1. Indian IT Industry to Hire Over 1 Lakh People in 2018
The Indian IT industry is expected grow at 8 percent to $167 billion and hire over 1 lakh people this year 2018, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday, 11 May.
"President NASSCOM @debjani_ghosh_ met me. We discussed issues pertaining to IT industry of India. She informed me that Indian IT industry is set to grow at 8% to $167 Billion in 2018 offering direct jobs to 3.97 million people, which is an addition of 105,000 employees over 2017," Prasad said on social media platform Twitter.
According to software services industry body Nasscom, the exports would be $137 billion in 2018-19 as against $126 billion in 2017-18.
The industry is expecting to add one lakh jobs in 2018-19. The overall IT-BPO industry size would be adding $14-16 billion.
(Source: The Economic Times)
2. Banks Still Averse to Lend to Gems and Jewellery Players: SBI
The banking sector is still averse to lend to the gems and jewellery sector which recently saw the biggest fraud in the nation’s financial history, a top SBI official said.
In February, state-run Punjab National Bank had reported a fraud of over Rs 13,000 crore, allegedly committed by billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in connivance with some of their officials using fake letters of undertaking and letters of comfort.
The second largest public sector bank had detected fraudulent transactions at its Brady House branch in south Mumbai for several years from 2011.
“Unfortunately, the higher risk perception, which has been created over the past months has lead to a situation where it is very much under question that whether we should lend (to the gems and jewellery sector). And if, at all, we lend, then at what price we should lend,” State Bank managing director Dinesh Khara said at an industry event.
(Source: Financial Express)
3. Andhra Bank Files Insolvency Proceedings Against Sterling Biotech
Andhra Bank has approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against Gujarat-based pharmaceutical firm Sterling Biotech Ltd to recover about Rs 5,400 crore.
On Friday, 11 May, Shyam Kapadia, representing the joint lender forum (JLF) led by Andhra Bank, argued that the company is still running and hence they have decided to go ahead with the insolvency proceedings.
“The company owes more than Rs 4,000 crore to the banks, while the entire Sterling Group, which has other business interests as well, owes over Rs 5,000 crore to banks,” he said.
The advocate argued that the promoters have fled the country. The enforcement directorate (ED) is also conducting an investigation in the matter where the bank has alleged that the company had taken loans of more than Rs 5,000 crore from the consortium fraudulently and the same became non-performing assets. The company’s default stands at over Rs 5,400 crore as on December 2016.
(Source: Livemint)
4. Ravi Venkatesan Resigns as Independent Director of Infosys
Infosys Ltd independent director Ravi Venkatesan has resigned from the board with immediate effect. Venkatesan plans to pursue an “exciting new opportunity,” said the company in an exchange filing.
“I joined the board at a time when Infosys was beginning the complex journey of transitioning from founder-led to professional management. This was also a time of tectonic industry shifts. I am pleased that this mission has been accomplished. Infosys is strong, in good hands, and gaining momentum,” Venkatesan said.
An independent director since 2011, Venkatesan also served briefly as co-chairman before successfully transitioning this responsibility when Nandan Nilekani became the chairman in August 2017.
India’s second largest IT exporter had seen protracted stand-off between its founders led by NR Narayana Murthy and the previous management over issues of corporate governance and compensation to former executives. The tussle had led to the sudden resignation of the then Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka last year.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
5. Battle for Fortis Likely to Drag
The takeover saga at Fortis Healthcare is far from over. A day after the Fortis board chose, after a 15-hour long deliberation, the fund infusion offer from the Hero Enterprise-Burman Family Office for the healthcare chain, other bidders in the fray have not laid down their weapons.
The Manipal-TPG combine and Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare expressed their disappointment with the board’s choice, and indicated they would wait for the shareholders’ decision now. Meanwhile, Fortis director Brian Tempest spoke to the media on Friday, 11 May, explaining the rationale behind the board’s choice — ‘certainty of the offer and liquidity flowing into the company.’
It was unlikely to be smooth sailing for Sunil Munjal of Hero Enterprise and Anand and Mohit Burman of Dabur even after they received the board’s recommendation, because shareholders would try to extract value out of their investments, analysts said. They also ruled out the immediate possibility of a hostile takeover, because that would mean putting money upfront.
(Source: Business Standard)
6. Govt Departments Earmark Rs 16,500 Cr for Swachh Bharat Mission
A sum of Rs 16,500 crore has been earmarked by 71 ministries and departments of the central government for implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in 2018-19.
The amount is over and above the budget of ministries in-charge of sanitation in the country, ie the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation for Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban).
The Swachhata Action Plan (SAP) 2018-19 was launched by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha at a meeting of Union secretaries and senior officials. The SAP Compendium 2018-19 was also released on this occasion.
“The Committee of Secretaries led by the cabinet secretary today reviewed the implementation of SAP 2017-18 by Union ministries/departments. During last year, the ministries had allocated over Rs 18,000 crore. At the review meeting, the cabinet secretary underlined that efforts under SAP needed to be sustained by the respective ministries,” an official statement said.
(Source: Financial Express)
7. New Jio Postpaid Plan Rattles Airtel, Idea Shares
Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd fell sharply on Friday, 11 May, a day after rival Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd unveiled a new postpaid plan that analysts said was likely to hurt incumbent telecom firms’ business.
Airtel shares fell as much as 7.53 percent on the BSE during the day before closing at Rs 385.70 each, down 6.44 percent. Idea’s shares dropped as much as 12.94 percent during the day and ended down 11.83 percent at Rs 51.45 each. The BSE Telecom index fell 4.75 percent, while the benchmark Sensex closed at 35,535.79 points, up 0.82 percent.
Reliance Jio on Thursday, 10 May, unveiled a new postpaid plan that offers unlimited domestic voice calls and 25 GB of data, as well as international calling at Rs 0.50 per minute, for Rs 199 a month. That’s about half the cost of comparable offers from other, older telcos, Jefferies India Pvt Ltd said in a 10 May note.
(Source: Livemint)
8. SpiceJet’s Profit Misses Estimates In March Quarter As Fuel Costs Rise
SpiceJet Ltd’s profit missed analyst estimates on account of a rise in fuel costs in the quarter ended March.
Net profit rose 9.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 46 crore in the quarter ended March, SpiceJet said in its filing to the stock exchanges. That’s much lower than Rs 78.6 crore estimated by analysts Bloomberg tracks. The bottom line took a hit due to an over 31 percent surge in aviation turbine fuel prices as crude prices rallied. However, the airline managed to report the thirteenth successive quarter of profit.
Revenue increased 25 percent to Rs 2,029.4 crore as compared with the same quarter last year. The top line was aided by an 8 percent increase in passenger yields – the revenue per available seat kilometer– and record domestic load factor of 95.4 percent in the quarter. These two factors offset a significant rise in fuel costs.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
9. Industrial Production Slips to 5-Month Low of 4.4% in March
After growing at more than 7 percent for four straight months, the growth rate for the country's industrial production might fall below that level in March, according to experts.
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had in February grown at 7.1 percent, driven mainly by strong manufacturing growth, compared with 7.4 percent in January. But growth estimates have reduced since.
Growth in the combined output of the economy's eight core sectors, which make up about 40 percent of total industrial production, slowed in March to 4.1 percent. Core sector growth had been consistently going down, being 5.3 percent in February and 6.1 percent in January.
(Source: Business Standard)
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