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Firstpost May 22, 2019 The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is investigating allegations of  anti-competitive practices  adopted by Maruti Suzuki, mainly resale price maintenance. Resale price maintenance is detrimental to consumer interest. The manufacturer tells his dealers, through whom its products are sold, that while they are getting the goods at a wholesale price, there should be a minimum mark-up so that dealers don’t fall over themselves to woo their customers with discounts, ruinous to the manufacturer in the long run. Remember, dealers registering high volumes are able to offer much more discount vis-à-vis the ones doing modest sales. Earlier in 2017, the CCI slapped a penalty of $12.5 million on Hyundai, but it went on to appeal the Supreme Court saying the CCI order was faulty inasmuch as Hyundai had only 14 percent market share. Maruti has an envious 50 percent share and is more vulnerable to the charge of harming consumer interest. As recently as on 7 Ma

Firstpost May 22, 2019 One of the largest non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) housing finance firm in India, Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), has just announced that it will not accept any fresh deposits or renew the existing ones. Also, premature withdrawals have been put on hold except in cases where there is a proven medical or financial emergency. The statement has triggered panic with DHFL shares tumbling in early trade on the BSE touching an intra-day low of Rs 107.15 apiece. The shares are trading around 16 percent down at the time of writing this. “There is indeed a liquidity problem with DHFL. We have stopped looking at it a while ago and advised our clients to stay away,” said a Mumbai-based analyst on condition of anonymity. What has happened with DHFL? Everyone knows that the company has been facing a liquidity crunch for a while. At the time of the IL&FS crisis, the whole NBFC industry came under a shock. DHFL got attention when DSP Mutual Fund sold Rs

Hindustan Times May 22, 2019 China delivered an overhauled version of a jointly developed fighter jet to Pakistan in March within weeks of the Indian and Pakistani air forces clashing along the Line of Control (LoC) in late February, it has now emerged. Changsha 5712 Aircraft Industry, which operates under the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), reassembled the overhauled JF-17 fighter jet and delivered it to Pakistan in March, China Aviation News reported earlier this week. This is the first time AVIC has overhauled a made-for-export third generation fighter, or fourth generation according to another widely used standard, the report said. The JF-17, or the FC-1, is a single-engine multi-role light fighter jet jointly developed by China and Pakistan for export, according to the website of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. “The first [JF-17] overhaul marks an important milestone [in the JF-17 project],” Fu Qianshao, a Chinese air defence

Hindustan Times May 22, 2019 In its third mission of the year, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday successfully put into orbit an earth observation satellite that can see through thick clouds and enhance the country’s surveillance capabilities in military and civilian sectors to keep an eye also on terror camps across the border in Pakistan. Dubbed as a ‘spy’ satellite, RISAT-2B (Radar Imaging Satellite-2B) will replace its predecessor RISAT-2 which has been actively used by India to monitor activities in terror camps across the border in Pakistan to thwart infiltration bids by terrorists. RISAT was successfully launched in 2009. The RISAT-2B is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar that can take pictures of the earth during day and night, and also under cloudy conditions, said an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO). “It’s an all-weather satellite which can take images of the earth during the day, night and even cloudy conditio

The India Express May 22, 2019 The Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to create a specialised supervisory and regulatory cadre within the RBI in order to strengthen the supervision and regulation of commercial banks, urban cooperative banks and non-banking financial companies. The decision, which was taken at the meeting of the Central Board of the RBi in Chennai on Tuesday, follows a series of events including the IL&FS defaults, ICICI Bank loan issue, Punjab National Bank fraud and the liquidity issues in the NBFC sector in the last two years. The board meeting also reviewed the present structure of supervision in RBI in the context of the growing diversity, complexities and interconnectedness within the Indian financial sector. According to banking sources, mutual funds investments in NBFC debt instruments and promoters pledging of shares and funding of promoters have raised concerns in the wake of the liquidity shortage being faced by s

The Indian Express May 22, 2019 Hearing a bunch of petitions against the March 8 order of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approving ArcelorMittal’s Rs 42,000-crore resolution plan for the debt-ridden Essar Steel, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Tuesday reserved its order. The two-member bench, headed by Chairman Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya, has heard all parties, including the erstwhile promoters of Essar Steel and a host of operational creditors over the period. On Tuesday, it asked all parties, including ArcelorMittal, to file in writing their submissions by Wednesday. During Tuesday’s proceedings, senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing on behalf of Standard Chartered Bank, a secured creditor of Essar Steel, said ArcelorMittal should not be allowed to add working capital to brighten up its final resolution plan. “Working capital is revenue generated from going concern. It cannot be added. You can’t adjust working capital. ArcelorMittal cannot

BloombergQuint May 20, 2019 On May 15, payments firm Paytm tied up with foreign lender Citibank to introduce a co-branded credit card. Not surprisingly, the card came laden with the promise of cash-backs to help lure customers to sample the latest offering from the Alibaba-backed and Vijay Shekhar Sharma-promoted payments firm. The new addition joined a plethora of products introduced by the Paytm ecosystem over the last few years, making it a mini financial conglomerate. From gold and savings bank accounts to mutual funds and forex services, Paytm and its associate firms are offering it all. If Sharma gets regulatory approval, insurance and peer-to-peer lending may soon be added to the list. But there is one thing missing in all of this—profitability. The practice of heavy discounting through cashbacks, along with large operational expenses on items like advertising, marketing and network costs have meant that profitability remains a distant dream for a company that

Hindustan Times May 21, 2019 This Sunday as the country engaged with the exit polls, the Coast Guard and Directorate Revenue Intelligence were busy deploying assets along the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) – the line that divides India and Pakistan in the Arabian Sea. The fleet of ships and aircraft were on the lookout for a Pakistani boat suspected to be carrying narcotics. Intelligence pointed to a Pakistani boat would sneak into Indian waters to land the contraband. After a 48-hour hunt Pakistani fishing boat Al Madina carrying drugs worth Rs 600 crore was caught earlier today morning. Indian Coast Guard Ship Arinjay was deployed to patrol the IMBL whereas two additional interceptor boats – C437 and C408 – were tasked Jakhau and Okha ports sailed out to police the waters of the Arabian Sea. In addition Dornier aircraft were launched from “Porbandar for aerial recce,” the Coast Guard said. The suspect vessel was spotted in the late hours of May 20 sailing t

Business Today May 21, 2019 Sebi on Monday proposed changes to regulations for issuance of municipal bonds as part of efforts to enable fund raising by bodies similar to municipalities. Besides, the minimum subscription amount for municipal bonds on a private placement basis be reduced to Rs 10 lakh from the current Rs 25 lakh in a bid to align it with corporate bonds. Currently, minimum subscription for corporate bond on private placement is Rs 10 lakh. While urban development bodies and other agencies carry out functions which are similar to municipality, they are not defined as municipalities under constitution, thereby making them ineligible to raise funds through issue of debt securities under the ILDM (Issue and Listing of Debt Securities by Municipalities) regulations, Sebi said. Accordingly, it is proposed to widen the scope of issuer to include any statutory body or authority, trust or agency established under an Act of Parliament or an Act of the State Legislatu

Business Today May 21, 2019 The Finance Ministry has asked Airport Authority of India to issue shares in lieu of the Rs 656 crore capital it has received from the government, sources said. AAI, a 100 per cent government owned statutory corporation, was constituted by an Act of Parliament and came into being on April 1, 1995, by merging erstwhile National Airports Authority and International Airports Authority of India. The fact that AAI did not issue equity to the government in lieu of fund infusion by the government, last year during discussions in the Finance Ministry over share buy back by profit making public sector enterprises. Following that, discussions were held among the officials of Ministry of Finance, Corporate Affairs and Civil Aviation for corporatisation of AAI and legal opinion was obtained on share issuance corresponding to the capital infusion. "The Finance Ministry has written to AAI for issuing shares in lieu of the paid-up capital of

TheQuint 21 May 2019 Mukesh Ambani's oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries has toppled state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) to become the country's biggest company by revenue. Reliance in the 2018-19 fiscal year that ended 31 March, reported a turnover of Rs 6.23 lakh crore. In comparison, IOC posted a turnover of Rs 6.17 lakh crore for the fiscal, according to regulatory filings by the two companies. It was also the most profitable company in the country with a net profit of more than double that of IOC in FY2019. Reliance, which was about half the size of IOC till about a decade back but its bet on burgeoning consumer base and foray into new businesses such as telecom, retail, and digital services vastly expanded its business, clocked a net profit of Rs 39,588 crore in FY19. IOC, on the other hand, ended the year with a net profit of Rs 17.274 crore. IOC till last year was the most profitable PSU but may have lost this position to Oil and Natural Gas

LiveMint May 21, 2019 The Hinduja Group on Tuesday said it was considering a bid for Jet Airways (India) Ltd , which has been grounded for more than a month and is on a desperate hunt for an investor to restart flights. “Hinduja Group is evaluating the Jet Airways opportunity," a spokesperson for the  diversified conglomerate  said, confirming media reports about its interest in Jet Airways. The spokesperson did not elaborate on Hinduja’s plans and whether it would ask lenders to Jet Airways to take a haircut on loans outstanding of nearly  ₹ 8,400 crore. An investment by the Hindujas is expected to offer a respite to Jet Airways, its employees, as well as lenders and investors. The group is led by billionaire brothers Gopichand and Srichand Hinduja, who are among the UK’s wealthiest people. The group’s businesses range from automotive and banking to power. In India, it runs well-known brands such as truck maker Ashok Leyland and IndusInd Bank. The Hinduja Group

ThePrint May 21, 2019 New York:  In the wake of the economic crisis, Paul Volcker called automated teller machines the last financial innovation that improved society. A decade later, their popularity is slipping. The number of ATMs around the world fell for the first time last year as banks closed branches and redirected resources toward digital payments, consulting firm RBR said in a study released Monday. Declines in four of the world’s five largest markets — China, the U.S., Japan and Brazil — drove the 1% drop in ATMs in 2018. In the fifth, India, “growth slowed considerably,” London-based RBR said. Bank customers are increasingly turning to their mobile phones for routine financial services, and moving away from cash in favor of credit and debit cards. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank, cut back its branches by 2% last year while earmarking $10.8 billion for technology. The lender saw a 5% increase in active digital customers, and an 11% gain in active m