SpiceJet Sunday announced that it has launched 14 new flights under the government's UDAN scheme, connecting the "un-served" market of Jharsuguda and the "underserved" markets of Kishangarh and Lakhimpur to key metros and cities across the country. In addition, the airline stated that it has launched 14 other direct flights connecting metros and non-metros on domestic routes. "Reaffirming the airline's conviction on the Regional Connectivity Scheme, SpiceJet has started operating on the new UDAN routes of Kishangarh-Ahmedabad-Kishangarh, Lakhimpur-Guwahati-Lakhimpur, Jaipur-Amritsar-Jaipur, Delhi-Jharsuguda-Delhi, Hyderabad-Jharsuguda-Hyderabad, Kolkata-Jharsuguda-Kolkata and Bhopal-Udaipur-Bhopal from March 31," the airline said in its statement. UDAN was launched by the central government in 2016 to provide regional air connectivity to unserved and underserved airports across the country at affordable fare. SpiceJet said it is further enhancing its domestic footprint with direct flights on the Mumbai-Bhopal-Mumbai, Mumbai-Gorakhpur-Mumbai, Chennai-Patna-Chennai, Delhi-Bhopal-Delhi (two new flights), Jaipur-Dharamshala-Jaipur and Surat-Bhopal-Surat sectors. Flights on all the routes will be operational daily except on the Ahmedabad-Kishangarh sector. The evening flight on the Delhi-Bhopal route will fly on all days except Sunday, the airline said. Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet said, "With the addition of 14 new UDAN flights, SpiceJet will operate a total of 33 daily flights under the regional connectivity scheme."
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Sunday, March 31, 2019
Shapoorji Pallonji Infra completes sale of solar power assets to Actis
Shapoorji Pallonji Infrastructure Capital Sunday said it has completed sale of 194 MW of operating solar portfolio to Sprng Energy, renewable energy arm of investment firm Actis. The transaction closed last week with all customary approvals in place, the company said in a statement. "A year ago, we decided to divest a part of our operating portfolio in order to redeploy capital for the development of new solar projects. We continue to see large opportunities for the growth of the renewable sector in our country, and the sale to a discerning infrastructure investor highlights our commitment towards development and operation of high-quality renewable energy projects in India," Shapoorji Pallonji Infrastructure MD and CEO Mukundan Srinivasan said. The acquisition of this portfolio is in line with Actis' commitment of building over 2 GW of renewable power projects in India.
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CSK vs RR Live: RR opt to field against CSK
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Live Blog, IPL 2019: Chennai vs Rajasthan
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CSK vs RR Live: RR opt to field against CSK
Check CSK vs RR live score updates, IPL scorecard, Ball by ball commentary, IPL live streaming, CSK vs RR highlights and more on Times of India
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Bairstow, Warner smash centuries to lead SRH to 231/2
Bairstow scored 114 while comeback-man Warner remained unbeaten on exact 100 after RCB skipper Virat Kohli opted to bowl.from Sports-News-Economic Times https://ift.tt/2U85nlx
Oly qualification system putting strain on players: Gopichand
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I should have tried something different: Srikanth after defeat
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Gomes sees Olympic qualifiers as first challenge for Reid
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All that can go wrong with Rahul Gandhi's pitch for Nyay
Indira Gandhi’s ‘Garibi Hatao’ swept the polls in 1971. Rahul Gandhi hopes to follow suit with NYAY (Nyuntam Aay Yojana), promising a minimum income of Rs 72,000 per year to the 50 million poorest families. Garibi Hatao flopped badly. So will NYAY unless totally rethought.Indian parties have a consensus on cash grants to the needy. Schemes in Telangana, Odisha and Jharkhand have been followed by Modi’s PM-Kisan, costing Rs 75,000 crore per year. Achieving that without fiscal profligacy is difficult. Rahul’s NYAY will cost almost five times more, Rs 360,000 crore, or 1.8% of GDP.Horrendous problems and leakages will arise in identifying the poorest 20%. India has no income surveys. People will hide their true income to qualify, so the biggest liars will be the biggest gainers. Income certificates from sarpanches or officials will breed huge corruption. Many poor people live in remote non-electric unbanked areas, almost unreachable by cash transfers. NYAY will make the bottom 20% richer than the lower middle 20-40%, who will, rightly, howl that this is arbitrary and unfair.How will Rahul finance NYAY? Not by a big GST hike: that could be almost as inflationary as printing notes. Besides, he has long said indirect taxes (especially on auto fuels) are too high. He could raise corporate tax rates. But that will ruin the existing policy of lowering the tax rate plus cess/surcharge (34.5% for large companies today) to 25% to compete with other Asian nations. India must be tax competitive to take on China (15-25% corporate tax) in the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) free trade area.Today’s entire income tax collection is barely 2% of GDP. Doubling this is impossible quickly. History shows that, beyond a point, high tax rates produce a black economy, not revenue. Indira Gandhi raised income tax to 97.75% but got no tax bonanza. By contrast Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram slashed it in the 1990s from 50% to 30%, yet improved the income tax/GDP ratio, by inducing more tax honesty.Many tax exemptions and exceptions are unwarranted and should be scrapped. They are already being phased out. Hence the effective tax rate has gone up from 19% to almost 28% for large corporations. Yet this reduction of tax breaks has produced only modest revenue.Rahul could slash spending. Doing so on health, education and infrastructure would be disastrous: such spending needs to rise, not fall. Existing subsidies on food, fertiliser and fuel could be abolished to fund NYAY. But political competition make it impossible to end existing subsidies. Rahul has always favoured additional subsidies, not less.He could borrow more (increase the fiscal deficit). But interest rates will rise, hitting not just businesses but household borrowers. Higher interest payments will squeeze essential government spending. The trade deficit will widen. The rupee will depreciate, raising prices and hitting dollar inflows. The new target under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management law of reducing the public debt from 70% of GDP to 60% will become impossible.Lest this be labelled a right-wing attack on NYAY, let me cite some top leftist economists.Pranab Bardhan: “India does not officially collect income data, so identifying the poorest 20% is difficult… Getting income certificates from some officials can be a highly corrupt process.”Amiya Kumar Bagchi: “There will be information problems for migrant contract labourers working in brick kilns and sugar plantations… For the poorest living in pipes, underneath bridges and very temporary squatments, there will be a problem of identity. Most of them will not have ration cards and Aadhaar cards.”Jayati Ghosh: “We simply don’t have income data... last SECC survey is from 2011 is also a concern since the data is now outdated. You would need a fresh survey.”R Ramkumar: “These minimum income schemes would mean a lot for someone living in Jharkhand but will not have the same effect for someone in Kerala (where the daily wage itself is around Rs 1000). There must be an extensive and detailed survey to understand the household and income characteristics across districts and states before a scheme like this can be launched. It will take at least three to four years to conduct such a survey.”Odisha’s Kalia (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) is the best cash transfer scheme. It benefits all rural households — farm owners, tenants, landless labourers. Equitably, it excludes big farmers. Odisha’s land records have been updated, so identification errors should be low. Kalia is fiscally prudent.A Central Kalia will have identification problems but will be better than Modi’s scheme, which benefits only farmowners, not tenants or the landless. Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu benefits large farmers the most, with nothing for tenants or labourers. NYAY is easily the biggest, but has fatal conceptual and practical flaws.
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Asian investors are upping the ante in India
The epicentre of foreign investments in Indian startups is slowly moving from North America to Asia. US-based venture capital firms like Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital continue to dominate startup funding, but they are very clearly giving way to Asian heavyweights like SoftBank, Beenext, Alibaba, and Tencent.Data from research firm Venture Intelligence shows that the number of deals involving Chinese investors jumped from 1 in 2013 to 27 in 2018, and deals backed by Japanese investors rose from 3 to 54 in the same period. 68652821 Consulting firm EY India’s data shows Singapore has also emerged as a key player, with the country’s participation in deals rising from 5 to 24 during this period. The number of investments from US firms too grew sharply, from 96 to 222, and the growth is from a significantly higher base. But the pace was slower compared to Asia, and the latter’s share of overall investments now stands at 6-7%, compared to less than 1% in 2013.With mega funds and deep experience of developing digital economies in their home countries, the Chinese and Japanese stand out in backing Indian startups.“Not only is the Indian startup ecosystem the third largest, after the US and China, it also has the third highest concentration of unicorns. So it’s no surprise that global investors are lining up to join the party,” Vivek Soni, partner and national leader for PE services in EY India, says. The frothy startup valuations in China is also making foreign investors to look at India positively, he added.Suresh Kalpathi, chairman and CEO of investment firm Kalpathi Investments, believes India’s ability to provide lucrative returns is also creating interest among these investors, who have large dry powder to deploy. “The quantum of returns made by Tiger Global and others recently in the Flipkart-Walmart deal, for instance, runs into billions of dollars as against their investments, which was in the millions,” Kalpathi says.While it’s difficult to ascertain if the ongoing trade tensions between the US and China has worked in India’s favour, data suggests China’s investments in US tech have fallen during the same time that their stakes in Indian tech have risen.Data from research firm CB Insights shows the number of US tech investments by Chinese investors fell 12% in 2017 from its 2015 peak. Venture Intelligence data shows that China’s investments in Indian startups was at its highest in 2017 at $4.3 billion, a 180% increase in deal count from 2016.However, the Asian investors have not been too adventurous in India, and have restricted themselves to their strengths – the consumer internet space. The biggest investments have come into companies like Swiggy, Oyo and BigBasket, all of which have become unicorns (private companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more).A deep-tech investor, who did not want to be named, said that East Asian VCs are missing in deep-tech projects like electric vehicles and biotech. “The rise of their investments in India has followed the boom in consumerism in our country,” the person said.Other non-American global investors, such as those from Europe, seem to have a more diversified strategy. Pankaj Makkar, MD of Bertelsmann India, the strategic investment arm of Netherlands-based media group Bertelsmann, says the fund started building their portfolio with e-commerce businesses, but over the years has gone on to add other sectors such as fintech, edtech, and logistics. Bertelsmann’s Indian portfolio now includes iNurture, Shiprocket, Lets Transport and Lendingkart.Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent, China’s Shunwei Capital, and Japan’s SoftBank were some of the top active investors in India in 2018, in terms of deal value.Tencent invested over $1.2 billion across three deals, and Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank invested $1.7 billion across five late-stage deals. Shunwei Capital, founded by Lei Jun (Xiaomi’s founder) and Tuck Lye Koh, raised its sixth fund of around $1.2 billion with a specific India focus in 2018.Alibaba has a more ecosystembuilder approach and holds stakes in three top success stories in the Indian consumer internet – Paytm, Zomato, and Bigbasket. “Globalisation is one of the key strategies for Alibaba, and India is a part of it. Before entering any market, the question we ask is how we can help the local market. Even in India, the key aspect of our strategy is to help the local enterprises grow, in line with Alibaba’s vision of making it easy to do business anywhere,” a spokesperson for Alibaba told TOI.Indian ventures are benefiting strategically too from Chinese investors. Harsh Jain, co-founder & CEO of Dream11, a company that raised $100 million in a Series D round led by Tencent in September, can’t wait to leverage the tech giant’s gaming expertise.“Tencent has mastered the art of building high engagement platform businesses, which we would love to learn more about. For us, having a strategic investor, especially a subject matter expert, was important to achieve our aim of hitting 100 million users in 2019,” Jain says.Serial entrepreneur Sandeep Aggarwal, founder of automotive marketplace Droom, says Asian money is “relationship money and comes with empathy and understanding.” They also expect strong ethics and corporate governance from their startups, he says. Droom has six Japanese investors and close to 15 investors from Hong Kong, China and Southeast Asia.Some Asian investors also stand to benefit in other ways from their investments in Indian startups. “For internet companies like Alibaba and Tencent, the investments mean that more Indian ventures will adopt the cloud and other business services they offer,” said an Indian angel investor, who did not wish to be named. Alibaba offers cloud and AI services, fintech platforms, and entertainment and content creation platforms.For the Indian startup ecosystem, the growing diversity of the investor base is helping shorten the time taken for startups to reach unicorn status, and is also helping them go global more easily.“There was a time when a lot of startups in India couldn’t access growth capital to get to scale. It (a diverse mix of investors) is great for entrepreneurship to flourish and it reflects how India is a great macro market for investors,” says Harsha Kumar, partner at Lightspeed India.
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India to be among top-10 media markets by 2021: Study
India is expected to be among the top-10 entertainment and media markets globally by 2021 in terms of absolute numbers, according to a joint study by ASSOCHAM-PwC. The country's per capita media and entertainment spending is likely to be capped at USD 32 or Rs 2,080 by 2021, the study noted. By some estimates, India is among the fastest growing OTT markets in the world and will be one of the top-10 by 2022, it said. The market size is expected to reach USD 52.68 billion in 2022 from USD 30.36 billion in 2017, it claimed. "It (India) is set to be in the top 10 entertainment and media markets globally by 2021 in terms of absolute numbers," the study said. It attributed growth of OTT content to increasing penetration of smartphones in the country and continuous rise in data consumption. The OTT market (transactional video on demand and subscription video on demand) is set to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1 per cent during the period 2017-2022. "During the same period in India, the segment is expected to grow from USD 297 million to USD 823 million in 2022 at a CAGR of 22.6 per cent. With increasing smartphone penetration and lower data tariffs, VoD is showing promising growth," the report said. Globally, the industry has recently witnessed a shift in focus from content and distribution to user experience. "India's per capita media and entertainment spend will be capped at USD 32 (about Rs 2,080 ) by 2021. The spend is much lower than that of China, which will stand at USD 222 (Rs 14,430 ) for the same period, and that of the USA, which will have the highest spend at USD 2,260 USD (Rs 1.46 lakh)," the study said. The large number of choices in the video-on-demand segment has spoilt consumers in India, the study noted. "Hotstar has had a first-mover advantage in the OTT space in India. Other top players in the OTT ecosystem include Voot, SonyLIV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Eros Now and ALTBalaji. Start-ups such as Arre and YuppTV are an additional presence," it added. In India OTT players, including Hotstar, Amazon Prime and Eros Now, are not only competing among themselves but also also with DTH players and other means. "With increasing traffic in metro cities, the time spent on viewing videos is also on the rise. Cab aggregators, such as Ola, have installed tablets inside their cabs with a wide range of curated content for passengers at no additional cost," the report said.
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India to be among top-10 media markets by 2021: Study
India is expected to be among the top-10 entertainment and media markets globally by 2021 in terms of absolute numbers, according to a joint study by ASSOCHAM-PwC. The country's per capita media and entertainment spending is likely to be capped at USD 32 or Rs 2,080 by 2021, the study noted. By some estimates, India is among the fastest growing OTT markets in the world and will be one of the top-10 by 2022, it said. The market size is expected to reach USD 52.68 billion in 2022 from USD 30.36 billion in 2017, it claimed. "It (India) is set to be in the top 10 entertainment and media markets globally by 2021 in terms of absolute numbers," the study said. It attributed growth of OTT content to increasing penetration of smartphones in the country and continuous rise in data consumption. The OTT market (transactional video on demand and subscription video on demand) is set to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1 per cent during the period 2017-2022. "During the same period in India, the segment is expected to grow from USD 297 million to USD 823 million in 2022 at a CAGR of 22.6 per cent. With increasing smartphone penetration and lower data tariffs, VoD is showing promising growth," the report said. Globally, the industry has recently witnessed a shift in focus from content and distribution to user experience. "India's per capita media and entertainment spend will be capped at USD 32 (about Rs 2,080 ) by 2021. The spend is much lower than that of China, which will stand at USD 222 (Rs 14,430 ) for the same period, and that of the USA, which will have the highest spend at USD 2,260 USD (Rs 1.46 lakh)," the study said. The large number of choices in the video-on-demand segment has spoilt consumers in India, the study noted. "Hotstar has had a first-mover advantage in the OTT space in India. Other top players in the OTT ecosystem include Voot, SonyLIV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Eros Now and ALTBalaji. Start-ups such as Arre and YuppTV are an additional presence," it added. In India OTT players, including Hotstar, Amazon Prime and Eros Now, are not only competing among themselves but also also with DTH players and other means. "With increasing traffic in metro cities, the time spent on viewing videos is also on the rise. Cab aggregators, such as Ola, have installed tablets inside their cabs with a wide range of curated content for passengers at no additional cost," the report said.
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Nation wants 'chowkidar', not raja-maharajas: PM
Addressing the people who have pledged their support to the 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' campaign, PM Narendra Modi said that country does not need 'rajas' and 'maharajas', rather, it needs a 'chowkidar' who can effectively serve them. Elaborating on the word "chowkidar", he said that it is not about a uniform, it is about spirit.
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Bairstow, Warner record highest ever opening stand in IPL
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Asian Airgun: Indian shooters make a clean sweep of gold medals
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Rishabh Pant stump mic chatter goes viral, BCCI clears air
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Prayas Ray Barman is youngest player to make IPL debut
The 16-year-old was acquired by the RCB at a price of 1.5 crore at the auction, which is almost eight times his base price of 20 lakh.from Sports-News-Economic Times https://ift.tt/2V7KELj
India Open: Axelsen beats erratic Srikanth in the final
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Prayas Ray Barman becomes youngest IPL debutant
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Jet Airways pilots defer strike to April 15
Mumbai: A major crisis at the struggling carrier Jet Airways was averted Sunday after its pilots body National Aviator's Guild (NAG) deferred to April 15 its call of halting operations. The decision was taken at an open house meeting of NAG members that took place both in Mumbai and Delhi Sunday afternoon, a guild source said. The NAG, which claims representation of around 1,100 pilots of the total 1,600 with the full service carrier, last month announced that its members will not fly from April 1 unless their pending salary dues were cleared and a clarity on future payments was provided by March 31. Jet Airways has been defaulting on salary payments to pilots, engineers and senior management since August last year.The loss-making airline, which is now under the ownership of SBI-led consortium of lenders following a debt-recast plan, Saturday said it could remit only the remaining amount of December salary to pilots and others. Jet Airways engineers have also reportedly threatened to stop work from April 1 if their dues are not cleared by March 31. However, the airline expressed its inability to clear the remaining three months dues of the staff immediately. "The board of directors and the management team are working as fast as possible to implement the resolution plan agreed with the consortium of Indian lenders to quickly restore the much-needed stability to our operations and build a sustainable future for the airline," Jet Airways chief executive officer Vinay Dube said in a communication to pilots and engineers Saturday. "These are complex processes and it has taken longer than we had expected and as such we are only able to remit your remaining salary for December 2018," he said.
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Jet Airways pilots defer to April 15 its decision not to fly
Mumbai: A major crisis at the struggling carrier Jet Airways was averted Sunday after its pilots body National Aviator's Guild (NAG) deferred to April 15 its call of halting operations. The decision was taken at an open house meeting of NAG members that took place both in Mumbai and Delhi Sunday afternoon, a guild source said. The NAG, which claims representation of around 1,100 pilots of the total 1,600 with the full service carrier, last month announced that its members will not fly from April 1 unless their pending salary dues were cleared and a clarity on future payments was provided by March 31. Jet Airways has been defaulting on salary payments to pilots, engineers and senior management since August last year.The loss-making airline, which is now under the ownership of SBI-led consortium of lenders following a debt-recast plan, Saturday said it could remit only the remaining amount of December salary to pilots and others. Jet Airways engineers have also reportedly threatened to stop work from April 1 if their dues are not cleared by March 31. However, the airline expressed its inability to clear the remaining three months dues of the staff immediately. "The board of directors and the management team are working as fast as possible to implement the resolution plan agreed with the consortium of Indian lenders to quickly restore the much-needed stability to our operations and build a sustainable future for the airline," Jet Airways chief executive officer Vinay Dube said in a communication to pilots and engineers Saturday. "These are complex processes and it has taken longer than we had expected and as such we are only able to remit your remaining salary for December 2018," he said.
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Indian Open Final Live: Kidambi Srikanth vs Axelsen
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IPL Live Updates: RCB opt to bowl vs SRH
Check SRH vs RCB live score updates, IPL scorecard, Ball by ball commentary, IPL live streaming, SRH vs RCB highlights and more on Times of India
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Indian Open Final Live: Srikanth vs Axelsen
Kidambi Srikanth to face Viktor Axelsen in India Open Badminton final 2019. Stay updated with Times of India for all the live updates
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IPL Live Updates: Warner eye to dominate under-confident RCB
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IPL Live Blog: RCB eye first win against confident SRH
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Rahul fighting against Left not BJP: Kerala CM
There was no need to attach any special importance to the Congress president contesting from the state and Gandhi was just one among the 20 candidates of the opposition UDF, who are trying their luck from Kerala, he said. "If Gandhi's fight is against the BJP, he should have contested against the saffron party. In Kerala, the fight is between LDF and UDF in the elections," Vijayan told a meet-the-press programme at the Press Club here.
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Officer nudging bizmen to pay GST by today
Racing against time to meet the GST collection target for 2018-19, tax officers have been prodding businesses to pay taxes by Sunday so that the amount gets reflected in the GST revenue collection data for March to be released on April 1 (Monday), a government official said. Since taxes collected by non-EDI (electronic data exchange) ports takes about four-five days to get reflected in the system, the government is planning to come out with a reconciled data for full fiscal by April 10, the official further added. "The tax officers are putting to use their goodwill with the assessees and nudging them to pay the taxes by March end, the last month of the fiscal, to make up for the collection target for 2018-19," the official told . The official said officers were also prodding some importers to front-load their integrated GST (IGST) payments in March for those inward shipments for which orders have already paid and are due to delivered in next couple of months. This practice of prodding assessees to pay taxes by March end to meet the fiscal target was also prevalent during the erstwhile excise and service tax regime. AMRG & Associates Partner Rajat Mohan said taxpayers in the erstwhile regime were hard-pressed at the close of the financial year to pay taxes over and above the actual tax liability. "This was done to balance the revenue targets allocated to each individual division. GST would loose its lustre if tax officers continue to use methods of persuasive coercion," Mohan said. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs had directed its field formations to remain open during the last weekend of the current financial year, which is March 30 and March 31, 2019, for assisting the taxpayers in filing returns and paying taxes. The government had lowered the GST collection target for 2018-19 fiscal to Rs 11.47 lakh crore in the revised estimates, from Rs 13.71 lakh crore budgeted initially. GST collection stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore in April, Rs 94,016 crore in May, Rs 95,610 crore in June, Rs 96,483 crore in July, Rs 93,960 crore in August, Rs 94,442 crore in September, Rs 1,00,710 crore in October, Rs 97,637 crore in November, Rs 94,725 crore in December 2018, Rs 1.02 lakh crore in January 2019 and Rs 97,247 crore in February 2019. For fiscal 2019-20, the GST collection target has been budgeted at Rs 13.71 lakh crore. JD ANS ANS
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Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank to become BoB from Apr 1
NEW DELHI: In a first three-way amalgamation, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will merge with Bank of Baroda (BoB) from April 1 to create the third-largest lender of the country.As a result, branches of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will function as BoB outlets from Monday onwards."Customers including depositors of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank will be treated as customers of Bank of Baroda with effect from April 1, 2019," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had said in a statement on Saturday.To make merger a smooth affair, the government last week decided to infuse Rs 5,042 crore in BoB to enhance its capital base to meet additional expense.According to the Scheme of Amalgamation, shareholders of Vijaya Bank will get 402 equity shares of BoB for every 1,000 shares held. In the case of Dena Bank, its shareholders will get 110 shares of BoB for every 1,000 shares.The government in September last year announced the first-ever three-way consolidation of banks in India, with a combined business of Rs 14.82 lakh crore, making it the third-largest bank after State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank.The announcement of the three-way merger was among several reforms initiatives undertaken by Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar to make public sector banks (PSBs) healthy, robust and globally competitive.As part of the reform process, the government had also announced transfer of majority 51 per cent stake to Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in IDBI Bank in August last year to transform the Mumbai-based lender.Besides, the Department of Financial Services made a record capital infusion of Rs 1.06 lakh crore in the PSBs in the current fiscal. As a result five public sector banks including Bank of India, Corporation Bank and Allahabad Bank were out of the prompt corrective action framework of the RBI earlier this year. Non-performing assets (NPAs) have shown negative trend in 2018-19 and have reduced by Rs 23,860 crore between April-September 2018.Following the merger, the number of PSBs will come down to 18.Announcing the merger, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said "the consolidation will help create a strong globally competitive bank with economies of scale and enable realisation of wide-ranging synergies".The merged entity will have better financial strength, Financial Service Secretary Kumar had said adding that its net NPA ratio will be at 5.71 per cent, significantly better than PSBs' average of 12.13 per cent.Besides, provision coverage ratio would be better at 67.5 per cent against an average of 63.7 per cent and the cost-to-income ratio of the combined entity would come down to 48.94 per cent as compared to average of 53.92 per cent, he had said last year.
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Minority vote bank to farm economy: Factors that lured Rahul to Wayanad
Wayanad on the northern Kerala that shares border with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is the most sought-after seat in the state in the Congress camp. The constituency was carved out during the delimitation ahead of 2009 seats. In the first election, Congress leader M I Shanavas won from Wayanad with a margin of over 1.53 lakh.
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7 reasons why a 'Mahamilawat' govt is good for India
By Aakar PatelI’m hoping for a hung parliament. One so well-hung that its largest party is as small as can possibly be while it all adds up to 272. Or even falls short: Even a minority government is welcome. It doesn’t matter either, beyond a point, whether this is a government formed by the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Congress. Here are the reasons.The first good thing about minority governments, particularly rainbow-type coalitions as we saw in the late 1990s (where the Cabinet was composed of non-Congress, non-BJP elements), is that they tend to be more federal. Meaning that there is greater emphasis on the states over the Centre. This is a very good thing in a part of the world where the polity and narrative is hijacked by an aggressive Centre. The other positive aspect is that India’s Union government sees more participation from sidelined places like the Northeast and Kashmir in such a phase.The second product of minority government is that people outside government, like civil society organisations and activists, have some levers available to influence change. In dispositions like the one just ending, this is not easy. Majority governments tend to be less open to ideas and agendas outside their own core interests. Indeed they are often hostile.But in the event that the government does open itself up, and this is the third point, it is often the case that our nation and its countrywomen benefit. We had very fine legislation and humane laws like the right to work (MNREGA), Right to Information, Right to Food and Right to Education because good people like Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze and Farah Naqvi were on the advisory council that pressured Manmohan Singh’s UPA into doing the right thing.The counter to this, the fourth point, is that the opposite happens in majority government, especially one led by strong figures. It is not easy to conceive and execute masterstrokes like demonetisation and the surgical strike when one has to accommodate other minds and various interests in decision-making. Stupidity and recklessness need an antidote, and an effective one is to be found in the sharing and prior approval of genius ideas that affect hundreds of millions.The fifth point is that majority governments universally tend to bite off more than they can chew and make a hash of execution. A more modest agenda focused on doing the smaller things right usually is more beneficial than grandiose attempts that seek to overturn the status quo.In our part of the world we cannot separate the majority from the majoritarian. This is the sixth point and all the evidence before us shows that we Indians cannot be trusted to properly resist majoritarianism when it emanates from the Centre. Our instincts appear to be tribal and base and a few lynchings here or there or the continued barbarism visited upon fellow Indians (say in Kashmir or the Adivasi belt) is acceptable to us. Indeed it is applauded. Best it remain in check.Seventh, it is not right to assume, as my fellow Gujaratis in the stock market appear to do all the time, that a minority government is bad for the economy. Our history doesn’t validate that thesis.It was in a minority government that economic reform originated. The data over the last 28 years will not lead one to conclude that the 2014-2019 period (the only one with a majority) produced better numbers than the two decades or so before it.These are the reasons why I want a Parliament that is hung and the sort of government that is described as weak and indecisive, by those who haven’t really thought it through. You could examine majority governments up and down the decades and see the same patterns as the ones described above. Bank nationalisation and the Emergency came from a government whose members in the Lok Sabha numbered 352. On the other hand, the 1997-98 ‘Dream Budget’ was passed by a government that collapsed a few weeks later and was headed by a PM whose party had but 46 seats.It is foolhardy to assume that parties or alliances that cross 272 produce stability or that this stability in turn produces economic reform which then helps along GDP growth. There are other ways to skin this cat.Of course it is true that sensible people will be repelled by messianic and pantomime figures referring to themselves in the third person (which would make them ridiculous in any civilised democracy). But there is also a positive reason, indeed many, to be attracted to the idea of a coalition, a word whose Latin root is ‘fellowship’, and which means the ‘growing together of parts’.
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Diesel prices down 8-9 paise, petrol unchanged
Diesel prices across the four metro cities declined for the fourth straight day, with prices falling by 8 to 9 paise on Sunday, data on the Indian Oil Corp's website showed.Petrol prices, however were unchanged during the day, according to the data.In the national capital, diesel was priced at Rs 66.14, down from Rs 66.22 per litre on Saturday.In Kolkata, diesel was sold for Rs 67.92, against the previous level of Rs 68 per litre.Price of the fuel in Mumbai and Chennai declined by 9 paise to Rs 69.27 and Rs 69.88 on Sunday, from the previous levels of Rs 69.36 and Rs 69.97 per litre respectively.Fuel prices in the country are based on a 15-day average of global crude prices and the rupee-US dollar exchange rate. Currently, the benchmark Brent crude oil is priced around $67 per barrel.Cost of petrol in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai was at Rs 72.86, Rs 74.93, Rs 78.48 and Rs 75.67 per litre, all unchanged from Saturday's levels.
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I backed myself to bowl yorkers, says Kagiso Rabada
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Caught on wrong foot, rail zones asked to remove political ads from premises
NEW DELHI: Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav Sunday wrote to all zones, asking them to remove all kinds of political advertising from railway premises after a series of instances of violation of the model code of conduct. The message sent to all zonal general managers and divisional railway comes days after railways had to explain why tickets issued to passengers had photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the MCC had come into force. Just two days ago, a tea cup bearing the BJP' election campaign slogan "main bhi chowkidaar" created a furore. "Dear GMs/DRMs, any advertisement having photograph of any political leader on railway ticket, any other railway stationery, railway coaches, railway stations, any other railway premises should be immediately removed and advertising agency should be suitable informed," the message from Yadav says. EC sources on Saturday said that Railways have been asked to explain the prima facie violation of the model code of conduct. It has also been asked to explain the person responsible for the tea cups carrying the chowkidar slogan. The EC is learnt to have invoked the 'party in power' clause of the poll code in the case as it could be averred that party in power' is using government transporter for election publicity. "Reports that tea has been served in cups labelled as 'main bhi chowkidar' have been investigated. This was without any prior approval of IRCTC. Explanation has been sought from Supervisor/Pantry Incharges over lack of devotion to duty. One lakh fine has been imposed on the service provider. Show cause notice has also been served to the service provider for this misconduct," IRCTC had said in a statement on Friday. This particular cup was found on board 12040 Kathgodam Shatabdi. Tea was served twice in these cups.
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Rabada's yorker will be 'Ball of the IPL': Ganguly
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SL's Test captain Karunaratne arrested over drink driving
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Best Phone Under 20000: The Best Mobiles Under Rs. 20,000, April 2019 Edition
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Stronger dollar may weigh on gold, but long-term trend positive
By Pritam Kumar Patnaik To hold or not to hold, that is the question every gold investor is wrestling with today. The decision would depend solely on the nature and tenure of your investment. A long-term trader would have looked at last Thursday’s correction in gold prices as an opportunity to average; whereas a short-term trader would gleefully wait for gold to breach the technical sell level of $1,290 to create shorts for the short term. Last Thursday, we did see gold drop to a three-week low, breaching not only the psychologically crucial $1,300 level, but also coming painfully close to its technical sell levels.So what caused the fall in the first place? Gold found it extremely difficult to maintain above $1,320 level and retake the high of $1,325. It is safe to assume that a lot of short-term traders would have entered the market when gold price dropped from its high, with an expectation that a rally would soon ensue, but as the market remained largely negative to sideways. So, a lot of the short-term futures traders choose to pull the plug on their positions and decided against rolling on their positions from April 2019 to June 2019 contract. This coupled with a strong US dollar, and international investors still chasing yield in the US led to the sharp correction.That said, the market view is that the current correction is a good level for averaging or creating fresh longs. It is crucial to appreciate that earlier factors like a sustained dovish stance by the US Fed, slowing global economy, slew of economic growth downgrades, emergence of a negative yield curve in US bond market and messy Brexit led gold to rally and it still continues to exist. A continuation of dovish stance by the US Fed, which does not want to see US interest rates rise anytime soon, augurs well for gold. While in the near term we will continue to witness bouts of stronger dollar, traders and investors will likely exhibit a bit more appetite for risk, by investing in riskier assets. The slow progress of US-China trade talks is likely to drag on for a couple of months. There is also no clear consensus in the marketplace on the eventual outcome of the US-China trade talks, thus, keeping the volatility high. This works in favour of the US dollar, and against gold. However in the medium to long term, given the broad macroeconomic and geopolitical factors and the policy stance adopted by the US Fed, the positive sentiments for gold remain intact. (Pritam Kumar Patnaik is Head of Commodities at Reliance Commodities. Views are his own)
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Rahul fighting against Left not BJP: Kerala CM
former general secretary of CPI (M) Prakash Karat also expressed similar sentiments and said: "To pick a candidate like Rahul Gandhi against Left means that Congress is going to target the Left in Kerala. This is something which we will strongly oppose and in this election, we will work to ensure the defeat of Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad.
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IPL: MI skipper Rohit fined for slow over rate
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It's hard to spot any weakness in SRH XI: AB de Villiers
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I hope we get an individual gold in Tokyo: Abhinav Bindra
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Bhuvneshwar's bowling a concern for SRH as they take on RCB
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IPL: DC beat KKR in Super Over after Prithvi Shaw heroics
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Pitch takes centre stage as Chennai Super Kings face Rajasthan Royals
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Sachin Tendulkar's meeting with Pawar sets off speculation
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Missed opportunity to finish the game for DC: Shaw
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IPL: We were not thinking of Super Over, says Iyer
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Lack of all-rounder hurting Virat Kohli's men: Krishnamachari Srikkanth
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Sanmay is my practice partner: Manika Batra
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Aus bowlers deny 'false' Warner boycott reports
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Kings XI Punjab break the Mumbai Indians jinx
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Woods loses to Bjerregaard in Match Play quarters
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Mayank hails Punjab's 'clinical' win, calls it confidence booster
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Barty defeats Pliskova to capture Miami Open title
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India Open: Srikanth in final, Sindhu loses in semis
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Solskjaer relieved to avoid Watford 'banana skin'
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Kean steps up in Ronaldo absence to rescue Juventus
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Sampdoria pounce on Donnarumma mistake to beat Milan
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India slip again, South Korea win Azlan Shah Cup
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Big sports events today
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Prestige cuvees: Rarest of rare champagne blends which is limited in access and price is steep
Across the ocean in England, they found to their amazement, the royal court had already gone head over heels sipping the twinkling stars in the French wine.from Magazines-Economic Times https://ift.tt/2TFn4UA
Mi Notebook Air Refresh, WhatsApp Beta Updates, Samsung A70 Launch, and More News This Week
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IPL Live Match Video Online: How to Watch Today's IPL 2019 Match on Mobile and Desktop
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Earth Hour: Time, Theme for 2019, and Everything You Need to Know
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Motorola One Vision Listed on Google’s ARCore Website, Launch Appears Imminent
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Facebook Wanted to Use Tiny Drones to Boost Mobile Internet Speed: Report
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Daimler Asks EU Antitrust Regulators to Probe Nokia Patents
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Oppo Reno Allegedly Spotted on AnTuTu With Snapdragon 710, 6GB RAM in Tow
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LG K12+ With AI Camera, MediaTek Helio P22 SoC, 3GB RAM Launched: Price, Specifications
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