Aware Financial News

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange that was banned by the government in January, is poised to return to India by paying a penalty of about $2 million, people aware of the developments told ET. The crypto exchange will come back as an entity registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the finance ministry, they added. FIU is tasked with oversight of trade in virtual digital assets (VDA). Binance will comply with all applicable laws, including the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as well as the VDA taxation framework, “which it had been sloppily flouting until now”, said one person cited above.

Jerry Seinfeld’s upcoming Netflix comedy will be featured during this weekend's IndyCar race at Long Beach as rookie Linus Lundqvist will drive a car painted to look like a Pop-Tart in recognition of the movie “Unfrosted.”

Reserve Bank of India's guidelines regarding the composition of board-level information technology strategy committees (ITSCs), said people aware of the development. Banks are increasingly finding it difficult to ensure inclusion of nominee directors with requisite IT expertise and want professional IT consultants advising these committees to be considered towards compliance, they said.

Reliance Industries' fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company clocked ₹3,000 crore sales in FY24, its first full year of operations, with beverage brand Campa Cola alone contributing ₹400 crore, said a senior industry executive aware of the plans. To put in perspective Reliance Consumer Products' (RCPL) performance, Emami with five decades of operations reported ₹3,400 crore sales in FY23, while oral care market leader Colgate-Palmolive (India) posted revenue of ₹5,226 crore the same year which marked its eighth decade of operations. Listed FMCG companies are still to declare financial results for FY24. RCPL formally began operations on November 30, 2022. RCPL, housing brands such as Campa Cola and Independence, aims to continue the sales growth momentum propelled by staples and beverages.

NEW DELHI : The World Bank plans to provide a $1 billion line of credit to the State Bank of India (SBI) to support the expansion of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and electric mobility in the country, two people aware of the development said, a move that helps India quicken its green energy transition. The proposal aims to help attract early investments and mobilize private capital and commercial financing. The amount will be disbursed in tranches.

Businesses and wealthy Canadians will be paying higher taxes but Canada’s largest banks and pension managers were most likely breathing a sigh of relief when they read Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s latest federal budget, which lays out next steps for competitive “open” banking and persuading pensions to invest more of their billions at home.

initial public offering (IPO) up to $750 million, three people aware of the development said. The company, which competes with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail, Tata Group's Trent and grocery giant Avenue Supermarts, is expected to make its IPO filing by the end of the year, the people said on condition of anonymity. Vishal Mega Mart is owned by Switzerland’s Partners Group and India’s Kedaara Capital.

Bangalore, Ajit Isaac — the Managing Director of Quess Corp — has purchased a 10,000 square feet plot in Koramangala 3rd block, also referred to as billionaire street, for Rs 67.5 Crore. This amounts to a per square feet price of Rs 70,300, setting a new benchmark for the Bangalore property market. “The deal was closed last week and the property belonged to Arvind Reddy and Geeta Reddy. The last deal closed in this locality was clinched at around Rs 68,000 per sqft by TVS motor,” said people aware of the development.

It can certainly be quite challenging to manage multiple credit cards, but if you follow right strategies, you can maximise their benefits while keeping pitfalls minimum. 

UPI) are being nudged by digital payments network manager National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to invest and incentivise consumers. This is primarily aimed at getting users to transact through these new platforms, in order to reduce the risk from high concentration of transactions on the PhonePe and Google Pay platforms that control around 85% market share, three companies told ET.

Reliance Retail and Avenue Supermarts to sell retail grocery chain 24Seven, said executives aware of the development. Godfrey Phillips India had said in an exchange filing on April 12 that it plans to exit the loss-making 24Seven convenience chain «following a detailed review of the company's retail business division». The negotiations will hinge on valuation, said one of the persons cited.

A study co-conducted by Voya with Easterseals, a disability and community service provider, shines a sobering spotlight on a critical support gap that disabled veterans experience in the workplace.

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Haryana's regional party Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) on Tuesday released it's first list of candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The JJP, once an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has named candidates for five constituencies for the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. Singer-rapper Rahul Yadav, famously known as Fazilpuria, will be contesting from Gurugram on JJP ticket.

Himachal Pradesh. The state and its neighbouring hilly areas are likely to witness thunderstorms accompanied by lightning, hail and gusty winds at the speed of 30-40 km per hour in isolated areas from April 18-21. Adverse weather conditions have led to the closure of 112 roads, including three national highways, in Himachal Pradesh.

mutual fund folios have nearly doubled in the last five years and reached 17.79 lakh crore in March 2024, up from 8.97 lakh crore in March 2020. The reasons behind this were increasing awareness and a growing interest among retail investors for parking cash in equities and bonds through the mutual fund route, according to a release by ICRA Analytics. The opening up of branches of fund houses beyond the top 30 towns is also encouraging more people to look at these as a suitable investment vehicle. This is also evident from the surge in the number of folios, said ICRA Analytics. The retail investors account for a major share of the total number of folios. According to the quarterly data on folio and ticket size available on the AMFI website, the retail investors accounted for nearly 91.3% of the 16.49 folios in the industry as on December 2023, at 15.06 lakh crore. The HNIs account for around 8% at 1.33 lakh crore while institutional investors account for less than 1% at 0.11 lakh crore.

Naxalites in Chhattisgarh's Kabirdham district, a senior official said on Tuesday. Pamphlets with the announcement «suchna do inaam pao» (give information, receive a reward) were distributed in the Naxalite-affected villages of the district, which shares a border with Madhya Pradesh. «Anyone who helps in the arrest of Naxalites or provides inputs leading to their killing in encounters will be given a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh and a job in the police force. Cash rewards will also be given to persons who help in the surrender of Maoists,» the pamphlets stated. Talking to PTI, Kabirdham Superintendent of Police (SP) Abhishekh Pallava said, «We have distributed pamphlets and stuck posters of our new offer in Maoist-hit villages in the last two days. We have also sent messages on WhatsApp to mobile phone users in these villages.»

Vodafone Idea in the nation to date, said a Money Control news report, citing people aware of the developments. Vodafone Idea FPO's anchor investor bidding date is scheduled for today (Tuesday, April 16).

Investors are well aware that every war heightens uncertainty. It entails risks that are hard to price, as they defy probability estimates. A recency bias, however, must not get the better of us on the disruptive potential of hostilities in West Asia, where Israel’s night-sky was lit up on 13 April by the flares of aerial strikes by Iran in retaliation to an attack on its consulate in Syria.

Baashyaam Constructions is in talks with Standard Chartered Bank to buy a 4.6-acre plot in Chennai in a deal estimated at about ₹800 crore. «The land originally belonged to ANZ Grindlays Bank and was part of the takeover by Standard Chartered, with backend support being operated from there. It also has 500,000 sq ft of built area in the Nungambakkam area,» said two people aware of the development. Property consultants say the deal is being negotiated at ₹7.5-₹8 crore per ground which is higher than the prevailing market rate. One acre equals about 18 ground, a measure used primarily in South India. «There is not much land available in central Chennai and whatever is up for sale is getting closed at a higher rate now,» said one of the persons cited above. Baashyaam Constructions is present in luxury residential projects, apart from commercial and hospitality. It is developing an uber-luxury twin-tower project at the site of the erstwhile five-star Crowne Plaza hotel in Chennai's Adyar Park.

Hotel Leela Venture Limited (HLV) has challenged ITC's claims of shareholder oppression against it in a fresh twist to a five-year-old legal tussle at the centre of which is the 2019 sale of key Leela properties to Canada's investment giant Brookfield for ₹4,250 crore, according to sources aware of the developments. ITC is opposing that sale transaction claiming it was to the detriment of minority shareholders. The cigarettes-to-FMCG conglomerate owns a stake in HLV Limited. National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) allowed ITC's petition claiming shareholder oppression and mismanagement at HLV Limited on January 24 this year, though the company doesn't have the requisite shareholding of 10% required to file such lawsuits as per rules laid down in India's Companies Act.

NEW DELHI : New Delhi: The union government is planning to set up dedicated labs for testing high-grade cotton in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Karnataka as part of a push to establish the Indian Kasturi cotton as a global brand, two persons aware of the matter said. The labs would be set up in convergence with the Bureau of Indian Standards' (BIS) testing facilities, ensuring alignment with national quality standards.