1. Nexus Gives in, Snapdeal Ready to Merge with Flipkart
Three months, more than 15 meetings, and a payout of at least $210 million later, it’s a clear road now for Japanese telecom and internet giant SoftBank to merge its biggest Indian asset Snapdeal with leading e-commerce firm Flipkart.
The deal valuing Snapdeal at around $1 billion, a steep fall from its peak of $6.5 billion last year, signals the biggest consolidation in the sector and fierce competition between Jeff Bezos-led Amazon and the poster boy of Indian e-commerce, Flipkart. The transaction is through, sources in the know confirmed, and an announcement could come anytime within the next 72 hours.
(Source: Business Standard)
2. Infosys Defers Salary Hikes till July; No Job Cuts Planned
Infosys has delayed salary increases to at least July and even later for senior employees, India’s second-largest software services exporter said, even as it played down fears of job cuts and started taking steps to reduce operating costs.
For employees ranked JL5 (job level 5) and below – typically those with less than eight years of experience – the compensation review will be effective from July, chief operating officer UB Pravin Rao said in an email on Wednesday.
He added that the review for other employees would be rolled out in subsequent quarters and said no job cuts are planned. “I would like to put to rest any speculation around planned layoffs.”
(Source: The Economic Times)
3. SBI Denies Reports Of Rs 25 Transaction Charges On ATM Withdrawals
The largest lender State Bank of India will introduce new facility that would enable withdrawal of cash through ATMs using the bank's mobile wallet.
However, the bank will charge Rs 25 on every cash withdrawal from the mobile wallet via ATMs.
Meanwhile, the SBI has denied media reports that it has increased service charges to Rs 25 on regular ATM transactions. "The service charge on cash withdrawal from ATMs has not been changed for normal savings accounts," SBI MD (national banking) Rajnish Kumar told PTI.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
4. Government to Come out with E-Vehicle Policy This Fiscal: Piyush Goyal
The government will come out with a policy for promotion of electric vehicles this fiscal with an aim to make India a global leader in the segment, Union minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. “We will see a very robust policy (for promotion of electric vehicles) in this fiscal,” the power and coal minister, who is on a four-day visit to Vienna and London with a business delegation, told PTI in an interview.
“Niti Aayog has drawn up certain ideas but the project is being looked after by the Ministry of Heavy Industries. I am sure that we will have all discussions and come up with a robust policy because we want to encourage domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles,” Goyal said on the sidelines of the India-Austria Business Forum, jointly organised by Ficci and the Indian Embassy in Vienna and Austrian Economic Chambers.
(Source: Financial Express)
5. Demonetisation Effect: 9.1 Million New Taxpayers
The government added 9.1 million new taxpayers in 2016-17, an 80 percent increase over the typical yearly rise, highlighting the impact of India’s November demonetisation of high-value currencies.
This is expected to significantly boost the government’s tax revenue. India had only 55.9 million individual taxpayers at the end of 2015-16.
The Economic Times, citing two top government officials, reported on 3 May that the number of people who filed tax returns surged by 9.5 million.
(Source: Livemint)
6. Weekly Aadhaar Seeding Target for Lenders Set
The finance ministry has set weekly targets for lenders, including private and regional rural banks, for seeding Aadhaar and mobile numbers with savings bank accounts, after they missed the 31 March deadline. The deadline has been shifted to 30 June.
Depositors’ consent is required for seeding. As on 21 April, banks could seed 61 percent of accounts with Aadhaar and 73 percent with mobile numbers. Besides, banks were supposed to issue RuPay cards against Jan-Dhan accounts. As on 19 April, they could meet only 58 percent of the target. The deadline to issue RuPay cards has also been shifted to June-end. Zero balance accounts are excluded. Seeding of Jan-Dhan accounts with Aadhaar, too, has to be completed by the month-end. As on 19 April, banks could finish only 78 percent of this task.
(Source: Business Standard)
7. Home Sales in Top 8 Cities up 21% in January-March on Cheaper Home Loans, Push to Affordable Housing
Homebuyers may have felt the pinch of demonetisation aftereffects in January-March this year but that did not deter them from buying their dream home.
Conventional wisdom and anecdotal data may have suggested buyers holding back on home purchases in the first quarter, but data from top eight cities shows otherwise.
Primary residential sales across the country’s top eight cities increased 21 percent in January-March over the previous quarter, numbers from Liases Foras Real Estate Rating & Research, a well-known housing and real estate data agency shows.
(Source: The Economic Times)
8. Reliance Infrastructure Says It Has Won Rs 2,950-Crore Arbitral Award In Dispute With DMRC
Reliance Infrastructure Ltd said its subsidiary Delhi Metro Express Private Ltd has won a Rs 2,950-crore arbitral award against the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (DMRC), which will help the Anil Ambani-promoted company pare debt.
The arbitral tribunal held the company’s decision to terminate its concession agreement for the Delhi Airport Metro project four years ago as valid, it said in a media statement. A three-member tribunal bench, chosen from a DMRC-nominated panel, unanimously ruled in favour of Reliance Infrastructure, the statement added.
The award will allow Reliance Infrastructure to recover the Rs 1,050 crore it has invested in the airport metro line and repay lenders’ debt worth Rs 1,900 crore. Eight public sector banks will benefit from the decision as their outstanding debt from the metro project would be paid, the release said.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
9. Adani, Tata Power Trim Supplies to Gujarat as Tariff Ruling Skews Cost
The Supreme Court ruling setting aside a decision of the Central Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, effectively denying ‘compensatory tariff’ to Tata Power and Adani Power, has driven the producers to cut back power supply to Gujarat, citing financial unviability.
The two companies have suspended electricity supplies to Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL), the parent of discoms in Gujarat, saying higher imported fuel costs had skewed their financial viability. The companies have begun the phased lowering of supply at the peak of summer.
Gujarat Energy Minister Chimanbhai Sapariya confirmed to BusinessLine that Adani Power and Tata Power had discontinued 1,250 MW and about 500 MW supply, respectively. The Ruias-led Essar Power Gujarat Ltd (EPGL), too, has suspended supply owing to higher international coal prices following changes in Indonesian regulations.
(Source: The Hindu BusinessLine)
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