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Cartoq October 25, 2019 By Shantonil Nag Honda Car India Limited has been present in India for a long time now. Amidst the slowdown in the market, Honda is currently looking at ways to restructure its operations in India. The Japanese automobile manufacturer has seen its sales falling to almost half in the last four years and the manufacturer is now planning to close down the manufacturing unit. The sales of the Honda Car India is expected to fall below 1 lakh units in the current financial year. To recover the money lost in the market and to realign the brand’s strategy with the falling sales, the brand will reportedly sell its Greater Noida manufacturing facility. Honda Car India currently operates two manufacturing facilities in India, there is one in Noida while the other one is in Tapukara, Rajasthan. The report in ET Auto suggests that the manufacturer will move the production from Greater Noida to Tapukara in the coming months. Also, for expansion purposes, Honda h...

The Print  October 25, 2019 By- Srijan Shukla In recent years, US public opinion on India has been quite favourable but the revocation of Article 370 has led to substantial backlash. The revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir by the Modi government has led to massive international scrutiny, most significantly by the US government . The recent congressional hearings on the revocation and the subsequent curbs imposed by the government, are an example of this trend. In order to provide an overview of US opinion on India, Paul Staniland, a political scientist from the University of Chicago wrote a blog post analysing various public opinion polls in America. The biggest takeaway from Staniland’s findings is perhaps the political party split in the US. While a large number of both Democrats and Republicans view India favourably – the former are more inclined to the country. According to the 2017 Chicago Council Survey, 41 per cent of Democrats are mo...

Scroll October 25, 2019 Abhishek Chinnappa The BSE on Wednesday asked information technology firm Infosys to explain why it did not disclose whistleblower complaints that alleged that the company’s top executives were following “unethical practices” to improve profits, PTI reported. The whistleblowers, who called themselves “ethical employees”, told the IT major’s board of directors on September 20 that Infosys Chief Executive Officer Salil Parekh and Chief Financial Officer Nilanjan Roy had fudged financials and inflated profits. The whistleblowers added that they had emails and voice recording to prove their allegations. Parekh, the whistleblowers alleged, had made derogatory and sexist comments about board members DN Prahlad, D Sundaram and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. Shares of Infosys at the National Stock Exchange tanked nearly 17% on Tuesday after the whistleblower complaints were revealed. On Tuesday, Infosys Chairperson Nandan Nilekani said the first complaint, d...

Livemint October 24, 2019 By- Ravindra N. Sonavane Indian markets opened 0.5% higher on Thursday led by gains in information technologies stocks. Investor sentiment also received a boost after early trends gave indications of Bhartiya Janata Party returning to power in Maharashtra and Haryana. At 9.30 am, the Sensex rose 0.6% to 39,276.27 points, while the Nifty gained 0.54% to 11,666.90 points. According to early trends, the BJP and its alliance is likely to get 114 seats in Maharashtra and 38 seats in Haryana. US indices ended with gains as oil prices rallied. Energy stocks led gainers. Asian indices opened in the black led by the Nikkei as Microsoft earnings saw Dow Jones futures rise. China will witness more traction as Yuan strength are likely to see good ETF flows with earnings being the catalyst. IT stocks were also trading higher. HCL Technologies gained 4% after the company posted a 6.9% rise in its consolidated net profit to ₹2,711 crore for the Se...

Livemint October 24, 2019 According to the IOC website, the price of petrol fell on Thursday in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai The diesel prices also fell in the four major metropolitan cities.  After a day of no change, the prices of petrol and diesel fell again on Thursday, an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) data revealed. The oil marketing companies reported no change in the price of petrol and diesel on Wednesday. According to the IOC website, the price of petrol fell on Thursday in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai to ₹73.17 per litre, ₹75.82, ₹78.78, and ₹75.99, respectively. The diesel prices also fell in the four major metropolitan cities. It fell to ₹66.06 per litre in Delhi, ₹68.42 in Kolkata, ₹69.24 in Mumbai, and ₹69.77 in Chennai. In the international market, the crude oil registered a fall in its price after a rise in the previous two sessions while the Brent oil continued to trade above $60 per barrel. Reference:  https://www....

Bloomberg October 24, 2019 By- Coner Sen The meteoric rise and spectacular fall of WeWork is one for the ages.To sum up: The real-estate leasing startup, which incinerates money, was planning just two months ago to go public at a valuation that some thought would be as high as $47 billion. Once investors got a good look at its finances they couldn't stop laughing. The company instead needed a bailout from its biggest investor and now is valued, perhaps optimistically, at $8 billion.Maybe this episode marks the beginning of a sobering up of cash-burning growth companies with dismal unit economic. If that's the case, what will that process look like? Maybe the transformation of music-streaming service Pandora helps show how busted unicorns — closely held startups valued at $1 billion or more — can find new life. When Pandora had its initial public offering in 2011, it was a tortoise-beats-the-hare success story, after it launched during the dot-com boom in 2000. It ...

NDTV October 24, 2019 Imran Khan's political rival and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazl has called for a massive protest against his government. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has expressed his resolve not to cave into pressure from his political rival and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazl who has called for the anti-government "Azadi March" on October 31 in Islamabad. In a meeting with senior journalists and analysts, Mr Khan on Wednesday expressed his views about his opponents' threat of launching the protest, issues of inflation, unemployment and foreign policy, The Express Tribune reported. "There is no question of my resignation and I will not resign. Dharna is agenda based, and it has foreign support," the Prime Minister was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune "I don't understand what Maulana's problem is," he said. "I don't understand the agenda of the opposition." His re...

The Economic Times October 24, 2019 he service fee from the pilgrims - Indian Rs 259 crore per annum and about Pakistani Rs 555 crore - will be another source of foreign currency generation for Pakistan, which is already reeling under severe financial crisis. Pakistan is expected to earn up to $365,00,000 from pilgrims visiting the holy Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, officials said on Thursday. The service fee from the pilgrims - Indian Rs 259 crore per annum and about Pakistani Rs 555 crore - will be another source of foreign currency generation for Pakistan, which is already reeling under severe financial crisis, a government official said. Since 5,000 pilgrims are allowed to visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan, which will be charging $20 service fee per pilgrim, will earn $1,00,000 (approximately Rs 71 lakh) every day. As the rate of Pakistani currency is Rs 155.74 for one USD, the per d...

The Hindu October 24, 2019 Twesh Mishra Winners of the operational mineral blocks being bid out are expected to get up to three years for obtaining fresh environment and forest clearances. This provision is being finalised between the Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to ensure that supplies of raw material to key industries are not disrupted. The move to relax these norms follows auctioning of mines whose leases are due to expire on March 31, 2020. According to official estimates, 48 working mining leases and another 281 non-working mining leases are expiring on this date. According to a senior Mines Ministry official, “Till now, the notice inviting tenders (NIT) for 43 mines have been issued across Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Of these, there are 20 mines whose leases were expiring in March 2020. Another 16 mines have already been auctioned including four in Karnataka.” “The Ministry of Mines is in talks with...

The Economic Times October 25, 2019 By- Jaideep Mishra A perceptible improvement to India’s ranking in the World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ (EDB) index is welcome news. It provides scores for a set of 10 distinct areas of business regulation, and it’s significant that India’s position has now moved 14 places to 63rd among 190 economies. We could do much better. It is notable that while India’s ranking has improved impressively in the last few years, there is much scope to enhance the EDB with proactive policy action, such as in the domain of enforcing contracts, registering property and starting a business. It should then be eminently possible to move into the top 50 of the global index, and, in the foreseeable future, to the top 30. The rankings in the EDB index point to transparent rules on the ground to promote efficient markets, rev up enterprise and boost the development delivery mechanism, and, therefore, help change perceptions and investor sentiments. But...

Observer Research Foundation October 23, 2019 The People’s Republic of China is facing a slowdown unprecedented in recent memory. According to a Reuters poll of economists, the consensus is that growth will slow to a three-decade low in 2019 — and perhaps dip even further in 2020, below six per cent for the first time since the “China miracle” took hold in the 1980s. This would follow some years of growth that were lacklustre by the PRC’s standards — 6.8 per cent in 2017, then 6.6 per cent in 2018. Whatever general doubts about the quality of Beijing’s data, the trend is unmistakable. Global growth faces headwinds; a stop-start trade war has dragged down export demand; and domestic demand has weakened steadily in spite of an aggressive combination of fiscal and monetary policy. Demand weakness is reflected in wholesale prices. In September 2019, Chinese factories faced price deflation of 1.2 per cent on an annualised basis (although consumer prices rose, driven by food inflatio...

Bloomberg 24 October, 2019 Conor Sen The meteoric rise and spectacular fall of We Work is one for the ages. To sum up: The real-estate leasing startup, which incinerates money, was planning just two months ago to go public at a valuation that some thought would be as high as $47 billion. Once investors got a good look at its finances they couldn't stop laughing. The company instead needed a bailout from its biggest investor and now is valued, perhaps optimistically, at $8 billion. Maybe this episode marks the beginning of a sobering up of cash-burning growth companies with dismal unit economic. If that's the case, what will that process look like? Maybe the transformation of music-streaming service Pandora helps show how busted unicorns — closely held startups valued at $1 billion or more — can find new life. When Pandora had its initial public offering in 2011, it was a tortoise-beats-the-hare success story, after it launched during the dot-com boom in 20...

The Economic Times October 23, 2019 By- Chidanand Rajghatta Buried for nearly 15 years after Pakistan’s nuclear smuggler AQ Khan confessed to nuclear smuggling and illicit exports, the issue has resurfaced in recent days after Turkey’s President was reported conveying his desire for Turkey to go nuclear. Pakistan’s nuclear proliferation is once again coming under scrutiny following Turkey’s reported quest for nuclear weapons. Buried for nearly 15 years after Pakistan’s nuclear smuggler AQ Khan confessed to nuclear smuggling and illicit exports, the issue has resurfaced in recent days after Turkey’s President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan was reported conveying his desire for Turkey to go nuclear at a party convention. Some countries have missiles with nuclear warheads… (But the West insists) we can’t have them. This, I cannot accept,” Erdogan was reported telling his party faithful in remarks that have caused a stir in Washington. “If the US could not prevent the Turkish lead...

Scroll.in 25, October 2019 The Hong Kong administration on Wednesday announced that it had formally withdrawn the extradition bill that triggered months of protests, BBC reported. The controversial legislation, which would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to China, sparked public outrage earlier this year and led to protests over several months. The second reading of the legislation began on Wednesday afternoon, following which Secretary for Security John Lee declared that the bill had been withdrawn, according to Hong Kong Free Press. The announcement was met with Democratic Party leader Ted Hui asking Lee if he will resign, to which the secretary said he had nothing to add. The legislature’s decision, however, is unlikely to quell protests as the administration accepted just one of five demands of the pro-democracy movement. The protestors have demanded that Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam step down from her post, an inquiry into the alleged police brutality duri...

Scroll.in 25, October 2019 Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh on Wednesday said that Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, the Kashmir cell of Al-Qaeda, had been eliminated from the Valley during an encounter in Pulwama district’s Tral area on Tuesday evening, PTI reported. Singh also claimed that Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed was trying to communicate with other groups in Kashmir to plan attacks. “The AGH [Ansar Ghazwatul Hind] has been wiped out but some elements who are overground workers are there,” Singh said. “They suddenly crop up and join militant ranks...But, as of now, the AGH has been wiped out from Kashmir.” The police chief identified three militants who were killed as Naveed Ahmed Tak, Junaid Rashid Bhatt, and Hameed Lone, also known as Hamid Lehari – who reportedly took over after former chief Zakir Musa’s death. All of those killed were residents of Pulwama, police said, adding arms and ammunition were also recovered. A case has been registered. ...

The Indian Express 25 October, 2019 Telecom companies, already reeling under intense tariff war and indebtedness, were dealt a major blow Thursday as the Supreme Court upheld the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) — a long standing dispute between the Centre and the sector players. Telecom firms will be required to include non-core income for calculation of AGR, requiring them to pay the government as much as Rs 92,641 crore extra, including disputed demand, interest and penalty. Telecom players, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, said the court order could have damaging implications for the sector, weakening its viability as a whole. “Clearly this judgment has significantly damaging implications for India’s telecom industry, which is already reeling under huge financial stress and is left with only four operators. Significant investment of several billion dollars has been made in creating world class networks. Today’s ord...

Hindustan Times 23, October  2019 Infosys Ltd on Thursday said the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a probe into whistleblower claims that the Indian software services firm used ‘unethical practices’ to boost revenue and profit. The company said India’s market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, has also asked it to submit information concerning the complaints. Infosys, India’s second-biggest IT services firm by revenue after Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, on Tuesday said it was investigating claims including that Chief Executive Officer Salil Parekh bypassed reviews and approvals for large deals fearing the negative impact of reduced profit on Infosys’ share price. It also disclosed claims that Chief Financial Officer Nilanjan Roy prevented employees from highlighting issues around large deals in presentations to the board. Parekh and Roy declined to comment when contacted through Infosys. Infosys on Thursday also said a sec...