1. Sorry Swamy, India Inc Wants Raghuram Rajan to Stay
Contrary to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s demands, corporate India doesn’t want Raghuram Rajan to quit RBI, as a recent poll by The Economic Times suggests.
In fact, 90 percent of participants even suggested he should get a second term as governor of the Reserve Bank of India, when his current term ends in September.
The poll of 43 top chief executives from sectors such as retail, telecom and financial services shows that India Inc largely supports Rajan despite misgivings about his interest rate policy and his tough action on non-performing bank loans.
2. PNB Shocker: Rs 5367 Crore in Losses
In what can termed as one of the biggest shockers from state-owned banks, Punjab National Bank reported a loss of Rs 5,367 crore, the largest-ever by an Indian lender. An asset quality review conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) late last year revealed a huge pile of stressed assets in state-owned banks, that lenders had not classified appropriately as non-performing loans, according to Livemint.
As the RBI directed banks to reclassify these loans and make provisions against them, profits have gone out of the picture from the books of a number of large and mid-sized public sector banks.
3. Air India Cuts Losses by Half Thanks to Lower Fuel Costs
Lower fuel costs helped halve the losses of Air India to Rs 2,636 crore for the year ended 31 March, according to Livemint. The state-owned airline narrowed its loss from Rs 5,859 crore in the previous year.
The improvement was almost entirely because of the Rs 2,704 crore in savings on jet fuel costs thanks to a slump in the price of crude oil.
Air India has a debt burden of Rs 51,367 crore and assets including land banks, buildings and planes valued at Rs 34,695 crore, said the report.
4. Tim Cook Had a Busy First Day in India
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook’s first full day in India had a mix of work and leisure, as he met top bosses, Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry, Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochchar, besides launching a startup programme, ultimately winding up the day at Shah Rukh Khan’s house, reports The Economic Times.
5. Suzuki Motor Says Used Improper Fuel Economy Testing Methods
As the mileage cheating scandal in Japan that engulfed Mitshubishi Motor Corp deepens, Suzuki Motor Corp too said that it used improper fuel economy testing methods, that sent its shares tumbling on Thursday.
Ever since Mitsubishi said last month that it falsified fuel economy readings for some of its minivehicle models, fuel economy compliance has come under increased scrutiny.
6. Indian Hotels to Sell Off US-Based Taj Boston
India’s oldest and biggest (in terms of room inventory) hospitality company, the 114-year-old loss-making Tata group firm Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) will sell yet another prized asset to pare its increasing debt and reduce financial costs, according to Business Standard.
The company is planning to sell the Taj Boston, one of its three US-based properties, for $125 million (Rs 836 crore).
This will be the company’s seventh exit (international and domestic) in the past two years. Two years ago, IHCL had sold the loss-making Blue Sydney in Australia for Rs 180 crore.
7. E - Wallets Won’t Be Part of Unified Payments System
Banks don’t want e-wallet players to be part of the new Unified Payments Interface (UPI), according to Business Standard.
Even though the Payments Council of India, which represents these wallet players, had communicated to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that they would like to be part of the UPI system, they have not been included so far.
Sources quoted in the report say banks felt e-wallet companies already have a good solution with them, and that including them won’t be in their interest.
Even though the UPI was launched not to take on the wallet players, their exclusion seems to indicate otherwise.
8. Apple, Reliance To Enter into Long-Term Relationship
Apple CEO Tim Cook and the top brass at Reliance Industries have agreed to forge a long-term relationship that includes supplying a few million VoLTE iPhones that will work on Reliance Jio’s upcoming 4G network, as well as deploying an enterprise solution, developed by the Cupertino-based company and IBM, for Reliance Retail, according to The Economic Times.
These decisions were taken at a lunch meeting which lasted for more than two hours at Mukesh Ambani’s residence, Antilla.
9. India Needs to Spend 3.77 Percent of GDP to Tackle Poverty
India needs to spend $61.11 billion a year, or 3.77 percent of its gross domestic product, while at the same time, beef up the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) that provides guaranteed jobs to the rural poor, to tackle poverty and rural distress, according to International Labour Organization (ILO) director-general Guy Ryder, reports Livemint.
Over 230 million people live below what is called the extreme poverty level, with a daily income of less than $1.90, while 680 million survive below the moderate poverty level of $3.10 a day, in terms of purchasing power parity.
To push people in extreme poverty to moderate levels, India will have to scale up its expenditure on various job generation programmes to the tune of $61.11 billion a year.
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