1. At Infosys, It’s All-Out War as Vishal Sikka Resigns
At Infosys Ltd, the battle between the founders and the company’s board has just gone nuclear.
In an unprecedented attack, the board of Infosys on Friday blamed founder NR Narayana Murthy, who has often referred to Infosys as his “middle child”, for his “continuous assault and misguided campaign,” and said this was the primary reason behind the abrupt exit of chief executive officer (CEO) Vishal Sikka.
Murthy denied the allegation in a short, terse statement.
Source: Livemint
2. Sikka Made up His Mind a Week Ago, Murthy’s Letter Not the Trigger: Sources
Infosys was reluctant to let Vishal Sikka go and, fed up though he was with the allegations directed against him, repeatedly tried to dissuade him from quitting for about a week, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told ET.
Sikka was disturbed by the stream of accusations from founder NR Narayana Murthy and others, and had told the board about his intention to leave. "I have had enough," Sikka told ET after the news of his resignation broke.
Things were pretty bad for over 15 months. After February this year, it became really nasty. They were going on and on, over and over, again and again, over some nonsensical agenda.Vishal Sikka
Source: The Economic Times
3. RBI To Issue New Fluorescent Blue Rs 50 Notes
The Reserve Bank of India will soon introduce new fluorescent blue Rs 50 banknotes bearing the motif of 'Hampi with Chariot' that depicts India's cultural heritage.
RBI said it will shortly issue these Rs 50 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi (new) series.
“The new denomination has motif of Hampi with Chariot on the reverse, depicting the country’s cultural heritage. The base colour of the note is fluorescent blue,” RBI said in a release.
Source: Bloomberg Quint
4. Sensex, Nifty fall on Vishal Sikka, Trump, Barcelona
The BSE benchmark Sensex fell nearly 208 points and Infosys tanked over 7 percent in early trade after Vishal Sikka resigned as MD and CEO with immediate effect.
Besides, weak global cues on a deadly attack in Spain and rising concerns over the fate of US President Donald Trump’s economic agenda also influenced investors sentiment.
The markets also witnessed intense selling pressure in recent gainers.
Source: Livemint
5. Finance Ministry Clarifies No Disparity in Number of Taxpayers
The finance ministry on Friday clarified that the seemingly divergent figures of increase in the number of taxpayers post demonetisation quoted by prime minister Narendra Modi in his Independence day speech and that in the Economic Survey are not inconsistent as they refer to different set of taxpayers within different time periods.
Modi, in his address to the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort, had claimed that during 1 April to 5 August, the number of additional personal income tax return filers has more than doubled to 5.6 million from 2.2 million in the previous year. “This is because of our fight against black money,” he said.
Questions were raised about the veracity of the figure, as on 11 August, Economic Survey anchored by chief economic adviser in the finance ministry Arvind Subramanian had claimed that only 5.4 lakh new taxpayers were added post-demonetisation.
Source: Livemint
6. TRAI Gets Tough on Call Drops; Slaps Penalty of Upto Rs 10 Lakh
Telecom regulator TRAI issued stringent guidelines to curb call drops along with a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh on service providers if they fail to meet the benchmark for three consecutive quarters. “We have proposed financial disincentive in the range of Rs 1-5 lakh.
It is a graded penalty system depending on the performance of a network,” TRAI Chairman RS Sharma told reporters here.
TRAI Secretary (Acting) SK Gupta said if an operator fails to meet call drop benchmark in consecutive quarter, the penalty amount will be increased 1.5 times and in the third consecutive month it will doubled.
Source: The Financial Express
7. RBI Identifies 40 More Large Loan Defaulter Accounts for Clean-Up
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has identified 40 large defaulters as the next lot of firms where banks will push for an early resolution, a government official said on condition of anonymity.
Along with the 12 cases where bankruptcy proceedings have already started, these would account for 60-65 percent of the bad loans clogging the banking system, this person added.
An RBI spokesperson declined comment.
Source: Livemint
8. HDFC Standard Life Files Draft Prospectus For IPO
HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd, a subsidiary of mortgage lender HDFC Ltd, filed its draft red herring prospectus for an initial public offering with the market regulator.
The IPO will be an offer for sale for nearly 15 percent of the company’s share capital, or 29.9 crore equity shares at a face value of Rs 10 apiece.
Through the offer, HDFC plans to reduce its stake in the insurer by 9.6 percent by selling 19.1 crore shares. Its Mauritius-based joint venture partner, Standard Life Plc, will offload another 10.86 crore shares, reducing its stake by 5.4 percent.
Source: Bloomberg Quint
9. Centre Pledges its Full Support for Startup Inc
Key central ministers pledged the wholehearted support of the Narendra Modi administration for startups and announced measures to help entrepreneurs innovate in areas of national priority and overcome eligibility barriers in government contracts.
Under the new General Financial Rules, the government will give priority to products from startups in official procurement, said Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister for electronics & information technology and law & justice, at the ET Startups Awards 2017 on Friday.
Source: The Economic Times
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