resulting from hyper-nationalism. When Pankaj Chandra took over as the Vice Chancellor of Ahmedabad University, a private, non-profit institution offering programmes in undergraduate, graduate and doctoral studies, he asked two fundamental questions: What does all these disruption do to the world of education? And how do you prepare the young socially and intellectually in this environment? Ahmedabad University is a fairly new kid on the block - it was established in 2009. There is no historical baggage, which means that there is an opportunity to build an institution that is different, both culturally as well as in terms of learning. Chandra, the former Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, has been part of many committees on education. Two of them were the Government of India Committee on Rejuvenation of Higher Education (Yashpal Committee) that re-looked at the Indian Higher Education system and the committee on the Autonomy of Central Institutions. When he joined Ahmedabad University as Vice Chancellor (Sanjay Lalbhai, Chairman and Managing Director, Arvind Limited, is the Chancellor), Chandra said he wouldn't repeat the mistakes of the past. Business Today chatted with him to understand the issues plaguing higher education and what is it he was trying to do differently. First, what went wrong with Indian higher education institutions? Chandra points to six broad problems. Quality education is expensive. India has severely under-invested in education over the last 40 years. "Therefore, we see top institutions with very poor facilities, not much investment in R&D, laboratories where equipment sits idle," he says. The second issue is about expansion and it dates back to the 1960s. "We expanded education very rapidly - India has larger number of institutions than China, both in terms of colleges and universities. The only way the government could manage is by standardisation. In that process, education got standardised and we forgot that education was about real people and real people are very different from each other. We created one big frame where examinations became the only way to judge merit. If examinations are the only way of getting merit, all the ills followed like coaching classes; anybody who could get 95 per cent is celebrated in society; those who got 50-60 per cent faced a loss of esteem in the society. People thought teaching in a standard way is the best thing to do because it leads to exams and outcomes. Along with standardisation, we said we don't need to look at the world. We need to look at India," Chandra says. Third is about people. Indian institutions, the Vice Chancellor says, have always managed to get very good people, albeit in smaller numbers. Nevertheless, they had no reason to perform. "We never said if you don't do research, you will not get promoted. It was never that your research should contribute to societal problems." Next, came the regulator. Different bodies who formulated rules and regulations for the universities. "Education has to be done one child at a time, one university at a time," Chandra says. "We provided no flexibility and created water tight rules which are applicable to everybody. It destroyed the good ones who could have taken the destiny in their own hands and move on." In addition to the above, over the last few decades, the Indian society started to believe that they can do well without academic institutions, Chandra states. "Their engagement happens till the time their kids get into better colleges and from the better colleges to better companies. After that they don't think they have anything else to contribute. It is the amalgamation of regulators and society that don't see that higher education institutions must become the most important agent of change in the society. That's why we lost out," he says. His last point has to do with what we imagine are the very top institutions in India today. Chandra mentions that many of these institutions live on the laurels of controlling the two ends - "the scarcity of the number of seats so admission becomes very difficult and hence your status increases; at the other end, the scarcity of very good talent in the industry. So they will pick you (the student) up." There is a big box in the middle, which is institutional culture meant to advance knowledge, build new courses and remain at the frontier of practice from where the industry could draw on. This rarely happens in India. "Many of our institutions post the 1960s have got into a structural problem. No problem in society today can be solved by a single discipline. If I want to solve traffic at a crossing, it can be seen as a logistics-managerial problem or a civil engineering and transportation problem. Actually, neither of them can solve the problem because it is about understanding the anxiety of a person who reaches that crossing; it is a problem of psychology (among other things)," Chandra says. "No single problem today can be solved by a single discipline. You need multiple inputs from different disciplines. All of our tier-one institutions are stand-alone institutions. They are either management, or science, or technology or medical or law. They don't bring all of them together which is needed to create the right mindset and the knowledge base to solve a problem," he adds. Ahmedabad University, Chandra says, is now trying a "phenomenal" inter-discipline approach. It is less about taking one course in philosophy and another in history; it is about building a course where multiple perspectives from different disciplines are addressed. The university is designing its programmes around four intersecting axis. The first axis has data, materials, biology and behaviour. The second axis comprises elements such as transport, energy and food among others. The third axis is air, water, land and forest, which are the natural resources under stress. The last axis is about individual and community. Why are these four axis worth the attention? "Many disciplines of education and learning revolve around elements of these axis. Data has maths, computer science, statistics; material has engineering, science, manufacturing. Behaviour has sociology, anthropology, psychology etc. New challenges in the society and new opportunity lies at the intersection of these axis," Chandra says, and explains with two examples. A public health person who wants to work for a consulting company is actually working on behaviour, heath, water, and on community. An IT guy working to develop a new software for Bengaluru airport is working on data, transport, air and on individuals. Apart from the inter-discipline approach, the university is also working on an improved pedagogy that engages students more, while building the curiosity embedded in research training. "It is not about publishing research; it is about researching," Chandra says.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries bigg...

As the financial year 2018-19 draws to a close for the stock markets, the biggest gainer among the Indian 'fabulous five' so far is Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RIL), followed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDFC Bank and Hindustan Unilever (HUL). RIL's share price jumped around 50 per cent and market valuation went up by Rs 2.8 lakh crore. The petroleum giant tops the chart of market capitalisation (m-cap) with a valuation of Rs 8.5 lakh crore. The rise of RIL is mainly because of exponential earnings growth of petrochemical business, surge in the subscriber number of Reliance Jio and expansion of Reliance Retail. RIL has made Rs 3 lakh crore investment to build Jio, which made a profit of Rs 723 crore in the first year of its operation (2017/18) on a revenue of Rs 20,154 crore. In the first nine months of this financial year, it made a profit of Rs 2,124 core. The rise of petrochemical margin has offset the sharp fall refining margin of the company. The segment earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of petrochemical business grew by 64 per cent in the nine months until December 2018. The retail business has added about 2,500 stores in this period. The market cap (m-cap) shot up 144 per cent since January 2017. TCS, which was topper for a long time in the chart, is around Rs 90,000 crore behind RIL now at around Rs 7.6 lakh crore. However, the market value graph of software powerhouse has surged by 43 per cent or gained around Rs 2.3 lakh crore of value in this financial year. The m-cap increased 72 per cent from January 2017. The income of the company has grown by 19 per cent to Rs 1.1 lakh crore in the nine months of 2018/19 and the profit went up by 23.5 per cent to Rs 23,410 crore. The company has registered higher incremental revenue addition than its rivals like Infosys and Wipro. The employee attrition of around 11 per cent also implies that the software maker has managed to be the most successful among its peers in retaining employees. India's most valued lender HDFC Bank crossed the Rs 6 lakh crore-market capitalisation mark just a couple of days back, becoming the third company to do so after RIL and TCS. The share price of the bank rose by 19.5 per cent to Rs 6.15 lakh crore in this financial year, gaining around Rs 1 lakh crore so far. The bank's total deposits as of December 2018 stood at Rs 8.53 lakh crore, an increase of 22 per cent compared to a year back. For the nine months ended December quarter, the bank earned a total income of Rs 85,393.5 crore, up by 22.14 per cent. The profit went up by 19.7 per cent to Rs 15,193 crore. The capital adequacy ratio was at 17.3 per cent. The bank has 5,000 branches by mid-February. Since January 2017, the bank's m-cap has grown 87 per cent. HUL and ITC, which are on the fourth and fifth positions, respectively, have been locked in a valuation war for some time and the global FMCG giant has overtaken the Indian behemoth in this financial year. HUL's M-Cap has increased by over 27 per cent (or Rs 80,000 crore) to Rs 3.7 lakh crore in this financial year. But ITC has been able to grow 14 per cent (or Rs 45,000 crore) to around Rs 3.6 lakh crore. HUL has more than doubled its valuation (106 per cent) since January 2017, but ITC has grown just 20 per cent. The other biggies just behind the top five are HDFC Ltd (Rs 3.36 lakh crore m-cap, up 8 per cent in this financial year) and Infosys (Rs 3.09 lakh crore, up 27 per cent).

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Director of firm that audited Mumbai foo...

A director of Prof DD Desai's Associated Engineering Consultant and Analyst has been arrested for submitting 'faulty' audit reports regarding the BMC foot overbridge near CST railway station in Mumbai which collapsed four days ago. Reports suggest that Azad Maidan police arrested Neeraj Kumar Desai from Saki Naka after failing to apprehend him at his Vile Parle residence. Desai holds a masters degree in engineering and had personally audited the bridge as a professional structural engineer, according to an Indian Express report. The company, Prof DD Desai's Associated Engineering Consultant and Analyst Private Limited, was set up in 2003 and has three directors including Desai. The company was awarded the contract for audit of 39 bridges in Mumbai after a bridge collapse in Andheri. The audit report for the bridge near CST railway station had shown it in good condition, prescribing minor repairs. The slab of the bridge, however, collapsed on March 14, leading to six deaths and 31 injuries. The BMC had issued a show cause notice to the audit firm after the bridge collapse. The Azad Maidan had lodged an FIR under IPC sections 304 (A) (death due to negligence), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others). The FIR was changed to replace the IPC section for death due to negligence with Section 304 (II) for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Conviction under Section 304 (II) attracts 10 years of imprisonment, instead of the two years under Section 304 (A).

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

L&T's hostile takeover bid is 'value des...

In a regulatory filing last night Mindtree's promoters, including its four founders, said they intend to "unconditionally oppose" Larsen and Toubro's (L&T) hostile takeover bid, calling it a grave threat to their organisation. Mindtree, in a late night regulatory filing yesterday, made it clear that its promoters intend to "unconditionally oppose" Larsen and Toubro's (L&T) hostile takeover bid, the country's first in the IT sector. The exchanges were informed about two hours after the infrastructure giant in a statement announced an open offer to buy 31% stake in the company as per SEBI Takeover Regulations (as required under Regulation 3(1) and 4). This move followed L&T's announcement that it has signed a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) to acquire Cafe Coffee Day owner VG Siddhartha's 20.32% stake in Mindtree (held by him and his affiliate firms). In addition, L&T has placed an order with brokers to pick up another 15% of the company shares from the open market. All the three acquisitions - adding up to a 66.32% stake - are being done at Rs 980 per share, a premium of 1.8% over Monday's closing price of Mindtree on the BSE. "The attempted hostile takeover bid of Mindtree by Larsen & Toubro is a grave threat to the unique organization we have collectively built over 20 years," Mindtree's promoters said in a statement yesterday. The promoters, including the four founders of the company Krishnakumar Natarajan (executive chairman), Subroto Bagchi, N.S. Parthasarathy (executive vice chairman and COO) and Rostow Ravanan (CEO), collectively hold a 13.32% stake in the firm and have been rebuffing M&A overtures for a while now. Referring to Mindtree's consistently strong financial results and favourable returns to shareholders as well as "a differentiated corporate culture made up of our amazing 'Mindtree Minds', which reached the 20,000 milestone this year", the statement added that a hostile takeover by L&T could "immensely" set the company back. "We don't see any strategic advantage in the transaction and strongly believe that the transaction will be value destructive for all shareholders," read the statement. "This unexplainable transaction will bring disruption to those relationships and impair Mindtree's ability to differentiate itself in the market and continue to deliver client value and great shareholder return. We believe that culture needs to be carefully created and nurtured over time, and can't be bought and sold like any asset." The promoters maintain that they remain fully committed to their "long-term vision of building an independent company" and stated that it is in the "best interests" of the shareholders, Mindtree Minds, and the organisation to "continue opposing" the takeover attempt. "In addition, there has been a large outpouring of sentiment from Mindtree Minds online at #MindtreeMatters expressing their strong desire to retain our culture and our independence," said the statement. Meanwhile, Mindtree has been taking steps to avert the hostile takeover attempt. In a filing to exchange on March 15, Bengaluru-headquartered company said that its board will meet on March 20 to consider the proposal to buyback the fully paid-up equity shares of the company. As of December 2018, Mindtree reportedly had cash to the tune of Rs 162 crore and investments worth Rs 811 crore. This corpus is expected to be used for the potential buyback. Also, co-founder and ex-CEO Bagchi recently returned to the company, quitting his job as the head of Odisha Skill Development Authority. "An imminent threat of hostile takeover of Mindtree has made me to resign from the Government to be able to go, save the company. I must protect the Tree from people who have arrived with bulldozers & saw chains to cut it down so that in its place, they can build a shopping mall," Bagchi had tweeted on Sunday night.

19-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

IT services sector may register growth u...

MUMBAI: The information technology services sector is estimated to clock a flat growth of upto 9 percent in the fiscal year 2019-20, a report said Monday. The growth will be at par with the 9.1 percent growth achieved by the sector in FY19, according to industry lobby Nasscom. The grouping has discontinued a 25-year-old practice of coming out with growth estimates citing the changes in the landscape which makes the job harder. Domestic rating agency Icra said the sector will clock a 7-9 percent growth in USD in FY20 mainly on demand for digital solutions. "The earlier small-scale proof of concept digital projects has started evolving into enterprise level larger implementations coupled with improvement in discretionary spend supporting future growth," its vice president Gaurav Jain said. The traditional mainstay of banking and financial services will experience some weakness on low interest rates, focus on cost optimisation and managing discretionary spending, it said, adding that insurance companies are supporting the growth. Firming oil prices will lead to some discretionary spends by energy firms on digital spends and give the IT firms some good news, while retail is also showing improvement in the first nine months of FY19. From a profitability perspective, the rating agency said margins were flattish in the third quarter of FY19 on pricing pressure, increased regulatory costs, wage inflation and higher onshore hiring and sub-contracting cost necessitated by visa curbs. However, the overall margins are estimated to decline to 20.8 percent in FY20 for its 19 sample companies from 22.5 percent in FY18. Indian companies have started to ramp-up on-shore hiring in its largest market of US on visa issuance norms being tightened by restricting the entry-level programmers coupled with increasing compliance and evidence requirements adding to cost pressures, it said. There will be higher consolidation in the industry, especially among the small and mid-size players, owing to margin pressures in the next decade, it said. From a credit outlook perspective, the rating agency said it expects some stability on the ability of the sector to sustain free cash flows.

18-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

131 accountants respond to 108 economist...

131 chartered accountants has questionedA group of the 'motivation' behind the doubts raised by 108 economists about the veracity and integrity of economic data. Among the chartered accountants are names like TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global and Vikas Khemani, Former CEO, EdelweissNSE -0.19 %. A group of 108 economists and social scientists, in a letter, had alleged political interference in publication of economic data. "Disputing Government data is routine for experts around the world. However, it is unusual for a particular set to come together to discredit all data and long-standing institutions of eminence," wrote the 131 chartered accountants. The 108 economists had specifically criticised the revision of GDP data after changing the of the base year to 2011-12 which undermined the economic growth in the UPA years and also the suppression of NSSO data on jobs which allegedly pointed out that the unemployment had reached to a 45-year high post demonetisation. Responding to these charges, the chartered accountants said,"Changing of GDP base year is a regular feature. Instead of taking issue with specific areas, a general bunch of allegations has been made, which leaves one guessing about the motivation of the signatories." "It may have skipped their mind but the base years of the National Accounts Statistics series have been changed in Aug 1967, Jan 1978, Feb 1988, Feb 1999 and 2006. Such base year changes are made to ensure that data reflects the transition as well as the disruptions in an economy," the 131 chartered accountants added.

18-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Up to one-third of existing jobs will be...

MUMBAI: On the advent of artificial technology and rapid adoption of technology in the country, human resource professionals believe that one-third of existing job roles in various industries will get automated in the next three years, according to a survey. A survey by job portal Shine.com has revealed that one-third of existing job roles in various industries will get automated in the next 3 years changing the Indian jobs landscape. The survey was done by job portal has conducted a survey in metro cities among HR professionals in sectors including IT, education and training, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), manufacturing, retail, auto among others. Further, about 45.5 percent of the HR professionals said they plan to adopt technology-driven tools such as AI tools, virtual reality and hiring tools within their organisations in the coming 12 months, it said. Additionally, 36.75 percent respondent surveyed expect some kind of disruption in their industry in the next 2-3 years. "With a host of innovations and technological changes coming up and with cutting-edge technologies like AI and machine learning becoming more and more integral to business operations across sectors, the demand for professionals with evolved, tech-led skill-sets will only increase further in 2019," Shine.com CEO Zairus Master said. Expertise in areas such as data compliance and cyber security will also be much sought-after, given how critical data privacy and information security have become in the global business discourse, he said. "I also foresee organisations collaborating with reputed online learning platforms to undertake large-scale upskilling and reskilling of their in-house talent," he added. The technological convergence is also expected to transform existing job profiles and responsibilities and give rise to new job roles, the survey said. Other trends that will lead the HR landscape include the adoption of flexible HR policies and working hours, growth of digitisation, and an uptick in freelance workers, it added.

18-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019

Govt committed to maintain credibility o...

NEW DELHI: The government is committed to maintaining the credibility of statistical organisations and the NSSO employment data would be released by month-end, a senior official said Monday as he dismissed concerns about alleged political interference in statistical data. The senior government official's comments come against the backdrop of as many as 108 economists and social scientists alleged "political interference" in statistical data in the country and called for restoration of "institutional independence" as well as integrity of statistical organisations. "The government is committed to maintaining the credibility of our statistical organisations, not only that we have worked hard to strengthen these organisations and will continue to do so," the official told PTI. The official also said the National Sample Survey Office's (NSSO's) employment data would be released by the end of March. There has been a controversy over NSSO figures not being released after a draft report had indicated that employment generation was slow. "The liberals are very angry with Prime Minister Narendra Modi because he has preferred hard work to Harvard (University). "And all of these 108 gentleman, a great majority them are ensconced in environments of their western universities and choose to comment on India without having any reality checks. Those who have done reality checks are ideologically so motivated that they will colour everything with their ideology," the official said. Last week, the 108 economists and social scientists' appeal also came amid controversy over revision of GDP numbers and withholding employment data by the NSSO.

18-03-2019 TO 24-03-2019