City Ahmedabad Financial News

Sabarmati Express derailed between Kanpur and Bhimsen stations in Uttar Pradesh early Saturday morning. Fortunately, no injuries or fatalities have been reported. Seven trains have been cancelled, and three diverted due to the incident. Emergency services, including buses and a MEMU train, were arranged to transport passengers to Kanpur. This comes at a time when India is seeing an increasing number of train mishaps that have killed hundreds over the last one year. However in this case, no injuries or fatalities were reported so far. «No injury to any person has been reported as of now. We are trying to find details regarding the number of coaches derailed,» stated a Railway Board official.

Retailers and brands said there has been a 5-10% growth in sales during the Independence period sales this year as compared to last, driven by improvement in sentiments, premiumisation with a marginal recovery in volume or number of units sold for categories like smartphones and laptops, industry executives said. While consumers lapped up premium products in cities and large towns continuing the trend of the last three years, demand in rural areas continued to be muted this month. “Consumer sentiment appears to have improved a bit more than what it was for the rest of the year. We expect 5-10% growth in sales while volume wise there might be an improvement only in the grab and go categories like mobile phones and laptops,” said Nilesh Gupta, director at Vijay Sales, a leading consumer electronic retail chain in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Ahmedabad-Mumbai Double Decker Express got detached from the running train near Surat city in Gujarat on Thursday morning, officials said. The incident took place at around 8.50 am when the train (number 12932) reached Gothangam yard between Sayan and Surat railway station, a release by the Western Railway (WR) said. Nobody was injured in the incident and the affected coaches were later re-attached with the train, it said. Immediately after the incident, restoration work was launched and Up trains were operated through the loop line, the WR said on X.

Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) will hold outreach programmes in five key cities, introduce a new five-digit code for calls and tweak rules to expedite claim settlements, a senior official told ET. Other planned measures include a revamped interactive voice response system (IVRS) and a call centre. Securities, dividends and debentures that remain unclaimed for more than seven years are transferred by companies to the IEPFA under the corporate affairs ministry. The authority then oversees claim settlements, with the companies playing a key part in verification and other processes.

Banks will be closed across the country on August 15 in commemoration of the 78th Independence Day. This year, August 15 falls on a Thursday, so there won't be a long weekend that week.

Ministry of Education announced the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2024 on Monday. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras ranked first in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2024, becoming the top ranked institution for the sixth consecutive year. Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has been ranked as the best university. IIT-Madras is also the best-ranked engineering college in the country for the last nine years.

Moon River in denim pedal pushers and a terry cloth turban in the 1962 classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s, she sparked not only a fashion revolution—she helped ignite an economic phenomenon. By the 1980s, denim had become a symbol of youth and minimalist style. Read this | When street fighter Manu Chhabria laid siege to Shaw Wallace Lalbhai recognized the potential for India, a country with a rich textile history but hampered by outdated machinery and processes, to make a mark in the global denim market.

As per market trackers Counterpoint Research and IDC, four Chinese brands-Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo-are ranked in the top five for smartphones. The only one not from that country is South Korea's Samsung. Industry executives estimate this will translate into combined sales of almost Rs 90,000-95,000 crore. China's Xiaomi was examined by Indian government agencies over alleged foreign exchange violations in 2022, which coincided with a large proportion of its top leadership changing. The company ceded its No. 1 spot in the December quarter of 2022 to Samsung, eventually sliding to fourth. But by the June quarter this year, Xiaomi was back at the top on the back of an aggressive expansion in offline retail. Vivo is another Chinese company that has faced investigations over allegations of tax violations and money laundering.

Indian Racing Festival has announced a year-long partnership with FanCode to stream live motorsports events to fans across India. This partnership will feature the Indian Racing League and the FIA Formula 4 Indian Championship, starting with the IRL 2024 season opener at the Madras International Circuit on August 24. The festival, now in its third year, aims to bring high-speed racing action from eight city-based teams to viewers across the nation.The Indian Racing Festival will include teams from Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Kochi, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata, competing for the championship title. A notable addition to this year’s festival is a groundbreaking night race on a street circuit in Chennai, a first for Indian motorsport. Prominent figures in Indian sports and entertainment, including Sourav Ganguly, Arjun Kapoor, and John Abraham, are also involved in the festival. Sourav Ganguly, who recently became the owner of the Kolkata Royal Tigers Racing team, Arjun Kapoor, who owns the Speed Demons Delhi team, and John Abraham, who owns the Goa Aces by JA Racing, will all participate in the event.

interest rates have stayed steady since the end of 2023, showed Knight Frank India’s Affordability Index. Among key cities, Ahmedabad has emerged as the most affordable housing market with an Equated Monthly Instalment (EMI) to income ratio of 21% for an average household. Following closely are Pune and Kolkata, each with an EMI to income ratio of 24%. Mumbai was the only city that remained marginally higher than the threshold at 51%. “Stable affordability is essential to sustaining homebuyer demand and sales momentum, which, in turn, acts as a key economic driver for the country. As income levels rise and economic growth strengthens, end-users’ financial confidence is significantly bolstered, encouraging them to make longer-term financial commitments toward asset creation,” said Shishir Baijal, CMD, Knight Frank India.

Global crypto exchange behemoth Binance is reportedly facing goods and service tax (GST) issues in India, according to sources.

GST Intelligence (DGGI) has issued a show-cause notice to a prominent cryptocurrency exchange, demanding a Goods and Services Tax (GST) payment of Rs 722 crore, ToI reported on August 6. This unprecedented action marks the first time the DGGI has targeted a cryptocurrency firm, setting a significant precedent in India’s regulation of the burgeoning virtual currency market, said the report (by Niyati Parikh). The notice was issued for fees collected from Indian customers trading in virtual digital assets (VDAs) on the platform, categorized under online information database access or retrieval (OIDAR) services. Earlier this year, the cryptocurrency exchange had received approval from India's financial intelligence unit (FIU) to register as a virtual asset service provider (VASP). However, the company was recently penalized Rs 18 crore by the FIU for failing to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. Despite being a major global player with a substantial market share and operations in multiple countries, the company had not registered under the Indian GST framework, leading to scrutiny from Indian tax authorities. It was revealed that the company earned at least Rs 4,000 crore from transaction fees charged to Indian customers, with these earnings credited to an account of a group company based abroad. The company has a global user base of 90 million, including a significant number of Indian customers.

smaller cities, which hold the default advantage of lower operational costs and low attrition rates. Two recent reports – the Economic Survey and Infosys ESG – suggest that tech firms and global capability centres (GCCs) of multinationals are increasingly expanding their operations beyond metros, thanks to a newer base of talent available after their relocation during Covid. What is driving them to smaller cities is high availability of talent that migrated during pandemic and didn’t return to their work locations post pandemic plus cost benefit across operations, said Munira Loliwala, vice president for strategy and growth at TeamLease Digital.

BENGALURU : Goa’s appeal is now extending beyond holidaymakers and retirees. Real estate developers from across the country are gearing up to launch projects in the popular holiday destination, led by high demand from wealthy individuals and non-resident Indians. The launches lined up include luxury villas, apartments as well as plotted development projects.

McKinsey's managing partner in February 2024, Bob Sternfels faced the crucial decision of appointing a global leader of firm strategy to navigate the management consultancy through the pervasive impact of technology, the disruptive potential of AI and rapidly changing client demands. His selection for the role was Ashutosh Padhi, an IIT-Kanpur and IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus. “I chose Ashutosh Padhi, who led our North America business, to drive the innovation agenda that’s critical for the firm’s future. He is now in charge of ensuring we innovate our models rapidly,” Sternfels told ET a few days back.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said 97.92 per cent of the Rs 2000 denomination banknotes have returned to the banking system, and only Rs 7,409 crore worth of the withdrawn notes are still with the public. On May 19, 2023, the RBI announced the withdrawal of Rs 2000 denomination banknotes from circulation. The total value of Rs 2000 banknotes in circulation, which was Rs 3.56 lakh crore at the close of business on May 19, 2023, when the withdrawal was announced, has declined to Rs 7,409 crore at the close of business on July 31, 2024. «Thus, 97.92 per cent of the Rs 2000 banknotes in circulation as on May 19, 2023, has since been returned,» the central bank said in a statement.

India’s fast-expanding data centre industry is evolving beyond traditional hubs like Mumbai and Chennai, and expanding to emerging hotspots such as Kochi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Patna and Visakhapatnam as companies look to serve a growing but distributed user base across the country, executives from top companies said.

Anamudi Real Estates, a part of the Godrej family office, is likely to partially exit its share in Bengaluru-based real estate developer Sobha Ltd in a deal valued around Rs. 1,000 crore.

heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai. Runway operations at the Mumbai airport had to be halted twice as the visibility dropped to 300 meters, even as airlines issued advisories to passengers to arrive early at the airport in view of traffic congestion and water-logging in parts of the metropolis.

Railways has increased by 77 per cent over the past five years with significant investments in the construction of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling, the Economic Survey 2023-24 said on Monday. According to the survey tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the financial year 2019-2020, the capital expenditure was 1.48 lakh crore which was increased to ₹2.62 lakh crore in 2023-24.

Heavy rains pounded Mumbai and its suburbs on Sunday, disrupting flight operations and inundating roads in many parts of the city, officials said. Flight operations at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport were suspended twice for a brief period due to inclement weather and low visibility, a source said. At least 15 flights were diverted to the nearby airports, mainly Ahmedabad, till 4 pm. As intermittent heavy spells of rain hit the city, runway operations were suspended at 12.12 pm for eight minutes and from 1 pm to 1.15 pm, the source said.