Page 1344 - Business Finance

Puducherry govt to ban single-use plastic products from March 1: CM

Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said here on Sunday said that the cabinet has decided to ban production, sale and use of single-use plastic products in the Union Territory from March 1. He said a massive drive would also be launched to create awareness among the merchants and the public on the necessity of the ban. "We want to gift a plastic free Puducherry to the future generation and curb the plastic in the larger interest of environment," he told newsmen after the cabinet meeting. The neighbouring Tamil Nadu government had in June 2018 announced that it would ban the use of plastic items including non-biodegradable carry bags from January 1, 2019 to "gift a plastic-free state to future generations". A nominated BJP MLA caused a flutter on the Assembly premises here on December 31 by resorting to sudden dharna urging the Puducherry government to ban immediately production, sale and use of plastic products in the Union Territory on the lines of neighbouring Tamil Nadu. Narayanasamy ...

Budget: Ficci recommends corporate tax cut, revised individual tax rates

Industry chamber Ficci on Sunday recommended that the government lower corporate tax rates across the board to 25 per cent irrespective of turnover in the coming Union Budget on February 1 in order to spur economic growth and increase overall revenue collections.

India's largest startup ecosystem inaugurated in Kerala

India got its largest startup ecosystem Sunday when Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated here a 1.8-lakh-square-feet facility housing incubation set-ups across a string of segments in modern technology. The Integrated Startup Complex under the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) includes the ultra modern facilities of Maker Village that promotes hardware startups, the BioNest that promotes medical technologies, BRINC which is the country's first international accelerator for hardware startups; BRIC which aids developing solutions for cancer diagnosis and care, and a Centre of Excellence set up by industry majors such as UNITY. Overall the Kerala Government is working for the state to have a total area of 2.3 crore sq ft of IT space (up from 1.3 crore sq ft last year). The opening of the new complex at the Technology Innovation Zone (TIZ) is a major step towards achieving the objective, Vijayan said in his speech at KINFRA Hi Tech Park, Kalamassery. "We are also planning to ...

'Synergy between steel, refractory industry need of the hour'

The refractory and steel sectors need to work closely with each other to reduce dependence on imports and cut production costs, a top official of the Indian Refractory Makers Association (IRMA) said. If India wants to achieve its ambitious target of 300 million tonne of steel production by 2030, the only way forward is synergy between the two sectors, said Sameer Nagpal, Head, Advocacy of IRMA. Though the Indian refractory industry was minuscule compared to its steel counterpart, it is critical in the production of the metal, he said, adding, the steel sector consumes about 65 to 70 per cent of refractories. "Unless the issues related to the refractory industry are addressed, the government's steel production target might get hampered," Nagpal, who is also the CEO (Refractory Business) of the Dalmia Bharat Group, told PTI on Sunday. At present, the refractory sector is largely dependent on China for raw-material procurement, much like the steel industry that imports ...

Digital platform helps Maha save Rs 12k cr in farm loan

Maharashtra has managed to save Rs 12,000 crore in farm loan waiver alone by adopting a digital platform that helped eliminate bogus claimants, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said here Sunday. The state had, in June 2017, announced a farm loan waiver worth Rs 34,022 crore amid rising incidents of farmer suicides due to crop failures or falling prices and rising input costs. The scheme made each farmer with a debt of up to Rs 1.5 lakh eligible for the write-off. Maharashtra was following other states like UP, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh among others. "Our farm loan waiver scheme was executed on a digital platform and by that we could save Rs 12,000 crore just because of digital intervention. Had it been the regular way, we would have ended up paying Rs 12,000 crore more to the people and that is the power of digitisation," he said at an industry event organised by corporate lobby CII, without offering any details. He further said the state is launching a programme ...

Muthoot Microfin raises Rs 562 cr via securitisation

Muthoot Pappachan group's micro-lending arm raised Rs 561.7 crore through asset securitisation in the December quarter, when the non-bank lending segment was facing huge troubles with liquidity. With this, the total amount raised through securitisation by the IPO-bound Muthoot Microfin has crossed Rs 1,300 crore during the first nine months of the fiscal. "Securitisation helps us raise funds for expansion and leverage our capital efficiently to help maximise returns for shareholders," chief executive Sadaf Sayeed said. Securitisation refers to transactions wherein a lender sells a portfolio of future receivables. Commercial banks wanting to meet their priority sector lending requirements have bought the portfolio, a statement from the company said, adding public sector banks have bought Rs 845 crore of its portfolio this fiscal while the rest was snapped up by private sector banks. Its peer Manappuram Finance's micro-lending subsidiary Asirvad Microfinance had recently ...

SC dismisses plea for cancelling lease of Kandla Port land to firm

The Supreme Court has refused to interfere with a Delhi High Court order holding as not maintainable a PIL seeking cancellation of a lease awarding 50 acres of land at the Kandla Port in Gujarat to a private firm, due to lack of territorial jurisdiction. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said no prejudice was caused to the petitioner NGO -- Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) -- by asking it to move the Gujarat High Court. "We are not inclined to interfere with the order impugned in the special leave petition as, in our considered view, no prejudice has been caused by requiring the petitioner to move the appropriate jurisdiction i.e the High Court of Gujarat, raising its grievance under the same subject matter before the said High Court. The special leave petition is, accordingly, dismissed," the bench, also comprising Justice S K Kaul, said. The high court, on October 1 last year, had said no part of the cause of action had arisen within its territorial ...

India, Afghanistan, Central Asian nations agree to cooperate in countering terror

India and five Central Asian countries along with Afghanistan on Sunday condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and agreed to cooperate in countering the menace which poses a threat to people across the world. This was part of a joint statement issued at the end of the first ever meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue which also saw the participation of Afghanistan at the ministerial level in Samarkand. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj along with the foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan took part in the meeting. "All sides condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and agreed to cooperate in countering terrorism which posed a threat to the people and economies of the world," the statement said. It referred to the ancient civilisational, cultural, trade, and people-to-people links between India and Central Asia and expressed commitment to dynamic and fruitful friendly relations and

Petrol, diesel see sharp price rise on Sunday

Transport fuel rates were hiked for the fifth time this month and saw their steepest rise on Sunday, amid global crude oil rates continuing to climb handsomely following the implementation of output cuts by oil producers from January 1.

J&K Bank Q3 net profit up 43% at Rs 104 crore

Jammu & Kashmir Bank has reported 43 per cent increase in its net profit at Rs 103.75 crore for the third quarter ended December 2018. The bank had earned a profit of Rs 72.47 crore in the October-December quarter of previous fiscal, the bank said in a statement. Total income of the bank rose to Rs 2,184.22 crore as against Rs 1,790.77 crore in the same period a year ago. The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage of total advances by end of December 2018 fell to 9.94 per cent as against 10.08 per cent as on December 31, 2017, it said. However, net NPAs rose marginally to 4.59 per cent of the net loans from 4.29 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago. The NPA coverage ratio, though static on a year-on-year basis and still comparable with the best in the industry, has seen a dip on sequential basis to 65.82 per cent mainly on account of downgrade of IL&FS which reflects that the bank has been able to tide over the IL&FS shock without any major ...

Ficci for cut in corporate tax rate irrespective of turnover in Budget

It said with many key global economies going for significant rate cuts, there is a need for India to consider across-the-board rate cuts for businesses

No business, no investment if terrorism affects a country, says Sushma Swaraj in Uzbekistan

Terrorism erodes all avenues of development a country can have, and no business development, no investment can take place in a country affected by terrorism, said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, while addressing the first session of the India-Central Asia Dialogue here on Sunday."Our region is facing serious challenges posed by terrorism. India, Central Asia, and Afghanistan are societies which are tolerant and plural. The ideology of hate which the terrorists would like to spread has no place in our societies," she said."We also need to ask that who these terrorists are, who funds them, how they find sustenance, who protects and sponsors them. To promote business development in our region, it will also be necessary to fight this scourge of terrorism together," added Swaraj.Union Minister Swaraj is on a two-day visit to Uzbekistan for discussing measures with her counterpart for stepping up bilateral cooperation in a number of areas including trade, economy, defence and ...

FIS India revenue crosses USD 100 mn

Fintech solutions player FIS India has recorded over USD 100 million in revenue and the firm is targeting to grow its topline faster than GDP growth of over 7 per cent in the coming years, a top official has said. A bulk 70 percent of the revenue accrue from the payments front, while the rest come from the legacy core banking systems for retail banks. "We expect our growth in upper single digits over the next several years," FIS Global's chairman, president and chief executive Gary Norcross told PTI here. He said the company has been present here for over two decades now and employs 14,000 across five cities at present they are engaged both in local sales and also creating solutions for the world. Its overall revenue stand at over USD 9 billion, while the worldwide employee base is 52,000, he said. At present, it is investing in both increasing its sales team and also on the delivery side, he said, adding the company had won a major chunk of domestic business from the ..

Ipsaa plans to invest Rs 100 cr; to add 125 day-care centres by 2020

Day-care chain Ipsaa plans to invest Rs 100 crore to more than double its centres across the country by 2020, and is also in talks with private equity players to raise USD 10 million in the next 12-18 months. "We are looking at opening 125 more day-care centres across the country by 2020, taking the total count to 200. All our centres are company-owned and operated and we plan to invest Rs 100 crore to fund our expansion plans," Ipsaa Co-founder and CEO Shiv Mittal told PTI. Mittal said the company, which so far has been self-funded by promoters and through bank debt, is also looking to raise USD 10 million through Series A funding in the next 12-18 months. "A few private equity players have expressed interest in investing in Ipsaa Day Care Centres. It is in talking stage right now," he added. Elaborating on expansion plans, Mittal said, Growing working population in India has led to significant demand of credible and quality child care. We have observed a substantial increase in ...

John Jacobs aims to clock Rs 500 cr revenue by Mar '21

Lenskart's eyewear brand John Jacobs is looking to garner Rs 500 crore in revenue in two years as it strengthens its retail presence and expands the product portfolio. The brand, which has eight stores currently in Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru, will add six more in the next two months and aims to set up about 50 stores by March 2021. "John Jacobs has been witnessing strong growth, we expect to close this fiscal with a topline of Rs 180 crore. By March 2021, we expect our revenues to touch Rs 500 crore," John Jacobs Business Head Manan Duggal told PTI. He added that about 40 per cent of the sales is driven by online channels, with the rest coming from offline stores. Last year, Lenskart had said it will invest USD 4 million in John Jacobs to fuel the brand's expansion plans. "We are aggressively growing our presence both in online and offline. The brand is already retailing through Lenksart outlets (over 450 in more than 100 cities). The aim is to take the number of our own stores from 8 .

Bank of China to enable payment in yuan on U.S. e-commerce platforms: Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) - Bank of China's New York branch will enable Chinese firms to receive payment in yuan rather than dollars from their sales on U.S. e-commerce platforms this year, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

Saudi energy minister says oil market on 'right track'

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday the oil market is "on the right track" and will quickly return to balance, but oil producers are willing to do more if needed.

Inflation rate, results, rupee to dictate equity's trend (Market Outlook)

Key inflationary trends, combined with the ongoing quarterly result season, are expected to determine the movement of equity indices next week.

FPIs turn net sellers in January; withdraw Rs 3,600 cr in just 9 sessions

This comes following a cumulative net inflow of Rs 8,584 crore in the equity markets by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) during November and December

India invites Chinese participation in its plans to expand Electric Vehicles

India plans to achieve electric mobility by 2030 and welcomes Chinese industries participation and investment in the expansion of Indian Electric Vehicles (EV) Market, NITI Aayog Principal Advisor Anil Srivatsava has said. Srivastava, who led an industry delegation from India and addressed summit forum 'Global Zero Emission and All Electric Vehicle' held from January 11-13, met Chen Qingtai, President of China EV100, and invited China's participation in India's ambitious plans to go for full electric mobility. "He mentioned that for India's ambitious objective of achieving electric mobility by 2030, we see very substantive role for the Chinese EV players," a press release from the Indian Embassy here said on Sunday. China EV100, a private electric vehicle association of over 200 leading Chinese electric mobility industries, is organising the 5th China EV100 Forum in Beijing. The government as well as industry representatives from all over the world attended the event. China is both ...