Top biz headlines: India Inc plays safe, IT clients fear data leak and more

Here are the top 10 business headlines this morning

Even though the Union government has permitted further relaxation in the lockdown rules from Monday, India Inc is on a wait-and-watch mode to restart manufacturing and service operations or ramp up production. The Centre is yet to announce its new economic growth and budgetary estimates for 2020-21 (FY21) in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdowns. But the Finance Ministry is internally projecting FY21 GDP growth to be around 2-3 per cent. 
 

Covid-19 outbreak: India Inc plays safe, despite lockdown norms being eased

India Inc is on a wait-and-watch mode to restart manufacturing and service operations or ramp up production. A large section of the industry is hesitant to open up when there’s no sign of demand growing. Along with that there are hurdles of labour shortage and a broken supply chain for many key sectors. Read More.

Finance Ministry sees FY21 economic growth at 2-3% amid Covid-19 outbreak

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Finance Ministry is internally projecting FY21 GDP growth to be around 2-3 per cent, down from the 6-6.5 per cent predicted in the 2019-20 Economic Survey. The new projections were given by Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian in a presentation he made to the 15th Finance Commission’s advisory council. Read More. 

Q4 performance shows consumer, digital are now RIL's new core businesses

Reliance Industries’ consolidated performance for Q4 may be disappointing, but experts are bullish on the stock and believe shareholders should subscribe to its rights issue. In its digital business (Jio Platforms), revenue grew 26.6 per cent and PAT grew by 127 per cent. Read More.

Govt stares at high payouts as gold prices double over the last year

The gold prices almost doubled over the past year — which has been the only good news for investors at a time when both equities and debt returns have been under pressure. However, the government might see a significant rush payouts in the second half of the year, an additional Rs 1,000 crore, if investors rush to redeem their holdings. Read More.

Lockdown 3.0: Work from home to continue as firms postpone opening

Even as the government plans to open up the economy, little is expected to change for those who have been working over laptops at home for last five weeks. Majority of companies have asked employees to continue working remotely for the next two weeks as well, especially with suspended public transportation. Read More.

IT clients fear data leak, question WFH feasibility amid Covid-19 crisis

Several Indian information technology (IT) services firms started doing work-from-home and are even firming up plans to institutionalise it for employees. However, clients are not likely to give prompt approval for this owing to the possibility of data leakage. While the chief information officers of several client organisations had given the go-ahead for WFH now, such approvals will not be easy to receive in normal times. Read Here.

NHAI to lean on private firms mostly for highways construction in FY21

During the current fiscal year, the National Highways Authority of India will rely on the private sector players for constructing more than half of its projects. Even last year, 60 per cent was done on engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) or government-funded mode. According to the latest estimates, project execution would be more in the private sector since the government is facing liquidity issues and build–operate–transfer (BOT), hybrid-annuity could boost private sector investment. Read More.

Rocky road ahead for auto exporters as demand woes may delay recovery

Among Nifty sectoral indices, the Auto index was the second-biggest gainer in April. It was up 25 per cent over the last month with more than a fourth of those gains coming in a single trading session on Thursday. Tata Motors surged over 19 per cent, while Bharat Forge and Motherson Sumi gained over 9 per cent each. Other gainers included Varroc Engineering, Bajaj Auto, and Mahindra CIE. Read More. 

RCEP nations offer India package to return to negotiating table
 

After the fallout last year, RCEP members have now offered India a package to return to the negotiating table, taking into account the country’s concerns over tariff base rates and special trade safeguards. The development happened as the Indo-Pacific region braces for a post-Covid-19 economic order, The Economic Times reported.

How govt can roll out a stimulus without upsetting rating agencies

Even as the rating agencies downgrade India's outlook, analysts believe that the government can make them warm up to India by being transparent on fiscal health. A large fiscal stimulus can be rolled out because that’s really the need of the hour; but it should be communicated clearly what the new glide path will be, and why the stimulus is necessary for the long-term health of the economy, LiveMint reported.