Top headlines: Vedanta plans $5 bn capex, Wistron exceeds PLI investment

Business Standard brings you the top headlines on Friday

Top headlines at this hour: A second wave of Covid-19 infections has pulled down consumer credit demand, said India's central bank. Taiwan's Wistron exceeds its PLI investment obligation in India in eight months
 

Second Covid-19 wave sharply hit consumer credit demand: RBI FSR

The second wave of the pandemic had a negative impact on the consumer credit demand as inquiries for such loans fell sharply across product categories after a rebound during the festive season in the third quarter of FY21, the half-yearly financial stability report (FSR) of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.

The FSR report has highlighted that the overall demand for consumer credit, as reflected in inquiry volumes, had stabilised in Q4FY21 following a sharp rebound during the festive season in Q3FY21 after the first Covid wave receded. Read more

Vedanta Limited plans $5-billion capex for 3 years

Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Limited has planned a capex of $5 billion (around Rs 37,500 crore) over a period of three years.

A major chunk of this capex would go into oil and gas business. Vedanta’s capex for three years to FY20 stood at Rs 20,000 crore, according to the company’s annual report for the year. In FY21, it spent Rs 7,286 crore, which is a 14 per cent increase over the previous year’s Rs 6,385-crore capex. Read more

Taiwanese giant Wistron exceeds PLI investment obligation in just 8 months

Taiwanese giant Wistron, has exceeded its investment obligation in India in just eight months, although the government’s production-linked investment (PLI) scheme allowed it to complete the investment in four years.

Between August 2020 and end March 2021, Wistron made an investment of Rs 1255 crore — 25 per cent more than the total investment it had committed to the government. Under the PLI scheme for mobile devices, the government had stipulated that each of the five participating global companies needed to invest Rs 250 crore every year for the first four years, totalling Rs 1,000 crore. Read more

Govt likely to indemnify PSU buyers from past claims

The government, in pre-bidding consultations, has informed potential buyers of public sector undertakings (PSUs) that they will not be held liable for any claims arising prior to the sale of state-owned entities.

This will be done through the representation and warranty clause in the share purchase agreement, which is a shift from the government’s earlier stance of selling assets on an ‘as is where is’ basis. This comes in the backdrop of Devas Multimedia and Cairn Energy moving a New York court seeking to seize assets of divestment-bound Air India. Read more

Novavax denied trials on children; no nod needed for Sputnik Light

The vaccine expert panel denied permission to Serum Institute of India (SII) to conduct clinical trials on children for Novavax, on Thursday. It has also felt that there was no need to conduct a separate Indian clinical trial of Sputnik Light, as adequate safety and immunogenicity data is already available.

The Subject Expert Committee’s (SEC) decision means DRL does not require separate safety and immunogenicity trials on Indians for getting approval for Sputnik Light. As for SII, the permission was denied as the adult vaccine was not approved in neither US nor India. Read more