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Hindustan Times  July 01, 2020 As many as 100,000 people a day have dipped into their statutory retirement savings on an average in the past three weeks as they grappled with income and job losses, a factor that may hold back a swift economic recovery. While established companies have let go of their employees because of Covid 19-related disruptions, new jobs are being created at a snail’s pace, data from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) accessed by Mint showed. Since April 1, more than 5.5 million salaried workers have withdrawn money from their employees’ provident fund (EPF) accounts, the data showed. More than 5.58 million claims worth around ₹15,000 crore have been settled so far this fiscal by EPFO, as per data. The fact that close to 2 million people have withdrawn their savings between June 9 and June 29 points to the fact that hardships of India’s salaried class continue even after the government has eased lockdown curbs. Of the total w...

Financial Express June 30, 2020 India is set to tighten the scrutiny of foreign direct investments (FDIs) from Singapore, amid growing apprehensions that cash-rich Chinese companies could route their investments through the island nation to bypass New Delhi’s stringent FDI policy for bordering countries. Singapore replaced Mauritius as the largest source of FDI for India in FY19 and accounted for close to 30% of such inflows into equities in the last fiscal. Already, the customs officials have raised scrutiny of imports from China. However, the government will likely step up vigil in such a manner that the flow of genuine FDI from Singapore isn’t upset in this process, sources told FE. While a formal proposal is yet to be floated for this purpose, informal deliberations have started in some quarters, one of the sources said. “The government is mindful of the fact that bona fide FDI from Singapore or others don’t get affected at all,” he added. FDI from Hong Kong, ...

Hindustan Times June 30, 2020 Indian telecommunications tycoon Sunil Mittal has submitted a bid for OneWeb, the bankrupt satellite firm whose investors include SoftBank Group Corp., people with knowledge of the matter said. An arm of Mittal’s Bharti Enterprises Ltd. conglomerate made an offer for London-based OneWeb with backing from the UK government, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The UK government plans to commit around $500 million to OneWeb alongside other investors as part of the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, a person with knowledge of the matter said last week. OneWeb has said that bids were due Friday. Part of the UK’s interest in supporting OneWeb is to form the basis for a new national navigation system, after the European Union froze Britain out of the most secure elements of the bloc’s project, called Galileo. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is trying to attract fresh foreign invest...

Hindustan Times July 01, 2020 Barely two months after resuming operations in China, Indian tech companies with a Chinese presence find themselves facing new uncertainties amid rising geopolitical tensions between Indian and China. Experts suggest that Indian IT providers that service global MNCs in China maybe at risk of losing those projects, which will impact the investments made by these companies in the Chinese market. Such concerns have arisen as India is seeing a strong anti-China sentiment culminating in the government announcing a temporary ban on a host of Chinese apps on Monday evening. Actions by the Indian authorities could lead to retaliatory measures by Chinese counterparts. Indian IT companies have been eyeing the Chinese market as part of their strategy to reduce dependence on tapping the Chinese market to the US and UK, which together make up over 70% of Indian IT exports. The current hostile environment is expected to affect such plans. Last year, ...

Hindustan Times June 30, 2020 Natasha Bhat learned in late February that her father-in-law had suddenly died. Bhat, 35, recently recalled how she grabbed a backpack and hustled her US -born 4-year-old son to the San Francisco airport to catch a midnight flight to India, her home country. She didn’t anticipate being stuck there indefinitely.  Bhat works at a tech company in Silicon Valley on an H-1B visa, and her documents were due for renewal. So she threw them in the bag, knowing she’d have to get the chore taken care of before flying back to the US in a few weeks. But she said her mid-March appointment at the US consulate in Kolkata was canceled when it shut down due to Covid-19 concerns. Her return home was delayed further when President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week barring many people on several types of visas, including H-1Bs, from entering the country until 2021. Trump’s executive order is the latest step in his years-long tightening of US ...

Hindustan Times July 01, 2020 The US Federal Communications Commission designated Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. as national security threats, a step toward driving the Chinese manufacturers from the US market where small rural carriers rely on their cheap network equipment. The action means money from federal subsidies used by many small rural carriers may no longer be used to buy or maintain equipment produced by the companies, the FCC said in a news release. “Both Huawei and ZTE have close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s military apparatus,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said on Twitter. “We are sending a clear message: the U.S. government, and this @FCC in particular, cannot and will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to exploit vulnerabilities in U.S. communications networks.” The FCC has increasingly scrutinised Chinese companies as tensions grow between Beijing and Washington over trade, the coronavirus and security issues. The agency is con...

Hindustan Times July 01, 2020 The UN Security Council is trying again to reach agreement on its first resolution on Covid-19 since the coronavirus started circling the global in February, after a lengthy dispute between the US and China over mentioning the World Health Organization. A revised draft resolution by France and China was submitted for a vote on Tuesday and the result is expected to be announced on Wednesday. The draft resolution backs Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ March 23 call for global cease-fires to tackle the pandemic, and demands an “immediate cessation of hostilities” in all conflicts on its agenda including Syria, Yemen, Libya, South Sudan and Congo. It calls on all warring parties “to engage immediately in a durable humanitarian pause for at least 90 consecutive days” to enable the safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid and medical evacuations. The draft resolution states that these measures do not apply to military operation...

Hindustan Times July 01, 2020 Wishing Bangladesh on Mujib Barsho, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Monday said that India and Bangladesh should look now at the trade in the services instead of just trade in goods. “As we celebrate Mujib Barsho this year and the 50th year of liberation of Bangladesh as well as the establishment of diplomatic relations next year, we must do all that it takes to ensure that values that we fought and stood for remain cherished,” Muraleedharan said during a digital conference on ‘Doing Business with Bangladesh’. He said that India and Bangladesh have scripted a ‘Shonali Adhyaya’ -- a golden chapter -- in their partnership, under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. “As we are also looking at creating a new economic partnership for the future, there are opportunities to go beyond trade in goods and look at the trade in services,” he said. He further said, “As India...

Business Today June 30, 2020 Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) is reportedly close to inking a deal that would give the conglomerate a controlling stake in the retail businesses of Kishore Biyani's Future Group. According to the deal, Biyani will relinquish control over all businesses under the Future Retail basket (comprising FBB, Big Bazaar, Food Hall and Central), Future Lifestyle Ltd, and Future Supply Chain Solutions. All three entities will be merged and the combined business will be acquired by RIL. Biyani will be left with control of Future Group's FMCG business and some other smaller group companies, according to a report in the Times of India. Worth mentioning here is that this development will give RIL the much-needed firepower to catapult to numero uno position in retail space across categories such as fashion, general merchandise and groceries. Discussions between RIL and Future Group are reportedly at an advanced stage, and RIL wa...

Business line June 29, 2020 Mastercard, a technology company in the global payments industry, remains committed to invest $1 billion in India over the next five years despite ongoing Covid-19 challenges. The proposed investments, which will be on top of the $1 billion that Mastercard invested in Indian market in the last five years, will be focussed on building digital payment infrastructure and providing technology and innovation in the digital payments space, said Vikas Varma, Chief Operating Officer, South Asia, Mastercard. “Mastercard remains bullish in this market and completely relentless in the way we commit ourselves to the growth potential of the Indian market. The current Covid-19 situation may have led to volume contraction (in April to June quarter), but in general, we don’t see a long-term impact whatsoever from digital payments standpoint brought about by Covid-19. If anything, consumers will become more savvy and smarter and pay more heed to new forms of paym...