Top headlines: Charge sheet filed against Kochhars; farm protest widen

From ED filing charge sheet against Kochhars to rush for premium appliances fires up festival shopping, here are top headlines this morning

ED files charge sheet against Kochhars, 9 others in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a prosecution complaint, also known as charge sheet, against ICICI bank’s former chief executive officer and managing director Chanda Kochhar, husband Deepak Virendra Kochhar, and nine others in connection with a money laundering case involving the private lender and Videocon Group. The ED charge sheet also named Videocon Group and chairman Venugopal Dhoot. Companies of Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar are part of the chargesheet as well. Read More

Rush for premium appliances fires up festival shopping despite downturn

Samsung’s senior vice-president Mohandeep Singh is familiar with festive rush and sleepless nights that come with it. But the demand for premium smart phones he’s witnessing this year is rather unusual. In spite of an overall economic downturn, the company’s premium handset sales have been robust in October. With a surge in the share of premium portfolio, Samsung is not only expecting to achieve a 40 per cent growth in sales this season, its overall average selling price or ASP is now growing faster than ever, according to Singh. Read More

Disney needs time to integrate Fox assets like Star India: Harold Vogel

Harold Vogel, CEO of New York-based Vogel Capital Management and author of Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide for Financial Analysts, among the world’s leading entertainment industry analysts, speaks to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar about the Disney-Fox merger and its implications for Star India. Read More

Global telecom gear MNCs urge govt to change norms, seek level field

Global telecom equipment vendors have urged the government to make sweeping changes to the method of calculating value addition norms, so that they are eligible for government contracts under the public procurement policy for the Preference to Make in India (PMI) scheme. The scheme mandates preference for domestic products in public-funded projects. The letter, sent to the DoT a few days ago through the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is critical for two reasons. Read More

Pre-packaged scheme, special rules for MSMEs in amendments to IBC

The insolvency law committee and a group of ministers are considering various amendments to the four-year-old Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), some of which are likely to be introduced in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament, a senior government official told Business Standard. The issues being taken up on priority by the committee, set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), include introducing a pre-packaged scheme for corporate insolvencies, a special framework for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and steps to reduce the delay in admission and disposal of cases. Read More

Punjab farm protest: Railways stares at loss, FCI at storage space crunch

The farmer protest in Punjab that started in September is hurting the finances of Indian Railways and could create a storage space crunch for Food Corporation of India (FCI) in the coming months. According to official data, Northern Railways has so far lost Rs 495 crore on the passenger front from October 1 to November 3, and on freight operations. This is owing to the financial impact due to the stoppage of passenger trains, which comes to around Rs 45 crore. Read More

Services activity grows for first time since Feb, PMI hits 54.1 in Oct

Services sector activity expanded in October for the first time since February, reflecting growth in demand as the government continued to relax Covid-19 restrictions, a report by IHS Markit said on Wednesday. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose sharply from 49.8 in September to 54.1 in October, with new orders to companies registering an increase over the previous month, reversing a trend that began eight months ago. A PMI index of more than 50 represents expansion, while a figure below 50 means a decline in activity from a month ago. Read More

China's decision to halt Ant IPO threatens $400-mn payday for bankers

For bankers, Ant Group’s initial public offering was the kind of bonus-boosting deal that can fund a big-ticket splurge on a car, a boat or even a vacation home. Hopefully, they didn’t get ahead of themselves. Dealmakers at firms including Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co were set to feast on an estimated fee pool of nearly $400 million for handling the Hong Kong portion of the sale, but were instead left reeling after the listing there and in Shanghai abruptly derailed days before the scheduled trading debut. Read More