South Korea’s Kia MotorsKia Motors may put in as much as Rs 10,000 crore in one of the biggest foreign direct investment projects in India, with the Hyundai Motor unit selecting Andhra Pradesh for its maiden facility after a two-year, four-state search in Asia’s third-largest car market.
Kia’s choice of Andhra Pradesh – amid intensifying interstate rivalry to draw investments as part of the Make-in-India initiative – helps reinforce N Chandrababu Naidu’s credentials as a business-friendly chief minister.
Kia’s decision on the plant comes amid India’s growing stature as a manufacturing hub, with several overseas companies responding to the federal government’s Make-in-India initiative.
(Source: Economic Time)
The country’s domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumption is expected to grow by nearly 10 per cent in 2017-18, over the last fiscal.
“We estimate the country’s total LPG consumption to be at 23.5 million tonne for fiscal 2018,” a top official in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas told BusinessLine.
There is a gestation period of three months for new connections. The refill percentage is expected to grow as households get used to the cooking fuel, he added.
(Source: BusinessLine)
A $1 billion buyout of struggling online marketplace Snapdeal by Flipkart may yield more immediate benefits to Tiger Global Management, Flipkart’s largest investor, than to the buyer or to Indian consumers.
The buyout is being arranged by Tiger Global managing director Lee Fixel and SoftBank Group Corp., which count Flipkart and Snapdeal as their largest holdings, respectively. The deal may see SoftBank buy some of Tiger’s holdings in Flipkart and put additional cash into the company, said two people familiar with the matter.
(Source: Livemint)
After having opted for multiple rates under the upcoming goods and services tax (GST) regime, India is now looking to keep variations in rates on the same types of products at a minimum to ensure that the tax structure does not get any more complicated.
For example, all types of footwear or mobile phones could attract the same rate.
Globally, most regimes have a single rate. India has adopted a four-tier tax structure of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. The rate applicable on most products will be 18%.
(Source: Economic Times)
Heineken, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Carlsberg are collectively introducing about a dozen new beer brands in India to slake the thirst of its summer-singed consumers.
For the world’s top three brewers, which together control about 90 per cent of India’s beer market, new products could be the recipe for fending off an unhealthy cocktail of sales bans, shrinking store networks, and stagnant demand in a warm, tropical country with promising demographics and increasing affluence.
(Source: Economic Times)
With Madhya Pradesh chief minister talking of closing down liquor shops “in a phased manner”, the state is set to join the ranks of Kerala, Bihar and Tamil Nadu that imposed prohibition from 2014 onwards, after political leaders found it resonated strongly with women voters, particularly in lower-income groups where domestic violence was seen to be associated with alcoholism.
In the case of Madhya Pradesh, the state raised over Rs 7,900 crore in excise duty collections in FY16 with another Rs 31 crore coming in as licence fees for selling foreign liquor and 5,760 crore coming in from auction of country and foreign liquor outlets.
(Source: Financial Express)
Mutual funds seem to have taken a shine to the stocks of State Bank of India and ICICI Bank in the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2017.
Mutual funds upped their stake in SBI from 7.88 per cent in the third quarter ended December 31, 2016 to 8.42 per cent in the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2017.
In the case of ICICI Bank, MFs increased their shareholding from 16.83 per cent in the third quarter to 20.04 per cent in the fourth quarter.
(Source: Business Line)
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India find it difficult to meet the demands of consumers due to limited access to sophisticated technologies such as Big Data analysis and machine learning.
This is exactly where a handful of tech start-ups are looking to chip in, with technologies tailor-made to solve the pain-points of SMEs.
One such start-up is Jhakaas Technologies, which runs a mobile app to fulfil day-to-day needs of consumers such as grocery shopping, restaurant hunting, on-call cakes, vegetable shopping, accessing wine shops, ordering medicines and cab booking. To provide these services, Jhakaas partners with local merchants or small businesses.
(Source: Financial Express)
Kinetic’s 50 cc Luna model, which became synonymous with the moped category in the 1980s, has long faded into oblivion. But mopeds, as a category, continue to be popular, years after the Chal Meri Luna TV advertising campaign was last aired.
The humble moped continues to provide affordable mobility to thousands of people, especially in semi-urban and rural India. In current times, TVS Motor Co. Ltd’s TVS XL model has assumed the leadership mantle in the category. It’s commonly referred to as “Bikki”, “Luna” and “Heavy weight” in parts of Uttar Pradesh—one of the biggest markets for the low-cost, low-speed two-wheelers
In the year ended 31 March, moped sales zoomed 23% to 890,367 units from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam).
(Source: Livemint)
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