Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Indian government takes the issue of defaulters very seriously and indicated that he may raise the issue of defaulters based in Britain with the UK government, in an apparent reference to liquor baron Vijay Mallya.
Jaitley told reporters at a press briefing:
(Source: PTI)
Reliance Industries shares surged again in the morning trade, extending stellar gains of the previous week, after revelation of plans to monetise its telecommunication business under Reliance Jio.
RIL soared as much as 6% to hit Rs 1,253.45, its highest in at least eight years, since May 18, 2009. It was the top gainer on NSE Nifty, alone contributing to about 37% of the index gains.
Its market cap topped Rs 4 lakh crore. It had earlier last week recaptured the second spot in the list of India’s most valuable companies, beating HDFC Bank.
(Source: Financial Express)
The third pay revision committee for central public sector enterprises has recommended minimum pay of Rs 30,000 per month for executives and a maximum of Rs 3.7 lakh for CMDs.
As per the recommendations, the minimum monthly salary of below board level executives will increase from Rs 12,600 to Rs 30,000.
The recommendations of the Justice Satish Chandra committee, which are to come into effect from 1 January 2017, will be placed before the Union Cabinet for approval.
(Source: PTI)
After food products, the Narendra Modi-led central government is considering the demands made by foreign retailers to allow no-food items under the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy.
Confirming the government’s consideration on the demand, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal stated that the central government might also allow the sale of other products like those for home care, manufactured by foreign retailers in the country.
Badal told PTI:
Last year, the government had allowed 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in marketing of food products which are produced and manufactured in India.
(Source: Financial Express)
Adani Group plans to expand its share in the ship-fuelling market by leveraging the ports it has on India’s east and west coast.
The idea is to use its ports to fuel the ships passing through the country, taking away business from ports at Fujairah, Dubai and Singapore, and expanding the 1 million tonne (mt) Indian bunkering market valued at Rs 4,000 crore to 3.5 mt by 2020. Bunker or ship fuel accounts for the majority of a ship’s operating costs.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), India’s biggest private port operator has a cargo handling capacity of 151.51mt.
(Source: Livemint)
Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of global telecom body GSMA, called on global carriers to pool spectrum in entities that could be run by third-party network operators, a radical proposal that could help drive down costs in the financially stressed sector.
Mittal, also the chairman of India’s largest telco Bharti Airtel, delivered the keynote address at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Mittal also appealed to the governments across the world to not milk the sector but incentivise its growth to ensure that the unconnected billions can be served.
(Source: Economic Times)
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Monday unveiled a new catering policy that holds Indian Railways’ catering unit responsible for a range of services and directs it to submit a business plan within a specified time frame, prescribing a penalty in case it fails to meet the deadline.
As per the policy, food will be prepared in state-of-the-art kitchens under IRCTC and distributed through service providers from the hospitality industry.
(Source: Livemint)
Despite the government’s efforts to attract investment under its Make-in-India campaign, sales of manufactured goods fell 3.7 percent during 2015-16 – the first decline in seven years – sparking fears of layoffs and debt default in the months to come.
As a result, in the six months to September 2016, engineering major Larsen & Toubro Ltd. laid off some 14,000 employees. Companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Nokia were also reported to have cut back on their workforce in 2016 – albeit on a smaller scale – blaming sluggish demand for downsizing.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
The Life Insurance Corporation of India, the country’s largest insurer, is working on a significant makeover that will include an overhaul of its lending operations, stronger corporate governance framework and a more modern sales force equipped to receive digital payments. A senior government official told ET that the insurer will soon appoint a banker to oversee its lending operations.
A standard operating procedure has also been worked out for repayment through one-time settlement scheme, or OTS.
At the end of March 2016, LIC had a debt portfolio of Rs 3.79 lakh crore, bigger than the loan portfolios of most banks. Its gross non performing assets stood at 3.76 percent at the end of March 2016, up from 3.30 percent a year earlier.
(Source: Economic Times)
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