1.Maggi Clears All Tests, Production To Restart Within 2-3 Weeks: ET
Maggi, the popular instant noodle brand, is set to return to store shelves as Nestle said it cleared tests mandated by the Bombay High Court and that it will restart production of the snack within two-three weeks.
Nestle India announced a voluntary recall of the noodles on June 5, the same day national food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India banned its sale alleging excessive levels of lead in it and mislabeling on the pack. The recall, the country”s biggest and that grabbed international headlines, almost wiped out the entire instant noodles category and dented the sales of all packaged snacks, as wary consumers avoided them.
In August, the Bombay High Court lifted the ban, but asked the company to get the samples tested before it starts selling the product.
2. Infosys’ Outgoing CFO Rajiv Bansal Is Ola’s New Finance Head: ET
Taxi aggregator Ola has hired Infosys’ outgoing chief financial officer (CFO) Rajiv Bansal as its new finance head, a high-profile recruitment that reflects the scramble for topflight talent among India’s cashflush startups.
Bansal, whose exit from Infosys was announced earlier this week, will be joining the Bengaluru based startup from January 1, people aware of the development said.
“The offer letter has been accepted,” said a person directly acquainted with the matter. “This move is in line with our initiative of getting top talent from across industries to further strengthen the core Ola team,” said the person. Bhavish Aggarwal, the cofounder and CEO of Ola, declined to comment.
3.Aditya Birla Group Launches Online Fashion Portal: ET
Textiles-to-telecom conglomerate Aditya Birla Group on Friday entered pureplay e-commerce by launching fashion portal abof.com, which sells about 55 brands including those of the parent group.
Unlike other shopping portals, abof will not give discounts and will display a curated collection rather than a lot of options. “We were choosey about what we put on the portal,” group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said. “It is easier to give many options than make a selection and then give that as an offering.” Birla said the venture is a “journey into the unknown world”.
A private and unlisted company, Aditya Birla Online Fashion (abof) will mostly cater to those in the 18-25 age group.
4.FIIs Sold Rs 5,000 cr of PSU Stocks in Q2: BS
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equity shares worth nearly Rs 5,000 crore in public sector undertakings (PSUs), including banks, in the July–September quarter.
Shareholding pattern data filed by 47 PSUs with stock exchanges reveal FIIs offloaded a net Rs 4,886 crore in equities during the second quarter (Q2) of the financial year. They sold shares worth Rs 8,375 crore of 31 companies and bought shares amounting to Rs 3,489 crore.
The calculation is based on a company’s average market price in Q2, as the exact date of share transaction by these investors could not be ascertained. The S&P BSE Sensex had slipped six per cent during the quarter, its sharpest quarterly decline since December 2011.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, State Bank of India, GAIL, NTPC and Container Corporation of India were some of the frontline stocks sold. However, the FIIs bought equity shares of Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Bharat Electronics and Indian Oil Corporation.
5.Rohan Murty Donates $1 mn to Power Telescope Tech: BS
An innovation in adaptive optics systems, jointly done by California Institute of Technology and the Pune-based Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, is getting a donation from Rohan Murty, son of Infosys Technologies’ ex-chief, N R Narayana Murthy, and his family.
Robo-AO, said to be the world’s only fully robotic adaptive optics system, is reportedly 10 times more efficient that the adaptive optics system presently available in the world. It was earlier used with the 60-inch telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in North San Diego. The hallmark of the technology is that the robotic laser adaptive optics system is used to erase the atmosphere’s blurring effect while capturing data.
Now, the instrument, developed at Caltech, is moving to a new home, the 2.1-metre telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, owned by National Optical Astronomy Observatory, with $1 million (around Rs 6.5 crore) in donation from Murty and his family.
6.RIL Net Rises 12.5% to $1 bn on Record Refining Margin: IE
Aided by stronger margins in its core refining business, which touched a seven-year high, Reliance Industries Ltd has posted a better-than-expected 12.5 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 6,720 crore (over $1 billion) for the second quarter ended September 2015 as against Rs 5,972 crore in the same period of last year. However, the firm clocked a 33.8 per cent decline in turnover at Rs 75,117 crore as compared to Rs 1,13,396 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The decline in revenue was led by the 50.6 per cent year-on-year fall in benchmark (Brent) oil price. RIL’s gross refining margins (GRM) for the second quarter stood at seven year high of $10.6 per barrel as against $8.3 per barrel in the same period of last year. The company’s premium over Singapore complex margins widened to $4.3 per barrel during the quarter, the highest level since early 2009.
7.Get Rs 1 For Each Dropped Call, Max 3 Times A Day: IE
In a development that may gladden consumers but will come as a big hit for mobile operators, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday came out with its regulations mandating telcos to monetarily compensate their subscribers for call drops. The new rule, which will come into force from January 1, 2016, provides that mobile users will get a compensation of Rs 1 for every dropped call, for a maximum for three dropped calls in a day.
Effectively, this means that a maximum amount of Rs 3 will be credited into the consumers’ account in a day for call drops. The reaction to the announcement was as vertically split as was the consultative process, with operators pointing to loopholes and difficulties in implementation, while consumer organisations welcomed the move, saying something was better than nothing.
8.Ex-Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan Joins Kaar Technologies: FE
Former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of IT major Infosys Ltd, V Balakrishnan today joined Chennai-based digital consultancy firm Kaar Technologies as an Independent Director. A veteran in the information technology sector, Balakrishnan would also head Audit Committee of Kaar Technologies, its Chairman and CEO Maran Nagarajan said.
“We are happy to welcome Balakrishnan. He joined the Board today” Maran told reporters here. The company hopes to maintain the current CAGR of over 50 per cent and clock Rs 1,000 crore revenue by 2020, Maran said, adding that Balakrishnan’s rich experience from Infosys would be utilised for growth of Kaar Technologies in the digital space.
9.SpiceJet To Order ‘Significant’ Number of Aircraft This Fiscal: FE
SpiceJet is looking at placing an order for a “significant” number of aircraft this financial year and negotiations are on with manufacturers, the no-frills carrier’s chairman Ajay Singh said today. Without divulging details, he said the number of aircraft to be ordered will depend on the deal that it gets from the manufacturers. “We are negotiating with manufacturers. We hope that the order can be placed in this financial year… This will be for a significant number of aircraft. We still have to decide on the exact number and it would depend upon the deal that we get from the manufacturers,” Singh said.
The carrier is also exploring the possibility of buying smaller aircraft.
(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.)