1. Cisco To ‘Make In India’ Early 2017, To Make India Its Next Export Hub
US based technology giant Cisco will commence its manufacturing operations in Pune early next year as part of its efforts to scale up operations in India and eventually make the country an export hub for its products.
India is the 12th country, joining nations like the US, Mexico, China, Brazil and Malaysia, to house Cisco's manufacturing facilities.
While the company did not disclose the investment details and number of jobs that will be created, it said the move will help further drive its strategy of having a presence across development, sales and now manufacturing in India.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
2. Renault's Runaway India Success Kwid Runs into a Recall Bump
French car maker Renault's best-selling small car Kwid hit a speed bump on Wednesday when the company announced a recall of more than half the cars sold in India so far.
The recall will affect 50,000 Kwids produced till 18 May 2016, Renault said in a statement. It added that it is carrying out a “pre-emptive and voluntary inspection“ of Kwid 800cc vehicles and will add a fuel hose clip and check the fuel system. The affected cars will be inspected without any cost to customers and changes will be carried out if required, Renault added.
The recall is the biggest so far in India by the French firm. The recall could slow down Renault's charge against the dominance of Maruti Suzuki's Alto.
(Source: The Economic Times)
3. Rosneft Deal: Ruia Stake in Essar Oil may Fall Below 10%
Billionaire brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia are likely to end up owning less than 10% of their flagship Essar Oil refinery after selling a controlling stake to Russian energy giant Rosneft PJSC and a smaller one to global commodities trader Trafigura Group Pte, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
While Rosneft will acquire a 49% stake from the Ruia family , Trafigura will buy 24% of the company at an equity valuation of around $6 billion. Essar Oil also has $4.5 billion of debt.
Another financial investor is likely to come on board for a 15-20% stake, eventually leaving the Essar group promoters owning just about 5-8% or even less, as per the sources mentioned above.
(Source: The Economic Times)
4. Defence Contracts Worth Rs 50,000 Crore On The Anvil: Defence Minister Parrikar
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday said he expects another Rs 50,000-60,000 crore worth of defence contracts to be signed during the remaining quarters of the financial year, taking the total orders to Rs 3 lakh crore (or Rs 3 trillion) since he took charge two years ago.
“Recently, we signed a letter of intent with a government-run shipyard for about Rs 32,000 crore, taking the total orders to Rs 2.5 lakh crore,” the minister told reporters.
Answering a question on the impact of the manufacturing push with private participation in the defence space, he said exports have jumped over six times to Rs 3,000 crore from Rs 500 crore in the past two years alone.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
5. India Holds the Key to Suzuki-Toyota Tie-Up
India could play a key role in making or breaking the proposed research and development partnership between Toyota Motor Corp and Suzuki Motor Corp that the two companies announced on Wednesday.
India is the only country in the world where Suzuki dominates Toyota. The latter’s Indian arm, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd, has a 4.6 percent share of the market, while Maruti Suzuki India Ltd holds 47 percent.
Developing low-cost hybrid technology for the growing Indian market will be a crucial element in the proposed partnership between Toyota and Suzuki, according to officials at Suzuki’s Indian unit.
6. Uber Invests Rs 200 Crore in Xchange Leasing
Ride-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc has significantly stepped up investment in car-leasing company Xchange Leasing India Pvt Ltd, pumping Rs 200 crore into the company between June and September.
In a market where maintaining a steady and exclusive supply of drivers is hard to come by, aggressive expansion of the leasing entity is likely to help Uber not only boost supply of cars but also keep drivers locked into its platform and not lose them to home-grown rival Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd).
The flurry of investments in the leasing company comes in less than three months of Uber selling its China business to local rival Didi Chuxing.
7. RIL’s Energy Business Cash Flow To Offset Outgo On Spectrum: S&P
S&P Global Ratings said its rating on Reliance Industries is unaffected as the company's energy projects will soon start generating cash flows and offset the impact of outgo because of a large spectrum purchase.
S&P said RIL's spending of Rs 13,700 crore on the spectrum purchase was much higher than anticipated and reflects focus on meeting growth in data with adequate capacity and also the strong subscriber response to the launch of its Jio service in September 2016.
The rating on Reliance Industries is unaffected by the company's large spectrum purchase, S&P Global Ratings said in a statement.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
8. India at the Core of Schneider's Global Manufacturing Plans
France’s Schneider Electric SE said Wednesday that India will be at the core of its next-generation solar inverter plans, and manufacture for the global market.
“What we do in this field is led for the world from India. So, there are inverters for the home, inverters for the micro-grid, inverters for solar. We are launching our next-generation solar inverters on a very large scale. That will be manufactured in Bengaluru and exported all over the world,” Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Schneider’s global chairman and chief executive officer, said in an interview.
Schneider specializes in energy management and automation solutions, spanning hardware, software and services, and its India unit already exports 50% of its produce every year.
(Source: Livemint)
9. Parmeshwar Godrej Owned Just 4 Shares in Group Firms
Parmeshwar Godrej was among the most recognisable faces of the locks-to-soaps giant Godrej group, but she had little or no shareholding in her family's listed firms at the time of her death. The wife of group chairman Adi Godrej did not own a single share in Godrej Industries and Godrej Properties. In the third group firm, Godrej Consumer Products, she owned just four shares.
Though the latest shareholding pattern of Godrej Industriesmentioned her among promoter group shareholders, there are no shares against her name.
Godrej Properties doesn't count her among the promoter shareholders, though she had a long association with the latter as a non-executive director since 1989.
(Source: Business Standard)
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