News digest: E-commerce sector, chopper buy, diesel vehicles, and more

From e-commerce to SBI, BS brings you top stories to keep up with the latest news

Single regulator for e-commerce in the offing

A national regulator for the e-commerce sector with which all digital businesses will be legally bound to register has been recommended by a task force to the government.
 

It has also suggested that major e-retailers and social media platforms be made to store the data of users in local servers,apart from a limited easing of foreign direct investment (FDI) rules for certain micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). Read more 

Defence ministry clears decks for Rs 217 billion chopper buy

The defence ministry on Monday announced it had approved ‘implementation guidelines for the strategic partnership model’.

The ‘strategic partner’ (SP) model of defence procurement, which was promulgated in outline in May 2017, provides a policy framework for Indian firms to manufacture specified defence platforms in India based on technology transferred by a selected foreign vendor.
 

The SP policy initially aims at building four categories of weaponry — fighters, helicopters, submarines, and armoured vehicles. Read more

SBI hikes long-term deposit rates

On the first day of a three-day meeting of the monetary policy committee (MPC), the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), moved to hike its long-term deposit rates, albeit marginally.
 

SBI also slashed its shorter-term bulk deposit rates (Rs 10 million to Rs 100 million) by 25-45 basis points (bps), while increasing the longer-term bulk deposit rates by 5 bps to 60 bps. Read more 

Diesel vehicles could face their last gasp

When American carmaker Ford launched its new compact utility vehicle Freestyle in India three months ago, it was expecting demand to be equally split between the petrol and the diesel variants. However, the company was left surprised. 
 

As much as 65 per cent of the domestic bookings came for petrol variants; the demand for diesel stood at just 35 per cent. Read more 
 

Centre staring at GST revenue shortfall 

The Centre’s collections from the central goods and service tax (CGST) stood at Rs 504 billion at the end of the first quarter (Q1) of 2018-19. It got an additional Rs 424 billion as settlement from the integrated GST (IGST) 

over the same period. 
 

Assuming that tax collections grow at 10 per cent (quarter-on-quarter, or QoQ), the Centre’s GST collection is likely to be Rs 517 billion less than the budgeted target of Rs 6,039 billion in an optimistic scenario. Read more