Awards Financial News

Consumer Price Index (CPI) decline by up to 6.5 percentage points in rural areas and 3.4 percentage points in urban areas, going by the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23, experts said. A government panel is looking into changes to the CPI basket and base year revision of the inflation series. The CPI was last revised in 2011-12 as the HCES held in 2017-18 was junked due to inaccuracies.

Life Insurance Corporation of India is in discussions to acquire as much as half the stake in ManipalCigna Health Insurance, as the country's largest insurer seeks an entry into the fast-growing, yet underserved, market for medical expenses coverage, people familiar with the matter said. ManipalCigna is a joint venture between Manipal Education & Medical Group and US-based Cigna Corporation.

ZF Group on Wednesday divested a 4.32 per cent stake in its Indian subsidiary ZF Commercial Vehicles Control System (CVCS) India for Rs 1,022 crore, according to exchange data. According to the bulk deal data on the NSE, WABCO Asia Pvt Ltd, promoter and forming part of ZF Group sold a 4.3 per cent stake or 8.2 lakh shares of the company. The shares were offloaded at an average price of Rs 12,465.19 apiece, taking the transaction value to Rs 1,022.14 crore. Meanwhile, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund acquired 1.60 lakh shares of ZF CVCS India at an average price of Rs 12,400 per piece, taking the deal value to Rs 199.24 crore. Wabco Asia's holding in ZF CVCS India has come down to 63.17 per cent from 67.49 per cent.

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is working on an ambitious plan to refarm more than 1100 MHZ spectrum from various ministries and departments and reallocating it to telecom operators for 5G and 6G services, a move that could garner over ₹5 lakh crore for the exchequer, officials told ET. DoT has identified spectrum across 10 bands which will be freed in the coming few years and put up for auction for telecom operators. «DoT has shared the proposal for consideration to the committee of secretaries (CoS) and clarity will emerge in a few months about how much spectrum can be freed for mobility use,» said an official privy to the details. Spectrum across bands including mid-band and some portion of 6 GHz is currently being utilised by the ministries of space, defence, information and broadcasting, railways and housing and urban affairs.

Moody's Ratings said Wednesday. The agency expects power demand here to rise by 5-6% annually during this period. The utilisation rate for coal-based power capacity is likely to be high at 65-70% despite additions. Although Asia Pacific power markets are undergoing carbon transition, current thermal generation, including coal, oil and gas, remains the key supplier of power, and this trend will continue for at least the next three years to support increasing power demand in the region, it said.

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has sent a notice to Akasa Air for failing to impart corrective training to a pilot who was responsible for a hard landing, according to people aware of the development. A hard landing occurs when an aircraft lands at a velocity beyond the manufacturer's permitted limit. DGCA rules mandate that after investigation is completed in such landings, the pilot should be sent for corrective actions like additional training in simulators. Sources cited above said that an Akasa Air flight from Bagdogra to Bengaluru was involved in a hard landing incident in March.

electric vehicles and not just those planning to adopt eco-friendly modes of personal transportation, a senior company executive said. The Mumbai-based automaker on Tuesday made its first full-fledged foray into India's nascent EV market with the introduction of two pure electric models. These are the first two «born electric» models based on the company's latest INGLO vehicle architecture. M&M plans to launch three to five more models based on the same vehicle architecture over the next few years. «We're not targeting EV buyers, but lifestyle buyers. If we target EV buyers, we won't get anywhere. Our target is to convert ICE (internal combustion engine) to lifestyle EVs,» Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director, auto and farm equipment sector, Mahindra & Mahindra, told ET. He said the first thing M&M would want a potential customer to have is the desire to drive its EVs.

NLC India Ltd, ACC Ltd and JSW Energy Utkal Ltd are among eight companies that emerged the highest bidders for coal blocks in the tenth round of commercial mining auction. The coal ministry launched the auction of commercial coal mines in June, while forward e-auctions for nine mines began November 21. In the forward auctions, the nine mines-three fully explored mines and six partially explored-were successfully auctioned. These nine mines have a combined geological reserve of around four billion tonnes and a cumulative peak rated capacity (PRC) of 14.10 million tonnes per year, excluding partially explored coal mines. NLC bid the highest for the New Patrapara South block in Odisha, having geological reserves of 720.9 million tonnes. ACC was the highest bidder for Sarai East (South) in Madhya Pradesh. JSW Energy Utkal was the highest bidder for Odisha's Bartap mine, which has the highest reserves among all blocks at 1.6 billion tonnes. The mines are expected to generate annual revenues of ₹1,446 crore.

mall developers plan to shrink multiplex spaces in their future projects as cinemas no longer attract big crowds and generate enough revenues throughout the year. Multiplexes used to generate 10% of the footfall of a mall, which has reduced to 6-7%, forcing the developers to rethink the strategy, industry executives said. «With alternate forms of entertainment, we are looking for rationalising cinema space in the mall,» said Sriram Khattar, vice chairman and managing director, rental business, at DLF.

Nitin Gadkari stated. The Indian automobile industry's market size is approximately Rs22 lakh crore. China leads with Rs47 lakh crore, followed by the US at Rs78 lakh crore. Speaking at the 'Times Green Drive Conclave and Awards 2024,' the minister highlighted India's potential and growth. India is currently the fastest-growing major economy in the world.

Airlines received 994 hoax bomb threats this year till November 13 and robust protocols are in place to handle such threats, the government has said. To deal with the menace of hoax calls in a comprehensive manner, the civil aviation ministry plans to amend the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, 1982, and Aircraft (Security) Rules, 2023. A total of 1,143 hoax bomb threat messages/calls were received from August 2022 till November 13, 2024, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Muralidhar Mohol informed Rajya Sabha on November 25.

Financial Action Task Force's recommendations to tackle money laundering and terror financing, a central government official said on Wednesday. India is among the few countries that are working on FATF recommendations to regulate the fintech industry, said Vivek Agrawal, additional secretary (department of revenue), ministry of finance, during the ongoing 41st plenary meeting of the Eurasian Group in Indore. FATF leads global action to tackle money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also issued separate guidelines to regulate payment aggregators and payment gateways, he said.

e-Daakhil portal' — an inexpensive, speedy and hassle-free mechanism for filing consumer complaints — has been rolled out successfully in all states and union territories. The government is also working for launch of e-Jagriti, which will further streamline case filing, tracking, and management, ensuring a hassle-free experience for consumers and other stakeholders, it said. In a statement, the consumer affairs ministry said with the recent launch of e-Daakhil portal in Ladakh, the online platform is now accessible to consumers pan-India.

Goldman Sachs expects gold prices to jump to $3150 per troy ounce, an increase of 19 per cent from the current level, if concerns over US fiscal sustainability grow. The yellow metal acts as a good hedge against inflation and rising geopolitical tension. Gold was trading at $2647 per troy ounce on Tuesday in the international market and at Rs 76,470per 10 gm in the domestic market. Rising fears of inflation and fiscal risks could drive speculative positioning and ETF flows higher, while US debt sustainability concerns may push central banks, especially those holding large US Treasury reserves, to buy more gold. A Goldman Sachs report on commodity outlook for 2025 released today says that the unusually wide range of potential US policy shifts in 2025 strengthens the diversifying role of commodities in portfolios. In particular, long positions in gold and oil positions can act as critical inflation and geopolitical hedges in tail scenarios, including tariff escalation, geopolitical oil supply disruptions, and debt fears.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) will be the main beneficiary of the bank guarantees (BG) waiver cleared by the Cabinet, and the move will hasten the telco’s pending Rs 25,000 crore debt raise, analysts said. Earlier this month, Vi’s CEO Akshaya Moondra had said that the telco’s lenders wanted clarity from the government on any potential relief on the company’s substantial AGR (adjusted gross revenue) dues as well as prospects of a waiver of BGs before lending. “Vi is the biggest beneficiary of the reported BG waiver. One impediment to the debt raise is now behind,” Axis Capital said in a research note seen by ET.

But there could be exceptions to this under the new Telecommunications Act to serve public interest, or to perform government function or where auction of spectrum is not the preferred mode of assignment due to technical or economic reasons, minister of state for communications Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar said Wednesday in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. Towards this, the telecom department has sent a reference to the telecom regulator for recommendations on the terms and conditions of spectrum assignment, including spectrum pricing, for licensees who want to provide satcom services, while factoring in a level playing field with terrestrial access services, the minister said.

Ashwini Vaishnaw has flagged land acquisition delays in Kerala, which are affecting the development of railway projects in the state. According to Vaishnaw's letter to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, just 64 hectares (Ha) of land could be acquired by the state against a requirement of 470 Ha. This is despite the centre making a payment of over Rs 2,100 crore to the state for land acquisition needed to complete crucial rail projects. According to Vaishnaw, railway infrastructure projects worth Rs 12,350 crore are progressing in Kerala. «The highest ever budget outlay of Rs 3,011 crore has been allotted for the financial year 2024-25. However, most of the railway projects in Kerala are not progressing due to the non-availability of requisite land,» his letter said, adding that the Indian Railways has initiated efforts for the acquisition of land for most of the sanctioned railway projects but could not succeed.

“They have huge domestic requirements and for that they want to set up manufacturing facilities here. They want to get these supplies from India,” ToI's report (by Dipak K Dash) said quoting a railway ministry official. TMH CEO Kirill Lipa elaborated on the plan at the company's Moscow headquarters. “The current interest rate in India is very different from other countries. So, we are interested and ready to invest in India. We are interested in developing several facilities in India, which are capable of providing certain components and we think some of them can be supplied to the Russian market as well.”

Edelweiss Financial Services has made an exit worth Rs 175 crore from a mixed-use township project of real estate developer Paradigm Realty that has repaid the debt two quarters ahead of schedule. The early repayment was achieved through robust sales collections and refinancing at an interest rate of under 13% per annum, marking the beginning of the second phase of development for the township, the developer said in a release. The debt was initially raised two years ago to fund the residential phase of 102 Downtown, a project spread over 10 acres in Oshiwara, a locality in Mumbai’s Andheri west suburb. The project, developed jointly with listed developer Prozone Realty.

COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan at the weekend as a sort of diplomatic echo of the US election result three weeks earlier. In the US, progressives found themselves blocked by a surprisingly strong coalition of both traditional Republicans, and a faction of working class and non-White supporters whom they’d regarded, perhaps naively, as their natural allies. At the United Nations climate conference in Baku, rich nations found that efforts to reduce their own emissions and fund climate programs elsewhere in the world bought them little favor with developing countries most at risk of global warming. Both situations are powerful examples of aspirational politics. Since the 19th century, conservatives have marketed themselves to the electorate by arguing that their policies were the best way to achieve the wealth and independence sought by working-class voters.

Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) on Tuesday said there was no new financial commitment under discussion with TotalEnergies. In a press statement, AGEL said, «We wish to clarify that there is no new financial commitment under discussion with TotalEnergies,» adding that it will not have any material impact on the company's operations or its growth plan. The comments come a day after French energy major Total Energies said it will not make any new financial contribution as part of its investments in the Adani group of companies until the accusations against the Adani Group individuals and their consequences were clarified. Adani Green Energy's scrip ended at ₹899.40, down 7.05% on BSE Tuesday. Adani Total Gas ended 3.50% lower at ₹579.70.