FM Nirmala Sitharaman unveils Rs 102 trillion infrastructure projects for the next 5 years

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled Rs 102 trillion infrastructure projects. This includes the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor, which is under construction. The construction is expected to begin by April 2020 and the project is expected to be completed by December 2023. When completed, it will be India,s high-speed rail line. These projects will help to achieve the target of Rs 5 trillion economies by 2025.

In a press conference, she added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech spoken about investing Rs 100 trillion in infrastructure. The accounts say that out of the Rs 102 trillion projects, Rs 42.7 trillion projects are under implementation, Rs 32.7 trillion projects are at the conceptualization stage and Rs 19.1 trillion worth of projects are under development.

The infrastructure projects are spread across 22 ministries and 18 states and union territories. The government is also planning to launch National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). The estimation shows that India would need to spend 4.5 trillion on infrastructure by 2030 to sustain its growth rate. Well, planned NIP will enable more infra projects, improve ease of living, and provide equitable access to infrastructure for all making growth more inclusive. She announced that the first edition of the Annual Global Investor's Meet will be held in the second half of 2020.

2019: YEAR OF SMARTPHONE

            2019: YEAR OF SMARTPHONE

Reduce in the sale of cars and biscuits in 2019 had resulted in the economic slowdown, but smartphones bucked the trend in the market. Urban and rural users continued to buy the market demand remains high. This year smartphones had a high sales in different parts of the country, According to the Counterpoint  Research Associate director   Tarun Pathak expects  that  there is an increase of 9% of growth in the smartphone market , and it will be increased to 12 to 14% in the coming year.

Apple began making iPhone XR in India, while Salcomp committed investments to the tune of Rs2,000 crore. Salcomp - which the world's largest manufacturer and a major supplier of chargers to Apple for iPhone - has inked an agreement to take over the facility of Nokia in a special economic zone near Chennai that was closed for nearly 10 years. The facility will be made operational from March 2020, and is expected to employ about 10,000 people.

2019 saw smartphones sporting more cameras with powerful sensors, higher memory and even a folding form factor. Samsung brought to India its 'Galaxy Fold' featuring a foldable display and priced at Rs 1.65 lakh. Motorola has also introduced its foldable 'Moto Razr' though there is no clarity on its India availability.

Interestingly, there has been a significant rise in the average selling prices (ASP) of smartphones this year - rising from Rs5,000-10,000 to Rs10,000-15,000 now. As per International Data Corporation (IDC), while more than 80 per cent of the market is sub-USD 200, the USD 300-500 category has witnessed multi-fold growth with flagship devices of players like Xiaomi, Oppo and OnePlus.

Increase in the exports and imports upgrade to, expensive handsets - a trend likely to pick up pace in the coming year. The growth in smartphone adoption was further fuelled by the government's push to position the country as a global hub for manufacturing and coax Apple and other leading brands to produce and export more phones from India. Experts say that phone shipment is expected to see high single-digit to double-digit growth in India as smartphones aiding everything from shopping to banking to social media
By 2022, over 700 million people are expected to have a smartphone in India.

Air India on its last legs

Air India to shut down in June if no potential buyer

The former aviation giant, Air India has found itself on the ropes once again, after a dry spell of buyers for the debt riddled company. As per the official statement released by a senior official in the company; the struggling company might be forced to shut down by June if no buyer was to be found. Piecemeal arrangements could not shoulder the debt burden of the company for long. 

Additionally, officials also conveyed concerns regarding the requirement of more funds to restart operations for the 12 grounded narrow body planes.

The Airline currently shoulders a massive debt of 60,000 crore INR with the government still working on modalities for disinvestment. Company officials fear that the Airline would meet the same fate as Jet Airways if no potential buyer was to appear. The month of June was slated as the date of up to which, the company could be sustained.

The government had washed its hands off the Airline and had refused to provide any funds for their sustained business, essentially leaving the business to fend for itself. Thus, the company has been in dire straits after being unable to shoulder their massive debt, thereby looking towards the market for potential buyers. They had been keeping themselves afloat based off piecemeal arrangements but they will soon hit their limit by June, next year leading to the need to shut down the company if no buyer is found before the specified date.

As of FY19, Air India's net loss was estimated to be 8,556.35 crore INR.

According to government sources, the Centre had infused funds amounting to 30,520 crore INR from financial year 2011-12, till December this year.

A 30,000 crore INR financial assistance over a period of 10 years had been approved by the UPA regime back in 2011 and an additional 2,400 crore INR had been sought as a mop up fund as well in order to meet operational requirements. However, the government was only able to provide 500 crore INR from the required amount.

An official, under the condition of anonymity revealed that the need for a buyer was urgent. Although operations were being continued and managed without much issues currently, they could only sustain the Airline for a few more months at most before being forced to shut down. 

Jet Airways had been forced to shut down after 25 years of full service flights due to cash crunch and now Air India is expected to follow suit with a total debt of 60,000 crore INR of which, around half has been taken out and placed under the special purpose vehicle, Air India Assets Holding.

EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO PROSPERITY

EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO PROSPERITY

We are in the doorstep of a new decade. How far we have reached? Dr A P J Abdul Kalam had a strong vision for India- VISION 2020. Are we even near to it? It’s all a question mark. Falling jobs, embarrassing GDP figures, falling economy, economic slowdown…we don’t actually know where we are heading to. But let’s hope the best is yet to come. Let the New Year bring light to the country and its economy. At this point there is no point in commenting on CAA or NRC.

P C Mustafa- co-founder and CEO of ID foods Bangalore, believes that improved education is the key to prosperity. Kerala has grown to a socially and culturally independent and self-sufficient state in the last few decades. The Sen-sex figures resemble Kerala to any of the foreign countries of the world. Majority of the studies also proves this right. Kerala even leads in the Human Resource Development Index. This eventually makes us all proud.

It is education which stood as the backbone for the cultural and economic situations of the state. If Kerala is able to accomplish a growth in the educational sector beyond primary education by 2025, then we would be able to emerge as an educationally independent and strong state. To achieve this milestone it is very important to have a digitally connected education system in the state. This system needs to be made accessible to the poorer sections of the society also. Some stereotypes need to be broken in the implementation process also. Young and vibrant teachers should take up the responsibility to implement this. This opens up a new door to raise our state to new heights. More the education sector gets improved, more the quality of students passing out. This attracts more investment and job opportunity to the state.

Like any of the society which has a large mob with higher educational qualification, Kerala also has its strong base in the service sector but it is high time that we start focusing on the manufacturing sector also. New and improved technologies as well as innovations should take place in the fields such as coconut, rubber, coir, spices, handcrafts, tourism etc. in which we are already leaders. To catch up the competitive advantage we must adopt more changes into sectors like tourism. Kerala is exhibiting significant growth in construction, IT, retail etc. In order to sustain the growth, basic needs and support are to be provided by the government. If required some policy changes should also be made.

Kerala is still known as the Green State. Thus none of the developments should harm the nature. Extra care needs to be taken to protect the greenery of the state. Planned industrialization and development should also be permitted. Only then we would meet our 2025 goal. We must also be vigilant to the natural calamities which ate our heads in 2018 and 2019. Sustainable development in the rebuilding of the state would enhance the chances of improved energy management, Eco-tourism, waste management etc. Government should not only act as a policy maker but also act as a facilitator.

For everything in the future, education is the key. New and improved measures should be made in the education sector so as to convert it into a practical oriented system in which students are made ready to do a job without further grooming and training, which was said by Mahatma Gandhi much before.

Huawei India CEO thanks Government for its faith in the Chinese firm

          As for the Chinese firm Huawei had recently thanked the government of India for allowing all the players which would also be including the telecom equipment vendor to participate in the upcoming 5G trials. By the Governments call by allowing all the participants would be a big relief to the Giants Huawei and ZTE who were battling over a year for the allegations over the security concerns.
           Jay Chen, the CEO, Huawei India had a statement on monday "We have also read the news in media and we thank the Indian Government for their continued faith in Huawei".
           He also added in his statement that "We firmly believe that only technology innovations and high quality networks will be the key to rejuvenating the Indian telecom industry. We have our full confidence in the Modi Government to dirve 5G in India. We have our full confidence in Indian Government and industry to partner with the best technology for India's own long term benefit and also for cross industry development. Huawei is always committed for India.
           The Government of India had decided to give 5G spectrum for trials to all players. 5G trails will be done with all vendors and operators... We have taken an in-principle decision to give 5G spectrum for trials, was said by the telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to the reporters on Monday.
           The expected trials is to be held in the month of January 2020 and which will be followed by the auctions later on in the upcoming year in which the 5G spectrum will be making it's debut. Telcos have be continually urging the government to relook at the pricing of the spectrum so far but the government has not yet budged from its stance.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat named India’s first Chief of Defence Staff

Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat has been named India’s first Chief of Defence Staff CDS(Four Star General). The Union Cabinet Committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December approved the CDS Post and its charter and duties. CDS will act as the principal military adviser to the defence minister on all matters relating to tri-services. The defence minister had recently amended the rules of army, navy and air force by bringing in a new clause that allows the CDS to serve upto a maximum age of 65 years. Two days before the retirement of COAS,the defence minister amended rules of service and tenure in the Army Rules,1954. General Bipin Rawat is yet to reach the age of 62 years, he is retiring because he is completing his tenure of three years as COAS. He took over as the 27^th COAS about three years ago on Dec 31, 2016.Before being appointed as the Army Chief, Gen Bipin Rawat was tenanting the appointment of the Vice COAS of Army from Sept 01,2016. He has been awarded for gallantry with the UYSM, AVSM, YSN, SM, and VSM. Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) or tri-services chief will be able to serve till the age of 65 years.

       On India’s 2019 Independence Day, PM Narendra Modi had announced to establish a top military post that will act as principal military adviser to the defence minister and the appointed advisor would be suggesting the government on all matters related to the military.

Mumbai-Ahmadabad Tejas Express to run from 19 January.

Mumbai-Ahmadabad Tejas Express to run from 19 January.

Indian railways are going to introduce its new Tejas express on 19^th Jan 2020. It will run between Mumbai and Ahmadabad six days a week except on Thursdays. On its inaugural day , Train no 09426 will leave Ahmadabad – Mumbai central Tejas express will leave Ahmadabad at 9:30hrs and will reach Mumbai central at 16:00 hrs. Similarly in return direction, train no 09425 Mumbai central- Ahmadabad will depart from Mumbai central at 17:15 hrs and arrive Ahmadabad at 23:30. It is the second Tejas express train operated by IRCTC(Indian railway catering and tourism corporation). Bringing in private train operators to provide world class passenger service was a proposal put forward by The railways in its 100 day plan.

The Tejas express is India’s first semi high speed fully air conditioned train introduced by Indian railways. Tejas means sharp, lustre and brilliance. The first Tejas express ran on 24 may 2014 from Mumbai to Goa, it covered 552km in 8hrs 30minutes. The train is designed to run at a maximum speed of 200km/hr (120mph) but the maximum speed allowed is 130km/hr due to track safety constraints. Presently train runs at an average speed of 65km/hr.

By the statement from western railway zone of Indian railways, Tejas express will offer world class comfort and facilities to passengers. It has several modern features including air condition, sliding doors, personalized reading lights, mobile charging points, attendant call buttons, bio toilets, automatic entry and  exit doors, CCTV, reclining facility, comfortable seats etc.

IRCTC will have rights to advertise inside and outside the coaches, including branding of trains. It can also modify inside the rake without affecting the structural safety.

IRCTC will be allowed to use the railways web portal for ticketing for a year and the revenue accounts of these two trains would be maintains separately. The Railway board has instructed IRCTC to develop their own ticketing system simultaneously.  The trains will have 18 coaches each. However IRCTC can run with 12 minimum coaches for one year period. The haulage charges would be calculated per trip based on number of coaches used per trip or 12 coaches whichever is higher. IRCTC is also contemplating the sale of merchandise goods on board to its passengers on these trains. 

Indian automobile industry is hoping for a turnaround in the next year(2020)

Beaten by a never-before-seen slowdown, the Indian automobile industry is fiercely pinning hopes on the next financial year for a turnaround, banking on many new and upgraded models scheduled to make their way to the market.

The industry's hopes are also in line with expectancy that the economy would finally pop out of the slump, drawing automobile customers back to the showrooms. Yet, the challenges of transition to stricter emission norm BS 6 from BS 4 and compliance to new safety norms thereby making automobiles costlier are hiding around the sector.

With India's flagship auto show the biennial machine exhibition around the corner, the auto mobile sector is treating the show because the launching platform of revival, having been through an unusual slump, that began from the last ritual season and continued intense until date.

From two-wheelers to cars and serious duty trucks, all segments of the arena were within the red. Such has been the impact of delay that the business is predicted to shut 2019-20 with a decline of 13-17 per cent in wholesale dispatches as compared with last fiscal year.

The steep drop in sales caused operational hardships for several firms and production plans had to be re-evaluated through the year. The sector, together with dealerships and automobile parts, witnessed around 3.5 lakh individuals losing jobs due to the downturns.

Despite all difficulties, there is still hope. Business Body Society of Indian Automobile Makers (SIAM) expects things to turnaround in 2020-21.

"2020 will be an interesting year with BS 6 getting implemented and entirely new platforms being available in the market," SIAM President Rajan Wadhera told in a recent interview. The Indian economy is anticipated to revive early next year, which along with the low base of last year and availability of newer models should support growth in the auto sector," Wadhera said.

According to him, the sector is expected to start reviving from the second quarter of the next financial year but it will be visible from the third quarter of the fiscal.

"Implementation of BS 6 norms will mean clearing of all old inventory, building up new inventory and making available new BS-6 compliant vehicles in the market, which will give some upside to the production and sale," Wadhera noted.

However, with vehicle cost going up by 8-10 per cent due to technology ramp up, industry fears that it could further lead volume loss.

BSNL GETS Rs 770 CRORE FROM BBNL

BSNL gets Rs 770 crore from BBNL to clear Bharat Net Vendor dues

Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited, a state-run infrastructure firm that is setting up optical fibre network under BharatNet Project, has paid around Rs 770 crore in advance to BSNL to help the telecom firm clear dues of vendors involved in the project. The debt-ridden state-run telecom firm had requested BBNL to pay Rs 1,033 crore earlier this month to clear the dues of vendors engaged in BharatNet project. 

Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) had allocated around 70 per cent of rural broadband network roll-out work to BSNL. 

"BSNL had requested payment of Rs 1,033 crore out of which around Rs 770 crore has been cleared by BBNL," a government official told .

 BSNL had requested payment of Rs 1,033 crore from BBNL as an advance to clear the pending liabilities of UP East and MP Circles of Rs 716 crore along with telecom factory liabilities of Rs 40 crore earlier this month. 

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry telecom committee chairman Sandeep Aggarwal said that payment being released by BSNL will help in reviving thousands of vendors who had closed down their operations due to long payment overdues of more than 12 months. 

"Many vendors who were still operating had notices from their suppliers to take them to NCLT and their bankers to declare them NPA," Aggarwal said in a letter dated December 26, 2019 to BSNL CMD PK Purwar. 

He said that most of the vendors will be getting payment for invoices raised in December and some for the invoice raised in March 2019. 

FPI inflow in equity nears Rs 1 trillion in 2019,highest in six years

FPI inflow in equity nears Rs 1 trillion in 2019, highest in six years

In calendar year 2019, the net investment in Indian equities reaches nearly Rs 1 trillion mark due to pouring of investment in large-cap stocks from overseas investors. It is high when compared to previous six years. In this year, foreign portfolio investors pumped in a net Rs 99,966 crores ($14.2 billion). The inflow during the year is highest since calendar year 13, when they made a net investment of Rs 1.1 trillion nearly 20.1 billion  in equities.

There is sufficient growth in FPI due to rises in India’s total market cap to 155 trillion. In the fourth quarter of calendar year 19, FPI positioned faith in India by putting Rs 43,781 crore in October and December after pulling out 11,463 crores in Indian equities during the third quarter of calendar year 19 from the equity market.

The latest report by BNP Paribas reveals the total flows in six major Asian regions such as India, Philippines,Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia at $24 billion at the end of November 2019,compared to an outflow of  $16.7 billion in 2018.

From the third quarters of calendar year 19 foreign flows into Asian countries were positive consistently .Among these India was the first ($12.8 billion),second was Taiwan($9.1 billion)and Indonesia was the third($2.9 billion). Manishi Raychaudhari, head of equity research said that some factors such as continued rate cuts  and newly begun quantitative easing by the US Federal reserve, and ongoing liquidity expansion by other front line central banks are the catalyst for the revival in FII flows.

The impact of FPIs inflows was also reflected in the benchmark indices such as S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty 50.S&P BSE Sensex was raised up to 15 per cent and nifty 50 was raised up to 12 per cent and register double digit returns in calendar year 19 and it shows the second best performance when compared to past 5 calendar years.

In earlier years the S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty had rallied 28 per cent and 29 per cent respectively. During the calendar year 2019, mutual funds were pumped in 52,850 crores in equities and various securities .Among these  ICICI Bank, kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel, was at an all-time high level at the end on September quarter and the market price of these shares were appreciate between 21 per cent and 56 per cent during the year.

Reliance Retail to swap their units with RIL

           

Reliance Retail to swap their units with RIL shares

        Reliance Industries Limited has offered the shareholders of its subsidiary and unlisted units to Reliance Retail to swap their units with RIL shares . Reliance Retail shareholders will get one share of Reliance Industries Limited against four reliance retail shares as per the agreement. The company’s shares are not listed on any stock exchange. The swap ratio values the retail business at Rs 2.5 lakh crores.

The scheme will be applicable to Reliance Retail employees, who were allotted shares, under various employee stock option plans. This arrangement will help enhance liquidity as employees will own shares that can be traded on a stock exchange.

     

          Reliance Retail has grown to become India’s largest retailer delivering superior value to its customers, suppliers and shareholders. Reliance Retail has emerged as India’s largest retailer, driven by strong growth in fashion and consumer electronics. Also, the company has been planning a new commerce venture , an offline to online initiative to take on rivals like Amazon and Walmart  which would link producers, traders ,small merchants, brands and consumers through technology. It has been working on its new commerce plan for nearly two years. Currently, it operates neighborhood stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, wholesale, speciality  and online stores. Reliance Retail is having 10,901 stores across the country and it is India’s largest chain of neighborhood supermarket stores and consumer electronics stores besides being the top wholesale supplier to small shopkeepers.

       The scheme also enables the shareholders to continue to participate in the growth of the retail business, as  since the company is an indirect subsidiary of Reliance Industries .

"Since, the scheme does not contemplate any outflow of funds/assets of the Company, the aggregate of ‘equity and other equity’ of the company pre and post-implementation of the scheme will remain the same and unaltered," Reliance Industries Limited” told.

9000 cr rupees for smart classrooms' in govt school

HRD ministry are making a target of 3 lakh smart classroom by 2023. And each classroom cost 2.4 lakh. Central government are planning to switch the blackboard classroom system to digital board classrooms in the government schools across the country. And they are trying to make this happen very fastly. They has been estimated about 9000 cr rupees for creating two smart classrooms in government schools and govt aided schools all over the country. And they claim that this will happen within next seven year. 

                The UHRD ministry made a target for creating 3 lakh smart classroom in 2023. Also rupees 60k will be spend on maintaining the digital classrooms every year. The EFC note on this scheme will provide two smart class room for senior secondry and secondry govt school which have 1.1lakh govt, 43k govt aided, and 1700 kendriya and navodhaya vidhyalayas. 

The draft also says they provide non-recurring cost of display screen which will cost 2.4 lakh and recurring cost 3 lakh for 5 years. One senior official in the school education and literacy department said there will be an expert committee will take place for look after the smooth distribution and availability of quality E-content and strong monitoring mechanism for using the hardware and E-book content. 

The sharing pattern in the expense in the central and state govt school will be 60:40 except the hilly and north eastern state it will like 10:90. They will make a provision to set up central command unit at NCERT and there will be a state command unit at SCERT to monitor the usage of E-content in government schools. 

CREDIT GROWTH NPA REDUCTION

CREDIT GROWTH, NPA REDUCTION TO DEPEND ON PACE OF ECONOMIC REVIVAL

       On Tuesday, RBI had announced that that the Indian banks are getting a better control over the their bad debt situation and NBFC are expected to regain their niche after this turbulent one year but, there will be further reduction in bad debts and credit growth depending upon how fast the economy recovers from the slowdown, that is the banks, and non-banks are decreasing their credit to commercial sectors and increases the specter of default in the retail loans.

                          As per the RBI report, the credit to the commercial sector had decreased by Rs 52,971 crore during April-September from an expansion of Rs 3.66 trillion in the same period a year ago and the risk of the retail segment had not decreased. As a result of bank orienting the lending toward the relatively stress-free retails there was a slowdown in the private consumption and imposed limits to the growth strategy even as the possibility of default among retail segments rises as growth slow down. But this weakening growth impulses and a depressed credit off-take, along with an irregular credit default and incident frauds. The Evolution of macroeconomic scenario had resulted in the loss of pace in the domestic activity and the difficulty in the challenges of risk aversion had turned credit demand even as corporation deleverage their own stressed balance sheets and this was taking hold at the time when the recent improvements in asset quality and the capital adequacy ratio of the PSBs were being shored up through the recapitalization by the government. Even after having an effective bankruptcy code in the environment, the overhang of the NPAs remains and further improvements in the banking sector hinge around a reversal in macro-economy.

    The banking system gross NPA ratio declined after 7 years from 11.2 % in March last year to 9.1 % in this year and the sector became profitable in the 1^st half of 2018-19 owing to lower provisioning. The recovery had also improved in the year due to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

The RBI welcomed the decision of merging PSBs, stating that this can really transform the face of the banking sector. Indian banks can the potential to become global banking leaders through the emergence of stronger, well capitalize bank aided by cutting edge technology and state of the art payment system. However, the recapitalization of the PSBs remains an unfinished agenda. The capital needed by the bank was not only to meet the regulating minimum but to guard against balance sheet stress as well as to improve their valuation methodologies, credit monitoring and risk management strategies to build resilience. While the private banks had taken the space vacated by the risk averse public sector banks, the fault lines are becoming evident in the corporate governance of the private banking industry. Bank lending to NBFCs remained strong because of the policy initiative, but banks must focus on risk pricing to avoid building up excessive risk. The balance sheet size of the NBFC sector was roughly 18.6 % of that of the banks. This resulted in the stress after IL and FS crisis, the government and RBI had taken measures to put and end or diminish the investors apprehension and aid NBFCs to perform better.

      In the present days the RBI will continue to maintain a constant vigil over NBFCs and will take necessary steps to attain the stability. The urban corporate banks are suffering from a low capital base, weak corporate governance, frauds, new technology and inadequate system of checks and balances.

Indian startups laying off employees fearing a tougher financial year ahead

Startups in India like Oyo, Ola and Quikr has started cutting jobs inorder to reduce costs predicting to have a harder financial year in 2020.

Quikr had already laid off one third of its employees over the last few weeks and even shutdown its beauty services business ATHomeDiva. Oyo is likely to drop 250 to 500 jobs as a part of its restructuring ,claiming that they had over 9000 employees in August. It has been reported earlier that Ola is expected to cut about 15%-20% of its workforce in the coming months. The Indian e-commerce payment system has fired about 500 employees according to an online news portal Entrackr, whereas another source says that these workers where on contract basis.

According to Quikr Spokesperson, its because of their cross-category model they will get a good idea on the comparative economics of different categories where they operate. The decision is made on this view so as to have a change in market offerings and this resulted in job rationalization.

It is because of the major global expansion on the last two years Oyo laid off some of its employees for reorganizing the company. They are also likely to replace some of its employees by giving them opportunity to attend a performance improvement programme. The three players Oya, Ola and Paytm  backed by SoftBank has raised a huge amount as capital this year. The Indian Hotel Chain Oyo has raised its capital over 1$1.5 billion in October. On the other hand Paytm gathered $1billion last month. Ola has also raised around $400-$500 million this year in multiple portion from investors including Hyundai and Flipkart.

Even several well-funded startups have stopped hiring individuals as the overall funding environment seems cautious. Investors said that there is a huge fall for big budget startups , a US based real estate company WeWork had a fall from $47 billion to $8 billion. Many companies are also coming up with new methods and instead of giving out a lump sum one time joining bonus they are shifting to one off payment based on individual and company performance. In this stabilizing environment they said they are seeing a conversion as the candidates are giving more importance to work rather than the CTC alone. Narayanan R Thammaiah, the chief people officer at Accel Partners said companies will still pay a premium and joining bonuses for certain designations and skills like digital market or product managers. But some companies like Paytm and Lime Road said they have always avoided paying joining bonuses. Others like  Knowlarity, Car Dekho and Urban Clap said they will be giving joining bonuses in extremely rare cases.

HINDUJA GROUP STILL INTERESTED IN JET AIRWAYS AFTER APPROACH BY GOVT, BANKS; RESOLUTION PROFESSIONAL INVITES FRESH EOI FOR DEFUNCT AIRLINE.

HINDUJA GROUP STILL INTERESTED IN JET AIRWAYS AFTER APPROACH BY GOVT, BANKS; RESOLUTION PROFESSIONAL INVITES FRESH EOI FOR DEFUNCT AIRLINE.

The London based Hinduja group has keen interest towards the defunct airline Jet airways. Gopichand. P, co-chairman of Hinduja group said that many government authorities and bank had approached them for the survival of this airways. As they are having good relations in Middle East and Gulf they took initiative to support and help them.

On Sunday Ashish Chhawchharia, Jet-airways resolution professional invited Expression of Interests (EOI)  from new parties. The committee of creditors already voted in favor.  The last date for the submission of EOI will be on January 6 and the resolution list will be declared on January 9.  

 South America's Synergy Group wants more time for due diligence  and The Committee of Creditors (COC) enquired for the extension of corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of Jet Airways. Bhaskara Pantula, Mohan and Rajesh Sharma approved for the extension till 180 days. On Thursday, Synergy Group Jet Airways had sought more time to take a decision on investing in grounded Airline. They wanted to ensure that whether they are taking writing decision or not as there is risk involved in investing in a  grounded airline. A representative of Synergy group said that they are able to understand the urgency of the issue , but until and unless they discuss with the stakeholders they cant arrive at a concluded decision.  He also added that he sees a bright future in Jet Airways when some of the issues can be resolved.

The criteria's are first of all they should be free from all the legal liabilities Jet Airways had, secondly there should be an Indian Partner, and finally they expect getting back Jet’s airport slots, especially for the domestic slot.

The NCLT asked the Committee of Creditors of Jet Airways to expedite their decision to float EOI and the resolution professional requested for 3 weeks time.   The Government had allotted hundreds of airport slots owned by Jet Airways to other carriers when they busted in mid of April.

The cash – strapped company was the first airliner which undergone bankruptcy, when the petition filed by State Bank of India (SBI) on behalf of 26 lenders on 20^th June was admitted by NCLT.

The total liability of airline is almost 15000 crores  including unpaid salaries and vendor dues. Lenders to Jet Airways are seeking for suitable investors to recover from dues.

RIL mounts counter to govt. petition seeking to block its $15 billion Aramco deal

Reliance Industries (RIL) has given a strong counter to the government petition in the Delhi High Court (HC) asking to block its $15-billion deal with Saudi Aramco, it said that the petition is an abuse of process as a arbitration award was fixed, that gave the final liability of dues on the company. RIL said in a counter affidavit that it was a ‘falsehood’ saying that arbitration tribunal had passed an award requiring the company and its partners to pay $3.5 billion to the government. It also said the petition was an abuse of process as it shows that a sum of money is due and payable under the final award and falsely shows to be calculated. It also said that the government has calculated on its own volition the revised figure of its share of profit from oil and gas production, supposedly due by extending the application of the false finds.

The affidavit came in response after the government moved to Delhi HC, seeking to block RIL selling a 20 per cent stake in its oil-and-chemicals business to Saudi Aramco for $15 billion, because of dues of $3.5 billion in the Panna-Mukta and Tapti oil and gas fields.

An international arbitration tribunal already issued a partial award in October 2016 in the dispute between the Government of India (GoI), BG Exploration & Production India (BG), and RIL regarding the Panna-Mukta and Tapti production sharing contracts (PSCs). It in 2016 found certain issues of principle.

Since there were pending determination of all issues before it, the arbitration tribunal did not award any monetary sums. Amounts are decided only when the decisions are settled.

Some parts of the 2016 award was challenged by BG/RIL before an English court and the court decided that some parts of challenge are in favour of BG/RIL and directed the arbitration tribunal to reconsider those parts of the 2016 award. The tribunal, after reconsidering, issued another partial award in December 2018 in favour of BG/RIL. Even though some decisions were pending in the English court, the government unilaterally calculated certain amounts, based on its 2016 award, which the government CLAIMS are payable by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), BG, and RIL. RIL said in accordance to the 2018 award, the government’s claim comes down very significantly especially when government has not taken notice of and approached the Delhi HC prematurely for enforcement of its claim which was calculated based on its interpretation of the 2016 award. The government has challenged the 2018 award and the English court is yet to pronounce its judgment.One of the most important issues pending before the tribunal is an increase in the cost recovery limit under the PSC. The arbitration tribunal is scheduled to hear BG/RIL’s application for increase of PSC cost recovery limit next year. If the tribunal decides in favour of BG/RIL, then the government’s calculated sum is expected to come down.

Final amounts payable, if any, by ONGC 40 per cent, BG 30 per cent, and RIL 30 per cent can only be determined by the arbitration tribunal in the quantification phase of the arbitration which will be scheduled after it has decided on all the issues before it.

ONGC, which was directed by GoI in 2011 not to partake in the arbitration proceedings but be under the restriction by the award, wrote to the stock exchanges in May 2018 stating that the government’s demand is premature. RIL said that the 2016 award which was corrected by the 2018 award, cannot be said to be final and any attempts to enforce the 2016 award are premature.

SBI NEFT Facility : Key things to know

                         State Bank Of India (SBI) is the country's largest lender.It offers National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) for its customers for the transfer of money.People can transfer funds on public holidays by using this method.State Bank Of India had postponded the charges on NEFT and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS).It can be done by mobile banking , net banking etc.In case if a person is not having a bank account,he can transfer fund by visiting NEFT enabled branch.The NEFT is enabled on a 24*7 basis.It means that anyone can transfer funds at any point of time of the day.Earlier it was available for customers from 8 am to 7 pm on all working days with exception of second and fourth saturday of a month and sunday.If there is any problem in the transfer of money (in case of failed transfer ) the money will be returned to the account within 2 hours.No service charge is levied on NEFT transactions.


National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT)

                     NEFT is an electronic fund transfer system maintained by the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI).The transfer of fund in the NEFT system does not occur in real time basis.There is no limit - either minimum or maximum - on the amount of funds that could be transfered using NEFT.In September 2019 , 216.71 million NEFT transactions were made.At present NEFT facilities are available at 1,48,477 branches of 216 banks.


How to use SBI NEFT service

1. Log on to www.onlinesbi.com using Internet Banking and Password.Go to the Profile tab and click on the Manage Beneficiary link.

2. Select Inter Bank Payee from the options provided.Select 'ADD' option and provide the Beneficiary Name,Beneficiary account number , address and Inter-Bank Transfer limit in the relevant field.

3. Enter the IFSC code of the beneficiary bank branch.

4. Accept the Terms and Conditions.

5. A high security password is sent to the mobile number registered.Enter the password to authorize the beneficiary.

6. The Beneficiary is activated.To remit funds through NEFT select the 'Transfer/Transfer' tab.

7. Select the transaction type.The list of beneficiary  account is added and displayed.

8. Enter the amount and select the beneficiary to be credited  from the list.Click  on 'accept terms of service' and confirm.



           NEFT will help people in easy transfer of funds at any point of time.