Top headlines: Ruia out of Air India sale race, India to appeal Cairn award

Air India privatisation: Employee consortium, Pawan Ruia out of race

The Air India (AI) employees’ consortium and Kolkata-based businessman Pawan Ruia have not qualified for the second round of the sale process for the national carrier. This leaves Tata Sons as the only entity that has confirmed its participation in the bidding process. While media reports said SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh is also in the reckoning, Business Standard couldn’t verify this claim. Read more

India ready to appeal Cairn's $1.2 billion arbitration award this week

A day after British oil firm Cairn Energy pressed for honouring the over $1.4-billion international award on a tax dispute, finance ministry officials said New Delhi was preparing to appeal at The Hague this week. The Union government has finalised the grounds for appeal against the award and is in the final leg of discussions with the Dutch counsels, according to officials. Based on the appeal, India will apply for a stay on the enforcement of the award at a lower Dutch court. Read more

IndiGo eyes air cargo market, in talks with Airbus for freighters

IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, is in talks with Airbus to finalise a deal to acquire up to five A321 converted freighters amid a burgeoning air cargo market. People aware of the development said that while the airline would test the market with five freighters, it might acquire more in the future depending on their performance. Read more

India's retail sector to add 25 million new jobs by FY30, says report

With the domestic retail sector largely being successful in navigating the Covid crisis by accelerating digital adoption, it can add more than 25 million new jobs by FY30, of which the hybrid model of online and offline model will account for 50 per cent of these new roles, says a report. According to the Nasscom and Technopak survey, in FY20 alone the retail segment accounted for 8 per cent to the total workforce with more than 35 million employees. Read more

Ahead of Assembly polls, oil companies hold back price hike in March

Government-controlled oil-marketing companies (OMCs) have held back petrol and diesel price revisions for a week and are expected to continue doing so, ostensibly owing to political reasons. It appears that the Centre has informally conveyed to the three major OMCs to not revise fuel prices for the time being, two people in the government said. This informal directive follows the talks between the Centre and states on cutting taxes and bringing the auto fuels under the good service tax regime not fetching the desired results, so far. Read more

PMC Bank suitors face additional capital rider; RBI board meet on March 19

Suitors for Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC Bank) may have to infuse additional capital of nearly Rs 750 crore so that the payout per depositor is more than the Rs 5 lakh sum assured by the Deposit Insur­ance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC). Read more

Defence Budget: Military gets 28% less budget than it projected

Given the ongoing 10 month-long confrontation with intruders from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Ladakh, the military was hopeful in the run-up to the Budget that the government would meet its budgetary projections for the coming financial year (2021-22). It came as a jolt on Budget day, therefore, when the three services were allocated only Rs 3.24 trillion – 28 per cent less than their budgetary projections of Rs 4.49 trillion. Read more

Flurry of IPOs: Sebi sounds alert on threat of technical glitches

The harrowing experience of the recent technical glitch suffered by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) still fresh in mind, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sounded an alarm about the bunching up of initial public offerings (IPOs) this month. The market regulator has asked intermediaries to ensure there are no system glitches while processing IPO applications, and to stagger the offerings as much as possible, said people in the know. Read more