Top headlines: Car sales skid, Prosus joins top global investors, and more

From vehicle sales taking a beating in August to Jet Airways' plans to resume service by early 2022, Business Standard brings you the top headlines at this hour

Automobile sales skid on chip shortage; dealers stare at supply crunch

Vehicle sales took a beating in August as automobile makers cut production amid a worsening global chip shortage, the factory dispatch data showed on Wednesday. Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest carmaker, reported a 19 per cent decline in total sales at 130,699 units in August, as against 162,462 units in the previous month. The company has announced an up to 60 per cent cut in production this month after Bosch -- one of its largest chip suppliers -- shut down its factory in Malaysia owing to the pandemic. Read more

Ready for take-off: Jet Airways plans to resume service by early 2022

Jet Airways, which has been shut for more than two years after mounting financial losses, is planning to resume service by the first quarter of 2022. This will be the first case of an airline revival through India’s insolvency process. In June, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had given approval to the resolution plan of a consortium of Uzbekistan-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan and London-headquartered Kalrock Capital. Read more

Prosus joins top league of global investors after India's BillDesk buy

It was already sitting pretty by investing in six Indian unicorns, including edtech start-ups Byju’s and Eruditus, food and delivery giant Swiggy, home services platform Urban Company, social e-commerce platform Meesho, and online healthcare platform PharmeEasy, which recently bought diagnostic laboratory Thyrocare. On Tuesday Prosus NV, the international digital investment arm of South African conglomerate Naspers, took their India game a notch higher by snapping up payment gateway BillDesk for $4.7 billion through its fintech company PayU. Read more

Low base not sole contributor to GDP growth in June quarter: CEA

"Despite the devastating second wave, the consumption activity grew by 20.1 per cent — that too, despite the state-level restrictions. It's not just enough to say that this is happening due to a low base. It's happening even though we had such an intense second wave. As we saw in Q2, Q3 and Q4 of FY21, when the pandemic was slightly muted, the consumption had ramped up, and this time around, we should expect the same," said Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian. Read more

IMD forecasts above-normal Sep rainfall; deficit unlikely to be wiped out

After a damp-squib August, the southwest monsoon is expected to perform appreciably better in September, with rains projected to be more than 110 per cent of the long period average (LPA), but not good enough to recoup the entire seasonal deficiency. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the cumulative seasonal rainfall in the June-September months is now expected to be around 96 per cent of LPA - on the lower end of the ‘normal’ band. Read more

Zerodha gets in-principle approval from Sebi to start mutual fund business

India’s largest broking firm Zerodha has received in-principle approval to set up an asset management company (AMC) company. With this, the discount brokerage joins entities like Samco Securities and Bajaj Finserv to get market regulator Sebi’s nod for a mutual fund (MF). Read more