1. Maruti, Trade Unions Agree on Wage Hike
The country’s largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India has successfully reached a wage agreement with workers at its Gurgaon and Manesar plants, under which employees will get an average salary hike of around Rs 16,800 per month spread over the next three years.
Further, since the settlement was reached peacefully without any hostility, managing director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa has also promised to pay Rs 3,000 each to the workers as a one-time incentive.
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2. Hasten Economic Reforms in India: US CEOs to Modi
Top American chief executive officers (CEOs) have sought “additional steps” to hasten economic reforms in India, following which Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised faster decision-making.
“Please continue to do more of what you are doing, maybe slightly faster,” 42 CEOs of American companies, with a collective net worth of $4.5 trillion, told the PM.
Among the 42 business heads present at the meeting were Lockheed Martin Chairman and CEO Marillyn Hewson, Ford President and CEO Mark Fields, IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty, PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi and Dow Chemical Chairman Andrew Liveris.
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3. India is the Most Diverse Equity Market Globally
For a prospective global investor, India offers the widest choice of stocks, with more companies listed on its bourses than anywhere else in the world. There are 4,528 companies listed and available for trading on the BSE. By comparison, the two major stock exchanges in the US – the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq – offer 3,689 companies for trade, while the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has 2,689 listed firms.
After India, Japan offers the widest choice, followed by the US and the UK.
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4. Airbnb, Uber, Flipkart Fuel Back-office Boom in India
India’s back-office service providers are seeing a boom due to the disruption caused by global app-based aggregators such as Uber and Airbnb and e-commerce firms such as Flipkart and Snapdeal.
These technology start-ups now have multi-billion dollar valuations on the back of massive funding by venture capital firms globally.
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5. A Perennial Deficit: Unlike Petroleum, India’s Edible Oil Imports are Showing No Cooling Signs
Last Friday, the Centre hiked the basic customs duty on all refined edible oils from 15 to 20 per cent, and on crude oils from 7.5 to 12.5 per cent. The increased tariffs come even as the country’s import of edible oils in 2014-15 (November-October) is slated to cross 140 lakh tonnes (lt), worth over Rs 66,000 crore or $10 billion.
Also, what is remarkable is how much imports have risen – from hardly 44 lt in 2003-04 to a projected 140 lt in the current oil year (based on arrivals till August).
Until 2007-08, India’s edible oil production exceeded its imports, whereas today the latter is double that of the former.
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6. State-run Oil and Gas Companies to Give Priority to Vendors Meeting Local Content Norm
State-run oil and gas companies will give preference to suppliers meeting the minimum local content criteria under a new guideline being prepared by the government to give a boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
The Narendra Modi government is using demand from state-run companies as a lever to spur domestic manufacturing under its ‘Make in India’ plan, which it hopes will generate jobs and bolster economic growth.
The oil ministry had set up a committee and involved consultants to explore how domestic and foreign manufacturers could be incentivised to locally produce industrial goods used in the oil industry.
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7. Government’s Holding in IDBI Bank to be Reduced to 49 Per Cent
The government has firmed up plans to bring down its holding in IDBI Bank to 49 per cent, marking a big bang start to its commitment to reform state-run banks. The department of financial services in the finance ministry is working on the details of the proposal that could be considered shortly.
Like most other state-run banks, IDBI Bank, too, is saddled with non-performing assets, or NPAs.
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8. Reliance to Lose Gas Margin Edge
The government has decided to extend the policy of capping marketing margins for natural gas supplied to urea and LPG units to all firms in the business. Currently, marketing margin of state-run GAIL is fixed by the government whereas the private-sector Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure (RGTIL) has the freedom to determine the margin.
The petroleum ministry’s move, based on Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) recommendations, could have implications for RGTIL which operates the East-West Pipeline (EWPL) between Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh and Bharuch in Gujarat, but since the current volume of gas taken through the 1,375-km pipeline is very low, the immediate impact would be marginal.
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9. Government to Disburse Rs 1.22 Lakh Crore Loan Under MUDRA Scheme by March
The government has set a target of disbursing Rs 1.22 lakh crore loans by banks to micro and marginal businesses under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) by March, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.
Since the launch of the scheme by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April this year, loans of Rs 24,000 crore have been disbursed to about 37 lakh small entrepreneurs, he said.
Read more here.
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