Raj govt places curbs on Ajmer pilgrims from Pak

Soon after the arrival of a delegation of 211 Pakistani pilgrims in Ajmer for Urs celebrations, the district admin on Saturday imposed curbs on them citing visa rules. For the first time, Pakistani pilgrims have been asked to visit the shrine for a specific duration instead of going to the dargah any time of the day.

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Ajanta-Orpat group plans to double turnover to Rs 2,400 crore by FY25

New Delhi: Ajanta-Orpat Group, which operates in consumer electronic, electrical and home appliances segments, aims to double its turnover in next five years to Rs 2,400 crore, a top company official said. The group, which is also India's largest calculator and room heater manufacturer, had a combined topline of around Rs 1,200 crore in FY2018-19. The Gujarat-based company, which is also the world's largest wall clock manufacturer, expects revenue from its home appliances and fans division to be the key growth driver, contributing almost Rs 1,200 crore by fiscal year 2024-25. The company is also expanding its sales network and has also started its own e-commerce platform. "We plan to double the turnover by FY25 to around Rs 2,400 crore," Ajanta-Orpat Group Managing Director Nevil Patel said. "This fiscal, we have a growth rate of about 10 per cent Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) despite a slowdown in the economy," Patel said adding that the company is focusing on the home appliances sector and on energy efficient products. Besides, the company is also planning to introduce new products in existing categories and several of them are at developmental/testing stages right now as clocks with pollution detection technology. Ajanta-Orpat, which has 450 distributors, plans to add 400 more into its fold by the end of next financial year. The group exports to around 45 countries. The group has a unified manufacturing facility at Morbi in Gujarat and employs around 5,000 people largely women. "We currently employ around 95 per cent women in our organisation, and shall be targeting to push the number of women employees even further in the coming years," he said.

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Maxxis bets big on India as it eyes to enter top 5 global tyre maker list

NEW DELHI: Taiwanese tyre major Maxxis Group is betting big on India, where it plans to build up to five factories, as it expects the country to play a crucial role in its chase to become a top five global player by 2025, according to a senior company official.The company, which clocked revenue of around USD 4 billion in 2019, is currently the world's 9th largest tyre brand and sees India along with Indonesia to play significant part in meeting its 2025 target.The company is investing USD 400 million on its first manufacturing plant at Sanand in Gujarat, where it is working to hike output to 60,000 units of two-wheeler tyres per day from the current 20,000 units a day, as part of the project's phase I expansion."Maxxis has a group goal of growing into the top five globally in next five years. We have accomplished much in East Asia, Southeast Asia and have significant presence in Europe and in American market.""The next major international markets for us will be two places -- one is India and the another Indonesia, the major two-wheeler markets in the world," Maxxis India Marketing Head Bing-Lin Wu said.He further said, "in achieving the group goal of 2025, India will play a pivotal role. We have estimated a certain output from the Indian market alone that will help us to achieve that target. On backward calculations four or five production units will be the minimum requirement to achieve that."When asked about investments and timeline for setting up these plants, he said, "we will start a discussion very soon."Also, he said the investments on the new plants would be comparably lesser than on its first plant at Sanand where the company has already made "some heavy advanced investments" on machinery for processes such as mixing, vulcanising and calendering and the "capacity of one machine is so huge that it can supply six to seven production lines"."In the subsequent plants, we will try to make an optimisation between our investments and utilising the current capacity of our Sanand plant," Wu said.At present, Maxxis India supplies two-wheeler tyres to Honda, Hero MotoCorp, Yamaha and Suzuki from its Sanand plant, while it supplies four-wheeler tyres to Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Jeep.Commenting on Sanand plant expansion, Lu said, "we have used half of the land (106 acres) we got from the Gujarat government for the planned 60,000 units capacity. The other half of the land, we are still deciding whether to put another 60,000 units capacity of two-wheeler or we are going to put four-wheeler tyre production."Maxxis has set a target of garnering 15 per cent of two-wheeler tyre market in India by 2023.Lu said the company expects the Indian market to grow to around 10 crore units of two-wheeler tyres per year and if the company achieves its target of 15 per cent market share "we will more or less utilise the entire capacity of our Gujarat plant and anything beyond will require expansion of production in India".On four-wheeler tyre segment, he said the group's 2025 target and expectations from India are pinned on both two and four-wheeler tyres segment "but volume-wise, definitely two-wheeler tyres in India has more advantage than four-wheeler tyre business".When asked about growth prospects for 2020, Lu said Maxxis expects to continue with its growth momentum from last year, despite the automobile industry suffering a downturn as it was able to enhance its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) business share."I will say we are still in a position to aim at high growth given that we're going to have even higher share in the existing partnership and we are looking at multiple projects simultaneously with OE (original equipment) partners," he said.

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India Inc gradually shifting to recruiting firms for quality talent: Study

Mumbai: Companies are increasingly entrusting recruitment tasks in the hands of professional organisations for quality talent acquisition even as social media platforms and job sites are still one of the key hiring channels, says a study. According to a study by CIEL HR Services, that focused on the latest trends in Indian talent market, companies are now resorting to recruiting companies for quality talent acquisition across junior, mid and senior-level positions. Titled, 'CIELWorks 2020: Latest Trends in Indian Talent Market 2020' the study noted that social media platforms and job sites were still relevant at hiring candidates, however, an increasing number of companies now prefer to go through employment agencies. "The main reason behind companies shifting gradually to recruiting companies is because these firms are cutting down their work and time by screening and selecting relevant and quality talent," Aditya Narayan Mishra of CIEL HR Services said. The study that covered over 200 senior to mid level executives across sectors from December 2019 till January 2020, noted that though job opportunities were robust but securing quality talent remained a challenge during 2019. It further noted that entry-level roles were filled in less than 30 days, mid-level in less than 60 days and senior-level jobs roles saw positions fill in more slowly at around 180 days. The key factors that attracted candidates and retained them at the junior level were salaries and career development, while at the mid-level the trend was dominated by designation, job security, salary and development opportunities. At the senior-level, the key factors that drove employee hiring and retention were centered on the role within the organisation, the variable pay, the study noted. Other major factors that influence senior-level hiring include financial health of the company, work culture, employer brand and long term vision of the organisation, it noted.

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From royal feasts to tourism titbits: Gir lions turning into scavengers?

A Wildlife Institute of India study has red-flagged a major concern over diminishing hunting skills in younger lions due to cubs being increasingly fed with dumped carcasses in tourism zones. It mentioned how tribals and forest officials dump their cattle outside their homes to prevent lion attack and enhance tourism.

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Rafael Nadal cruises past Taylor Fritz to win Acapulco title

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Imperious Novak Djokovic marks Stefanos Tsitsipas as future world No.1

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Heavy police deployment in Shaheen Bagh

NEW DELHI: Delhi police made a heavy deployment of security personnel in southeast Delhi's Shaheen Bagh area, where several women have been leading a protest on the road against the new citizenship law for more than two months, as a precautionary measure on Sunday, officials said. The police deployment has come after a fringe right-wing group, Hindu Sena, gave a call to clear the Shaheen Bagh road on March 1. However on Saturday, with the intervention of police, they called off their proposed protest against the anti-CAA agitation in Shaheen Bagh. "The proposed protest call was cancelled with timely intervention. But as a precautionary measure, we have made heavy police deployment here," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) RP Meena said. Twelve companies, including two of female forces, have been deployed in Shaheen Bagh, 100 men each from four police districts have also been deployed along with the local police, the official said. The Hindu Sena said in a statement police pressured them to call off their protest on Sunday against the Shaheen Bagh agitation. Shaheen Bagh, near Jamia Millia Islamia, has been a protest venue for a section of people opposed to the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens since December 15 last year.

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BPCL valuation high, evaluating bid: Anil Agarwal, Vedanta

New Delhi: Mining baron Anil Agarwal, who was among the first to evince interest in bidding for Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), says valuation of the firm is too high and his company Vedanta will evaluate bidding for it when the final bid document is out. At the close of trading on Friday, BPCL had a market capitalisation of Rs 92,464.40 crore. At this price, the government's Rs 52.98 per cent stake that is being sold in the country's largest privatisation exercise is worth about Rs 49,000 crore. The acquirer will also be required to make an open offer for another 26 per cent stake from minority shareholders which will cost another Rs 24,000 crore. "We certainly are interested in bidding but the valuations are too high," Agarwal said. "The bid document is not yet out and we will carefully evaluate bidding once the offer document is out." He said share price has moved up 40-50 per cent since the time the government announced its plan to sell stake in November last year. "There are lot of synergies BPCL has with our business. I am the largest private oil producer in the country" and BPCL has refineries to process it and a network of petrol pumps to sell fuel produced from it, he said. "We will evaluate bidding (for BPCL), let's see." The government plans to sell its entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL that will give buyers ready access to 14 per cent of India's oil refining capacity and about one-fifth of the fuel market share in the world's fastest-growing energy market. "We are in oil business. We produce 30 per cent oil and gas of the country and this has natural synergies with BPCL," Agarwal said. A two-stage bidding process is to be followed for privatisation of BPCL, wherein request for proposal or RFP in the first stage will be followed by due diligence-cum-bidding by qualified bidders in the second phase. Privatisation of BPCL is essential for meeting the record Rs 2.1 lakh crore target Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has set from disinvestment proceeds in the Budget for 2020-21 fiscal that starts April. BPCL operates four refineries in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kochi (Kerala), Bina (Madhya Pradesh) and Numaligarh (Assam) with a combined capacity of 38.3 million tonnes per annum, which is 15 per cent of India's total refining capacity of 249.4 million tonnes. While the Numaligarh refinery will be carved out of BPCL and sold to a PSU, the new buyer of the company will get 35.3 million tonnes of refining capacity. It also owns 15,177 petrol pumps and 6,011 LPG distributor agencies in the country. Besides, it has 51 LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) bottling plants. The company distributes 21 per cent of petroleum products consumed in the country by volume as of March this year and has more than a fifth of the 250 aviation fuel stations in India.

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Relief to consumers as fuel prices cut sharply on Sunday

NEW DELHI: The fuel prices saw further decline as the price of petrol was cut by 17 paise and that of diesel by 21 paise on Sunday.Petrol now costs Rs 71.71 per litre in Delhi, Rs 77.40 per litre in Mumbai, Rs 74.38 per litre in Kolkata and Rs 74.51 per litre in Chennai after the price cut.Similarly diesel costs Rs 64.30 a litre in Delhi, Rs 67.34 a litre in Mumbai, Rs Rs 66.63 a litre in Kolkata and 67.86 per litre in Chennai, according to Indian Oil Corporation website.The prices were reduced after the international crude oil prices witnessed a downward trend due to slump in demand. The Brent also fell by $0.86 per barrel and was trading at $50.50 per barrel after coronavirus deaths and cases increased all over the world. The retail prices of fuel are dependent on the international crude prices and the rupee-US dollar exchange rate as India imports almost 80 per cent of its crude requirements.Domestic petrol and diesel prices are reviewed by oil marketing companies on a daily basis. Price revisions are implemented at the fuel stations with effect from 6 a.m.

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Tweet Buster: St in ‘panicdemic’ & why RBI can’t soften virus hit

NEW DELHI: The week gone by freshened up memories of 2008 financial crisis as global stock markets plummeted following the spread of coronavirus to more than 50 countries. As the world grappled with the economic implications of the crisis, investors were busy fleeing towards safe haven assets such as bonds and gold. BSE benchmark Sensex nosedived 1,448 points alone on Friday to log its second-worst pointwise decline in history. No sector was left unscathed.ETMarkets.com did a roundup of what the top market minds made of this move and what they predict going ahead. On a lighter note, chairman of Mahindra Group Anand Mahindra proposed a new term for the coronavirus panic-induced market crash: ‘Panicdemic’.Time to coin a new phrase. When markets panic over a pandemic is it a ‘panicdemic?’— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) 1582869920000 Independent market expert Sandip Sabharwal seems to find opportunity amid this crisis. The expert would like to buy this market fall, yet he is unsure it has reached the bottom yet.As a BULL I have a strong urge to Buy now after such a severe sell off Controlling those urges as the worst might… https://t.co/hxDGVnXyBk— sandip sabharwal (@sandipsabharwal) 1582861969000 Sabharwal in another tweet said India unlike other times is better placed to face the crash and is no longer part of the “fragile” club. He finds India’s forex reserve, strong FDI inflows and low inflationary pressures as a cushion against market selloff.The good part for #India this time Vs previous market selloffs is that - Our external position is strong with reco… https://t.co/pikfe8Alzz— sandip sabharwal (@sandipsabharwal) 1582620620000 In another tweet, he said the fall could play out over the next 2-3 weeks, but could be well over before the summer comes and the possibility of coronavirus spreading recedes. People try to find a bottom after just ONE day of a Nasty #StockMarket selloff Not so fast The time will come soon… https://t.co/g9p6w42ayY— sandip sabharwal (@sandipsabharwal) 1582549364000 #Coronavirus outbreak is a Non Linear event. As such predicting its effect in terms of duration and extent on the… https://t.co/Tms38dZdEt— sandip sabharwal (@sandipsabharwal) 1582809518000 Value investor Jiten Parmar advised investors to not invest in companies that are likely to benefit from the spread of coronavirus in the short term, instead he advised them to focus on sectors with long term tailwinds.Do not make investment decisions based on short term benefits to certain companies/sectors due to CoVid 19. That ma… https://t.co/I5toyUOZus— Jiten Parmar (@jitenkparmar) 1582885481000 Safir Anand, who like Parmar is a value investor, made a case for India trying to capitalise on this opportunity to lure global giants to set up shop here. India should be using this opportunity to reach out to global giants to derisk from over dependence on china for ma… https://t.co/XxYk4yWocP— Safir (@safiranand) 1582831559000 Market veteran Shankar Sharma compared Dow and Nifty’s movement correlation and wondered why don’t Indian markets go equally higher as the US’, but come down with the same momentum.I am very upset with the behavior of the Indian stock market. Jab saare Global markets chaley in last 1-2 years, to… https://t.co/WasMQH3OlF— Shankar Sharma (@1shankarsharma) 1582869431000 Chief Economic Adviser at Allianz, Mohamed A El-Erian pointed out that contracting China PMI due to the spreading coronavirus is further adding on to the pain points caused by the trade war. Shock number out of #China. The February #PMI for manufacturing came in at just 35.7(the consensus estimate was 45.… https://t.co/WHXS0YP139— Mohamed A. El-Erian (@elerianm) 1582938596000 El-Erian doesn’t see the central bankers’ action as a possible respite for tackling the issue. Here’s why.In FINANCIAL sudden stops, #CentralBanks can resolve market failures and help restore economic activity #ECONOMIC s… https://t.co/GEb8nb8gqj— Mohamed A. El-Erian (@elerianm) 1582897846000 Back home, Sabharwal echoed the same view. Unfortunately #coronavirus led slowdown is not an event that Monetary Policy can address. It's both a Supply and De… https://t.co/mzWGaYjEvV— sandip sabharwal (@sandipsabharwal) 1582637565000 Investment tipsDespite all the gloom that engulfed markets here are some investment tips that experts have for Dalal Street investors. Sandip Sabharwal says pharma stocks could soon make a bottom and China supply disruption-led selloff could be the final nail in the coffin. After a long time we could actually be in a phase where many large Pharma Stocks could make a bottom. China Supply… https://t.co/kUL4FI4dnj— sandip sabharwal (@sandipsabharwal) 1582618023000 iThought co-founder Shyam Sekhar advises not tying money with sentiment but with goals."If you want a happy #investing life, tie your #Money decisions to goals. Not to sentiment and volatility. Returns… https://t.co/NXXen5uYGk— Shyam Sekhar (@shyamsek) 1582944379000 Sekhar also finds value in microcap stocks and says that during an economic rebound, it makes sense to have those in your portfolio.My sense is that #microcaps are definitely looking interesting. When the economy regains growth, it makes sense to… https://t.co/baveHjzZpm— Shyam Sekhar (@shyamsek) 1582892715000

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Birhanu wins for second year running at virus-hit Tokyo marathon

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Decoding the newest fad in Indian advertising

In the afternoon of February 24, US President Donald Trump mispronounced the names of Swami Vivekananda and Sachin Tendulkar as “Swami Vivekamunda” and “Soochin Tendulkar” at a rally in Ahmedabad on his maiden India visit. For social media trolls, this meant fresh fodder to mock Trump. For the digital marketing industry, this meant work.Since morning that day, a two-member team at Social Samosa, a Mumbai-based digital media company, was tracking hashtags like #NamasteTrump, #TrumpInIndia and #TopicalSpot on social media platforms. As a publisher, it curates the best of branding and marketing initiatives in the online realm in realtime. The team thought brands would want to be part of the buzz around Trump. They were right.Even before the videos of Trump and first lady Melania spinning the charkha at Sabarmati Ashram started doing the rounds, brands like Amul, Cipla and Vadilal had spun their creative posts. “He’s a Dolly Good Fellow,” read the copy of Vadilal’s branded post, with a visual of its mango ice cream bar aka “dolly” sporting Trump’s signature hairdo.There were at least 5,000 such posts, mostly on Instagram and Twitter, says Hitesh Rajwani, CEO of Social Samosa. To tackle high volumes, his team uses an app called FastSave for Instagram that helps them download all the posts received on the platform directly in their gallery. “We spent two-three hours sifting through all the entries,” he says.Then the “Soochin” gaffe happened — and a meme fest ensued. “We doubted if brands would make content out of a pronunciation mistake by a politician,” says Rajwani. But they did. “Next day we spotted the first creative around the trend from Burger King India.” Soon others marched in, including Dunzo, Cofsils and Skore.“What can Trump forgetting the right name? Screaming the wrong one,” read a cheeky post from condom brand Skore. At this point, Rajwani’s team was tracking the hashtags by the hour. 74419617 Some brands also tagged trade portals like Social Samosa and Mad Over Marketing in their captions, hoping to be featured in them. On days like this, “the count of messages, emails and tag notifications our portal receives is likely to run into thousands,” says Siddhant More, founder of Mad Over Marketing.These thousand-plus branded topical posts are called moment marketing campaign. Campaigns that brands create by hijacking a trending topic and weaving clever content around it. They use a trend as an opportunity to market themselves, hoping to appeal to the people following it.On an average, a digital agency creates a dozen of these on a daily basis. Each exercise takes two-three hours from spotting a trend to releasing a campaign.Agencies try to meet the unsaid deadline of trade portals so that their work gets featured in them, and dutifully accuse them of favouritism if it doesn’t make the cut. The work picked up by trade portals or mainstream media is used to wield influence within the industry. Agencies use it to retain clients and pitch for more, while brand managers leverage it to demand promotions.At a time when skipping advertisements has become like muscle memory for people, moment marketing provides tremendous scope in spreading awareness about the brand and fetching engagement.Make the Most of the Moment It is not a new concept. Amul has been doing it since 1966. But it is bringing dividends in the digital age. At Dunzo, moment marketing campaigns often yield four five times better conversion rates than its regular social media posts in the same week, says Sai Ganesh, marketing lead at Dunzo. RB says its flagship condom brand Durex’s competitors are emulating its moment marketing activities. “It will help normalise conversations around sex, enabling an under-penetrated category of contraceptives to grow,” says Pankaj Duhan, CMO, RB South Asia Health.However, beyond the hype about moment marketing, there is chaos in this factory-like setup. 74420182 Brands and agencies have social listening cells to track real-time trends that could emerge out of a sporting event, a cultural phenomenon, a news development, or anything that takes over the internet. Once a trend is spotted, someone shares it on WhatsApp groups that have key people from clients and agencies. In a couple of hours, an agency shares creative options on the same group and seeks approval. Speed is of the essence here so most parties avoid email trails. If a client is too late in sending approval, the agency ends up missing the trade portal bus and its chance to be featured among the best of that moment. Today, a client demands that its agency roll out four-five such posts every month. Creative writers and illustrators in an agency end up working two-three days on such campaigns every week.Digital marketing agency WATConsult churns out 250-odd moment marketing posts for over 50 brands from its clientele of 130 agencies every month. There has been a 300% growth in moment marketing posts between 2018 and 2019, says Sahil Shah, executive vicepresident of media and operations at the agency.“It’s like a drug. Once it works, they want it all the more,” adds Shah. Every time a moment marketing campaign comes up, one has to stop everything and get to it. “It feels like a distraction. But you can’t not do it because FOMO kicks in,” says Tapoja Roy, head of copy, Digital Refresh Networks.The rise in the volume of work hasn’t led to a hike in fee at most agencies because of competition and low-entry barrier for companies in the business. In the West, agencies specialising in moment marketing charge top dollar — $4,000-5,000 a month. 74419629 In India, popular individual creators can charge up to Rs 20,000 for a moment marketing post, but agencies have not been able to demand a separate fee for it. “It is considered a default offering under social media even though it requires additional resources and investment at an operational level to listen to, track and churn out creatives in a couple of hours,” says Amyn Ghadiali, director of strategy at digital agency Gozoop.For its part, Gozoop has stopped giving in to clients’ demand for fixing the number of moment marketing posts the agency would roll out every month. At Delhi-based agency Grapes Digital, a new policy says they will work on moment marketing campaigns only for trends arising between 9 am and 6 pm. “Sometimes, clients request us to track a topical trend till late hours. It is when they demand it that it becomes a problem,” says Shradha Agarwal, COO of Grapes Digital, the agency known for Manforce’s topical posts.Until a year ago, there was maybe one major moment marketing campaign in a month, says More from Mad Over Marketing. Now, on days that are topically dry, agencies try to manufacture a trend. They create several posts in a catchy format for their roster of clients and often urge friends in other agencies to get it trending. Insta accounts like Fake Ad Co and Ad Parody are popular jaunts for agency folk looking for format ideas. In September 2019, for instance, hundreds of brands adapted 22-year-old Ramyakh Jain’s two-arrow post format from Fake Ad Co. If a format is interesting, others in the industry pick it up, turning the whole exercise into an engineered campaign using hashtags like #TrendingFormat.Even though advertising is often blamed for not giving credit where it is due, digital marketing tries to hang on to some principles.Every time Social Samosa and its ilk collate posts under #TrendingFormat, they mention the account that started it all. That’s how Jaison Thomas’s young digital agency Blusteak, based out of Kottayam in Kerala, got its moment under the sun. It had started a format called Real Permissions, inspired by a feature on Android phones that asks what an app is allowed to do and access. 74419635 Thomas, 22, applied its visual and textual grammar on five popular consumer brands like Tinder, Durex and WhatsApp to create a #TrendingFormat. “Within a few hours, about 1,000 brands had followed our format,” says Thomas, who has received two client leads courtesy of it.Among hashtags around moment marketing, #TrendingFormat has the highest number of posts on Instagram — over 17,000 at last count.Yet, the industry is divided on its merit and utility. Some even dismiss its inclusion under moment marketing. Harshil Karia, founder of digital agency Schbang, calls it a fun exercise: “It is not tough to start a trend. We can do it with the 100 brands in our portfolio. But it is important to restrain yourself.”Both agencies and brand managers are to be blamed for trending formats, says Shah of WATConsult. Why do people do it then? “It gives the brand a fair amount of interactivity and engagement,” says Shah. This keeps creators in agencies busy 24x7 in content creation rather than in brand-building, says Abhishek Asthana, founder of creative boutique Gingermonkey.In his previous stint as brand manager at an FMCG company, Asthana saw how moment marketing transformed the digital marketing landscape in India: “In a cluttered space, moment marketing helped product pitches sound more human. And brand managers didn’t have to put money into promoting these posts as they had organic reach.”Over the past year, though, moment marketing has turned into a different beast. It has traded spontaneity for strategy. And the initial fervour has been taken over by fatigue as every brand is trying to grab a share of LOLs. What started as a clutter-breaking exercise is creating a clutter of its own.While some brands are trying not to overdo moment marketing, most big ones are staying away from #TrendingFormat. Karia of Schbang is picky even about the topical posts his agency does for Fevicol. But moment marketing goes on. As Gingermonkey’s Oscar-themed post for bike-rental startup Bounce says: “OSCARS take time. Bounce It.”

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The Taliban question takes centrestage

I would not support sharing intelligence with that organisation (Taliban),” Mark Milley, chairman of US joint chiefs of staff, told a US Congress House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. This was even as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo led a group of international “interested bystanders” at a US-Taliban peace agreement signing ceremony in Doha on Saturday. That tells you, if nothing else, that the future of Afghanistan, Taliban, Pakistan and the US is anything but settled. India’s presence at the Doha signing is in a sense a coming out of the closet on the Taliban question, its role in Afghanistan, terrorism and Pakistan’s role. The peace agreement throws up as many questions as it answers. Is it about negotiating a safe passage for US troops as they leave Afghanistan, fulfilling a Trump election promise in another election year?Will the Taliban toil through negotiations with President Ashraf Ghani’s government to start an intra-Afghan dialogue? The Taliban have so far shown scant interest in discussions and have refused to recognise the elected government in Kabul. Ghani (as well as Abdullah Abdullah, former chief executive of the Unity Government) has readied teams to start the dialogue process. The agreement stipulates such a dialogue start within 10 days . The US is insistent — as is India and some other countries — on these talks. The worry is that the Taliban may start the talks but could ensure they run out of juice. A related question is whether the Taliban would adhere to the current Afghan constitution at all. After all, they call themselves an emirate and have through the negotiations insisted on doing things according to the Sharia law.Ghani’s government is in itself a problematic space, especially as the election results were contentious. India and the European Union welcomed Ghani’s re-election. The US merely “noted” it, while Pakistan did not bother to acknowledge it. That could have implications for the peace talks. Pakistan, the Taliban’s principal backer, would want to keep the group as the dominant power centre in Kabul. Saturday is an important day for Pakistan. They have “delivered” the Taliban and the peace deal with the US. The Pakistan foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was candid: “Pompeo told me that the pathway to fixing relations between Pakistan and US came through Kabul. Now I would like to remind him that we have fulfilled all our promises.” For Pakistan, this is payback time. At least the US State Department is conscious of it. Alice Wells, the senior diplomat for this region, said, “We appreciate the steps Pakistan has taken to advance the Afghan peace process.”For India, it is time to prepare and secure. With foreign secretary Harsh Shringla dashing to Kabul the day before the signing and reposing faith in the elected government, it is clear what route India will take. It has served New Delhi well to keep the consistency going. There are voices within India — including Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat — that say India should join the “bandwagon” and “talk” to the Taliban. Thus far, the idea has few takers within the Indian establishment. No amount of talking to the Taliban is going to make them any more accepting of India, certainly not while they remain in the thrall of Pakistan’s ISI.If the Taliban come to power in Kabul, India’s support of the legitimately elected government will stand it in good stead. But will the Taliban submit to elections? At this point, we can be forgiven for our deep scepticism. The other imponderable is the ISIS, which has been growing in Afghanistan. As some Afghan intelligence officials have clarified, the Taliban and ISIS have a “flexible” relationship — they fight each other in the areas adjoining Pakistan, while sharing resources, etc, in the more remote north. But there is another practical view. As Jayant Prasad, former envoy to Afghanistan, said, “The deal being signed today is between the US and the Taliban/Pakistan, even if Pakistan is not a signatory. India should welcome it as this is bound to mark the beginning of a distancing between the Taliban and Pakistan, as also between the US and Pakistan, despite their great mutual dependency in the short term.”The real problem for India will come from the jihadi infrastructure in Pakistan, which can now be turned towards Kashmir. As the commander of Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt Gen KJS Dhillon, warned this week, the PoK launchpads are full and infiltration has already begun. That means India would be preparing for yet another military response to Pakistani terror.Diplomatically, India has ramped up its security conversations with Iran, a key partner against Sunni extremism from Afghanistan. India has also strengthened ties with five Central Asian states who are wary of the Taliban, Pakistan and ISIS — not always in that order. Primarily, though, India will have to secure its borders, increase surveillance and improve intelligence. There is really no substitute for this in a region that could turn either way. We hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

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Central banks on coronavirus alert as stock markets seek action

Global policy makers are on alert to the economic fallout from the spreading coronavirus after stocks slumped last week.Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is already standing ready to cut interest rates after saying Friday that the U.S. central bank will “act as appropriate” as the virus poses “evolving risks” to the economy.The week opens after Saturday’s release by China of an index of manufacturing activity. It’s plunge to a record low will renew fears that the world’s second largest economy may not rebound as fast as first hoped. A series of similar reports will be published in coming days around top economies, giving a sense of how they are faring.74423091 What Bloomberg’s Economists Say...“The data confirm the worse fears about a juddering halt in China’s economy in the first quarter, with significant spillovers to the region and the world.”The PMI should recover a little in March, but the damage will be far from being unwound and support from the government and central bank will strengthen, including more fiscal support, cuts to reserve requirement ratios for banks and lower borrowing costs. -- Chang Shu, David Qu, Tom OrlikHere’s what happened last week and below is our weekly wrap of what else is going on in the world economy this week.AsiaWith the Chinese PMI now published, the week kicked off Sunday with a South Korean export gain that masked the growing damage from the coronavirus. On Monday, the outbreak’s ripple-effect through the region’s supply chains is likely to be on display when PMI reports are released. Then on Tuesday, central banks in Malaysia and Australia meet, with economists at this stage expecting both to remain on hold. Rounding out the week, Australia releases output data for the fourth quarter on Wednesday, Japan will publish labor cash earnings numbers on Friday, and China will post trade numbers for the start of the year on Saturday.74423111 The US and CanadaIt’s a heavy week of speakers from the Fed. About a dozen policy makers will make public remarks including six on Friday at a conference in New York to commemorate former Fed economist Marvin Goodfriend. Investors will also be watching the release of the February employment report on Friday as a sign of the labor market’s strength before the virus spread more widely. The Bloomberg survey points to non-farm payrolls gaining 175,000 versus 225,000 the previous month. Monday sees the release of Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturers which consensus of economists reckon will stay above the 50 marker between contraction and expansion. Productivity data on Thursday and a durable goods orders report the same day will also draw attention as will Friday’s release of the trade balance for January which is expected to show a deficit of $47 billion.74423140 The Bank of Canada sets monetary policy on Wednesday, the penultimate such decision before Stephen Poloz steps down as Governor. Investors increasingly bet he will lower borrowing costs at least once before he steps aside in the summer. Canada also releases an employment report on Friday.Europe, Middle East and AfricaWhether the virus will increase the risk of recession in several European countries remains the top area of debate now that cases of the coronavirus have occured across the region. The OECD gets a chance to weigh in on Monday when it updates its economic outlook for the first time since November. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks on Thursday as his time in office enters its final days. On the data front, the week begins with surveys of manufacturing activity across the continent, again a chance to assess the impact of the virus. The services gauges come Wednesday, the day after the euro-area publishes inflation and unemployment numbers. Italy releases a final estimate of fourth quarter gross domestic product on Wednesday. Poland’s central bank is set to keep interest rates at a record low 1.5% on Wednesday.74423148 Turkish data on Tuesday is expected to show inflation climbing to 12.7%, pushing real interest rates further into negative territory. In South Africa, the statistics office will reveal whether the nation averted a second recession in as many years in the fourth quarter, and will probably also confirm the weakest annual economic growth since the global financial crisis.Latin AmericaBrazilian data on Wednesday will likely show Latin America’s biggest economy slowed in its first year under President Jair Bolsonaro. Economists are also scaling back their forecasts for 2020 as the virus reaches the country, yet most still expect an acceleration from 2019. The Argentine Congress starts regular sessions after President Alberto Fernandez won extraordinary powers to cope with the financial crisis.

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Trump imposes int'l travel restrictions amid virus scare

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced restrictions on travel from Iran and advised fellow citizens not to travel to certain areas of South Korea and Italy.The announcement came as the first death from coronavirus was reported in the US from the Washington state."Unfortunately, one person passed away overnight. She was a wonderful woman, a medically high-risk patient in her late 50s," Trump told reporters at the White House."Additional cases in the United States are likely, but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover. If you are healthy, you will probably go through a process and you will be fine," he said and urged people not to panic.As many as 15 people have recovered from the virus so far in the US."There is no reason to panic at all. Our country is prepared for any circumstance," the president said at his second press conference in the White House briefing room on his return from India on Wednesday.Joining the press conference, Vice President Mike Pence said Trump had authorised a ban on entry of foreign nationals who travelled to Iran in the last 14 days.The United States also advised its citizens not to travel to parts of South Korea and Italy, from where reports of coronavirus have appeared. The vice president has been tasked by Trump to lead the administration's efforts in the fight against the coronavirus.According to Center for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield, 22 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the US so far.Trump said various wings of the US government were working on the coronavirus round the clock."It is a tough one, but a lot of progress has been made," the president said, adding that his administration had taken the most aggressive action in modern history to confront the disease.In a statement, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee announced the death of an individual from the coronavirus."It is a sad day in our state as we learn that a Washingtonian has died from COVID-19. Our hearts go out to their family and friends. We will continue to work toward a day where no one dies from this virus," he said.The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said there was an outbreak of a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that was first detected in the Wuhan city of China's Hubei province and has now been detected in 50 locations internationally, including cases in the United States.It said the potential public health threat posed by the coronavirus was high, both globally and to the US, adding that to effectively respond to the coronavirus outbreak, rapid detection of cases and contacts, appropriate clinical management and infection control, and implementation of community mitigation efforts were critical.This could best be achieved with wide availability of testing capabilities in healthcare settings, reference and commercial laboratories, and at the point of care, the FDA said.It added that it would allow some 300 to 400 academic-hospital laboratories to begin testing for the virus, allowing for checks of thousands of people rather than the few hundred already tested."We believe this policy strikes the right balance during this public health emergency."We will continue to help to ensure sound science prior to clinical testing and follow-up with the critical independent review from the FDA, while quickly expanding testing capabilities in the US. We are not changing our standards for issuing Emergency Use Authorisations. This action today reflects our commitment to addressing critical public health needs and rapidly responding and adapting to this dynamic and evolving situation," FDA Commissioner Stephen M Hahn said.The FDA guidance provides recommendations for test developers, including information regarding test validation, FDA notifications and interim confirmatory clinical testing.Responding to a question, Trump said he was considering closing the southern border to prevent the spread of the coronavirus."We are looking also at (the) southern border. We have received a lot of power on the southern border over the last couple years from the courts, but we are looking at that very strongly," he said.In a letter on Friday, several senators, including Ted Cruz, Martha McSally and John Cornyn, called for closing the coronavirus."As southern border Senators, we are concerned about the possible spread of the coronavirus across our borders," they said in the letter to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan."We are similarly concerned about recent reports that the virus is spreading in Europe. Border shortcomings by the European Union have resulted in the spread of the virus across a number of nations, and it is essential that the United States not repeat these mistakes. We write to ask how your agency is prepared to address the threat presented by the coronavirus at US borders," the senators said.

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'Airplane mode on': Jadeja plucks mid-air stunner

Ravindra Jadeja was at his absolute best on the field as he took a one-handed blinder to dismiss Neil Wagner in the second session on Day 2 of the second Test in Christchurch.

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Realme 6 Pro Launch Date, Samsung Galaxy M31 Price Reveal, Jio Phone Plans, and More Tech News This Week

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Realme 6 Pro Launch Date, Samsung Galaxy M31 Price Reveal, Jio Phone Plans, and More Tech News This Week

Realme 6 Pro and Realme 6 launch date reveal and Samsung Galaxy M31 dominated the conversation in a rather busy week in terms of tech news development.

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WATCH: Jadeja takes a one-handed screamer mid-air

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How the knock in Christchurch could mean the world for Shaw

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Novak Djokovic takes Dubai title in a hurry

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Delhi riots: How cops lost the plot at the outset

It appears that erroneous judgements, inadequate deployment and absence of swift decisions on the part of police led to northeast Delhi spinning out of control and 42 people being killed in a span of 36 hours. TOI spoke to several police officers whose accounts seemed to suggest this was what happened when riots broke out last Sunday.

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Apple Closely Watching Coronavirus Outbreak in South Korea, Italy, CEO Tim Cook Says

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NCLT allows consolidation of Lavasa Corporation’s subsidiaries for faster resolution

MUMBAI: The dedicated bankruptcy court has approved the request of lenders to Lavasa Corporation to consolidate the township developer and its wholly owned subsidiaries Warasgaon Assets Maintenance and Dasve Convention Centre as one.A consolidated entity will get better valuation when they are liquidated under the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP), the lenders had told the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).“Any standalone resolution does not seem to be possible and would therefore defeat the objective of the code (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code), which is to maximise the value of the company,” NCLT division bench of Suchitra Kanuparthi and Chandra Bhan Singh said in its order issued on Wednesday.WAML was incorporated to design, develop, construct, operate and maintain transportation infrastructure and project facility at the Lavasa hill station township near Pune, while DCCL was incorporated for running and maintaining the Dasve Convention Centre at Lavasa.Currently, all three companies are under CIRP.“The interlinkages and synergies between these companies to keep Lavasa Corporation as a running township cannot be overemphasised and, therefore, to achieve a more value maximisation deal, it becomes imperative that any bidder bids for these inter-linked good companies by way of a single offering which would result in achievement of higher value,” the NCLT bench said.Lavasa is the country’s first privately developed city spread over 20,000 acres, some 180 km from Mumbai. According to its website, it owes more than Rs 6,400 crore to its financial creditors and more than Rs 538 crore to about 1,000 homebuyers.At the time of admitting it for the resolution process, Ajit Gulabchand-promoted Hindustan Construction Company held 68.7% stake in Lavasa. Other shareholders included Gautam Thapar’s Avantha Group with 17.18%, Venkateshwara Hatcheries with 7.81%, and Vithal Maniar with 6.29% stake.The counsel for the lenders argued that most of the bidders have put consolidation of the three firms as a precondition in their resolution plan and therefore it would be harder to find a revival plan for any of these company on a standalone bases if the supply and demand from the rest of the companies are not guaranteed.Lavasa Corporation has two other subsidiaries — Warasgaon Power Supply and Dasve Retail. They are not undergoing CIRP and, therefore, NCLT said the consolidated committee of creditors (CoC) of Lavasa Corporation, WAML and DCCL may make an informed decision regarding the resolution of debt of those two companies.The tribunal gave 60 days to complete the consolidation.An email query to the Shailesh Verma of Deloitte, the resolution professional of Lavasa Corporation, did not elicit any response as of press time Friday.Senior counsels Pradeep Sancheti and Pulkit Sharma along with Prateek Mishra of law firm L&L Partners appeared for the lenders in the case.

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Coronavirus threat: Uncertainty looms over India Open

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Paul Singer's Elliott seeks to replace Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO: Sources

New York-based Elliott is one of the world's biggest activist investors with more than $40 billion in assets under mangement and has targeted companies ranging from eBay to AT&T to SoftBank in the last months for improvements. Its latest target is the microblogging and social network site and one of the hedge fund's requests is to replace four directors, the people said.

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Protests or strikes cannot infringe rights of others: SC

The SC ruled that one’s right to protest could not infringe upon the rights of others as it upheld the Uttarakhand HC verdict initiating stringent action against lawyers boycotting district court work for years. Uttarakhand lawyers had moved SC claiming that the HC verdict violated their fundamental right to free speech to go on strike court work to protest.

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Point of no return for India's Chinese expats

MUMBAI|NEW DELHI: Chinese expats working in India are on an extended New Year holiday back home because of the Covid-19 outbreak.About 7,000 Chinese expats in sectors such as automobiles, electronics, mobile phones and ecommerce work in cities such as Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Jaipur. The majority had gone home for the Chinese New Year toward the end of January, a period coinciding with the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.“The epicentre of the Chinese (outbreak) may form only about 2-4% of Chinese expats, but it is fear psychosis that is putting them in trouble,” said Aravind Yelery, senior fellow at HSBC Business School, Peking University. “Some of the expats who are back after being examined or quarantined at the airports may find it tough to convince neighbours on their return to India.”The situation may not drastically improve in the next four to six weeks. The virus may cease to spread but worries associated with the contagion may linger. There has been a 15-20% drop in the number of Chinese expats coming to India, according to an estimate by Yelery. 74409972 Great Wall Motors (GWM) had about 20 Chinese executives in India from the end of December. While nearly half of them went back after the Auto Expo, the remaining have stayed back to set up operations in the country.“The top management from China was supposed to visit during the expo,” said Kaushik Ganguly, director, corporate strategy and planning, Great Wall Motors. “However, given the sentiments, they consciously took a decision to not travel for the motor show and related business meetings.”Even personnel working on Indian infrastructure projects have been affected. “My business interactions with the Chinese have significantly shrunk,” said Jijo KP, a Mumbai-based businessman who owns a facility at Zhejiang province in China. “Expats are finding it difficult to travel and conduct business meetings.”Employers typically terminate employment contracts after a waiting period of two months in case of hard-hatted personnel. For skilled jobs, executives may have to go on unpaid vacation beyond a month.Indian companies need Chinese engineers for several industry verticals and job functions such as after-sales services, business development and market audits.“Getting new investments or a business visa to India is a challenge,” said New Delhi’s Rishi Sahai, who provides crossborder transaction advisory services between companies in India and Chinese investors or partners. “Local employers and the government are trying to mitigate concerns through frequent announcements and palliative measures.”India has suspended e-visa facilities for mainland Chinese travellers and foreigners residing there. It has also cancelled existing visas for Chinese nationals and foreigners who visited China in the past 14 days.“We are watching the situation and hoping things get back to normal quickly,” said Ganguly.

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Delhi riots: Hoping for best, expecting worst

Days after the violence in northeast Delhi ebbed, many families are still searching for relatives who went missing during the riotous days. Some have located their bodies in hospitals, which have reported 42 deaths till Friday. Others are still ding the rounds.

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70:20:10 rule to counter a virus strike

MUMBAI: Indian equities have shed their entire gains of 2020, caught in the global flight of capital from risk assets in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak. But financial planners are advising savers to not only stay put, but also invest more using the systematic investment plans (SIPs).“SIP investors should allocate 70% to large-caps, 20% to mid-caps and 10% in small-caps,” says Vishal Dhawan, chief financial planner, Plan Ahead Wealth Managers.Dhawan believes those investors who have strayed from this allocation, should rebalance their portfolios now. Many investors who chased past returns and started SIPs post-2017, allocated as high as 70-80% to mid- and small-cap funds with the balance to large-cap funds. With the sharp fall in the markets during this week on fears of coronavirus spreading globally, many retail investors are a worried lot.As per data from Value Research, three-year average SIP returns for large-cap funds category is 5.9%, large- and mid-cap funds 4.77%, multi-cap funds 5.24%, mid-cap funds 3.96% and for small-cap funds it is -0.16%. 74410792 Some financial planners believe it is an opportune time for retail investors to top-up their SIPs.“While the markets have fallen sharply, the bounce back too could be equally fast and retail investors should stay put and not read much into this. A fall in the market is an opportunity for SIP investors as they can get more units of the scheme due to the fall in price,” says Vijay Kuppa, founder, Orowealth.Financial planners believe that investors doing SIPs in equity mutual funds should come in for a time frame of 7-10 years. “Investors coming in for a shorter duration should move to other products,” says Dhawan. For example, if an investor has a time frame of 3 years, he could go to dynamic asset allocation funds, or equity savings funds. These schemes have a mix of debt and equity and come with lower volatility than pure equity funds.The number of investors using the SIP route to invest in equity mutual fund schemes is increasing gradually over the last three years, with many first timers too entering the fray and mapping their longterm financial goals to SIPs.AMFI data shows that the MF industry had added, on an average, 9.81 lakh SIP accounts each month during FY20, with an average SIP size of about Rs 2,800 per account. Inflows through the SIP route have been steady and investors have poured in more than Rs 8,000 crore every month for the last 14 months, despite volatile equity markets. Investors have poured in Rs 67,190 crore through SIPs in FY18, Rs 92,693 crore in FY19 and Rs 82,930 crore in the first 10 months of the current financial year.

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Delhi riots: People searching missing relatives

Five days after riots broke out in several parts of northeast Delhi, several families are still searching for their missing members. Most of them have already checked the hospitals, assuming they would find their near and dear ones either in the emergency block or at least in the mortuary, but to no avail.

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Chinese rivals and brand arrogance led to Samsung's fall from grace

NEW DELHI: It’s been a tough few years for Samsung in the Indian handset market, where it has struggled to keep pace with or beat back competition from Chinese rivals such as Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo.The first signs of vulnerability came when Samsung lost the smartphone crown to Xiaomi in the September quarter of 2017. In July-September 2019, it was pushed to No. 3 in smartphones by another Chinese player, Vivo. In the same quarter, Samsung also lost its top position in the overall market – smartphones and feature phones – to Xiaomi, after some nine years at the top. Xiaomi though only sells smartphones. Meanwhile, Oppo and Realme are breathing down its neck.According to analysts, Samsung wasn’t as nimble as its Chinese rivals and couldn’t take advantage of the expansion in the online segment. They however added that Samsung can bounce back, given its investments in technology and local manufacturing, the reputation of its devices and the deep penetration of the offline phone market. It’s the only major handset company to manufacture from the ground up in India.“The gaps in Samsung’s portfolio have provided opportunities for other smartphone brands, especially new market entrants, to strategise, spot the gaps, and leverage market opportunities,” said Prabhu Ram, head of the industry intelligence group at CyberMedia Research (CMR).Faisal Kawoosa, founder and principal analyst at research firm TechArc, added that Samsung’s “brand arrogance has caused it to grossly underestimate the marketing potential of the Chinese companies who have now created a niche in almost every price segment. And, of course, their exclusive channel strategy has failed them too.”Other factors include brand fatigue among buyers excited by the offerings of newer brands, said market watchers.“Samsung must shun its brand arrogance at a time when other competitors are winning in their brand messaging, especially on digital media,” said Kawoosa. “Samsung is nowhere close to social media marketing by its Chinese counterparts.”Samsung didn’t respond to ET’s queries.But the company isn’t like others that didn’t invest in technology and were vanquished by Chinese entrants, said a person familiar with Samsung’s strategy, pointing out that it has so far invested nearly Rs8,500 crore just in local manufacturing in India in recent years. Noida is the company’s largest manufacturing facility in the world and Samsung has one of its best R&D centres in Bengaluru, the person said.As India’s smartphone market slows, analysts said Samsung needs to ramp up its strategy in three areas—price points, sales channels and marketing. They point out that the company had fended off competition from the likes of Asus, HTC and Blackberry early on.“Samsung has technological leadership in foldable smartphones and holds the edge with its new premium 5G and 4G offerings,” Ram said. “Lastly, it has a deep mastery of the offline market segment that is critical to fuel the next wave of smartphone growth. Samsung’s Make in India moves also enable it to offer more India-specific customizations for Indian consumers and roll out new offerings swiftly.”Analysts expect Samsung to regain some lost ground by taking advantage of the disruption in the Chinese supply chain because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Samsung has lined up nine new launches in early 2020 as per data from the Bureau of India Standards.Most of Samsung’s competitors are diversifying in terms of products and channel strategy, said Tarun Pathak, associate director, Counterpoint Market Research. “Samsung also needs to do that, if they have to reclaim some of the lost share,” he said.Samsung reoriented and strengthened its product portfolio last year, launching the M and A series of smartphones targeting value-for-money buyers. The first was aimed at online buyers and the second at the offline market.“Of the new product offerings, smartphone models such as A50 and M30 did perform well for Samsung,” Ram said. “While Samsung was able to build inroads into the online segment, it ceded some space for brands such as Vivo in the offline segment.”In its bid to succeed online, it hasn’t handled the offline channel too well, said Navkender Singh, research director at International Data Corporation (IDC). Offline contributes more than 55% to sales, he said.“Online share can always be claimed back because the stakeholders are very few,” he said. “But the commitment, investment and management that Samsung has built in offline retail over the past 20 years will be challenging to claim back.”Samsung will look to boost its offerings in the premium segment this year at various price points, ranging from uber-premium foldable phones to premium flagship handsets. It needs to complement this with aggressive marketing, across both online and offline platforms, said Ram.Several storied brands have fallen victim to complacency, experts recalled. “Samsung’s transition from the older J series to the fresh A series came really late in 2019 when all major brands were already spicing up the space with newer specs,” said Pathak.The company needs to have a plan to take on the likes of Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Realme, already foraying into the mid-premium space, and Apple, which rules the uber-premium market.“It’s all about aspiration of the brand—if they want to rule the premium and mid-premium segment” said IDC’s Singh. “At the same time, they cannot ignore the below $200 space, which is still 80% of the market in India.”

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Women's T20 WC Live: India look to iron out batting woes vs SL

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Never-seen pictures of India's 1983 World Cup victory found in London attic

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Hardik, Bhuvneshwar, Dhawan 'prove fitness' under MSK's watch

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2020 Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza petrol review

2020 Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza petrol review

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Modi is giving note ban hoarders another chance to come clean

MUMBAI: The new Vivaad se Vishwas tax litigation settlement scheme appears to have come as a blessing for those who came under scrutiny following demonetisation, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. They include promoters of several mining, commodities, textile and real estate companies who deposited unaccounted money or made supposedly questionable entries in the account books.Several sectors that transact in cash were left holding large sums when Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes were rendered invalid in November 2016. Several companies deposited the cash they were holding in bank accounts. Some allegedly faked entries in their financial statements to justify cash holdings and subsequently came to the attention of the tax department.In most cases, the income tax department issued notices to the companies and questioned the source of funds under Section 68 of the Income Tax Act dealing with unexplained cash credits in bank accounts or company books.“Many promoters of companies that had received notices under Section 68 during the demonetisation are now looking to settle the litigation under the Vivaad se Vishwas scheme,” said Girish Vanvari, the founder of tax advisory firm Transaction Square. “This would mean that they can just pay up the taxes and there could be no more questioning around the unexplained credits in their bank accounts or the entries in their books.”For example, a Mumbai-based real estate company with a substantial presence in the western suburbs had about Rs 20 crore that it showed as cash on hand at the time of demonetisation. The taxman questioned the company later and found that the buyers mentioned by it were fictitious.Experts said the largest chunk of people taking advantage of the scheme are not those who had faced raids and searches but were served with notices during demonetisation.The settlement scheme was formulated as an estimated 480,000 cases have been pending in the courts and quasi-judicial forums for years and it could take a long while before the tax department sees any of the money, assuming it eventually wins. The total value of these disputes is pegged at Rs 9.32 lakh crore.The revenue department has issued notices to about 10,000 people seeking details on the source of income as it analyses data on deposits of cancelled notes. It also went after certain “entry operators” that helped several companies generate fake invoices as part of the exercise.All these companies are opting for the settlement scheme under which there will be no interest or penalties levied if all the taxes are paid up.“The biggest relief for the taxpayer is that there would be no future investigation or prosecution if they had deposited unaccounted money in bank accounts,” said Jeenendra Bhandari, partner, MGB and Co, a tax advisory firm.“This would be a huge relief for several small companies that were holding onto cash during demonetisation and had to deposit that amount in their bank accounts. 74410091 In another case, a New Delhi-based commodities company used invoices to show that money had come in from certain customers. An investigation revealed these to be fake entries.The modus operandi of these firms was to get registered as suppliers on the books of companies. They would then issue fake invoices for supplying goods or providing services, receive payment by cheque and return the amount in cash after deducting a 2% commission.Experts said demonetisation brought several suspicious transactions under the tax department’s scrutiny through cross-referencing with older data on cash deposits. The government had also used advanced big data tools for both structured and unstructured data and analysed and established relationships among different entities or people up to 16 levels deep, based on different sets of information such as addresses, phone calls, social media interactions, travel trends and income tax returns.“Many companies have moved away from doing the business the old way and their cash transactions have gone down tremendously. These companies now want a clean slate for the earlier tax notices and this scheme could be a huge boon,” said the head of a major tax advisory firm.

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Vivaad se Vishwas gives chance to slay DeMo demons

MUMBAI: The new Vivaad se Vishwas tax litigation settlement scheme appears to have come as a blessing for those who came under scrutiny following demonetisation, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. They include promoters of several mining, commodities, textile and real estate companies who deposited unaccounted money or made supposedly questionable entries in the account books.Several sectors that transact in cash were left holding large sums when Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes were rendered invalid in November 2016. Several companies deposited the cash they were holding in bank accounts. Some allegedly faked entries in their financial statements to justify cash holdings and subsequently came to the attention of the tax department.In most cases, the income tax department issued notices to the companies and questioned the source of funds under Section 68 of the Income Tax Act dealing with unexplained cash credits in bank accounts or company books.“Many promoters of companies that had received notices under Section 68 during the demonetisation are now looking to settle the litigation under the Vivaad se Vishwas scheme,” said Girish Vanvari, the founder of tax advisory firm Transaction Square. “This would mean that they can just pay up the taxes and there could be no more questioning around the unexplained credits in their bank accounts or the entries in their books.”For example, a Mumbai-based real estate company with a substantial presence in the western suburbs had about Rs 20 crore that it showed as cash on hand at the time of demonetisation. The taxman questioned the company later and found that the buyers mentioned by it were fictitious.Experts said the largest chunk of people taking advantage of the scheme are not those who had faced raids and searches but were served with notices during demonetisation.The settlement scheme was formulated as an estimated 480,000 cases have been pending in the courts and quasi-judicial forums for years and it could take a long while before the tax department sees any of the money, assuming it eventually wins. The total value of these disputes is pegged at Rs 9.32 lakh crore.The revenue department has issued notices to about 10,000 people seeking details on the source of income as it analyses data on deposits of cancelled notes. It also went after certain “entry operators” that helped several companies generate fake invoices as part of the exercise.All these companies are opting for the settlement scheme under which there will be no interest or penalties levied if all the taxes are paid up.“The biggest relief for the taxpayer is that there would be no future investigation or prosecution if they had deposited unaccounted money in bank accounts,” said Jeenendra Bhandari, partner, MGB and Co, a tax advisory firm.“This would be a huge relief for several small companies that were holding onto cash during demonetisation and had to deposit that amount in their bank accounts. 74410091 In another case, a New Delhi-based commodities company used invoices to show that money had come in from certain customers. An investigation revealed these to be fake entries.The modus operandi of these firms was to get registered as suppliers on the books of companies. They would then issue fake invoices for supplying goods or providing services, receive payment by cheque and return the amount in cash after deducting a 2% commission.Experts said demonetisation brought several suspicious transactions under the tax department’s scrutiny through cross-referencing with older data on cash deposits. The government had also used advanced big data tools for both structured and unstructured data and analysed and established relationships among different entities or people up to 16 levels deep, based on different sets of information such as addresses, phone calls, social media interactions, travel trends and income tax returns.“Many companies have moved away from doing the business the old way and their cash transactions have gone down tremendously. These companies now want a clean slate for the earlier tax notices and this scheme could be a huge boon,” said the head of a major tax advisory firm.

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Tata Motors to shut Concorde Motors as part of trimming flab

MUMBAI: Tata Motors is winding up its auto retail business Concorde Motors as part of its strategy to move away from non-core businesses. Set up in the late 90s in partnership with Jardine Matheson’s Jardine Motors, the Concorde retail business over the years has been losing money on account of high costs and low volumes.The company has registered a loss for seven consecutive years with cumulative losses crossing over Rs 366 crore. The winding-up process is in the final stages and it will be consummated before the end of this fiscal year. The company has sold almost all its outlets barring a couple of locations, which too may be executed shortly, say people in the know.Interestingly, this happens at a time when market leader Maruti Suzuki has decided to invest over Rs 1,500 crore annually on acquiring its own real estate for dealership as the high-cost structure in major cities is dissuading many entrepreneurs from entering the auto retail business or take up any new opportunities.Concorde is a fully-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors and has been a one-stop solution to provide sales, service and space parts for the Tata Motors passenger car. The company had 34 showrooms and 17 workshops with a workforce of 2,200 plus employees at end of FY19, which are on the last stage of liquidation.One of the people in the know of the matter said a corporate running a dealership has multiple challenges of governance which also spikes up the cost. “The nimbleness is missing. As against an entrepreneur taking his own calls, the decision-making for a corporate has to follow a certain structured process which adds to the cost and inefficiency. The operational performance of Concorde clearly underlines the issues company faces,” added the person requesting the anonymity.74410198 Tata Motors spokesperson confirmed the development and told ET the company believes the original goals of setting up Concorde have been met and to enable and drive the next phase of growth, the company will move out of the dealership business and focus its resources on the core areas.”The operations of Concorde are being seamlessly transitioned into other dealer partners in the various cities that Concorde is present in thereby building significant scale to their business while our customers will continue to enjoy uninterrupted excellent service,” added the spokesperson.The revenues at Concorde grew annually 12% to Rs 1,215 crore between FY14 and FY19; however, the profits continues to remain under severe pressure. It has posted losses for the last seven fiscal years, according to data compiled from the historical Tata Motors annual report. In FY12, the company posted net profit of Rs 0.70 crore with a turnover of Rs 939 crore.In the past two fiscal years, the company has been Ebitda negative and the overhead costs were higher than gross profit of the company. Beside this, there was substantial increase in working capital requirements, leading to 16% increase in interest costs from Rs 47.38 crore to Rs 54.95 crore. The debt of Concorde stood at Rs 582 crore at end of FY19, out of which Rs 337 crore is secured and the remaining is unsecured.The cumulative losses of the company have been Rs 393 crore between FY15 and FY19, according to data compiled by ETIG from Concorde annual report of FY19.The exit from the company would mean, existing dealers can get a bigger pie of the market which was earlier being shared by the company owned outlets. This may boost dealer viability. Post closure, the revenues wont have an impact on company's financials, however the absolute losses of Concorde wont reflect on Tata Motors standalone business, and thereby it will boost the bottom-line, say people in the know.

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M&M Alyte to be cab aggregator for corporates

MUMBAI: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) plans to launch a cab aggregator for corporates called Alyte, expand its fleet of electric vehicles for taxi services, and bring all mobility businesses under a single business vertical. It will be a significant push into cab aggregator and shared mobility services segment.“We are introducing a nationwide brand around our mobility service, called Alyte, this quarter,” Rampraveen Swaminathan, CEO, Mahindra Logistics, told ET in an interview.Alyte, run under Mahindra Logistics; Meru Cabs, in which Mahindra group owns 55%; etaxi service Glyd; and First Choice, M&M’s used car business, will be housed under the new mobility services vertical.M&M plans to roll out a mobile application for Alyte in the next month. It will work on the basis of contracts with companies — ferrying employees to and from workplaces to homes, warehouses or meetings.It will later diversify into an on-call service for corporates, allowing their employees to book a seat for airport drops, and other services. The app will work by punching in employee IDs or other account details.74410153 TOUGH ROAD AHEADAlyte will put Mahindra into direct competition with Ola — through Ola Corporate’s significant presence — as well as Uber, which has entered more recently through Uber for Business. Over 10,000 companies across 22 different industries work with Ola Corporate.Uber during its IPO prospectus last year, said it got 1% of its global revenue from Uber for Business. Alyte, though, will be a business-to-business application and work through corporate tieups and not a public business-to-customer application such as Uber and Ola.While Mahindra plans to tie up with cab aggregators, it is also working on a scheme to help drivers get good deals from auto makers as well as vehicle financers. Mahindra also plans a “significant” investment in electric vehicles (EV) for Alyte, said Swaminathan. Mahindra currently has a leased fleet of 100, which it plans to increase five times by March 2021, he said, seeing as multinational companies have started to treat environmental sustainability as a priority.Uber plans to quadruple its electric vehicles fleet in India by the end of 2020, ET had reported earlier this week. Most mobility platforms, including Ola’s electric arm, Bounce, Vogo, Yulu, as well as auto makers such as like Bajaj, Hero and Tata Motors are sharpening focus on electric mobility. Ola Electric is also running pilot electric mobility projects in Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Nagpur.Swaminathan said 30% of Alyte’s fleet in three to four years will be electric. He did not share any more details.In December, non-executive chairman Anand Mahindra had made a reference to the new sector, called mobility services.

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Truckers, owners pay Rs 48k cr/yr in bribes

Truck drivers and fleet owners shell out around Rs 48,000 crore annually as bribes to traffic or highway police, besides personnel from the transport and tax departments, according to a study carried out across 10 major transport and transit hubs. The study by SaveLife Foundation, a not-for-profit entity, claimed that over 82% respondents had admitted to having bribed “officials of one or the other department on the road” during their last trip.

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Jamal Lewis sinks Leicester to boost Norwich survival bid

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Self-regulation model may work for OTT companies: Govt

The government has said it does not have powers to regulate internet content, but suggested an institutional self-regulatory model similar to traditional media, a move that most online video streaming platforms have rejected.

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India needs to pick either West or China for 5G tech: Kotak

Kotak Mahidra Bank managing director Uday Kotak said in the Two System Technology world of 5G, India will have to think hard if it wants to align with the western technology system wherein we also have our political alignment or the Chinese technology system, which will be good for our economy.

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Coronavirus slows in China, but gallops worldover

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Delhi violence: Why AAP suspended councillor

The family of an Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma (26), who was found dead in a drain near his home in northeast Delhi's riot-hit Chand Bagh area, has accused Tahir Hussain of being behind the killing.

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Live: Sensex down 900 pts amid CoVid-19 fears

The World Health Organization declared Thursday that the new coronavirus epidemic was at a 'decisive point' as countries across the globe battled to contain the deadly outbreak. Stay with TOI for all updates.

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Tatas may snap power lines to 5 states

Mumbai: Tata Power, which runs one of the country’s largest power plants at Mundra in Gujarat, has threatened to stop supply from the plant to five states beginning March if they don't agree to tariff increases. The Mumbai-based company, which may incur a loss of Rs 1,000 crore from this one unit alone this year, has issued notices over the past few weeks to distribution companies owned by the state governments of Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Maharashtra on the possible disruption.People close to the development said that Tata Power has made it clear that it will not be able to run the power plant unless the pass-through of additional fuel cost to consumers is allowed.“We have written to them (discoms) that we may have to consider shutting down if there is no positive response, we have not said we will shut down,” a Tata Power spokesperson told ET.Pressure to Honour Apex Court Ruling“Our attempt has been to arrive at a mutually acceptable arrangement. We have waited long for a resolution and losses are mounting. We do hope that states will take steps to finalise this quickly.” 74367140 The development piles up the pressure on state governments to take action nearly one-and-a-half years after the Supreme Court asked the central power regulator to consider increasing tariffs for fuel cost increase in the case of three power companies.The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) allowed the increase in April last year but the states have been dragging their feet.Stoppage of power from Mundra will force the states to buy expensive electricity from outside, Tata Power said. The development also highlights the chaotic state of India’s power sector with loss-making discoms struggling to pay dues even as muchneeded mega investment in the power sector languishes. Shares of Tata Power closed at Rs 49.35 on the BSE Thursday, almost unchanged from the previous close.Gujarat is the only state to have approved a revised power purchase agreement allowing for an increase. State elections in Maharashtra derailed talks and caused delays. People in the know said that the Punjab government has agreed to part of the revision but it has not yet approved the tariff while Haryana is still against tariff hike.“We have responded to Tata Power’s notice by asking them not to take any extreme step. The Gujarat government has already passed the resolution but others are yet to agree. It is a joint contract which we cannot sign unless others give consent,” a senior executive from Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam, the state discom, told ET.Tata Power is expected to incur losses of Rs 1,000 crore from the Mundra unit in 2019-20.It is significantly lower than the Rs 1,700 crore loss incurred last year as coal prices have declined. “The discoms are dragging their feet. Even with the tariff revision, the power supplied from Mundra will still be cheaper by at least Rs 1/ unit compared to any other source they may buy from, which would translate into Rs 2,500-3,000 crore annually,” a senior Tata Power executive said. India had launched an ambitious plan to set up ultra mega power projects of 4,000 mw each to meet the country's growing power demand more than a decade ago.Only two projects could be commissioned, the first one being the imported coal-fuelled Mundra unit, which was bagged by the Tatas at a levelised tariff of Rs 2.26 for a unit. But a change in policy in Indonesia in 2011made coal import expensive. Tariff hikes were denied till the Supreme Court gave some relief in 2018.

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TOI Top 10: Can filing of FIRs be delayed, legally?

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Your PF may get you low returns this year

New Delhi: Salaried employees could face a cut in interest on their provident fund (PF) deposits this year with lower yields seen on investments by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).The EPFO is considering a cut of 15 basis points in the interest rate on PF deposits in FY20 to 8.5%. Provident fund deposits had fetched 8.65% in FY19. The issue is likely to be taken up at the central board of trustees (CBT) meeting of the EPFO on March 5.The retirement fund body may find it difficult to keep the interest rate unchanged for this fiscal, a person aware of the financials told ET. The earnings on longterm fixed deposits, bonds and government securities are down 50-80 basis points over the past one year, said the person. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.The Finance Investment & Audit Committee (FIAC) will take a final call just before the CBT meet on the rate of return on PF deposits, depending on the exact earnings of the retirement fund body. 74366135 Rs 4,500 crore Exposure in DHFLThe decision will be presented to the CBT at the meeting and it will then take a call on the matter. The EPFO has investments of more than Rs 18 lakh crore, of which about Rs 4,500 crore was in Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL) and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), both of which have been laid low by their inability to make payments. The first is undergoing bankruptcy resolution after RBI direction and the second is going through a governmentsupervised rescue programme.The EPFO invests 85% of its annual accruals in the debt market and 15% in equities through exchange traded funds (ETFs). At the end of March last year, the EPFO had a cumulative investment of Rs 74,324 crore in equities, fetching a return of 14.74%.However, the government doesn’t want to fuel disgruntlement among workers, who won’t be happy about lower PF rates.“Interest rate on EPFO is a big sentiment booster and any cut on it at this point may further hit the employee sentiment,” said one of the persons cited above.The CBT headed by the labour minister is the apex decision-making body of the EPFO that has an active subscriber base of 600,000.Some of the other issues that will be taken up for consideration include engaging TCS iON for conducting computer data entry skill tests and cumulative performance evaluation of portfolio managers for the period ended September 30, 2019.

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Realme 6 Pro Spotted on Geekbench Ahead of Launch Next Week, 8GB RAM Tipped

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63,000-plus robots at Accenture’s operations

Manish Sharma, group operating officer at Accenture operations, takes charge of the $6 billion unit with over 141,000 employees on March 1, as part of Accenture’s recent reorganization. “I don’t want my people anywhere in the world to do boring jobs. We call it MRPT — measurable, repeatable, predictable and transaction work — that our people will not do,” Sharma told.

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Brian Lara was slightly harder to bowl to than Sachin Tendulkar: Glenn McGrath

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Top coach Santoso to help Sindhu, Saina and Srikanth

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Arsenal knocked out of Europa League by Olympiakos

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Europa League: Manchester United and Wolves cruise into last 16

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Denmark win men's team pursuit track cycling gold in world record time

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'Plague Inc' Game Removed From Apple’s China App Store Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

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Facebook Cancels F8 Developer Conference Due to Coronavirus

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Cognizant CEO sees a rainmaker in hybrid cloud

“We’re doubling our investment in cloud year-over-year. We want to grow faster and have stronger relationships with Microsoft, Amazon, Google but also leading Software-as-a-Service cloud vendors like Salesforce or Workday or SuccessFactors or SAP, and that is what our M&A strategy has been about,” Brian Humphries told.

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Gold rises as coronavirus fuels global slowdown worries

US gold futures rose 0.1 per cent to $1,644.20.

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Amid economic slowdown and rural distress, Unilever foresees ‘soft’ India sales

Mumbai: Unilever said India business growth will be “soft” because of the rural slump amid a broader economic slowdown. India, which accounts for 9% of Unilever’s overall sales, has been regularly outperforming several key emerging markets for the conglomerate.But Brazil and Indonesia, which contribute 6% and 5% each, respectively, will be stronger in 2020, it said. For the Anglo-Dutch consumer giant, emerging markets generate about 60% of total turnover but average growth in these markets has fallen to 5-6% in past five years from 8-10% earlier. It operates through local unit Hindustan Unilever in India.“Economic and market growth in India has accelerated, and has been particularly strong over the past three years,” Unilever chief financial officer Graeme Pitkethly said at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference in Florida. 74365244 ‘Demand Likely to Stabilise in 2020’India’s fast-moving consumer goods market grew 6.6% in the December quarter compared with 15.7% growth a year ago, according to Nielsen, which said the rural slowdown has bottomed out and demand will stabilise in 2020.Over the past decade, sales of branded daily needs in the nation of 1.3 billion people have increasingly relied on the rural hinterland, home to more than 800 million people, whose purchase behaviour is largely linked to farm output.In the past two years, rural demand, which accounts for about a third of the market and had been outpacing urban sales, was hit by lower farm incomes and liquidity constraints. Rural markets grew 5.2% in the December quarter compared with 7.4% for urban centres, according to Nielsen.Consumption lacks meaningful catalysts to spark a revival in calendar 2020, BNP Paribas said in a report based on the analysis of December quarter performance at a wide sample of consumer companies and post-earnings commentary by their managements.“The timing of recovery in consumption demand remains uncertain,” wrote Kunal Vora of BNP Paribas. “The indication by some companies that a recovery may be seen in second half of FY2021 relies largely on the fact that the base will become much favourable by then.”PRICE HIKES LIKELYSome companies might be forced to raise prices despite a weak consumer demand environment because of very high raw material inflation in certain agricultural commodities.HUL’s skin cleansing or soaps segment has also been a drag on the overall business amid contrasting growth trend in its largest business — laundry. The maker of Surf and Dove said the laundry business has seen double-digit growth, but market share and penetration in the soaps segment declined, especially for Lux and Lifebuoy.“In the skin-cleansing business, penetration for the top two brands has been down, and as a result we have seen declining sales and share losses in 2019,” Pitkethly said. “We have made specific interventions on price and product quality and we are becoming sharper on our brand messaging and, believe me, this will make all the difference.”For HUL, the category was impacted by both declining market and pricing actions that it took in order to increase competitiveness. The company, during its earnings announcement last month, said it could increase price tags on soaps by 5-6% during the March quarter due to rising commodity costs.

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Low transaction charges don’t promote digital payments: Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga

MUMBAI: The opportunity to grow digital payments in India is enormous, with just about 10% of the total merchant community in the network, but tinkering with fees associated with electronic transactions could slow the adoption rather than promoting it, said Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga.There is no empirical evidence that either a low merchant discount rate (MDR) or the absence of it promotes digital transactions. On the contrary, any such move takes away the incentive for intermediaries, who are vital for acquiring customers, Banga said in a telephonic interview. He was speaking to ET two days after the announcement that he would be elevated to the position of executive chairman.MDR is the fee charged by banks and payments companies from merchants or shop owners for providing them payment settlement infrastructure, or point-of-sale (PoS) machines.“Wherever in the world MDR has been reduced to the levels where it makes it uneconomical for the acquirer or issuer to participate in the natural business of electronic payments, you tend to lose the momentum. It’s a balancing act,” he said.The government has been tinkering with the fee paid for electronic transactions using debit cards. Recently, it scrapped MDR charges on payments made using the RuPay card, which is issued by the National Payments Corp of India.Low MDR charges take away the incentive that is essential for companies that get customers on board. These companies then do not find it meaningful to remain in business, Banga pointed out.“We need to find a way to ensure economic sustenance for this model,” he said. “My view is that commercial sustainability in these decisions is very important. There are a lot of studies to show that this is the right way to think about it.”Banga said there is an immense opportunity to promote digital payments in India with just about 5 million of the total 65 million merchants currently in the network, he said.“Don’t know the right number (cash to digital) for India, but I do expect digital payments in India to grow substantially than (in) the past 10 years,” Banga said. “About 5-6 million merchants accept card payments in India, which is way more than what it used to be four years ago when just 1 million merchants accepted cards. But the scope is huge. There are nearly 65 million merchants in India.”Banga also praised the banking regulator for proactively pushing digital payments and being receptive to suggestions.“I think the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has been very fair and transparent. I don’t have a lot of advice for them, it is one of the best regulators in the world,” he said.“We have been telling them (the RBI) our views on data predictability. We are also talking to them to enable payment directory from your bank account using our facility called ‘pay-by-account’. They are open to discussing how to enable that. The RBI is very constructive,” Banga said.

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Commercial leasing to grow across 7 major cities over 4 yrs

Bengaluru: The commercial leasing activity is expected to continue its strong momentum across seven major cities over the next four year with IT/ITeS and flexible office space driving the demand.According to Colliers International, between 2020-24, the office space is expected to witness average annual gross absorption of 5.1 million sq metres, outpacing the annual average gross absorption of the preceding five-year period by about 14%.“We expect Hyderabad to be among the top four office markets in India by 2024, led by expansion of technology companies, and global in-house centres,” said Megha Maan, senior associate director-research, Colliers International India. Hyderabad has risen to the second spot in gross office absorption in 2019.Colliers said, the new supply is also expected to reach a new peak during 2020-24 with average annual supply at about 5.9 million sq metres.“Over the past few years, we have been focusing on expanding our presence across India with upcoming developments in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Gurgaon. We are excited about strengthening our business in the new markets, while continuing to transform the Indian realty sector,” said Irfan Razack, CMD, Prestige Group.However, over 2020-24, the pan-India average rentals will slow at CAGR 1.1% owing to huge quantum of supply planned over the next five years. The average rentals values increased by 3.1% yoy, led by strong demand.

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IB man's murder: Being framed, AAP neta says

AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and his aides were on Thursday booked in the case of murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) official Ankit Sharma. Though he had not been arrested till late on Thursday, the police raided his house and sealed his factory in northeast Delhi. His call records and mobile activity are being scanned to ascertain the identity of the people he was in touch with.

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Commercial leasing to grow across 7 major cities over 4 yrs

According to Colliers International, between 2020-24, the office space is expected to witness average annual gross absorption of 5.1 million sq metres, outpacing the annual average gross absorption of the preceding five-year period by about 14%.

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Vodafone Idea: DoT braces for the worst, weighs mobile number porting capacity

MUMBAI: Telecom department officials have asked India’s two mobile number portability (MNP) service providers on how many porting requests can they process in a day, as the government evaluates contingency options in the eventuality that Vodafone Idea doesn’t survive the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) crisis.Officials in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) though say that the Plan A for the government is to make every effort to see that Vodafone Idea survives the present turmoil, and that India remains a three-private sector player market. On Friday, the Digital Communications Commission (DCC) – the highest decision-making body of the DoT – may discuss some steps on providing relief to stressed telcos such as Vodafone Idea.According to people aware of the developments, the government was informed that at the most 500,000 customers can be ported out each day on a combined basis by the two MNP providers—Syniverse Technologies India and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions India. Both companies did not respond to ET’s queries at the time of going to press.This capacity though may prove grossly inadequate to cater to over 300 million subscribers of Vodafone Idea, leading to severe service quality issues, as the potential recipients—Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio—don’t have adequate capacity to immediately absorb the massive influx to their networks, say experts.74362580 A contingency plan in this case is a complex one since it will include how to ensure smooth port outs in bulks of thousands to the two remaining operators. “This will put tremendous strain on the systems. To handle bulk requests of so many million customers will be a big task and hence, a contingency plan needs to be in place,” said a person aware of the development. “Also, the telcos will have to discuss what are the charges acceptable to them to take in so many customers”.MNP refers to the facility allowing a user to switch telco operators without changing the mobile number. The recipient operator pays a fee to the MNP service provider for processing the request.“This will be a panic like situation… right now telcos are operating at 70-80% of network utilization. Without additional spectrum, despite all the spectrum farming (reusing 3G spectrum for 4G), splitting one-third subscriber market between two operators will be very difficult,” said SBICap Securities research head Rajiv Sharma.There have been reports that both rivals have started discussing on how to upgrade their network in case Vodafone Idea goes down. Jio has 370 million while Bharti Airtel has 283 million subscribers.Vodafone Idea has so far paid Rs 3,500 crore of the DoT’s estimated Rs 57,000 crore dues. The telco estimates its dues to be around Rs 23,000 crore. Experts say the cash-strapped carrier will find it difficult to pay even its own estimated dues in a short period of time.The telco has said it will be forced to shut down unless it gets some relief on its AGR dues. The government is considering, among others, setting up a stress fund for stressed telcos to draw from to pay off AGR dues and repay on easy terms, besides deferment of license fees and spectrum usage charge (SUC) for a substantial period to free up cash flows.On Wednesday, Vodafone Idea dispatched a letter to finance minister, DoT and Niti Ayog, calling on the government to allow it to pay AGR dues over 15 years, after a three-year moratorium. The telecom company has also asked for a tax refund to be adjusted against its dues, cuts in licence fees and SUC and the establishment of a floor for tariffs, among measures to help remain viable.The telco has also urged the DoT not to encash its bank guarantees against unpaid AGR dues, as that would force the telco to close down.Having already rejected a petition seeking review of its October 2019 order, which said AGR should include non-core items, the Supreme Court’s hearing of the modification on March 17, which is also the deadline for payment of dues, assumes critical importance.The telcos have asked in the modification pleas to be allowed to negotiate modalities and timelines for paying the AGR dues with the DoT.

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