1.Govt to File Rs 400 cr Suit Against Nestle - TOI
The government is set to drag Nestle India to the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission over the next few days, seeking damages for alleged unfair trade practices and misleading advertisement related to Maggi.
After discussing it for weeks, consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday cleared the proposal , although his ministry is still debating the quantum of damages to be sought, sources said.A section within department has estimated the damages at over Rs 400 crore but the exact amount would be known when the complaint is filed. It would be a first of its kind complaint which the government will take up on behalf of consumers.
On June 6, the food safety regulator had asked Nestle to recall Maggi from shop shelves, citing lab tests in some states that showed high level of lead as well as misleading labelling on the presence of MSG. The ban has been challenged by Nestle in court and many have described it as a step that could deter investors.
2.Rahul Yadav in Funding Talks with Paytm Owner - TOI
Rahul Yadav, former CEO of Housing.com, who is also known as the bad boy of Indian startups, might be chilling in Ladakh but the 26-year-old is also busy with investment talks for his new venture - so far kept under wraps.
According to sources, Yadav is in early-stage talks with Paytm founder Vijay Sekhar Sharma for possible investment in his new venture. The quirky CEO, who was fired by investors of Housing, is seeking investment from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, an investor in Paytm. A meeting is expected to take place in the national capital this week. The quantum of funds Yadav is seeking is not finalised yet.
“Despite Housing fiasco, there is a lot of interest in him and his ideas. It’s in early stages and most of the details are yet to be worked out based upon the outcome of meetings,” a person close to the development added. Yadav’s new venture could be similar to his last venture. But, it could not be independently verified by TOI. When contacted, Yadav said it’s just a courtesy call meeting but did not clarify if funds for his new venture were also on the cards. Sharma did not comment over the matter.
3.Car Sales Zoom 17 % in July - Hindu
Car sales in India grew sharply by 17.47 per cent in July, helped by new launches and a lower base of last year. This is the ninth consecutive month of growth for the segment. However, motorcycle sales continued to decline owing to the lack of demand in rural areas.
“We have seen a fairly good growth in the passenger vehicle industry and in the heavy commercial vehicle industry. Within the passenger vehicle segment, cars grew by a sharp 17.47 per cent. Medium and heavy commercial vehicles have also seen a decent growth,” Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) director-general Vishnu Mathur said.
The growth in the segment is driven by market leader Maruti Suzuki, besides Hyundai and Honda which launched new products during the month.
Domestic passenger car sales in July stood at 1,62,022 units against 1,37,922 in the same month last year, according to the data released by the SIAM.
This is also an improvement from the 1.53 per cent growth in June, at 1,62,677 units, from 1,60,232 units in June 2014.
4.United States Food and Drug Administration Clears Nestle’s Maggi - ET
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared Nestle’s two-minute snack Maggi noodles late on Monday night, the seventh country to do so, even as national food regulator Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has refused to give a clean chit to the noodles brand for sale in India.
“We have learnt from our official importer in the United States, House of Spices, that the US FDA has tested several shipments of Maggi noodles from India for lead content.
Finding no unsafe lead levels, FDA released the noodles for sale in the United States,” a Nestle spokesperson said. Food regulators in the UK, Singapore, Canada, Australia and New Zealand had already stated last month that they have found India-made Maggi to be safe for consumption. Maggi noodles was banned by national food regulator Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on June 5, based on allegations that Maggi noodles had excessive lead levels, mislabelling on packs which declared ‘no added MSG’, and selling Maggi oats masala noodles without product approval.
5.Why the Mid-Cap Mania Should Worry You - BS
Will it be different this time? The mid-cap index is again running ahead of the benchmark index. Whenever in the past that has happened for a long-stretch — whether in 2008 or 2010 or 2013 — the market has corrected subsequently.
To be specific, the BSE Mid-cap index has outperformed the BSE benchmark Sensex by 26.6 per cent since April last year, in its biggest and longest period of outperformance since the Mid-cap index data became available in 2005. The index has risen 58 per cent since April 2014, compared with the 25 per cent appreciation for the Sensex and 27 per cent for the National Stock Exchange’s Nifty during the period.
The current rally in Tier-II and -III stocks is much stronger than in the previous market highs, such as in late 2007, 2010 and 2013. For example, in 2007-08, the mid-cap index had outperformed the Sensex by 16.5 per cent in the run-up to the market crash of January 2008. The mid-cap index had gained 24.3 per cent in 50 trading sessions up to January 7, 2008. By comparison, the Sensex had appreciated only 5.7 per cent during the period, and the Nifty by 6.3 per cent. The Sensex made a new high the next day (January 8) and began to correct thereafter.
6.Xiaomi Ties Up With Foxconn to ‘Make in India’ - BS
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has tied up with Foxconn to start assembling phones in India, seeking to cut costs and grab a bigger slice of the world’s third-largest smartphone market. The announcement comes on the heels of a separate announcement by Foxconn to invest $5 billion in an electronics manufacturing facility.
Lack of good infrastructure and suppliers have hampered efforts to manufacture smartphones in the country, forcing most of India’s more than 100 different phone companies to obtain their products from China and Taiwan.
An assembly line in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh will, from Monday, begin rolling out Xiaomi’s first locally made smartphone, the Redmi2 Prime, company executives said.
The Indian market, which Xiaomi entered in July last year, has fast become its second-largest market as the company’s low-priced, feature-rich phones find favour with young and cost-conscious customers.
7.Air India Gets Clearance to Sell Rs 350-crore Properties - FE
Over three years after Air India’s Turnaround Plan (TAP) proposed to raise Rs 5,000 crore through the sale of properties, the national carrier has finally made some headway by getting the required clearances to sell properties worth Rs 350 crore.
Air India had recently sent a proposal to the aviation ministry, earmarking certain domestic and international properties for sale, urging the ministry to move the proposal before the Cabinet, a senior Air India official told FE.
“Till date, the airline has not been able to monetise its properties due to the various constraints like regularisation/ reinstatement of the title deeds of some of the properties. The airline has also signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with New Delhi-based National Buildings Construction (NBCC) under which it plans to monetise certain properties on a JV basis, following the models (on cost and revenue sharing) developed by NBCC,” the official added. The domestic properties identified by the airlines includes a piece of land at Coimbatore, flats at Mumbai’s Sterling Apartment complex and a parcel of land at Chennai’s Mount Road, which is expected to fetch the airline Rs 250 crore.
The carrier has also identified properties owned by the company in Mauritius, Hong Kong and Nairobi (Kenya) for monetisation, and expects to raise Rs 100 crore from the sale of these properties.
8.MFs See Surge in Stock Investments from Smaller Cities - FE
Mutual funds are seeing a surge in stock investments from the smaller cities as growing ranks of provincial retail investors help drive a two-year long rally. Many major fund houses say they are seeing the fastest growth in fund flows from areas beyond India’s 15 largest cities, while growth from more-traditional investment centres such as Mumbai has slowed.
Fund executives see more room for such growth, given investors from smaller cities account for only Rs 1.9 trillion ($29.8 billion) in mutual funds, or 15 per cent of total share assets in India. Government has long believed that attracting investors from beyond big cities such as New Delhi is vital to direct more household savings into equities, reducing traditional investor preference for property and gold.
9.RBI Net Dollar Purchase Touches $565 million in June - ET
The Reserve Bank has remained net buyer of the US currency in June with it net purchase totalling $565 million from the spot market.
The central bank bought $5.530 billion from the market, while it sold $4.965 billion in the reporting month, RBI said in monthly bulletin release today.
However, the net amount purchased in June was much lower than it did in April and May, when RBI had net purchased $5.431 billion and $2.578 billion, respectively.
June last year, the apex bank had purchased $597 million on a net basis, after it bought $3.332 billion and sold $2.735 billion in the spot market.
In 2014-15, the central bank had net purchased $54.837 billion. It had bought $124.414 billion and sold $69.577 billion in the previous fiscal.
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