Ratan Tata & Cyrus Mistry take their fight to the TCS boardroom

MUMBAI: Tata Sons will move the Supreme Court to seek early interim relief from the tribunal order reinstating Cyrus Mistry ahead of the TCS board meeting scheduled for January 9 to consider Q3 results. The holding company is likely to file an appeal on January 2 although a hearing is possible only when the SC opens on January 6 after the winter break, said people with knowledge of the matter.Legal experts said the Mistry family-owned firms that hold stakes in Tata Sons can oppose an interim stay, which could force the Tatas to re-induct Cyrus Mistry pending a final order. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) ruled on December 19 that Mistry should be reinstated as director of Tata Sons and three group firms — TCS, Tata Industries and TTSL (Maharashtra). Mistry had been ousted as Tata Sons chairman in October 2016 and was eventually succeeded by N Chandrasekaran.Tata Sons and TCS declined to comment. The Shapoorji Pallonji Group also didn’t comment.“To the best of our knowledge, reinstatement of Cyrus Mistry as a director on Tata Sons and the other companies as per the NCLAT order has not been complied with and that itself is contempt of court,” said a legal representative close to the Mistrys.Tata Sons may Avoid Board Meeting“They (Tatas) sought a stay on chairmanship, but reinstatement as director was (to be) ‘forthwith’,” said the legal representative close to the Mistrys.Listed companies generally have a window of 45 days to declare results after the end of each quarter, according to Sudip Mahapatra, partner at law firm S&R Associates. That gives TCS time until mid-February to obtain relief from the Supreme Court.“In my view, it is unlikely that Tata Group will risk calling for a board meeting before getting any relief from the Supreme Court,” said Mahapatra.The holding company will avoid holding a board meeting, said one of the persons. 73053299 “We do not wish to complicate issues at the moment by doing so,” said one of them. “There is no emergency situation. It is a matter that will be pursued legally.”Tata Global Beverages Ltd is the only Tata company that has held a board meeting — to announce a CEO — following the NCLAT decision, since there was no immediate legal impact on it.Tata Sons will have to seek an immediate stay on the entire order from the Supreme Court, said Ashish K Singh, managing partner of law firm Capstone Legal. Postponing a scheduled board meeting can look like a deliberate attempt at not complying with the order, he said.“Cyrus Mistry can make an application before the NCLAT for seeking specific directions for compliance with the order passed in the upcoming board meeting,” he said. “In any case, the matter is listed on an application filed by the ministry of corporate affairs on January 2, seeking modification of the order at NCLAT on a different legal issue. Nothing stops either of the parties to approach the appellate tribunal for clarification at that time.”TATA SONS BOARD ASSURES CHANDRATata Sons board members have assured chairman N Chandrasekaran of their support through messages and calls, said executives aware of the matter. The chairman has held a meeting with group CEOs to apprise them of developments and allay concerns.Tata Trusts nominee Venu Srinivasan, Ajay Piramal and Farida Khambata were on the Tata Sons board at the time of Mistry’s ouster. Since then, Chandrasekaran, Harish Manwani, Bhaskar Bhat, Ralph Speth and Saurabh Agrawal have joined the holding company’s board. None of them responded to emails from ET.“The NCLAT order hasn’t dismissed the board, so the directors should continue to perform their duties,” said Shriram Subramanium, founder and MD of InGovern Research. “However, they should avoid any big decisions that have significant impact as there is an element of uncertainty to the role of the executive chairman.”The board should meet and discuss the impact and implications going ahead, said a corporate governance expert. There should be a continuity plan irrespective of what the SC decision could be, he added. A senior TCS executive said the order adds to uncertainty for the company, which may see its US business impacted by the upcoming presidential elections.The Registrar of Companies (RoC) has moved the NCLAT to implead itself in the case. The RoC, which is part of the corporate affairs ministry, has sought deletion of the words “illegal” and “with the help of the RoC” that were used by the tribunal in its order. The appellate tribunal is yet to hear the matter.

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The documents you'll need to clear NPR test

NEW DELHI: The government will launch a drive instructing the “head of the family” to make available details of 21identifiers during enrolment in the National Population Register (NPR). These will include Aadhaar, driving licence, Permanent Account Number (PAN) and voter ID card, ET has learnt.The nationwide NPR is to be held from April 1 to September 30 to record the ‘usual residents’ of the country who have lived in an area for the previous six months or more, or persons who intend to stay there for the next six months or more, according to an official notification.Several state governments have stalled work on the NPR, alleging that it’s the first step toward a National Register of Citizens (NRC), which will be used in conjunction with the Citizenship Amendment Act to disenfranchise Muslims.PM Narendra Modi has denied any such intent. Home minister Amit Shah says the NPR data will not be used for an NRC and that there has been no decision on conducting an NRC as of now.The questionnaire for NPR 2020 is likely to continue with the controversial column on “date and place of birth of parents” besides other fields. A senior government official explained to ET that this question didn’t have any sinister connotations.Ensuring Data Security“These details were recorded during the previous NPR enumeration as part of a single question on parents,” the government official said. “This time, we have a separate question on the place of birth to ascertain if they are staying with the children or not.”Congress politician and former minister of state for home affairs Ajay Maken has criticised the government’s move to modify the NPR form. “As MoS Home in 2010, I supervised the NPR! But Modi-Shah 2020 NPR is totally different,” he tweeted on December 25. 73053355 Officials said the Registrar General of India (RGI) will further ensure that the data collected using mobile apps by enumerators and supervisors are secure. Only those with verified credentials can download the app using logins and passwords provided by the census commissioner, they said.“The mobile IMEI number will help us to identify the enumerator who is using the app and recording the data,” one of the officials said.NPR was first rolled out by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government along with the 2011 Census. In 2011, details such as name, date of birth, sex, marital status, educational qualification, occupational activity, father and mother’s name, nationality (as declared) were among the questions asked of respondents.According to the home ministry, NPR data has been previously provided to the governments of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Manipur for the Sarvam scheme that tracks subsidies and the public distribution scheme (PDS). Rajasthan has been given NPR data for the Bhamashah women’s empowerment scheme.In 2015-16, the NPR database was updated in all states and Union Territories, except Assam and Meghalaya.“The electronic database of more than 1.19 billion usual residents of the country has already been created under NPR,” said the official. “The number of questions were 14 then, but were subsequently increased to 21 during the 2019 pre-test that was held from April 12, 2019, to September 30, 2019. The pre-test was held in 74 districts during which demographic details of around 3 million individuals were collected.”

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India has a new CDS, but is he the real boss?

New Delhi: The government has amended the charter of the defence secretary to specifically include making of “defence policy” alongside his primary responsibility of “defence of India”, while carving out a new Department of Military Affairs (DMA) to be headed by the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff.In a gazette order dated December 30, 2019, the government amended its relevant Rules of Business to remove four specific responsibilities from the Raksha Vibhag (Department of Defence), headed by the Defence Secretary, to bring them under the DMA but at the same time specified his primacy on policy matters and big ticket capital acquisition.“Defence of India and every part thereof including defence policy and all such acts as as may be conducive in times of war to its prosecution and after its termination to effective demobilization,” states Entry 1 of the amended charter for the Raksha Vibhaag.In effect, sources said, any files related to defence policy issues would still have to pass through the Defence Secretary, thus removing ambiguity in how the CDS would function with the Department of Defence.The other alteration is in the entry on defence purchases where the earlier formulation of “procurement exclusive to the defence services” has been replaced by “capital acquisition exclusive to the defence services”. Other procurement has come under the CDS-led DMA. This essentially means that new big ticket weaponry purchase will still be within the ambit of the Defence Secretary.Further, the National Defence College and the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis have been specifically brought under the Defence Secretary on grounds that their “remit is broader than military matters”. At the same time, the order also amends the Transaction as well as Allocation of Rules of Business to include the DMA or the Sainya Karya Vibhag as the fifth new department in the Defence Ministry along with the departments of Defence, Defence Production, Defence Research and Development as well as Ex-Servicemen Welfare.Each of these departments are headed by a Secretary-ranked officer, except the DMA where the CDS will be of cabinet secretary rank just like the three service chiefs. They all will report directly to the Defence Minister.The four elements removed from the direct ambit of the Defence Secretary are the three armed services, their respective headquarters, the territorial army and works relating to the Army, Navy and Airforce.These make up for four of the eight key responsibilities of the CDS-led DMA. The fifth is non-capital purchases while the other three relate to promoting jointness in procurement, training and operations besides encouraging use of indigenous equipment.

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Apps push Cisco’s data centre business forward

PUNE: Cisco’s data centre technologies business is growing on the back of increased demand for applications across sectors in India, its country manager said.Many factors are responsible for the growth of apps, primarily a surge in digital transformation initiatives across industries in the country.This is driving the company’s multi-cloud platform business, particularly its offerings for application modernisation and data centre network along with application centric infrastructure (ACI) for connecting the core to the edge, said Trideep Roy, country manager-data centre, Cisco.“With workflows moving to the edge, as companies evolve in their digitisation journey, workloads are more distributed. The complexity of the overall journey is driving a lot of these applications,” said Roy.In industries such as manufacturing and oil and gas, the growth of internet of things and sensors for collecting data is increasing the speed of adoption of apps, while a lot of traditional companies are also creating apps for employees as part of their digitisation process.“The transformation is mainly in software to help companies adopt and application modifications are fundamental for any digital transformation, whether it’s a traditional company, manufacturing or retail,” he said.Data centre technologies is the second-largest business for the $52-billion technology firm globally as well as in India and contributes about 30% to total revenues.“The last three years have been good for us and we expect to continue to grow in high double-digits going forward,” he said.After the banking, financial sector and insurance (BFSI) space, the public sector is the fastest-growing unit for the company, driven by power and utility modernisation and smart city initiatives.The company expects more growth to come from both these segments, as well as smaller businesses.“All the segments are growing, but at different rates. The challenge is the reach – how do we leverage partners to be able to reach all the SMEs in India,” Roy said.

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Turmoil in the banking landscape: Year of Reckoning for PSU Banks

For more than two decades, public sector banks managed to stave off competition due to inherent trust people had in them due to government backing. As the next generation comes in with different attitude, are they equipped to serve them? They need to reinvent to survive, say Saloni Shukla & Ashwin ManikandanFor half a century since bank nationalisation, public sector banks dominated the credit flow to the economy with more than four fifths of the share. In 2019, the golden jubilee year, private lenders accounted for Rs 69 of the every Rs 100 loan. The tables are turning.As the economy adjusts to the new reality like technology-driven financial services, a robust bankruptcy law, vanishing ‘phone banking’ and plethora of competition from unknown quarters, the Goliaths of Indian finance face the formidable task of remaining relevant — and surviving momentous change.It’s not just the availability of capital that provides strength to give out loans, but the skills and attitude to face the digital world, where customer convenience trumps everything else, that would determine their survival. It would not be just deposits that flow because of the comfort of government backing, but also efficient lending that holds the key to their relevance. 73053818 The collapse of lending, lack of vision and risk aversion combine to present a muddy picture of state-run banks akin to other state-backed businesses, such as BSNL, Air India and BHEL, which failed to keep pace with advancements only to turn a pale shadow of their pasts.“Unless government-owned banks put their house in order, they would see a much faster decline in the coming years and I highly doubt they will be able to face the onslaught of competition from new-age banks,” said Kuntal Sur, partner, financial services, PwC.Data shows that government-owned banks’ share of total credit outstanding fell to 60% at the end of March 2019 from 75% in 2012.State-run banks disbursed Rs 59.2 lakh crore at the end of March 2019, up 4% or Rs 57 lakh crore, from a year earlier, shows RBI data. By contrast, private sector peers loaned Rs 33.2 lakh crore in 2019, up nearly a fifth from Rs 26.6 lakh crore a year ago.CHANGING SCENARIOPublic sector banks remained the first port of call for anyone who sought banking services as they evoked trust and faith among people. The state-owned majority stakes in these banks led to the belief that every penny in those banks is safe.Furthermore, private sector banking services gained notoriety where hidden charges were slicing away customers’ funds without them even realising. There was a belief that state-run banks did not indulge in such practices.But as the younger generation gets prominence and technology helps improve services, the millennial customer doesn’t bother about whether a bank is stateowned or private.“Public sector banks have to realise there is a new generation of consumers that expect a certain standard of service that perhaps these competitors are providing — be it in terms of the digital experience or technology or branch banking services,” said K Cherian Varghese, former MD, Union Bank of India.That even the seniors are moving into the digital age reflects the surge in electronic payments. Of the total small-ticket retail transactions worth Rs 10.32 lakh crore in March 2019, the share of online deals has risen to 61%, up almost three time from 24% in March 2016.In the payment space, digital wallets and non-bank UPI players had a share of 14.7% in March 2019, up from 1.6% in the same period in 2016. Also, the key function of payments is being facilitated by the likes of Paytm and PhonePe reducing the reliance on bank platforms.TALENT TO COMPETEThe biggest differentiator has been the lack of specialised manpower at state-owned banks. The government recently announced its intent to fill middle-management positions at state-run banks and offer them a longer tenure. Nearly 70% of mid-management staff at PSU banks are over 50 years of age, suggesting their retirement isn’t too far away.“While the PSBs have all the necessary infrastructure in place such as the core banking systems and Internet banking solutions, it is the workforce that needs to be reoriented and retrained,” said Varghese. “The attitude needs to change, there is a need for a groundlevel training exercise conducted by the government to bring the PSB staff and bankers in tune with the market best practices.”State-owned banks are also constrained due to compensation they offer and senior PSU executives time and again have demanded they be allowed to hire a portion of their recruits the way private sector banks do, so that the best talent pools are also available to them.“PSU banks need to change their people strategy, put more feet on the street, redeploy its current manpower, train them for specialised functions, initiate lateral hires for specific functions and every bank depending upon their strength needs to bring in a board-approved, marketlinked compensation,” said Sur.LEGACY DRAGState-run banks, because of their ownership structure, were functioning more like a ward of the government rather than like businesses that are supposed to make profits. These lenders became tools for the governments to carry out their welfare agenda.Also, cronyism led to many decisions being influenced and led to unviable projects getting funded. The last two decades saw an enormous surge in funding private infrastructure projects that led to a huge pile up of bad loans.Data showed that PSU banks had a gross NPA ratio of 11.6% at the end of March 2019 and contributed nearly Rs 7.39 lakh crore to the total bad loan pile of Rs 9.36 lakh crore. Private banks on the other hand had a GNPA ratio of 5.3% with Rs 1.83 lakh crore as bad loans in value terms.As state-run lenders got hobbled by bad loans, private banks stepped on the gas to secure more deposits. Stateowned banks’ total deposit base was at Rs 84.86 lakh crore at the end of March 2019, up from Rs 82.62 lakh crore a year ago. Private banks’ deposits rose 25% to Rs 37.7 lakh crore.But public sector banks believe that weakening metrics are just temporary and that they could roar back.“The RBI data on total loans take into consideration both retail and corporate, and if the latter grows we will be back to our market share of more than 70%,” said Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, chief executive of Syndicate Bank. “There also has been a lot of cherry-picking in the consumer, LAP, MSME sector ... which is why you see this divergence. But, as the problems ease, the size and reach will help us to ride the growth.”Meanwhile, private lenders are turning more efficient than their state-owned peers. The spreads for PSU banks were at 2.8% for 2019 and 2.5% for 2018, while private banks had a spread of 3.6% in both 2019 and 2018, RBI data showed. Their cost of funds and cost of deposits were almost identical.BABY STEPSPSU banks are also facing fierce competition from not only private peers but also from small finance banks, fintechs, non-bank lenders and micro-finance institutions. And the competition is only getting fierce.Small finance banks showed impressive growth with their total loans growing to Rs 59,491 crore versus Rs 34,879 crore, a growth of more than 70% in a year.Banks which own the customers and have their deposits saw their control in the overall transactional pie gradually reducing to 81% from 92.7% three years ago.As PSU banks realise that they could not do it on their own, they are looking to partner with these nimble firms in their catch-up act.“Well, obviously we see competition from a host of entities that are trying to get a piece of PSUs’ original hometurf, especially in rural and semiurban areas,” says Mahapatra of Syndicate Bank. “Going forward, we see use of technology and collaboration as small finance banks, MFIs, non-banks are good at this, we see huge opportunities in coorigination.”But these banks also face sudden distractions. Last year was significant in the sense that the government moved to consolidate many banks that would make them bigger, but not necessarily more efficient and competitive.The government decided to merge 10 state-run banks into four, including Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India with Punjab National Bank; Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank with Union Bank of India, opening up a new opportunity.“Merger has given them a chance to redefine them,” says PwC’s Sur. “Today, all of them are copycats of each other; better and bigger banks will bring in more capital, talented workforce and the power of the combined entity.”While the process could slow them down as not all of them are on the same technology platform, there’s hope of revival.“With mergers playing out in 2020, the professionalisation of state-run banks will accelerate,” said Mahapatra. “For the rank and file, it will be business as usual, it will be time consuming for the top management. But you will see staterun banks bearing the benefits of this merger in the times to come.”This year would also see two private sector banks, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, which where dragged down by bad loans, make up for the lost time.Mergers and government’s investment of nearly Rs 3 lakh crore as capital in the past few years have ensured that they don’t sink. But the field has gotten a lot more competitive that would force staterun banks to come up with new ways to survive.“India is in the classic Darwinian mode of what I call survival of the fittest,” said Uday Kotak, founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank.

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Air India to seek clarity from state govt on its Nariman Point building

MUMBAI: State-run carrier Air India will request the new Maharashtra government to clarify whether it is still interested in taking over its iconic building in posh Nariman Point, after the previous government had expressed interest to buy the property outright when it was put up for sale in December 2018.Air India had put the sale plan on hold following the move, but has ended up losing rent of about Rs 45 lakh per month on about 13,000 square feet, or one floor, in the 23-storey building. The rest of the space is occupied by various government and private enterprises. “We could not lease the space earlier as the Maharashtra government was supposed to take over the building. With the new government in place, we don’t have any clarity yet, so it is better to rent out the space on short-term lease. A few tenants have shown interest and we will approach the new government for clarity and then lease the space,” said an Air India official.The Enforcement Directorate and Reserve Bank of India were in talks to take up the space, but a final call will be taken by the civil aviation ministry.Officials said that a sale could fetch Rs 2,000 crore at current market rates. The airline is earning Rs 100 crore in rent annually for the entire building.The national carrier had taken the land on lease from state government and constructed the building, which has two basements, in 1970. Seventeen floors have been leased out to various firms and government departments including Bank of India, India Tourism, Income Tax, Service Tax and IT services provider TCS.“The civil aviation ministry and Maharashtra government will decide on the sale part, but there has been co communication since the new government has taken over,” said another Air India official.

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Apps push Cisco’s data centre business forward

PUNE: Cisco’s data centre technologies business is growing on the back of increased demand for applications across sectors in India, its country manager said.Many factors are responsible for the growth of apps, primarily a surge in digital transformation initiatives across industries in the country.This is driving the company’s multi-cloud platform business, particularly its offerings for application modernisation and data centre network along with application centric infrastructure (ACI) for connecting the core to the edge, said Trideep Roy, country manager-data centre, Cisco.“With workflows moving to the edge, as companies evolve in their digitisation journey, workloads are more distributed. The complexity of the overall journey is driving a lot of these applications,” said Roy.In industries such as manufacturing and oil and gas, the growth of internet of things and sensors for collecting data is increasing the speed of adoption of apps, while a lot of traditional companies are also creating apps for employees as part of their digitisation process.“The transformation is mainly in software to help companies adopt and application modifications are fundamental for any digital transformation, whether it’s a traditional company, manufacturing or retail,” he said.Data centre technologies is the second-largest business for the $52-billion technology firm globally as well as in India and contributes about 30% to total revenues.“The last three years have been good for us and we expect to continue to grow in high double-digits going forward,” he said.After the banking, financial sector and insurance (BFSI) space, the public sector is the fastest-growing unit for the company, driven by power and utility modernisation and smart city initiatives.The company expects more growth to come from both these segments, as well as smaller businesses.“All the segments are growing, but at different rates. The challenge is the reach – how do we leverage partners to be able to reach all the SMEs in India,” Roy said.

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युद्ध स्मारक पहुंचे थलसेनाध्यक्ष एमएम नरवणे, शहीदों को दी श्रद्धांजलि

थलसेना प्रमुख मनोज मुकुंद नरवणे बुधवार सुबह दिल्ली स्थित राष्ट्रीय युद्ध स्मारक पहुंचकर शहीदों को श्रद्धांजलि दी। मंगलवार को उन्होंने थलसेना के 28वें अध्यक्ष के रूप में अपना पदभार ग्रहण किया था।

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नए साल का तोहफा: कश्मीर में पांच माह बाद एसएमएस सेवा बहाल, इंटरनेट सेवा भी शुरू

सरकार ने कश्मीर के लोगों को नए साल का तोहफा देते हुए मोबाइल एसएमएस सेवा को बहाल कर दिया है। इसके साथ सरकारी अस्पतालों में ब्राडबैंड इंटरनेट सेवा भी शुरू हो गई हैं।

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Protesters Usher In New Year At Delhi's Shaheen Bagh With National Anthem

Hundreds of people in south Delhi's Shaheen Bagh ushered in the New Year, amid the biting cold, with a protest against the amended citizenship law that fast-tracks the process of giving citizenship to...

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Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal pay most for power

Rural and urban domestic consumers drawing around 400 units or more of electricity a month in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal pay the highest rates in the country, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has estimated. Utilities in Maharashtra, including those in Mumbai, and Madhya Pradesh have witnessed regular tariff revisions by their respective power regulators in comparison to other states as increased costs were passed on. However, in other states, rising costs are not always fully passed on to consumers resulting in suppressed tariffs. Moreover, unlike southern states, utilities in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh do not have ready access to cheap hydel power. Debjoy Sengupta takes a look at the states with the cheapest and costliest domestic power... 73053164 73053165

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Ghost of demonetisation haunts traders of Zaveri Bazaar

MUMBAI: The ghost of demonetisation returned to haunt Zaveri Bazaar, India’s gold and jewellery hub, on New Year’s Eve.In the past few days, the Income tax department has spurned claims of bullion traders that there were huge jewellery sales on the night of November 8, 2016, when the Modi government banned currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations.Dealers in the congested Zaveri Bazaar remember the night when panic-struck cash hoarders and the well-heeled with unexplained money dumped currency bills to buy gold till early morning — temporarily driving up the price of the yellow metal.The latest tax office orders — which kept pouring in even on Monday and Tuesday — were slapped just before the December 31 deadline, after which assessments for the financial year FY17 become time-barred.73053245 “The department has invoked Section 159BBE of the I-T Act in rejecting the claims of jewellers and gold dealers’ claim of cash deposit (in banks) represented by cash sales post demonetisation. It has levied tax of 60% even if such sales were out of their stock of gold and happened at the prevailing price. Cash sales are permitted under law and profits from sale of gold were also offered for tax... This will lead to a series of litigations,” said senior chartered accountant Dilip Lakhani.I-T Doubts Surge in Cash SalesSection 115BBE of the I-T Act deals with levying tax at 60% on unexplained cash deposits and investments.The tax office is questioning the authenticity of the midnight surge in cash sales where the names of gold buyers were not recorded and most transactions were kept below the threshold of Rs 2 lakh for cash deals.The jewellers came under the taxman’s lens after the banks where they deposited the cash reported the inflows to the government and the tax office.“Prima facie, cash deposit claim could be considered as justifiable due to the special circumstances where people panicked and rushed to buy gold,” said Lakhani.Besides jewellers, several businesses dealing in cash have also received such assessment orders. However, on November 8, 2016, jewellery stores had become obvious destinations for many trying to quickly get rid of undisclosed cash that had suddenly ceased to be legal tender.“It’s not surprising the I-T department is questioning jewellers about these sales. Whether or not the department is able to prove that the sales were bogus or genuine will depend on facts,” said Ameet Patel, chairman of the taxation committee of the Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society.“If a jeweller made genuine sales, then stock records maintained as per normal practice would help him win in appeal if any addition is made at the assessment stage,” said Patel.After demonetisation, many businesses had filed revised returns for FY16 to show a higher cash balance as on March 31, 2016 — a ploy to shift some of the November 2016 cash sales to the previous financial year.Anticipating this, the government had, in November 2017, directed the I-T department to accept only those revised returns where there is ‘bona fide inadvertent error’ or a ‘mistake’ on part of the assessee.The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had told its officials to watch out for any unsubstantiated reduction in closing stock in the revised returns vis-àvis the original returns, higher sales in revised returns, increase in cash-in-hand as on March 31, 2016, or March 31, 2015, among other things.

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झटका: 19 रुपये महंगा हुआ घरेलू रसोई गैस सिलिंडर, जानें नई कीमत

नए साल में एक जनवरी 2020 से रसोई गैस सिलिंडर की कीमत में बढ़ोतरी हो गई है। लगातार चौथे महीने रसोई गैस के दाम में इजाफा हुआ है, जिससे आम आदमी को झटका लगा है। देश के प्रमुख महानगरों में बिना-सब्सिडी वाला गैस सिलिंडर करीब 19.00 रुपये महंगा हुआ है। 

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मोदी सरकार के अहम निर्णयों का 2020 में सुप्रीम कोर्ट में होगा लिटमस टेस्ट

केंद्र सरकार द्वारा वर्ष 2019 में नागरिकता संशोधन अधिनियम (सीएए), अनुच्छेद-370 को हटाने सहित लिए गए अन्य अहम निर्णयों को वर्ष 2020 में सुप्रीम कोर्ट केलिटमस टेस्ट से गुजरना होगा।

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बंगाल विभाजन को लेकर किए गए ट्वीट पर राज्यपाल जगदीप धनखड़ हो गए ट्रोल

लगातार विवादों में घिरे रहने वाले पश्चिम बंगाल के राज्यपाल जगदीप धनखड़ मंगलवार को अपने एक ट्वीट को लेकर जबरदस्त तरीके से ट्रोल का शिकार हो गए।

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PM Modi Told General Rawat About Appointment As First Defence Staff Chief

It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who broke the news to General Bipin Rawat about his appointment as the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

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Broken Windows, Pigs In Kota Hospital Where 940 Children Died: Report

Broken windows and gates, pigs roaming inside hospital campus and acute shortage of staff were among the findings of the top child rights body NCPCR during the inspection of JK Lon Hospital in Kota...

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UP Seeks Ban On Popular Front Of India Over Anti-Citizenship Act Violence

The Uttar Pradesh Police has sought a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), days after its complicity was suspected in the recent statewide violent protests against the amended citizenship law.

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Extend deadline for inter-creditor pacts: Banks to RBI

MUMBAI: Leading banks have written to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asking it to extend the deadline for signing intercreditor agreements (ICAs) by another three months so that cases close to resolution are not referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as the January 7 deadline approaches.“We have written to RBI seeking extension of inter-creditor agreement deadline of January 7 by three months so that cases are not referred to NCLT,” said a senior public sector banker.Banks are willing to make the additional 20% provision that breaching the deadline entails but want the window of resolution open until the March 31 financial year end to avoid the value destruction that they say would follow by taking the NCLT route as prescribed by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).The ICA mechanism was established in order to arrive at a resolution plan within a specific period (30+180 days) for bad loans without entering the NCLT process.Lenders need to come up with an ICA resolution plan for loans worth Rs 3 lakh crore by January 7— the deadline for most stressed accounts — failing which they have to make a 20% provision and refer cases to the NCLT within 30 days.“Value destruction happens when cases are sent to NCLT.”73053058 Of the 2,542 cases in which the resolution process had started until the end of September, 186 have been closed on appeal or review, or settled; 116 have been withdrawn; 587 have ended in orders for liquidation; and 156 have ended in approval of the resolution plan, data showed. The realisation of 34% of the claims is from 27 companies.Resolution plans under the ICA framework are taking longer than anticipated because banks and non-bank lenders such as mutual funds and insurance companies are at loggerheads. With creditors unable to agree on buyers or the restructuring mechanism, it’s taking several weeks to arrive at any consensus. The delays will eat into bank earnings.“No resolution plan has been implemented in many cases and these cases are likely to be referred to NCLT,” said Chandan Churiwal, senior vice president, Assets Care & Reconstruction Enterprises.The central bank’s June 7, 2019, circular requires banks to put in place an ICA within a month of the review period. To implement a resolution plan in 180 days, financial institutions enter into an ICA, authorising the lead bank to put it into action. The lead bank then prepares the plan that includes empanelling turnaround specialists and industry experts for operational revival of the asset. In case the chief lender is unable to complete the process on time, the asset moves to the NCLT. Lenders need to come up with an ICA resolution plan for loans worth 3 lakh cr by January 7.

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Banks continue to remain wary of lending to NBFCs

MUMBAI: India’s non-bank lenders continue to face hurdles in accessing funds, with banks insisting that the last-mile financiers ensure zero loss on securitisation pools, three people familiar with the matter told ET. In some cases, state-run banks are insisting NBFCs ensure 100% collection on past securitisation pools despite clear markups for expected credit losses during the purchase of these pooled loans.This new trend by banks to cover historic pool losses may hit fresh sanctions, even as NBFC credit growth is floundering.Banks undertake purchase of retail pools under the securitisation mode to meet their priority sector and retail lending requirements. As per central bank rules, the risk and rewards of the securitisation pool is to be borne by the buyer without any recourse of credit loss to the seller.Banks are required to get a credit loss assessment done from a rating agency and add a markup to the total deal cost for future credit losses. But risk aversion toward non-bank lenders is changing the rules of the game.73053003 “Most of the public sector banks expect that the seller NBFC shall ensure zero loss on the pools,” said the CEO of a leading NBFC, on the condition of anonymity. “For the past losses, they want 100% collection from retail pools, in complete contravention of RBI guidelines. The NBFCs are forced to comply as banks would otherwise block new business.”Officials at the lending banks year, banks charged nearly 40 bps as the spread on AAA-rated NBFC paper. This rose to more than 1.5 percentage point and has remained at that level despite the regulatory and policy measures. These costs are even higher for mid-sized and small non-bank lenders that have a higher reliance on bank credit.“The median rated mid-sized NBFCs rely for more than 80% of their debt on PSBs. This reliance is now getting abused by banks demanding loss compensation, which is clearly unethical. It is compressing our margins and systemically destroying profits of NBFCs,” a senior official from a mid-sized NBFC said.Credit disbursals by NBFCs have continued to slide despite government measures to boost bank funding to the sector. Loan sanctions fell 34% in the September quarter, a year after the NBFC liquidity crisis that was sparked by the IL&FS defaults.NBFC sanctions fell to Rs 1.9 lakh crore at the end of September from Rs 2.9 lakh crore during the same period last year, according to data compiled by the CRIF High Mark credit bureau.

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आसार: आज से मिलेगी ठंड से राहत, दिल्ली ने झेला 1901 के बाद दूसरा सबसे सर्द दिसंबर

लगातार शीतलहर से गुजर रही राष्ट्रीय राजधानी और आसपास के क्षेत्र में इस साल 1901 के बाद दूसरा सबसे ठंडा दिसंबर का महीना दर्ज किया गया है। मंगलवार को राष्ट्रीय राजधानी का न्यूनतम तापमान सोमवार के मुकाबले दो अंक की बढ़ोतरी के साथ 4.8 डिग्री दर्ज हुआ।

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केंद्र ने रेलवे बोर्ड अध्यक्ष और एक आईएएस अफसर का कार्यकाल बढ़ाया, एक साल और देंगे सेवाएं

रेलवे बोर्ड के अध्यक्ष विनोद कुमार यादव को अगले एक वर्ष के लिए इसी पद पर पुन: नियुक्त किया गया है।

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‘हां या न’ के लिए उपमुख्यमंत्री और केंद्रीय मंत्री के बीच सोशल मीडिया पर तकरार

अनधिकृत कॉलोनियों में प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी के होर्डिंग लगने के बाद शुरू हुआ सियासी संग्राम अब सीधे तौर पर दिल्ली के उपमुख्यमंत्री मनीष सिसोदिया और केंद्रीय शहरी एवं विकास मंत्री हरदीप सिंह पुरी के बीच देखने को मिल रहा है। 

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उत्तराखंडः शीत लहर की चपेट में तराई-भाबर, गलन बढ़ी, यूएस नगर और नैनीताल के स्कूलों में आज छुट्टी

तराई-भाबर में लोग हांडकंपाती ठंड से बेहाल हैं। शीत लहर, गलन से सोमवार को जनजीवन प्रभावित रहा।

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Two Doctors Missing In Delhi Since Christmas Eve, Case Filed

A man and a woman, both doctors, have been missing from the national capital since Christmas evening, police said on Monday.

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General Bipin Rawat To Be Chief Of Defence Staff, US Congratulates Him

Outgoing Army General Bipin Rawat is set to take over as the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) today. As the CDS -- which will be India's first-ever -- General Rawat will be in direct contact with the...

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Manoj Mukund Naravane To Take Charge As Army Chief Today

Lieutenant General Manoj Mukund Naravane will take charge as the Chief of Army Staff on Tuesday succeeding General Bipin Rawat.

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हौसले और आत्मविश्वास से भरे इन शब्दों से करें 2020 का स्वागत

इन संकल्पों को पूरा करने के लिए हमें हौसले और आत्मविश्वास की जरूरत होगी। हौसले और आत्मविश्वास से काम लेंगे, तो जीवन में नई चुनौतियों का सामना करने और अपने लक्ष्य को पूरा करने का उत्साह बना रहेगा। यही उत्साह हमारी जिंदगी में ढेरों खुशियां भर देगा। 

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सीएम योगी की अध्यक्षता में कैबिनेट बैठक आज, कई अहम फैसलों पर लगेगी मुहर

मुख्यमंत्री योगी आदित्यनाथ की अध्यक्षता में मंगलवार को प्रदेश कैबिनेट की बैठक होगी। इसमें सिख विरोधी दंगों की जांच के लिए गठित एसआईटी को पुलिस थाने में बदलने और...

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गोवा: सनबर्न फेस्टिवल में अब तक तीन पर्यटकों की मौत, जानें क्या है यह फेस्टिवल

कोट्टा से पहले ईडीएम म्यूजिक स्थल में दो लोगों की मौत हो चुकी है। फेस्टिवल के पहले दिन आंध्र प्रदेश के रहने वाले दो दोस्त साईं प्रसाद मलयाला और वेंकट सत्यानारायण उस समय बेहोश होकर गिर गए थे।

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Indian tycoons faced bankruptcies, jail and even death in 2019

By Bhuma Shrivastava and P R SanjaiFor many Indian tycoons, 2019 turned woeful as lenders -- empowered by the nation’s recent bankruptcy law and desperate to clean up soured debt from their books -- started seizing assets of delinquent firms or dragged them into insolvency.Indian banks wrote off a record $39 billion of loans in the 18 months through September in a bid to repair their balance sheets as they battled the world’s worst bad debt pile. Making matters worse, a shadow banking crisis led to a funding squeeze, crushing debt-laden businesses that were critically dependent on rollover financing.“Life has come a full circle for tycoons that had enjoyed debt-fueled growth,” said Nirmal Gangwal, founder of distress and debt restructuring advisory firm Brescon & Allied Partners LLP. “Many firms collapsed like a house of cards. The downfall was rather unprecedented.”The government has also been cracking down on economic crime to assuage public anger over absconding businessmen. It’s even barred some from traveling overseas if they were deemed a flight risk.Here are some of the country’s biggest and most-storied businessmen who saw their fortunes fade. Spokespersons for these tycoons didn’t immediately reply to emails and text messages seeking comments.Anil AmbaniThe chairman of Reliance Group, which makes movies to metro lines, had a close shave with jail time in March before his elder brother and Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, bailed him out at the last minute. The woes of the ex-billionaire came to the fore when India’s top court asked him to pay Ericsson AB’s India unit about $77 million of past dues or go to jail since Anil Ambani, 60, had given a personal guarantee. His telecom carrier slipped into insolvency this year, while unprofitable Reliance Naval & Engineering Ltd. faced a cash crunch. Reliance Capital Ltd. is selling assets to pare debt. Ambani is also fending off Chinese lenders in a London court.Malvinder & Shivinder SinghKarma caught up with ex-billionaires and brothers Malvinder Singh, 47, and Shivinder Singh, 44, and how. Scions of a prominent business family, they once helmed India’s top drug maker and second-largest hospital chain. In October, the two were arrested on charges of fraudulently diverting nearly $337 million from a lender they controlled. India’s market regulator found in 2018 that the brothers had defrauded their hospital company of about $56 million. The collapse of the $2 billion empire turned brother against brother, prompting their mother to broker a peace deal that was short-lived. In February, Malvinder accused Shivinder and their spiritual guru of fraud.Shashikant & Ravikant RuiaAfter a hard-fought battle to keep their flagship steel mill, the first-generation entrepreneurs finally saw the bankrupt Essar Steel India Ltd. pass on to ArcelorMittal last month. The $5.9 billion takeover was almost two years in the making with multiple legal wrangles. The group, controlled by Shashikant Ruia, 76, and Ravikant Ruia, 70, were also reprimanded by a U.K. judge in March this year for concealing documents. Started in 1969 as a construction firm, Essar Group diversified, investing about $18 billion between 2008 and 2012, and piled on debt. In 2017, the group had sold another prized asset, Essar Oil.V.G. SiddharthaBefore jumping off a bridge into a river in July in an apparent suicide, the founder of India’s biggest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day had penned a letter that spoke of pressure from lenders, a private equity firm and harassment by tax officials. He had spent much of the last two years pledging ever more of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. shares to refinance loans for ever shorter periods, at ever higher interest rates. “I would like to say I gave it my all,” V.G. Siddhartha, 60, wrote in the letter. “I fought for a long time but today I gave up.”Naresh GoyalThe former ticketing agent who built India’s largest airline by value, stepped down as chairman of Jet Airways India Ltd. in March, caving in to pressure from banks who took over the company. Cut-throat price wars and surging costs pushed Jet deeper into loss. The airline stopped flying in April and went into bankruptcy two months later as lenders failed to find a buyer. In July, an Indian court barred Naresh Goyal from flying overseas after the government said it was investigating an alleged $2.6 billion fraud involving Jet Airways.Rana KapoorThe founder of Yes Bank Ltd., which became India’s fourth-largest non-state lender, tweeted in September 2018 that his shares were invaluable and requested his children never to sell them upon inheritance. But trouble was brewing. The nation’s banking regulator, which found the lender had repeatedly under-reported its bad loans, refused to extend his tenure as chief executive officer. This forced Rana Kapoor, 62, to step down by end-January. Kapoor, who has pledged some of his Yes Bank shares in July, sold almost his entire stake in the lender by October.Subhash ChandraThe rice trader-turned-media mogul, 69, who brought cable television into Indian homes in the early 1990s with his ZEE TV, resigned as chairman of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. in November and lost control of his crown jewel. To help pay the debt of Essel Group, Subhash Chandra has been selling stake in Zee Entertainment in the past few months to repay group’s debt.Gautam ThaparA default by Gautam Thapar, founder of the paper mill-to-power transmission Avantha Group, on pledged shares made Yes Bank Ltd. the biggest shareholder in CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd. In August, the firm was hit by an accounting scandal forcing the board to remove Thapar, 59, from the chairman’s post. A month later, the market regulator ordered a forensic audit of the firm and barred Thapar from accessing securities market.--With assistance from Jeanette Rodrigues, Suvashree Ghosh and Anto Antony

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Gautam Adani is going on $1.5 bn capital hunt

MUMBAI: Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd, the flagship power transmission and distribution company in Gautam Adani’s empire, is set to raise up to $1.5 billion in what could be one of the largest overseas borrowing exercises by an Indian company in the New Year.The company, a subsidiary of Adani Transmission Ltd, is expected to raise about $1 billion via bonds and $400-500 million through syndicated loans, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told ET.The proceeds will be used to expand capacity and refinance loans taken to fund the acquisition of Anil Ambani’s Mumbai power distribution company two years ago. Adani aims to reduce costs by tapping relatively cheap money available overseas. Currently, debt securities worth $11 trillion yield negative returns globally.The Adani Group did not respond to ET’s email seeking comment on the matter.The proposed bonds will be offered globally, including in the US. The securities may be of sevenor 10-year maturity. The company is said to have sought ratings for the proposed issue, which could be investment grade, on par with India’s sovereign rating. The proceeds from the bonds will be used to refinance loans taken to fund the acquisitions two years ago. “The company had taken loans from large local banks including ICICI Bank, SBI and Bank of Baroda with five- to sevenyear maturities, which it will pre-pay using the bond proceeds,” said one person.The company is also in talks with foreign banks to raise up to $500 million through syndicated offshore loans, which will be used to expand capacity next year.The syndicated loans would be three- or five-year money and be priced after adding 250-275 basis points over and above the London Inter-bank Offered Rate. 73039252 “Such refinancing via dollar bonds should give the company a cost advantage even on a fully hedged basis,” said an executive associated with the exercise.Adani Electricity was formed after the acquisition of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.’s integrated generation, transmission and distribution utilities powering Mumbai city. Its distribution network spans over 400 sq. km and caters to the electricity needs of over 2.9 million customers.Adani Transmission acquired debt-laden Reliance Infrastructure’s electricity generation, transmission and distribution business in Mumbai in an all-cash deal valued at Rs 18,800 crore ($2.6 billion) in December 2017. It was one of the largest corporate takeovers in the power sector.Barclays, Citi, Deutsche, JPMorgan, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Standard Chartered Bank are among the banks involved in the entire fund-raising exercise.The banks could not be contacted immediately for comment.Adani Transmission reported a total consolidated debt of Rs 17,909 crore at the end of September, a drop of 2.6% from a year earlier, according to ETIG Database. Interest costs, in proportion to total debt, increased 5.72% compared with a 2.71% rise a year earlier, according to ETIG calculations.Indian companies raised a record $30.25 billion in overseas borrowings this year as they exploited abundant overseas liquidity and overcame a tight domestic market that turned risk averse, ET reported on December 26.Adani Transmission agreed to sell a 25.1% stake in Adani Electricity Mumbai to Qatar Investment Authority for Rs 3,200 crore, the company said on December 11. This brings down the promoter's stake to 75%.

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IndiGo, Etihad show interest in Air India

NEW DELHI: IndiGo, India’s largest airline by market share, and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways have met government officials and evinced interest in ailing national carrier Air India, a senior government official told ET.“Representatives from these companies have met government officials and, unofficially, shown interest in the national carrier. The Tata Group, however, has not shown any interest yet,” said the official, who sought anonymity.The government, which could not sell 76% in Air India last year, is offering 100% stake this time. But the response to road shows in Singapore and London were not encouraging.Officials said that they did, however, see interest from a couple of private equity investors. “There are these two companies and a couple of private equity investors who have shown some interest. An airline as big as Air India is unlikely to receive any more interest,” said the official.The Centre is likely to come up with the expression of interest (EoI) documents by next month. 73039207 73039214 Among the two suitors, IndiGo can bid to own 100% in Air India but Etihad can own only 49% under the current foreign direct investment (FDI) norms.The norms allow a foreign carrier to own up to 49% in an Indian airline, but allow 100% foreign investment in an airline. This means Etihad can bid for 100% stake in Air India by tying up with either Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) or National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund is an infrastructure investment company anchored by the Indian government, where ADIA is a key investor.Etihad, till recently, owned 24% in Jet Airways but decided against funding the financially crippled airline, leading to its grounding in April.Emailed questionnaires sent to IndiGo and Etihad had not elicited any response as of press time Monday.The government, which did not receive a single bid in its maiden attempt to sell Air India last year, is being cautious this time and has offered various relaxations, such as 100% stake in the airline, substantial restructuring of debt and liabilities and allowing the new owner to offer VRS to employees.According to the plan being discussed, the government will pay Air India’s dues amounting to Rs 22,000 crore to vendors such as airports and oil companies before putting the airline up for sale. It may also waive the airline’s entire working capital debt of about Rs 15,500 crore, so that Air India is left with a loan burden of about Rs 20,000 crore.According to the approved plan, Air India will be offered along with low-cost international subsidiary Air India Express as well as its 50% stake in ground-handling company Air India Singapore Airport Terminal Services.

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Reliance sets up Jiomart to sell grocery online soon

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries, India’s biggest company by market value, has started its web portal Jiomart, harnessing the might of its two largest consumer-facing businesses to announce its entry into online food and grocery shopping by early next year.The app will connect both lastmile neighbourhood stores and consumers, leveraging data and technology capabilities of Reliance’s telecom business Jio and the cash-and-carry infrastructure of its retailing arm.According to officials, the new venture will be an aggregator where it will partner local grocers and equip them with points of sale (PoS) terminals, low interest working capital, inventory management skills, and GST compliance.In January 2019, chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that group companies Reliance Retail and Jio would jointly launch a new ecommerce platform in the country.At present, services of the website with the tagline 'India ki nayi dukaan' are available in the outskirts of Mumbai, in suburbs such as Thane, Kalyan and Navi Mumbai. The site offers free home delivery, pre-registration discounts and options to buy more than 50,000 grocery products online."Kiranas are being registered and given POS machines with integrated billing applications. Also, it enables digital transactions, promotions including loyalty, discount coupons by fast moving consumer goods firms and supply chain management," said an official privy to the launch of the service.Reliance Retail had logged net sales of Rs 1.3 lakh crore last fiscal.

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Adani Electricity set to raise up to $1.5 billion abroad

MUMBAI: Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd, the flagship power transmission and distribution company in Gautam Adani’s empire, is set to raise up to $1.5 billion in what could be one of the largest overseas borrowing exercises by an Indian company in the New Year.The company, a subsidiary of Adani Transmission Ltd, is expected to raise about $1 billion via bonds and $400-500 million through syndicated loans, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told ET.The proceeds will be used to expand capacity and refinance loans taken to fund the acquisition of Anil Ambani’s Mumbai power distribution company two years ago. Adani aims to reduce costs by tapping relatively cheap money available overseas. Currently, debt securities worth $11 trillion yield negative returns globally.The Adani Group did not respond to ET’s email seeking comment on the matter.The proposed bonds will be offered globally, including in the US. The securities may be of sevenor 10-year maturity. The company is said to have sought ratings for the proposed issue, which could be investment grade, on par with India’s sovereign rating. The proceeds from the bonds will be used to refinance loans taken to fund the acquisitions two years ago. “The company had taken loans from large local banks including ICICI Bank, SBI and Bank of Baroda with five- to sevenyear maturities, which it will pre-pay using the bond proceeds,” said one person.The company is also in talks with foreign banks to raise up to $500 million through syndicated offshore loans, which will be used to expand capacity next year.The syndicated loans would be three- or five-year money and be priced after adding 250-275 basis points over and above the London Inter-bank Offered Rate. 73039252 “Such refinancing via dollar bonds should give the company a cost advantage even on a fully hedged basis,” said an executive associated with the exercise.Adani Electricity was formed after the acquisition of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.’s integrated generation, transmission and distribution utilities powering Mumbai city. Its distribution network spans over 400 sq. km and caters to the electricity needs of over 2.9 million customers.Adani Transmission acquired debt-laden Reliance Infrastructure’s electricity generation, transmission and distribution business in Mumbai in an all-cash deal valued at Rs 18,800 crore ($2.6 billion) in December 2017. It was one of the largest corporate takeovers in the power sector.Barclays, Citi, Deutsche, JPMorgan, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Standard Chartered Bank are among the banks involved in the entire fund-raising exercise.The banks could not be contacted immediately for comment.Adani Transmission reported a total consolidated debt of Rs 17,909 crore at the end of September, a drop of 2.6% from a year earlier, according to ETIG Database. Interest costs, in proportion to total debt, increased 5.72% compared with a 2.71% rise a year earlier, according to ETIG calculations.Indian companies raised a record $30.25 billion in overseas borrowings this year as they exploited abundant overseas liquidity and overcame a tight domestic market that turned risk averse, ET reported on December 26.Adani Transmission agreed to sell a 25.1% stake in Adani Electricity Mumbai to Qatar Investment Authority for Rs 3,200 crore, the company said on December 11. This brings down the promoter's stake to 75%.

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IPOs worth Rs 50,000 crore to light up Dalal Street next year

ET Intelligence Group: Indian companies may mop up Rs 40,000-50,000 crore through the initial public offering (IPO) route in 2020, an analysis of the draft red herring prospectus (DHRP) filed by companies with the market regulator and pitch notes of investment bankers show.It would be nearly four times higher compared with the Rs 12,362 crore raised by 16 companies in 2019 on the main exchange boards, which was the lowest in five years.Among the prominent IPOs that may hit in the first half of the new year are SBI Cards & Payment (issue size of Rs 9,000-10,000 crore), UTI Asset Management Company (Rs 3,500-4,000 crore), Burger King (Rs 400 crore), Home First Finance (Rs 1,500 crore) and Computer Age Management Services (Rs 1500 crore).73039343 The later part of the year may witness the public issues of Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Equitas Small Finance Bank, Emami Cement, Easytrip Planners (which operates easemytrip.com), Puranik Builders, Samhi Hotels, and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency.Pranav Haldea, managing director at Prime database said, “There is a robust pipeline of IPOs if the secondary market continues to improve and assuming no major negative surprises from the Union Budget.” According to Prime database, 21 companies having approvals from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) plan to raise nearly Rs 18,700 crore while 13 other companies are waiting for the approval to raise over Rs 18,000 crore.“Sentiments have improved for the IPO market and enquiry levels from corporates have increased multi-fold. If market returns from the existing stocks become broader over the next two-three quarters, we may see fresh IPOs worth more than Rs 40,000 crore in 2020,” said an investment banking head of a leading domestic private bank. “Our calendars are quite tight in the first quarter of 2020 and we have already scheduled road shows for five-six companies in Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States.”Interestingly, the returns of the companies that debuted on bourses in 2019 are promising. Their median return was 42.6 per cent over their issue prices, according to the data compiled by the ET Intelligence Group.Stocks including IRCTC, Affle India, and IndiaMART Inter-MESH have doubled from their issue prices. Nearly four out of every five IPOs in 2019 earned returns for investors. The S&P BSE IPO Index, an index comprising companies that raised money in the past two years, rose by 36 per cent in 2019 compared with a gain of 13 per cent of the S&P BSE Sensex.72990263 The fund raising from the rights issue and through qualified institutional placement (QIP) also gained prominence in 2019 as corporates needed capital to meet regulatory obligations. Fifteen companies raised Rs 52,053 crore from rights issue in 2019, the highest amount in five years.A major portion was accounted for by Vodafone Idea’s issue of Rs 25,000 crore and Bharti Airtel’s Rs 24,939-crore issue.Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) invested $3.9 billion in intitial public issues and qualified institutional placements of Indian companies during the year. They have also invested a net $9.9 billion through the secondary market.

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Chinese phone companies may spice up premium space in 2020

NEW DELHI: Aggressive Chinese smartphone companies Oppo, Vivo and Realme are set to challenge the dominance of OnePlus, Apple and Samsung in India’s premium segment in 2020, likely pushing growth in the category to the fastest ever.Premium smartphones – those priced over Rs 30,000 – are expected to grow by 48% in 2020, according to Counterpoint Technology Market Research. Research firm TechArc expects a 30% increase in 2020.“India’s premium segment is still at a nascent stage, contributing just 6% to the market by volume. This is still low when compared to markets like the US and China, where the premium segment accounts for 50% and 22%, respectively,” said Tarun Pathak, associate director at Counterpoint Research.With Oppo, Vivo and Realme entering the premium segment, consumers are set to have an abundance of choice, which will help expand the market at a faster pace than before, analysts said.Premium device shipments are expected to grow by 33% in 2019, while overall smartphone sales are expected to show muted growth - in single digits.73039208 Growth in smartphone sales will be about 5% in 2020, Realme India chief executive officer Madhav Sheth told ET earlier, as people hold on to their devices for longer due to lack of innovation in new models and higher average prices.In 2020, the category is expected to contribute 34-36% of the market by value, compared with less than 30% in 2019, according to TechArc.The premium market is dominated by OnePlus, Samsung and Apple, which had 35%, 23% and 22% share, respectively, in the third quarter of 2019, data from Counterpoint Research showed. Oppo, Vivo and Realme, which, like OnePlus, are owned by China’s BBK, have already entered the category.Realme, an online-only brand, plans to go offline in 2020, hoping to disrupt the segment with a slew of premium launches.73039216

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India allows Huawei to participate in 5G trials

NEW DELHI: The government has decided to allow all network equipment makers, including Huawei, to participate in 5G trials. This is the first time that India, caught in a diplomatic and economic tussle between the US and China, has taken an official stance on the matter. It boosts the Chinese company’s hopes of playing a part in the deployment of the next-generation technology in India despite US objections.“5G trials will be done with all vendors and operators,” telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters on Monday. “We have taken an in-principle decision to give 5G spectrum for trials.” On being asked specifically about Huawei, Prasad said that at this stage, all vendors are invited.While mobile phone companies that will be allotted 5G spectrum took the comments as a green signal to work with the Chinese vendors, not just for trials but also future deployments, a top government official cautioned that the clearance was only for the test phase.The US has been pressuring its allies and friendly countries, including India, to bar Huawei from 5G deployments, flagging security concerns and citing the company’s alleged proximity to the Chinese government. China has on its part warned India of economic consequences if Huawei was excluded from 5G development and deployments.Countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Taiwan besides the US are keeping Huawei out of 5G deployments, while others including France, the Netherlands, Russia and South Korea have allowed the Chinese equipment maker to participate. Canada, the UK, Germany, Italy and Indonesia are among those currently on the fence.So far, India had kept its decision pending on this issue.73039147 The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has invited all stakeholders such as operators and vendors, including Huawei, on Tuesday to discuss the 5G field trial road map, top officials said.Huawei welcomed the development. “We have also read the news in media and we thank the Indian government for their continued faith in Huawei,” said Huawei India CEO Jay Chen. “We firmly believe that only technology innovations and high-quality networks will be the key to rejuvenating the Indian telecom industry… Huawei is always committed to India.”Major global equipment vendors in India include European companies Ericsson and Nokia, China’s Huawei and ZTE and South Korea’s Samsung. Vodafone Idea has applied to partner with Ericsson and Huawei for 5G trials, while Bharti Airtel has sought permission to conduct trials with Nokia, Huawei and Ericsson. Rival Reliance Jio Infocomm has applied for a pilot initiative with Samsung.Rajan Mathews, director general of lobby group the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said Prasad’s comments provided much-needed clarity to mobile phone companies on 5G partnerships. “This was the clarity that we needed on telcos partnering with Huawei and ZTE on both trials and deployment,” he said. “Now we are pleased to note that they (Huawei and ZTE) will continue to be able to partner, along with other OEMs (original equipment makers), with telcos on 5G trials and deployment going ahead.”COAI represents all three non-state telcos – Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Jio. The companies have been seeking clarity on Huawei’s participation in 5G, saying they didn’t want to be wrong-footed in the future with billions of dollars at stake. Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal had in October called for allowing Huawei to take part in India’s 5G rollout. He said that the gear maker’s 3G and 4G equipment was better than that of European vendors.DEPLOYMENT CALL LATERA senior DoT official said the latest clearance was only for 5G trials and not deployments. “We will consider that later,” he said. Sources said the government hopes to use the trials to scrutinise potential vulnerabilities and then take a final call on 5G deployments. The US presidential election in November could play a part in India’s final decision, said an industry expert. “But allowing them for 5G trials is a big step forward,” he said. Some analysts have said that barring the Chinese vendors could mean increasing the cost of 5G for consumers in India by 15-20%, besides a delay in rollout. Huawei is said to be at least a year ahead of its rivals in 5G technology development.India’s 5G trials have been long delayed. They were first scheduled to take place earlier this year but got stuck on modalities such as pricing and trial tenure. On taking over as the telecom minister in June, Prasad said that his priority would be to start trials within 100 days, a deadline that also passed. Recently, telecom secretary Anshu Prakash said trials would be held in January 2020.Prasad had informed the Lok Sabha in June that the government had received as many as six proposals for 5G pilot programmes that would be undertaken only through licensed service providers.

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As moratorium ends, NPAs may rise in January

MUMBAI: Non-performing assets in the wholesale book is expected to rise from January, as an increasing proportion of the loan book comes out of moratorium. Nearly Rs 70,000 crore worth of advances to infrastructure developers would be out of a stipulated moratorium period in January, according to India Ratings. Some of these exposures may turn delinquent, as cost of funds have risen, and liquidity is tight.These NBFCs are large lenders to developers. A third of developer loan book of NBFCs was under moratorium where interest payment was happening, but principle payment was to start from January. Delinquencies may increase on these accounts on a case to case basis.“The principal moratorium is estimated at 50-70% of assets for some non-banks, going as high as 90% in some, as per Crisil.With the moratorium period of these facilities gradually coming to an end, we expect the asset quality to come under pressure. There has also been an increase in softer delinquencies for nonbanks in the current fiscal reflecting the build-up of stress.73039055 “The share of loans under moratorium in the wholesale or real estate segments of non-banks tends to be high as much as 70% in certain cases given the typical maturity profile of real estate loans,” said Karthik Srinivasan, senior vice-president Icra.Most lenders are wary of developers because of unsold inventory. While banks have slowed down their exposure to developers, NBFCs have aggressively expanded in this segment. NBFCs saw over 30% increase in loan book till 2017-18.This, coupled with the high prepayments or exits through refinance or take-out, helped support the asset quality despite the slowdown in the borrower segments. However, banks raised borrowing cost by 150-200 basis points after the IL&FS default.“For these borrowers liquidity constraints may continue since the developers are saddled with unsold inventory and also since fresh funding has become difficult to come,” said a senior bank official. “NPA is likely to increase only marginally in the fourth quarter as lenders have already classified many of the big accounts as NPA. Cost of funds to the developers has also increased by 150-200 bps.”

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Stakeholders believe, MDR waiver may hurt digital India

MUMBAI: The Centre’s decision to not levy Merchant Discount Rates for payments made through Ru-Pay debit cards and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) instruments has drawn criticism from market stakeholders, several of which claim the move could slow India’s drive toward a less-cash economy.The policy, besides putting National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) domestic RuPay cards under competitive disadvantage over multinational rivals Visa and Mastercard, also threatens the business models of several home-grown Payment Service Providers (PSPs), industry executives said.“The prohibition on charging MDR on Rupay and UPI would kill the industry and make the business model unviable. It is akin to nationalisation of the payments industry,” said Vishwas Patel, chairman of Payment Council of India (PCI), an industry body representing more than 100 PSP fintech companies.“There would be a significant negative impact on the payment ecosystem –innovation, job losses and a slowdown in the expansion of the digital payments in India,” said Patel. “Service providers will start withdrawing the existing deployed POS terminals from unviable small shops and establishments as continued maintenance, training and supply of printer rolls etc. will increase losses.”Furthermore, past representations by both the Indian Bank’s Association and the Payment Council of India have also warned that in a market environment with no incentives for investments, there could be “near stoppage in customer incentive spends by the (market) participants,” and a potential “dry out revenues” for many businesses, as per copies of their letters reviewed by ET. The revenue impact to the government is about Rs 2,500 crore annually.Mailed queries to the IBA and NPCI remained unanswered.73039038 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the zero MDR regime would kick in once the Department of Revenue issued a gazette notification on January 1.The announcement came after a high-level meeting with top executives of public and private sector banks, where the finance secretary, revenue secretary, economic affairs secretary, electronics and information technology secretary, RBI representatives and the chief executive officer of NPCI were present.MDR is the fee accrued by ‘issuer’ banks from ‘acquirer’ banks on digital payments and is generally levied from the merchants processing the transactions. The current MDR charges are capped at 0.60% of card-based transactions for payments over Rs 2,000. The costs of MDR below Rs 2,000 for banks are borne by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY).“It’s a hara-kiri committed by the government,” a top industry executive requesting anonymity told ET. “Such a policy would put years of hard work done by domestic companies in expanding digital payments network and put NPCI in a competitive disadvantage over international rivals operating in the market.”There are more than 500 million RuPay debit cards in the market and 4 million POS (point of sale) machines processing debit card payments. With roughly around Rs 14 lakh crore worth of digital transactions per month, the MDR net spends come in at around Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 8,000 crore annually, as per market estimates.“Nearly 55% of this revenue goes to the private fintech players and the rest goes to the banks,” said Loney Anthony, Managing Director of Hitachi Payments Services.According to a PCI spokesperson, Indian PSP startups notably, the likes of Paytm, Mswipe, PhonePe and PineLabs, have attracted billions worth of foreign direct investments over the last few years. “In a scenario where there are no viable business models for these companies, the investments coming in would also take a hit,” Anthony added.

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No One Forced To Attend Sunburn: Goa Minister On Death Of Tourists

Even as opposition parties hit out at the Goa government over the death of three tourists after collapsing at the Sunburn Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Festival, state Culture Minister Govind Gawade on...

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Thousands Trapped On Australia Beach Encircled By Fire

Authorities had for days been warning up to 30,000 tourists enjoying Australia's summer holidays to leave the area, which is just one of the hundreds ravaged by this devastating bushfire season.

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समुद्र में ताकत बढ़ा रहा 'ड्रैगन', हिंद महासागर में उतारे दो एयरक्राफ्ट कैरियर

चीन ने दो शक्तिशाली समुद्री विध्वंसक पोत का जलावतरण किया। वह हिंद महासागर में जिबूती नौसैनिक अड्डे पर बहुत बड़ा गोदी बना रहा है ताकि अपने विमान वाहक पोतों को वहां रख सके।

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बर्फीली हवाओं के साथ घने कोहरे और धुंध के कहर से उत्तर भारत पस्त, दिल्ली में 119 साल का टूटा रिकॉर्ड

घने कोहरे, धुंध और बर्फीली हवाओं के कहर से दिल्ली-एनसीआर समेत समूचा उत्तर भारत पस्त हो गया।

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गुजरात : कांडला बंदरगाह के पास मेथेनॉल की टंकी में लगी आग, चार की मौत

गुजरात के कच्छ जिले में कांडला बंदरगाह के पास एक निजी कंपनी की मेथेनॉल भंडारण की एक टंकी में आग लग जाने से सोमवार को चार व्यक्तियों की मौत हो गई।

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Several Noida Routes To Be Diverted On New Year's Eve

Multiple routes leading to and from Sector 18, the commercial hub of Noida, which attracts a large number of visitors on New Years's eve, will remain diverted from 4 pm on Tuesday till 2 am on...

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फिर बढ़े पेट्रोल-डीजल के दाम, जानिए आपके शहर में आज कितनी हुई कीमत

तेल कंपनियों ने सोमवार को पेट्रोल और डीजल की कीमतों में बढ़ोतरी कर दी है। इससे पहले रविवार को भी पेट्रोल व डीजल की कीमतों में बढ़ोतरी की गई थी।

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झारखंड: क्या है पत्थलगड़ी आंदोलन, जिसमें दर्ज केस हेमंत सोरेन सरकार ने लिए वापस

दरअसल, पत्थलगड़ी उन पत्थर स्मारकों को कहा जाता है जिसकी शुरुआत इंसानी समाज ने हजारों साल पहले की थी। यह एक पाषाणकालीन परंपरा है जो आदिवासियों में आज भी प्रचलित है।

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Sensex Rises Over 100 Points, Nifty Tops 12,250

On Friday, the Sensex had ended 411.38 points - or 1.00 per cent - higher at 41,575.14 and the Nifty settled at 12,245.80, up 119.25 points - or 0.98 per cent - from the previous close.

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Road To Delhi: 10 Indian Politicians Who Had The Most Impact This Decade

Politics in India has seen a tectonic shift in the last ten years. Many politicians, who were at best regional players, catapulted into the national spotlight and went on to become titans of Indian...

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Close to half of claims under IBC settled in FY19

MUMBAI: Around half of the claims under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) were settled in 2018-19, the latest RBI report showed, helping banks recover stressed assets more quickly.As a percentage of claims, banks recovered on average 42.5% of the amount filed through the IBC in the financial year 2018-19, against 14.5% through the Sarfaesi resolution mechanism, 3.5% through Debt Recovery Tribunals and 5.3% through Lok Adalats, it said.Against Rs 1.66 lakh crore claims involved under IBC, the recovery was Rs 70,819 crore. Through the Sarfaesi mechanism, it stood at Rs 41,876 crore. Recoveries through DRTs and Lok Adalats were Rs 10,575 crore and Rs 2,816 crore, respectively.“The stipulated timeframe for resolution of stressed assets under IBC is significantly lesser than for other mechanisms,” said Kollegal Raghavendra, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of India.“That there is a distinct disincentive for delayed resolutions under the mechanism is the primary motivation for banks to now refer cases to NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal).”After rising for seven consecutive years, non-performing assets declined in 2018-19 and bad loans recognition neared completion and the slippage ratio improved.With recovery through legal mechanisms going up, cleaning up of balance sheets via sale of stressed assets to asset reconstruction companies fell year-on-year.“The entire process has also inculcated fear in the minds of promoters over defaults and delays in resolutions as whatever kingdoms they’ve established might be taken away. It has been a positive reinforcement of the overall credit culture as the paybacks are more efficient because these promoters don’t want to be dragged into the court over defaults,” said Raghavendra. 73023707 Even if recoveries do not happen within the stipulated time-frame, IBC is one of the most efficient modes of recovery.“One of the reasons why NPAs are coming down is because there are real repayments happening because of the introduction of IBC mechanism for resolution of stressed assets,” said Sridhar Ramachandran, CIO, IndiaNivesh Renaissance Fund, which specialises in investing in turnaround companies.“However, having said that, the process still requires some fine-tuning. The expertise of resolution professionals compared to the RPs in the UK or some other countries is still less. Secondly, the training of the judges of the NCLT courts and the speed at which cases are being disposed (of) is still not at desirable levels.”Although two new benches of the NCLT are being set up, more benches and members are required.Ramachandran said training of judges and expansion of infrastructure should be prioritised.“There is a fear in the minds of the promoter which is helping the banks in recovering their dues quicker but the moment there is more proactiveness in training the judges, the mechanism should do well,” he said.

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Nikhat Zareen Says She Never Expected Mary Kom To "Get So Angry"

Nikhat Zareen said her fight was not against Mary Kom but against a system that was not giving her a fair chance to prove herself in her weight category.

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Delhi Man Shoots Wife, Throws Body Off Balcony To Fake Suicide: Cops

A 25-year-old woman was shot dead allegedly by her husband over dowry in south-west Delhi's Kapashera area, police said on Saturday.

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यूपी के ग्रेटर नोएडा में हादसा, नहर में गिरी कार, दो बच्चों सहित छह की मौत

उत्तर प्रदेश के ग्रेटर नोएडा में बड़ा सड़क हादसा हुआ है। हादसे में छह लोगों की मौत हो गई है। हादसे में पांच लोग घायल भी हुए हैं, जिन्हें अस्पताल में भर्ती कराया गया है। 

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इस वजह से शिमला और मसूरी जैसे हिल स्टेशनों से ज्यादा ठंडी है दिल्ली

मौसम विभाग के अधिकारियों का कहना है कि इसका मुख्य कारण मैदानी इलाकों में दिन के समय कोहरा छाया रहना है। जिसकी वजह से जमीन तक सूरज की रोशनी नहीं पहुंच रही।

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LIC raises 2018-19 provisioning by 30%

MUMBAI: State-owned Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC) has raised provisions for doubtful assets by 30% to Rs 23,760 crore for the year ended March, it said in its just-released annual report. This came after reviewing asset quality and the performance of investments in real estate, loans and other assets, it said.The country’s biggest life insurer has exposure to stressed entities such as Dewan Housing Finance Corp Ltd, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services and the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group among others.LIC had previously set aside Rs 18,195 crore for FY19, having posted a reduction in gross nonperforming assets (NPAs) to 6.15% from 6.23% in FY18.Net NPAs shrank to 0.27% in FY19 from 1.82% in FY18. 73023536 In absolute terms, the insurer’s NPAs stood at Rs 24,777 crore on March 31, out of a total debt of Rs 4 lakh crore. Of this, doubtful assets were Rs 16,690 crore, loss assets Rs 6,772 crore and substandard assets Rs 1,312 crore. Total loan assets for restructuring rose to Rs 401 crore from nil, due to LIC’s exposure to some large power and infrastructure assets.After rising for seven consecutive years, NPAs in the overall banking system declined in FY19 to 9.3% as bad-loan recognition neared completion and the slippage ratio improved, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday.LIC saw a 10% increase in valuation surplus of Rs 53,214.41crore for FY19. It has a market share of 76.28% in number of policies and 71% in first-year premiums. It paid a dividend of Rs 2,610.74 crore to the government for FY19.LIC saw its yield on investments fall to 7.59% in FY19 from 7.71% in the previous year. According to the annual report, investments in loans, debentures, equity and various social and infrastructure projects, money market instruments stood at Rs 29.84 lakh crore.

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Pricing and buys may help Infosys pip TCS in growth

BENGALURU: Infosys is likely to grow faster than larger rival TCS this fiscal year, analysts said, on the back of its acquisitions and competitive pricing strategy. Over the past two years, the software services provider has been investing in an aggressive sales and marketing team and to attract digital- tech-focused deals.The company decided to build long-term relationships with strategic clients, including telecom major Verizon and hired deal directors to chase large deals. This has given Infosys an edge over TCS, they said.“This year (financial year 2019-20) Infosys will grow faster than TCS. While TCS is likely to see 8-8.5% growth in constant currency terms, Infosys should grow over 9% on an organic basis, excluding Stater,” said Kuldeep Koul, lead IT analyst at ICICI Securities.In May, Infosys acquired a 75% stake in Stater, a unit of ABM AMRO that offers end-to-end mortgage administration services to customers in the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) region. The company, which saw slowpaced growth in the initial few quarters after Salil Parekh took over as chief executive in January 2018, reported higher growth than TCS in the July-September quarter.Analysts said Parekh’s bets in changing the company's growth trajectory have started paying off. In the first half of FY20, Infosys reported 10.2% growth in topline to $6,341 million. Even if the second half has some seasonal growth challenges, for the whole year Infosys is expected to grow faster, said analysts. Infosys under Parekh decided to double down on sales and marketing and improve its employee profile. It also created innovative deal structures for strategic clients like Verizon and ABN AMRO and sharpened focus on automation which has helped Infosys become more competitive and participate more aggressively in large deals, said Koul of ICICI Securities. 73023679 For instance, Infosys’ contract with Verizon “was to create some sort of structure like employee rebadging where initial revenue may be less but building a long-term relationship with a client who will spend considerably on technology over a period of time,” Koul said.Infosys’ large deal wins are on track and it has shown better operations, even as it is done with large investments for now, said Apurva Prasad, IT analyst at HDFC Securities.“Infosys is expected to clock 1.2 times higher growth than TCS this fiscal,” said Prasad.The company’s “deal pipeline is pretty strong, but it has some scope for improving utilisation,” he added.TCS, on the other hand, is chasing higher margins and has certain cyclical client-specific issues.“They have large numbers to work with. They have 26-28% margin aspirations. In the past four years, they had lower than 26% aspirations. At times, you may not chase deals which will keep you away from this margin aspiration,” said another Mumbai-based analyst, who did not want to be quoted.Infosys and TCS declined to comment citing the silent period before their quarterly results next month.“Infosys has sharpened focus to increase its share within large accounts, supported by hiring of deal directors, and increased engagement with deal advisors or consultants. Its partnership with Temasek and with Hitachi, Panasonic, Pasona in Japan are creating larger deal opportunities for the firm in Apac region,” wrote Prasad in a report.

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Telecom companies won’t get input tax credit refund: Sushil Modi

NEW DELHI: The Goods and Services Tax Council will reject requests by telcos for a refund of input tax credit of Rs 36,000 crore, Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told ET, dashing hopes of any financial relief for the beleaguered telecom sector.“The GST Council has not considered this issue and even if it does come up for consideration, it will not be accepted,” said Modi, the convener of the Group of Ministers on Integrated GST. “And such a huge amount, there is no question of refund.”Telecom service providers have been urging the government to refund the input tax credit or adjust the amount against their statutory dues. They have sent several requests to the finance ministry.Input tax credit worth some Rs 18,000 crore for Reliance Jio Infocomm, about Rs 10,000 crore for Bharti Airtel and roughly Rs 8,000 crore for Vodafone Idea is currently with the finance ministry. The telcos are seeking a refund of taxes paid on inputs such as equipment used to provide telecom services.Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are raising funds to pay about Rs 89,000 crore of adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-based dues to the telecom department.73023500 Licence fees and spectrum usage charges that have been pending for more than 15 years because of a legal dispute over the definition of AGR need to be paid by January, as per a Supreme Court order. Adjustment of input tax credit refund against the dues would have helped the telcos struggling with losses and debt.The telcos have been asking the telecom department to push their case with the finance ministry and the GST Council, the nodal body authorised to take decisions in the matter. The demand was also raised with the finance ministry during pre-budget meetings last week.However, the Council will not concede any such relief, Modi said.“There is no discussion on it. Such a request will not be entertained at all within GST Council, at any level,” he reiterated.Only in one case has exemption on GST been given — on the langar at Swarn Mandir of Amritsar — and Rs 300 crore refunded, where the Central government reimbursed it, otherwise there has been no case of exemption or refund, Modi explained.

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Pre-trade share allocation to funds may be mandatory

MUMBAI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is planning to make pre-trade allocations mandatory for all institutional investors, said two people with knowledge of the matter, reviving a proposal it had floated two years ago. Currently, institutional investors buy large blocks of stocks and allocate them to schemes after purchase. However, the regulator now wants investors to disclose to exchanges in advance what quantity of shares is meant for which fund.The development comes as the regulator has noticed that some investors, especially mutual funds, are giving preference to flagship schemes over others, said the people cited above. The practice is more prevalent in capital market transactions such as initial public offerings (IPOs) and qualified institutional placements (QIPs).The regulator is pushing the framework as a move to enhance transparency in the capital markets. But institutional investors, especially foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), say it’s fraught with several implementation issues.Sebi didn’t respond to queries.The regulator has held discussions with various stakeholders on the matter in the past two months.“There is currently no uniform industry practice for allocation of shares amongst various funds, but most of the fund houses prefer to buy the shares first and then allocate them,” said one of the persons cited above. Sebi had proposed such a move in 2017 but put it on hold after several marquee FPIs expressed reservations.“The FPI fund managers will be in violation of their fiduciary duties if they are forced to follow pre-trade allocations,” said a leading Hong Kong-based fund manager who is a key functionary of the Asian Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Asifma), an FPI lobby group. “We have been told by Sebi during consultations that the problem is largely confined to local MFs that are misusing the lack of regulation in the matter. In such a case, FPIs should be kept out of the ambit of the new law.” 73023644 According to market participants, the key issue with pre-trade allocations will be pricing of shares. Currently, the institutional investor buys shares in various blocks and while allotting them across the funds, makes sure that each one gets equity at the same average.“If pre-trade allocation is allowed, funds will have to specify in advance how many shares are meant for which fund and hence the blocks will be allocated accordingly. The result would be different execution prices for different funds, since orders get placed at different times,” said a leading MF executive. “This automatically puts a fund offered by the same AMC (asset management company) at a disadvantageous position compared to another.”FPIs have a fiduciary duty to treat all funds managed by them equally. Allotting shares to different funds at different prices is against this, said a leading global custodian.FPIs are considered price movers as they tend to buy large quantities of shares. When such large demands come up, share prices see sharp swings.Trade allocations have been contentious across global markets. In the past, regulators in the US and UK asked fund managers to follow stricter allocation rules since they were seen directing shares bought at lower prices to proprietary books and others to public schemes. Hence, providing an equitable entry price has been made one of the fiduciary duties of fund managers.c

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Pricing and buys may help Infosys pip TCS in growth

BENGALURU: Infosys is likely to grow faster than larger rival TCS this fiscal year, analysts said, on the back of its acquisitions and competitive pricing strategy. Over the past two years, the software services provider has been investing in an aggressive sales and marketing team and to attract digital- tech-focused deals.The company decided to build long-term relationships with strategic clients, including telecom major Verizon and hired deal directors to chase large deals. This has given Infosys an edge over TCS, they said.“This year (financial year 2019-20) Infosys will grow faster than TCS. While TCS is likely to see 8-8.5% growth in constant currency terms, Infosys should grow over 9% on an organic basis, excluding Stater,” said Kuldeep Koul, lead IT analyst at ICICI Securities.In May, Infosys acquired a 75% stake in Stater, a unit of ABM AMRO that offers end-to-end mortgage administration services to customers in the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) region. The company, which saw slowpaced growth in the initial few quarters after Salil Parekh took over as chief executive in January 2018, reported higher growth than TCS in the July-September quarter.Analysts said Parekh’s bets in changing the company's growth trajectory have started paying off. In the first half of FY20, Infosys reported 10.2% growth in topline to $6,341 million. Even if the second half has some seasonal growth challenges, for the whole year Infosys is expected to grow faster, said analysts. Infosys under Parekh decided to double down on sales and marketing and improve its employee profile. It also created innovative deal structures for strategic clients like Verizon and ABN AMRO and sharpened focus on automation which has helped Infosys become more competitive and participate more aggressively in large deals, said Koul of ICICI Securities. 73023679 For instance, Infosys’ contract with Verizon “was to create some sort of structure like employee rebadging where initial revenue may be less but building a long-term relationship with a client who will spend considerably on technology over a period of time,” Koul said.Infosys’ large deal wins are on track and it has shown better operations, even as it is done with large investments for now, said Apurva Prasad, IT analyst at HDFC Securities.“Infosys is expected to clock 1.2 times higher growth than TCS this fiscal,” said Prasad.The company’s “deal pipeline is pretty strong, but it has some scope for improving utilisation,” he added.TCS, on the other hand, is chasing higher margins and has certain cyclical client-specific issues.“They have large numbers to work with. They have 26-28% margin aspirations. In the past four years, they had lower than 26% aspirations. At times, you may not chase deals which will keep you away from this margin aspiration,” said another Mumbai-based analyst, who did not want to be quoted.Infosys and TCS declined to comment citing the silent period before their quarterly results next month.“Infosys has sharpened focus to increase its share within large accounts, supported by hiring of deal directors, and increased engagement with deal advisors or consultants. Its partnership with Temasek and with Hitachi, Panasonic, Pasona in Japan are creating larger deal opportunities for the firm in Apac region,” wrote Prasad in a report.

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Delhi Weather Updates: Dense Fog Blankets NCR; 30 Trains Running Late

A dense fog has gripped Delhi and neighbouring areas, affecting road, rail and air traffic in the region. In Delhi -- where the weather office has sounded a "red" alert, commuters were seen driving...

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UP Deputy Chief Minister Backs Meerut Cop's "Go To Pakistan" Remark

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Sunday commented on a video of senior police official from Meerut, which is doing rounds on social media, and said that the Meerut...

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Dense Fog In Delhi Disrupts Rail Traffic, Airlines Give Advisory

Dense fog prevailed in the national capital and its adjoining areas in the early hours of Monday morning.

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2 Children Among 6 Dead As Car Falls Into Canal Near Delhi Due To Fog

Six people, including two children, were killed when their car skidded off the road and fell into a canal in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida, apparently due to fog, police said on Monday.

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