Top 10 business headlines: Budget 2019, RIL results, farm income, and more

Here are the top 10 business stories that made news on Thursday

I-T dept holds back Rs 20,000 crore in tax refunds to private, PSU firms

The income-tax (I-T) department has decided not to release many high-value refunds claimed by corporates and public sector units for the financial year 2016-17, citing reasons such as discrepancies in the credit of tax deducted at source (TDS), carry forward losses, and pending tax demand for the previous years, said two sources privy to the development. Read on

RIL Q3 net profit up 8.8% to Rs 10,251 cr on petrochem, retail, telecom

Oil to telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) posted a net profit of Rs 10,251 crore for the December quarter, a rise of 8.8 per cent from a year before. This was enabled by record performance in its petrochemicals, retail and telecom businesses. It becomes the first private sector Indian company to cross Rs 10,000 crore in profit. Consolidated revenue grew 55.9 per cent to Rs 1.71 trillion. In a Bloomberg poll, eight analysts had estimated Rs 1.4 trillion for the quarter and profit of Rs 9,609 crore. Read more

HUL Q3 net profit rises 8.9% to Rs 1,444 crore; volume growth at 10%

The country’s largest consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), on Thursday delivered its fifth straight quarter of double-digit volume growth for the three months ended December 2018 at 10 per cent, as the firm reined in price hikes amid a challenging macro-economic environment. Click here to read 

Worked in mission mode to double farm income by 2022: Radha Mohan Singh

Before the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, took office in 2014 under Narendra Modi’s leadership, farmers had been losing interest in agriculture due to an increase in cultivation cost relative to their income, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Thursday. He was delivering the keynote address at the second edition of the Business Standard Agriculture Round Table in New Delhi’s PUSA Campus. Read on

Budget content will be decided by economic realities, says Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday that the interim Budget, to be presented on February 1, will be within the existing conventions. Its contents, however, will be dictated by economic compulsions and realities of the day, he added. Read more

The rise and fall of Naresh Goyal, the high-flying promoter of Jet Airways

He began as a cashier in his uncle's travel agency and went on to become the chairman of India's second largest airline by market share, but Naresh Goyal's long and eventful rein at the helm of Jet Airways is set to end soon. Click here to read
 

With AI-based technology, Amazon's Make In India innovations going global

After its success in the Indian market, global e-commerce giant Amazon is now taking few of its India-specific innovations around artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to some of its global markets. Read more

Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy to get his own biopic

A biopic on Infosys Ltd co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, one of India’s most celebrated entrepreneurs, is in the works, according to a Livemint report. But this is one movie that is unlikely to feature a song-and-dance sequence, standard fare in most Hindi films. Filmmaker Sanjay Tripathy first approached Murthy about eight months ago and is now working on the script of the film, two executives familiar with the development said, requesting anonymity.

For IndiGo, no evenings in Paris, no nights in London

IndiGo has for now stalled its co-founder Rakesh Gangwal’s ambitious plans to fly low cost long haul flights to Europe, as costs mount and margins are squeezed, according to The Economic Time report.

Deep in debt, Rolta India goes into stand-by mode

A Rs 2,500-crore deal to divest the products and solutions business that failed to materialise and the inability to restructure bonds have landed India’s top information technology company Rolta India in some deep trouble, according to a The Hindu BusinessLine report. To give itself some room for financial manoeuvrability, the company has announced downsizing of its global workforce of 3,000 employees and has asked many to resign.