QBiz: ISRO’s Appeal to Space Industry; Pound Falls Amid EU Polls

All the top business stories of the day.

Pound falls after early results of EU referendum. (Photo: iStockphoto)

1. Modi Government to Focus on Job Growth Ahead of UP Polls

Ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly Polls, Modinomics is focused on creating more jobs.

Prior to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sweeping victory in 2014, he promised jobs for the youth several times in the pre-elections campaigns. With Uttar Pradesh elections only a few months away, it’s time to reiterate those promises.

The discontent among Modi’s Hindu nationalist vote bank seems to be rising over the slow pace of job creation since the past two years.

Despite Modi’s high popularity, the indicators provide a grim picture of India’s employment sector.

Fixing and reviving the economy should not be held back at the expense of fears of inflation, especially when the world is in the biggest supply-side deflation of a generation.

<b>Nikhil Bhatnagar, Senior Vice President, Auerbach Grayson</b>

Read more on The Quint.

2. ISRO Asks Aerospace Industry to Step Up Their Game

The Indian aerospace industry should enhance its capacity to meet the growing demand for space-based services, India’s space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Thursday.

Lauding the industry for participating in realising various subsystems, Kiran Kumar said end-to-end realisation of spacecraft had not yet been realised.

Almost all the government departments and ministries had evinced keen interest in applying space technology for carrying out their mandates.

<b>AS Kirna Kumar, Chairman, ISRO</b>

Kumar reminded the industry delegates about the country’s great potential to capture a sizeable portion of the business in the international space market.

Read more on The Quint.

3. Flipkart to Get Tough With its Sellers: Livemint

India’s largest e-commerce firm, Flipkart Ltd, has considered changing its policy towards the third-party sellers on its platform. According to Livemint, the online firm will be charging higher commission rates in key categories, passing on costs of product returns to sellers and encouraging them to use its logistics service, as part of an effort to improve its customer service and brand.

The company has over 90,000 sellers. Earlier in June, Flipkart had told sellers that it will charge higher commissions and will bear no charge if a customer returns the product.

Flipkart also reduced the return time for customers on smartphones and some other categories from 30 days to 10 days.

4. TPG Capital to Buy ICICI Home Finance: Livemint

India’s largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank Ltd is ready to sell its mortgage lending unit. According to Livemint report, American private equity firm, TGP Capital has agreed to buy the ICICI Home Finance Co Ltd for Rs 2100 Crore.

The deal is expected to be closed in the next 3-4 weeks. Talks between the two parties had earlier stalled because of differences over valuation. The sale process has been on for almost a year now.

Several other banks have also been trying to monetise their housing finance units.

5. India Embraces LTE Tech as 4G Buzz Gets Louder: BS

When 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) handsets were first launched in the Indian market in 2014, the response was not great as the mobile brands did not have devices to match over 5,00,000 segments.

However, the trend seems to have changed now. According to Business Standard, latest data from technology research firm CyberMedia Research shows two-thirds of smartphones shipped in India during January-March 2016 were enabled with 4G technology against 10 percent in the same quarter a year ago.

A growing buzz over launches and expansion of next generation telecom services are the major drivers for 4G handset sales. The entry of new players like Le Eco, Vivo and One Plus with 4G handsets at affordable prices has also provided easy choices to smartphone users.

The result is the adoption of the LTE technology is faster than the transition from 2G to 3G.

6. Pound Falls as Early Results Show Marginal Lead to ‘Brexit’

As early results of EU referendum have started surfacing, Pound Sterling has taken a hit. The Pound saw a rise of almost one percent on a single day as it strengthened by $1.50, seeming to favour the “Remain” camp.

However, once more results started to come in, it was clear that this is going to be a see-saw battle and the market started panicking. As of now, Pound has fallen by 4.86 percent.

This is the biggest fall Pound has seen since 2008 financial crises and Black Wednesday in 1992.

Read more on The Quint.

7. FDI in Aviation Sector Likely From the Gulf

The government is expecting a big leg-up for foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows from West Asia in aviation following the liberalisation of investment norms and the announcement of a new aviation policy.

According to a Livemint report, it will mean a big infusion of money into the capital-starved domestic aviation sector, stimulating competition and kick-starting the investment cycle in the economy.

The government’s bet is that the new regime incentivises investments in India by foreign carriers. Earlier, the foreign carriers had to lobby and obtain more liberal bilateral flying rights – which the government has implicitly ruled out.

The new FDI policy now allows foreigners to own 100 percent in airlines – only the investment by a foreign airline is capped at 49 percent and the balance can be made up by foreign investors such as sovereign wealth funds.

8. Samsung, Apple Market Leaders for Smartphone Category in India: ET

Samsung has maintained its domination across the smartphone market in India in 2015. According to an Economic Times report, Samsung had 44 percent market share in the high-end smartphone category.

Apple came a distant second with a market share of 27.3 percent. However, the new entrant OnePlus managed to grab 6 percent of the market share. On the other hand, Sony, HTC and LG lost huge chunk of premium smartphone market share.

According to Cyber Media Research, 2016 will continue to be a good year for premium smartphone as the market is expected to witness an incremental share gain.

9. For Stable Economy, Public Sector Banks Need to Be Fixed: Montek Singh Ahluwalia

Banking sector stress in India has emerged as one of the critical risks which could jeopardise growth. The former deputy chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia thinks that it is a good reason to worry.

The problem was revealed by the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) asset quality review, which showed that assets that should have been classified as non-performing were not being recognized as such. Experience from around the world suggests that when such problems are discovered, they must be dealt with promptly rather than covered up. This was done and the banks have started recognising non-performing loans and making provisions for them. This has led to large losses in 2015-16. Public sector banks (excluding the State Bank of India) reported a loss of Rs.29,115 crore, a huge reversal from the profit of Rs.19,569 crore in 2014-15. The erring banks would have to recognise the non-performing assets (NPAs) and make full provisions and if, as a result, their capital base shrank, they would have to shrink lending to stay within the capital adequacy norms.

<b>Montek Singh Ahluwali for <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/6PayP8o5mU7UbQnNelkRpK/Fixing-public-sector-banks.html"><i>Livemint</i></a></b>