China's prowess in AI is making US nervous; can it win from tech cold war?

Current Affairs

China’s growing technological prowess in areas such as artificial intelligence is making Washington very nervous. US efforts to fight back, though, could make the problem worse.

In US policy circles, suspicion of China is starting to resemble a new Red Scare. Universities are heightening scrutiny of research proposals from China and, in some cases, restricting collaboration. Chinese scientists’ visas are being delayed for conferences and exchanges. Visas for Chinese graduate students studying topics such as robotics or advanced manufacturing have been shortened to one year from five.

Last week, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston kicked out three senior researchers of Chinese ethnicity after the US National Institutes of Health said they had potentially violated disclosure and confidentiality rules. Workers at various technology companies have been charged with stealing trade secrets in recent months.

More formal rules are coming. After President Donald Trump signed the Export Control Reform Act last year, the US put in place new policies to restrict Chinese investment in American high-tech companies. It also began a process of reexamining export controls on sensitive “emerging and foundational” technologies. That process is nearly complete: The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is holding seminars over the next few months to help companies understand how to comply with the tighter restrictions.


 While the details are still murky, one thing is clear about the new rules: Like the old ones, they’ll apply not just to hardware shipped overseas, or even software and algorithms. They will cover individuals and ideas as well.The disclosure of proprietary information or controlled information to a foreign national, even within the US, triggers the need for an export review process...Read More

Uber drivers plan 12-hr protest in 6 US cities over low wages ahead of IPO

International News

Uber Technologies Inc's drivers in six US cities are planning to shut their apps for 12 hours on May 8 to protest against low wages and working conditions, two days ahead of the company's expected market debut.

Drivers in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Philadelphia and Washington DC will shut their app on the day, when a separate protest will be carried out outside Uber's head office in San Francisco, a spokeswoman for Gig Workers Rising, a campaign for gig workers, told Reuters.
About "hundreds of drivers" are likely to join the protest, with Los Angeles and San Francisco expected to see a higher concentration of people, Clarkson said on Monday.

The drivers' demands also include employee benefit plans such as health care, holiday pay and representation in Uber's management structure.

Uber expects to price its IPO on May 9 and begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange the following day, people familiar with the matter have said.

"Uber's IPO will put millions in the pockets of executives, but the drivers who provide the service that is core to the company will get nothing, " Clarkson said.

To improve relations with drivers, Uber had announced plans to offer cash bonuses to some of its most active drivers with the option to purchase shares in the company's market debut.
Uber did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

 (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

'Extremely severe cyclone' Fani headed towards Odisha: All you need to know

Current Affairs
Disaster response teams are on alert and fishermen have been advised not to sail as India braces for cyclone 'Fani', which raging in the Bay of Bengal, headed for the Odisha coast. Here are key points to know about the storm.

Fani (pronounced 'Foni)' was a 'severe cyclonic storm' Monday evening and could become an 'extremely severe cyclone' by Wednesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Wind speed in a cyclonic storm is 80-90 km per hour and can reach up to 100 kmph. In an 'extremely severe cyclonic storm', the wind speed goes up to 170-180 kmph and could touch 195 kmph.
Fani is expected to impact Odisha's southern and coastal districts. The state's 880 cyclone centres, 20 units of ODRAF (Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force), 12 units of NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) and 335 fire units have been put on alert, NDTV quoted a government officer as saying.

Cyclones and storms regularly hit Odisha's coastline. A super cyclone in 1999 killed more than 15,000 people, mostly in Odisha, and affected 20 million others. Cyclone Phailin, which hit Odisha in October 2013, killed 21 people dead.

The National Disaster Response Force and the Indian Coast Guard are coordinating with the governments of Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. The states have advised fishermen not to venture into the sea and asking those away to return to the coast.


 The India Meteorological Department has three-hour bulletins with latest forecast to states concerned. The Home Ministry is in touch with the state governments and the central agencies concerned.Cyclones are named by various warning centres for ease of communication between forecasters and the public. Fani was named by Bangladesh...Read More

Can't hide if an F-16 is shot down, says Pakistan; rejects India's claim

Current Affairs

Pakistan Army on Monday once again rejected India's claim of shooting down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet, saying one cannot hide if a plane is downed in today's age when even if a motorcycle crashes the world finds out.
India has asserted that an Indian Air Force MIG-21 shot down an American-made F-16 on February 27 during the aerial confrontation, a day after Indian fighter jets bombed a JeM terror camp in Balakot, Pakistan.
Pakistan, however, has consistently denied the Indian Air Force's claim, saying none of its aircraft was shot down during the weeks of tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries.Pakistan also claims to have shot a second Indian Air Force jet during the engagement, a claim India has dismissed.
"We downed two Indian planes in the process, the whole world saw their debris and you [India] still claimed that one of the two planes was ours and one of our own pilots died, as we had initially said that two Indian pilots had been captured, and then said that there was only one. You [India] said that we have changed our statement because one pilot was our own," Pakistan military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor told reporters in Rawalpindi.
"We got initial information through the proper channel, then on the ground, I personally found out that only one person had been captured and I sent out the correction myself. How is it that you are ready to accept one of our statement, not the other?" he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

 "We have not retaliated because we want peace [...] we asked you [India] to ask America about our F-16s' strength. In this day and age, hiding the downing of a plane is impossible. In this time, even if a motorcycle crashes the world finds out," he added...Read More

Current Affairs A journalist and a police constable were arrested on Sunday for sharing a Facebook post which claimed Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb's wife has filed a divorce suit against him, police said. Freelance journalist Saikat Talapatra has been arrested and lodged for the night at the West Agartala Police station, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Subrata Chakraborty said. The police constable was arrested after a case was registered against him for sharing the Facebook post, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Puneet Rastogi said. Details of the police constable is yet to be made available.Both of them would be produced in court on Monday. Talapatra has worked with several TV channels before starting to freelance in 2018. The two were arrested for sharing a Facebook post by one Anupam Paul, in which he claimed that Biplab Deb's wife Niti Deb has filed a divorce suit in Delhi's Tees Hazari court, officials said. A case has already been registered against Paul, who is currently on the run, they said. The chief minister has described the post as a "deep rooted conspiracy" to tarnish his image. "It is a baseless and motivated post which is in bad taste." His wife Niti Deb has also denied that she has filed any divorce suit and said, "Rumours have no mouth, only dirty, filthy and sick minds...." The state BJP had demanded that the administration take strictest action against those involved in it.

Current Affairs

A journalist and a police constable were arrested on Sunday for sharing a Facebook post which claimed Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb's wife has filed a divorce suit against him, police said.
Freelance journalist Saikat Talapatra has been arrested and lodged for the night at the West Agartala Police station, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Subrata Chakraborty said.

The police constable was arrested after a case was registered against him for sharing the Facebook post, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Puneet Rastogi said.

Details of the police constable is yet to be made available.Both of them would be produced in court on Monday.

Talapatra has worked with several TV channels before starting to freelance in 2018.
The two were arrested for sharing a Facebook post by one Anupam Paul, in which he claimed that Biplab Deb's wife Niti Deb has filed a divorce suit in Delhi's Tees Hazari court, officials said.
A case has already been registered against Paul, who is currently on the run, they said.

The chief minister has described the post as a "deep rooted conspiracy" to tarnish his image. "It is a baseless and motivated post which is in bad taste."

His wife Niti Deb has also denied that she has filed any divorce suit and said, "Rumours have no mouth, only dirty, filthy and sick minds...."


 The state BJP had demanded that the administration take strictest action against those involved in it.

Journalist, cop arrested for sharing Facebook post on Tripura CM Biplab Deb

Current Affairs

A journalist and a police constable were arrested on Sunday for sharing a Facebook post which claimed Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb's wife has filed a divorce suit against him, police said.
Freelance journalist Saikat Talapatra has been arrested and lodged for the night at the West Agartala Police station, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Subrata Chakraborty said.

The police constable was arrested after a case was registered against him for sharing the Facebook post, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Puneet Rastogi said.
Details of the police constable is yet to be made available.Both of them would be produced in court on Monday.

Talapatra has worked with several TV channels before starting to freelance in 2018.
The two were arrested for sharing a Facebook post by one Anupam Paul, in which he claimed that Biplab Deb's wife Niti Deb has filed a divorce suit in Delhi's Tees Hazari court, officials said.
A case has already been registered against Paul, who is currently on the run, they said.
The chief minister has described the post as a "deep rooted conspiracy" to tarnish his image. "It is a baseless and motivated post which is in bad taste."

His wife Niti Deb has also denied that she has filed any divorce suit and said, "Rumours have no mouth, only dirty, filthy and sick minds...."


 The state BJP had demanded that the administration take strictest action against those involved in it.

Tata Starbucks posts 30% sales growth in FY19 on store additions

Company News

Tata Starbucks, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Global Beverages and Starbucks Coffee of the US, has reported a 30 per cent top-line growth in fiscal 2018-19, driven by new stores openings and improved performance.
Tata Starbucks, which is expecting to break-even in the current fiscal, has opened 146 stores till date.
Tata Starbucks reported "double digit top-line growth -- 30 per cent for the full year, driven by new stores and improved store performance", Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL) said in an investors' presentation.
Tata Starbucks revenue for the 2018-19, is expected to be around Rs 450 crore.
TGBL said Tata Starbucks opened 30 outlets in the previous fiscal, out of which, 15 new stores were opened during the last quarter of the financial year.
The company said, it has reported profits at store level and all cities were also profitable and it has also witnessed rise in food share in overall sales.

 Starbucks entered India with the opening of its first store at Horniman Circle in Mumbai in 2012.

Shift to digitisation and e-commerce will fuel growth: Mjunction CEO

Company News

Mjunction, a 50:50 joint venture between SAIL and Tata Steel, has moved beyond its traditional strengths in commodities trade to embark on new businesses like real estate and sports solutions. It is also keen to partner Railways and its subsidiary companies to offer a platform for selling their scrap and idle assets. In this interview with Jayajit Dash, mjunction services limited's MD & CEO Vinaya Varma tells that the company eyes 40 per cent CAGR topline growth through 2023, betting on India’s e-commerce boom.

mjunction services has recently forayed into real estate vertical, auctioning commercial plots. Beyond UP, which other states are on your radar? Are you also looking at tie-ups with real estate developers?
mjunction entered the real estate sector with Uttar Pradesh Awas Vikas Parishad and currently, we are customising the platform for Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Authority (UPSIDA) where e-auctions will begin soon. After we consolidate our position in Uttar Pradesh, we will target other states.

How does mjunction intend to expand its sports solutions vertical? Beyond cricket, how do you aim to engage other popular sports?

There is a large opportunity for sports federations to bring in transparency and efficiency in several areas. We have a tie up with Sporty Solutionz to create digital solutions for cricket as well as other sports.

In the Railways sector, what bigger deals are you looking to seal? Any partnership on the cards with subsidiaries and Rail centric companies like Rites, IRCTC, IRFC or RailTel?

 mjunction has worked very closely with Railways and RITES for successful completion of projects like jungle clearance, inventorying, valuation and e-auction.

Amazon raises stakes for rivals with 1-day delivery goal after profit surge

Company News

Amazon.com Inc plans to deliver packages to members of its loyalty club Prime in just one day, instead of two days, part of a spending ramp-up that may curb near-term profits and will up the ante for retail rivals such as Walmart Inc.

Shares rose as much as 2 per cent in after-hours trade on Thursday as Amazon said faster shipping will come to customers around the world and said its profit more than doubled in the first quarter, trouncing estimates thanks to soaring demand for its cloud and ad services.
The news marks a costly challenge for competitors that will have to pour money into a logistics problem that even the king of e-commerce has yet to solve. Amazon expects to spend $800 million toward the shipping goal in the second quarter alone.

"There's a lot of error bars around this programme, especially from the cost side," Amazon's Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky told analysts on a conference call. "We (are) again, trying to take advantage of the fulfilment capacity and transportation capacity, especially with third-party partners, that we have."

While Olsavsky did not provide a concrete timeline for the program's rollout, he said, "We expect to make steady progress quickly and through the year."

US rivals Walmart and Target Corp have steadily rolled out two-day shipping, albeit on far fewer items than Amazon Prime customers can get at that speed for $119 a year in the United States. Olsavsky said the "vast majority" of Amazon's selection is available in two days, and the company has already expanded the number of goods eligible for same-day and two-hour delivery.


 "Amazon is cranking it up a notch, trying to set themselves apart," said Cathy Morrow Roberson, a former UPS analyst who founded consulting firm Logistics Trends & Insights....Read More

Game of Thrones: Piracy 'better than Emmy' for HBO as it battles Netflix

Company News

Eight years after the first season premiered, the long-awaited winter has finally come – Game of Thrones’ final season is here. The television series created by David Benioff and Daniel Brett Weiss from the books by George RR Martin has built a rich and complex multi-thread plot-knot of epic battles, of the living and the undead, of long owed-debts to be paid, and of the culmination of clan stratagems to win the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms.

But at the end of season seven in the autumn of 2017, it wasn’t the clan warfare that had us cliffhanging, but the thought of the army of undead white walkers and their zombie dragon bearing down on Westeros.

Many millions of fans are waiting breathlessly for the denouement – and it’s a legion of fans that has grown exponentially over the eight-year run. In the US, for example, the audience has grown from 2.5m viewers in the first season (2011) to an average of 10.3m during season seven, which peaked at more than 12m viewers during the season seven finale on August 27, 2017.

According to MUSO, a magazine which specialises in piracy, the first episode of season seven alone was pirated 91.74m times and the season accumulated more than a billion illegal downloads a week after it ended.

So many people viewing outside of the official channels doesn’t just suggest the incredibly large audience GoT can attract, it also demonstrates the growth in illegal downloading of television shows – 11% last year – despite the effort of the streaming technologies to kill off piracy.
Piracy has its rewards


 But this hasn’t necessarily been a problem for HBO. In 2013, the boss of Time-Warner (which owns HBO), Jeff Bewkes, declared that piracy was: “Better than an Emmy” because more people watching the show inevitably led to more people deciding to pay for subscriptions.

Homeowners in India roll up sleeves to complete their unfinished flats

Company News

Lalit Vazirani, a computer programmer from Mumbai, never reckoned on having to turn amateur property developer.

Yet here he is, a decade after putting down a deposit for an apartment near the city's airport, dealing with architects, taxes, various planning permissions and even court hearings. All because the developer behind the $50 million project has gone bust, and nobody else has stepped in to finish the work.

"We never in our wildest dreams imagined one day we would take on the functions and the role of a developer,” said Vazirani, 45, who bought the two-bedroom unit before construction started. “But fate had other plans.”

Few things illustrate the malaise in India’s property market as starkly as would-be homeowners having to dedicate untold hours to completing the flats they spent years saving up for. While no estimates exist for the number of people in Vazirani’s position, India’s property market is struggling to digest some $65 billion worth of projects in various stages of completion -- or, in many cases, non-completion.

It’s an issue with the potential to sap confidence among house buyers, further complicating developers’ attempts to claw their way out from under a mountain of debt.

Weakened Faith

So many delayed building projects have “severely weakened faith in any under-construction properties and reviving buyers’ trust is a Herculean task,” said Anuj Puri, the chairman of Anarock Property Consultants Pvt. “If buyers stop purchasing, builders will have a far more challenging time to get funds from external sources for construction.”

 Two years ago, India introduced a law with strict punishments for building delays...Read More

File your I-T return on time or you may end up in jail like this jeweller

Company News

If you have received a notice for not filing income tax returns within due date, you might want to pay heed to it. In what could probably be the first such instance, a director of Mumbai-based firm Ms Shah Time and Jewels was sentenced to jail for three months on Wednesday for not filing income tax returns within the due date for the assessment year 2014-15, according to The Times of India.

When repeated notices sent to the firm and its director Paresh C Shah did not elicit any response, the deputy commissioner of Income Tax on November 22, 2017, filed a show cause notice seeking an explanation as to why sanction for their provision should not be given under the Income Tax Act. After that also went unanswered, a complaint was filed against Shah and the firm.

The Ballard Pier magistrate court rejected Shah's defence of 'lack of knowledge' and held him and the firm guilty of deliberate non-compliance. The court observed that imprisonment under the Income Tax Act was an exceptional and extreme move and was given only when it established deliberate failure to file returns."In the present case, the accused received the notice, but no explanation was given despite repeatedly serving the notices," additional chief metropolitan magistrate R S Sarkale told TOI. He further said that the explanation given by the director was "not at all acceptable."

The maximum sentence over failure to file I-T returns is two years imprisonment. However, since Ms Shah Time and Jewels did not have a poor history in filing returns, Shah was given a minimum jail-term of three months.

Filing Income Tax returns


 It is mandatory for all registered taxpayers to file income tax returns every year, except for those who are over 80 years of age and do not have any source of income from a business or profession.

Microsoft tops $1 trillion after strong Q3 earnings, cloud growth forecast

Company News

Microsoft Corp on Wednesday briefly topped $1 trillion in value for the first time after executives predicted continued growth for its cloud computing business.

The Redmond, Washington-based company beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit and revenue, powered by an unexpected boost in Windows revenue and brisk growth in its cloud business which has reached tens of billions of dollars in sales.

Microsoft shares rose 4.4 per cent to $130.54 in late trading after the forecast issued on a conference call with investors, pushing the company ahead of Apple Inc's $980 billion market capitalisation. The companies and Amazon.com Inc have taken turns in recent months to rank as the world's most valuable US-listed company.

Microsoft's stock has gained about 23 per cent gain so far this year, after hitting a record high of $125.85 during regular trading hours.

Under Chief Executive Satya Nadella, the company has spent the past five years shifting from reliance on its once-dominant Windows operating system to selling cloud-based services.
Azure, Microsoft's flagship cloud product, competes with market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide computing power to businesses.

Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood told investors that Microsoft expects to see growth in the fiscal fourth quarter in the business divisions in charge of Azure and Office 365, an online version of its longtime productivity software.


 For the third quarter ended March 31, Azure's growth slowed slightly to 73 per cent, down from 76 per cent in the second quarter. Mike Spencer, Microsoft's head of investor relations, said the decline was roughly in line with the company's estimate...Read More

Ex Nissan boss Ghosn gets $4.5m bail, may soon walk out of detention centre

Carlos Ghosn Photographer: Keith Bedford/Bloomberg

Company News

A Japanese court granted Carlos Ghosn bail Thursday, meaning the former Nissan boss could soon walk out of his Tokyo detention centre to prepare his defence against multiple charges of financial misconduct.

The Tokyo District Court set bail at 500 million yen ($4.5 million) as the 65-year-old auto sector legend faces four charges ranging from concealing part of his salary from shareholders to syphoning off Nissan funds for his personal use.

Prosecutors are likely to appeal the court's decision, delaying his immediate release but public broadcaster NHK said he could walk out of his detention centre "as early as Thursday".
Ghosn denies all the charges, with a spokesperson for the executive saying on Monday he would "vigorously defend himself against these baseless accusations and fully expects to be vindicated".
The spokesperson said Ghosn was being detained "under cruel and unjust conditions, in violation of his human rights, in an effort by prosecutors to coerce a confession from him".

On Monday, he was hit with what experts have described as the most serious charges yet as prosecutors accused him of syphoning off $5 million of Nissan cash transferred from the company to a dealership in Oman.

He also faces two charges of deferring some $80 million of his salary and hiding this in official documents to shareholders and seeking to shift personal investment losses to the firm during the 2008 financial crisis.


 Ghosn has already been granted bail once, posting $9 million and vowing not to leave Japan and to live in a small court-appointed apartment in central Tokyo -- a far cry from his former luxury suite...Read More

Facebook beats profit estimates, sets aside $3 billion for privacy penalty

Company News

Facebook Inc on Wednesday blew past Wall Street profit estimates in the first quarter and set aside $3 billion to cover a settlement with U.S. regulators, calming investors who had worried about the outcome of a months-long federal probe.

Shares of the world's biggest online social network jumped more than 10 percent to $200.50 in after-hours trade. They have now regained much of the ground lost last year amid slowing growth and costs associated with the company's privacy scandals.

The settlement accrual, which Facebook set at $3 billion but said could rise as high as $5 billion, cut the company's net income in the first quarter to $2.43 billion, or 85 cents per share.

Excluding the charge, Facebook would have earned $1.89 a share, up from $1.69 in the year-ago quarter and easily beating analysts' average estimate of $1.63 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Total first-quarter revenue rose 26 percent to $15.1 billion from $12.0 billion last year, again beating analysts' average estimate of $15.0 billion.

"This is a strong report suggesting that advertisers still see value in Facebook's platform, as they did before the controversies and scandals erupted," said Haris Anwar, senior analyst at financial markets platform Investing.com.


 Monthly and daily users of the main Facebook app were both up 8 percent compared to last year, to 2.4 billion and 1.6 billion, respectively, in line with forecasts.Total expenses in the first quarter were $11.8 billion, including the settlement accrual, up 80 percent compared with a year ago as the company hired content moderators and invested in new security controls to make its social networks safer...Read More

Sri Lanka bombings shatter decade of peace, bring back carnage of LTTE days

International News

The Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka shattered the island nation's peace just days before it would have marked ten years since the end of a 26-year civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal shows that since 2010, no Sri Lankan civilian had been killed in a terrorist incident until Sunday -- when seven suicide bombers, originally reported to be members of the National Thowheed Jamath, perpetrated a series of blasts that ripped through three churches and luxury hotels, killing over 350 people and wounding more than 500 others. The Islamic State on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the attacks.

With this, they brought back the spectre of violence in a country that saw an estimated 100,000 people killed during the conflict with the LTTE, which was fought to the bitter end.

The political conflict between the island's majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils dates back to the early 1950s, but the civil war, which came to define the struggle between the two groups, is considered to have begun in July of 1983. In 1975, youth members of the Tamil United Front had founded the LTTE. The LTTE would go on to run a violent campaign for a separate Tamil homeland, a "Tamil Eelam", in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years, bringing with it terror tactics such as suicide bombings.

The war begins:


 On July 23, 1983, the LTTE killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers, triggering the worst-ever racial riots in Sri Lanka. An estimated 2,000 people lost their lives and Tamils faced arbitrary arrests, with many being detained for long periods without a trial. This was the start of what the Tigers called the "First Eelam War".

The massacre in Sri Lanka has opened doors for strongman Rajapaksa's return

International News

On a sunny day in Colombo some 18 months ago, more than 500 members of Sri Lanka’s political and business elite gathered along the Indian Ocean coastline to celebrate the opening of the Shangri-La Hotel.

The star-studded event, featuring both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, underscored the importance of the property beyond simply attracting more tourists: It was also a monument to Sri Lanka’s resurgence following a brutal three-decade civil war between the mostly Buddhist Sinhalese majority and predominately Hindu Tamils.

The Shangri-La was built on the old site of the army headquarters, which was shifted outside the city after former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government won a decisive victory in 2009 with tactics criticized by human-rights activists.

Sitting within walking distance of the central bank, president’s house, prime minister’s residence and a $1.4 billion China-financed port city, the hotel embodied the shift in priority from security to economic growth.

The Easter Sunday bombings that tore apart the Shangri-La, two nearby luxury hotels and three Christian churches have made security a top-of-mind concern in Colombo once again.
While Sri Lankan officials are attributing the attacks to local group National ­Thowheed Jamaath, the Islamic State has asserted responsibility, saying it had targeted Christians and citizens of "alliance countries" -- those involved in the U.S.-led military coalition against IS in Syria.


 Sirisena said he would overhaul the top posts in the country’s security services and acknowledged there were "lapses on the part of defense authorities." Since 2017, Sri Lanka had received intelligence information about the emergence of terrorist groups including some who’d received training in foreign countries, he said in a statement released late on Tuesday.

Bank jobs 2019: SBI to hire 9,000 junior associates; you can apply by May 3

Company News

India's largest government bank State Bank of India (SBI) in a public notice said it is set to recruit around 9,000 Junior Associates and that those interested can apply for the same online by May 3, 2019.

The notification states that SBI is looking forward to fill 8,904 vacancies for the appointment as Junior Associate in its customer support and sales segment in clerical cadre, adding candidates can apply for vacancies in one state only and can appear for the test only once.
Uttar Pradesh has the highest vacancies with 1197 seats following Maharashtra with 780 and Rajasthan with 600, respectively.

The candidate needs to be a graduate in any discipline from a recognised university and should be between 20 to 28 years of age.

If not SBI, various other banks have also released notifications to fill up various posts on contractual appointment.

IDBI Bank has a total of 120 vacancies for Manager, Assistant General Manager, Deputy General Manager and General Manager posts, and 40 vacancies for Chartered Accountants. The last date to apply is April 30, 2019.

Other banks such as Bank of Baroda, Central Bank of India and Allahabad Bank are also recruiting in next couple of months.


 According to Indian Express, SBI's annual report for the year 2017-18 stated that only 3,211 employees had joined the bank whereas, overall staff strength had declined by 15,672 during the year as 18,973 left due to retirement and other reasons.

Tesla's Elon Musk promises driverless 'robo taxis' by the end of next year

Company News

Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, has made plenty of bold predictions. They don’t always come true.

On Monday, Musk said the company was on the cusp of making cars that could drive themselves safely on any road. He also promised that the company would begin operating a fleet of driverless “robo taxis” by the end of next year.

“I’m very convinced,” Musk said in a presentation to analysts at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. “In the future, people will want to outlaw people driving their own cars because they’ll be unsafe” compared with autonomous vehicles. Many auto executives and analysts think Musk is being wildly optimistic and say cars that can drive themselves at all times are at least several years away. “The idea that you can have a vehicle that can make complex decisions for full self-driving is just not plausible at this point,” said Mike Ramsey, a Gartner analyst.

If Ramsey is correct, it wouldn’t be the first time Musk has gotten ahead of himself. The chief executive once forecast that Tesla would make 500,000 cars in 2018, but it produced half that many. Last summer, he said Tesla would make 10,000 Model 3 sedans a week — about twice the number currently coming off the assembly line. Musk had also promised a Model 3 for $35,000, which spurred tens of thousands of people to put down $1,000 deposits long before production had started. Tesla recently began making that car, but customers can order it only on the telephone or by visiting a store, not online, the way most customers prefer to buy its cars.


 In the presentation on Monday, Musk and other executives described the technologies that the company is developing to allow cars to drive themselves, building on the Autopilot system that it has offered for several years. He said Tesla had developed “the world’s fastest computer” for use in self-driving cars, able to conduct 144 trillion operations per second.

WhatsApp's new fingerprint feature may stop users from taking screenshots

Company News

Do you often take screenshots of your private chats on WhatsApp? As part of the company's security changes, a new authentication feature, if enabled, will prevent users from taking screenshots, according to WabetaInfo.

The Facebook-owned messaging app is reportedly testing a new fingerprint feature that would require users to scan their fingerprints to access chats. As a result, people who get a hold of your phone will not be able to send or read your private messages on WhatsApp. However, once enabled, users will no longer be able to capture screenshots.

The Android beta version 2.19.106, tested by WabetaInfo, said, "We do not know why WhatsApp decided to prevent screenshots when fingerprint is enabled."

It also provided a screenshot of an alert that read: "Fingerprint security - When enabled, fingerprint is required to open WhatsApp and conversation screenshots are blocked. You can still reply to messages from notifications and answer calls if WhatsApp is locked."

WhatsApp This screenshot shows the fingerprint update by WhatsApp
WhatsApp won't be the only one to act on this. Streaming service Netflix also prevents its users from taking screengrabs of its videos.

On the other hand, Snapchat notifies people that their stories have been grabbed.

Doodle away


 The new feature will also roll out animated stickers and doodles that will be included in WhatsApp sticker packs. Doodle UI will also users to edit photos by drawing on them or adding stickers. These stickers can also be grouped as categories such as "Favourite" so you can easily find the sticker you want to use.

Seamless passenger transfer as Emirates, SpiceJet enters code sharing deal

477896196

Company News
The passenger transfers at Dubai airport and service differentiation will not be an issue, said Dubai-based airline Emirates as it entered into a code share agreement with SpiceJet on Monday.
Emirates is the largest foreign airline operating to India and its home base, Dubai, is the largest overseas hub for Indian travellers.

Emirates and SpiceJet signed a memorandum of understanding for code shares which will allow passengers from India more travel options.

At present, Emirates operates from Terminal 3 while Spice Jet works from Terminal 1 in Dubai. Also, Emirates is a full service airline with first class and business cabins and full fledged loyalty programme while SpiceJet offers no frills and charges passengers for meals.

An Emirates spokesperson, however, said these issues will not impact passengers."There will be no change to the current transfer process between terminals at Dubai international airport. Passengers are transported via an inter terminal shuttle bus which operates between terminals every 20 minutes," Emirates said in a statement.

"It is not uncommon in codeshare partnerships to have mixed cabin itineraries and customers are not averse with this as a seamless connectivity and quicker overall journey takes priority. The codeshare partnership will enable Spicejet customers to experience Emirates’ renowned product and service," the airline added.


 Emirates said SpiceJet passengers travelling from Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Amritsar, Jaipur, Pune, Mangalore, Madurai, Kozhikode and 41 other domestic destinations that the airline operates to, will be able to access Emirates’ expansive network across the globe.

Tata Power may pull the plug on new coal power, says study

Company News

Tata Power, the country’s largest private integrated power producer, is likely to cease building new coal-based generation projects, shifting gears to renewable power sources, a study showed.

A report by the US-based Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis (IEEFA) titled ‘Tata Power: Renewables to Power Growth’ spells out the company’s long-term strategy that will see renewable energy dominate its power capacity build-out going forward.

Presently, thermal power accounts for around 70 per cent of Tata Power’s portfolio. But the current energy mix is part of the company’s long-term legacy before 2013 when renewable energy was pricier compared with competitive coal-fired power.

“The company’s plan, ‘Strategic Intent 2025’ calls for up to 70 per cent of new capacity additions to come from solar, wind and hydro through to 2025. This represents a significant departure from the accepted wisdom of just a few years ago that a major expansion of coal-fired power would be required to serve India’s growing electricity demand”, said Simon Nicholas, energy finance analyst at IEEFA.

Tata Power’s debt laden and stranded power asset at Mundra (Gujarat) is viewed as the trigger for the company to abjure fresh coal-fired capacities.

“The Mundra plant is making consistent, significant losses that are dragging back the company’s overall financial performance. Tata Power’s experience at Mundra has helped convince the company to turn away from new coal-fired power”, Nicolas said.


 Tata Power had not responded to Business Standard’s questions sent by mail till the time this report was filed.

RBI committee to peg excess capital at Rs 3 trillion, says BofAML

Economy News

A panel named by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to study its capital structure is likely to identify excess reserves of up to Rs 3 trillion, or 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML).

The view from BofAML lends itself to a debate over the RBI’s reserves, with one school of thought believing that the monetary authority holds surplus capital that can be handed over to the government and the other saying the RBI has insufficient reserves.

BofAML’s note comes as the panel led by former governor RBI Bimal Jalan prepares to submit its report in the coming weeks. While finance ministry officials have supported transfer of surplus reserves to help the government meet budget goals, a central bank-backed thinktank found that the RBI’s capital buffer that’s below the global average capital to asset ratio.

“Our stress tests throw up a range of one trillion rupees plus only from contingency reserves," Indranil Sen Gupta, chief India economist at BofAML, said in the note.

According to him, the RBI maintains higher contingency reserves as a percentage of its total book compared to its peers in Brazil, Russia and South Africa and a lower cap will release more funds.
As such, if the cap is halved to 3.25 per cent from 6.25 per cent, currently, that will release Rs 1.3 trillion, Sen Gupta added.


 Along with revaluation gains, which range from Rs 3 billion to Rs 1.8 trillion, the RBI would be in a position to transfer the excess reserves to the government, which can be used to recapitalise the country’s struggling state-run banks, he said.

Achilles heel: High oil prices to complicate India's inflation, says report

Economy News
The surging price of oil is an Achilles heel for the Indian economy, complicating its inflation, current account, fiscal balance and currency outlook, a market report by Singapore's DBS banking group has said.

"The sharp rally in oil weighed on all asset classes; USD-INR jumped to 69.87 high before closing slightly lower, while equity markets ended in red," said the report by Economist Radhika Rao and FX Strategist Philip Wee of the DBS Group Research

For bond markets, the worry is two-pronged with the concern being that high oil prices might pose a fresh risk to the fiscal math, if subsides return, by extension requiring higher borrowing, said the duo.
Also, pipeline inflation risks due to high oil prices further raise the hurdle for rate-cuts.
The Reserve Bank of India's minutes from the April meeting had already left the market divided-- some see members as keeping the door open for rate cuts on worries over growth, whilst rest see the RBI cautious over inflationary risks, said Rao and Wee.

"These themes are likely to keep 10-Year INR bond yields (generic) above 7.45% this week, with break below to be shallow," said the duo in the report.

"2028 paper tested past 7.6% yesterday (Monday) and is likely to move in the higher 7.55-7.65% band this week.


 We had noted last week that short-tenor yields (1Y-2Y) have already bounced off lows; nonetheless sharper jump in 10Y yields saw the curve return to a widening bias," the report said.

Network18's Manish Maheshwari takes over as Twitter India MD on April 29

Company News

Eight months after its last full-time India head quit Twitter, the microblogging platform said it has appointed Manish Maheshwari as Managing Director for the country.

Maheshwari joins Twitter from Network18 Digital where he was the CEO since 2016. He will report to Maya Hari, Twitter’s Vice-President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific.Twitter's ex-country director Taranjeet Singh had stepped down in September last year, and Global Head of Revenue Strategy and Operations Krish Balaji was the interim head until now.

Maheshwari will begin in his new role from April 29, and will be responsible for "driving an integrated business strategy to accelerate Twitter’s audience and revenue growth in the country, overseeing Twitter India’s teams in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. He will be based in Delhi and can be found at @manishm345 on Twitter,." the company said in a statement.

"India is one of our fastest growing audience markets for Twitter in the world and our purpose is to serve the public conversation in India. We are thrilled to have Manish join us at this important time to take our Indian business to the next level. He has a successful track record of building strong digital businesses and leading teams in India, extensive experience working at the intersection of media and technology sectors, and a deep understanding of Indian consumer trends over the past 20 years. Under his leadership, we will continue to invest in India to empower all elements of Indian society to have a public voice to be heard through Twitter," said Hari in a statement.


 Prior to Network18, Maheshwari worked at Flipkart where he headed the merchant business and seller ecosystem, txtWeb, Intuit, McKinsey and P&G. He holds an MBA with honours from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania...Read More

DCB Bank hits 52-week high post March quarter earnings

Market News

DCB Bank shares hit a 52-week high of Rs 211, up 4 per cent, on the BSE, in an otherwise weak market on Monday, after the private sector lender reported healthy earnings for the last quarter of fiscal 2018-19 (Q4FY19).

The stock was trading close to its all-time high level of Rs 213 apiece hit on June 16, 2017, on the BSE. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.67 per cent at 38,878 points at 10:49 am. The trading volumes on the counter has more than doubled with a total of 6.35 million shares exchanging hands on the BSE and NSE so far.

DCB Bank’s profit after tax rose 50 per cent to Rs 96 crore in Q4FY19, on the back of higher net interest income (NII). The bank’s net profit stood at Rs 64 crore for the same period last year. NII grew 16 per cent at Rs 99 crore against Rs 85 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

The bank’s asset quality improved sequentially, as gross and net non-performing assets (NPAs) dipped around 1 and 6 per cent QoQ, respectively. Net interest margins (NIMs) were almost flat at 3.8 per cent, though compressed 38 bps YoY. Management is confident of "retaining NIMs at current levels".

"The bank fulfilled its almost prophetic guidance of 1 per cent on return on average assets (RoAA) despite macro challenges like demonetization and GST. While loan growth disappointed in Q4FY19 (16 per cent), stable margins, improving op-lev and asset quality impressed," analysts at HDFC Securities said.


 The brokerage firm, in its results preview, had said that with its core growth engine intact, DCB Bank "has the potential to grow at faster rates."."(We anticipate) upgraded earnings by around 12/16 per cent for FY20/21E. A significant improvement in resulting efficiencies (anticipated) drives up our RoAA estimate to around 1.2 per cent by FY21E," it had said with ‘buy’ rating on the stock and target price of Rs 228 per share...Read More

FB has assembled a small army of fact-checkers for Indian polls. Too small

Election News
One of the operations most vital to Facebook Inc. at this moment is a world away from its Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters, and in more ways than one. Instead of the sprawling roof gardens and upscale cafes packed with Silicon Valley’s latest health fads, this cramped Mumbai office has worn carpets and fading walls lined with exposed electrical ducts.

This is Boom Live, one of seven tiny fact-checking firms at the heart of Facebook’s efforts to rebuild some of its credibility during India’s elections.

The world’s largest democracy represents a key proving ground for Silicon Valley’s battered disinformation amplifier. Based on the early tallies, more than 60 percent of India’s 900 million eligible voters are expected to cast ballots between now and May 19, as the center-left Congress Party tries to seize power from the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party. As in other elections around the world, paid hacks and party zealots are churning out propaganda on Facebook and the company’s WhatsApp messenger, along with Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and other ubiquitous communication channels. Together with Facebook’s automated filters, Boom’s 11 fact-checkers and its similar-size fellow contractors are the front line of the social network’s shield against this sludge.

“In a country largely driven by local and community news, we knew it was critical to have fact-checking partners who could review content across regions and languages,” Ajit Mohan, Facebook’s managing director and vice president in India, wrote in a recent company blog post. He said the assembled fact-checkers cover 8 of India’s 23 official languages and he’s looking to add more.

 The company, which declined to comment for this story, has said that fighting misinformation on its service is a top priority, and that it hands such critical responsibilities over to contractors to help it keep a better-informed watch around the world at all hours. ..Read More

Four crucial messages emerging from the Mayawati-Mulayam kiss-and-make-up

Election News

When Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav recently held a joint rally in Mainpuri in which the Bahujan Samaj Party chief appealed to the public to vote for Mulayam Singh Yadav, it created a new political frame that sough to bury the long-standing animosity between the BSP and the Samajwadi Party.

It may be recalled that the two parties fell out in response to the 'guesthouse scandal' in Lucknow 24 years ago, when the Mayawati outfit's withdrawal of support to the coalition led to the collapse of Mulayam Singh government in 1995.

But in this rally, Mayawati, seated between Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, accorded full respect to the SP patriarch when he came on the dais. The body language of the three leaders reflected good chemistry between these once political rivals. Mulayam Singh Yadav appealed to his supporters to respect Mayawati, stating that she always extended support when it was needed. Mayawati, on her part, appealed strongly to her supporters to vote for Mulayam Singh and the gathbandhan in this election, asserting that he was the real leader of the backward classes, unlike Narendra Modi, whom she called a fake backward.

What are the messages that emerged from this joint rally and what will their impact be in the 2019 elections long-term politics of Uttar Pradesh?


 The first is that Mayawati was trying hard to convince her followers to support Mulayam Singh Yadav and other candidates of the gathbandhan, most of whom are Samajwadi leaders in a region in which the third phase of polling will take place in UP. This domain is typically a Yadav bastion and is famously called ‘Yadav-Land’, although it has a sizeable population of Muslims as well. The constituencies here include Sambhal, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Badaun, Aonla, Bareilly, and Pilibhit. This is an area where the Yadavs own lands on which many Dalits work as landless labourers. It is also a region in which an emergent rural and urban Dalit middle class is lending voice to its weaker brethren...Read More

$2000 Galaxy Fold's screen broke after few days of use for some reviewers

Technology News

Samsung's new Galaxy Fold, a splashy $1,980 phone that opens into a tablet, is malfunctioning for some journalist reviewers after only a day or two of use, according to posts on social media on Wednesday.

The problem seems to be related to the unit's screen either cracking or flickering, according to Twitter posts by technology journalists from Bloomberg, The Verge and CNBC who received the phone this week for review purposes. The Galaxy Fold officially goes on sale on April 26 in the United States.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd did not respond to several requests for comment.

The South Korean company's Galaxy Fold resembles a conventional smartphone but opens like a book to reveal a second display the size of a small tablet at 7.3 inches (18.5 cm).

Although Galaxy Fold and Huawei's Mate X foldable phones are not expected to be big sellers, the new designs were hailed as framing the future of smartphones this year in a field that has seen few surprises since Apple Inc introduced the screen slab iPhone in 2007.

The problems with the new phone drew comparisons to Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 phone in 2016. Battery and design flaws in the Note 7 led to some units catching fire or exploding, forcing Samsung to recall and cancel sales of the phone. The recall wiped out nearly all of the profits in Samsung's mobile division in the third quarter of 2016.


 Reviewers of the new Galaxy Fold said they did not know what the problem was and Samsung did not provide answers.Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman tweeted: "The screen on my Galaxy Fold review unit is completely broken and unusable just two days in...Read More

JustDial data leak exposed personal details of 100 million users: IT expert

Technology News

Justdial, a company that provides local search for different services in India over voice calls and internet, suffered a data breach last week that compromised the personal details of 100 million users, according to independent cyber-security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia.

An Economic Times report on Thursday quoted Rajaharia as saying that the company has not been able to fix the breach. He told ET that the breach did not affect a newer, revamped version of the website.

In a Facebook post, the cybersecurity expert claimed that the attack put at risk data of users who called JustDial's customer care number '88888 88888'.

Inc42 quoted a senior JustDial executive on Monday as saying that the company is investigating the alledged loopholes in its database and that the company's systems are foolproof.

Rajaharia said on Wednesday that user data "including name, email, mobile number, gender, dob, address, photo, company, occupation & other details are publicly accessible" on the site.
He told Inc42 that the link between JustDial's application and database is not protected.
Data breach incidences in India were the second highest globally in 2018, according to a report by digital security firm Gemalto.


 A report by news agency IANS said on Wednesday that cyber security experts have raised alarms over an 'advanced phishing attack' on IT bellwether Wipro, saying that no organisation, regardless of its size, is immune from sophisticated cyber criminals in India. The IT giant suffered an attack on its employee database. E-commerce giant Amazon faced a data leak in December last year that exposed some sellers’ private financial information to other users.

Jet Airways timeline: How the 'Joy of Flying' airline's dreams soured

Current Affairs

Beleaguered carrier Jet Airways halted all operations on Wednesday after its lenders rejected its plea for emergency funding from the airline that was once India's largest private carrier.

The airline, known for its "The Joy of Flying" tagline, has been teetering for weeks, saddled with over $1 billion in debt.

Its lenders, led by State Bank of India (SBI), last month agreed to bail it out in a complex deal that involved the banks taking a majority stake and providing a fresh loan of $217 million, while continuing to look for a new investor. That loan never materialised, gradually crippling the 25-year old airline's operations.

Here are some major developments in Jet's story:

2018

Aug 3 - Jet denies media report it cannot fly beyond 60 days, dismisses rumours of stake sale

Aug 11 - State Bank of India (SBI) chairman says Jet's loan is on watch list. Jet says regularly paying banks.

Aug 27 - Jet posts June-quarter loss, says will inject funds, cut costs by more than 20 billion rupees ($288 million) in two years

Sept 6 - Jet says paid salaries to 84 percent of its employees after media reports that pilots warned 'non-cooperation' over salary default

Nov 5 - Media report says Indian conglomerate Tata Group aims to buy 51 percent stake in airline and merge Jet with Tata's Vistara


 Dec 5 - Jet and UAE's Etihad Airways have been holding rescue talks with Jet's bankers, sources tell Reuters..Read More

From Lok Sabha Phase-2 voting to RIL Q4 numbers, top events today

Current Affairs
Before you start your day, take a look at the major events in the country that are likely to make headlines:
Lok Sabha Phase-2 voting
Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi are among the 1,600-odd contestants in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls to be held in 95 seats Thursday across 11 states and the union territory of Puducherry.

Thirty eight of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu will go to polls besides 18 assembly constituencies. Besides Tamil Nadu, polling will also be held in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Elections will also be held in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha.

RIL FY19Q4 numbers

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries will report its March quarter earnings today. is expected to report weak refining earnings though its retail and petrochemical businesses are expected to partially offset the weakness in its March quarter results.

RBL Bank and ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company will also announce their FY19Q4 results on Thursday.

RBI Minutes of the Meeting


 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will release minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held earlier this month which led to a policy rate cut.

PE fund AION fully exits Varun Beverages, walks away with 2x returns

Company News

Nearly three-and-a-half years after it invested $90 million in Ravi Jaipuria-promoted Varun Beverages, the bottlers for beverage giant Pepsi, private equity fund AION has decided to completely exit the company.

In a block deal, AION has sold its 4.5 per cent stake in the company at Rs 850 a share, a slight premium over the stock’s closing price of Rs 844.75 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday. According to sources, this translates into a 25 per cent return on equity per year in dollar terms, or 2x returns over the holding period. The fund generated 2x on equity invested in the company. When contacted, Parth Gandhi, senior partner and managing director of AION, declined to comment on the transaction.

AION, a joint venture between Apollo Global Management and ICICI Venture, had invested $90 million in Varun Beverages — half of that in debt and half in convertible debentures.
In 2016, Varun Beverages came up with a Rs 1,100-crore initial public offering (IPO), which was subscribed 1.8 times at Rs 445 a share. After the company was listed, AION sold its stake in various tranches.

AION has so far invested in a number of Indian companies, the latest being Monett Ispat, the steel company it acquired as part of a consortium with JSW through the insolvency route, paying Rs 2457 crore for the deal. This year, it also acquired information technology (IT) and back-office operations of InterGlobe Technologies, the Rahul Bhatia company that runs IndiGo Airlines, for $230 million. In 2016, it also bought — along with partners like former Genpact chief executive Pramod Bhasin and GE commercial finance business head Anil Chawla — the commercial lending and leasing business of GE Capital for $360 million.


 Varun Beverages, the flagship company of the Ravi Jaipuria group, in February this year cemented its long-term relationship with PepsiCo.

Adani urges Australian govt to give 'a fair go' for coal mine project

Company News
Indian energy giant Adani has urged the Australian government to give its controversial coal mine project "a fair go" and indicated that the opposition party would not derail the proposed billion dollar project if it comes to power.

Gautam Adani-led Adani Group entered Australia in 2010 with the purchase of the greenfield Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland, and the Abbot Point port near Bowen in the north.

The massive coal mine in Queensland state has been a controversial topic, with the project expected to produce 2.3 billion tonnes of low-quality coal.

''All we're every asking for a fair go and to be treated like everyone else. I think at certain points, that has not been the case. We're certainly not whining about it. We just want to get on with it now. We want a fair go," Adani Mining chief executive officer Lucas Dow, told Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

He said the sort of scrutiny that the project was facing on the management plans was unprecedented.
The Adani project which still requires to clear few more approvals from the Queensland Government, including groundwater modelling, recently received the clearance from the federal government for development.

Commenting if the mine project could run any risk if the Labor Party comes to power, Dow said "I think (Federal Labor) has been crystal clear that if they are to form a government they won't be in the habit of creating sovereign risk by ripping up the existing approvals."


 He said that he was satisfied by recent assurances given by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and his Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen.

Wipro Q4 net profit rises 38%, announces Rs 10,500-crore share buyback

Company News

Wipro has largely met the Street estimates on the revenue and profit fronts for the fourth quarter of 2018-19, though the revenue growth reported by the country's third-largest IT services firm was the lowest among the top three players in the last financial year.

The company, however, gave a tepid outlook for the first quarter of FY20, citing delays in starting out new projects. The firm also announced a mega buyback plan of Rs 10,500 crore at Rs 325 a share, making it the second such repurchase consecutively.

The buyback price is 15.4 per cent higher than Tuesday's closing price on the NSE.

For the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, Wipro on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,483.5 crore, a rise of 37.7 per cent over the year-ago period.

Sequentially, it declined one per cent. For the whole fiscal, net profit was Rs 9,000 crore, a growth of 12.4 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. Gross revenues of Wipro in Q4 rose 9 per cent YoY to Rs 15,006 crore.

For the whole fiscal year, revenues stood at Rs 58,584 crore, up 7.5 per cent on a YoY basis. Unlike its two other larger peers, Wipro showed a marked improvement in its operating margin, which improved 440 basis points YoY to reach 19 per cent in the January-March quarter. The margin improvement was aided by the divestment of low margin business.


 Wipro’s IT services revenue, which accounts for more than 95 per cent of its gross revenues now, was $2.075 billion for the January-March period of FY19. "We have executed strongly in the fourth quarter with focus on quality of revenue. We see the demand environment as stable with strong deal pipeline," said Abidali Neemuchwala, CEO at Wipro...Read More

Jet's luck has finally run out: What its collapse says about India

Company News

It looks like Jet Airways Ltd.’s luck has finally run out. India’s oldest privately owned airline is on the verge of shutting down all its flights -- it already has perhaps fewer than 10 aircraft active -- because it simply doesn’t have enough working capital. It’s more than a billion dollars in debt and has lost money for the last four quarters.

On one level, you could argue that this is a good sign for India: Its institutions are holding up. State-owned banks are Jet’s biggest creditors and they seem unwilling to throw more money at the airline without a clear revival plan. This is a big change from the past, when they kept supporting one of Jet’s rivals, the ill-fated Kingfisher Airlines Ltd., long after it seemed rational to do so.

News also broke a few days ago that Jet’s founder, Naresh Goyal, was no longer bidding for the banks’ stake in the airline, perhaps because other shareholders wouldn’t play along. Too often India cash-strapped companies have managed to get their debt restructured, with state-owned banks taking a haircut while the “promoters” who control crucial amounts of equity maintain control of the company. That is an unhealthy lack of accountability and we should all be glad it doesn’t seem to be happening in this case.


 Jet has 23,000 employees and a devoted fan base, yet isn’t an easy company to love. I say its luck has run out because in the past it consistently seemed to benefit from government intervention that drove many of its full-service competitors out of the market. It’s the only survivor from the first round of private Indian airlines that started flying in the 1990s -- and, in many Indian sectors, that usually means that you’ve managed the government much better than your peers have.In the end, however, the market wins out. If you are competing against low-cost airlines that still somehow provide equivalent service in economy class -- not to mention a full-service airline, Air India Ltd., that’s state-owned and can absorb whatever losses it wants -- you can’t dodge fate forever...Read More

BMW to recall 360,000 cars in China over Takata airbags

Company News

Germany's BMW will recall 360,000 vehicles in China as part of the worldwide effort to root out defective airbags made by now-defunct Japanese supplier Takata, regulators in Beijing said.

Around 20 people have died in accidents linked to defects in Takata airbags since 2013, prompting a massive worldwide recall of at least 100 million cars from a wide range of manufacturers.
The recall will affect nearly 273,000 models built by BMW's joint venture with Chinese manufacturer Brilliance Automotive and more than 87,000 imported BMW cars, China's State Administration for Market Regulation said.

The agency said in statement posted on its website late Tuesday that a defect could cause the airbags to eject debris at passengers if deployed.

It did not mention any specific incidents caused by the BMW-installed airbags.

The China recall affects more than two dozen different BMW models built between 2000 and 2018, including several each in the i, X and M series, along with other models.

The suspect parts will be replaced for free, the notice said.Founded in 1933, Takata went out of business in 2017 because of the airbag crisis.The BMW announcement came as global carmakers were gathered for the Shanghai Auto Show amid a rare sales slump in the world's largest vehicle market.


 (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Carborundum Universal wants 20% of its revenue to come from new products

Company News

Carborundum Universal, a Murugappa Group company, is aiming at growing its new products business share to reach 20 per cent in the overall revenue over next few years. The company, which is into abrasives, industrial ceramics, electrominerals and others, is working on bringing in various new products to the market.

In CUMI, the definition of new product is those products which are developed during the year or which are developed in last three years. Once it crosses the third year, it will no longer be seen as a new product. This is a moving number. Even if the product scale up rapidly after three years, it will not be a new product for the company. At present, the new products contribute to around 8 per cent of the revenue.

"The aim is to scale up rapidly in the first three years. For instance, our electromineral product Z450 will no longer be a new product for me next year and even if it makes more revenue from then on, it will not be considered in the new product revenue. The aim is how many you bring in and how soon can you scale up," said K Srinivasan, managing director, CUMI recently.The company is working on various projects including a material into energy storage systems and working with several such systems where it is developing applications along with its partners. It is also working on a product the automobile segment, which would be used in the engines with new emission norms.

Its one of the latest product, Z450, an electromineral used for ceramic colours, refractory products for glass and steel industries, but did not grow upto its expectations considering slower pick up by customers.


 The market for Z450 has not picked up as fast as the company expected.The customers need to tweak their process a little bit to switch from the existing monoclinc zirconia to Z450 and it also needed to get tested and approved by their customers...Read More