Citi Financial News

By Abhijith Ganapavaram

Construction tech startup Bettamint has tied up with Prestige Group’s construction arm K2K Infrastructure and Brigade REAP to manage informal workers at the construction sites of projects. The company, currently operational in Bangalore, is planning to expand to Mumbai, Pune and Delhi-NCR regions. Over the next two years, Bettamint aims to invest a significant amount in three phases, initiating operations in several cities, starting with Bangalore in Karnataka, and gradually expanding its reach to cover the whole of South India before pan India expansion. The platform comes equipped with recruitment, identity verification, onboarding features; supported by attendance, communication, field notes, compliance, payroll and payment capabilities. “Bettamint leverages technology to address industry-wide challenges including labour shortages, low productivity, high attrition and unpredictable quality. We want to solve this problem in an inclusive way where we empower millions of informal construction workers by enhancing their skills, reach, employability, earnings and quality of life, transforming individual workers to highly engaged, actively contributing, well incentivised participants in the project,” said Kezya De Braganca, founder of Bettamint. Bettamint offers builders an interface to digitise their workforce operations while also getting the benefits of increased productivity, improved quality, reduced attrition and enhanced project timelines. «Our mission has always been to raise the bar for industry standards and to prioritise the wellbeing and skill development of our workers.

Reliance Retail is planning to launch a value apparel format to compete directly with Tata’s Zudio, Landmark group owned Max and Shoppers Stop’s new mass priced brand InTune. All products in Yousta are priced below Rs 999, with a majority priced below Rs 499. “The team will continuously work with India’s younger generation to understand their evolving fashion needs,” said Akhilesh Prasad, President and CEO – Fashion and Lifestyle, Reliance Retail. Experts said India's consumption structure has been skewed in the past over a narrow base of richer consumers accounting for a large chunk of the overall market. However, as the economy is broadening across many more cities and the impact is reaching further down the income ladder, the opportunity for value-formats and value-brands is expanding. Yousta has partnered with a non-profit for customers to donate old clothes at stores and allow them to be used for community programs. The product can also be accessed online through Ajio and JioMart. Reliance Retail Limited is a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), the holding company of all the retail companies under the RIL (Reliance Industries Limited) group.

Air India pilots' grouping has raised fatigue concerns in the wake of flight crew rosters generated using a new rostering tool, saying that extended waiting periods between duty time will jeopardise crew alertness and performance. «Extended waiting periods, occurring before active flight duties, run counter to enhancing crew readiness and, in fact, contribute to the accumulation of fatigue over time,» the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) has said. In a letter to Air India Head of Safety Henry Donohoe last week, IPG said it has been recently observed that the relentless pursuit of operational efficiency and economic gains has led to an unintended overshadowing of the primary intent behind Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) regulations. The Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) are laid down by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to ensure adequate res timings for pilots and cabin crew staff. The issue of fatigue among pilots is in focus following the death of an IndiGo pilot recently.

Public fears and frustrations are being shared in Japan's neighboring countries about the release of treated radioactive wastewater from a crippled nuclear power plant

Despite higher provisions for credit losses and a quarter in which “everything went against” Royal Bank of Canada’s City National franchise in the United States, the bank beat third-quarter earnings estimates, aided by lower taxes and strong performance in Canada including growth in loans, deposits and credit card balances in the three months ending July 31.

PeaceHealth says it's closing the only hospital in Eugene, Oregon, and moving services 6 miles to its Springfield location

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker said Thursday he doubts the U.S. central bank will need to raise interest rates again, in an interview with CNBC. «Right now I think that we've probably done enough» and with monetary policy in a restrictive stance, it's probably a good idea to hold steady for the rest of this year and see how that affects the economy, Harker said. Harker spoke to the television channel on the sidelines of the Kansas City Fed's annual research conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

₹163 crore in a securitization transaction with Citi India and Northern Arc. The PTC (pass through certificate) transaction is Navi’s first AAA-rated securitization in the personal loans space. As per the statement, it also marks Citi India’s inaugural securitized exposure to digital lending players in India.

By Mark Trevelyan

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and share their joy on the stunning success of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission. The PM is in Johannesburg as part of the BRICS summit and will fly directly from there to Bengaluru en route to Delhi. He watched the spacecraft’s descent on screen from the South African city and made a statement soon after the mission’s success was announced. Modi personally called ISRO director S Somanath and conveyed his happiness to the team of scientists who diligently worked on the project after the previous mission failed four years ago. “The PM congratulated all of us and said that he would like to personally come down and congratulate each one of us,” Somanath said. The PM is expected to land at the HAL airport at 5.30 am and will spend two hours at the ISRO centre in Peenya from 8 am, sources said. The BJP has planned a rousing welcome to the PM at HAL and outside the ISRO facility.

leadership of the country brings forward must be stopped. They have forgotten the word justice, and we will return it," Prigozhin said in an audio recording posted on Wagner’s social media on June 23. “Anyone attempting resistance will be considered a threat and immediately destroyed." The Wagner leader’s public appearances had been scant since he abandoned his insurrection on June 24 and was filmed leaving the southern Russian city of Rostov.

Ashima Goyal, Jayanth R Varma and Rajiv Ranjan voted for status quo on the policy rate. Going forward, the spike in vegetable prices, led by tomatoes, would exert sizeable upside pressures on the near-term headline inflation trajectory. This jump is, however, likely to correct with fresh market arrivals.

unemployment rate at 3.5%, essentially unchanged over the past year—and so-called core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is nearly double the Fed’s 2% target. “All in all, they’re probably in the 90th percentile of outcomes they might have hoped for in that the economy is strong and inflation is declining," said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economist who has participated in the symposium in previous years. Here’s what to watch: Why Jackson Hole Attracts the Spotlight Most of the conference hosted by the Kansas City Fed centers on the presentation of very technical academic papers—nirvana for the nerds in attendance but not the general public.

Uber on Thursday said it has appointed Arnab Kumar as director of business development for India and South Asia. Kumar has had previous stints at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, investment fund Prosus Ventures, and at Indian think tank Niti Aayog, where he worked on India's Covid contact tracing app Aarogya Setu. “During his work at Niti Aayog he delivered impact and change at scale. Under his leadership, our business development team will continue to be a key accelerant for our partnerships and new growth opportunities.” said Prabhjeet Singh, president, Uber India and South Asia Arnab has also worked for Deutsche Bank as an investment banker in Singapore and New York.

public offering (IPO) in the next month to raise Rs 300-320 crore. Also, the company said it has completed the pre-IPO placement round and raised Rs 33.76 crore through it, leading to a reduction in fresh issue size in the upcoming maiden public issue. In the pre-IPO placement round, the Ghaziabad-based firm issued 16 lakh equity shares at an issue price of Rs 211 apiece, the company said in a statement. Accordingly, the size of the fresh issue has been reduced to Rs 146.24 crore from Rs 180 crore planned earlier.

diamond polishing, producing an impressive 25,000 pieces of small-sized natural diamonds each month. Surat, known as the Diamond City, holds the distinction of polishing 95 per cent of the world's diamonds. Interestingly, the city's correctional facility also contributes its fair share to this illustrious industry.

A rental agency revealed that they are renting Mercedes Maybach at a starting rate of Rs 65,000 for an eight-hour rental encompassing up to 80 km of city driving. The travel agencies highlighted the escalating demand for luxury vehicles like the Mercedes S Class, BMW 7 Series, Mercedes E Class, BMW 5 Series, and their equivalents due to this summit. Notably, even upscale SUVs like the Mercedes GLS and Audi Q7, as well as vans including the Toyota Commuter, Toyota Coaster, Mercedes Sprinter Coaster, Mercedes Sprinter, and Force Urbania, are experiencing unprecedented popularity.

Real estate investment in India is undergoing a revolutionary transformation with more and more Indians choosing serenity, top-of-the-line technology, and sustainability as their primary criteria. These trends are not restricted to residential real estate, but even commercial spaces are reflecting these choices wherein smart technologies and ‘human’ elements are far outweighing traditional choices.

In the rapidly-transforming business arena, emerging ventures continuously search for strategies to reduce expenditure while enhancing operational efficacy. One pioneering innovation significantly contributing to these objectives is the emergence of bespoke, adaptable co-working spaces. These shared work environments have become a significant asset for startups, presenting custom-made, flexible solutions that considerably reduce financial burdens.

Rapid urbanization, an influx of job opportunities, and the transformative rise of economical home options have amplified Bhiwadi as one of the top investment locations in the National Capital Region (NCR). Located on the Rajasthan-Haryana border, Bhiwadi is a well-planned city that is easily connected to Gurugram through NH-8 and is located at a mere 45-minute distance from the Millenium city. The city is known for its systematic and meticulous town planning, divided into three belts — industrial zone, commercial zone, and residential zone. Oftentimes, it has been credited as a new growth vortex shining as a beacon of hope in terms of growing urbanization, industrial development, and rise of residential real estate with the emergence of affordable housing and plot settlement options compared to cities like Dharuhera, Manesar, and New Gurugram, etc.