In a sudden and surprising move at the close of 2020, American auto maker Ford and homegrown Mahindra and Mahindra decided to call off their automotive joint venture, blaming the decision on “global economic and business conditions caused, in part, by the global pandemic”.
Two days after passing critical remarks against Cyrus Mistry, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has issued a corrigendum, stating “some inadvertent errors” had crept into its order involving the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and it has been “rectified”.
According to a study by Randstad India, a leading firm in the HR services industry, marketing has emerged as one of the top five highest-paying functions at the senior level where the average salary is about Rs 34 lakh.
The Future Group, Shapoorji Pallonji Group and SpiceJet are among those who will apply for loan restructuring. Besides these, there are a couple of thermal power generating companies, a couple of toll road projects, and companies in the textile sector.
Progressive companies understand the importance of diversity and inclusion (D&I) beyond gender. But even while India Inc is still scratching the surface with respect to gender diversity, some organisations like EY and Fujitsu India have begun to transform their work culture to embrace neurodiverse talent too.
The massive shortfall in the Rs 2.1-lakh-crore disinvestment target has triggered unease within the government. The department for investment and public asset management (Dipam) is blaming the department of financial services for imposing an additional Rs 90,000-crore target through the sale of the Centre's stakes in LIC and IDBI Bank, which may not realise this year.
After intense lobbying by chartered accountants and tax professionals, the government has granted a fresh extension to those who have not filed their returns, citing Covid-19 as the reason.
It was over breakfast on the wintry morning of January 24 that Ozlem Tureci and her husband Ugur Sahin decided, "we need to fire the starting gun on this". Sahin "had concluded from a publication describing coronavirus cases in Wuhan ... that there was a high probability that a pandemic could be imminent", Tureci recounted.
The government is set to extend the deadline for 100% collection of toll charges on the National Highway (NH) network through FASTag. Earlier, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had announced to completely do away with cash transactions for paying toll charges from January 1.
A high-profile Mumbai bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) on Monday quashed the revisionary orders passed by the commissioner (exemptions), which would have resulted in three Tata Trusts having to bear taxes running into several lakhs.
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and a sharp slide in the stock market in the early months of 2020 notwithstanding, companies raised a record amount of money through equity and quasi-equity routes this year. Nearly Rs 1.8 lakh crore was raised during the year through a combination of initial public offerings (IPOs), qualified institutional placements (QIPs), offers for sale (OFSs) and follow-on public offerings (FPOs), data published by Prime Database showed.
The government is weighing a proposal to impose 18% goods and services tax (GST) on bitcoin transactions, estimated to be around Rs 40,000 crore annually. The Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB), an arm of the finance ministry, has put forward the proposal to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), suggesting that the government could potentially receive Rs 7,200 crore annually on bitcoins trading in the country.
Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday that the US electric vehicle major Tesla will start operations in India early next year. “The company is expected to start its operations, first with sales for its vehicles in India from next year, and considering the demand, it would also look into setting up a manufacturing facility here,” Gadkari told TOI.
2020 was a standout year for stocks, gold and bitcoins as investment destinations. But FDs took a hit with the plunging rate of interest. Debt mutual funds, however, recorded a good return as interest rate fell, but shutting down six debt schemes made investors jittery.
The swift recovery displayed by the economy after the bruising impact of one of the strictest lockdowns in the world to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 infection has surprised many. It has also brought some cheer for policy makers in an otherwise gloomy year.
You didn’t need to visit a branch to open a bank account in 2020. Come 2021, the digital drive will continue even as tough lessons from the previous year will force the financial world to innovate.
In a strong retaliatory push, India has asked all airlines informally not to fly Chinese nationals into the country. This comes after China’s not-so-subtle move to stop Indians from flying into their country, something that has only tightened since November.
The government will launch a new quarterly employment survey from March next year that will amalgamate two existing surveys; the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) and the Area Frame Establishment Survey (AFES). A more expansive version of the existing enumeration exercises, the new survey is likely to be christened the All India Quarterly Base Establishment Survey (AIQBES), and is aimed at plugging the assessment gaps in understanding the real employment situation in the country.
Last week, a branch manager of a leading state-run bank in Madhya Pradesh wrote to the municipal commissioner seeking “cooperation” as several of the 160 street vendors, who were given loans under the PM SVANidhi scheme, had not paid a single instalment, turning them into non-performing assets (NPAs).
In China, Jack Ma is synonymous with success. The English teacher turned internet entrepreneur is the country’s richest person. He founded Alibaba, the closest thing that Amazon has to a peer and rival. After Donald Trump was elected US president in 2016, Ma was the first high-profile Chinese person he met with.
In perhaps a first, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has framed a policy to protect its employees from domestic abuse. This extends the scope of employee well-being beyond work — that is, the office —to his/her personal life and home.
The recently set up Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) will send show cause notices to taxi aggregators on the complaints of not refunding the overcharged amount even after accepting their mistakes and adding the refund amount to wallets or issuing coupons rather than paying back the amount to the customer.
Over 25 new global capability centres (GCCs) in the retail/CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry are looking to set up their tech centres in 2021, tapping into the matured ecosystem of talent and global operating models, a Nasscom and ANSR report said. ANSR establishes and operates GCCs in India.
Following cases of suicide over alleged harassment by recovery agents of entities that provided loan over mobile apps, the RBI has cautioned against such loans and has asked aggrieved NBFC borrowers to file complaints on its portal.
Covid could not dampen the consumer spirit for long. Sales of everything from cars and SUVs to two-wheelers, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, mobile phones and laptops have rebounded strongly after the zero volumes recorded in April. In categories such as luxury cars and large-screen TVs, dealers even ran out of stocks.
Infosys crossed $70 billion in market capitalisation for the first-time in its 39-year history after its ADR ran up by 5% at Tuesday’s close on the NYSE. At close of trading on Wednesday, Infosys had a market capitalization of Rs 5.3 lakh crore, the fifth largest company by market value in India. On Wednesday, the Infosys ADR was up by 0.5% during the opening hours.
Honda is phasing out the premium sedan Civic and luxury SUV, the CRV, from India as the company works out a fresh revival strategy that includes closure of production at its Greater Noida plant.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he once considered selling the electric car maker to Apple, but the iPhone maker's CEO blew off the meeting. In a tweet on Tuesday, Musk said he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook “to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for one-tenth of our current value). He refused to take the meeting.”
A “rogue” lending app, Udhaar Loan, which thrived using a name resembling another app, was taken down from Google PlayStore on Tuesday for violating the technology giant's “trademark” policies.
The lockdown had left P Sunil devastated. The 28-year-old in Telangana lost his job, took a loan and fell into a debt trap. To repay this, he took loans from different apps offering quick loans. Soon, recovery agents were after him, sending messages and calling everyone on his call list. Humiliated, Sunil died by suicide last week.
In his New Year message to 7.5 lakh employees, Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran said the coronavirus pandemic has “rewritten the rules”, “offering opportunities for renewal” and “providing a glimpse of the new economy that will emerge from the old”.
Insurers are upselling health insurance to customers by skewing their pricing in favour of high-value policies. A Rs 1 crore health insurance cover is available for as low as Rs 18,000 for a 30-year-old. As a result, a third of all health insurance premiums is now coming from the sale of high-value policies.
The government on Tuesday invited bids to sell its 63.75% stake in Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) to a private investor, in a key asset sale that was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A reduced inventory with car dealers due to maintenance shutdowns by auto companies has resulted in little or no discounts this December. Traditionally, December is one of the best months for picking up a bargain. However, this year, incentives are down 67% in SUVs, 61% in sedans and 28% in hatchbacks.
Distribution companies (discoms) will be liable to pay compensation of up to Rs 1 lakh for resorting to wanton blackouts and will have to deliver other services such as installing a new connection, replacing or shifting a meter and changing the load within stringent timelines under first-ever service rules and consumer rights for the power sector announced by the Centre on Monday.
Wipro has extended work from home for its employees till Sunday, April 4, next year. Wipro told TOI on Monday that this was done keeping the safety and wellbeing of employees in mind. "As of now, nearly 98% of our employees are working from home,” it said. Wipro has 1.8 lakh employees.
India plans to set tough financial targets for state-run firms to try to improve their valuations ahead of a push by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to privatize some companies, according to a draft government document and sources.
Merchant payments startup BharatPe and financial services firm Centrum Group have submitted a joint expression of interest (EoI) to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take over scam-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, a source aware of the matter said.
With India’s elderly population expected to triple from 104 million in 2011 to 300 million by 2050, accounting for 18% of the total population, the government is exploring ways to promote the idea of “silver economy” by developing residential and infrastructure facilities of different grades for seniors through public-private partnership for a dignified and safe aging experience.
An Indian factory damaged by violence this month was a new facility with limited production and so there will be limited financial impact, Taiwanese Apple Inc supplier Wistron Corp, which runs the plant, said late on Sunday.
German sports goods manufacturer Adidas has communicated to its employees in India about the possible sale of its subsidiary Reebok. The announcement has sent ripples of uncertainty through local ranks of the world’s second-largest sportswear company, especially at a time when retail jobs are at a premium due to the huge number of store closures and loss of revenue during the pandemic.
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