SpiceJet plane goes past runway, Air India jet veers off taxiway on landing

Company News

A SpiceJet plane Sunday overshot the runway while landing at the Surat Airport, while an Air India Express flight had a narrow escape when the aircraft that arrived from Dubai veered off the taxiway after landing at Mangaluru Internatioal Airport.
None of the passengers and crew members on board were hurt in the incident, an airport official at Surat airport said.The incident at Surat, which occurred around 8.15 pm, was a result of heavy rain and wind, the official said.
"A SpiceJet flight from Bhopal to Surat overshot runway at the airport here due to heavy rainfall and wind. All the 43 passengers and four crew members are safe and they are being handled by the SpiceJet officials," Surat airport director S K Panigrahi said.
The airport operations were suspended for the night following the incident, and three flights were diverted to Ahmedabad airport, he said.
Air India Express veers off taxiway on landing
As many as 183 passengers aboard an Air India Express flight had a narrow escape when the aircraft that arrived from Dubai veered off the taxiway after landing at Mangaluru Internatioal Airport on Sunday.
All passengers and crew members on board are safe, Air India Express said in a statement.The incident happened at around 5.40 pm after the aircraft landed at the airport."AI Express aircraft VT-AYA, operating IX 384, Dubai to Mangalore on June 30, after landing on runway 24 while vacating the runway to the right side has gone off the taxiway into soft ground," the airlines said.

Read our full coverage on SpiceJet

New railway timetable from today: Trains, new timings, routes, and more

Company News

The Indian Railways is going to implement its new timetable from July 1, it said on Sunday.
Northern Railway (NR) has reshuffled the timings of around 267 trains, it said, adding that the new timetable would come into effect from Monday.
The zone has introduced two new Tejas Express trains on the New Delhi-Chandigarh-New Delhi and the New Delhi-Lucknow-New Delhi routes.
It has extended the journey of four trains -- the Dehradun-New Delhi Nanda Devi Express up to Kota Junction, the Aligarh-Moradabad passenger up to Gajraula, the Ambala-Amb Andaura DEMU up to Daulatpur Chowk and the New Delhi-Ludhiana Shatabdi Express up to Lohian Khas.
NR has also increased the frequency of the Allahabad-New Delhi-Allahabad Humsafar Express from tri-weekly to four days a week and decreased the frequency of the New Delhi-Ludhiana-New Delhi Shatabdi Express from five days to two days a week.
The zone has also changed the departure timings of 148 trains. While the departure timings of 93 trains have been pre-poned, those of 55 trains have been postponed.

 The arrival timings of 118 trains have been changed -- while for 57 trains, the timings have been pre-poned, those of 61 trains have been postponed.

Working on long-term options to settle the matter, says Godrej group

Company News

A day after the Godrej family appointed advisors to help untangle its land holdings in Mumbai, the $4.5-billion group said it was working on long-term options to settle the matter.
In a joint statement issued on Thursday, Godrej group Chairman Adi Godrej and Godrej & Boyce Chairman Jamshyd Godrej said they had sought advice from external advisors to help them think through these options.
“We have been working on a long-term strategy plan for the group for several years. As part of this exercise, we have sought advice from external partners,” the statement said.
While Jamshyd Godrej has hired veteran investment banker Nimesh Kampani of JM Financial and lawyer Zia Mody of AZB Partners to help in the reorganisation of the land holdings, cousins Adi and Nadir (chairman, Godrej Agrovet) have hired banker Uday Kotak and Cyril Shroff of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to assist in the exercise.
At the heart of the disagreement is a 1,000-acre land parcel, part of the 3,400 acres owned by the family in Vikhroli, a northeastern suburb of Mumbai.
This land parcel can be developed into real estate worth up to Rs 1,00,000 crore — taking into account the per square feet price in Godrej’s Vikhroli complex.
The land parcel was acquired by the Godrej family in early 1940s from the Bombay High Court receiver.It was originally given by the East India Company to a Parsi merchant, Framjee Banaji, in 1830s and came up for sale in 1941-42.

 The Godrej family then bought the adjoining land from nearby landowners. It is now owned by unlisted Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company.

Lemon Tree Hotels will divest 49% stake in 2 years, says Patanjali Keswani

Company News

Lemon Tree Hotels, which has been in a capital deployment phase to expand operations and create assets, will start scouting for buyers to divest minority stake after fiscal 2021-22, Patanjali Keswani, chairman and managing director, Lemon Tree, has said. The move will be a change in tack for the New Delhi-based company that has been investing in assets.
“We have been in a capital deployment cycle. We had to deploy $800 million (Rs 5,524 crore). Most of it is done. After investing the reminder $120 million over the next two years, am going to find partners who can buy 49 per cent, we will have 51 per cent,” said Keswani. The move, he said, will help unlock over a billion dollar of capital for the company over the next two to three years. “Why carry in your balance sheet a high level of risk that is linked to the assets? Just get rid of it,” he said.
To be sure, most of the hotels in India, including the Indian ones that traditionally owned assets, have embarked upon an asset light model for a faster growth and quicker returns. Lemon Tree is likely to announce a deal with Keys Hotels in the next two weeks, he said. The mid-market hospitality chain had signed a non-binding term sheet with the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Holdings, which owns two, three, and four star hotels under Keys Prima, Keys Select, and Keys Select. Keys Hotels owns and manages 21 hotels with 1,911 rooms in 19 cities in India.
If the deal goes through, it will be the first acquisition of a hotel chain by Keswnani-led hospitality firm that currently has a portfolio of 56 hotels (5,525 rooms) with another 31 hotels (3,275 rooms) in the pipeline likely to be added by calendar year 2021.

 chart The Warburg Pincus-backed company, which raised Rs 1,038 crore in March 2018, had then said it had plans to add 3,000 hotel rooms over the next three years. The company has been expanding its footprint at a brisk pace over the past 12 months.

Govt's new move to revive discoms: Install 300 mn smart meters in 3 years

Company News

India is considering a plan to install smart meters in every home and business as part of its ongoing effort to turn around the country’s ailing power sector, according to officials with knowledge of the situation.The plan under consideration would require 300 million smart meters over three years, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. The federal power ministry has begun discussions with manufacturers on supplying the meters, which improve efficiency by monitoring and transmitting power use data.
As part of the plan, the federal government is mulling providing subsidies to partially cover the costs, one of the officials said. Preliminary estimates by the government put the cost for the meters at about Rs 2,000 ($29) apiece, or $8.7 billion in total, according to one of the officials. That’s partly based on an expectation that prices would be lower than a smaller government tender for 5 million smart meters in 2017 at Rs 2,503.
The power ministry wasn’t immediately able to respond to requests for comment.Widespread use of smart meters could be a gamechanger for ailing Indian distribution utilities. These distributors lose nearly one-fifth of their revenue through various technical and commercial reasons including power theft or inefficient billing and collecting, according to the power ministry.
Their poor financial health prevents them from supplying uninterrupted power countrywide, which is needed to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s power-for-all goal. Other efforts to revive the distributors and spread access to power include promoting energy-efficient LED lighting, solar-power irrigation pumps and using insulated wiring to prevent theft.

 Some efforts to help have been slow achieving intended results. For instance, the combined losses of state distributors participating in a federal aid plan jumped 62% to about Rs 240 billion in the first nine months of the fiscal year to March.

G20 summit: Modi, Trump, Abe meet, discuss Indo-Pacific, infra development

Company News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held a "productive" trilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump and Japanese premier Shinzo Abe, and extensively discussed issues of the Indo-Pacific region, connectivity and infrastructure development ahead of the formal opening of the G-20 Summit here.
It was the second Japan-America-India (JAI) meeting.The discussion focused on how the three countries can together work together towards an open, stable and rule-based Indo-Pacific region.
During the Japan-America-India trilateral meeting, Modi highlighted "the importance India attaches to" the grouping.
The main topic of discussion was Indo-Pacific, how the three countries can work together in terms of connectivity, infrastructure, ensuring peace and security, and working together to build upon this new concept, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said.
"Committed to a better future. Meeting of JAI (Japan-America-India) Trilateral takes place in Osaka. PM @AbeShinzo welcomes the leaders. @POTUS congratulates Prime Ministers Modi and Abe for their electoral victories. PM Modi highlights the importance India attaches to JAI," the prime minister's office tweeted.
"Today's meeting of the JAI Trilateral was a productive one. We had extensive discussions on the Indo-Pacific region, improving connectivity and infrastructure development. Grateful to PM @AbeShinzo and President @realDonaldTrump for sharing their views as well," Modi tweeted later.

 "2nd 'JAI' - Japan-America-India Trilateral Meeting between PM @narendramodi, Japanese PM @AbeShinzo & POTUS @realDonaldTrump on margins of #G20 Summit.

Cox & Kings shares have declined 26% since credit rating downgrade

Company News
Shares of tour operator Cox & Kings have slipped 26 per cent since Friday, following a credit rating downgrade which highlighted delays in debt reduction and increase in receivables.
The stock declined 9.9 per cent on Wednesday to close at Rs 45 on the BSE after Brickwork Ratings downgraded rating of the company’s Rs 50-crore non-convertible debentures or NCDs, while retaining its commercial paper rating for Rs 2,060 crore.
On June 17, CARE Ratings had downgraded its rating. On a year-to-date basis, the stock is down 73 per cent.
Cox & Kings, which runs tours and hotels business in India and overseas, has been downsizing its operations since the last few years to pare debt.
Last October, the company sold its education tour business in Europe to Midlothian Capital Partners for an enterprise valuation of Rs 4,380 crore and used the proceeds for debt reduction.
Cox & Kings shares decline 26% following credit rating downgrade
However, lower-than-anticipated debt reduction and increase in receivables have worried investors. An industry source said Cox & Kings has been delaying salaries to its employees for the last few months. The firm’s suppliers, too, have become cautious on extending credit to the firm over fears of default.

 “Total debt of Cox & Kings in FY19 stood at Rs 3,238 crore, against Rs 4,014 crore in FY18. Sale of the education business has enabled the company to reduce debt to a certain extent. The firm has envisaged another monetisation of an overseas asset by the end of calendar year 2019 to pare debt. Timely asset sale and consequent reduction in debt will remain a key rating monitorable,” CARE Ratings said in its report, downgrading the company debt.

Govt sources refute Trump's claim, says India's tariffs are not that high

Company News

India's taxes are not unreasonably high contrasted with other creating nations, government sources told Reuters on Thursday, responding to United States President Donald Trump's call to pull back what he said were high levies.
Prior Trump tweeted that he anticipated gathering Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in Japan, however said that for a considerable length of time India had put "high duties against the United States". Including: "This is unsatisfactory and the duties must be pulled back!" This month, India slapped higher duties on 28 US items in counter for Washington's withdrawal this long stretch of tax unhindered commerce for certain Indian merchandise.
India's duties are in accordance with the World Trade Organization administers, the administration sources stated, including that US levies a few things were a lot higher than India's.
"I look forward to speaking with Prime Minister Modi about the fact that India, for years having put very high tariffs against the United States, just recently increased the tariffs even further," Trump said on Twitter. "This is unacceptable and the tariffs must be withdrawn!" said Trump, who will meet Modi at this week's G20 summit in Japan.
Trump's remarks could further worsen a trade row that has led to tit-for-tat tariffs from India and the United States and created an unease over the depth of their security alliance.

 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in New Delhi on Wednesday, sought to reduce heightened trade tension with India, promising a renewed focus on negotiating better ties, but giving few specifics of how they would overcome disputes over trade and investment.Trade between the United States and India stood at about $142.1 billion in 2018.

Coca-Cola in talks to pick stake in Cafe Coffee Day after pocketing Costa

Company News

The world's largest beverage company, Coca-Cola, has begun preliminary talks for a substantial stake buy in Cafe Coffee Day 10 months after it acquired UK-based Costa Coffee for $5.1 billion. The discussion with the Bengaluru-based company, promoted by VG Siddhartha, who exited information technology firm Mindtree earlier this year, is being led by the Atlanta office of the beverage major, persons in the know said.
T Krishnakumar, president and chief executive officer, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, is currently in Atlanta and is involved in the negotiation, it is learnt. A Coca-Cola India spokesperson said the news about a possible acquisition was speculative in nature and that the company had no comment to offer at this stage. Cafe Coffee Day too declined to comment.
Coca-Cola has been looking to make inroads into the Rs 2,500-crore domestic coffee retail market in line with its global strategy of diversifying into non-carbonated drinks. While the Costa Coffee acquisition last year was intended to help the company do just that, an impediment has been the franchise agreement that Costa’s previous owner Whitbread had with billionaire-bottler Ravi Jaipuria in India.
Coca-Cola in talks to pick stake in Cafe Coffee Day after pocketing Costa
Jaipuria’s Devyani International continues to run around 50 stores of Costa Coffee in the country, unable to work out a deal with Coca-Cola for his exit out of the franchise agreement. Jaipuria was not immediately available for comments on the matter.

 For Cafe Coffee Day, an acquisition by Coca-Cola will mean much-needed funds to reduce the debt on the books of parent Coffee Day Enterprises. Cafe Coffee Day is owned by Coffee Day Global, a subsidiary of Coffee Day Enterprises.As on March 31, 2019, Coffee Day Enterprises' total debt stood at Rs 6,547 crore, two-and-a-half times its networth of Rs 2,529 crore. Its market capitalisation after Wednesday’s closing price stood at Rs 4,732 crore.

Godrej family hires top law firms to untangle land holdings worth Rs 20k-cr

Company News

The Godrej family, one of the biggest land owners in Mumbai, has appointed advisors and top law firms to untangle its land holdings. The 1,000-acre land bank at Vikhroli, which can be developed, is worth Rs 20,000 crore at the prevailing rate of Rs 20 crore per acre in the area, according to real estate experts.
While Godrej & Boyce chairman Jamshyd Godrej has hired veteran investment banker Nimesh Kampani of JM Financial and lawyer Zia Mody of AZB Partners to help in the re-organisation of the land holdings, cousins Adi (chairman, Godrej group) and Nadir (chairman, Godrej Agrovet) have hired banker Uday Kotak and Cyril Shroff of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, said a source close to the development.
The Godrej group owns 3,400 acres in Vikhroli, a northeastern suburb of Mumbai. Of this, about 1,000 acres can be developed. Another 1,750 acres has mangroves and will not be developed because of environment concerns, Adi Godrej had promised in 2011.
Another 300 acres of land has been encroached upon.
The land parcel can be developed into real estate worth up to Rs 100,000 crore — taking into account the per square feet price in Godrej’s Vikhroli complex.
Godrej family members did not respond to queries. Spokespersons of Kotak Mahindra Bank and JM Financial also did not respond, while law firms Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB Partners declined to comment.

 The group companies from both sides also have minority stakes in each other and have representations on each other’s boards.The Godrej group was set up by Ardeshir Godrej in 1897 who started his journey by selling locks along with his brother Pirojsha.

Robots on track to wipe out a tenth of manufacturing jobs by 2030: Report

Technology News

Robots are on track to wipe out almost a tenth of the world’s manufacturing jobs with the brunt borne by lower-income areas in developed nations, Oxford Economics says.
While automation should boost the economy as a whole, it is likely to create greater inequality as employment losses are concentrated in certain industries and countries. Manufacturing could lose 20 million positions by 2030, making the sector 8.5% smaller than “if robots were not remaking the market,” according to the research firm’s report.
Job Losses Per Robot
The pockets of workers most vulnerable to automation can often be found in rural areas with a traditional, labor-intensive industrial base, Oxford Economics said. Oregon is the U.S. state most likely to be affected, while the worst-hit region in the U.K. is likely to be Cumbria.
“In many countries, such regions have often been left behind as metropolitan centers prospered, and those dynamics have generated political polarization. This highlights the importance of taking policy action to cushion the likely impact of robotization in these vulnerable areas.”-- “How Robots Change the World” by Oxford Economics

 The report highlights how the structural shift in the labor market is throwing up new challenges as an increasing array of tasks are automated. It says more than half of U.S. factory workers displaced by robots over the past two decades were absorbed into three employment categories -- transport, construction and maintenance, and office and administration work. Yet those categories are the most vulnerable to automation over the next decade.The IMF has also highlighted the risk of rising inequality, and the OECD said last year that geography was a key factor because of the clustering of certain industries.

Soon, drink-driving may cost you a fine of up to Rs 10,000

Company News

Soon, drink-driving may cost you a fine of up to Rs 10,000. The government is planning to bring changes in the Motor Vehicle Act to introduce stiffer penalty for driving under the influence of alcohol. Moreover, a stringent penalty will be introduced for traffic violators. According to the Times of India, the government will introduce the bill in the Parliament in the coming weeks.
Changes in the Motor Vehicle Act

• Rs 10,000 fine for drink-driving
• Penalty for blocking the way of emergency vehicles, including ambulance, fire brigade and PCRs
• Violators of licensing rules would be penalised with fines of up to Rs 1 lakh.
• Guardians or owners shall be deemed guilty for offences committed by juveniles. These offences would attract a penalty of Rs 25,000 along with three years imprisonment.
• Victims of hit-and-run cases would now be compensated for up to Rs 10 lakh in case of road accident fatalities.

Amendments in the Motor Vehicle Act was passed by the previous Lok Sabha and subsequently lapsed due to the dissolution of the House.

 As Business Standard reported earlier, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will reintroduce in Parliament a bill that reforms driving rules in India without changing the “spirit” of a lapsed legislation.

In 'climate apartheid', rich will save themselves while poor suffer: UN

Company News

The world is on course for “climate apartheid”, where the rich buy their way out of the worst effects of global warming while the poor bear the brunt, a UN human rights report said on Tuesday.
The report, submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by its special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, said business was supposed to play a vital role in coping with climate change, but could not be relied on to look after the poor.
“An over-reliance on the private sector could lead to a climate apartheid scenario in which the wealthy pay to escape overheating, hunger, and conflict, while the rest of the world is left to suffer,” he wrote.
He cited vulnerable New Yorkers being stranded without power or healthcare when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, while “the Goldman Sachs headquarters was protected by tens of thousands of its own sandbags and power from its generator”.
Relying exclusively on the private sector to protect against extreme weather and rising seas “would almost guarantee massive human rights violations, with the wealthy catered to and the poorest left behind”, he wrote.
“Even under the best-case scenario, hundreds of millions will face food insecurity, forced migration, disease, and death.”
His report criticized governments for doing little more than sending officials to conferences to make “sombre speeches”, even though scientists and climate activists have been ringing alarm bells since the 1970s.

 “Thirty years of conventions appear to have done very little. From Toronto to Noordwijk to Rio to Kyoto to Paris, the language has been remarkably similar as States continue to kick the can down the road,” Alston wrote.

From trade to Russia arms deals, Pompeo faces thorny issues on India visit

Company News

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived on Tuesday for talks with Indian leaders in New Delhi, where he is expected to tackle a host of delicate issues from trade to India's longstanding defence and energy ties to Russia and Iran.Relations between the United States and India have improved dramatically since the Cold War but they have still fallen short of their promise and now have run into serious problems over tariffs, flows of data and tighter Indian rules on online commerce in one of the world's fastest growing large markets.
Pompeo landed in New Delhi late on Tuesday night after an unannounced trip to Kabul.
He will kick off his visit to India by calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was re-elected for a second term last month with a powerful mandate that analysts say gives him the chance to take bold reforms to propel Asia's third largest economy towards faster growth.
BEFORE THE MODI-TRUMP TALKS
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will hold talks on Wednesday; Pompeo will later call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi
India’s data norms opposed by US digital majors, contentious trade issues, H1B visa, and terrorism are likely to come up for discussion
Pompeo’s visit comes ahead of the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit later this month

 Just ahead of his visit, New Delhi imposed tariffs on some U.S. goods after President Donald Trump's administration threw India out of a group of countries that were allowed duty free access for some of their products into the large U.S. market.

Anil Ambani-promoted RInfra loses NTPC order worth Rs 567 crore to GE

Company News

While Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Infrastructure looks to almost double its existing order-book in the current financial year, not all is well with its existing orders. One of RInfra's contracts worth Rs 567 crore from NTPC has been re-tendered and awarded to another company this month.
In February 2018, RInfra informed exchanges it has received the Letter of Approval from NTPC for Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) works of its 3x500 Mw power plant in Jhajjar, Haryana. “The project has been re-tendered and awarded to GE,” said a person with knowledge of the development. The reason for re-tendering is not clear. An email query sent to RInfra last week remained unanswered.
On June 4, GE Power informed exchanges it has won a contract worth Rs 738 crore from Aravali Power Company for Flue Gas Desulphurisation. Aravali Power is a Joint venture company of NTPC, Haryana Power Generation Company and Indraprastha Power Generation Company, which holds the Jhajjar power plant in Haryana.
In its post results media interaction, RInfra pegged its total order book at over Rs 28,000 crore. Queries sent to RInfra on the status of the NTPC projects and whether Rs 28,000 crore includes the project remained unanswered.

 For the current financial year, RInfra looks to increase its order book to close to Rs 50,000 crore. In its June 2019 presentation, the company said it targeting opportunities of about Rs 3 trillion in FY20 and bids participation in projects of Rs one trillion and is poised to build order book of Rs 50,000 crore.The other projects that RInfra is executing include the Versova-Bandra Sea Link, a package for Mumbai Nagpur Expressway, parts of the Mumbai-Metro network, Hirasar airport project in Gujarat and the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project. Of these, the Sea-link project for Rs 7,000 crore is also facing land and other clearance issues unrelated to RInfra.

Garmin Forerunner 945 smartwatch launched in India: Know price, features

Company News

Refreshing its flagship 'Forerunner' series, US-based wearable major Garmin on Monday launched its "Forerunner 945" wearable in India for Rs 59,990.
The device packs has built-in activity profiles for running, cycling, swimming, skiing, paddle sports and trail running which covers majority of the workouts.
"With the launch of 'Forerunner 945', we aim to add more thrill and adventure for the running community. The watch comes with exciting features like premium music services, VO2 max, aerobic and anaerobic training effect and incident detection," Ali Rizvi, National Sales Manager-Garmin India, said in a statement.
The smartwatch holds the ability to 'store up to 1,000 songs' for phone-free listening and even syncs one's favourite music from select streaming services like Spotify or allows transferring music from a computer to the user's device.
Another feature with the "Forerunner 945" series is the "Body Battery" feature which helps optimise body's energy.
The "Body Battery" energy monitoring uses collected data to gauge one's energy reserves at any moment so that the user can plan the day accordingly.

 (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.)

Switching to batteries won't reduce an iota of pollution, says TVS MD

Company News

India’s big three two-wheeler makers on Monday hit out at NITI Aayog’s plan to push for 100 per cent electric vehicle, saying such a transition is completely uncalled for and could jeopardise the industry.
Arguing that changing from conventional two-wheelers to 100 per cent electric is “not like Aadhaar, not a software and print cards”, the companies said concerns of all stakeholders must be taken into consideration instead of imposing adoption of EVs. “This is not like Aadhaar, not a software and print cards. You have to set up a whole supply chain, and migrate from the current supply chain,” TVS Motor Chairman and Managing Director Venu Srinivasan said. He said targeting “two- and three-wheelers but not cars makes it an incomplete initiative”.
Srinivasan asserted that “changing to batteries running on thermal power will not reduce one iota of pollution”. Right now, he said,”the two-wheeler contribute to 20 per cent of automotive pollution”. Hero MotoCorp said it was “deeply concerned by the potential repercussions of NITI Aayog’s approach of completely banning two-wheelers up to 150cc that are powered by Internal Combustion Engines”.
Last week, NITI Aayog had asked auto industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) along with conventional two-and three-wheeler makers to suggest within two weeks, concrete steps towards transition to electric mobility keeping in mind the 2025 deadline.
Hero MotoCorp said the move by NITI Aayog is being at a time “when two-wheelers manufactured in India will have the world’s cleanest emissions, along with the world’s highest fuel-efficiencies, effective April 1, 2020”.

 “Instead of imposing the adoption of EVs (electric vehicles), it would be ideal to have a healthy mix of policy, market dynamics, and customer acceptability,” the country’s largest two-wheeler maker said.

India-US closing in on pact for defence technology transfer: Report

Company News

India and the United States are closing in on an industrial security agreement that will allow the transfer of defence technology, sources said on Monday, ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s talks in New Delhi this week to promote strategic ties.
Disputes over trade and protectionist moves have escalated between the two countries in recent months, but defence ties remain strong with Washington seeking to build Indian capabilities as a counterweight to China.
India has bought weapons worth more than $15 billion from the United States over the past decade as it seeks to replace its Russian-origin military and is in talks for helicopters, armed drones and a bigger Indian plan for local production of combat planes together worth billions of dollars.
To allow for transfer of technology for building combat jets locally and other joint ventures, the United States had sought guarantees for the protection of classified information and technology.
A draft of the agreement called Industrial Security Annex is now ready and will go up before the Indian cabinet for approval in the next few weeks, sources aware of the India-US defence negotiations said.
It would be the first time New Delhi has entered into such a pact with any country, although the United States has such agreements in place with several countries, one of the sources said.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing are both in the race for a deal estimated at over $15 billion to supply the Indian air force with 114 fighter planes to replace its ageing fleet of Mig 21 jets.

 The planes have to be built in the country as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make-in-India drive to cut expensive imports and build a domestic industry.Pompeo will arrive in New Delhi on Tuesday and will hold talks with Modi and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyan Jaishankar the following day.

China 'won't allow' G20 discussion on Hong Kong during Xi-Trump meet

Company News
China said Monday it will not allow discussion on Hong Kong at the G20 this week even as US President Donald Trump plans to raise the city's mass protests during his meeting with President Xi Jinping.
The semi-autonomous city has been shaken by huge demonstrations this month as throngs have demanded the withdrawal of a bill that would allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland.
Trump has weighed in on Hong Kong's worst political unrest since its handover from Britain to China in 1997, saying he understood the reason for the protests and hoped demonstrators can "work it out with China".
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later said Trump would discuss Hong Kong with Xi at the Group of 20 summit, which is taking place in Osaka, Japan on Friday and Saturday.
But Chinese assistant foreign minister Zhang Jun said the G20 is a forum to focus on global economic issues.
Xi and Trump have agreed to hold bilateral talks focusing on the US-China trade war during the summit.
"I can tell you with certainty that the G20 will not discuss the Hong Kong issue and we will not allow the G20 to discuss the Hong Kong issue," Zhang said at a press briefing previewing Xi's G20 attendance.

 "Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and no foreign country has the right to intervene," he said, recalling that the city is a special administrative region of China.

Risk of war with Iran grows after decades of economic warfare by the US

Company News
Many are worried about the risk of war between the US and Iran. But the truth is, the US has been fighting with Iran for decades in an economic war waged via sanctions – which is about to get a lot worse.
Concerns about a war of guns, warplanes and missiles grew after Iran shot down a US spy drone amid already worsening tensions. President Donald Trump says he ordered a retaliatory strike in response – only to reverse course at the last minute.
Whether or not a shooting war does break out, the United States’ economic war has already been intensifying over the past year. Trump promised “major” new sanctions in response to the attack on the drone.
Existing sanctions have already devastated innocent Iranians. Not only that, they’ve undermining long-accepted principles of international cooperation and diplomacy, a topic I’ve been researching for the past 25 years.
Carrots and sticks
Many nations have recognized that sanctions work best as tools of persuasion rather than punishment.
Sanctions by themselves rarely succeed in changing the behavior of a targeted state. They are often combiUS-Iran tensionsned with diplomacy in a carrots-and-sticks bargaining framework designed to achieve negotiated solutions.

 Indeed, the offer to lift sanctions can be a persuasive inducement in convincing a targeted regime to alter its policies, as was the case when successful negotiations involving the US and Europe led to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015. That deal ended sanctions in exchange for Tehran shutting down much of its nuclear production capacity.

Just like Japan, Europe may struggle to escape from anaemic growth: ING

Company News

The euro area’s anemic growth and inflation mean it’s probably already experiencing its own Japanification, and escape could prove hard if the Asian nation’s track record is any guide, according to ING Group.
Europe’s situation has long left it open to comparisons with Japan in the 1990s. In a report on Monday, ING lists similarities including an increase in government debt, a buildup of bad loans at banks, an aging population and huge monetary policy loosening.
While Japan’s policy response to its crisis was slow, it also fell victim to bad timing, according to ING. Various chances of recovery were snuffed out by the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, then the bursting of the dot-com bubble and later the global financial crisis.
That may well be the fate of the euro area, too, which last year appeared to be on the verge of unwinding stimulus only to be pushed back in the other direction. With global trade tensions weighing on sentiment and inflation expectations near a record low, the European Central Bank is facing the prospect of interest rate cuts or re-starting quantitative easing.
“Without a strong recovery, it is difficult to escape the low growth, low inflation and subsequently low rates environment,” said Carsten Brzeski and Inga Fechner, economists at ING. “An economic upturn could quickly be over and monetary policy might not have enough ammunition up its sleeve, with interest rates remaining stuck at the zero lower bound for years to come.”

 The parallels mean Europe could be facing a ballooning of its central bank balance sheet in the years to come, and a major fiscal package could be needed. There’s also the prospect of higher retirement ages to keep prevent the labor force from shrinking.“For the euro zone, the most important lesson is probably not so much the root cause of Japanification but the desperate attempts to get out it,” ING said.

US cyber forces launched a strike against Iranian military computer systems

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Company News

International retail giant Walmart Thursday agreed to pay over $282 to various US bodies to settle charges of violating anti-corruption regulations while conducting its business in India, China, Brazil and Mexico.
According to the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), these violations were conducted by Walmart's third-party intermediaries who made payments to foreign government officials without reasonable assurances that they complied with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or FCPA.
SEC has charged Walmart with violating FCPA by failing to operate a sufficient anti-corruption compliance programme for more than a decade as the retailer experienced rapid international growth.Walmart agreed to pay more than $144 million to settle the SEC's charges and approximately $138 million to resolve parallel criminal charges by the Department of Justice for a combined total of more than $282 million, SEC said.
"Walmart valued international growth and cost-cutting over compliance," said Charles Cain, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's FCPA Unit."The company could have avoided many of these problems, but instead Walmart repeatedly failed to take red flags seriously and delayed the implementation of appropriate internal accounting controls," he said.
Walmart consented to the SEC's order finding that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

 According to the SEC's order, Walmart failed to sufficiently investigate or mitigate certain anti-corruption risks and allowed subsidiaries in Brazil, China, India, and Mexico to employ third-party intermediaries who made payments to foreign government officials without reasonable assurances that they complied with the FCPA.

NCLT sets 90-day deadline for Jet Airways bankruptcy resolution

Company News

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday admitted the insolvency petition moved by State Bank of India (SBI) — under section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) — against Jet Airways, and instructed that the resolution process be wrapped up in 90 days as the matter is of national importance.
Typically, the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) should be completed in 180 days, and an extra 90 days’ time is granted in case the process doesn’t conclude in the stipulated period. The interim resolution professional (RP) has been instructed to submit fortnightly progress reports on the CIRP process, with the first to be filed on July 5, the day of the next hearing.
The tribunal also declared a moratorium on recovery of dues from Jet, the country’s first aviation firm to be admitted for bankruptcy. Jet had over 120 planes, of which only about a dozen have not been de-registered by the civil aviation regulator. The rest of the planes had their leases terminated and many of them have been inducted by other airlines in India or abroad.
Also, on a day which saw the beleaguered airline being admitted under the insolvency process, Jet shares posted their highest single-day gain on the bourses on Thursday, rising 93 per cent on the BSE to end at Rs 64 after declining 75 per cent in the previous 10 sessions. Such a movement in share prices is highly unusual.Moreover, presiding judges V P Singh and Ravi Kumar Duraisamy did not take cognizance of the Dutch court order that had declared Jet bankrupt, given that cross-border insolvency is still not in place under the IBC and because the jurisdiction of the corporate debtor rests with the tribunal (as the company is listed in India).

 SBI, in its plea, said the airline had defaulted on working capital loans of up to Rs 970 crore. Jet had a working capital facility of Rs 505 crore. This account was overdrawn by around Rs 460 crore for 30 days.

Mindtree approves appointment of 3 L&T nominees as board directors

Company News

In the mid of an open offer process, Mindtree board on Thursday approved the appointment of L&T’s nominees as directors, which included the engineering major’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director S N Subrahmanyan and its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ramamurthi Shankar Raman, among others.
In an exchange filing, the IT firm said its board had approved induction of five new directors into the company’s board, which will come for shareholders’ approval in its next annual general meeting on July 16. Apart from CEO and CFO of L&T, Jayant Damodar Patil, whole time director and senior executive vice-president for L&T’s defence business, will also be part of the firm’s board.
All the three L&T nominees will come as non-executive directors.Apart from induction of non-executive director, two independent directors will also be part of the Mindtree board. Its nomination and remuneration committee has also approved appointment of Prasanna Rangacharya and Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa as independent directors. While Rangacharya is a legal consultant, who had served as a chief legal advisor of L&T between 1991 and 1998, Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa is a former diplomat.
While five new directors’ appointment will come for approval in the next board meet, Mindtree's co-founder and non-executive director Subroto Bagchi will not seek reappointment. “Subroto Bagchi, who retires by rotation at the 20th AGM on July 16, has not offered re-appointment for himself,” the filing said.With this rejig, Mindtree’s board will now have 12 board members from eight.

 Though Bagchi will step down from non-executive role, it was uncertain whether other three founders — Krishnakumar Natarajan, Rostow Ravanan, N S Parthasarathy — will also consider stepping down from the board in the future.

Walmart to pay $282 mn for violating anti-corruption rules in 4 countries

Company News

International retail giant Walmart Thursday agreed to pay over $282 to various US bodies to settle charges of violating anti-corruption regulations while conducting its business in India, China, Brazil and Mexico.

According to the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), these violations were conducted by Walmart's third-party intermediaries who made payments to foreign government officials without reasonable assurances that they complied with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or FCPA.
SEC has charged Walmart with violating FCPA by failing to operate a sufficient anti-corruption compliance programme for more than a decade as the retailer experienced rapid international growth.Walmart agreed to pay more than $144 million to settle the SEC's charges and approximately $138 million to resolve parallel criminal charges by the Department of Justice for a combined total of more than $282 million, SEC said.

"Walmart valued international growth and cost-cutting over compliance," said Charles Cain, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's FCPA Unit."The company could have avoided many of these problems, but instead Walmart repeatedly failed to take red flags seriously and delayed the implementation of appropriate internal accounting controls," he said.

Walmart consented to the SEC's order finding that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.


 According to the SEC's order, Walmart failed to sufficiently investigate or mitigate certain anti-corruption risks and allowed subsidiaries in Brazil, China, India, and Mexico to employ third-party intermediaries who made payments to foreign government officials without reasonable assurances that they complied with the FCPA.

OYO may become largest hotel network in the world: SoftBank's Masayoshi Son

Company News

SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son is expecting Indian startup OYO to become the largest hotel network in the world. At a general shareholders' meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday, Son said that OYO is one of the largest hotel networks in India and has become the second biggest hotel network in China in just one year. The company is growing its market worldwide in regions such as the US, UK and Southeast Asia. “They (OYO) would be becoming the largest hotel network in the world,” said Son.

In May this year, SoftBank, which is one of the biggest start-up investors in the country, observed its operating profit for the year ended March raised by valuation gains from its investments in companies such as OYO and ride-hailing giant Uber.

Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank’s Vision Fund has over $100 billion in committed capital for tech investments. SoftBank had said the value of Vision Fund's investments in 69 firms had increased to $72.3 billion by end-March, from their $60.1 billion acquisition cost, driven by gains at companies like OYO and Uber. For instance, SoftBank had recorded a 154.2-billion yen valuation gain in OYO. Last year in September, SoftBank led a $1-billion fund infusion into OYO. The firm was founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal, who was then aged 19.

Besides OYO, SoftBank's Vision Fund has backed many companies in India, including Paytm, Policybazaar, Delhivery and Grofers. “Paytm is like Alipay in China. They are the leaders in payments in India and they (have) changed the payment process and lifestyle,” said Son.


 SoftBank said it had successfully monetized its investments in e-commerce company Flipkart and graphics chips company Nvidia in FY 2018, the only two exits since the launch of the fund. A 146.7 billion yen investment gain was recorded through the sale of Flipkart shares.Flipkart was acquired by US-based retail giant Walmart for $16 billion last year.

Why 5G is the next headache for some of India's richest businessmen

Company News

After racking up $59 billion of net debt to survive a brutal war in the world’s second-biggest phone-services market, some of India’s billionaires are bracing for more as their next battle looms: 5G.
India seeks to raise $84 billion this year from a sale of airwaves -- most of it for the latest technology tipped to revolutionize connectivity -- posing a conundrum for the carriers controlled by tycoons including Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s wealthiest man. Investment would mean more borrowings, but the reward could be revenue streams never seen before.
Operators may soon decide how much more pain they can endure for a high-speed wireless network that can offer better user experience in streaming, gaming and entertainment in a market where Netflix Inc. to Amazon.com Inc. are making inroads. With applications ranging from manufacturing to education and health care, 5G could be the catalyst for India’s digital economy that has the potential to reach $1 trillion by 2025, according to a report by Deloitte.
‘Competitive Parity’
“Any player missing on the 5G service offering is likely to see erosion of market share,” said Alok Shende, a Mumbai-based principal analyst for telecom at Ascentius Insights. “There’s all the more case for maintaining competitive parity to remain in the game. Offering a forward path to customers is important.”

 Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd., the two biggest carriers, didn’t respond to request for comments on their 5G plans, while Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. said it won’t comment on the spectrum auction.While 5G offers potential in augmented reality, virtual reality, connected cars, autonomous drones, smart homes and cities, the real promise for a country like India lies in rural areas, said Prashant Singhal, global head of telecommunications at Ernst & Young.

Paris air show: Airbus seals deals with big buyers after Boeing's MAX sale

Company News

Airbus sealed deals with big buyers for its latest passenger jet at the Paris Airshow on Wednesday, battling back a day after a surprise order by British Airways' owner for rival Boeing's grounded 737 MAX jet.
Indigo Partners, the private equity firm of veteran low-cost airline investor Bill Franke, and American Airlines each signed up for 50 of Airbus's new long-range A321neo jet, although some orders were converted from deals on other models.
Airbus, which has not given a list price for the A321XLR, launched the new plane on Monday, aiming to carve out new routes for airlines with smaller planes and steal a march on Boeing's plans for a potential all new jet for the middle of the market.
The deals are a big vote of confidence in the European planemaker, a day after major customer British Airways owner IAG signed a letter of intent to buy 200 of Boeing Co's 737 MAX jets, a model that has been grounded since March after two deadly crashes.
Asked about the IAG deal, Franke, who struck the largest-ever plane deal by number of aircraft with Airbus in 2017, called the A321neo the most efficient single-aisle jet.
Franke's Indigo Partners signed a memorandum of understanding to buy 32 of A321XLR aircraft and to convert 18 existing A320 family jet orders to the larger model.

 The jets will be allocated to Hungary's Wizz Air, US carrier Frontier Airlines and Chile's JetSMART, in which Indigo Partners owns stakes. Industry experts estimate the deal for the 32 aircraft could be valued at around $4.5 billion, based on a slight premium to the A321neo's list price of $129.5 million, although most airlines get significant discounts.

Explainer: How trade tensions changed the Fed's outlook in seven weeks

Company News

On May 1, the Federal Reserve viewed the American economy as having a solid footing and risks to the outlook were muted.

That assessment has weakened demonstrably since, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell and many of his colleagues inside the US central bank on Wednesday signalled readiness to cut interest rates as required to shore up a US economic expansion that appears to be losing steam.
What exactly changed in seven weeks to alter the outlook so much?

Tump's trade disputes are weighing

America's trade relationship has grown more strained in recent weeks with China and Mexico, two of the United States' top trading partners. When the Fed held its April 30-May 1 meeting, Washington and Beijing appeared to be closing in on a trade deal that would avoid an escalation in the trade war between the two countries.

That changed on May 5, when President Donald Trump unleashed an angry barrage of tweets, complaining that China had reneged on promises it had made in the talks and threatening to ratchet up tariffs on Chinese goods.

The negotiations unravelled and Washington hit China with higher tariffs on some $200 billion worth of goods on May 10, prompting China to retaliate. Washington is also threatening tariffs on another roughly $300 billion in Chinese imports if the two sides don't reach a deal soon, with Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to meet at a Group of 20 summit in Japan next week.


 Trump then turned his sights on Mexico, and on May 30 he threatened new tariffs on all Mexican imports if America's southern neighbour did not do more to stop the flow of migrants across the US border.

Space ethics? Five questions for how we choose to use the moon

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The Moon has always served as an inspiration for humanity, and there are many potential benefits for further exploration of our planet’s rocky satellite.
But we need to establish guidelines to prevent unethical behaviour on the Moon, particularly regarding the use of natural resources and off-planet labour.
How humans should interact with space and celestial objects is central to the emerging field of space ethics. It’s something I’ve been involved with since 2015, when I taught my first class on consent for the use of celestial objects at Yale University’s Summer Bioethics Institute.As we prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, here are five things we need to reflect on regarding ethical considerations for various future uses of the Moon.
1) Human settlement on the Moon
Some people believe establishing human settlements on the Moon – and other bodies – may help lessen the environmental burden of overpopulation on Earth. While the practical issues of survival and maintaining communication receive a lot of attention in discussions of Moon settlements, the ethical considerations are often overlooked.These include whether Moon-based humans would have the same legal and human rights as their counterparts on Earth. Would children born on the Moon even share the citizenship of their parents, or would they be stateless on Earth? And would they have a different physiology to Earth-born humans due to the reduced gravity on the Moon? A new breed of Moonians? Moonlings?

 We need to consider the complexities of establishing independent governance of a Moon base to promote the development of a fair society for those living there...Read More

Shadows on the Moon: A tale of ephemeral beauty, humans and hubris

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Between 1969 and 1972, a new type of archaeological site was created. For the first time, human bodies and the technology needed to sustain them altered the landscape of another world. The astronauts from the six Apollo missions left a suite of space-age artefacts behind on the lunar surface. And not only that: the missions brought to the Moon new kinds of shadows, cast by machines and bodies and flags and rovers, in an interplay of movement and stillness.
On Earth, the movement of living things, the changing of the environment, both natural and cultural; and the weather, which occludes sunlight to different degrees, make shadows very dynamic. Lunar shadows, however, are more passive at human time scales, their movement identical with the fortnightly passage of the Sun over the surface.
The Apollo missions brought shadows that were not so passive. The speed of the shadows differed, depending on the activity being carried out, and was much faster than the slow passing of the day. Some shadows were solid black and some were lacy and textured, reflecting the mesh on the umbrella-shaped antennas.
They crossed and uncrossed with the angle of the Sun and the movement of the astronauts around the tiny landscapes that constituted their lunar experience. The shadows were captured and frozen in many photographs of the Apollo missions; in these photos, they became another type of artefact.
The Apollo 17 lunar rover and its shadows. NASA

 And then some shadows left, never to return, and others stayed to be swallowed by the lunar night and emerge into day again. The shadows of the objects left behind - descent modules, rovers, cameras and other equipment - will continue to be cast over the lunar surface until they decay in tens, hundreds or thousands of years. The objects don’t move, but their shadows circle them in diurnal devotion, sundials without a mission.

Boeing records zero new plane orders in Paris, Airbus jumps ahead

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Airbus SE cleaned up on the first day of the 2019 Paris Air Show, locking in $13 billion in orders for new jets to zero for Boeing Co., and introducing a long-range narrow-body meant to deflate enthusiasm for its U.S. rival's potential new midsize jet.
The Monday haul for Airbus featured major orders from Air Lease Corp., the influential U.S. leasing company, which agreed to buy planes worth $11 billion before customary discounts, including the new A321XLR. Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. bought eight A330 wide-bodies with options for six more.
There’s room to run up the score, said Airbus Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury. While Boeing’s workhorse 737 Max, idled in March after two deadly crashes, languishes on the tarmac, Faury said the European planemaker is seeing "very strong demand" for its rival A320 family of single-aisle jets.
"As far as we are concerned, you should expect a very positive Paris Air Show with a lot of orders," Faury said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.A year ago, the tables were turned. Airbus, going through a jarring management transition -- fallout from a multi-year bribery investigation -- announced 431 orders valued at $62 billion at the alternating Farnborough air show in the U.K. That lagged Boeing’s commitments for 528 jetliners valued at $79 billion through the week last year.

 The Air Lease order in particular provided a vote of confidence in the A321XLR, a twin-engine jet that can travel 4,700 nautical miles, more than any other narrow-body on the market. The plane is positioned as a more fuel-efficient successor to Boeing’s discontinued 757, able to connect smaller cities that can’t support service by big wide-body jets.The model is also meant to take the wind out of the sails of Boeing’s planned “new midmarket airplane,” or NMA.

SBI plans to mop up Rs 5,000-crore debt capital via tier-II bonds

Company News

State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, plans to raise up to Rs 5,000 crore in debt to shore up capital adequacy and support business growth.
The bank will issue Basel III compliant tier-II bonds to raise debt capital.
India Ratings has assigned ‘AAA’ rating with stable outlook to the proposed bond offering.
SBI remains a better capitalised public sector bank compared to its peers, with a common equity tier-1 (CET1) ratio of 9.62 per cent in FY19 (against 9.68 per cent in FY18). The tier-II capital was 2.07 per cent at end of March 2019 against 2.23 per cent in March 2018.
Its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) stood at 12.72 per cent in March 2019 (against 12.60 per cent in March 2018). SBI is one of the few public sector banks with the ability to raise equity directly from the markets. In December 2018, its shareholders gave nod to raise up to Rs 20,000 crore in equity capital through various instruments, including public offering, private placement and tapping international capital markets.
The rating reflects SBI’s systemically important position, the size of its franchise and strong standalone profile.
The bank would continue to be one of the most important constituents of the Indian banking system, the rating agency said in a statement. The central government owns a majority stake in SBI (57.13 per cent at the end of FY19). During FY14-FY18, the bank received Rs 24,840 crore from the Centre in equity. In FY19, however, it did not receive any equity.

 The rating agency said SBI also has non-core assets that are large profitable enterprises in their own segments and the bank has established a track record of monetising them to raise equity.

Piramal sells entire stake in Shriram Transport for around Rs 2,300 crore

Company News

Piramal Enterprise Ltd (PEL) has sold its entire 9.96 per cent stake in Shriram Transport Finance (STFC), the NBFC arm of Chennai-based Shriram Group.
Based on Monday's opening share price of Shriram Transport Finance Company of Rs 1,020 per scrip, the stake sale is estimated to have to fetched Piramal Enterprises Rs 2,305 crore, reported PTI.
PEL confirmed that it has diluted the entire stake in STFC, but did not disclose the value. Market sources said the company sold its shares for around Rs 1,000-1,015 a share, which is a 40 per cent return in six years.
PEL has been looking to exit from the Shriram group of companies, including STFCS, Shriram City Union and Shriram Capital. Sources said Piramal has just started the exit process after STFC, it will sell stake in SCUF and Shriram Capital.
Piramal owns 20 per cent in Shriram Capital and 10 per cent each in Shriram Transport Finance and Shriram City Union. While Shriram Capital is an unlisted holding company, Shriram Transport specialises in financing second-hand trucks while Shriram City Union is into consumer lending.
Piramal's interest in Shriram begain in 2013 when he acquired 10 per cent stake in Shriram Transport Finance Company for Rs 1,636 crore. A year later he picked up 20 per cent stake in Shriram Capital for Rs 2,014 crore and he became the Chairman in 2015. Piramal also acquired 10 per cent stake in Shriram City Union Finance for Rs 801 crore.

 He also led IDFC-Shriram Group talks for a potential merger but talks failed due to a difference over valuation.Ajay Piramal, founder of PEL, became the Chairman of Shriram Capital, which is the holding company of Shriram Group, which got AUM of around Rs 1 trillion.The estimated value of PEL's holding in Shriram Capital, Shriram Transport Finance and Shriram City Union Finance was about Rs 9,000 crore.

Huawei prepares for 60% fall in international smartphone shipments: Report

Company News

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is preparing for a 40 to 60 per cent decline in international smartphone shipments, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.The Chinese technology company is looking at options that include pulling the latest model of its marquee overseas smartphone, the Honor 20, according to the article, which cited people familiar with the matter.
Marketing and sales managers at the tech giant are internally expecting a drop in volumes of anywhere between 40 million to 60 million smartphones this year, the report said.The device will begin selling in parts of Europe, including Britain and France, on June 21, the report said. Executives will be monitoring the launch and may cut off shipments if the sales are poor, it said.In order to offset overseas decline, Huawei is aiming to grab up to half of China's smartphone market in 2019, Bloomberg said. The company did not respond to a Reuters request seeking comment.
The US government put Huawei, the world's largest telecommunications equipment company, on a trade blacklist in May that bars US suppliers from doing business with it because of what Washington says are national security concerns.
At the time, Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei said the restrictions "may slow, but only slightly" the company's growth.A similar US ban on China's ZTE Corp, almost crippled business for Huawei's smaller rival early last year before the curb was lifted.

 The company's woes are feeding into trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.President Donald Trump has said US complaints against Huawei could be resolved within the framework of any trade deal.The ban has been eased slightly to allow a temporary general license that lets Huawei purchase US goods.However, Broadcom sent a shockwave through the global chipmaking industry last week when it forecast that the US-China trade tensions and the Huawei ban would knock $2 billion off this year sales.

Investing in your passion: Wealthy families add forests to their portfolios

Company News
Tom Crowder spent much of his two-year career in the NFL running away from men who weighed upwards of 300 pounds. These days? He worries about bears and snakes. As a senior vice president at Bank of America Corp., Crowder spends most days in the woods, from the evergreen forests of New England to the wetlands of the Carolinas, scouting US timberland assets for people with a net worth of at least $100 million and a minimum of $10 million to invest.
“Trees don’t move as fast as Pro Bowl linebackers,” Crowder says on a recent field trip to a client’s timber farm in South Carolina overlooking the alligator-­populated Waccamaw River. As turtles sun themselves and wild turkeys roam, he recounts over a picnic lunch the “neat experience” of his stint as a wide receiver and safety for the Dallas Cowboys. After a busted jaw and emergency surgery, he was happy to go back to his roots, as a third-generation forester.
Crowder is among more than 200 experts employed by Bank of America’s Specialty Asset Management (SAM) group, which manages more than 94,000 assets with a value of $13.6 billion for individuals and institutions. The target client is looking for timberland, farms, ranches, energy interests, or real estate, so-called alternative investments that can diversify portfolios mostly made up of stocks and bonds and can provide a hedge against inflation.Returns for timberland totaled 3.2 per cent in 2018, compared with 2.4 per cent so far this year, according to an index from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries.

 John Kelley, a SAM national executive, says “long-term themes” sell. The decline in arable land and rising global food demand, for example, are reasons to invest in farmland. “People have to eat, and what we believe about the intrinsic nature of these assets is that they have real value and they will persist over time,” he says.

Nordic banks are getting ready for the future with robots replacing humans

Company News

The two biggest Nordic banks have both recently beefed up their compliance units significantly. Both say the extra headcount is temporary.
Nordea Bank Abp has hundreds of employees who scrutinize billions of transactions in order to catch anything that looks potentially criminal. It’s a costly, inefficient system that Mikael Bjertrup, head of the bank’s financial crime prevention unit, plans to change. Bjertrup says that about 20 per cent of suspicious alerts are currently closed by algorithms, based on machine learning, with the rest still being handled by humans. He wants to see those numbers reversed so that algorithms handle 80 per cent.
“We’ll be fewer people in the future, but our defense will be better,” he said. “We won’t need as many as 1,500 employees in the future, as technology improves.”
The head of compliance at Danske Bank A/S, Philippe Vollot, also says headcount will probably be scaled back once “technology kicks in.”
Insatiable Demand
Compliance has emerged as an area of banking in which the demand for more headcount has so far seemed almost insatiable. The hiring binge at Nordea started in 2015 after it was fined for failing to live up to anti-money laundering requirements. More recently, laundering scandals that engulfed Danske and Swedbank AB have added to pressure on the industry to allocate much bigger resources to fighting financial crime.

 With labor accounting for roughly three-quarters of the cost of complying with anti-money laundering requirements, Nordic banks are figuring out how to replace people with artificial intelligence, algorithms and automated customer screening. They say a key frustration now is that the authorities are struggling to keep up, after banks plowed huge amounts of money into their risk controls.

Mitsubishi Aircraft launches redesigned version of SpaceJet MR70

Company News
Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp rebranded its Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) family jets to be called the "SpaceJet" and unveiled a redesigned version of the smaller jet to help improve its sales prospects in the large US market.
The SpaceJet M100, the revamped version of the MRJ70, will now have up to 76 seats in a typical US cabin configuration rather than the earlier 69 seats, the company said on Thursday, making it a more attractive offering for regional carriers with contracts to major carriers.
"On paper, it looks good," Leeham Co analyst Bjorn Fehrm said of the redesign. "The range is there, as is the space for the passengers."
The larger SpaceJet M90, renamed from MRJ90, is too big for US regional carriers to fly without the relaxation of pilot union rules, an unlikely prospect due to a pilot shortage that has given unions more bargaining power.Of the 213 firm orders for Mitsubishi jets, 150 are split between two US regional carriers, SkyWest Inc and Trans States Holdings.
The M100 cabin interior will be on display at next week's Paris Airshow and Mitsubishi Aircraft said a formal launch of the programme was expected later this year.The M90 is due to enter service with Japanese carrier ANA Holdings Inc next year, compared with its initial target of 2013, after a series of programme delays.

 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, the largest shareholder in Mitsubishi Aircraft, this month said it was holding talks to buy rival Bombardier Inc's money-losing regional jet programme.The Bombardier CRJs use older, less fuel-efficient engines, but buying the programme would give Mitsubishi a global maintenance and support base that could aid with SpaceJet sales, according to analysts. faces of the 2014 protests, is currently in jail in Hong Kong.

Ola sets up tech centre in San Francisco, home turf of rival Uber

Company News
Ride-hailing firm Ola is taking on Uber by setting up a first-of-its-kind ‘Advanced Technology Center’ at San Francisco, in the United States (US), where rival Uber is headquartered.
Bengaluru-based Ola plans to build a team of more than 150 engineers working out of the centre to develop next-generation technology in mobility.
“The Valley and the talent ecosystem here are very conducive to the development of next-generation mobility solutions,” said Ola co-founder and chief technology officer Ankit Bhati. “This is also a big step in our journey as a global mobility player, with a mission that talent from around the world are inspired to join us on,” he said.
The center would look to onboard world-class talent who will collaborate with global teams in the various geographies where Ola operates. It would build technology solutions that can accelerate Ola’s ambitions across electric mobility and connected vehicles, as well as lead futuristic experiments like autonomous vehicles.
Ola is looking to hire experts across artificial intelligence, machine learning, data sciences, engineering and product development.
Founded in 2011 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola now has a presence in 150 cities across India, UK, Australia and New Zealand. It currently serves more than 150 million users and is close to completing over a billion rides annually.

  In India, Ola’s core mobility offering is supplemented by its electric-vehicle arm, Ola Electric, a fleet management business, Ola Fleet Technologies, and a public transportation ticketing app, Ridlr.

Hong Kong protesters used encrypted messages, Ninja outfits to elude police

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Thousands of black-clad demonstrators braved tear gas and rain for 79 days in Hong Kong’s 2014 "Umbrella Movement.” The lessons of that agitation appear to have made the city’s protesters swifter and better prepared in some of their latest attempts to weather police action.
The young citizens who crowded into the streets this week to protest a bill that would allow extradition to mainland China used the Telegram encrypted messaging app to share locations. They handed out surgical masks for protection against pepper spray and to hide their faces from the police. They turned cars and trucks into roadblocks in the middle of highways. And they set up supply stations throughout the demonstration, acting more quickly than they did five years ago.
"It’s a real genius of Hong Kong people," said Kong Tsung-gan, author of Umbrella: A Political Tale from Hong Kong. "There are no pre-existing structures and before you know it, they’re there."
At the same time, Hong Kong’s police also appeared better equipped in their efforts to disperse the crowd -- and more determined to prevent a repeat of 2014’s extended sit-in. In full anti-riot gear, they used pepper spray and fired rounds of tear gas, rubber bullets and bean bags, making it harder for demonstrators to hold their ground. The police said they’d fired about 150 rounds of tear gas in Wednesday’s melee, almost double the 87 rounds fired in the entirety of the Umbrella Movement.
Here are some of the tactics Hong Kong’s protesters used in this week’s protests:Encrypted Messaging

 While a pro-democracy group called the Civil Human Rights Front helped run the movement against the bill, there were no obvious leaders at Wednesday’s protests. Student activist Joshua Wong, one of the most public faces of the 2014 protests, is currently in jail in Hong Kong.