India Financial News

BEL), RailTel, Samvardhana Motherson International, and 13 other companies are expected to be in focus today as they have set August 14 as the record date for determining shareholders eligible for dividend payments. This means today is the last day to buy shares of these companies to qualify for the announced dividends.

Bandhan Bank, Biocon, Birlasoft, Granules India, Hindustan Copper, India Cements, Indiamart Intermesh, LIC Housing Finance, Manappuram Finance, Punjab National Bank (PNB), RBL Bank, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Sun TV Network. Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers and Chemicals (GNFC) has moved out of the ban.

Foreign investors pulled out a record amount of money from China in the last quarter. Direct investment liabilities in its balance-of-payments dropped almost $15 billion in April-June, Bloomberg reported, citing data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Tata Motors Ltd, while Tata Steel Ltd’s acquisition of Corus has become a burden for its Indian parent. Bharti comes a full circle with the acquisition of BT shares, Mittal said, as the British group had held a 21% stake in Bharti Airtel between 1997 and 2001, and now the Bharti group has become the single largest shareholder in the entity.

Mint on 12 July, K. Krithivasan, CEO of India’s largest IT services company, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), said that delivering differentiations to clients is key, instead of riding a hype cycle. However, the road to adoption is still hazy.

₹5,200, a jump of 23% from a year earlier. Similarly, a Bengaluru-Kochi ticket now costs around ₹3,500, a 46% spike from a year ago. While air traffic slowed in July on account of monsoon, travel picked up in August.

At present, there are 1,504 air monitoring stations in 543 cities across the country. The government has entrusted the job of updating NAAQS to IIT Kanpur, which has set up a panel comprising experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other institutions. “Work on the new NAAQS is ongoing.

Buy or sell stocks for today: Domestic benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty 50 ended Monday's session with little change, reflecting mixed global cues. Despite an earlier dip, both indices recovered by the afternoon, buoyed by positive trends in international markets and fresh inflows of foreign capital.

Mint looks at the new approach and the significance of the 3% target set by law. Governments need to live within their means. But with the ability to print money and borrow at will, they often spend more than what they earn, causing fiscal deficit.

Mint had reported that Shell Plc was looking to sell a stake in the operational assets of Sprng Energy group, and engaged Ambit Group for a valuation exercise. Last June, Shell unveiled a “balanced energy transition" strategy under chief executive Wael Sawan, focusing on maintaining its leadership in the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market while “stabilizing liquids production to 2030." In an emailed response, a Shell Group spokesperson stated, “We don’t have any further comments beyond what we have earlier stated." “As stated at Capital Markets Day in June 2023, we are working to grow our renewables portfolio as part of an integrated power business in the key market of India.

equity mutual funds in the past three months thanks to a slew of product launches. The strong appetite has helped thematic and sector funds emerge as the largest category in terms of money managed among equity mutual funds, raising concerns that investors might be chasing the latest fads in the market. Over the last three months, thematic and sectoral funds attracted about ₹60,000 crore, out of the ₹1.12 lakh crore flows into equity mutual fund schemes. This is now the biggest equity mutual fund category, ahead of flexi-cap, with assets of ₹4.21 lakh crore, according to Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI). The mutual fund industry managed equity money to the tune of ₹28.5 crore as on July 31. Most of the flows into thematic and sector funds are lump sum investments into new fund offers (NFOs), said mutual fund distributors.

Russia are exploring the idea of a dynamic reference rate to start a rupee-rouble market, along with allowing greater deployment of the rupee balance that has accumulated in course of trade between the two countries since outbreak of the Ukraine war. A reference or exchange rate is aimed at overcoming the dollar trade barriers raised by US sanctions imposed on Russia in February 2022. These, along with putting in place a payment confirmation mechanism, are expected to figure during a meeting of senior central bank officials and bankers in Moscow this week, two industry persons told ET. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently took feedback from banks and financial institutions dealing with Russian funds registered in India.

India's July retail inflation slowed to 3.54%, its lowest in nearly five years, on the back of a sharp decline in food inflation, data released Monday showed. Economists struck a note of caution, pointing out that the drop was largely due to the base effect of high inflation last year and that it could head back up in the coming months. Retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in July 2023 was 7.44% while that in June this year printed at 5.08%. Food inflation eased to a 13-month low of 5.42% in July from 9.36% in June, taking overall inflation below RBI target rate of 4% for the first time since September 2019.

life insurance industry in India registered growth in July, with the total annualised premium equivalent (APE) increasing by 16.9% year-on-year. This growth was primarily driven by the private sector, which saw an impressive 18% rise in APE. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country's largest insurer, recorded a more moderate increase of around 13.5%. APE is the sum of annualised first-year premium on regular premium policies and 10% of single premium policies written in a fiscal year.

Consumer goods companies such as Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Dabur, and Godrej Consumer Products (GCP) are amping up their influencer marketing strategies to boost customer engagement, brand loyalty, and awareness, underscoring the growing role of influencers in purchasing decisions of consumers. In their FY24 annual reports, these companies highlighted the rising role of influencers in the overall marketing mix as consumers are spending more time on short-form snackable content on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. This scenario has led companies to engage with macro, micro, and nano influencers for driving brand visibility. A recent EY report predicted that India's influencer marketing industry will reach ₹3,375 crore by 2026, from ₹2,344 crore in 2024, largely due to the growing use of social media influencers for sales and brand engagement.

Citigroup is taking a significant step to pare down its wealth management division with a plan to sell off its trust administration and fiduciary services business.

IIT Madras leading the list of best institutes in the country, aside from engineering schools, while the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has led the university rankings, followed by JNU and Jamia Milia Islamia University. IIM A again leads management rankings, while Hindu college leads college rankings, followed by Miranda House and St Stephens college. 10,885 higher education institutions participated in the NIRF 2024, and the research showed that the top 100 institutes conduct most Indian R&D. DETAILS: The IITs have eight of the top ten rankings. The only non-IITs in the top ten are AIIMS (ranked seventh) and JNU (10th). AIIMS leads the medical school rankings, while National Law School in Bangalore tops the law school list. Anna University is at the top of the state public university rankings.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had in February asked telcos to ensure a calling name presentation (CNAP) service on mobile phones, a move aimed at combating spam and scam calls. But senior executives of mobile phone operators and handset companies said the proposed service is almost impossible to implement nationally as it won't work on 2G/3G networks unless huge sums are spent on network upgrades. And that is economically unviable, given the low revenue generation from 2G users.

independent directors and aspirants to headhunters to make it easier for companies to hire such key personnel to their boards, Ajay Bhushan Prasad Pandey, chairman of National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), the country's audit regulator, told ET. On August 2, Pandey huddled with top executives of 17 major executive search firms, including Korn Ferry, Egon Zehnder, ABC Consultants, Kestria, Pedersen & Partners, DHR Global, Boyden, Sheffield Haworth and KPMG. «We received a very enthusiastic response from them,» he said. «They were also asked to suggest ways to further bolster the data bank and its applicability.» Pandey also heads state-run Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), with which all independent directors and those aspiring to take on such roles are mandated to register.

BSA, the iconic British motorcycle brand, will debut in India on August 15 with the Gold Star model, amplifying choices for enthusiasts while intensifying competition in the growing market for middleweight motorcycles. Mahindra & Mahindra-owned Classic Legends has been producing the 652cc motorcycle Gold Star at its plant in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh for about two years but solely for exports to developed markets so far. Incorporated in the UK, BSA Motorcycle is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Classic Legends. Anupam Thareja, one of the three cofounders of Classic Legends-the others being Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra, and Boman Irani-that owns BSA along with other legendary motorcycle brands like Jawa and Yezdi-said the Gold Star was first launched in the UK and Europe. Since its relaunch in 2021, BSA is currently available in 23 countries including Europe and the UK.