From Tata Power board meeting to Maharashtra civic polls: 5 key developments

In other news, Reliance Jio crosses 50 million subscriber mark

Business Standard brings to you a list of five key developments across the country.

Tata Power board meeting

Cyrus Mistry, who was ousted as the chairman of Tata Sons on October 24, is likely to have an edge at the Tata Power board meeting on Tuesday. As the last of the big six Tata Group companies heads for a board meeting, the buzz is that there wouldn’t be any move to replace Mistry as the chairman of Tata Power. A source said that “the numbers are not there” on the board of Tata Power to remove Mistry. In fact, the attempt of the Tata camp could possibly be to block a vote of confidence for Mistry.

RBI's CRR mandate

Upset by the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to charge the entire deposits that banks collected between September 16 and November 11 as a reserve requirement, bankers have said they would not be able to cut lending rates as much as was expected of them. Banks would now be scrambling to manage enough liquidity for their healthy functioning even as the general public continues to pour in deposits of old high-value notes and the restriction of cash withdrawal prevents adequate outflow of the money deposited.

Jio crosses 50 million subscriber mark 

Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Jio has crossed the 50 million subscriber mark in less than three months after its full-fledged 4G services launch to emerge as the largest broadband operator in the country. According to sources, Jio — setting a new record — has acquired 1,000 customers per minute (since September 05) and 6 lakh per day. "Jio continues to be the fastest growing company in the world and has crossed 50 million subscribers in record 83 days," sources pointed out.

National Software Policy

Government has issued the draft of first ever National Software Policy with an aim to increase share of Indian software products in global market by 10 fold to estimated $148 billion and create employment opportunity for 3.5 million people by 2025. The policy will "strive for a tenfold increase in share of the global software product market by 2025 by promoting easy access to local domestic/international market for software product" and "create 3.5 million direct and indirect jobs by 2025", the draft said.

Maharashtra civic polls

Notwithstanding the hue and cry over demonetisation and the recent protest morchas organised by the Maratha community seeking reservation, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scored big in the elections held to the 164 municipal councils and 18 nagar panchayats across Maharashtra. BJP alone had won more than 851 seats of the total 3,510 seats, the results of which were so far declared. The party has bagged 52 posts of president in these bodies and singlehandedly won 22 municipal councils by winning maximum seats.