City New Delhi Financial News

MUMBAI, NEW DELHI : India’s top three IT companies have seen more than 25,000 net employee exits in the six months to September, driven by cost-saving measures, unfilled job openings, and hiring curbs. Companies and recruiters expect the labour market to remain weak for at least a couple of quarters, pending a rebound in deal flow and immediate needs that would require renewed recruitment. “Cost optimization is taking place either through vacancies that remain unfilled or some amount of natural attrition.

NEW DELHI : The board of Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Ltd, the country’s largest carmaker, will meet on 17 October to consider issuing preferential shares to parent Suzuki Motor Corp. to acquire its entire stake in Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG), the Indian carmaker told exchanges on Thursday. SMG, a contract manufacturer for Maruti Suzuki since 2014, has an annual production capacity of close to 750,000 units.

NEW DELHI : The full-year budget, to be presented in Parliament after the national elections, will likely focus on expenditure reforms and encourage businesses and individuals to shift to the new simplified and exemption-less tax regime, said Bibek Debroy, the chairperson of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC-PM). In an interview, Debroy said by the time the full-year budget is presented, the terms of the Sixteenth Finance Commission to decide on the sharing of the Centre’s divisible pool of taxes with states for the five years from 2026-27 will come out, indicating overall expenditure reforms needed at central and state levels. India’s economy is expected to grow in the range of 6.5-7% in the medium term, Debroy said.

NEW DELHI : Brazilian agriculture and livestock minister Carlos Favaro is expected to meet Indian consumer affairs, food and public distribution minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi during a 1-3 November visit. Favaro’s visit comes as countries eye open, unimpeded and reliable food supply chains amid pressures to ensure that agricultural trade is not affected by unilateral restrictions and protectionist measures.

NEW DELHI : India’s economy received a dual boost as retail inflation cooled in September, retreating within the central bank’s comfort zone. Simultaneously, factory output surged into double-digit growth territory in August, scaling a 14-month high, indicating an upswing in economic momentum. Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased for the second consecutive month in September to 5.02%, aided by a slower rise in vegetable prices, official data showed on Thursday.

New Delhi: India said the Global Hunger Index suffers from “serious methodological issues" after the 2023 edition saw the country slip four places to rank 111 out of 125 countries. India ranked 107 out of 121 countries in 2022. This year, the GHI ranked Pakistan at 102, Bangladesh at 81, Nepal at 69 and Sri Lanka at 60.

NEW DELHI : Coal stocks continued to shrink with power demand across the country hitting a peak of well above the 200 GW mark this week. Thermal power plants across the country have coal stocks to last just 7.5 days, showed data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). Analysts said the decline in stocks comes on the back of a number factors, including rising demand, supply constraints and logistical issues.

NEW DELHI : Qualcomm intends to build its China model in India where it will support the local semiconductor ecosystem by licensing technologies to local companies and startups, and bring volumes for production at semi conductor fabrication units that are expected to come up in the country in the long run, Qualcomm’s newly-appointed India president Savi Soin said in an interaction with Mint. “Our CEO has said that if fabs or Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Testing (OSATs) come to India, we are going to bring business here. Any conversation we’re having with partners or government is that we bring tech and volumes.

NEW DELHI : Infosys Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd on Thursday said their 2023-24 revenue growth will be weaker than their earlier forecasts as their large foreign clients tighten purse strings amid economic uncertainties. With India’s largest tech services company, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, already witnessing a revenue decline in the second quarter, this portends a depressing year for at least three of India’s Big Five tech companies. Infosys, India’s second-largest technology services provider, on Thursday slashed its growth guidance for a second straight time and now expects it at 1-2.5% in constant currency terms in 2023-24.

NEW DELHI : A united front of mothers combatting the menace of vaping addiction among Indian youth has written to women parliamentarians, including Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani, flagging the easy accessibility of vaping devices and urging them to join their cause. In their letter, the 'Mothers Against Vaping' highlighted that despite the ban on e-cigarettes and vaping devices, their use among children and youth has surged to alarming proportions.

By Aftab Ahmed

Shivakumar on Thursday claimed that more than 40 BJP and JD(S) leaders opposed to the recently struck alliance between the two parties are willing to join the Congress. Shivakumar spoke to reporters after former BJP MLA Ramappa Lamani, who was denied a ticket by the saffron party to contest the May assembly elections from Shirahatti segment joined the grand old party. Lamani said he was joining the Congress without any condition.

India's festival season, e-commerce companies like Amazon and Walmart owned Flipkart are looking forward to a potentially record breaking few weeks. Any lingering fears that inflation and higher interest rates would dampen consumers' spirit in Asia's third largest economy, are being rapidly dispelled. RedSeer, a Bangalore-based consultancy, which monitors over 100 platforms covering 90% of online sales, predicts virtual shoppers will spend a record $11 billion during the month to mid-November — which would be nearly 20% more than last year. Amazon India has made its «best-ever start» to the peak period in the shopping calendar, according to vice president Manish Tiwary, reporting a record 95 million customer visits in the first two days of its 'Great Indian Festival 2023' campaign. Over at Flipkart, sales of electronic products, lifestyle garments and furniture were seven to ten times higher than in the pre-festival period, said vice president Arief Mohamad. Both retailers have hired over 200,000 temporary workers to meet the rush and added over 300,000 new sellers, according to company officials. «I don't have time even for lunch as there are so many packets to be delivered,» said Ajay Singh, a delivery boy at a Flipkart delivery centre in a busy market in New Delhi. Singh says he's working more than 12 hours a day and expects to double his earnings over the next few weeks. CHANGING WAYS Citing a report by market research Neilson, Amazon officials said over 80% of urban consumers were expected to shop online during this festival season, and half of buyers were willing to spend more compared to last year. A shift in consumer behaviour and increased penetration of smartphones has fuelled the rise in online

NEW DELHI : As countries move toward ambitious net zero goals, a leading international non-profit supporting clean energy is likely to launch a global consortium on battery energy storage systems (BESS) at the coming UN climate change conference, to be held in the UAE. Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet , formed in 2021 by the Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund among others, plans to float the Global BESS Consortium at the UN Cop28 meeting, which will held from 30 November to 12 December. Ashvin Dayal, senior vice president, power and climate at Rockefeller said the consortium will look at ways to both drive down the cost and unlock the value proposition for power distribution companies in terms of adoption of battery storage.

NEW DELHI : Japan’s premier international cooperation and development agency, JICA, is interested in partnering with India in infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Pacific, said JICA India chief Saito Mitsunori. He also pointed to JICA’s plans with the newly announced Bay of Bengal Northeast Corridor, which aims to build infrastructure in India and Bangladesh and construct a new industrial value chain.

NEW DELHI : The Gujarat administration has kept communication channels open with Tesla Inc. to support the US company’s plans in India, Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel said in an email interview. The chief minister said the state has set the goal of raising its contribution to the nation’s economic output from a little over 8% now to 10% by 2026-27, by which time it hopes to become a $500 billion economy.

New Delhi: Aditya Birla Group’s flagship, Grasim Industries Ltd, announced that it will be holding a board meeting on Monday to consider a proposal to raise funds. “A meeting of the Board of Directors of Grasim Industries Limited is scheduled to be held on Monday, 16 October 2023," it said in an exchange filing on Wednesday. “To consider the proposal for raising of the fund by way of equity shares or other securities through a rights issue, qualified institutions placement, preferential issue or any other method as may be permitted under the applicable law, subject to such regulatory/statutory approvals as may be required." This comes at a time when the Kumar Mangalam Birla-led textile manufacturer is set to launch its paint vertical, with a project cost of ₹10,000 crore before the end of the current financial year.

MANALI, NEW DELHI : Himachal Pradesh wants the Centre to implement the market intervention scheme (MIS) for procuring ‘C’ grade apple crops hit by rain and floods, a central government official said. Apple, the state’s dominant fruit crop, is cultivated from low-lying (300 feet) to hilly (10,000) areas including the cold deserts of Kinnaur and Lahual-Spiti.

NEW DELHI : Systematic investment plans (SIPs) into mutual funds hit an all-time high in September, crossing the ₹16,000-crore mark for the first time while inflows into small and midcap funds moderated amid sky-high valuations in some stocks. Net inflows into equity mutual funds dipped by 30% while debt fund outflows hit an 18 month high of ₹1.01 trillion, mutual fund body AMFI said Wednesday. SIPs stood at ₹16,042 crore in September, up from ₹15,814 crore a month ago.

ICC World Cup 2023: Team India skipper Rohit Sharma surpassed the records of legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev with a century against Afghanistan. With this 100, Rohit Sharma has completed 7 centuries in the ICC World Cup which puts him at the top of the list.

Gupta rejoined ICANN on October 3 as Vice President, government and intergovernmental organisation (IGO) engagement for the APAC region and Stakeholder Engagement South Asia. The organisation said Gupta will primarily oversee ICANN's engagement and participation in IGO and multilateral forums in the region, including meetings and initiatives of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and engaging with regional governments on the United Nations Global Digital Compact and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 process.