Country Financial News

By Jarrett Renshaw

₹1.2-1.3 trillion. Ajay Piramal, chairman and executive director, Piramal Enterprises, said if the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allows certain non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to accept public deposits, it will lessen their dependence on bank funding. Edited excerpts: Earlier, NBFCs used to have some advantage; there was a little more loosening in terms of RBI control compared to banks.

NEW DELHI : Electricity usage that began rising in July touched record levels of demand in August as rains waned, driving stocks of power companies to new highs. As demand surged, power shortage also shot up. According to data from the Grid Controller of India, the country saw a record peak shortage of 9.11 gigawatts (GW)—or over 4% of the peak demand—on 21 August, when peak demand was 226GW.

NEW DELHI : Mastercard Inc.’s dominance in the payment process makes the company, along with Visa Inc., no less than what Google Llc is to search. But a more important fact—and less discussed detail —is the company’s impressive profitability: Mastercard ended with a 58.3% operating margin on $6.3 billion in revenue in the second quarter. In an interview, Michael Miebach, the chief executive who succeeded Ajay Banga in 2021, discussed Mastercard’s Indian strategy.

New Delhi: As the monsoon trough continues to run along the foothills of the Himalayas, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rainfall over Northeast India and the extreme Southern Peninsular region. However, this may not make a significant improvement as far as rainfall distribution is concerned, meteorologists said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, ending a tumultuous journey from St. Petersburg street thug to Kremlin-financed mercenary leader, following a suspicious plane crash two months after his brief mutiny that challenged the authority of President Vladimir Putin.

UBS Group investors are bracing for plenty of superlatives and drama as the Swiss lender prepares to unveil the first quarterly results since taking over Credit Suisse in an unprecedented government-led rescue.

shops in the national capital will have to remain closed from September 8 to September 10 in view of the G20 Summit that will be held in Delhi, and all employees in Delhi will be granted ‘paid holidays’ on these days. The government has directed shops, businesses, and commercial establishments in the New Delhi district to grant paid holidays to their employees and workers during the G20 summit. The Delhi government had issued a notification declaring a public holiday in the national capital on September 8–10.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) proposes stricter quality of service norms for telecom operators to address call drops etc, the initial assessment by carriers is that the regulator is going too deep and asking for too much detailed data. Industry executives say the proposed need for submitting state-wise data is also challenging as the network architecture is planned telecom circle-wise. Another issue pointed out by the telecom firms is around quality of service (QoS) norms for 5G.

liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for all of India's 330 million users. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur revealed during a Cabinet briefing on August 29, «All domestic consumers of LPG cylinders will receive a Rs 200 subsidy per cylinder. Additionally, users under the PM Ujjwala scheme will benefit from this subsidy on top of the existing one.» Minister Thakur also stated that this extra LPG cylinder subsidy would be implemented immediately, offering it as a special gift for Raksha Bandhan and Onam celebrations. This move now brings the subsidy for Ujjwala beneficiaries to a total of Rs 400 per LPG cylinder. Currently, in the national capital, a 14.2-kg LPG cylinder costs ₹1,103, more than double the rate it had in May 2020.

China released its latest standard map of the People's Republic of China. Which is like someone putting up one's DP on social media. And, as if on cue, the Republic of India — after all, whose republic is it anyway if not the people's? — is fumious (fuming + furious in a very diplomatic way).

Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said that the current year shows some challenges with the geopolitical situation across the world, concerns around inflation and slowing growth which is impacting certain sectors such as petroleum, natural diamonds, readymade garments and chemicals. At an event organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), he emphasised on value, volume and quality of exports and that India is trying to unlock newer markets through free trade pacts, collaboration work different countries, encouraging investments in modern technology, looking for digitalization and technology adaption. “The current year does show some challenges with the geopolitical situation across the world with concerns around inflation slowing growth and the impact that we have seen in certain sectors,” Goyal said. He said the target for 2030 is to have $1 trillion of goods exports and $1 trillion of service exports, and that India aspires to to become a $35 trillion economy by 2047. The minister also met various export promotion councils earlier in the day where issues related to the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism were taken up. “Issues related to high imports of gold and some chemicals but the low exports of gems and jewellery were discussed,” said an industry representative who participated in the meeting, adding that exporters assured the government of reaching $450 billion of goods exports in the next seven months. Officials said that petroleum products, marine products and inorganic chemicals were among the 15 key product categories where export volumes rose but value fell in April-June FY24. At the FIEO event, Goyal said that India’s space sector is not

NEW DELHI : India and Bangladesh are expected to hold a trial locomotive run on the Akhaura-Agartala railway line and push the operationalization of the crucial link between the two countries. Reports have indicated that both sides hope to operationalize the line by the end of this year. Tripura’s transport Mminister Sushanta Chowdhury stated in April that both sides would like to have the link operational by September this year.

NEW DELHI : Underlining that restoration of democracy in Jammu and Kashmir is “very important", the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union government to indicate a timeframe to restore the statehood of J&K, prompting the Centre to seek 48 hours for making what it called a “positive statement" in this regard. “The government has to make that statement before us that its (J&K’s) progression back to state has to take place.

MUMBAI/ NEW DELHI : Billionaire Sunil Mittal backed telecom services provider Airtel Uganda Ltd, a subsidiary of Airtel Africa plc, plans to raise 800 billion Ugandan shillings or $216 million in an initial public offering (IPO), it said in a statement Tuesday. The company set the price for its initial public offering (IPO) at 100 Ugandan shillings (UGX) apiece, and will offer up to 20% stake or 8 billion shares, the company told the Uganda Securities Exchange. The IPO also fulfills regulatory requirements under which the company has to mandatorily list by 16 December.

₹6,719 apiece from Vedant InnoTech Private Limited (VIPL), the prosecution said. Thus, during May 16, 2020, to June 7, 2020, there was a misappropriation of public funds of ₹49.63 lakh, it alleged.

Seychelles made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia before flying back to Tel Aviv on Tuesday, in what Israel praised as a sign of goodwill as Washington works to establish formal relations between the two countries. The Air Seychelles flight carrying 128 passengers was forced to land Monday because of an electrical malfunction. Israel's Foreign Ministry said the passengers spent the night at an airport hotel in Jeddah and were flown back by the airline on an alternate plane. Passengers described a frightening stretch of time as an acrid burnt smell filled the cabin and the pilot came over the intercom to say the plane would be forced to make an emergency stop in Saudi Arabia, a kingdom with which Israel has no air links or diplomatic ties. With dozens trapped on board and the plane idling on the tarmac, tension grew, passengers said, while Israeli officials scrambled to figure out what to do.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says she rebuffed an appeal by Chinese leaders to reduce U.S. export controls on technology with possible military uses

Chemical and consumer product manufacturer 3M has agreed to pay $6 billion to settle numerous lawsuits from U.S. service members who say they experienced hearing loss or other serious injuries from using earplugs made by the company

ET Intelligence Group: The stock of CreditAccess Grameen has gained 15% over the past three months compared with around 3.5% gains of the benchmark Sensex and the S&P BSE Financial Services indices. The country's largest listed microfinance company based on market capitalisation and assets under management (AUM) plans to mop up over Rs 1,000 crore through an NCD issue that began on August 24.

Home prices held steady from a year earlier in June as high mortgage rates kept both buyers and sellers on the sidelines. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures home prices across the nation, was unchanged year-over-year in June, compared with a 0.4% annual decrease the prior month. On a month-over-month basis, the index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in June, the fifth straight monthly increase.