Top headlines: India Inc's EBITDA to shrink 24%, Soota's IPO jackpot

From Centre releasing rants for states amid Covid, India-China agreeing on a 5-point plan to Moody's saying India Inc's EBITDA to shrink, Business Standard brings you top news of the evening

India Inc's EBITDA to shrink 24% in FY21 due to Covid disruptions: Moody's

Global rating agency Moody’s on Friday said that the aggregate EBITDA of Indian companies is expected to decline by 24 per cent in fiscal 2021 due to coronavirus disruptions. The credit quality will also weaken across rated Indian non-financial corporates due to the outbreak as a slowing economy dampens consumer confidence and business activity. Read More...

Centre releases Rs 6,195 crore to 14 states as devolution of taxes

The Central government on Friday released Rs 6,195.08 crore to 14 states as the sixth equated monthly installment of the Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant (PDRDG) as recommended by the 15th Finance Commission. Office of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a tweet said that this would provide them with additional resources during the Covid-19 crisis. Read More...

Jaishankar-Yi meet: India, China agree on 5-point plan to resolve standoff

India and China have agreed on a five-point plan for resolving the prolonged border face-off in eastern Ladakh that included abiding by all existing agreements and protocol on management of the frontier, maintaining peace and tranquility and avoiding any action that could escalate matters. The two countries agreed to the plan during talks between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow on Thursday evening on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet. Read More...

India falls to 105th spot from 79th in global economic freedom ranking

India's ranking in economic freedom tumbled to 105th among 162 countries in 2018 from 79th the previous year. It should be noted that this drop cannot be attributed to the Covid-19 crisis, whose impact would become evident only two years later. A major disappointment for India came on the parameter of "freedom to trade internationally", on which India ranked 139th, compared with 137th in 2017, showed the ‘Economic Freedom of the World’ report — it measures how policies and institutions of countries support economic freedom — released today by Centre for Civil Society and Canada’s Fraser Institute. Read More...

With Happiest Minds, 77-year-old Ashok Soota hits IPO jackpot a second time

Ashok Soota, a pioneer of India’s information technology services industry, has headed three outsourcing companies including one of the nation’s largest, Wipro Ltd., and taken two of them public. The second was this week when the initial public offering of his latest startup, Happiest Minds Technologies Ltd., was oversubscribed 151 times. The IPO got bids for 3.51 billion shares versus the 23.3 million on offer, ranking it among India’s most successful first-time share sales of this decade. Read More...