1. RBI to Issue New Rs 10 Notes in Chocolate Brown Colour
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will shortly issue new Rs 10 notes under the Mahatma Gandhi series. The central bank has already printed around 1 billion pieces of the new Rs 10 note, according to three people familiar with the matter. With chocolate brown colour as the base, the new note will bear the picture of Konark Sun Temple.
The design received the go-ahead from the government last week, said the two of the people cited earlier. The change in design in the old Rs 10 note was last made in 2005. In August last year, RBI had introduced the new Rs 200 and Rs 50 notes under the Mahatma Gandhi series. An RBI spokesperson declined to comment.
The move to reintroduce lower denomination notes in a new design comes after the government’s move to rework the currency mix in order to combat counterfeiting and promote a less-cash economy.
(Source: Livemint)
2. Business Suffers As Mumbai Comes To A Halt
Business and trade came to a halt in India's financial capital after protests across Maharashtra by Dalit groups led to shops and offices in large parts of Mumbai remaining shut.
"There was a complete loss of business today, and half of Tuesday," said Viren Shah, president of the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association. This translates to "more than Rs 700 crore worth of business lost only from sales, excluding the overhead costs," Shah told BloombergQuint in an interaction.
Dalit groups across Maharashtra had called for a state-wide strike to protest against the violence during the bicentenary celebration of the Bhima-Koregaon battle near Pune. The incident left one person dead. The protests spread to Mumbai by Tuesday afternoon causing train services to be interrupted and roads blocked.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
3. SBI’s Base Rate Cut Is a Last Hurrah for Borrowers
A cut in lending rate is not what you expect when all signs point to interest rates rising from here on. But ironically the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), pruned its base rate by 30 basis points on Monday.
A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
SBI’s logic was that it is passing on the full benefits of lower interest rates to that set of customers who were left out in the declining interest rate period. These are borrowers that make up nearly a quarter of the lender’s loan book. To be sure, SBI had already lowered deposit rates to make this cut gentle on its net interest margin.
The base rate cut also followed several critical observations by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about the way banks calculate their base rate and even the more recent marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR).
(Source: Livemint)
4. Fresh Investments in India Plunge to a 13-Year Low as Stalled Projects Rise
New project announcements by Indian companies touched a 13-year low of Rs77,000 crore in the December quarter, the project-tracking database of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) shows.
The latest numbers suggest that the investment cycle in India is unlikely to witness a turnaround anytime soon. This means that it may take longer than expected for India’s growth engine to roar back to life. CMIE’s capital expenditure database is the most widely tracked one in India, and the data on new project announcements serves as a lead indicator for the economy.
The data shows that the value of new projects more than halved in the December quarter compared to the year-ago period. Compared to the preceding quarter, the three months ended December saw a 33% decline in the value of new project announcements. The last time project announcements reached such a low was in 2004.
(Source: Livemint)
5. India’s GDP Growth to Slip Below 7% This Fiscal, Say Experts
India’s economic growth is likely to be below 7 percent this fiscal, say experts, citing GST disruption and lingering impact of note ban. The Indian economy grew 7.1 percent in fiscal 2017, against 8 percent in FY16.
The Central Statistics Office is scheduled to release its advance estimates of national income 2017-18 on Friday.
“It is difficult for GDP to cross 7 percent this fiscal unless the base is revised downwards. The economy is expected to do well in the third and fourth quarter,” SBI Research Chief Economist Soumya Kanti Ghosh told PTI. GDP growth would be 6.5 percent on an unchanged base last year, he added.
Elaborating further, Ghosh said the growth could be higher if last year’s expansion is revised downwards because a lower base last fiscal would result in higher growth for 2017-18.
(Source: PTI)
6. India Mulls Higher Price For Crude Extracted Using Costlier Techniques
Explorers like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. stand to gain as India plans to incentivise oil producers that use costlier methods like injecting gas or liquid into fossil fuel reserves to boost output.
A draft policy released by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons suggests up to 50 percent waiver in oil cess and up to 10 percent higher wellhead price for production using enhanced oil recovery for up to 10 years. It has invited comments from stakeholders by 16 January.
The policy is aimed at helping the government meet its target to reduce oil imports by 10 percent by 2022. Imported crude contributes about 80 percent of the consumption in Asia’s second-largest economy, and rising prices widen the current account deficit besides stoking inflation.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
7. Printing of Electoral Bonds to Be Top-Secret Affair
The printing of electoral bonds will have as much secrecy as being maintained in case of currency notes as the government wants to make this system of political funding foolproof by eliminating any fake instrument coming to market.
The bonds, which will have a tenure of just 15 days, cannot be gifted to a new political party so as to ensure that new outfits are not floated overnight to launder funds, a source in the finance ministry said.
Besides, the bonds will be sold by the country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI) through its select branches, mostly in state capitals and major cities, he said.
(Soutce: PTI)
8. UDAN Gets a Boost From States, Companies
In a move that could give a boost to air carriers under the regional connectivity scheme, state governments and corporates are coming forward to underwrite flight seats for their employees.
The Uttar Pradesh government is the first to take up this initiative, its chief secretary Rajive Kumar told ET in a recent interview.
"The government has decided to underwrite a few seats for our own officers' travel. We are in talks with airlines that have won the bids for operating to airports in the state," said Kumar.
The Narendra Modi government has pushed for connecting small towns through the Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme, under which new and existing airlines fly to remote airports at rates subsidised by the government.
(Source: Economic Times)
9. Infosys CEO Salil Parekh to Get Rs 16.25 Crore in Salary
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh will be paid a fixed salary of Rs 6.5 crore and would be eligible for variable pay of Rs 9.75 crores at the end of the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the company said in a postal ballot
Parekh, who has been appointed for a 5-year term, will also receive Rs 3.25 crore in restricted stock units, Rs 13 crore in annual performance equity grants and a one-time equity grant of Rs 9.75 crore. The stock compensation will vest at different points over Parekh's term.
Former CEO Vishal Sikka, whose salary had come in for criticism from Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy, earned $6.75 million in FY17. Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala pulled in a little over $2 million.
Parekh's employment contract also comes with a non-compete clause. He will not work with named competitors for six months from the day he leaves the company and will not work with or for a client to whom he has rendered service for the last 12 months.
(Source: Economic Times)
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