Page 34 - Industry News

Trai slaps ₹150 crore penalty on telcos for failing to curb spam calls

The telecom regulator Trai has imposed a penalty of Rs 150 crore on telecom operators for their failure to curb spam calls and messages, according to an official source. The Rs 150 crore penalty imposed for three years beginning 2020, however, has been challenged by telecom operators. "Financial disincentives of more than Rs 150 crore have been imposed on the telecom service providers for wrong closure of customer complaints and not taking action on telecom connections of spammers in accordance with regulations," the source said. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) imposes penalties on telecom operators who fail to comply with regulations that impose financial disincentives. The regulations provide for a financial disincentive of up to Rs 50 lakh per month per licensed Service Area for a telecom operator. "It is important to note that the financial disincentives are imposed on TSPs (telecom service providers) not because someone has sent through their network, but bec

Kerala govt to hand over paddy procurement to cooperative societies

The Kerala government has decided to entrust paddy procurement to cooperative societies, shifting to a farmer-centric, two-tier system aimed at ensuring quicker payments and reducing delays. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here, a release from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said on Monday. The government said timely procurement would prevent crop damage and help farmers receive payments at the time of purchase itself. The new model will be implemented through Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies and will come into force from the upcoming season. Under the system, primary cooperative societies that are ready for procurement will purchase paddy directly from farmers. The government said the move would avoid dependence on Paddy Receipt Sheet (PRS)-based loans and ensure that farmers are paid immediately after procurement. At the district or taluk level, nodal cooperative societies will be formed with shareholding ...

Morbi ceramic hub to be showcased as special zone at VGRC Kutch-Saurashtra

Morbi district has emerged as a key pillar of India's ceramic economy, accounting for nearly 90% of Gujarat's total ceramic production and ranking second globally

Bayer, ADM extend Maharashtra soyabean farmer programme to 100K growers

Germany's Bayer AG on Monday said it has extended its partnership with US agribusiness ADM by three years to support soybean farmers in Maharashtra, scaling the programme fourfold to reach 1,00,000 growers. The partnership, launched in June 2022, reached 25,000 farmers by May 2025 and will now expand coverage from 35,000 hectares to 200,000 hectares, Bayer said in a statement. The expanded programme will cover seven districts in Maharashtra, adding Nanded, Parbhani, Hingoli, and Solapur to the original areas of Latur, Dharashiv, and Beed. The initiative focuses on sustainable farming practices through the ProTerra Foundation framework, covering production management, biodiversity protection, programme monitoring, crop documentation and post-harvest management, the company said. Bayer has delivered training programmes on good agricultural practices and integrated pest management, reaching over 58,000 farmers through audio bridge calls, while ADM's agronomist team receives regular ..

IIT Guwahati scientists develop catalyst to convert CO2 into methanol fuel

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, have developed a photocatalytic material that can convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into methanol fuel using sunlight, according to officials. The effort is aimed at addressing one of the most essential challenges -- meeting rising energy needs without further harming the environment. The findings of the study have been published in the prestigious Journal of Materials Science. "The dependence on petroleum-based fuels continues to be a source of carbon dioxide emissions, causing environmental stress and global warming. To address this, researchers are working on designing photocatalytic methods to convert carbon dioxide into clean fuels," said Mahuya De, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati. Researchers worldwide have been working on addressing this critical challenge by utilising graphitic carbon nitride, a low-cost, metal-free, non-toxic material. However, due to limitations such as rapid energy .

HDFC AMC forays into private credit market with ₹2,500 crore fund

HDFC Asset Management Company has forayed into the fast-growing private credit market with its new Structured Credit Fund-I, targeting mid-market companies with alternative debt financing. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, will invest up to Rs 220 crore as an anchor investor in HDFC AMC's Structured Credit Fund-I, the asset management company said in its statement on Monday. The fund has already secured about Rs 1,290 crore in commitments in its first close, and is targeting a total corpus of Rs 1,500 crore, with a green-shoe option of an additional Rs 1,000 crore. The commitment amount includes sponsor commitment from HDFC AMC of up to 14 per cent of the fund corpus. The fund will invest in mid-market companies, and it has already committed Rs 380 crore across three deals spanning various sectors. It will target mid-teen returns over a 4-6 year horizon. HDFC AMC said that the fund will improve access to finance for underserved mid-ma

Bank employees' unions threaten to go on nationwide strike on Jan 27

Bank employees' unions under the aegis of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) have threatened to go on a nationwide strike on January 27, demanding implementation of a 5-day week. If the strike materialises, it would have a significant impact primarily on the operations of public sector banks for three days in a row, as January 25 and 26 are holidays. At present, bank employees get off on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, apart from Sundays. Declaring the remaining two Saturdays as holidays was agreed between the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and UFBU during the wage revision settlement in March, 2024. "It is unfortunate that the government is not responding to our genuine demand. There would be no loss of man-hours because we have agreed to an extra 40 minutes working per day from Monday to Friday," UFBU said in a statement. Already, RBI, LIC, GIC, etc., are working for 5 days a week, it said, adding that the foreign exchange market, money market, stock exchanges

India becomes world's largest rice producer, surpasses China: Agri minister

India has become the world's largest rice producer, beating China, with a total output of 150.18 million tonnes, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Sunday, as he released 184 new varieties of 25 crops. These new high-yielding seed varieties would boost crop production and enhance farmers' income, he said, while directing the ministry officials to ensure that these new varieties reach farmers quickly. The minister unveiled 184 improved varieties of 25 field crops developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research at an event held in the national capital, according to an official statement. Addressing the event, Chouhan said the country has achieved great success in the development of high-yielding seeds. Since the gazette notification process began in 1969, a total of 7,205 crop varieties have been notified, including rice, wheat, sorghum, maize, pulses, oilseeds, fiber crops, among others. Chouhan informed that 3,236 high-yielding varieties have been ..

US-Venezuela conflict unlikely to affect India trade: GTRI report

The US-Venezuela conflict will have a negligible impact on India's trade with the South American country, think tank GTRI said on Sunday. On January 4, American forces carried out a large military operation in Venezuela, capturing President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and taking them to the US to face various charges, including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking. "India faces negligible impact, as trade with Venezuela has collapsed under sanctions, with crude imports down 81.3 per cent in FY2025 and overall bilateral trade remaining marginal," the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) Founder Ajay Srivastava said. For India, he said, the Venezuelan disturbance is unlikely to have any material economic or energy impact. Although India was a major buyer of Venezuelan crude in the 2000s and 2010s, bilateral engagement has weakened sharply since 2019 due to US sanctions, which forced India to cut oil imports and scale back commercial activity to avoid secondary sanctions, he added.

Centre to tackle fertiliser misuse, promote balanced use: JP Nadda

Union Fertilisers Minister J P Nadda on Saturday said the government will address issues relating to balanced fertiliser use and diversion of fertilisers for non-agricultural purposes in coordination with various departments. Speaking at a day-long Chintan Shivir in the national capital, Nadda said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has consistently placed farmers at the core of governance, and policies must aim to ease their lives. "Despite various challenging circumstances, the department has successfully met the fertiliser requirements of farmers," he said, highlighting record production and necessary imports this year due to farmer-friendly measures. Minister of State for Fertilizers Anupriya Patel said the brainstorming session will generate ideas to aid in making India a developed nation by 2047, an official statement said. Fertiliser Secretary Rajat Kumar Mishra said the government, PSUs and the private sector have all placed farmers at the centre of deliberations. "We have kept

Andhra Pradesh corners 25.3% of FY26 investments: Bank of Baroda report

The private sector dominated the investment pipeline with a share of 89.7 per cent or ₹23.87 trillion, while government sector investments stood at ₹2.75 trillion

Centre okays 22 more investment proposals worth ₹42K crore under ECMS

The government has approved 22 additional applications under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme, taking total approvals to 46 companies with cumulative investment of Rs 54,567 crore

Ultra-rich splurge ₹7,186 cr on 51 homes in 2025; Mumbai dominates

Mumbai accounted for 35 of the 51 ultra-luxury home deals in 2025, cornering over ₹5,100 crore in value, as India's wealthy continued to back big-ticket residential assets

Semaglutide patent loss to create ₹5,000 crore opportunity: Report

Patent expiries of blockbuster weight-loss drug semaglutide may create a ₹5,000 crore generic opportunity for Indian pharma firms across India and key emerging and regulated markets

Air India pulls ahead of IndiGo in India's busiest Mumbai-Delhi skies route

Mumbai-Delhi corridor ranks among world's top 10 as competition pushes fares lower

New Year's Eve frenzy: Grapes, biryani, pizzas among most-ordered items

The surge in sales activity, across different platforms, came even as gig worker unions had called a nationwide strike

Car sales zoom 26% in Dec on GST cut, year-end rush lifts wholesale demand

For calendar year 2025, domestic PV wholesales stood at 4.55 million units, marking a 5.7 per cent YoY increase

Coal India posts 4.6% output growth in December, but offtake drops 5.2%

Coal India on Thursday reported a 4.6 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in production and a 5.2 per cent fall in offtake in December. The miner, along with its eight subsidiaries, produced 75.7 million tonnes (MT) of coal in December 2025, higher than 72.4 MT in the same month in 2024. However, the offtake was at 64.9 MT in the month under review, lower than 68.5 MT in December 2024. Coal India's cumulative production fell by 2.6 per cent to 529.2 MT in April-December FY26 from 543.4 MT in the nine-month period of the preceding FY25. Offtake during the period also slipped 2.2 per cent to 544.7 MT from 557 MT in April-December 2024-25. Coal India, under the Ministry of Coal, is India's largest coal mining company.

Power consumption rises 7% to 138.39 billion units in Dec amid cold wave

Power consumption grew nearly 7 per cent to 138.39 billion units (BU) in December from 129.39 BU a year ago, as the use of heating appliances like geysers and blowers increased on account of severe cold in North India. According to the government data, the peak power demand met or the highest supply during December also rose to 241.20 GW from 224.23 GW recorded in December 2024. The peak power demand had touched an all-time high of about 250 GW in May 2024. The previous all-time high peak power demand of 243.27 GW was recorded in September 2023. However, this summer (April onwards), the record peak power demand was 242.77 GW in June. According to government estimate, peak power demand was expected to touch 277 GW in the summer of 2025. Experts said as cold intensified in December, use of heating appliances like geysers and blowers increased. This increased the demand as well as consumption of electricity in various parts of the country, especially North. They said power consumpti

In an AI world, BPM industry embraces AI to rethink the BPO future

Explaining the rationale behind the acquisition, Capgemini chief executive officer Aiman Ezzat said the BPM industry remains one of the fastest-growing segments