Top headlines: Future Group readies for SC battle, WPI inflation rises

Indians return to shopping and Supreme Court serves notice to Facebook, WhatsApp, and the government over user privacy. Those stories and more in our headlines this evening.

The Tata group is in talks to raise funds to pay dues its loss-making telecom company owes. The Supreme Court served notices to Facebook its messaging app, WhatsApp, and the Indian goverment over the privacy rules of the two social media platforms. Here is more on those stories and other headlines.

Tata Sons dials banks to pay Rs 1,250 cr Tata Tele AGR dues and loans

Tata Sons, the parent company of Tata Teleservices, is in talks with banks to raise funds to pay latter’s dues to the banks and to the Indian government. The loss-making telecom company has to pay Rs 1,250 crore of dues to banks and another 10 per cent of outstandings to the government as AGR (adjusted gross revenue) as per the Supreme Court judgement before March end, said a banking source. The DoT on March 16 last year had moved the Supreme Court seeking recovery of Rs 16,798 crore as the demand towards LF, Spectrum Usage Charges (“SUC”), interest, penalty and interest on penalty against Tata Group of companies and had showed an amount of Rs 12,601 crore as outstanding. Read more

RIL deal: After Amazon moves SC, Future Group says will defend the matter

Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on Monday said Amazon has approached the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court order that vacated the status quo on Future Group's proposed Rs 24,713 crore-deal with Reliance Industries. In a filing to stock exchanges, FRL also said that it "shall defend the matter/proceedings through its legal counsels". Amazon and Future are locked in a bitter legal tussle after the US e-commerce giant dragged Future Group to arbitration at SIAC, arguing that the latter had violated their contract by entering into the deal with rival Reliance. Read more

Life back to normal? Covid's decline in India sparks a shopping spree

For the home to the world’s second-largest Covid-19 outbreak, life in India is almost back to normal. Shopping mall parking lots are full again. Stores are buzzing, and there are long lines for hair salons and restaurants. While the US and large swaths of Europe remain in crisis and China stays vigilant over new outbreaks, concerns about Covid seem to have ebbed across India. Infection and death rates have dropped, and as shoppers like Zehra re-emerge, the economy and consumer companies are posting strong gains, far sooner than most expected. Read more

WPI inflation up 2.03% on factory goods and fuel, room for rate cut shrinks

Unlike its retail price counterpart, the wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rate rose to 2.03 per cent in January from 1.22 per cent in the previous month as fuel and non-food manufactured products faced price pressures. Economists feel there is no further room for rate cuts by the monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank of India in the current cycle. The consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation rate, on the other hand, fell to a 16-month low of 4.06 per cent from 4.59 per cent over this period. While the directions of CPI and WPI inflation rates look divergent, a deeper analysis showed that items within each of them moved more or less in tandem. Read more

SC notice to Centre, WhatsApp on plea alleging low privacy standards

The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre and WhatsApp within four weeks on a fresh plea alleging lower standards of privacy for Indians in comparison to European users of the messaging app.vThe top court said that people have grave apprehensions that they will lose their privacy, and it is our duty to protect them. Read more