Top Headlines: India Inc celebrates Theme Tiranga; CEO earnings up and more

India’s 75th Independence Day calls for something unique and India Inc is stepping out in unusual ways to celebrate it, with employees, customers and trade partners. On the other hand, mirroring the increase in the earnings of their companies, the chief executives and promoters of India’s top listed firms gained handsomely from the boom last financial year. Read more on these in our top headlines.

Freedom at 75: From Jio to Tata Steel - India Inc flags off Theme Tiranga

For the next few days, a visual treat will greet passengers at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) with arts and cultural heritage on display. India’s 75th Independence Day calls for something unique and India Inc is stepping out in unusual ways to celebrate it, with employees, customers and trade partners. The Adani-Group-led CSMIA, for instance, isn’t stopping at an arts and cultural show at terminals 1 and 2. Read more

Raking in the moolah: CEO earnings up in tandem with profits of companies

Mirroring the increase in the earnings of their companies, the chief executives and promoters of India’s top listed firms gained handsomely from the boom last financial year. Their remuneration includes salaries, perquisites or perks, and profit-linked commissions. There was a jump in profit-linked commissions for chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief experience officers (CXOs) in sectors such as metals and mining, other commodities, information technology, and pharma. However, the salaries do not include employee stock ownership. Read more
 

Health and education have never been called freebies: FM Sitharaman

Health and education are the main principles of a welfare state and no government in India ever denied them, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday. Her comments came against the backdrop of an ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on the issue of populist schemes, or “freebies”, and a charge by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal that the central government was opposing free health care and education. Read more
 

RBI guidelines may lead to high compliance cost for digital lending apps

The fintech universe is looking positively at the digital lending framework brought in by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) because the strict norms are likely to address the problem of illegal entities lending to economically weak people. However, industry players say adherence to the framework is likely to drive up their compliance cost and increase the operational complexities of their business models, resulting in a brief period of growth slowdown in this space. Read more
 

Concerns over runaway inflation and CAD seem to have tapered off

With commodity prices easing due to fears of recession in advanced economies, the concerns regarding runaway inflation and current account deficit (CAD) have abated in India, a top policymaker said on Thursday. “At any point in time, different aspects of the economy have to be monitored, and we are closely monitoring inflation and current account deficit. Steps have been taken to bring down prices of essential items, which are showing results,” the official told reporters at a media briefing. Read more
 

Industry cheers, states clamour over Electricity Bill amendments

The amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003, introduced in Parliament recently, have given overarching power to the Centre and central government agencies in areas that were either a state subject or followed a federal model. While this has irked electricity regulators in a few states, the industry is cheering the paradigm shift since it will push reforms and private investment in the power distribution sector. Read more