1. Govt To Spend Additional Rs 66,113 Crore In 2017-18
The government will spend an additional Rs 66,113 crore in the ongoing financial year, according to the second batch of Supplementary Demand for Grants tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Lok Sabha on Monday.
Of the additional gross expenditure sought, net cash outgo will be Rs 33,380 crore. The remaining Rs 32,372 crore will be matched by the government through savings of various ministries or departments, the document said.
The government has sought Rs 20,530 crore for three state-run fertiliser companies — Fertilizer Corporation of India, Hindustan Fertilizer Ltd and Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Ltd — for writing off loans and interest payments. It also requested Parliament to spend another Rs 4,800 crore on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
About Rs 960 crore is being sought for user charges to Goods and Services Tax Network and Rs 1,581 crore for meeting additional expenditure for Pay and Allowances of Air Force, said the document.
(Read the full story on BloombergQuint)
2. India's Trade Deficit With China Stands at $37 Bn in Apr-Oct
India's trade deficit with China stood at USD 36.73 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal (April-October) compared to USD 51.11 billion in the financial year 2016-17, Parliament was informed today.
The bilateral trade between India and China stood at USD 50.19 billion during the April-October period, as against USD 71.45 billion in the entire 2016-17, according to the provisional data for April-October placed in the Lok Sabha by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry CR Chaudhary.
"Increasing trade deficit with China can be attributed primarily to the fact that Chinese exports to India rely strongly on manufactured items to meet the demand of fast expanding sectors like telecom and power, while India's exports to China are characterised by primary and intermediate products," Chaudhary said.
According to official data, Chinese FDI in India, though growing, has been insignificant compared to its total investment overseas. China presently ranks 17th in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into India. The cumulative inflows from China since April 2000 to September 2017 stood at USD 1.73 billion.
(Source: PTI)
3. India's Software Market to Touch $5.1 Bn by 2018: IDC
India's software market is expected to grow at 11.9 per cent year-on-year to touch USD 5.1 billion by the end of 2018, research firm IDC said. The Indian software market continues to be one of the fastest growing and dynamic markets within the APeJ (Asia Pacific excluding Japan) region, IDC said in a report.
"Digital transformation initiatives and the drive for application modernisation have led the growth story for the software market over the last 12 months, and are expected to attract sustained investments by Indian enterprises in 2018 as well," it added.
According to IDC, applications contributed to the bulk of the spending with a 57.3 per cent share in the first half of 2017.
This was followed by Application Development and Deployment and System Infrastructure (SI) software with shares of 24 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively, in the said time period.
(Source: PTI)
4. I-T Notices To Be Sent To High Net-Worth Bitcoin Traders
Widening its probe into bitcoin investments and trade, the income tax department is set to issue notices to four to five lakh high net-worth individuals across the country who were trading on the exchanges of this unregulated virtual currency.
The taxman had conducted surveys at nine such exchanges last week to check instances of tax evasion. The department found that of the estimated 20 lakh entities registered on these exchanges, about 4 to 5 lakh were “operational” and indulging in transactions and investments.
Sources said that the Bengaluru investigation wing of the tax department, which supervised last week’s operations, has now dispatched the information of individuals and entities found on these databases to eight other such wings across the country for a detailed probe.
(Read full story on BloombergQuint)
5. Skill Ministry, Maruti Suzuki Sign Pact to Train Youth
The skill development ministry and Maruti Suzuki on Monday signed an agreement to impart training to youth and enhance their employment potential.
As part of the agreement with the Directorate General of Training (DGT) which comes under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Maruti Suzuki will ensure that not less than 80 percent of trainees are placed with Maruti Suzuki or its business partners.
"The automobile manufacturer will also ensure eligible trainees take up apprenticeship or higher education in suitable streams and shall also guide the students to become entrepreneurs," an official statement said.
As on 15 December 2017, over 1,680 students have enrolled for the course and this figure is expected to go up to 2,400 by FY 2018-19
(Source: PTI)
6. Axis Closes Rs 11,626 Cr Fund Raising, Its Largest-Ever
Private sector lender Axis Bank on Monday completed largest fund infusion in the domestic banking sector through the private equity route, totaling Rs 11,626 crore, of which private equity major Bain Capital and a clutch of affiliated entities pumped in a whopping Rs 6,854 crore.
The deal also saw Life Insurance Corporation, its principal promoter, pumping in Rs 1,583 crore into the third largest private sector lender. While the bank raised Rs 9,063 crore through issuance of equity, it mopped up Rs 2,563 crore by issuing warrants to these investors.
With this, total issued and paid-up share capital of the bank has increased to Rs 512 crore, aggregating to 256.38 crore shares, from Rs 479 crore or 239.85 crore shares, the bank said in a regulatory filing late Monday evening.
(Source: PTI)
7. Airtel To Return Rs 190 Crore Subsidy To Original Accounts
Within days of getting a rap on its knuckles, Bharti Airtel on Monday offered to return Rs 190 crore subsidy that had flown into the ‘unsolicited’ payments bank accounts of its 31 lakh mobile phone subscribers
Airtel wrote to the National Payments Corporation of India on Monday promising to return Rs 190 crore (along with interest) to the consumers’ original bank accounts that were linked to the Direct Benefit Transfer, the sources familiar with the development.
NPCI is an umbrella organisation for all retail payments in India.
Both Airtel and Airtel Payments bank came under fire after Airtel allegedly opened accounts of its mobile phone subscribers without seeking their “informed consent”, and LPG subsidy worth crores was being deposited to these accounts.
(Read full story on BloombergQuint)
8. Sales From Online Channel to Decline Further: Xiaomi
Chinese smartphone major Xiaomi on Monday said sales from the mainstay online channel will further decline to about 70 percent going ahead, as it boosts offline presence in India.
Nearly 80 percent of the company's sales still come from the online route, but the share has come down from about 95 percent in less than a year. The share of online sales will reduce to 70 percent in the near future, Xiaomi India head, Online Sales, Raghu Reddy said.
Xiaomi has turned aggressive in the offline space in the last one year, having presence in 15 cities with over 1,000 sales points mostly through franchisees.There are a total of 14 exclusive company-owned stores.
The smartphone maker will enter more cities after consolidating its position in the existing ones, he said. Reddy added that the company has a market share of 50.8 per cent in online smartphone sales in the Q3 period of 2017.
(Source: PTI)
9. Dish TV to Take 'Further Steps' for Merger With Videocon
Dish TV India on Monday said it will take further steps towards its merger with Videocon d2h, following the approval from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The company will be taking further steps for effecting the said merger and accordingly, the companies involved in the scheme will be file the relevant intimations/E-Forms with the Registrar of Companies, the corporate affairs ministry and other regulatory forums on or about 27 December, which will be the effective date for the Scheme, Dish TV India said in a regulatory filing.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, vide its communication dated 15 December 2017, had accorded the necessary approval for the Scheme of Arrangement for Amalgamation of Videocon D2H Limited into and with Dish TV India Limited.
This paves way for the creation of the largest listed media company in India, taking into consideration the last reported revenue and EBITDA numbers of the two DTH players on a proforma basis, Dish TV India had said earlier.
(Source: PTI)
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