1. Rs 900 Million Cosmos Bank Fraud: NPCI Says Its Systems 'Fully Secure'
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Wednesday, 15 August, said its systems are "fully secure" and the cyber fraud of more than Rs 900 million at Pune-based Cosmos Bank happened due to a malware-based attack on the lender's IT system.
Hackers managed to siphon off over Rs 900 million through a malware attack on the server of the bank and cloning thousands of debit cards, Cosmos Bank chairman Milind Kale had said.
The fraudulent transactions were carried out on 11 August and 13 August and the malware attack by the hackers originated in Canada, he said.
In a release, NPCI said one of its network members has confirmed about a malware-based attack on their system which has caused a fraud loss of over Rs 900 million.
"NPCI wish to reiterate that our systems are fully secure and this particular issue has occurred within the banks’ own IT environment," it said.
(Source: Business Standard)
2. Note-Ban, GST Hit Household Savings Rate, Decline May Pose Challenge for Economy
If the steep decline in the household savings rate – which has fallen to 16.3 percent from 23.6 percent between fiscals 2012 and 2017 – continues, it may pose a serious challenge to overall growth and the macroeconomic stability, warns a report.
The decline was primarily due to the shocks from note-ban and GST implementation, said a report by India Ratings.
“The twin policy shock of demonetisation and GST although had economy-wide ramification, it was more pronounced in the case of the household sector. The household savings rates plummeted 153 bps in FY17, while (that) for private corporations fell only 12 bps while savings rate for the public sector increased 37 bps. But the overall impact was a 128 bps decline in the savings rate,” India Ratings chief economist D K Pant said in the report.
(Source: Financial Express)
3. Comfortable Forex Reserves to Deal with Undue Rupee Volatility: Jaitley
A day after the rupee plunged below the historic 70-level, Union Minister Arun Jaitley said India has comfortable foreign exchange reserves to deal with any undue volatility in the currency market and developments are being closely monitored.
The Indian currency, on 14 August, crashed to a life-time low of 70.09 on concerns over Turkey's economic woes that have impacted various emerging markets, even as the US dollar gained strength against other currencies.
Recent developments relating to Turkey have generated global risk aversion towards emerging market currencies and the strengthening of the dollar, the minister said in a series of tweet.
However, the country's macro fundamentals remain resilient and strong, said Jaitley, who was holding the charge of finance and corporate affairs ministries before he underwent the kidney transplant on 14 May.
(Source: PTI)
4. Reliance Jiophone 2 Flash Sale, Gigafiber Registration Announced
Mukesh Ambani-owned telecommunication service provider Reliance Jio has announced that it will host a flash sale of the JioPhone 2 on 16 August at the Jio online portal.
The company also announced that the first iteration of the JioPhone would get Facebook, YouTube and Google Maps apps as part of an update on 15 August, and WhatsApp would also be available for download sometime soon.
The company has also started taking registrations for Jio GigaFiber, a fibre-to-the-home broadband service with a promised speed of up to 1Gbps.
The JioPhone 2 is a second iteration of Reliance Jio’s 4G LTE-enable feature phones. Successor of the JioPhone, the JioPhone 2 features 2.4-inch horizontal screen and full QWERTY keyboard layout.
The phone boots KaiOS, which now supports instant messaging and social media apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook, along with YouTube and Google Maps apps.
(Source: Business Standard)
5. Investors Pump ₹10,585 Crore into Equity Mutual Funds in July
Investors pumped a staggering ₹10,585 crore in equity mutual funds in July, mainly driven by strong corporate earnings and near normal monsoon.
With this, total inflow has reached to over ₹43,300 crore in equities during the current financial year (April-July), according to the data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).
Strong inflow pushed the asset base of equity mutual funds by more than 10 percent to ₹8.3 lakh crore by July-end from ₹7.5 lakh crore at end-March.
According to AMFI data, equity and equity-linked saving schemes saw an inflow of ₹12,409 crore in April, ₹12,070 crore in May, ₹8,237 crore in June and ₹10,585 crore in July. “Strong earnings season and near normal monsoon have buoyed the sentiments in near term,” the data said.
(Source: Livemint)
6. FIIs Flee as Jet Struggles With Debt, Q1 Financials
Foreign institutional investors (FII) sharply reduced their holding in Jet Airways Ltd during the April-June quarter, even as India’s largest full-service carrier struggled to repay debt and deferred its earnings announcement.
Between the end of the March quarter and the June quarter, foreign institutions cut their stake in Jet from 5.23 percent to 3.81 percent, a decline of 27.15 percent, according to the latest shareholding pattern available. At the same time, FIIs raised their holding in low-fare airline Indigo, run by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd.
Mint could not ascertain the reason behind the sell-off in Jet nor identify the investors who sold their stake, as none of them hold more than 1 percent equity.
The FII action mirrors a broader trend of overseas investors trimming their stakes in high-profile companies, which have wrestled with issues ranging from corporate governance to leadership instability.
(Source: Livemint)
7. Draft Policy Expects E-Comm Platforms, Search Engines to Store Data Locally
A draft e-commerce policy wants online retailers such as Amazon.com, search engines like Google and social media platforms to locally store data generated by users in India, with the government having access to such data for national security and public policy objective.
According to the 19-page draft policy, "a level playing field needs to be provided to domestic players by ensuring that foreign websites involved in e-commerce transactions from India also follow the same rules, including procedures for payment systems, such as two-factor authentication, as in case of domestic companies."
The draft policy recommends strengthening regulatory vigilance for payments system, curbing discounts in online retail and a single legislation to encompass all aspects of e-commerce with a single regulator to govern the industry.
(Source: Business Standard)
8. Reliance Shuts Unit In Jamnagar Refinery For Two Weeks
Reliance Industries Ltd reported in an exchange filing on Wednesday, 15 August, the shutdown of a unit at its petroleum refinery complex operating at the Jamnagar Special Economic Zone in Gujarat.
The company said that one of the fluid catalytic cracking units at the refinery, which can process over 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day, will restart after two weeks, though it didn’t specify any reason. The rest of the refinery, the filing said, will function normally and won’t affect overall operations.
News agency Reuters reported that Reliance Industries has declared force majeure on gasoline exports from the refinery complex, citing four people familiar with the matter. Two of the people cited pointed to an unspecified issue at a gasoline-producing fluid catalytic cracking unit in the refinery.
A force majeure is typically declared when an extraordinary phenomenon disrupts a company’s ability to fulfill its obligations.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
9. Bringing Jet Fuel Under GST Seen Aiding Airlines
Airlines in India will be greatly relieved if jet fuel is brought under the goods and services tax (GST), industry experts said on Wednesday, 15 August, as they backed the civil aviation ministry’s proposal to the federal indirect tax body, the GST Council.
High fuel costs is a key factor in the worsening financial health of carriers, exacerbated by a weaker rupee. Fuel comprises about two-fifth of the cost of running an airline in India.
“It is expected that the GST rate will be moderate on jet fuel and since fuel is a major input, the benefit of input tax credit will be available to airlines,” said R. Muralidharan, senior director at Deloitte India.
Attempts to bring jet fuel under GST however faces an uphill challenge as state governments are reluctant to accept the proposal as it will result in moderation of taxes and loss of revenue.
(Source: Livemint)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)