India Financial News

Could Sebi’s curbs for investment advisers choke financial planning in India? A developed nation is one where land, labour, capital, entrepreneurship and technology are liberated from the mindset of an under-developed, frontier, or developing economy. India has a golden chance to achieve this, but Sebi’s role in market development, capital development and investor protection will be crucial. Developed countries are easier to do business in, and have lower fees for financial services.

Indian Railways is gearing up to introduce the Vande Bharat Metro in Gujarat, marking a significant milestone in the nation's public transportation. This metro service, which is the first of its kind in India, will operate between Vadodara and Ahmedabad, with trial runs set to begin in the near future. JK Jayant, Chief Spokesperson of Western Railway, confirmed that the trials are scheduled to commence within the coming days, focusing on enhancing connectivity and efficiency, especially following recent upgrades to the railway route between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

Bangladesh's deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 86 others on charge of attacking a procession in Sylhet citywhich left several people shot and injured during the recent mass protests on August 4, taking the number of cases against her after her ouster to 33. Juber Ahmed, acting president of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal's Sylhet city unit, filed the case with the court of Sylhet Metropolitan Magistrate Suman Bhuiya. Hasina's sister Sheikh Rehana is also an accused in the case. According to the case statement, the accused attacked a peaceful rally, brought out by Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its associate organisations in Sylhet City's Bandarbazar area on August 4, which left several shot and injured, The Daily Star newspaper said.

Arranged Marriage, he said in an interview that he had always thought that Punjabi was India’s first language, until he landed in India and found out otherwise. Now, something opposite happened to me when I landed at the Heathrow Airport in London in July, knowing fully well that English was the first language of the people living in the United Kingdom. But the only language I could hear around me at Heathrow was Hindustani—the lingua franca of the people of North India and Pakistan.

Ashapura Minechem Ltd.(up 3.78%), Oriental Trimex Ltd.(up 1.80%), Coal India Ltd.(up 1.45%), Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Ltd.(up 1.06%), 20 Microns Ltd.(up 0.89%) and KIOCL Ltd.(up 0.82%) stood among the top gainers.

Ola Electric launched its much-awaited bikes: the Roadster, Roadster X, and Roadster Pro. Ola has priced these bikes at a competitive starting price of Rs 74,999, a price level that places it as a strong rival to many city-ride bikes from major 2-wheeler makers in India including Hero Moto. The Roadster, which comes in three variants, is priced at Rs 1,04,999, Rs 1,19,999, and Rs 1,39,999 per unit. The Roadster Pro, which has two battery variants, is priced at Rs 1,99,999 and Rs 2,49,999 per unit. The Roadster X, with three different battery variants, is priced at Rs 74,999, Rs 84,999, and Rs 99,999 per unit. Of the three, the Ola Roadster is the one to watch out for.

Lounge, Rawal and Bajaj talk about the creative alliance, the idea behind it and why fashion designers entering the space of luxury living is a good idea. Edited excerpts: Kunal Rawal: Boheim's commitment to bringing old-world charm in the 21st century, their dedication to showcasing Indian craftsmanship, and ability to infuse a sense of quirkiness into their projects, resonated with our own approach to bespoke artistry. When we design a collection, we focus on telling a story that is rich in detail, and that respects the brilliance behind every stitch.

Also read: KYC Maze: Investors, distributors face updating hurdles with NDML & DotEx KRAs In the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) KYC norms through the Master Directive in 2016 and subsequent updates, banks were mandated to ensure: that any new bank account applicant is who they say they are (proof of identity); they live where they say they live (proof of address); banks had to also conduct a physical verification for the documents (OSV, or Original Seen and Verified and CPV, or Contact Point Verification) The reason for this type of verification is to ensure that no fraudster enters the system, specifically, the government was worried about terrorism and money laundering. Along the way, RBI introduced anti-money laundering checks to enhance security. The new fraudsters found that they could use minimum KYC compliance norms using stolen IDs to open ‘burner’ accounts or mule accounts.

₹10,000 segment with the introduction of the Moto G45 5G. Although the phone's official price starts at ₹10,999 in India, it is available at an effective price of ₹9,999 owing to launch offers, aligning it with the prices of two other recently launched 5G phones: the Vivo T3 Lite and the Realme C63.

Orient Green Power Company Ltd.(up 10.01%), India Power Corporation Ltd.(up 6.97%), CESC Ltd.(up 6.14%), GE Power India Ltd.(up 5.00%), Reliance Power Ltd.(up 5.00%), Ravindra Energy Ltd.(up 5.00%), Indo Tech Transformers Ltd.(up 5.00%), RattanIndia Power Ltd.(up 4.97%), Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd.(up 3.76%) and Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd.(up 2.99%) stood among the top gainers.

Read this | Tata, Vedanta, other business groups join the market upswing The analysis is based on data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), which classifies stocks based on guidelines from the Securities and Exchange Board of India issued in 2017. The latest categorization is derived from the average market capitalization of listed companies during the six months ended 30 June 2024.

GE Power India Ltd (GPIL) on Wednesday said its Managing Director Prashant Jain has resigned. The board has appointed Puneet Bhatla as Additional Director and Managing Director from September 1, 2024, to June 30, 2027 subject to the approval of members, the company said in an exchange filing. «The board in its meeting held today...accepted resignation of Prashant Jain from the position of Managing Director with effect from close of business hours of 31 August 2024,» it added.

Indian retail industry ranks fourth globally and accounts for more than 10% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP). Rising disposable incomes, rapid urbanisation, technological advancements, increased brand awareness, and improved shopping experience are significant growth drivers of the retail industry. Within this fast-paced industry, two players have captured the nation's attention with consistent growth in revenue and profits.

Recently, writing in the Economic Survey, the chief economic advisor observed that it is worth exploring whether India’s inflation targeting regime should focus on non-food inflation. The reasoning was that monetary policy is more effective in counteracting price pressures that arise out of excess aggregate demand, whereas food inflation is usually on account of supply constraints. In contrast, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor recently spoke after the monetary policy meeting and observed that food inflation is a major factor in determining inflationary expectations and therefore continues to be a matter of concern.

Tata Motors on Wednesday said it has tied up with Delta Electronics India and Thunderplus Solutions to set up charging infrastructure for its range of electric commercial vehicles (CVs). As part of the MoU inked between the parties, 250 new fast-charging stations for electric commercial vehicles would be set up across the country. Strategically located in and around over 50 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Kochi, among others, these new charging stations will significantly increase the existing network of 540 commercial vehicle charging points, Tata Motors said in a statement. Basis its understanding of the commercial EV movement, the commercial vehicle major will recommend optimal locations and nearest dealerships for setting up the fast-charging stations, the company said.

Forcas Studio issue, which opened for bidding on August 19, was subscribed 182 times on Wednesday so far, the final day of the bidding process. This was led by strong demand from retail and non-institutional investors. As of 12:45 pm, the retail investor category booked strong demand, bidding for 43.15 crore shares by 2.67 lakh applicants. The non-institutional investor (NII) category witnessed a bid for 15.21 crore shares, while the qualified institutional buyers had bid for 2.83 crore shares.

kirana stores. After e-commerce, now quick commerce is eating into India's large kirana sector which comprises nearly 12 million stores, selling groceries and personal care and other items. People are starting to shift some of their grocery shopping from local stores to quick commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Instamart, Zepto and BB Now, which are often able to offer products 10%-15% cheaper than local stores. When time is money, especially in urban areas, people are willing to pay a little more to save on it. When quick commerce gained shape in India during the Covid pandemic, a large section of the industry had written it off. Their argument was that Indian consumers were not going to pay convenience fees, no matter what. Some even insisted that consumers would happily wait for a few hours or even a day, if that meant they would get their orders delivered free. Today, one after the other, leading FMCG companies in their 2023-24 earnings report state that quick commerce is now not just their fastest growing channel, it is what is driving their e-commerce business growth itself, ET has reported.

MK Surana, Former CMD, HPCL, says crude below $80 and the cracks at $13 for HSD and $11 for MS, make OMCs well placed on overall setup. Also, many of these OMCs are going on a new path. OMCs are in a stage where there is a growth potential with a surety of the existing cash. Of course, the overhangs on the pricing part continue to be there, the possibility or not possibility of some interventions. Pure EV play may take some more time and the hybrid may be more common in the near future to come and that augurs well for the OMCs. How do you see the outlook for oil marketing companies? On the one hand, Brent is continuously under check, under $80 now and on the other hand, these OMCs are transforming beyond just being distributors of traditional fuel as well. MK Surana: The stage looks good as of today because the crude is below the psychological mark of $80. The global demand weakness as per many of the agencies who forecast is getting moderated from all the three agencies who have been doing IEA, EIA, or OPEC. The Indian demand is good on the overall while the global demand is lower. People have started recognising the weaknesses in China's demand growing in the current phase.

Ola Electric successfully met the minimum localisation criteria of 50% as mandated by the Ministry of Heavy Industries. The company stands to receive incentives ranging from 13% to 18% of the determined sales value of compliant products for up to five consecutive financial years starting from Fiscal 2024. With this Ola Electric has become the only EV maker to get PLI compliance certification for four products: S1 Air, S1 Pro, and S1 X models in both 3 kWh and 4 kWh versions. The S1 Air received PLI certification earlier at the Auto PLI Conclave held in January 2024. Following this announcement, shares of Ola Electric rose by 4.4% to INR 143.8 in Wednesday trading on the BSE.

Motorola, launched the Moto g45 5G in India on August 21. The budget smartphone, featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 chipset and a 5,000mAh battery, is priced at Rs 9,999, including all offers. It will be available for purchase on the company's official website, Flipkart, and select retail stores starting August 28. The Moto g45 5G is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 chipset and supports 13 5G bands. Operating on Android 14-based HelloUI, the device features a 5,000mAh battery and sports a 6.5-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The smartphone supports Dolby Atmos surround sound and Hi-Res audio. For photography, the Moto g45 5G features a dual-camera setup on the back, with a 50-megapixel primary sensor and a 2MP depth-sensing sensor. On the front, it has a 16MP camera sensor.

Avalara, a cloud-based tax compliance solutions provider, plans to onboard about 1,000 new employees in the next nine months across engineering, tax, content, sales support and professional services functions. The move is part of its efforts to establish India as a centre of technical excellence and its planned expansion in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a company statement. “Despite India’s competitive employment market, the US-based solutions provider remains committed to enhancing capabilities in tax technology, legislation, e-invoicing, and global tax compliance by investing significantly in the country's technological talent,” the company said.