Today Sector News – 13.03.2018
* AGRICULTURE: Farmers in Maharashtra, who stormed to the state capital seeking loan waiver and remunerative prices for their crop, agreed to call off their protest after the state government agreed to meet most of their demands.
* AUTOMOBILES: The Indian automobile industry is expected to post robust sales growth in March on the back of a healthy consumer sentiment and expectation of discounting trends by companies to boost sales in the last month of 2017-18 (Apr-Mar) to clear inventory, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said.
* AVIATION: Bidders for Air India will have to meet a minimum net worth criterion before they can be allowed to put in a formal bid for the airline and gain access to the Air India bid data room.
* BANKING: The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India has signed a memorandum of understanding with the RBI to assist and cooperate each other for effective implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. There is a need for special attention to Indian banks' asset quality, controlling of their rising bad loans, and managing their governance issues, especially in public sector banks, International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director Tao Zhang said.
- Resolution plans under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy code are likely to get easier approvals from
creditors' committees, with a government panel agreeing to recommend that only 60% of their members needed to pass these. The RBI has capped most non-fund based trade finance through various instruments to one year in what is seen as possible fallout of the Punjab National Bank scam. In a move aimed at ensuring that small creditors do not disrupt the resolution process under the bankruptcy law, a government appointed panel has suggested that a revival plan can be approved if two-thirds of the creditors endorse it against the current requirement of three-fourths.
* COMMODITY: The Reserve Bank of India has issued final guidelines for Indian companies to hedge their commodities price risks in overseas markets.
* DEFENCE: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has called upon the private sector to invest in manufacturing defence equipment, even as she underlined the need to "revitalise" state-owned defence equipment manufacturing companies and ordinance factories.
* ECONOMY: The number of jobs created in Jul-Sep more than doubled from the previous quarter to 136,000, according to the Labour Bureau's latest quarterly employment survey.
* INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Cognizant said it would buy Bolder Healthcare Solutions for an undisclosed amount to grow its revenue cycle management services for healthcare providers in the US.
* INFRASTRUCTURE: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority has invited bids to appoint a general consultant for a section of the metro rail corridor in the city, which will be built at a cost of 84.16 bln rupees.
* JEWELLERY: The government will examine under what circumstances premier and star trading houses made undue gains from the 80:20 gold import scheme in 2014.
* OIL AND GAS: Public sector oil companies want Andhra Pradesh government to provide viability gap funding for them to set up a 329.01-bln-rupee petrochemical complex in the state, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.
* PHARMACEUTICAL: Growth in sales of pharmaceutical products in India slowed to 7.1% on
year in February from 9.5% in January, as many domestic drug makers posted tepid increase in revenue, according to data from market research firm AIOCD-AWACS. To increase the affordability of diagnostics services in India, the government may come up with a national list of essential diagnostics by the end of December.
* REGULATORY: The Securities and Exchange Board of India is planning to impose restrictions on algorithmic trading by introducing a congestion charge for a prescribed slab that will be levied on traders. The capital markets regulator has approached the government to allow municipal corporations and municipalities to access the bond market through pooled finance.
* STEEL: The resolution professional for Essar Steel is unlikely to take a decision on the resolution plans it has received from ArcelorMittal and Numetal until the government provides more clarification on Article 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill 2017.
* TAXATION: In order to boost goods and services tax revenue, the Central Board of Excise and Customs is planning a bigger role for the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management, which has been dormant so far, a senior finance ministry official said. The tax department is gearing for stricter enforcement with the help of technology and big data under the goods and services tax, as the government looks for ways to boost goods and services tax revenue collection amidst delayed roll-out of anti-evasion measures.
* TELECOMMUNCIATION: In the past couple of weeks, nearly 1 mln Aircel customers in the country have ported their mobile numbers to Vodafone.
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* AUTOMOBILES: The Indian automobile industry is expected to post robust sales growth in March on the back of a healthy consumer sentiment and expectation of discounting trends by companies to boost sales in the last month of 2017-18 (Apr-Mar) to clear inventory, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said.
* AVIATION: Bidders for Air India will have to meet a minimum net worth criterion before they can be allowed to put in a formal bid for the airline and gain access to the Air India bid data room.
* BANKING: The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India has signed a memorandum of understanding with the RBI to assist and cooperate each other for effective implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. There is a need for special attention to Indian banks' asset quality, controlling of their rising bad loans, and managing their governance issues, especially in public sector banks, International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director Tao Zhang said.
- Resolution plans under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy code are likely to get easier approvals from
creditors' committees, with a government panel agreeing to recommend that only 60% of their members needed to pass these. The RBI has capped most non-fund based trade finance through various instruments to one year in what is seen as possible fallout of the Punjab National Bank scam. In a move aimed at ensuring that small creditors do not disrupt the resolution process under the bankruptcy law, a government appointed panel has suggested that a revival plan can be approved if two-thirds of the creditors endorse it against the current requirement of three-fourths.
* COMMODITY: The Reserve Bank of India has issued final guidelines for Indian companies to hedge their commodities price risks in overseas markets.
* DEFENCE: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has called upon the private sector to invest in manufacturing defence equipment, even as she underlined the need to "revitalise" state-owned defence equipment manufacturing companies and ordinance factories.
* ECONOMY: The number of jobs created in Jul-Sep more than doubled from the previous quarter to 136,000, according to the Labour Bureau's latest quarterly employment survey.
* INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Cognizant said it would buy Bolder Healthcare Solutions for an undisclosed amount to grow its revenue cycle management services for healthcare providers in the US.
* INFRASTRUCTURE: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority has invited bids to appoint a general consultant for a section of the metro rail corridor in the city, which will be built at a cost of 84.16 bln rupees.
* JEWELLERY: The government will examine under what circumstances premier and star trading houses made undue gains from the 80:20 gold import scheme in 2014.
* OIL AND GAS: Public sector oil companies want Andhra Pradesh government to provide viability gap funding for them to set up a 329.01-bln-rupee petrochemical complex in the state, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.
* PHARMACEUTICAL: Growth in sales of pharmaceutical products in India slowed to 7.1% on
year in February from 9.5% in January, as many domestic drug makers posted tepid increase in revenue, according to data from market research firm AIOCD-AWACS. To increase the affordability of diagnostics services in India, the government may come up with a national list of essential diagnostics by the end of December.
* REGULATORY: The Securities and Exchange Board of India is planning to impose restrictions on algorithmic trading by introducing a congestion charge for a prescribed slab that will be levied on traders. The capital markets regulator has approached the government to allow municipal corporations and municipalities to access the bond market through pooled finance.
* STEEL: The resolution professional for Essar Steel is unlikely to take a decision on the resolution plans it has received from ArcelorMittal and Numetal until the government provides more clarification on Article 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill 2017.
* TAXATION: In order to boost goods and services tax revenue, the Central Board of Excise and Customs is planning a bigger role for the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management, which has been dormant so far, a senior finance ministry official said. The tax department is gearing for stricter enforcement with the help of technology and big data under the goods and services tax, as the government looks for ways to boost goods and services tax revenue collection amidst delayed roll-out of anti-evasion measures.
* TELECOMMUNCIATION: In the past couple of weeks, nearly 1 mln Aircel customers in the country have ported their mobile numbers to Vodafone.
