PEOPLE NEWS: July 2019

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Banks go slow on lending to auto dealers

MUMBAI: Several banks have expressed concern over a build-up of stress in their loans to automobile dealers and may tread cautiously, even slowing down on disbursements as the auto industry grapples with its worst sales slowdown in over a decade.Banking industry experts estimate the total outstanding loans to automobile dealers to be in the range of ?70,000-80,000 crore.State Bank of India this week issued a circular to its branches, advising them to tighten collateral norms while lending to auto dealers. Non-state lenders Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank said they were going slow on lending to dealers. “The auto sector has been going through a slowdown for the past six to nine months. It has been difficult for the dealers to sell off inventory and in this context, we issued advisories to our branches to ensure no new unnecessary exposures are taken,” PK Gupta, the managing director for retail and digital banking at SBI, told ET. “We had a meeting with stakeholders from the industry on Monday and we conveyed the same message to them,” he said, while adding: “The endeavour of our bank is to support the auto industry during these times of stress.”The nation’s top lender issued the circular following pressure from a leading automaker to increase funding to its dealers, after one of its latest models saw strong bookings, said people in the know.Automobile sales have fallen every month for almost a year now, except for October when the numbers were nearly flat.Need to First Protect Our Money: KotakIn June, nine out of India’s 11 main passenger vehicle makers reported a double-digit decline in sales. In the first quarter of fiscal 2019, the sales volume is estimated to have dropped 15-20%.“The market is stressed and many dealers who have recently entered this space are finding it difficult to manage their repayment obligations. Every lender has been cautious and SBI is also doing the same thing in ensuring prudence,” said a top dealer requesting anonymity.Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank stated their position during their post-earning conferences with analysts and journalists.“All our key dealerships have an inside out view about what is going right and what is going wrong. And, if there is one thing which we are very clear about, that when we feel that there is a risk of losing money, we just make sure that we first protect our money,” Uday Kotak, the managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said at the time. “And, therefore, we have actually had a negative situation in our (auto) dealer finance business in terms of the growth of the book.”He said some new banks were “pretty reckless” in the past two years in lending to automobile dealers.Axis Bank, which declared its quarterly results on Tuesday, said issues surrounding the sales slowdown in the auto sector had reflected in its SME loan book. “We are not pushing some of the dealer finance portfolios due to the well-articulated stress in the auto sector. Additionally, we are also recalibrating some of the exposures and that has reflected in our slowing SME growth as well,” said executive director Rajiv Anand.Weak demand for new vehicles has increased the inventory with dealers. For passenger vehicles, inventory levels had peaked to more than 60 days earlier this year from the norms of around 30 days, as per data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations. The levels have now reduced to an average of 30-35 days, after manufacturers cut production. Close to 300 dealerships have shut shop in the past 18 months due to the slowdown, according to the federation.“The mismatch in loan tenors and cash flow from inventory sales has prompted most the lenders to tread with caution on the dealer financing portfolios,” said an analyst, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “The banks now want to disburse these loans with high collateral, which will ensure high loan-tovalue ratios to make up for the fall in creditworthiness.”

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Reddys seek funds: ADIA, Mitsui, Itochu eye stake in Apollo Holdco

MUMBAI: Japanese conglomerates Mitsui & Co. and Itochu Corp. as well as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) are in separate talks with the Reddys of Apollo Hospital Enterprises, India’s largest hospital operator, to invest $350-400 million to buy part of their stake in the group holding company PCR Investments Ltd, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter told ET.Promoters Prathap C Reddy and his family members plan to bring a foreign strategic investor on board PCR Investments in order to reduce debt and strengthen the balance sheet.If a deal takes place, it will be one of the largest investments in India’s healthcare services space, which has seen a spate of consolidation in the past decade thanks to aggressive private equity inflows as well as the growing ambitions of strategic investors.Reddys Own 34% of Apollo HospitalsThe Reddy family is battling debt that stood at about Rs 3,450 crore at the end of March. More than 75% of the promoter stake is pledged as collateral to lenders. Founder Prathap C Reddy’s family owns about 34% of Apollo Hospitals.Following the stake sale in Apollo Munich Health Insurance, the pledge is expected to come down to 50%. India’s largest private lender HDFC Ltd acquired the 50.8% stake of Apollo Hospitals Group in Apollo Munich, a joint venture with German reinsurer Munich Re Group, for Rs 1,347 crore last month. At the end of trade on Wednesday, the market value of Apollo Hospitals was Rs 18,781 crore. The share ended at Rs 1,352.70 on the BSE, up 1.43%.Credit Suisse, which recently underwrote a Rs 1,000 crore bridge loan facility to the Reddys, is helping the family find an investor, sources said.Apollo said the Reddys are looking to slash debt.“The promoters are committed to reduce their debt at the holding company to half, along with the insurance transaction closure over the next two-three months,” said an Apollo Hospitals spokesperson. “Further, there are plans to bring the overall hold-co pledge to lower than 20% in the next one year or maybe even earlier. We would not want to comment on any specifics at this stage.”Mitsui and ADIA declined to comment. Itochu didn’t respond to queries.In the recent past, the Reddys held discussions with Mitsubishi of Japan for a stake sale in Apollo but these didn’t fructify. Over the years, Apollo has had Apax and IHH as investors in the company before they exited.Japanese giant Mitusi has a strong presence in hospital sector in Asia and is on the verge of expanding the business into other markets.Mitsui is the largest shareholder in Asia’s largest private hospital chain IHH Healthcare Bhd, with a stake of about 33%. Last year, Mitsui bought a 16% stake in IHH from investment company Khazanah Nasional Bhd for $2 billion to become the largest shareholder.IHH is operating 50 hospitals with a total of over 115,000 beds in 83 hospitals across 12 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Turkey and India. Last year, IHH agreed to acquire Fortis Healthcare Ltd., valuing India’s second-largest hospital chain at ?9,000 crore.Itochu, the $106-billion Japanese conglomerate, has a strong presence in areas such as textiles, machinery, metals and minerals, energy and chemicals, food, realty and financial services. The group has plans to expand its presence in new areas such as hospitals in Asian markets. In January last year, it acquired about a fourth of OUE Lippo Healthcare Ltd, which runs Siloam Hospitals in Indonesia for $600 million.In the last few years, margins in the hospital industry have narrowed following government regulations such as price controls. Sensing an opportunity, strategic players and investors have been in discussions to buy large and mid-sized hospital chains in India.Following IHH Healthcare's acquisition of Fortis Healthcare last year, Manipal Hospitals is in the final stages of negotiations to acquire Delhi based Medanta.

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Banks go slow on lending to auto dealers

Samsung Galaxy A80 Goes on Sale in India: Price, Offers, Specifications

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Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 India Launch Set for Today: Expected Price, Specifications

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I walk out for India, not just the team: Rohit

"I don't just walk out for my team. I walk out for my country," tweeted Rohit Sharma on Wednesday after India captain Virat Kohli rubbished reports of rift between him and the star opener. After India's ouster from the World Cup, stories of fissures in the Indian camp emerged with claims that Rohit and Kohli are not seeing eye to eye.

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Zidane upbeat as Benzema helps lifts gloom at Real

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We like select pharma, hospitals offer deep value: Rahul Chadha

Foreign investors are questioning the direction in which the government is headed after it announced an increase in taxes on the highest income bracket in the budget, said Rahul Chadha, co-chief investment officer at Mirae Asset Global Investments which has $135 billion worth of assets under management. We need to watch what the government does over the next 6-9 months to restore confidence, said Chadha. In an interview with Sanam Mirchandani, Hong Kong-based Chadha said he is bullish on insurance companies and the hospitals space in India besides select consumption stocks. Edited excerpts:Foreign investors seem to be upset because of the tax proposals in the budget.Post the budget particularly we have seen FII flows turn negative to the extent of $1 billion-1.5 billion. The question most foreigners are grappling with is what direction the government is going. If the government comes and does the tough measures which improves competitiveness and productivity, the slowdown will be taken in stride. Those top measures can be on labour reforms and divestments. The government needs to revive housing. We saw the FM talk about the rental policy. That needs to come out in the next 3-4 months. That will boost the housing sector which will then boost construction.Has the surcharge on some foreign funds impacted India's standing? This taxation is just one of the issues and when people do a change in stance its never only on one issue. Over this year we have seen the government take a more socialist approach. We need to see more stress from the government on creating a level playing field for businesses, staying out from the business itself and attracting more investments whether it is from the domestic private sector or from foreigners. In the near term there would be markets like China, particularly the Hong Kong listed-stocks, and market like Korea which would be attractive. In the medium term, India is a very powerful story and the economy is at a cyclical bottom. When India comes out of this slowdown would be contingent on what the government does over the next 5-6 months. Some of the stocks were genuinely expensive. We have been reducing consumer-focused stocks (exposure) including staples and consumer-focused banks. In quite a few of these, the market was paying peak multiple for peak profitability. Those multiples cannot be sustained.Do you see a revival in sentiment soon?Let's look at what the government is trying to do over the last 2-3 years. Parts of 2 018 and 2017 were marked by GST implementation pangs. Parts of 2016-17 were marked by demonetisation pangs. The economy could not really recover from it. That kind of explains what we are seeing in the system where you have corporate defaults at a record high, NBFCs have liquidity and asset quality issues and then the liquidity started tightening from August-September.The market is going through a painful cleansing. When things were a bit slow in let's say 2016-18, they were compensated by the easy availability of consumer financing. That had to run its course some day. Consumer financing took a breather and suddenly what we have is a pronounced slowdown in the economy. The gloom has been more post the budget because all the corporates are coming and admitting that there is a pronounced slowdown. What we have seen from the government is that we have had handouts or support for the poor families which is good from an economy perspective and mitigating the social divide. In the budget, the government further increased taxation on the highest (income) bracket.That's what led to this bit of a despair and frustration that look, is the government taking the easy path to growth or easy path to remaining in power? From a medium-term perspective this is extremely negative, and this is not what global investors bought India for. They bought it for the individual leadership of Prime Minister Modi, productivity improvement, and reforms.Do you see the RBI cutting rates further?We will easily see 50 bps of cut from here. Unlike the historic number of 2-2.5%, the India-US real rate differential is standing at about 3-3.5%. We will easily see rate cuts and with the kind of slowdown we are seeing in the economy, and with inflation not being an issue anywhere in the world, lot of these rate cuts would be front-ended. I would not be surprised if we see 50 bps over next six months.Which sectors should investors look to buy in this uncertain market?Great companies may not be great investments if one buys them at exorbitant valuations. We like the insurance space. Then there is value in hospitals. I am looking at sectors which were out of favour, have not done much in the last 2-3 years, and which are seeing demand coming back so there will be positive operating leverage. We like pharma selectively and hospitals in particular offer deep value. We are going selectively into some of these consumption names, if the franchise is strong enough, it is not impacted by ecommerce or technological disruption. One should be a buyer on dips over the next 6-9 months in some of these consumer franchises.Are risks to India more domestic than global currently?Globally, it is a fragile situation. We have seen the peak of US growth rate so towards the end of the year the sense is US GDP growth will go more towards 1.5-1.75%. Globally things are slowing but with proactive central bankers you are not going to see the collapse of growth. On the trade war, US growth is slowing and incrementally the pain of all the tariffs is being borne out by the US consumer; both US and China are going to be sensible not to escalate the trade war. We have seen the peak of globalisation. That's a reality we as investors have to live with. That takes away some of the growth but doesn't really pose a threat. Because of slower global growth, oil has not really spiked up.As long as the situation doesn't go out of hand, I don't think it is a significant negative from an India perspective. The concern only is valuations are not cheap. Investors are happy to deal with a mild near-term slowdown but if they see the government going in the other direction — not working on attracting investments, not working on improving productivity in the economy and focusing more on the easy handouts and taxing rich — that's where investors may lose confidence and their belief in India would be shaking. We need to watch what the government does over the next 6-9 months to restore confidence. India remains a big overweight for us in our Asian portfolio.

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Siddhartha had personal debt of more than Rs 1K-cr

MUMBAI: Café Coffee Day’s late founder VG Siddhartha had taken on debt of more than Rs 1,000 crore through entities that housed his personal holdings, according to corporate affairs ministry documents accessed by ET. A letter purportedly written by Siddhartha to the board and employees of Café Coffee Day, before he went missing, had cited growing pressure from creditors and a private equity partner.Devadarshini Info Technologies, Gonibedu Coffee and Coffee Day Consolidations are the main entities through which this debt was raised, according to the data. In September 2014, Devadarshini secured Rs 471 crore through optionally convertible debentures from Standard Chartered Private Equity (Mauritius), Credit Opportunities Fund and Asia Credit Opportunities (Mauritius). In November 2018, Devadarshini raised Rs 300 crore from SSG Asia and partially repaid these OCDs, sources briefed on the matter said. Other debt facilities include a Rs 450 crore exposure in Gonibedu Coffee. It could not be verified whether these debts have been repaid or not.ET reported on Tuesday that US private equity giant KKR has a Rs 255 crore exposure to Siddhartha’s personal holding entities. The option of convertibility could have meant Siddhartha having to cede control of the personal holding entities. 70474588 NCDs AllotedSiddhartha’s real estate firm Tanglin Retail Realty, which owns an information technology park on Mysore Road in Bengaluru, allotted 30,000 secured, rupee-denominated non-convertible debentures (NCDs) — each valued at Rs 10 lakh — to Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) on March 25. However, according to a source close to Standard Chartered, this Rs 3,000 crore was an enabling resolution by the Tanglin board and the bank’s exposure didn’t extend to the full amount.Standard Chartered declined to comment. SSG Capital partner Shyam Maheshwari didn’t respond to queries. Gonibedu Coffee, Tanglin, Devadarshini Info and Coffee Day Global also didn’t respond to queries.Listed Cafe Coffee Day had total borrowings of Rs 6,547.38 crore as of March 31, 2019, up 30% from the previous financial year. Siddhartha and his group firms held a 53.93% stake in the company, of which 75.70% was pledged as of June 30. Siddhartha had borrowed from Aditya Birla Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, AK Capital, STCI Finance, APAC, RBL Bank and SSG Asia against pledged shares of the listed firm.“I am sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me,” said the letter cited above. “I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares, a transaction I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend. Tremendous pressure from other lenders lead to me succumbing to the situation.”

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Amazon may shop for stake in Reliance Retail

KOLKATA | NEW DELHI: Amazon is in exploratory talks with Reliance Retail to acquire up to 26% in the country’s largest brick-andmortar retailer, two senior industry executives said. However, they made it clear that there is no certainty that the initial discussions will result in any deal.Talks began after Reliance’s negotiations with China’s Alibaba Group to sell a stake in the retail entity fell through due to differences over valuation, they said. Amazon approached Reliance as it wants a toehold in all the country’s large brick-and-mortar chains for a long-term, omni-channel setup in India, where shopping is still heavily skewed toward physical outlets, they said. Its widely reported talks with the Future Group are ongoing, although these are said to be proceeding slowly.An Amazon spokesperson said: “We do not comment on speculation about what we may or may not do in future.”A Reliance spokesperson said: “Our company evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis. We have made and will continue to make necessary disclosures in compliance with our obligations under Securities Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2015 and our agreements with the stock exchanges.” 70474469 Treading CautiouslyAmazon is treading cautiously as it wants any deal to be compliant with the revised foreign direct investment (FDI) norms for ecommerce that came into effect in February, said the people cited above.The Seattle-based firm wants a stake that’s less than 26% so that Reliance Retail can become a seller on its Indian marketplace. As per the revised FDI norms, no seller should be more than 26% owned by the platform as it will then be deemed a group company and barred, one of the executives said.Amazon is drawn by Reliance Retail’s market-leading position in consumer electronics and mobile phones, said the people cited above. Also, its wide network of grocery stores could potentially act as fulfilment points for Amazon’s food and grocery play in the long run.Executives said the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is warming up to a deal with a global retailer or strategic investor to help reduce its outstanding debt that stood at Rs 2.88 lakh crore ($41.8 billion) at the end of June. Reliance Retail is a subsidiary of RIL.“Reliance too is keen in case valuations match. Both sides have realised it is better to collaborate rather than fight,” one of the executives said. However, another senior executive said the two sides aren’t communicating over the matter.“There are no talks,” he said. “What does Amazon bring to the table that Reliance Retail doesn’t have or doesn't know? Also, selling equity is not the only way to raise money.”While ecommerce accounts for about 3% of India’s total retail market, Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart are growing at a healthy clip and sales haven't slowed despite FDI policy changes that imposed several curbs on the country’s two largest marketplaces. Apart from the convenience of online ordering, the surge in smartphone possession and broadband penetration has also fuelled the trend.The contribution of ecommerce to total retail in India is expected to rise to 7% by 2021 from 3% now, according to a study by Deloitte and the Retailers Association of India. Organised retail is set to double from 9% to 18% during that time.“If the deal goes through, Reliance Retail will become a seller on Amazon India’s hyperlocal food and grocery platform, Prime Now, just like other retailers and also a seller of electronics and fashion in the Amazon.in marketplace,” said one of the people cited above.As of June, Reliance Retail operated 10,644 retail stores in more than 6,700 cities covering an area of over 23 million square feet. Of the total revenue that Reliance generates under the broader retail umbrella, the pureplay business comprising consumer electronics, grocery and fashion and lifestyle accounted for 56.3% in FY19 at Rs 73,508 crore. The rest came from petroleum retailing and the connectivity business, which includes revenue from sales of Reliance Jio connections and recharges.India allows 51% FDI in multibrand retail but the government has decided not to allow any foreign company to own and operate either brick-and-mortar stores or online stores fearing a backlash from traders and kirana stores. It allows 100% overseas investment in cash-and-carry or wholesale stores and online marketplaces, which function only as a facilitator for third-party sellers.Amazon recently acquired a 49% stake in Witzig Advisory Services, the company that bought the More supermarket stores from the Aditya Birla Group. Of this, Amazon has a 17% stake in Witzig through Class A voting shares and a 32% stake through Class B shares that have no voting rights, ensuring that it complies with the rules. More is now a seller on the Prime Now platform.

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Amazon may shop for stake in Reliance Retail

Top telecom body split over penalty on Airtel, Voda Idea

NEW DELHI: The Digital Communications Commission (DCC), which met last week, was split on the decision to impose cumulative penalties of Rs 3,050 crore on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Of the seven members present at the meeting, two opposed the levy while a third backed an extended tenure for paying the penalty, said people familiar with the matter.As reported by ET, the DCC — an inter-ministerial panel — went with the majority view and backed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) proposal to levy penalties on the two telcos. In the absence of a mechanism for graded payments, the DCC made no recommendation on this. All decisions by the DCC have to be formally approved by the telecom minister.Trai had recommended the penalties on the grounds that in 2016, when Jio had launched its services, Airtel as well as Vodafone and Idea Cellular (which were two separate companies then) had denied the new company adequate points of interconnection (PoIs), thereby adversely impacting the services of the RIL-owned telco.Two members of the inter-ministerial panel who are said to have opposed the levies are former finance secretary SC Garg and telecom department’s member (services) Debatosh Manna. 70474421 Meet a Day Before Garg Shifted to PowerThe meeting took place on July 24, a day before Garg was transferred from economic affairs to the power ministry. Text messages to both the officials elicited no response till the time of going to press.Garg is believed to have argued that the onus of ensuring quality of services lay on Jio, and not Airtel or Vodafone Idea. “He (Garg) said the responsibility of ensuring quality of service lies solely with the service provider — in this case, Reliance Jio — and if any fine should be imposed, it should be on that carrier,” the person said. The former finance secretary was of the view that given the health of the sector, the quantum of the fine should be reduced, the person added.Manna, in his dissenting view, said that due to lack of clarity over Jio’s launch date, older telcos weren’t obliged to give it points of interconnection. “Telecom service providers were in the dark about the commercial launch of Jio,” Manna is believed to have said. The member (services) objected to the three-year-old Trai-recommended penalty on the grounds that the obligation on carriers to provide PoIs even during the testing phase is not clearly established. He is believed to have said that operators were responsible for providing adequate PoIs only after the launch of commercial services and not during the trial phase. Hence, he said, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea shouldn’t be held responsible for any wrongdoing. His position is similar to that taken by Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which have contended that since they didn’t know the date of Jio’s launch, they weren’t obliged to provide PoIs in such large numbers to it. The two insisted that they had provided adequate PoIs. The five members in favour of the penalties were telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, IT secretary Ajay Sawhney, telecom department’s member (finance) Anuradha Mitra and member (technology) Shiwa Shankar Singh. Of these, one official was in favour of a graded payment schedule.

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Uber Lays Off 400 Employees From Its Global Marketing Team to Reduce Costs

Uber on Monday confirmed it is cutting 400 jobs from its marketing team of more than 1,200 workers to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

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PlayStation 4 Hits 100 Million Consoles Sold Milestone, Sony Sees Growth in Image Sensor Business

Sony on Tuesday reported an 18.4 percent increase in first-quarter operating profit, beating market expectations.

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Avengers: Endgame Now Available on Google Play, iTunes, YouTube in India

Avengers: Endgame is now available for purchase on Google Play, iTunes, and YouTube in India. It costs between Rs. 100 and Rs. 850, depending on whether you choose to rent or buy, and the version — SD or HD — and the platform you pick.

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The Family Man, Amazon’s Next Indian Series With Manoj Bajpayee, to Release in September on Prime Video

The Family Man — Amazon Prime Video’s next original series from India — will release in September. Written and directed by Indian-American duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K., the action drama series The Family Man stars Manoj Bajpayee in the lead.

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List of fines you will pay for traffic violations

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday cleared the bill to amend 30-year old motor vehicle law to improve road safety, raise penalties for traffic violations, curb RTO (Regional Transport Office) corruption and other measures to transform the transport sector.The legislation provides for stricter punishment for various traffic related offences as well as higher penalties, including a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for death and Rs 2.5 lakh for grievous injury in a motor vehicle accident case.It proposes Rs 10,000 fine for not giving way to emergency vehicles and Rs 10,000 for driving despite disqualification. Aggregators violating driving licences will be fined up to Rs 1 lakh.The bill includes penalties in the range of Rs 1,000- 2,000 for over-speeding.Driving without insurance will be punishable with Rs 2,000 fine, while driving without helmets will attract Rs 1,000 penalty and 3-month suspension of licence.Also, the guardian/owner will be deemed guilty in case of road offence by juveniles, while registration of the vehicle will be cancelled.As per the new provisions, "guardian/owner shall be deemed to be guilty and there will be a penalty of Rs 25,000 with three years imprisonment and cancellation of registration of the Motor Vehicle".Traffic violations would now attract a penalty of Rs 500 in place of Rs 100 earlier, while disobedience of orders of authorities will attract a minimum penalty of Rs 2,000 in place of Rs 500 earlier.Penalty for unauthorised use of vehicles without licence has been proposed at Rs 5,000 while those driving without licence will have to shell out the same amount and those found driving despite disqualification would be fined Rs 10,000.Penalty for dangerous driving would be increased to Rs 5,000 from Rs 1,000, while drunken driving under the proposed new law would attract a fine of Rs 10,000."If aggregators are found violating lincensing conditions, they will be charged a sum of up to Rs 1 lakh" while overloading of vehicles would attract a penalty of Rs 20,000. Proposed Amendments in Various Penalties under Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill – 2019Section Old Provision / PenaltyNew Proposed Provision /Minimum Penalties177GeneralRs 100Rs 500New 177ARules of road regulationviolationRs 100Rs 500178Travel without ticketRs 200Rs 500179Disobedience of orders ofauthoritiesRs 500Rs 2000180Unautorized use of vehicles without licenceRs 1000Rs 5000181Driving without licenceRs 500Rs 5000182Driving despitedisqualificationRs 500Rs 10,000182 BOversize vehiclesNewRs 5000183Over speedingRs 400Rs 1000 for LMVRs 2000 for Mediumpassenger vehicle184Dangerous driving penaltyRs 1000Upto Rs 5000185Drunken drivingRs 2000Rs 10,000189Speeding / RacingRs 500Rs 5,000192 AVehicle without permitupto Rs 5000Upto Rs 10,000193Aggregators (violations of licencing conditions)NewRs 25,000 toRs 1,00,000194OverloadingRs 2000 andRs 1000 per extra tonneRs 20,000 andRs 2000 per extra tonne194 AOverloading of passengersRs 1000 per extrapassenger194 BSeat beltRs 100Rs 1000194 COverloading of two wheelersRs 100Rs 2000, Disqualificationfor 3 months for licence194 DHelmetsRs 100Rs 1000 Disqualificationfor 3 months for licence194 ENot providing way for emergency vehiclesNewRs 10,000196Driving Without InsuranceRs 1000Rs 2000199Offences by JuvenilesNewGuardian / owner shall be deemed to be guilty. Rs 25,000 with 3 yrs imprisonment. For Juvenileto be tried under JJ Act.Registration of MotorVehicle to be cancelled206Power of Officers to impound documentsSuspension of drivinglicenses u/s 183, 184, 185,189, 190, 194C, 194D,194E210 BOffences committed by enforcing authoritiesTwice the penalty under therelevant section

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Assam Floods: Airtel, Vodafone-Idea Start Offering Voice, Data Benefits to Those Affected

Airtel and Vodafone Idea have extended support for the Assam flood victims by offering free voice calling and 100MB to 5GB data benefits.

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Huawei H1 Revenue Growth Accelerates Despite US Sanctions

Huawei revenue in the first half of the year grew 23.2 percent - faster than a year ago - despite an intense US campaign against it that ultimately became a trade ban from mid-May.

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BSNL Rs. 1,188 Marutham Prepaid Recharge Plan With Unlimited Calls, 5GB Data for 345 Days Launched

The new BSNL Rs. 1,188 Marutham Prepaid Plan offers 5GB of data, unlimited voice calling to any networks across the country, including the Mumbai and Delhi circles, and a total of 1,200 SMS messages for a validity of 345 days.

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Raid on Shivakumar landed CCD founder in I-T net

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From reel to real: Tour the Bollywood way

Hindi cinema's long-standing fascination for foreign locales goes decades back.

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Thousands bid final goodbye to VG Siddhartha

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Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Body of CCD founder VG Siddhartha recovered from Nethravathi river

The body of Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha was found in the backwaters of Nethravathi river near Hoige Bazaar, police said, adding it has been taken to government Wenlock Hospital, where a post mortem will be conducted. The 60-year-old founder of country's largest coffee chain and son-in-law of former Karnataka CM SM Krishna was missing since Monday night.

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Decomposed body of CCD founder recovered from Nethravathi river

After a frantic search of nearly 30 hours, decomposed body of Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha was recovered from the backwaters of Nethravathi river near Hoige Bazaar, police sources said. Nethravathi river is located on the outskirts of Mangaluru. Siddhartha, son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna, was missing since Monday night.

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Coffee Day owner dead, body found from river

Missing Café Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha's body has been found from the Netravati river, various reports in the media stated. The CCD owner was missing since Monday night and the police had launched a massive hunt to trace him.The police is yet to make an official confirmation.The CCD owner reportedly wrote a letter to the Café Coffee Day family stating the reasons that drove him to take the extreme step. In the letter, whose authenticity is under suspicion, the CCD promoter said that it was getting difficult for him to continue under the prevailing conditions and that the pressure had become too much on him. Karnataka: Body of VG Siddhartha, founder of Café Coffee Day and son-in-law of former CM SM Krishna, has been found… https://t.co/FbPpvWyenq— ANI (@ANI) 1564537773000 Mangaluru Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil: We found the body early morning today. It needs to be identified, we h… https://t.co/mYiqs9Ef97— ANI (@ANI) 1564538938000 He referred to a Private Equity player that had forced him to buy back shares for which he had borrowed money from a friend. He also alleged harassment at the hands of a former Income Tax official.The Income Tax department, in its response, expressed shock at the development and raised questions over the veracity of the letter saying that the signature of VG Siddhartha on the letter doesn't match with the signature on company's annual reports that are with the department.

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Rivals spreading a false narrative: IndiGo's Gangwal

NEW DELHI: IndiGo cofounder Rakesh Gangwal, who is feuding with fellow cofounder Rahul Bhatia over the management of India’s biggest airline, said his rivals were hiding behind “sources” and spreading a “false narrative” about the dispute, signalling that they don’t seem any closer to a rapprochement.“I stand by my issues raised with Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) and with other governmental and regulatory authorities and am honouring all requests for information from the various agencies,” he told ET. “I wish people had the conviction to be directly quoted and not hide behind so-called sources to spread a false narrative in the media.”He was responding to reports in which sources close to Bhatia and his InterGlobe Enterprises (IGE) alleged that the Gangwal’s complaints were merely a “smokescreen” to conceal his “larger game plan” to take control of the carrier. It was also alleged that Gangwal hadn’t replied to agencies seeking clarifications on his complaints.The Bhatia family and IGE together own 38.23% in IndiGo. Gangwal, who owns 36.65% stake, didn’t reply to any other questions and said he wouldn’t like to fight his case through media.IGE didn’t respond to queries.70458553 “The complaints are being dealt with by the regulators, so they would be in the best position to make that determination,” said an IGE source who didn’t want to be identified.Co to Expand BoardGangwal had written to Sebi on July 8 seeking its intervention to address what he called corporate governance issues at Indi-Go. He had raised concerns over certain related-party transactions, apart from the absence of an independent woman member on the board, as is required. Agencies including Sebi are looking into the complaints raised in the letter.To address the issues cited by Gangwal’s complaints, IndiGo has almost finalised a policy on related-party transactions and has decided to expand the IndiGo board from six to 10 members. According to this plan, the board will include four independent directors, including a woman, as well as five nominees of Bhatia’s IGE, besides Gangwal. The CEO of the company will also be a board member. Under the new RPT policy, request for proposals will be floated for all such transactions and a competitive bidding process will be followed for those exceeding a certain threshold. External consultants will be hired to deal with technical issues and transactions. The new RPT policy will be implemented via an amendment in the Articles of Association and any change will require the unanimous approval of all the independent directors.This, however, has not been able to bring about any thaw in the relationship between the warring promoters.

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Rivals spreading a false narrative, says IndiGo Rakesh Gangwal

Analysts flag data privacy concerns over FaceApp use

New Delhi: Recently, you would have seen people around you wanting to see what they look like 30 years from now. Heck, you would be one of them, the people who have used the app which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to do the trick, making Face-App the No 1, or the most downloaded app in India, and the world.The popularity of FaceApp features — that include making one appear older or younger in a picture, add a smile to your face, trying on different hair styles and even changing ones gender — has made it a viral phenomenon over the past two weeks or so, even though the app has been available for the past two years.“As of July 27, FaceApp ranked #1 by overall iPhone downloads in 154 countries, of which India is one,” said a spokesperson from App Annie, a San Fransicso-based mobile data and analytics firm.“Global interest in FaceApp picked up in mid-July, which was mirrored in India. Year-to-date (July 27, 2019), Face-App has been downloaded over 90 million times globally across iOS and Google Play stores combined, with a bulk of the downloads coming in July,” he said, adding that India accounted for 10 million downloads, with òver 8 million coming in July so far.Analysts and cyber security experts though warn of potential risks to user privacy and national security since personal data of millions of people could be vulnerable to threats of misuse later on. A clear red flag is a clause in the terms and conditions of FaceApp which says users give Face-App “a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable licence” to use photos they upload."Three critical privacy issues with FaceApp are related to its permissions needed to access entire photo library, the fact that photos and other data is uploaded to servers in Russia, and the click through privacy agreement that grants FaceApp the royalty free and irrevocable rights to user data,” said Amit Jaju, senior managing director at FTI Consulting, an NYSE-listed consulting firm based in the US, specialising in forensic technology. He said the data can be easily misused for 3D face printing and bypassing all kinds of biometric face authentication and also misused with techniques such as deepFake to create fake videos.“The government should enforce data to be stored in India. And delete all source data immediately once the processing is over," Jaju said. The Indian government is considering barring army personnel from using it, on the grounds that the app requires access to all images, files and photos on one’s phone, which may pose a security risk.

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Tech-savvy Siddhartha got many a tech winner going

Was among India’s 1st VC investors, betting early on many marquee cos.

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Realme X to Go on Sale in India Today via Flipkart and Realme.com: Check Price, Offers, Specifications

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After Yatra, Ebix sets sights on debt-hit IT firm Trimax

New Delhi: Nasdaq-listed Ebix Inc has made a bid for Mumbai-based Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services, which is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings after it defaulted on Rs 1,800 crore of loans, two people directly briefed on the matter said.The US software company’s latest offer to buy an Indian business comes less than a fortnight after it agreed to acquire Gurgaon-based travel portal Yatra Online in an allstock deal. In the past two years, it has spent about $1 billion shopping for companies in India.Ebix is holding discussions with a consortium of lenders led by State Bank of India, the people said. The lenders took Trimax to the bankruptcy court after failed attempts to restructure its debt two years back.Financial terms of the bid could not be ascertained. But one of the people said the negotiations were veering around the upfront payment that Ebix had offered to the lenders. The lenders are unhappy with the terms of the offer, the person added. 70458415 Avil Menezes, the resolution professional appointed by the National Company Law Tribunal to manage Trimax’s bankruptcy proceedings, declined to comment when contacted. Ebix and SBI didn’t respond to requests for comment until press time Tuesday.Trimax is founded by first-generation entrepreneur Surya Prakash Madrecha and is backed by Aditya Birla Private Equity.The company provides IT infrastructure support to state-run banks such as Bank of Baroda, Central Bank, Canara Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and IDBI Bank. It also has multi-city contracts with state-run telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for the rollout of wifi networks in public spaces.The company also operates two data centres and has operations in Singapore through a wholly owned subsidiary.Ebix had submitted a proposal to acquire a majority stake in the company in October 2017 as well, the people said. Its offer then was to infuse nearly Rs 300 crore in Trimax and pay a part of banks’ dues. Trimax posted Rs 2,000 crore of sales in fiscal 2017. Sales halved in the subsequent year, as it faced a financial crunch due to a pile-up of receivables and inability to service loans.Aditya Birla PE had invested around Rs 100 crore in Trimax seven years ago. Zephyr Peacock, another private equity fund, is also an investor. Founder Madrecha attempted to provide the investors an exit five years ago through an IPO, but the plan did not materialise.Ebix has made as many as 17 acquisitions in India before it agreed to acquire Yatra.com. The company had also submitted a bid for bankrupt Educomp Solutions, but may withdraw that offer. It is considering an IPO for some of its India businesses this calendar year.

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Jio to raise $1 bn via offshore loans to buy telecom gear

MUMBAI: Reliance Jio Infocomm is getting ready to borrow about $1 billion to buy telecom equipment, start a range of financial services to complement what it already offers subscribers and unveil its home broadband pricing.The mobile phone operator plans to raise about $1 billion (Rs 6,871 crore) via offshore loans that will be guaranteed by the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation to fund purchases from South Korean companies, said three people with knowledge of the matter.Reliance Industries, Jio’s parent company that’s controlled by Mukesh Ambani, is set to provide details on the gamut of financial services at its upcoming annual general meeting on August 12. It will offer these services to its 340 million users, hoping to attract more high-value subscribers. It’s not clear whether these new financial services will be provided by Jio Payments Bank — a joint venture with State Bank of India — or through a separate entity.70458351 Jio is also expected to provide further details, including the pricing, of its home broadband service, which has been undergoing trials for over two years, the people said.Reliance and Jio didn’t respond to ET’s queries.Third-party Insurance, Health CoverOn the fund raising, the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-Sure), South Korea’s official export credit agency, will guarantee consignments imported by India’s fastest-growing telecom operator, which needs to expand its 4G and fibre network to keep pace with surging data consumption and buy spectrum to offer 5G services.“Jio is likely to procure telecom equipment from companies like Samsung Electronics and Ace Technologies Corp.,” one person told ET. K-Sure supports domestic exports.While the loan is likely to have a 10-year maturity, it could be priced 81 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), the people said.“The K-Sure guarantee is aiding a reduction in borrowing costs,” said another executive involved in the matter.Jio is appointing foreign banks such as HSBC, Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Citi and JP Morgan to help syndicate the loan. The banks could not be contacted immediately for comment.This would be the fifth facility that K-Sure will cover for the Reliance group in six years and follows an amount of about $500 million that Jio initiated to raise from overseas earlier this month. The company had debt of Rs 75,000 crore at the end of June.The financial services that Jio is expected to roll out include third-party insurance and health cover.“Jio will also help in selling or cross-selling retail products ranging from insurance to bonds,” said an industry veteran familiar with the matter. The person added that Jio may offer demat account services, which allow investors to hold securities in electronic form.Reliance has started putting together a top management team for the new services without tapping Jio’s talent.“The group wants to keep the manpower and their duties segregated from the main team of Jio,” said another person.In India, many insurance and pension products, along with an array of retail credit lines including home, auto and consumer loans, are offered by nonbanking finance companies, or shadow banks, which are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India.Following defaults by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, NBFCs in India have been engulfed in a funding crisis, with banks wary of lending to them and mutual funds, pension funds and insurers not keen to subscribe to their bonds.However, experts noted that branded nonbanking entities including Bajaj Finance, Mahindra Finance, HDFC, Tata Capital and Tata Housing Finance stand out in the sector, drawing a cushion from their parentage, and Reliance should not be adversely affected if it takes the NBFC route.“A Reliance name will add credibility and it will be easier for banks to offer them loans,” said a market expert.Jio, which started operations in September 2016, plans to become more than just a mobile phone operator. It wants to become a digital services provider with a presence in home broadband, enterprise business, services to small and medium enterprises and a bouquet of content and digital services, including financial offerings.

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Jio to raise $1 billion via offshore loans to buy telecom gear

Redmi 7A to Go on Sale in India via Flipkart, Mi.com Today: Price, Specifications, Sale Offers

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After Yatra, Ebix sets sights on debt-hit IT firm Trimax

Ebix is holding discussions with a consortium of lenders led by State Bank of India, the people said.

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Google, Facebook, Twitter may be affected: Framework to tax big tech companies being finalised

Revenue threshold of Rs 20 crore and a limit of 500,000 users may be set for a non-resident technology firm to pay tax on profits earned locally.

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Tesla to Soon Get Netflix, YouTube Streaming Support: Elon Musk

Elon Musk has announced that people would be soon able to stream videos on digital platforms like Netflix and YouTube in parked Tesla electric vehicles.

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Prime Video: The Best TV Series on Amazon’s Streaming Service

Of the roughly 450 available on Amazon Prime Video in India, these are the best TV series / shows / originals, including the likes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Fleabag, The Office, and Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi among others.

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Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Prequel Series Creative Team Includes Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad Producers, Oscar Winners

Amazon Prime Video has announced the full creative team of its Lord of the Rings prequel series. It includes Bruce Richmond, Gene Kelly, Lindsey Weber, Gennifer Hutchison, Jason Cahill, Justin Doble, Bryan Cogman, Stephany Folsom, Ron Ames, and Helen Shang among others.

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Tesla to Soon Get Netflix, YouTube Streaming Support: Elon Musk

Elon Musk has announced that people would be soon able to stream videos on digital platforms like Netflix and YouTube in parked Tesla electric vehicles.

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The Lion King Nears $1 Billion at Worldwide Box Office, as Disney Has a Record Year

The Lion King is now set to cross a billion dollars at the worldwide box office after it added $218.3 million this weekend. In the process, it helped Disney set a new all-time global annual box office record with $7.67 billion, surpassing the one it previously set in 2016.

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Vodafone ‘Har Recharge Pe Inaam’ Offer Brings Cashback, Extra Data, Other Rewards on Prepaid Recharges: All You Need to Know

Vodafone is offering a guaranteed reward on each and every prepaid recharge by its subscribers, and users can claim it by going to the My Vodafone app or dialling *999#.

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Cisco, Google Partner to Offer Free High-Speed Public Wi-Fi in India, Pilot Live in Bengaluru

Cisco has teamed up with Google to roll out free, high-speed public Wi-Fi access globally, starting with India. The first pilot under the partnership has been rolled out at 35 locations in Bengaluru, Cisco said here on Monday.

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Airtel Reduces Incoming Call Validity to 7 Days After Expiry of Prepaid Plan

The incoming call validity for inactive Airtel prepaid plan connections was earlier 15 days, and that has now reportedly been reduced to 7 days only.

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Jio Saarthi Digital Assistant Launched to Ease Recharge Process for Subscribers

Reliance Jio has announced Jio Saarthi digital assistant that will be integrated within the MyJio app to make digital recharges easier.

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Monday, July 29, 2019

Brazil police end Neymar rape probe over lack of evidence

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Govt to ping EU to align its data law with GDPR

The EU Commission and Japan signed a similar deal of equivalency to enable safe data transfers, based on a high level of protection of personal data.

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Coffee day founder goes missing in Mangalore, frantic search on

Cafe Coffee Day owner VG Siddhartha has gone missing from July 29, reports in the media said. His phone is also switched off since last night, according to the reports. Siddhartha is the son-in-law of former Karnataka CM and BJP leader SM Krishna. The businessman was reportedly travelling to Mangaluru when he went missing. The police has launched a search to trace Siddhartha.Siddhartha had sold his entire stake in Mindtree to L&T recently and exited the company. BJP leader SM Krishna's son-in-law, CCD owner VG Siddartha missing since July 29 https://t.co/YkIL7wdHvi— ET NOW (@ETNOWlive) 1564451279000 More to follow

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CCD founder VG Siddhartha goes missing: Reports

Romesh Sobti: It’s a free market, Why should one help NBFCs?

IndusInd Bank CEO Romesh Sobti said the liquidity crisis that has gripped nonbanking finance companies (NBFC) is not a systemic issue, according to the regulators. He told Saloni Shukla and MC Govardhana Rangan in an interview that one or two of them may go under. “It’s a free market. Why should anybody come out to help them?” he said. He added that the liquidity squeeze has shown the key role NBFCs had been playing in driving consumption demand. “If they are not as active as they used to be, then who will fill the gap?” he said. Under Sobti, IndusInd Bank grew to become one of the country’s best-performing lenders. But the exposure to Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and asset-quality issues have made investors nervous. He said IndusInd has been proactive in handling the fallout. Edited excerpts:IndusInd Bank rose from being a private-sector lender of little interest to one that was almost on par with HDFC Bank in the eyes of investors. But in the last few quarters there have been concerns over asset quality. What went wrong?It’s the overhang of just that one particular account (IL&FS). We were the only bank making provisions when no one else was talking about it. The expectation level was so high we were asked why didn’t we provide in one go? We accumulated and then provided for the entire exposure. Then rumours started surfacing over exposure to multiple troubled companies. The fact is every time one raises a question, you can’t go to the exchanges and start clarifying that we don’t have exposure, that’s not how you run a bank.‘Monitoring Realty Projects after Funding’We increased our disclosures, no one has opened their books like we have done. I am telling you my rating profile — SMA (Special Mention Account), I am giving you gross NPAs (nonperforming assets) product wise.There was also a rise in your real estate financing last quarter and there are concerns over that because of the meltdown in the sector right now?Real estate is not the dirty word... some companies in the sector may have problems. There are realtors who don’t borrow but I want to lend to them. It’s not shutters down in any sector. Our model of financing is very granular. We finance projects and not holding companies. Our total book is Rs 6,500 crore-7,000 crore, we have 80 projects. I monitor these projects, what is the construction stage and the money comes to my escrow.The NBFC crisis started last year — what’s the earliest all this will get resolved?The big shadow was cast by IL&FS and it spread across the industry, post which a realisation dawned that how were these guys funding themselves. When growth was good at 20-30%, these guys got good valuations, suddenly everybody woke to the ALM (asset-liability mismatch) issue, which brought in a risk aversion.But there is an obvious flaw in funding...When you start competing irrationally on price to get market share and show growth, you are sacrificing asset-liability mismatches. Look at loan against property — we used to grow at 20%, but our growth fell to 10%... We withdrew from that market. Not because we were seeing any delinquency but because the riskreward relationship was skewed. When valuations are linked to growth, you want growth at any cost. In the process, how do you make the margin — you borrow short and lend long... More than a bit of that happened in this crisis.We have seen a slowdown, even a sort of contagion.The regulators have indicated more than once that they don’t see a systemic issue. The fear was that the liquidity issue would turn into a solvency issue — that doesn’t seem to have happened. One or two companies will go belly up, it’s a free market. Why should anybody come out to help them? Help can only come in the form of good portfolio purchases. What do you do when you don’t have money? You stop lending, that has led to a slowdown in the sector. If you stop lending and the borrower is still paying, you become solvent... That is what NBFCs are doing to preserve liquidity.But will this add to the slowdown in the economy?The liquidity issue has brought to fore the role NBFCs play — that they have a larger role than we all thought and a lot of that goes towards consumption demand. For example, air conditioner sales have fallen — who is funding them? Not banks, they never did white goods financing, banks were never good at it. NBFCs play a very big role in fuelling growth and consumption, which is being recognised now. So, if they are not as active as they used to be, then who will fill the gap? Banks may pick up the slack but they can’t fill the whole funding gap. Some budget proposals will bring relief but perhaps more needs to be done.Are you seeing a shift of the NBFC market share toward banks?Yes, there is a clear shift. We grew vehicle financing by almost 24%. There were a few loyal customers who were wooed away by pricing. For example, a customer took his first truck and fifth truck from me. Some NBFC gave him a 75 basis point differential on pricing and he asked us to match the pricing... We can’t do that. He goes away but then he comes back. In the upturn, 35-40 players finance commercial vehicle but in the downturns only 8-10 remain.Do you see an asset-quality impact on retail loans due to job losses?We don’t have the maturity in our customer profile to be able to do those instant loans. If you do analytics of your customer who has been around for 15 years and you feel can be given a loan… we don’t have such a mature savings book. I don’t have a 20-year track record with anybody. All of them came in the last four-five years. Our unsecured book has been kept around the 3% (of the total loan book) mark, so we don’t worry about that. The first casualty will be the consumption loan. If it is an asset-linked loan, the casualty rates are smaller. A customer doesn’t want to lose his car or home, but a clean personal loan is fine… he can delay it.How do you see IndusInd -Bharat Financial Inclusion erger improving your coverage in rural India?The merger with Bharat Financial really moves the needle for us. For years, we struggled with the question what business model should we use for rural India. We could see the impact of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile, we could see the impact of electrification, roads, sanitation... We could see customers have the saving potential but accessing that was a problem for us. We now have access to 1.5 lakh villages — almost one-sixth of villages in India. We cover 350 districts, 1,800 branches with 9 million customers... Suddenly, we now have infrastructure to build a rural model. We want to capture the borrowers’ savings, we have a run rate of 50,000 savings bank accounts a day. At the rate we are going, we will cover all of them by September.

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Govt to ping EU to align its data law with GDPR

India will approach the European Union seeking ‘adequacy’ status with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) once the country finalises and passes its own Personal Data Protection Bill, two people familiar with the matter said.The reciprocal recognition of data protection equivalency is expected to reduce the compliance burden and give the outsourcing and technology industry a leg-up in attracting clients from Europe.“Adequacy means we recognise each other’s privacy protections. This will help all industries,” said a senior government official.The EU Commission and Japan signed a similar deal of equivalency to enable safe data transfers, based on a high level of protection of personal data.As a result, all data transfers from the EU to Japan will be protected by the same guarantees that apply under the GDPR. The EU has so far signed adequacy agreements with 13 countries, including Canada and New Zealand. “Adequacy gives EU companies comfort in sending data to India. It provides automatic compliance and helps bolsters IT offshoring capability of Indian companies,” said Nikhil Narendran, partner of legal firm Trilegal. While compliance requirements of the data protection legislation will initially increase costs, it will equip India to become a responsible global digital hub in the long run, he said.Entities operating in the EU or even outside the bloc have had to significantly adjust their businesses if they hold, process or transact with data of EU nationals. This involves rewriting contracts with customers as well as service providers. The Indian information technology and IT-enabled services industry has been the most affected by the new law since it derives almost 30% of its revenues from Europe.“Adequacy helps in better data transfers, removes barriers to outsourcing and makes it easier for enterprises. It gives comfort to companies given there is an agreement at the country level,” said Rama Vedashree, CEO at Data Security Council of India.

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Women bag frontline roles in gig economy, but lag behind in wages

BENGALURU: New-age internet companies are seeing more women in frontline roles and it’s easy to see why — lower attrition rates, better ratings for delivery women and improved productivity at warehouses. That’s led to greater demand for women at delivery hubs and fulfillment centres.The trend is reflected in the latest Employment Outlook report by staffing platform TeamLease Services that has been shared exclusively with ET, which said the total number of women employed in the delivery industry across various roles now stands at 67,900, up from 40,000 last year.Overall, the gig economy accounts for more than 1.4 million jobs in India, which mostly includes delivery staff, drivers, beauticians and maintenance workers, according to BetterPlace, a platform for blue-collar workers. The gig economy, led by the likes of Uber, Ola, Swiggy and Zomato, typically offers short-term contracts or freelance work to its drivers and delivery personnel.While more women are joining the gig economy in such roles, they are paid less than men for the same jobs. There’s an 8-10% salary difference between male and female delivery executives, ranging between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000 per month, according to TeamLease. As much as 60% of the jobs are in food tech, 30% in ecommerce and courier services and 10% in hyperlocal delivery, it said. 70442769 Women are more diligent, with customers complaining less, said one startup boss. “We see far (fewer) complaints for our women delivery executives, something which is more common with men when instances like missing items are reported,” said Revathi Roy, founder of Hey Deedee, an all-women delivery service startup.Safety a Key ConcernHey Deedee has a delivery force of 800 women. Another 2,500 women are attending a 45-day training camp at which they’ll be taught self-defence, road safety and other skills, the company said. Besides ecommerce companies, the Mumbai-based startup also works with retailers such as Pizza Hut and Nature’s Basket.But even as the number of women entering the gig economy is rising, challenges remain when hiring them for frontline roles, especially with regard to their safety as reflected in Hey Deedee’s training regimen. That’s why it’s not alone in providing self-defence training, aimed at equipping women with the ability to tackle untoward situations. Apart from that, companies said many women lack two-wheeler riding skills, an essential for last-mile delivery roles.With 1,200 women employees in its last-mile network, Amazon provides third-party safety apps and a dedicated helpline among other initiatives, to ensure women’s safety. “In the last-mile network, there are several jobs available for women like operational and managerial roles in delivery stations, delivery associates and IHS (I Have Space) partners, among others,” said an Amazon spokesperson. IHS is a last-mile connectivity programme in association with small store owners.Amazon added 800 women last year, up from 20 three years ago. “We have a dedicated delivery station in Chennai, which is run solely by women. Here, they deliver packages on two-wheelers, covering a radius of 2-3 km from the station,” a spokesperson said. Other women-only delivery stations have expanded into mixed centres.Walmart-owned Flipkart said it first hired a set of women in delivery roles in 2017 when the online retailer introduced grocery as a category, which saw better acceptability by customers. It later expanded in other categories in the supply chain such as furniture and large appliances. With 300 women in roles such as supervising operations, sorting centres, packaging and in charge of hubs and delivery executives, the firm plans to provide education and sensitisation modules apart from facilities such as wash rooms and creches. The company said it aims to take women staffing to 20% across the supply chain.Besides ecommerce, food-delivery apps such as Swiggy said it now has 700 women as delivery partners while rival Zomato employs 500. These companies said they see more women participate in cities such as Kochi, Jaipur, Pune and other non-metro areas, most of them on company rolls.“Our first woman delivery partner joined us in Pune in January last year and the number is steadily growing,” said a Zomato spokesperson. “Flexible work timings help female delivery partners to familiarise themselves with routes and restaurants and we ensure regular interactions with delivery staff and track them through the partner app.”The number of women has significantly increased in sectors such as supply chain, retail, travel, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), where they are working in customer service, sales and other frontline roles, according to TeamLease. But these figures are still relatively low, said Rituparna Chakraborty, cofounder of Team-Lease Services.“The percentage of Indian women in the workforce is still around 26-27% — one of the lowest in the world,” Chakraborty said. “We have to remain focussed around policy initiatives and corporate India has to take a long-term view on attracting and retaining women in the workforce.”

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One or two NBFCs may sink: Romesh Sobti, IndusInd Bank

One or two NBFCs may sink, it's a free market: Romesh Sobti, CEO, IndusInd Bank

Banks raising funds to grab NBFC share

MUMBAI: Top public and private sector banks are going on a fundraising spree as they seek to wrest market share from nonbanking finance companies (NBFCs) facing a credit crisis and smaller staterun banks weighed down by bad loans. At least three top public sector banks — State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank — and two private lenders — Axis and RBL Bank — are planning to raise an aggregate of up to Rs 62,000 crore this year in a bid to accumulate growth capital.State Bank of India is looking to raise as much as Rs 17,000 crore through bonds, with Rs 7,000 crore of this shortly as additional tier one (AT1) capital.“We see consumption picking up around the festive season—second half is always the busy season and first half is the easy season,” said SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar. “We have recorded a 13% credit growth and hopefully if this trend continues then we have to be prepared.”Credit disbursals by NBFCs dropped 31% to Rs 1.96 lakh crore at the end of March from Rs 2.83 lakh crore in the year earlier.70442497 Bank Lending to NBFCs SlowsBank lending to NBFCs also slowed to Rs 6.2 lakh crore at the end of May against Rs 6.4 lakh crore in March. NBFCs were gripped by the liquidity squeeze that followed the unexpected default by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) in September last year.“This is clearly growth capital as banks have frontloaded provisions with industry PCR (provision coverage ratio) average at 60% currently and the requirement will be much lower than FY19,” said Siddharth Purohit, banking analyst with SMC Institutional Equities. “With additional capital coming in from the government to state-owned banks, we can expect to see credit recovery and higher profits in FY20.”In her July 5 budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman pledged additional capital of Rs 70,000 crore for state-run banks this financial year. This will help some to provide for bad loans, exit the Prompt Corrective Action framework and facilitate higher lending to small and medium enterprises.Bank of Baroda will raise as much as Rs 1,500 crore through the employee share purchase scheme (ESPS) and Rs 4,500 crore through AT1bonds. It plans to raise Rs 12,000 crore in the full financial year. Canara Bank plans to raise up to Rs 12,000 crore through a mix of equity and bonds during the current fiscal to fund its business growth. The state-run lender plans to raise Rs 6,000 crore through qualified institutional placements (QIPs) while the remaining is expected to come from bond placements.Axis Bank is also looking to raise Rs 18,000 crore through a combination of QIPs as well as American and global depository receipts (ADRs, GDRs) as it looks to boost capital to drive loan growth mostly among retail customers and select corporates. RBL Bank is planning a share sale to raise up to Rs 3,500 crore, shoring up its capital base to expand into newer lending areas and maintain its fast-paced growth in retail banking.“We will raise capital in the next few months—it will happen this fiscal,” said RBL Bank CEO Vishwavir Ahuja. “We have taken an enabling resolution for raising between Rs 3,000 crore and Rs 3,500 crore, which was confirmed in the AGM last week. That’s what we will start thinking and working on. It’s on our radar this year, depending on market conditions.”

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