UPS Financial News

One of the most significant advantages of BLDC (brushless direct current motor) fans is their energy efficiency. Polycab Silencio Mini is a 5-star rated advanced BLDC fan that is said to save up to 65% of electricity as compared to regular 75W ceiling fans. It is a smart and stylish ceiling fan. Its aerodynamic design with a compact body and long blades ensures better air circulation. Also, it reduces motor noise and operates at full efficiency even at low voltages without compromising on air delivery.

IPL) final between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad fired up bookings at bars, pubs and cafes across India by 30-50%, compared to a regular weekend, executives said, with the heatwave adding to demand for cooler leisure options. “Alcohol sales saw a big spike, as average time spent per consumer at outlets was more,” said Vikrant Batra, founder of Cafe Delhi Heights. “Malls also did phenomenally well because of the heatwave. That’s another reason we saw spike in sales at our mall outlets.” During an otherwise lean season for pubs, bars and restaurants because of people being away on summer vacations, the IPL final in Chennai triggered a dramatic spike in footfall and sales across the cricket-crazy nation, executives said.

Stressed Assets Stabilisation Fund (SASF) of IDBI Bank, which is targeting a recovery of 11.59% by selling non-performing loans worth ₹6,151 crore, has received 18 expressions of interest (EoIs) from asset reconstruction companies (ARCs). The reserve price for the auction is set at ₹713 crore and the sale has drawn interest from large ARCs including Arcil, JC Flowers ARC, Edelweiss ARC, JM Financial ARC and ACRE. Others include Kotak-backed Phoenix ARC, UV ARC, Prudent ARC, Omkara ARC and CFM ARC. The last day for submitting EOIs was May 22. The auction date will be announced after the entities that submitted EoIs complete due diligence on the accounts. The sale will be 100% cash-based, with EY as the process advisor. The portfolio up for assignment and sale comprises 239 cases, with 81 backed by tangible securities and guarantees, having a gross principal outstanding of ₹2,179.51 crore. The remaining 158 cases are supported by guarantees and claims, with an outstanding of ₹3,971.65 crore.

Real estate developer Sameera Group has earmarked ₹500 crore as investments over the next five years to set up 1,000 senior living homes across South India, the company said. For developing the senior living homes, city-based Sameera Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vedaanta Senior Living that aims to create high-quality senior living communities, a company release said on Sunday. «This strategic partnership brings together Sameera Group's extensive experience in land development and Vedaanta's deep understanding of the senior care industry,» the release said.

elections have thrown up a problem of plenty for the government — its cash balances are much higher than before the previous two Lok Sabha polls, but curbs on spending mean that banks are parched of funds while the Centre tries hard to prevent the money from sitting idle. The adoption of more efficient fund management practices by the Centre, healthy tax collections and a build-up of cash by state governments have resulted in overall government cash balances swelling past ₹3 lakh crore and locking out funds from the banking sector. As a result of the constraints on spending during a long-drawn national election, government expenditure — which traditionally flows through banks — has moderated, leading to a tight money market and, consequently, higher borrowing costs.

streaming TV came with a promise: Sign up, and commercials will be a thing of the past. Netflix rose to streaming dominance in part by luring customers to an ad-free experience. Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and HBO Max followed that lead. Well, that did not last long.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) entity is set to offer a range of 5G shared network infrastructure solutions in Africa with a local company backed by Ghana, marking the conglomerate's entry into the league of global telecom tech and equipment vendors. Radisys, owned by RIL unit Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), along with Tech Mahindra and Finland's Nokia, is partnering with Next-Gen Infrastructure Co. (NGIC), in which the Ghanaian government, Ascend Digital and K-Net hold equity, for the foray.

Paris: Carlos Alcaraz made a bold statement to his opponents on Sunday at Roland Garros, easily defeating JJ Wolf in his opening match of the French Open 2024. In exactly one hour and fifty-one minutes, Alcaraz wrapped up a 6-1, 6-2, 6-1 victory against Wolf on Court Philippe-Chatrier. A player who had been out of action for more than three weeks due to a right forearm injury would find confidence restored after the Spaniard's easy victory at the clay-court major.

department of telecommunications (DoT) and mobile operators devised a system that can identify and block spoof international calls showing up as Indian numbers. Through this, the government and telcos are seeking to give relief to mobile users who have been getting such calls from cyber criminals posing as police officials, courier company workers and even DoT and Trai officials. Hoax international calls originate outside the country, but cyber criminals manipulate the calling line identity (CLI) to make such calls appear as originating within India. The DoT has directed telecom carriers to block such calls.

New supply of affordable homes — priced up to Rs60 lakh each — declined 38% across eight major cities to 33,420 units during January-March this year, with builders focusing on developing luxury flats, according to PropEquity. Real estate data analytic firm PropEquity attributed the fall in new supply to sharp rise in land and construction costs, which has made development of affordable housing projects less profitable or unviable. According to PropEquity data, the fresh supply of such homes was 33,420 units during January-March 2024 across top eight cities against 53,818 in the year-ago period.

Final data across five phases of Lok Sabha elections indicates that 3-4 states have pulled down overall voter turnout, with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan leading the tally. Maharashtra has also reported lower turnout across several seats, but has made up on others, as per full data released by the Election Commission of India on Saturday. Overall, many more Lok Sabha seats have witnessed lower turnout in comparison to 2019. «We are disappointed with the turnout in UP, Bihar and Maharashtra. We expected them to do much better and that has affected overall turnout. Deeper examination of the reasons will be done to understand this dip,» a senior ECI official told ET.

India has the potential to generate around 750 GW of power from solar sources, according to government data. While the country has doubled its solar power installed capacity rapidly to 81.8GW from 40.1GW in FY21, it has only utilised 11% of its potential. However, new schemes targeted at rooftop solar can help ramp up faster. ET takes a look 1)India has a solar power potential of nearly 750 GW

Radisson Hotel Group, the second biggest international chain in India by hotel network and room inventory, plans to open a new hotel every 20 days in the country this year, Nikhil Sharma, the chain’s new managing director, and area senior VP for South Asia told ET. Sharma said the chain, that aims to have a hotel at every two hours of driving distance in India, is also building its presence in religious destinations and will launch the first globally branded hotels in markets such as Vrindavan, Ujjain and Guruvayur. «People are visiting religious destinations far more than pre Covid times. We were the first to launch a branded hotel in Ayodhya before the Ram temple inauguration. The hotel clocked an average daily rate of Rs 1.15 lakh in the first month. It is still sold out on most days and the average daily rate is Rs 30,000 now,” said Sharma.

CG Foods, which makes India's third-largest instant noodles brand Wai Wai, is for the first time, reducing salt in its noodles by anywhere between 10% and 25% starting next quarter with select variants, Manvendra Amber Shukla, global chief executive officer of CG Foods, owned by Nepal-based diversified CG Corp Global, said in an interview. The move comes amid tighter regulation and heightened scrutiny on packaged foods. «What the government is doing (in terms of regulation) is definitely welcome; it is positive for consumers, and positive for the ecosystem and a responsibility of all organisations towards consumers,» he said. The salt reduction process will start with the spicier packs of Wai Wai, according to Shukla. «In India, starting next quarter, we will start the first phase of reduction of salt by 10% starting with spicy noodles. As we move forward, we will reduce salt up to 25% in other variants of our portfolio,» he said. Additionally, the group is working on plans to introduce healthier variants such as millet noodles and renewing focus on atta noodles.

Narendra Modi claimed on Sunday that people have decided to elect him for a third term in these Lok Sabha elections due to "good intentions, welfare policies and dedication to the nation" of his dispensation in the last decade. While campaigning in Uttar Pradesh, he alleged that the erstwhile Samajwadi Party government in the state would even release terrorists for appeasement politics. Modi addressed BJP public meetings in Mirzapur, Ghosi and Bansgaon in UP on Sunday where he attacked the Samajwadi Party and Congress on law and order issues and alleged plans of giving reservation to Muslims from the SC, ST and OBC quota.

Karan Bhagat, founder, managing director and chief executive officer of wealth and alternatives-focused asset firm 360 ONE, bought two sea-view luxury apartments in a super-premium residential tower in Mumbai’s plush Worli locality for a total Rs 170 crore. The apartments cover 12,900 sq ft built up area on the 45th and 46th floors of Three Sixty West project on Dr. Annie Besant Road. Bhagat will also get exclusive access to eight car parking slots. The deal was struck at about Rs 1.31 lakh per sq ft, pushing it higher in the tally of most expensive deals on per sq ft basis anywhere in the country.

Gujarat High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the incident and the PIL will come up for hearing on Monday. A special bench of the Gujarat High Court, comprising Justice Biren Vaishnav and Justice Devan Desai, observed that «prima facie, a man-made disaster has occurred where innocent lives of children have been lost» as such recreation facilities have come up without adequate approvals from the competent authorities. «The gaming zone in Rajkot appears to have taken advantage of the loopholes in the Gujarat Comprehensive General Development Control Regulations to pave its way for creating illegal recreational activities,» the bench. It stated that it has also taken note of such gaming zones that have come up in Ahmedabad «which pose significant threat to public safety, especially to innocent children.»

Srinagar: Kashmir Valley has recorded a turnout of over 50% across the three Lok Sabha seats that went to polls on May 25, eclipsing the records since 1989, when terrorism started here. Elections for the three seats of Baramulla along the Line of Control in north Kashmir, Srinagar in central Kashmir and Anantnag-Rajouri, spread across the Pir Panjal mountains in south Kashmir, have concluded. Baramulla recorded 59% polling, Srinagar 38% and Anantnag-Rajouri 53%. Compared to the previous eight Lok Sabha polls since 1989, voting has increased by 15-20 percentage points.

Mirzapur: Mirzapur: 2014 did not just mark a watershed moment for the BJP in UP as it won with a landslide 71 seats, but also proved life-changing for a young MLA then, who is now one of the youngest Union ministers — Anupriya Patel. Her party, the Apna Dal (S), has become one of the most solid allies of the BJP in UP since then after winning both the LS seats allotted to it. Today, it has the third highest number of MLAs in the state assembly after the BJP and Samajwadi Party. As Patel seeks her third straight tenure from her seat in Mirzapur, caste math and the execution of some central welfare schemes are likely to play in her favour. But, in this seat, which has a 25% Dalit and tribal population, she is also being accused of being biased towards her loyal Kurmi base and for patchy implementation of some crucial schemes for tribals like the Jal Jeevan Mission. With 49% population belonging to OBCs and 25% to the SC/ST communities, the BJP's focus on consolidating their votes was also visible in PM Narendra Modi's address here on Sunday, wherein he raked up SP's 2012 and 2014 manifesto promises of providing reservations to Muslims on the lines of the reservations given to backwards, Dalits and tribals. Apart from Mirzapur, the AD(S) is also contesting from neighbouring Robertsganj which has a much higher tribal population.

election enters the last phase, the BJP leadership is going all out on a damage-control mission to avert possible setback in Bihar due to a caste imbalance in its support. There are eight parliament seats going for polls in the last phase in Bihar in the Magadh-Shahabad region.In 2019, NDA had won all eight with BJP winning five and ally JDU winning three. During the 2020 assembly elections, though, the RJD-led Grand Alliance performed better than NDA in this region. Now, in 2024, there is little change in the political equation and the ground situation. However, a clear division on caste lines is shaping up with the Kushwaha community, which used to be a strong support base of JDU leader and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, drifting away from NDA.

Punjab): As the afternoon sun beats down on the tin shed, about a hundred farmers listen in rapt attention to the old farmer leader on the makeshift stage. «We have the right to ask questions from the government,» the leader is speaking on the stage at Shambhu on Punjab-Haryana border, where farmers were stopped from marching towards Delhi in mid-February. It has been over three months, but the anger is palpable. A small temporary township has come up at Shambhu border toll booth, about 200 km from Delhi and an hour's drive from Chandigarh. Hundreds of tractors and trolleys have been joined together to make small tenements for farmers. As the season changed from a pleasant spring to scorching summer, air coolers have been installed in these tents. The anger against the Modi government is now spilling into elections as all the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of Punjab vote in the last phase of voting on June 1. «Vote for anyone but BJP — this is our call,» says Balwant Singh, state president Bharatiya Kisan Union (Behramke). Singh says the entire farmers morcha has sent word back to the villages to drive away BJP candidates if they come to campaign.