Housing sales up 6% during Jul-Sept in nine big cities: PropEquity

Housing sales rose by 6 per cent during July-September in nine major cities at 51,142 units on demand recovery post demonetisation, new real estate law and GST impact on the real estate market, according to PropEquity data.

Nine cities tracked by real estate data, research and analytics firm PropEquity include Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Thane and Chennai.

Launches of new homes grew by 12 per cent to 32,870 units during the third quarter of 2018 calendar year.

"In the last one year, prices have corrected and the realty market has started to somewhat revive. With festive season coming up, developers will dole out discounts, finance schemes and freebies to push housing demand further," said Samir Jasuja, founder and managing director of PropEquity.

Automakers offer discounts, schemes to woo buyers during festive season

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Passenger vehicle makers are pulling all stops to woo buyers with attractive schemes and offers this festive season that began with Navratra on Wednesday after the dry spell of Shraadh. The period of festivals till Diwali is critical for auto companies as they account for almost a third of their annual sales. The sales push this year comes in a market that has seen demand sputter amid rising petrol prices, high-interest rates and floods in some states. Not leaving anything to chance, automakers are offering schemes even on best-selling models that are relatively new in its life-cycle.

In Maruti Suzuki’s case, Mumbai buyers can avail benefit up to Rs 25,000, including exchange bonus and accessories on the company’s best-seller Baleno. Similarly, Hyundai Motor India too is offering benefits up to Rs 40, 000 on the new Verna.

Consumers of the new Honda Amaze can avail extended warranty worth Rs 12,000 for the fourth and fifth year. Even Mahindra XUV500 customers can benefit up to Rs 36,000. Even Toyota Yaris is also offering to grant profit worth Rs 20,000 as an exchange bonus.

Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal may buy 10% in Ola for $100 mn: report

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal is in talks with Ola to invest about $100 million for a 10% stake in the cab hailing major.

Bansal will be buying new shares in the company, according to sources close to the development. The purchase may also include a small secondary component where he buys a part of shares held by some investors.

This will be the largest personal investment for Bansal, who has several early-stage bets under his hood.

In the past, he had invested in learning platform Unacademy, news app Inshorts and electric scooter-maker Ather Energy, to name a few companies. The potential deal suggests Bansal wants to remain clued into the country's thriving internet entrepreneurial ecosystem, after he moved out of Flipkart, the e-commerce behemoth he co-founded in 200

Taxiing into new zones: Soon, Uber to deliver grocery at your doorstep

Global ridesharing major Uber might soon move into the burgeoning grocery delivery space. After launching its food delivery service in India Uber Eats almost three years back, sources close to the firm said Uber might launch a few pilots for grocery delivery in India as early as next year.

The development comes soon after its global Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi during an event in Los Angeles said the company moving towards grocery delivery after food is the next logical step in the evolution of the Eats vertical. The grocery vertical would be added to the Uber Eats app.

“With Eats, we’re getting into the business of moving food around. I think this product of delivering great quality food to you at home in 30 minutes or less is magical and is going to move into grocery in a way that’s fundamental and a lot more people are going to be eating at home… you can absolutely see grocery as being an adjacency,” he said at the international event.

Eli Lilly plans expansion, looks to grow presence in Indian market

Eli Lilly will bring its pipeline of oncology and diabetes drugs to India as it looks to grow its presence in the market. The US-headquartered drug maker which has been relying on partnerships to sell its drugs in India, on Wednesday launched its patented rheumatoid arthritis drug Olumiant that they plan to market on their own.

In the last three years, it has launched eight products while in the last 22 years of its presence in the country it launched 10 products (molecules and molecule variants).

The US-headquartered company has a pipeline of seven molecules that are currently in phase III clinical development and around ten are in phase II clinical testing. Eli plans to bring some of its molecules from the global pipeline to India, especially in the oncology and diabetes space.

Currently, diabetes is the largest therapy segment for Eli in India. Data from AIOCD AWACS showed that Eli had clocked a 51.4 per cent growth in sales value over the last one year (MAT September 2018). This data, however, does not include the revenue from partnerships. Luca Visini, managing director of Eli Lilly and Company, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh said that, “We want to launch drugs in any country as soon as we can.”

Foodpanda takes 2,000 seats in GoWork's co-working centre at Gurugram

Co-working operator GoWork Thursday said online food delivering platform Foodpanda has taken 2,000 seats in its centre at Gurugram.

GoWork has two co-working centres in Gurugram spread over 8 lakh square feet with a capacity of 12,000 seats.

The company was founded in June last year by Sanjeev Mahajan (Chairman), Sudeep Singh (Chief Evangelist and co-founder) and Nimit Mahajan (co-founder).

GoWork said in a statement that it has "acquired leading food-tech startup Foodpanda as a client."

Foodpanda has initially taken up 2,000 seats in GoWork's centre at Udyog Vihar in Gurugram under the 'built to suit' enterprise format, with expansion plans of up to 4,000 seats, it added.

Data privacy rules in Asia major stumbling blocks for fintech boom: Report

Data privacy rules in Asia are limiting the spread of financial technology, an industry body said on Thursday, calling on regulators to set out broad principles rather than precise rules.

Companies around the world want to make better use of the large pools of data they have to both cut costs and offer additional services. But governments and regulators in Asia and elsewhere are tightening rules on how that data is used.

"Governments in Asia say that they support fintech, and they want fintech firms to enter their market, but data privacy rules are a major stumbling block," Paul Hadzewycz, senior associate at the Asian Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Asifma), told Reuters.

AT&T's WarnerMedia plans to launch new subscription video service in 2019

AT&T Inc is preparing to launch a subscription video service by the end of 2019 that will offer movies and TV shows from Hollywood's biggest library, as well as licensed programming from other companies and, within a year, original content, a top executive told Reuters.

The service, to be anchored by HBO, will include everything from film classics like "Casablanca" to the "Harry Potter" and "Batman" franchises to TV series "ER" and "Pretty Little Liars."

It is still in the planning phases and AT&T, the No. 2 US wireless carrier, has not yet articulated how it will be structured or how it will be staffed.

The announcement of the service delivers on a promise AT&T made in June after shareholders approved the telecom company's $85 billion purchase of Time Warner in order to make more money selling products directly to consumers rather than just go through middlemen such as cable companies.

"When we first discussed the benefits of combining WarnerMedia with AT&T, we saw the ability to create new consumer choices centered on unmatched options, value, quality, and experiences," John Stankey, WarnerMedia Chief Executive, wrote in the memo.

Why health activists are against Coca-Cola sponsoring Youth Olympics

Eleven-year-old Martin wants to become a sports star. Like Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, or Ronaldo. And make pots of money.

He will, however, never become a sportsman, because he is grossly obese. He is also addicted to fizzy cola drinks, which he has to have at every meal, starting from breakfast. He sits before the TV for endless hours, watching telecasts of the IPL, World Cups, Wimbledon and other gala international events, fantasising about his own future in sports.

Connect this boy’s lifestyle and health to the fact that the ongoing 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has the multinational soft drink giant Coca Cola as one of its main sponsors and you see how it all adds up, to trash the dreams of thousands of Martins around the world. A declaration condemning Coke’s sponsorship, released by health activists around the world, had received, at last count (August 2018) an impressive endorsement from 241 supporters (including five international associations of nutritionists as signatories) from Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Uruguay, New Zealand, Colombia, El Salvador and Ecuador. The signatories demand that the multinational withdraw its sponsorship.

After failed stake sale bid, govt has new plan for Air India: Will it work?

Earlier this year, the government failed to privatise Air India when its offer to offload its 76% stake in it drew a blank. Thereafter, the Niti Aayog advised the government to first turn the national carrier around and then sell it to get a decent price.

A recent report in Business Standard, quoting unnamed government sources, carries a fairly detailed account of what the Centre wishes to do to turn Air India around.

The idea is to give it an autonomous board and empower it suitably, thus enabling it to put in place a professional management. The board already has the benefit of the advice of top industrialists who are independent directors.

The aim will be to ensure that the suitably empowered autonomous board will get the company to stop making cash losses and therefore not need further government cash support beyond the current financial year. This is sorely needed because, over the five year period from 2012 to 2017, the carrier has posted a massive loss of Rs 270 billion and received capital infusion (cash to keep it going) totalling almost Rs 240 billion.

JSW Steel output up 6% to 4.18 mn tonnes in Sep quarter; shares slump 4%

JSW Steel Thursday said its crude steel output grew 6 per cent to 4.18 million tonne (MT) during the quarter ended September 30, 2018.

The Sajjan Jindal-led company had produced 3.94 MT crude steel in July-August 2017, it said in a statement.

During the said quarter, there was a rise of 2 per cent in production of flat rolled products at 2.96 MT as against 2.89 MT in the year-ago quarter, it said.

The company also registered 17 per cent growth in the output of its long rolled products at 0.91 MT as compared to 0.77 MT it had produced in year-ago quarter, JSW Steel added.

JSW Steel is a leading integrated steel company in India with an installed steel-making capacity of 18 MTPA.

The company's plant at Vijayanagar in Karnataka is the largest single location steel producing facility in the country with a capacity of 12 MTPA.

Shares of the company were trading 3.96 per cent down at Rs 361.20 apiece on BSE.

One chairman-CEO or two separate roles, Citigroup has to decide soon

JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp have placed the jobs of chairman and chief executive in the hands of one person, and now No. 3 Citigroup Inc must decide whether to follow suit.

The matter will be resolved in the next few months as the current chairman, Mike O'Neill, reaches 72, the company's retirement age for directors. Citigroup CEO Mike Corbat will soon know if he will be taking on the additional duties of chairman or working for a new boss.

"The change in the chairman is the biggest corporate governance decision at Citigroup in six years," said analyst Mike Mayo of Wells Fargo. "That's important given what we see as worst-in-class returns, efficiency and stock market valuation." Citigroup, the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, reports third-quarter results on Friday. Investors will be watching its progress toward cost efficiency and return on equity targets, as well as revenue from its big U.S. credit card business.

Six years ago O'Neill became chairman and shortly after he led the board to replace then-CEO Vikram Pandit with Corbat.

Flipkart does not aspire to play a role in global markets: Binny Bansal

Even though it now has the backing of global retail giant Walmart, home-grown e-commerce major Flipkart says it does not aspire to play a role in global markets. It would instead continue to bet on India, where opportunities are immense.

In a fireside chat with Sudhir Sethi, founder and chairman of IDG Ventures India, on Tuesday evening, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal said that e-commerce and retail were very local businesses and it was difficult to take the model and apply outside. Calling India a land of opportunities, Bansal said the country was the last big market and there were no such markets to take the model into.

“There are too many opportunities in India to build around e-commerce, such as financial services. We want to do more around Indian customers rather than stretch ourselves to markets where competition might be more,” Bansal added.

Opening up about the US retail giant Walmart’s deal with Flipkart, Bansal said since it was not a full acquisition, the deal went quite smoothly.

Indiabulls Ventures standalone net profit declines 54.59% in Sept quarter

Indiabulls Ventures has reported consolidated net profit growth of 60.6 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 1.40 billion, driven by strong business from broking and financing segments.

Profit in previous quarter period stood at Rs 877 million, the company said.

Consolidated revenue during the quarter increased 38.2 percent sequentially to Rs 4.76 billion with 20 percent QoQ growth in broking business and 46 percent in financing segment.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) surged 45.4 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 309.2 crore and margin expanded by 320 basis points to 64.9 percent in Q2FY19.

However, at 14:51 hours IST, the stock price was locked in 5 percent lower circuit at Rs 374.90 despite strong earnings.

India to get free CCTV cameras under $1.5Bn 'Secure Our City' campaign

UAE based by Secure Cam IT Solutions has announced the launch of their major campaign to equip more than 1.5 million buildings worldwide with security camera solutions.

The first phase of the campaign by Secure Cam IT Solutions will be rolled out across 13 countries, starting with India and the UAE.

In India, the campaign will begin with Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. While the key focus of the campaign will initially be on major metro cities, cities from the states of Kerala and Goa will also benefit from it.

Secure Cam IT Solutions has already partnered with companies in India to execute the campaign. The company plans to enter India by the end of 2018.

"We aim to focus on the metros and a few other cities. Our idea is to secure at least one city in every country by the end of 2025. We plan to install a maximum of 10,000 cameras in each city. The total cost of the project is estimated at around  $1.5 billion," said Rijoy Thomas, Chairman and CEO of the Abu Dhabi-based Secure Cam IT Solutions.

Snapdeal has $125 million with run-time of a decade, says Kunal Bahl

It has been a roller-coaster ride for Snapdeal, the Gurugram-based online marketplace. From a valuation of $6.5 billion to backing by global investors and employing 10,000 at its peak, the Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal-led entity has seen it all.

However, the company founders claim to be finally getting its groove back. Thanks to the plan they’d put in place last year, when talks for a sale to Flipkart fell flat.

The company’s effort to reshape its business model, dubbed ‘Snapdeal 2.0’, is seen to have helped, sources said. In a turnaround of sorts, it has grown its order volume four-fold in the past 10-12 months, from a low of 35,000 daily orders in August last year to now shipping 150,000-175,000 a day.

According to a blog written by Kunal Bahl, from near-death to generating cash, it took a lot of courage, focus and discipline to turn the ship around sharply. “And, we achieved all this with a nimble 800-plus member team —in a flat, agile structure, responding in real time to external and internal needs. Healthy, rejuvenated and in control of its own destiny, Snapdeal is now sailing ahead towards brighter horizons. And, we also just moved into our brand-new, open-plan office, which means no cabins for anyone.”

Firms could lose over Rs 100 billion due to rupee fall: CARE Ratings

Firms could be incurring an additional interest outflow between Rs 106 billion and Rs 128 billion on account of rupee depreciation this financial year, according to a study by CARE Ratings.

“This is the additional burden for the corporates having borrowed funds via the ECBs (external commercial borrowing) route and is purely based on the assumption of no hedging. This could be unfavourable for corporates as the profitability of such companies will be adversely impacted,” the study, done by Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, and Sushant Hede, associate economist at the rating agency, said.

The additional interest outflow on account of the local currency, which has fallen 13.6 per cent so far this financial year, would be 1-1.3 per cent of the total interest expenses of Rs 9.3 trillion, reported by a sample of 2,700 companies for FY18, including banks

How some of India's biggest companies faltered on industrial safety

Tuesday’s explosion at SAIL’s Bhilai plant is not the first that shocked the nation, which faces serious concerns over industrial safety. One of the most recent ones include an explosion at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Mumbai refinery in August, in which 21 people were reported to be injured. Here is a recall of some major fatal incidents reported in the past few years...

Jul 27, 2005: An offshore platform of ONGC in Bombay High gutted, killed at least 4

Oct 29, 2009: Fire at IndianOil's oil depot tank holding 8,000 kl in Jaipur killed 12 and injured 200

Sep 23, 2009: Collapse of a 275-m chimney being constructed at Vedanta's Bharat Aluminium plant killed at least 45

Jun 27, 2014: A fire after a blast at a GAIL underground gas pipeline in Nagaram, Andhra Pradesh that killed 18 and injured 40

Nov 2, 2017: Explosion in a boiler at NTPC's Unchahar plant in Rae Bareli district that claimed more 45 lives

Microsoft boasts of a security win ahead of Pentagon cloud computing bids

Microsoft Corp. is on track to catch up with Amazon.com Inc. by obtaining top federal security authorizations early next year, bolstering the company’s position in the Pentagon’s winner-take-all competition for a multibillion-dollar cloud computing deal.

The software company said Tuesday that it will earn the certification required to host the government’s most sensitive and classified information -- a distinction previously held only by Amazon Web Services -- by the end of the first quarter of 2019.

Microsoft’s announcement comes just four days before tech companies submit bids for the Defense Department’s cloud contract, which is widely seen to favor Amazon. The project, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud, or JEDI, involves transitioning massive amounts of Defense Department data to a commercially operated cloud system. Bids for the project, which could last as long as 10 years and be valued at as much as $10 billion, are due on Oct. 12.

No more cyber bullying: Instagram will now use AI to detect abusive content

Instagram has added more weapons to battle cyber bullying, using artificial intelligence to scan photos for abusive content at the Facebook-owned service.

The move comes after Facebook also increased anti-harassment measures, following a survey which said young victims of online abuse feel social media firms aren't doing enough to fight the problem.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri Tuesday said artificial intelligence is being used to detect signs of bullying and then automatically flag content for review by staff from the image-oriented social network.

"This change will help us identify and remove significantly more bullying," Mosseri said in a blog post. "

It's a crucial next step since many people who experience or observe bullying don't report it." Rolling the technology out across the entire social network is expected to take a few weeks.

In another move, a filter that enables Instagram users to detect and hide bullying remarks from Instagram feeds or profiles was extended to comments on live videos, according to Mosseri.

In the spirit of inspiring people to be nice to one another, Instagram also added a camera effect which can be used to adorn images with hearts or the word "kindness" in a variety of languages.

India Inc's profit outlook may be hit by oil, rupee: What brokerages expect

The rupee's longest rout since 2000 and oil's surge to a four-year high have put earnings estimates of Indian companies at the risk of downgrades.

Analysts have boosted the average profit forecast for NSE Nifty 50 Index companies by 9.2 per cent this year, shrugging off a 12 per cent slump in the gauge since August. But history suggests the divergence won't extend for long, and the growing stress in Asia's third-largest economy may soon translate into lower projections.

Not that a weaker rupee is bad for all Indian companies -- exporters, including software producers and drugmakers, will gain in local-currency terms. Still, the net impact on the broader corporate sector may be negative because of higher import bills. Add to that the tighter local-funding conditions, and profit estimates begin to appear optimistic.

"Key factors are rising input costs, volatile crude prices, rupee depreciation and tightening liquidity, all catalysts for market de-rating," analysts led by Dhirendra Tiwari at Mumbai-based Antique Stock Broking Ltd wrote in a note. The brokerage expects earnings growth for Nifty companies to be 2.8 per cent on year in the fiscal second quarter, much slower than the 13 per cent expansion seen in the April-June period.

After sending 3 directors to custody, SC seals 9 Amrapali group properties

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed sealing of seven properties of the Amrapali group at Noida and Greater Noida where the documents related to its 46 group companies are kept.

A Bench of Justices U U Lalit and D Y Chandrachud also ordered sealing of two properties of the group at Rajgir and Buxar in Bihar saying that after sealing of these properties, its keys be handed over to the registrar of the apex court.

The court had on Tuesday sent three directors of the group to police custody, directing them to hand over all the documents of the 46 group companies to forensic auditors.

Stagnant IT fresher salary drives engineering graduates to look elsewhere

Information Technologies (IT) sector, which used to be the largest recruiter of freshers from engineering colleges offering them competitive salaries, seems to be losing its edge to non-IT sectors, which are offering better pay packets to these campus recruits. According to a report by JM Financial, over the past 10 years, the average campus salaries from mass hiring by IT firms have grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just 3 per cent as compared to 8 per cent increase by the non-IT companies. Consequently, more engineering graduates are getting attracted to non-IT companies as start-ups and global companies offer more jobs at higher salaries.

According to Pankaj Kapoor, research analyst at JM Financial, campus salaries have had a spiralling impact on the total manpower costs (that are 50 per cent of revenues) for IT firms. A survey of 44 engineering colleges indicates that the average campus salaries offered by mass-hiring IT companies in 2018 was at least 30 per cent lower than that of non-IT companies. IT firms have also increased hiring from average inistitutes and reduced hiring from non-IT branches.

On the other hand, increasing number of global companies and start-ups are hiring and attracting talent at campuses with their higher salary offer

Cipla plans expansion, aims to launch at least one product in US every year

Cipla, a prominent name in the respiratory segment in India, is expecting its next leg of growth from the international market. Having launched products in the segment in the international market, it added $70-100 million in revenues last financial year. Cipla now aims to launch at least one product in the US (in the segment) every year from next year.

In India, Cipla already enjoys a 67-68 per cent share of the respiratory drugs market, and the company says there is potential for a 14-15 per cent growth as the market is under-penetrated. The overall respiratory market is expected to clock 12-13 per cent growth.

Cipla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Umang Vohra said the firm was planning to work closely with diagnostic centres to boost the detection rates of respiratory illnesses.

“There are an estimated 90 million patients with respiratory illnesses in India of whom only 30 million are diagnosed. Less than 10 million actually get proper treatment,” he said. The burden of respiratory illnesses is as big as diabetes in India.

Russia's VTB likely to seek solo bid for debt-laden Essar Steel in court

Russia's VTB, the majority partner in Numetal, may file an independent application in the Supreme Court for a solo bid for Essar Steel, said people close to the development.

The Supreme Court in its judgment on October 4 had granted an opportunity to ArcelorMittal and Numetal to clear dues for non-performing assets (NPAs) in two weeks to be eligible to bid for Essar Steel. The court had exercised its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution for the purpose.

While for Arcelor, the dues on account of Uttam Galva and KSS Petron would be around Rs 70 billion, for Numetal the payment could be upwards of Rs 390 billion on account of Essar.

Moreover, Numetal might have to pay for Ruia group companies that had been classified as NPAs for more than a year before the submission of resolution plan.

People in the know indicated that since the apex court had not found VTB to be ineligible, it was discussing with lawyers the option of moving an application seeking permission for a solo bid. 

Google unveils Pixel 3, other devices to stay afloat in hardware business

Though sales of its devices have been slow, the search giant unveiled the Pixel 3, a smart speaker with a built-in screen and a tablet that doubles as a PC.

For much of the last decade, Apple and Samsung have dominated sales of smartphones. So why would anyone bother trying to sell a new phone?

That hasn’t dissuaded Google. The company on Tuesday unveiled new versions of its Pixel smartphone, which is a high-end challenger to Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy phones. It also introduced a smart speaker with a built-in display and a laptop that doubles as a tablet, in response to products from Amazon and Microsoft.

The gadgets are Google’s third wave since it started making consumer devices in 2016. The internet company has pushed these products as a way to showcase its prowess in areas like artificial intelligence and image processing.

Fake news: Soldiers cleaning up Facebook's mess are feeling overrun

The fictional news stories pop up on Facebook faster than Paterno Esmaquel II and his co-workers can stamp them out.

Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, debated a Catholic bishop over using violence to stop illegal drugs — and won. Pope Francis called Mr. Duterte “a blessing.” Prince Harry and his new wife, Meghan Markle, praised him, too. None were true.

False news is so established and severe in the Philippines that one Facebook executive calls it “patient zero” in the global misinformation epidemic. To fight back in this country, the Silicon Valley social media giant has turned to Mr. Esmaquel and others who work for Rappler, an online news start-up with experience tackling fake stories on Facebook.

While Rappler’s fact checkers work closely with Facebook to investigate and report their findings, they believe the company could do much more.

“It’s frustrating,” said Marguerite de Leon, 32, a Rappler employee who receives dozens of tips each day about false stories from readers. “We’re cleaning up Facebook’s mess.”

Jet Airways loyalty programme stake sale faces headwinds, challenges

Jet Airways proposed stake sale in loyalty programme and equity infusion in the airline is facing challenges but analysts say that the sale alone will not be sufficient to tide over the financial crisis.

An overhaul of business along with fleet and network reduction may be required to save the airline from collapse, they said.

A report in Mint newspaper on Wednesday said private equity firms Blackstone and TPG Capital have second thoughts over-investment in Jet Airways loyalty programme.

While discussions are underway and due diligence is being carried for stake sale in Jet Privilege Private Limited, no firm offer has been given. The concern is primarily around Jet Airways financial health. A loyalty programme will not have a value if the airline's survival itself is at stake, the suitors are believed to have told the airline.

Essar Power announces completion of 1,200 MW Mahan power plant project

Ruia family-promoted Essar Power Wednesday announced the completion of its Rs 80 billion capex programme for its Mahan power plant project with a commissioning of the plant's second 600 MW unit.

Both units of the project are operational and supported by an end-to-end raw material sourcing and evacuation infrastructure, a company statement said.

According to the statement, the second unit is supplied by Harbin Electric and is designed to perform at optimum efficiency with domestic coal from pithead mines in the region.

The project will provide direct employment to about 250 people, and indirect employment to around 1,250 more, thus spurring ancillary development in the area.

The company also announced the completion of railway siding for the project.

In the last one year, we have commissioned more than 1,500 MW of operational capacity and 465 km of transmission lines," said Pradeep Mittal, Executive Vice Chairman, Essar Power.

Sell anything to anyone, the mantra inside Amazon's festive sale war rooms

In the caffeine-fuelled festive sale battle for dominance in India's e-commerce space, Amazon drew first blood with its early access deals for loyal Prime customers. Just as the company was gearing up to open the sale to everyone in India last night, it said that Prime members had bought two times as many products in the first 10.5 hours of the sale when compared with the first day of its sale last year.

Employees who stayed all night monitoring the performance of Amazon's Great Indian Festival sale to ensure there are no glitches, were really hoping that the Prime early access sale was a small indicator of how big this year's sale will be. Most of them were looking tired with hectic activities along the day, but were hardly able to suppress the excitement. They know that the five-day long sale is a strong validation of nearly nine months of hard work they have put in building systems and processes to handle the peak loads during the sale.

“Prime Early Access (the amount of goods sold during this period) is already two times of what it was last year,” said Amit Agarwal, Country Manager for Amazon India, to a loud cheer from employees seated in one of the many war rooms setup at the company’s head office in Bengaluru. “A lot of hard work has gone into building all these features, so thank you everyone.”

Paytm Mall sale: Cashback offers, massive discount on Macbook Air, and more

In a massive outpour of discounts on online retail services during the festive season, Paytm mall has announced Maha Cashback Sale. The sale will live on the e-commerce website on Tuesday, October 9 and will continue till next Monday, October 15. The website will give deals on mobiles, laptops, and other electronics which will be listed during the sale.

Maha Cashback Sale is also going to feature ‘Golden Hours’, wherein the platform will offer special price drops from 8 am to 12 pm every day. These ‘Golden Hours’ will feature products ranging from electronics, fashion, mobiles, home appliances, consumer electronics, and so on and support them with additional cashback.

Moreover, Paytm Mall set aside Rs 5.01 billion for marketing budget during festive sales, Cashback and Paytm Gold. Here are some of the discounts the website is offering throughout the sale period:
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Cognizant lays off 200 senior executives in bid to realign workforce

In a bid to allign its talent pool to the newer digital requirements, the Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) has reportedly laid off about 200 senior employees at the director level and above this year.

The employees have been given a severance payout of three-four months, reported The Times of India.

The process, which was completed in August, is likely to cost $35 million to the company.

"As a part of our ongoing workforce management strategy, we ensure we have the right employee skill sets necessary to meet client needs and achieve our business goals. This process has resulted in changes, including some employees transitioning out of the company. We continue to enhance our capabilities and hire for roles across all our practice areas in the company. Details of severance or any other conditions of employment are confidential," the company told the daily.

Affected employees told TOI that they had been asked to sign a mutual release agreement with the company. Under the agreement, they had to acknowledge that they won't press legal action against the company or its directors or its officers.

Tata Motors launches updated version of Tigor starting at Rs 520,000

Tata Motors Wednesday launched an updated version of its compact sedan Tigor, priced between Rs 520,000 and Rs 738,000 (ex-showroom).

The petrol variants of the model are priced between Rs 520,000 and Rs 665,000, while the diesel trims are tagged between Rs 609,000 and Rs 738,000.

"The compact sedan segment has been an important space for customers seeking premium-ness at best value coupled with bold and attractive looks," Tata Motors CEO and MD Guenter Butschek said.

The company is confident that the new Tigor will create excitement towards the brand, fostering the ongoing PV (passenger vehicles) growth journey, he added.

The petrol variants of the new Tigor are powered by a 1.2 litre engine while the diesel trims come with 1.05 litre powertrain.

Bandhan Bank Q2 profit jumps 47% to Rs 4.9 billion; NPA up marginally

India's Bandhan Bank Ltd posted a 47.3 per cent jump in second-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by higher interest earned.

Net profit rose to Rs 4.88 billion ($65.8 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, from Rs 3.31 billion a year earlier, the Kolkata-based bank said in a statement.

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans stood at 1.29 per cent by end-September, compared with 1.26 per cent in the previous quarter and 1.43 per cent a year earlier.

Huawei to sell servers with own chips to boost its cloud computing business

China's Huawei, the world's largest telecom-equipment maker, on Wednesday said it will sell some servers powered by its own chips for the first time, doubling down on efforts to boost its cloud computing business.

This comes at a time when Huawei, which set up its cloud business unit last year, is trying to gain a firmer foothold in the public cloud market at home that is currently dominated by Alibaba.

Huawei's semiconductor arm, Hisilicon, already makes some chips the company uses in its smartphones and telecom equipment, but the servers it currently sells to telecom companies and cloud computing clients mostly use Intel chips.

Huawei did not say what percentage of the servers it makes will use its chips.

Its 7 nanometer Ascend 910 chipset, which the firm claims is twice as powerful as its nearest competitor Nvidia's v100, will be available from the second quarter of 2019.

Bhilai Steel Plant blast: CEO removed, two other officials suspended

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bilai Steel Plant was removed and two other senior officials were suspended on Wednesday, a day after a blast at the plant which claimed the lives of 11 employees.

This was stated by Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh after visiting the injured employees of the plant at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai town, located around 30 km from Raipur.

On Tuesday, nine people had died and 14 others were injured in the gas pipeline blast at the plant of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in Durg district.

Of the 14 injured people admitted to the burns unit of the Jawahar Lal Nehru Hospital in Bhilai, two succumbed Tuesday late night, a public relations officer of the Bhilai Steel Plant earlier told PTI.

CEO M Ravi has been removed with immediate affect while General Manager (safety department) T Pandya Raja and Deputy General Manager (energy department) Naveen Kumar have been suspended, Birender Singh told reporters.

SBI triples target for purchase of good-quality asset portfolio from NBFCs

State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, on Tuesday said it had tripled its target for purchase of loan portfolio from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and was looking for opportunities both in priority and non-priority sectors.

According to the bank’s internal assessment, there may be an opportunity to buy additional portfolio in range of Rs 200 billion to Rs 300 billion, SBI said in a statement.

SBI, which had initially planned for a growth of Rs 150 billion through portfolio purchase during the current year, believes there is a good opportunity to expand its loan portfolio at attractive rates.

Paswan wants FMCG firms to 'voluntarily' label products in local languages

Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan Tuesday urged the FMCG industry to adopt labelling of their packaged products in Hindi and regional languages "voluntarily" in the interest of consumers.

Asserting that the consumer protection is priority of the government, he called upon the industry to work alongside his ministry in the interest of consumers.

"Multiple languages are spoken in India. We cannot promote Hindi alone. The industry should go for labelling in Hindi and regional languages where ever they are widely spoken," he said at a Ficci organised event here.

In countries like China, Japan and the EU, labels are printed in their own languages. "Whereas India continues to use English as if we don't have our own language," he said.

"In case of water bottle, you may not be able to print all details on the label in Hindi and regional languages but at least, you can print the brand name," Paswan said and lauded the Bisleri company for adopting labelling in the local language.

Russian sovereign fund keen to invest in India, provide breakthrough tech

Bullish on the Indian economy, Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF plans to invest in the country's infrastructure and technology sectors, according to a senior official.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has reserved capital of $10 billion under management, is also looking for more investments in technology and other sectors in India through its portfolio companies.

"In the next 12 months, our investment through portfolio companies would be more than $100 million. Definitely, we believe that it can increase more," RDIF Chief Executive Officer Kirill Dmitriev told PTI in an interview.

Noting that the fund will encourage more technological cooperation between Russia and India, he said there is a big opportunity for more investments in technology.

Excise cut on fuel credit negative, fiscal deficit may go up 0.1%: Moody's

The excise duty cut on petrol and diesel is credit negative for India as it will reduce government revenue and increase fiscal deficit by 0.1 per cent to 3.4 per cent of GDP in the year ending March 2019, Moody's Investors Service said Tuesday.

Also, the earning of public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) would be "negatively affected" as they also absorbed Rs 1 per litre cut in their pricing, Moody's said.

The government on Friday cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.5 a litre, sacrificing Rs 105 billion revenue in the current financial year.

"Overall, excise duty cuts are credit negative because they will reduce government revenue collection and increase India's fiscal deficit," Moody's said in a statement.

The US-based rating agency said these measures create downside risks to the central government's fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP for financial year 2018.

Solo bid for Essar: JSW Steel seeking legal opinion, says official

JSW Steel is seeking a legal opinion if it can bid solo for stressed assets of Essar Steel, a top company official said Tuesday.

When asked if JSW Steel is mulling going solo for acquiring stressed assets of Essar Steel if fresh bids were allowed, JSW Steel joint managing director Seshagiri Rao said that it would depend on legal opinion and the view of the Committee of Creditors.

"It depends upon the legal opinion and the view of the CoC (Committee of Creditors) and the Resolution Professional (RP). If they take a positive view ... then we are open to look at it," he told reporters.

"We are seeking a legal opinion and based on that opinion we will take a call," he said.

He was speaking during the International Conference on Minerals and Metals.

"At that time when the second round of bidding was happening JSW Steel was looking at submitting the bid alone. We were not permitted. So, we have to see what view CoC and RP will take in the light of the Supreme Court judgement," he said.

National Housing Bank raises cap on refinancing to Rs 300 billion

The National Housing Bank (NHB) on Monday enhanced the limit to refinance eligible housing finance institutions to Rs 300 billion for 2018-19 in the wake of the present liquidity position of the sector.

For the present financial year, between July 2018 and June 2019, the NHB had initially set the refinance target at Rs 240 million.

This refinancing is a “credit flow” to the housing finance companies facing liquidity crunch following a series of defaults by group of companies of IL&FS Ltd.

The NHB, a principal agency to promote and provide financial support to 97 housing finance institutions, had sanctioned Rs 88.35 billion till date. “Housing finance companies are secured assets in the Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) space. This move will provide some comfort to the eligible housing finance institutions. Though no regulator has so far talked about a liquidity crunch in this market but we have taken this step proactively,” said a senior government official.

To calm investors, Indiabulls Housing-Fin says liquidity position healthy

To quell concerns from investors that housing finance companies (HFCs) are facing liquidity issues, Indiabulls Housing Finance (IBHFL) on Monday said the company has a healthy liquidity position standing at Rs 200 billion as of September 2018.

Assuming there are no fresh borrowings by the company, IBHFL's six-month liquidity coverage ratio stands at 135 per cent as of date, the company said in filings with the BSE. During the January to March quarter of FY18, the company's cash position stood at Rs 165 billion, as compared to Rs 211 billion of cash available during the October to December quarter of FY18.

Despite consistently growing quarter-after-quarter, the liquidity (cash) in the company fell to its lowest level in the January to March quarter of FY18, since the April-June quarter of FY17.

Over the last 15 days, IBHFL engaged in a Rs 18.2-billion buy-back from the secondary market, and has raised about Rs 36.2 billion through primary issuances. Further, about Rs 4.1 billion worth of IBHFL debt paper were traded, the company said.

Beleaguered IL&FS defaults on ICD payments worth Rs 1.72 billion

Beleaguered infrastructure financier Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) has defaulted on interest and principal payments on inter-corporate deposits (ICDs) of Rs 1.72 billion due last Friday.

In a statement to the stock exchanges, IL&FS said the interest default by the company on September 29 was set off by IndusInd Bank towards interest for Rs 164 million against interest service reserve account maintained by the company with IndusInd Bank. “The liability of IL&FS thus stands cancelled to that extent for IndusInd Bank for the month of September 2018,” it said.

In June this year, IndusInd Bank had signed a definitive share purchase agreement with IL&FS to acquire IL&FS Securities Services (ISSL). In the last week of September, IndusInd announced that it had received all regulatory approvals to take over ISSL. The closure of the deal is underway, the statement said.

Rupee pares gains, slips back to 74 levels

The rupee on Tuesday slipped back to 74 levels after opening 18 paise higher at 73.88 against the US dollar.

The domestic unit fell up to 74.02 in the early trade. At 09:44 am, the currency was trading at 73.98 against the greenback.

Earlier, after crashing to a fresh record low of 74.06 on Monday, the rupee recovered a bit and opened 18 paise up at 73.88 against the US dollar on Tuesday.
The domestic unit on Monday slumped 30 paise to finish at a fresh lifetime low of 74.06 amid strengthening of the greenback and steady capital outflows. It was the 6th straight session of rupee depreciating against the dollar.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) were net sellers to the tune of Rs 4,419 crore on October 5, 2018. FIIs have been net sellers to the more than Rs 11,405 crore in October 2018, according to a note by ICICI Securities.

Falling rupee is stinging Indian companies with unhedged foreign debt

The rupee’s free-fall is hurting the minority of Indian firms that haven’t hedged their overseas borrowings.

India Inc. overall is better off than several years ago, after more companies with foreign-currency debt bought protection against rupee declines, which otherwise would push up the cost to service those obligations. But there’s still a group of debtors that lack such safeguards, just as the rupee’s tumble worsens and a wall of debt comes due.

As the rupee slides to fresh lows and U.S. rates move sharply higher, unhedged Indian firms that swapped overseas debt into the local currency and that don’t have foreign-currency revenues face sharply higher repayment costs. The plight of such borrowers stands out after many peers boosted hedges in recent years. As much as 75 percent of the external commercial borrowings of Indian companies are now hedged, according to Samir Lodha, managing director and forex hedging strategist at QuantArt Market Solutions.

Indian companies went on a borrowing spree abroad in the past few years, when the local currency was stronger. The rupee has lost more than 13 percent this year and touched fresh lows against the dollar, making it the worst performer among major Asian currencies, amid a selloff in emerging-market assets.

Rupee hits new low of 74.27, plunges 21 paise against dollar

The rupee erased all its morning gains to hit a new record low of 74.27 against the US dollar in afternoon trade Tuesday after Brent crude breached the $84 a barrel-mark again and the American currency strengthened overseas.

Moreover, unabated foreign fund outflows weighed on the rupee, traders said.

At the forex market, the domestic unit opened higher at 73.93 and advanced to 73.88 on fresh selling by exporters amid weakness in dollar against some currencies overseas.

However, it turned weak and slipped to trade at a fresh lifetime low of 74.27, showing a fall of 21 paise over its Monday's close of 74.06.

It broke previous record low (intra-day) of 74.23 reached on October 5.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares net worth a net of Rs 1,805 crore Monday, provisional data showed.

IMF retains economic growth projection for India at 7.3% for FY19

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday retained economic growth projection for India at 7.3 per cent for 2018-19 (FY19), lower than the government’s and the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) forecasts. This is, however, noteworthy as the IMF cut global growth projections by 0.2 percentage points.

In its World Economic Outlook (WEO), the IMF said foreign exchange interventions should be limited to address disorderly market conditions, something which RBI Governor Urjit Patel also talked about. The IMF wants the RBI to tighten monetary conditions, something which it did not do in the October policy review.

For the next year (FY20), the IMF lowered India’s growth projections by 0.1 percentage points to 7.4 per cent.

As such, the IMF does not see India’s growth reaching 7.5 per cent even in FY19. However, the RBI pegged India’s growth projections at 7.5 per cent. The government expected the rate to exceed 7.5 per cent this year on the back of 8.2 per cent growth rate in the first quarter. India’s economy grew 6.7 per cent in FY18.

India and US bilateral trade rises 119% since 2007 at $126.2 billion

Bilateral trade of goods and services between India and the US has gone up by 119 per cent since 2007, touching $126.2 billion, according to the data collated by the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

According to the data, exports were valued at $49.4 billion and imports were worth $76.7 billion. The US goods and services trade deficit with India was $27.3 billion in 2017.

The data comes at a time when the two nations are locked in a trade war.

“India is our ninth largest goods trading partner with $74.3 billion in total (two-way) goods trade during 2017. Goods exports totaled $25.7 billion and goods imports totaled at $48.6 billion. The US goods trade deficit with India was $22.9 billion in 2017,” said USTR on its website.

While India was the United States' 15th largest goods export market in 2017, the latter exported $25.7 billion of goods to India, up by 18.7 per cent ($4.1 billion) from 2016 and up 71.6 per cent from 2007.

Oil cos ask govt for additional Rs 120 bn subsidy for LPG, kerosene: Report

Oil marketing companies (OMCs) have asked the Indian government for an additional Rs 120 billion subsidy payment for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene, according to a CNBC report quoting government sources.
Amid weakening rupee and high crude oil price, India's OMCs have been under immense pressure. According to reports, the Finance Ministry will access oil companies' need for additional subsidy.
According to a report by Business Standard, government support for LPG and kerosene, constituting the petroleum subsidy, is set to increase by 66 per cent over the budgetary estimate for 2018-19. Based on the current prices of LPG and kerosene, the subsidy on these products may touch Rs 414.78 billion, against the targeted Rs 249.32 billion. According to the latest estimates by the government, the LPG subsidy is set to increase 73 per cent to Rs 352.57 billion, against the budgeted Rs 203.77 billion for 2018-19. The subsidy for kerosene will increase 36 per cent, from Rs 45.55 billion to Rs 62.21 billion, during the financial year.

Bad omen for the economy: Demand in India is cooling, shows RBI survey

For those surprised by India’s decision to hold interest rates last week, the central bank’s forward-looking surveys hold some explanation: demand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy may be cooling.

The capacity utilization rate, consumer confidence, and the outlook for demand in the manufacturing sector in the third quarter were less optimistic, the results of separate surveys released by the Reserve Bank of India show. That bodes ill for an economy already grappling with a weak rupee and elevated prices of crude oil -- the nation’s top import.

The tempering of optimism in the economy that expanded at 8 percent plus pace in the quarter to June was partly caused by tighter financial conditions, following back-to-back rate increases by the RBI until August and as the default by a systemically important financier plays out.

The International Monetary Fund retained its growth forecast for the $2.6 trillion economy at 7.3 percent in the fiscal year through March 2019. It lowered the projection for the next year to 7.4 percent, down from the 7.5 percent seen three months ago.

How India's overseas workers may save it from Argentina-like crisis

India’s vast army of overseas workers should cap the country’s current-account deficit and keep it from joining emerging-market counterparts that have struggled with currency crashes this year, according to Capital Economics.

“Remittances from abroad are a vital -- yet often under-appreciated -- source of funding for India,” Shilan Shah, senior India economist in Singapore at Capital Economics wrote in a note Tuesday. Without that support, the nation’s deficit “would have placed it alongside the likes of Turkey and Argentina -- two countries that have suffered a currency crisis.”

India received $69 billion in overseas remittances last year, equivalent to almost 3 percent of GDP, Capital Economics said, citing World Bank data.

Without that inflow from an estimated 20 million nationals abroad, India’s current-account deficit would have been around 5 percent of GDP at mid-year, rather than 2 percent, it said.