Page 1015 - Business Finance
Par panel takes exception to Nirbhaya Fund being used for construction of buildings
A parliamentary panel has taken strong exception to the utilisation of Nirbhaya Fund in construction of buildings, saying such allocations virtually defeat the very purpose of the project -- the women safety. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, headed by Congress leader P Chidambaram, said, "The committee is also of the firm view that funds for construction of buildings should come from other sources and not from the Nirbhaya Fund. "Nirbhaya Fund should not be used for construction of buildings. Such allocations virtually defeat the purpose of it," the panel said in its report submitted to the Rajya Sabha last week. The committee said it strongly recommends that the home ministry should desist from sanctioning funds for schemes like construction of buildings from the Nirbhaya Fund and adhere to its original purpose. The Nirbhaya Fund was started in 2013 by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to implement initiatives aimed at enhancing safety
Defunct Kingfisher Airline promoters prevented shares worth over Rs 7,500 crore for use in settling bank claims (Investigation - Part 3)
Promoters of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (KAL), including embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya and United Breweries Holdings Ltd (UBHL), were in possession of substantial quantities of movable assets in the form of shares of various public limited companies but showed no intention to clear dues of banks with these instruments, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation into the affairs of the now defunct airlines has revealed.
Goyal for printing currency to finance deficit
Noting that finance ministers all over the world are perennially in search of revenue to balance government budgets, acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday favoured printing currency as a way of deficit financing, citing the example of the US.
Ready to take up any stalled project if commercially viable: NBCC CMD (IANS INTERVIEW)
At a time when there are a few or no takers for stalled residential projects, the public sector construction major NBCC is willing to take up such properties for completion, provided they are commercially viable and do not hurt the company's balance sheet.
India's crude steel output declines 4 pc to 8.99 MT in Jan
India's crude steel production fell by 3.84 per cent to 8.995 million tonnes (MT) in January 2019, according to the Joint Plant Committee (JPC). The fall is reported after World Steel Association (worldsteel) recently announced that India has replaced Japan as the world's second-largest steel producing country. On January 25, worldsteel in its report noted that India's crude steel production in 2018 was at 106.5 MT, while as Japan produced 104.3 MT in 2018. "Crude steel production stood at 8.995 MT in January 2019, down by 3.8 per cent over January 2018, and was down by 0.2 over December 2018," the JPC said in its latest report. The country had produced 9.355 MT crude steel during the same month a year ago, it said. In January, state-run Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) together with private players JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Essar Steel produced 5.486 MT of the crude metal. The rest came in from other ...
Rahul's minimum income guarantee similar to 'garibi hatao', not feasible: Rajiv Kumar (IANS Interview)
Terming Congress President Rahul Gandhis promise of a minimum income guarantee to poor unimplementable, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar says it is similar in nature to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhis 'garibi hatao slogan.
Starbucks to add around 10 stores this fiscal
Tata Starbucks, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Global Beverages and Starbucks Coffee of the US, is planning to add up to 10 new stores in the next two months, taking the total count to around 145 outlets, said a top company official. The premium coffee chain is increasing the number of roll outs as it is getting overall good consumer response, said Tata Global Beverages (TGBL). "We currently have around 136 stores and we would open another between 5 to 10 stores by the end of the year (fiscal). We have seen an increase in the store roll out. We look at activating more stores roll out in the next few years, what we have seen in the past," TGBL Group CFO L Krishnakumar told PTI. Tata-Starbucks has recently started food delivery through online food aggregator apps like Swiggy. The JV has reported around 30 per cent growth during the October-December quarter of this fiscal. Krishnakumar, although refused to share the current revenue, but said: "On run rate, we would be some where ...
India offers 23 oil blocks in OALP-III bid round
India on Sunday offered 23 oil and gas and coal-bed methane blocks for bidding in the third round of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OLAP) as it looks to more than double the area under exploration to raise domestic output and cut imports. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the OALP-III bid round at the Petrotech 2019 conference here on the outskirts of Delhi. "In OALP-III, 23 blocks in 12 sedimentary basins are being offered. Of these, five are coal-bed methane (CBM) blocks. Total area on offer is about 31,000 square kilometers," he said. Last date for bidding is April 10. OALP-III will run concurrently with OALP-II, where 14 blocks covering an area of close to 30,000 sq km is on offer for bidding, he said, adding in OALP-I, 55 blocks covering an area of 60,000 sq km were awarded in October last year. "In one year, we have added about ?1.2 lakh sq km of area to exploration kitty. This compares to 90,000 sq km area under exploration previously," he said, adding the area under ...
Co-living space in demand, offers biz potential worth USD 93 bn per year: PropTiger
After decent growth of co-working segment in last few years, it's now co-living space which is creating buzz in India and has potential to become USD 93 billion market annually on rising demand from students and professionals, according to a study. News Corp and Softbank-backed realty portal PropTiger has termed the co-living space as "real estate goldmine" that remains largely untapped. "This is evident from the fact that the supply by organised players in co-living is currently limited to over one lakh beds. Assuming they earn Rs 1.44 lakh per annum per bed, organised players in this segment are currently USD 206 million). "If the existing demand-supply mismatch is fixed, this segment has the potentially to grow into a USD 93-billion market," PropTiger said in a report. The report further found out that the co-living sector has total untapped demand of about 46.3 million beds, out of which 8.9 million is from student housing. As per its survey, total occupancy recorded in hostels ...
Bajaj Electricals aims 48% jump in revenue to 7,000 cr this fiscal
Consumer durables maker Bajaj Electricals is eyeing around 48 per cent growth in revenue to Rs 7,000 crore this fiscal, mainly driven by robust performance of its EPC segment, said a top company official. The company's major growth is coming from its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) segment, on the back of big orders of power distribution and transmission line projects in Uttar Pradesh. "We would end current fiscal with around Rs 6,800 crore to Rs 7,000 crore as per our estimates," Bajaj Electricals Chairman and Managing Director Shekhar Bajaj told PTI. Bajaj Electricals had posted a revenue of Rs 4,716.39 last fiscal, in which EPC had contributed around 2,500 crore. "We have done around Rs 2,900 crore in the last three quarters and do around Rs 1,100 crore in the fourth quarter and as per our projections, we would have around Rs 4,000 crore from EPC business," Bajaj said, adding that this would be over 60 per cent growth. He expects EPC segment to continue the growth ..
Modi launches developmental projects in Andhra amid protests
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched development projects here amid protests staged across Andhra Pradesh against his visit to the state.
Macro-data, Q3 results to drive equity indices (Market Outlook)
Macro-economic data points combined with the direction of foreign fund flows and the rupee's movement against the US dollar are expected to influence the Indian equity market next week, analysts opined.
Hotels, accommodations to contribute around 70 pc of total business by 2022: MakeMyTrip
Online travel firm MakeMyTrip said it is looking at the hotels and accommodations segment to contribute around 70 per cent to its overall revenue by the end of 2022. Currently, hotels and accommodations account for around 54 per cent of the company's total revenue. "By the end of 2022, 70 per cent of our revenue will come from the hotels and accommodations segment," MakeMyTrip founder and Group CEO Deep Kalra told PTI. Currently, around 33 per cent of revenue comes from air travel and the rest is roughly from redBus, travel insurance and experiences, he added. "Going forward, the hotels and accommodations will contribute a bigger share of revenue, as there is still a lot of headroom in hotels. Still, only around 15 per cent of hotels are booked online, so there is a big market to be tapped," Kalra said. On the trend of more Indians opting for overseas travel, he said: "The big focus area for us and where Indians are going right now is overseas. Middle class has the money and is ...
All households to soon have clean cooking fuel: Pradhan
?After catapulting LPG coverage by about 40 per cent in just 55 months, the government will soon make available clean cooking fuel to all households, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Sunday. Speaking at the Petrotech 2019 conference here on the outskirts of Delhi, he said coverage of LPG in the country has reached close to 90 per cent, rising from about 55 per cent in 2014. "Very soon, India will be connecting all households with clean cooking fuel. The source of fuel will be LPG as well as gas from bio-mass and alternate sources," he said. The increase in coverage has been credited to the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), which provides free cooking gas (LPG) connection to the poor. Under PMUY, about 6.4 crore connections have been provided since the launch of the scheme on May 1, 2016, he said. "Before March 31, 2020, we will provide LPG connections to 8 crore households under PMUY," he said. LPG is supposed to replace traditional cooking fuels in rural kitchens such as ...
India, Peru to hold next round of FTA talks in March in Lima
India and Peru will hold the next round of negotiations for a proposed free-trade agreement (FTA) in the South American nation next month, a move aimed at boosting two-way commerce between the countries, an official said. "Officials from the commerce ministry will visit Lima, capital of Peru, in March for the fourth round of negotiations. It is scheduled to begin from March 11," the official said. The third round of talks concluded last month here. The main chapters of the trade agreement include market access for goods, trade in services, movement of professionals, investments, dispute settlement, technical barriers to trade, trade remedies, rules of origin of goods, customs procedures and trade facilitation. In an FTA, two countries significantly reduce or eliminate duties on most of the goods traded between them besides relaxing norms and rules to promote trade in services and increase bilateral investments. With growing uncertainties in its traditional markets, including the US ...
Exclusive: Venezuela moves to replace U.S. executives on Citgo board - sources
(Reuters) - Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA is taking steps to remove at least two American executives from the board of directors of its U.S. refining subsidiary, Citgo Petroleum Corp, according to people close to the matter.
Hiring and production outlook improves in manufacturing: FICCI
A quarterly survey by industry body FICCI portrays a better outlook for the manufacturing sector with 54 per cent of respondents reporting higher production from October to December quarter of 2018-19 compared to 47 in the same quarter of the previous year.The percentage of respondents reporting low production was only 13.5 per cent in Q3 2018-19 as compared to 15 per cent in Q3 of 2017-18. Similarly, 70 per cent of respondents mentioned that they were not likely to hire an additional workforce in Q3 of 2017-18. This percentage has come down to 65 per cent for Q3 of 2018-19. Going forward it is expected that the hiring scenario will improve further, noted the survey.FICCI's latest quarterly survey assessed the sentiments of manufacturers for 11 major sectors namely automotive, capital goods, cement and ceramics, chemicals, fertilisers and pharmaceuticals, electronics and electricals, leather and footwear, metal and metal products, paper products, textiles, textile machinery and tyre. .
Exclusive: Venezuela moves to replace U.S. executives on Citgo board -sources
(Reuters) - Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA is taking steps to remove at least two American executives from the board of directors of its U.S. refining subsidiary, Citgo Petroleum Corp, according to people close to the matter.
Exclusive: Venezuela shifts oil ventures' accounts to Russian bank - document, sources
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA is telling customers of its joint ventures to deposit oil sales proceeds in an account recently opened at Russia's Gazprombank AO, according to sources and an internal document seen by Reuters on Saturday.
Exclusive: Venezuela shifts oil ventures' accounts to Russian bank -document, sources
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA is telling customers of its joint ventures to deposit oil sales proceeds in an account recently opened at Russia's Gazprombank AO, according to sources and an internal document seen by Reuters on Saturday.