Author: Finance Khabar

Chennai: The newly appointed Director General of Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) S P Kochhar told PTI that any duopoly situation in the current three-player private telcos market can “never be a good thing” and asserted that sufficient competition among the operators is required for ensuring that subscribers get good services at better prices. The COAI will continue to be a neutral body that believes in consensus building and unanimity of views, Kochhar said when asked about past differences amongst the telecom companies, who are members of the association, on various issues. “COAI tries to get the point of…

New Delhi: Compliance of the regulations for display of maximum retail price (MRP) of products by e-commerce platforms has improved, according to a LocalCircles survey. Around 65 per cent of the respondents, who shopped online in the last three months said that e-commerce platforms are now displaying MRP, while the rest 35 per cent said that they could not find the MRP details. “The comparison shows that the MRP display compliance has increased on e-commerce platforms in the last few months. In the survey conducted last year, 44 per cent consumers had said that ecommerce sites were not complying with…

Riding on a strong 5G push, the global smartphone market will return to a full recovery by 2022 and 5G smartphones are expected to capture 50 per cent of the global market by 2023, according to a new IDC report. 5G remains a priority for all smartphone OEMs despite the challenges with the Covid-19 pandemic and lack of consumer demand. “While many of the top vendors have reduced their 2020 production plans to align with the market decline, we’ve seen most of the cuts focused on their 4G portfolios,” said Ryan Reith, programme vice president with IDC’s ‘Worldwide Mobile Device…

The president of the United Arab Emirates has issued a decree canceling a law on boycotting Israel and allowing trade and financial agreements between the two countries, the UAE official news agency WAM reported on Saturday. The decree from UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan aims at “supporting bilateral cooperation in order to arrive at (the establishment) of bilateral relations,” the agency said. The announcement comes as El Al Airlines plans to operate Israel’s first direct flight between Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and the UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi, carrying an Israeli delegation and top aides to U.S. President…

Dubai: Under the initiative, launched earlier this week by the Dubai’s free-zone Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) and the government of Dubai’s authority on commodities trade and enterprise, millions of Indian farmers will get an opportunity to connect directly with the entire food industry in the UAE, including food processing companies, traders and wholesalers through the Agriota-E Marketplace platform. The marketplace allows the farmers to bypass intermediaries, optimising the supply chain and ensuring traceability to create value for all stakeholders, officials said. The online marketplace also provides end-to-end traceability and transparency through last-mile verification and extension infrastructure in a blockchain…

New Delhi: GSTN said that GSTR-2B is going to be an auto-drafted ITC statement which will be generated for every registered person on the basis of the information furnished by his suppliers in their respective GSTR-1, GSTR-5 (non-resident taxable person) and GSTR-6 (input service distributor). It is a static statement and will be made available for each month, on the 12th day of the succeeding month. It is expected that GSTR-2B will help in reduction in time taken for preparing return, minimising errors, assist reconciliation & simplify compliance relating to filing of returns. It may be noted that the GST…

Central public sector enterprises, which have a combined net worth of close to Rs 12 lakh crore, can boost India’s GDP by 2-3 per cent by leveraging funds and stepping up capital expenditure, Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) chairman Rajiv Kumar has said. He also exhorted public sector firms to “rise to the occasion” and play their part in building an ‘Aatamanirbhar Bharat’. Besides, with an aim to address the talent shortage and promote transparency in board-level appointments of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), the PESB chairman has suggested numerous measures including creating wider talent pool, allowing lateral entry for…

Reliance Retail Venture Limited (RRVL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), on Saturday announced the acquisition of Future Group (Future Group) retail and wholesale business and logistics and warehousing business. In a statement issued by Reliance Retail, it was said that this deal will be in one time for Rs 24,713 crore. As part of this acquisition plan, Future Group is merging some of its companies with Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL). The company said that under this scheme the retail and wholesale business of Future Group will be transferred to Reliance Retail and Fashion Lifestyle Limited (RRFLL), a subsidiary…

The Reserve Bank of India is unlikely to extend the moratorium on loan repayments after it ends on August 31, a PTI report said on Saturday, which cited sources familiar with the matter. In March, the central bank had introduced a three-month moratorium on bank loans to ease burned on the borrowers during the COVID-19 lockdown. Later, the bank extended the moratorium period by another three months till August 31. The report cited its source as saying that it was only a temporary reprieve to borrowers affected by the pandemic. The source further said that a longer moratorium period exceeding…

New Delhi: Nand Ghar on Saturday rolled out its 1500th centre at Surahi village in Kashi Vidyapeeth block of Varanasi, marking an important milestone for the Vedanta Group’s flagship corporate social responsibility project. Union Minister for Women & Child Development and Textiles, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani virtually inaugurated the new centre at Varanasi and also interacted with Anganwadi workers and Nand Ghar beneficiaries from Barmer district of Rajasthan and Lanjigarh district of Odisha. Speaking on the occasion, Smt. Irani complimented Vedanta for making a difference to the lives of women and children at the grassroot level. “It gives me immense…

New Delhi: “The flight from India repatriated 106 Vietnamese, 1 Filipino and 29 Laos nationals along with 89 Indian citizens,” the airline said in a statement. “The return flight repatriated 139 Indian nationals from Hanoi and 50 Indian nationals from Vientiane. IndiGo operated these flights while adhering to all the precautionary measures, ensuring a safe and hassle-free travel experience on-board a lean clean flying machine.” According to the airline, the people returning to Vientiane consisted of Indian and foreign expats, students and Buddhist monks. “The repatriated Indian citizens consisted of students, labourers and employees who had lost their job due…

Mumbai: The ratings agency said that the impact of the lockdown on economic activity shows up starkly in the trends in the Central government revenue collection during the first three months of the 2020-21 fiscal. As per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the Central government’s revenue in Q1 of the current year is much lower than the collections for the corresponding period of last year. As per the data, revenue from income tax (personal income tax and corporate income tax) was lower by 30.5 per cent and the GST (CGST+IGST+UTGST) was lower by almost 34…

The Future Enterprises Ltd. (FEL) has deferred its Board of Directors meeting to September 7. Earlier, the board was scheduled to hold a meeting on Friday for consideration and approval of audited financial results of the Company for the quarter and year ended 31st March, 2020. “We hereby inform you that meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company scheduled to be held today i.e. August 28, 2020 for consideration and approval of audited financial results of the Company for the quarter and year ended 31st March, 2020 (“Financial Results”) stands adjourned due to non-completion of audit process of…

New Delhi: More than 40.35 crore people benefited from the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) which was launched six years ago as a national mission for financial inclusion, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday. The Jan Dhan Yojana, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address in 2014, was launched on August 28, in the same year. “The PMJDY has been the foundation stone for the Modi government’s people-centric economic initiatives. “Whether it is direct benefit transfers, COVID-19 financial assistance, PM-KISAN, increased wages under MGNREGA, life and health insurance cover, the first step…

World’s largest retailer Walmart has reportedly joined tech giant Microsoft to buy short-video sharing app TikTok’s business in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This latest development came hours after TikTok’s chief executive Kevin Mayer left the company after serving for a period of three months. The app has over 100 million users across America. But the ongoing dispute with the Donald Trump administration and the pressure to sell its US operations within 90 days have made things difficult for ByteDance. Microsoft and Walmart are already business partners. The two sides signed a 5-year agreement in 2018. Under the…

Mumbai: Domestic markets continued their bullish run on the back of gains in bank stocks on Friday amid persistent foreign fund inflows. The S&P BSE Sensex ended 353.84 points or 0.90 per cent higher at 39,467.31. It had earlier touched a high of 39,579.58. The NSE Nifty surged 88.35 points or 0.76 per cent to close at 11,647.60. The BSE gainers were led by IndusInd Bank (spurting over 8 per cent) followed by Axis Bank, ICIC Bank, Sun Pharma, SBI and Kotak Bank. Whereas, PowerGrid, Infosys, Maruti, NTPC, Asian Paints, HUL, M&M and Tata Steel were among the laggards. Market…

New Delhi: ICICI Bank on Wednesday said it will sell up to 2 per cent of its holding in ICICI Securities through an open market transaction. “The Board of Directors of the bank, at its meeting held today, approved the sale of up to 6,442,000 equity shares of face value Rs 5 each of ICICI Securities Limited (company), representing up to 2 per cent of its issued and paid-up equity share capital, through an open market sale,” ICICI Bank said in a regulatory filing. The sale is in accordance with the requirement of minimum public float of the company, the…

New Delhi: The government is going to sell 15 per cent of its equity stake in the state-owned aerospace and defence company Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) via an Offer For Sale (OFS) at a floor price of Rs 1,001 per share. The government is expected to raise about Rs 5,000 crore from the sale offer on August 27-28. An IANS report quoted a company official as saying, “The Defence Ministry has notified the stock exchanges in the evening on selling 15 per cent of its equity stake (5.01-crore shares) in the company at Rs 1,001 per share of Rs 10…

New Delhi: Bank of India (BOI) on Wednesday said it plans to raise capital through issuance of bonds and shares up to an amount 16,000 crore. The state-run entity seek shareholders’ approval at its Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on September 19, the lender said in a regulatory filing. The bank said it plans to issue fresh equity shares up to an amount of Rs 8,000 crore in such a way that the government’s shareholding does not fall below 51 per cent. It will also seek approval for issuing perpetual debt instruments, including non-convertible debentures (NCDs), for an amount not exceeding…

New Delhi: Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, on Thursday said it has signed a five-year partnership deal with cloud customer experience and contact centre solutions provider, Genesys. The partnership enables both companies to develop and deploy innovation and best-in-class solutions in the customer experience market, a issued by the company said. “As a part of the partnership, Infosys will bring to market Genesys contact center solutions. Clients of both organisations stand to benefit from the enhanced capability that will come from a combined investment in innovation, a broader ecosystem of strategic partners and a shared…