Top headlines: Air India sale may get govt Rs 15,000 cr, Sebi ban on Biyani

Bharti Airtel posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 854 crore in the third quarter of December FY21, after six straight quarters of losses. Read the top news in Business Standard today

Govt may fetch Rs 15,000 cr from Air India sale

The government is expecting to fetch around Rs 15,000 crore from the sale of Air India, its subsidiary Air India Express and AISATS, according to officials and bankers involved in the divestment process. Prospective bidders are perhaps ascribing zero value to the equity of the financially-stressed company, a source said. Read more

Air India divestment expected to be closed in first qtr of FY22: DEA secy

The Centre is taking up some of the major disinvestment proceeds on priority, particularly of Air India and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, according to  Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj. Air India is expected to be closed in the first quarter of FY22, he said in an interview with Business Standard. Read edited excerpts here

Sebi sets one-year capital market ban on Kishore Biyani for insider trading

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wedn­esday barred Future Group founder Kishore Biyani from the capital markets for a period of one year for alleged breach of insider trading regulations. The regulator directed Biyani and three other entities to disgorge more than Rs 20 crore made wrongfully by dealing in shares while in possession of unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI). Read more
 

2-6% inflation target works well, no need to tinker with it: Sanjeev Sanyal

The inflation target, which is due for the review in the next one-and-a-half months, may not change as the government believes the current goal under the monetary policy framework (MPC) has worked reasonably well.

In a conversation, the finance ministry's Principal Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal said that the target range of 2-6 per cent does not require tinkering as the government rarely gone outside the range. Read more

M&A costs to go up after Budget 2021 axes tax depreciation on goodwill

The merger and acquisitions (M&A) transactions are set to become costlier after the Budget announced on Monday proposed that goodwill (including existing goodwill) will not be eligible for tax depreciation. Read more

Bharti Airtel back in the black, posts Rs 854-crore profit in Q3

Bharti Airtel on Wednesday posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 854 crore in the third quarter of December FY21, after six straight quarters of losses. However, its Indian operations, despite a substantial improvement in financial performance, are still in the red, posting a loss of Rs 7.34 crore in the reporting quarter, though lower than the staggering Rs 628 crore in the previous one. Read more

FCI will have just Rs 59K cr of NSSF loans by FY22-end: Expenditure secy
 

With the Budget allocating Rs 4.23 trillion as food subsidy in FY21 and topping it up with another Rs 2.42 trillion for FY22, Food Corporation of India (FCI) will be left with just around Rs 59,000-crore unpaid loans by the end of next financial year, Expenditure Secretary T V Somanathan has said. Explaining the maths, Somanathan said FY21 started with a Budget estimate of around Rs 1.2 trillion as food subsidy. Read more

RBI unveils risk-based audit guidelines for select NBFCs, urban co-op banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday unveiled the risk-based internal audit (RBIA) system for select non-bank lenders and urban co-operative banks, with a view to enhance the quality and effectiveness of their internal audit system. Read more