Punjab National Bank reports fraud of over Rs 2,000 crore in NPA account:Top business news

The fraud was reported in NPA account of IL&FS Tamil Nadu Power Co. Ltd. at Extra Large Corporate Branch at Delhi, the bank said
The Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Tuesday reported a borrowal fraud of Rs 2,060.14 crore in a non-performing asset (NPA) account.

The fraud was reported in NPA account of IL&FS Tamil Nadu Power Company Ltd. at Extra Large Corporate Branch at Delhi, the bank said in an exchange filing.

“A fraud of Rs 2,060.14 crore is being reported by Bank to RBI in the accounts of the company”, the filing said, adding that the bank has already made provisions amounting to Rs 824.06 crore as per the prescribed prudential norms.

Zomato, Blinkit sign term-sheet for merger:News

a major development in the world of consumer technology start-up world, recently-listed Zomato and instant delivery service Blinkit, formerly Grofers, have signed a term sheet as a precursor to the merger, ET Now has learnt.​ Zomato already owns a 10% stake in the Albider Dhindsa-helmed company which recently pivoted to the quick commerce segment.

a major development in the world of consumer technology start-up world, recently-listed Zomato and instant delivery service Blinkit, formerly Grofers, have signed a term sheet as a precursor to the merger, ET Now has learnt

Toyota, Tata, Motherson, TVS, Hero, Maruti Suzuki get approvals under PLI scheme

Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Bosch, Lucas-TVS, Mitsubishi Electric, Motherson Sumi, Tata Autocomp, and Toyota Kirloskar are among the 75 companies that have secured an approval under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Automobile and Auto Component Industry in India.

The scheme has been successful in attracting proposed investment of Rs 74,850 crore against the target estimate of investment Rs 42,500 crore over a period of five years, a senior official from the Ministry of Heavy Industries told ET.

“The proposed investment of Rs 45,016 crore is from approved applicants under Champion OEM Incentive Scheme and Rs 29,834 crore from approved applicants under Component Champion Incentive Scheme,” the official added.

Viral Acharya on the risk of US heading into recession, early signs of financial fragility, and more:Business News

Even as the market turns volatile due to raging global inflation now exacerbated by the economic sanctions on Russia, and the inevitability of US Fed’s monetary tightening, Viral Acharya, Academic Advisor to the Federal Reserve of New York and Philadelphia sees a real risk of US heading into recession over the next 12-18 months.

“At this level of oil prices and the sudden change in the expectations of six to seven rate hikes of 25 basis points each over the next year, I think one has to seriously take into account the risk of a recession in the United States over the next 12 to 18 months,” Acharya said.

After talks with India’s Future fail, Amazon goes on the attack in newspaper ads:Business news

Amazon.com Inc said talks have failed to resolve a bitter dispute over Future Retail (FRTL.NS) stores and accused both it and Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) of fraud in Indian newspaper ads on Tuesday.

The U.S. e-commerce giant has been contesting a $3.4 billion sale of Future Group’s retail assets to the Reliance conglomerate that was announced in 2020, and the case is currently before the Indian Supreme Court.

“I regret to say that we made efforts but I think nothing is possible by way of resolution,” Amazon’s lawyer Gopal Subramanium told the court. “The conversation is over.”

Petrol Price, Diesel Price Today: Fresh Fuel Rates Announced; Know How Much You Have to Pay:News

Petrol, Diesel Prices Today: Fuel rates remained unchanged across metro cities on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. Petrol prices in cities such as New Delhi,Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, and Bangalore will remain constant today. It is worth mentioning that the prices have remained static for over four months despite international crude oil prices having risen to more than $100 a barrel as major crude producers pledged to plug the supply gap from the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in a steep increase in global crude oil and gas prices. Government of India is closely monitoring global energy markets as well as potential energy supply disruptions as a fall-out of the evolving geopolitical situation,” Union minister of state Rameshwar Teli said through news confrence.

Sanjiv Puri’s comments come on the day when India recorded WPI inflation at over 13% and CPI inflation:Business news

 Puri also touched upon three focus points that he believes India needs to work on to stay on the growth trajectory despite rising inflation.
The Indian economy is facing unprecedented inflation just as the country is headed out of the covid-19 pandemic, said Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and Managing Director of ITC Ltd.

Talking at The Financial Express Boardroom 2022, Sanjiv Puri said that inflation is a key concern, and the ongoing geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine has only accentuated the concern. “As the pandemic was ebbing we are faced with a situation of unprecedented inflation

World Bank Approves $200 Million In Additional Funding For Ukraine:Top business news

The magnitudes are astronomical,” Malpass said. “Ukraine has been hit by the economic slowdown itself, the crops that are in the fields – difficult to harvest them.” He said Russian forces were trying to cut off Ukrainian farmers from both food and cash.

“It’s a harsh and horrifying effort that’s going on almost day by day,” he said, adding that the rebuilding effort would involve highways, bridges and other major infrastructure
That amounts to tens of billions of dollars,” he said.

To help Ukraine now, the bank was bringing forward “as much cash as we can,” Malpass said, adding that it would also begin building a pipeline of projects to help Ukrainians, some of whom were now living in Poland and elsewhere, as part of the $3 billion package.

Clothing brands & consumers are more price conscious after pandemic: Business news

Both apparel brands and consumers have become more price conscious now than before the pandemic, according to Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), even though the badly hit sector is poised to clock 75-80 per cent of pre-pandemic revenues by FY22 on the back of a strong recovery.

Brands are looking at tweaking their design specifications to become more price competitive, the grouping’s chief mentor Rahul Mehta told Business Today. CMAI represents 20,000 apparel retailers and manufacturers. “As it is apparel brands are finding it difficult because our raw material costs have gone up 25-30 per cent, adding pressure on pricing and margins. Yarn prices, packaging prices and logistics costs have all gone up.

Samsung to re-enter laptop segment in India, eyes double-digit market share:Business news

Samsung is planning to launch a wide portfolio, priced under Rs 40,000 and going up to Rs 1,20,000. It is eyeing a double-digit market share by the end of the calendar year 2022.

Korean electronics giant Samsung is re-entering the laptop business in India with a complete portfolio catering to consumers as well as enterprises.

Planning to launch a wide portfolio, which are priced under Rs 40,000 and going up to Rs 1,20,000, Samsung is eyeing a double-digit market share by the end of the calendar year 2022. Samsung had exited the laptop business from India around 2013-14.

The Rupee depreciation catch: Import intensive exports likely to take a hit:Business news

The depreciation in the value of the rupee may be good for the country’s export sectors, but there’s a vulnerable sub-category that’s adversely impacted: labour-intensive export sectors such as gems and jewellery, pharmaceuticals and electronics that are highly dependent on imports of inputs.

FPIs sold more in last 1 year than during 2008 global financial crisis; banks, IT sector see most outflows:Business news

Foreign investors have been selling domestic equities for months now, pulling money out of stocks before central banks start hiking interest rates. Heavy outflows of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) money in the last one year has exceeded that during the global financial crisis of 2008, analysts at ICICI Securities said in a note.

“The ongoing FPI selling in Indian equities is turning out to be the highest selling spree since the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008 with TTM FPI cumulative selling of $36 billion vs $28 billion during the GFC,” they added. However, benchmark indices are down just around 10% compared to more than 50% in 2008.

Inflows into Indian stocks were robust from FPIs during 2020 and most of 2021. Dalal Street rallied during this phase, outperforming emerging markets. However, recent headwinds such as global inflation, anticipated interest rate hikes, and now the Russia-Ukraine war have forced FPIs to turn net sellers.

First time in India, company gifts NFT to all employees. They can store, auction or sell it back to employer:Top business news

Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) company ORAI Robotics on Tuesday (March 15, 2022) said it has gifted Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) as rewards to its entire workforce consisting of over 50 employees as of date. The NFTs were validated and transferred to the employees through a digital wallet, the creation of which for every employee was facilitated by ORAI.

The company recently minted and launched its first generation NFT collection for employees named ‘ORAI Upbeat’.
The ORAI Upbeat collection consists of 500 unique NFT collectibles that are specifically minted for employees and key stakeholders.

The company said each of these collectibles represents optimistic, cheerful, and happy robots that are designed to create encouraging engagement in the up-and-coming world of metaverse.

Sensex tanks 700 points, Nifty down at 16,663:Business news

The Sensex and Nifty ended more than 1 per cent lower on Tuesday in choppy trading as cooling oil and metal prices dragged down energy and steelmaker stocks, with investors locking in gains ahead of the US Federal Reserve meeting.

there is some rebalancing happening,” said Likhita Chepa, senior research analyst at CapitalVia Global Research in Mumbai, as per a Reuters report.

Post office customers won’t get interest in cash on these accounts:Top business news

Interest on a number of post office schemes will no longer be paid in cash. The Department of Post has issued a circular in this regard stating post offices will stop paying interest in cash on three schemes from April 1, 2022.

The schemes on which the post office won’t pay interest in cash are – Term Deposit accounts, Monthly Income Scheme, and Senior Citizen Savings Scheme, according to a Live Mint report.

Maggi gets costlier as Nestle, HUL hike prices of instant, tea, coffee products:Top business news

The prices of Maggi noodles, tea, coffee and milk have been increased. In a jolt for consumers, Nestle India and Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) have hiked the rates of their instant, tea and coffee products, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, India’s retail inflation hit an eight-month high of 6.07 per cent in February, remaining above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) comfort level for the second month in a row, while wholesale price-based inflation soared to 13.11 per cent on account of hardening of crude oil and non-food item prices, government data showed on Monday.

SoftBank executives to leave boards of India’s Paytm, Policybazaar: News

Representatives of SoftBank Group Corp will step down from the boards of Indian digital payments firm Paytm and the parent of online insurance aggregator Policybazaar, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said

SoftBank will, however, retain its shareholding in the two Indian companies, added the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter has not yet been made public.

CM Yogi Adityanath declares ‘The Kashmir Files’ tax-free in Uttar Pradesh:News

More states are joining the tax-free brigade for ‘The Kashmir Files’. After Uttarakhand, Tripura, Karnataka and Goa, the film has been declared tax-free in Uttar Pradesh.
Taking to his Twitter handle, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that the state government would make the screening of ‘The Kashmir Files’ tax-free.

The Kashmir Files’, which revolves around the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, has been directed by Vivek Agnihotri, known for films like ‘Tashkent Files’, ‘Hate Story’ and ‘Buddha in a Traffic Jam.

India govt plans $3.3 billion sovereign green bond issuance:Business news

India sovereign green bond: The debut sale may take place in the first half of the fiscal year that starts on April 1
India will issue at least 240 billion rupees ($3.3 billion) in sovereign green bonds as the country marks a shift towards a low-carbon economy, according to officials with knowledge of the matter.

Twitter just cancelled the tabbed timeline it had recently rolled out:Business news

Twitter recently introduced a feature that created an algorithmically-generated feed by default for iOS users. However, the feedback was not what the platform expected and it has now been rolled back and Twitter is putting things back the way there were before.

“We heard you. Some of you always want to see latest tweets first. We’ve switched the timeline back and removed the tabbed experience for now while we explore other options,” Twitter shared earlier today.

Half of the newly elected MLAs face criminal cases, 87% are crorepatis: ADR report

A staggering 45 per cent of the newly elected legislators in the elections held across five states have declared criminal cases against them in their self-sworn affidavits, a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch has revealed.

The report, based on an analysis of the self-sworn affidavits furnished by candidates at the time of poll nomination, shows that of the 690 winning candidates across five states of Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, 312 (45%) have declared criminal cases against themselves. Of them, 219 (32 %) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, the report says.

Of the 690 seats, the BJP won 356, the Samajwadi Party 111, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 94, and Congress 55 and rests were bagged by smaller parties. Among the 356 MLAs of the BJP, 134 face criminal cases while 71 of the 111 SP MLAs, 52 of 94 of the AAP and 24 out of 55 of the Congress are facing criminal cases. In Uttar Pradesh, 39 per cent of the winning candidates have serious cases registered against themselves, 23 per cent in Punjab, 33 per cent in Goa, 14 per cent in Uttarakhand and 18 per cent in Manipur.

Will Shah Rukh Khan’s new venture SRK+ work in an overcrowded Indian OTT market?

Taking to Twitter, actor-entrepreneur Shah Rukh Khan announced his new OTT (over the top) venture SRK+. This isn’t the first time that Khan has teased the launch of his OTT debut. Last year, a series of ads talked about his collaboration with Disney+ Hotstar. The actor on Tuesday finally revealed that ‘SRK+ is coming soon’. “Kuch kuch hone wala hai, OTT ki duniya mein,” he wrote. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap will also be collaborating with Khan on his OTT project.

ndia has more than 40 OTT apps, including popular video-on-demand services like Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, etc. Will Khan’s new venture be able to make a mark in an overcrowded market like India?

“SRK has a very strong recall with the global audiences. That’s where the platform is going to have an edge,” argues Karan Taurani, senior vice president, Elara Capital. Experts point out that it’s not necessary that the platform will only have films by SRK. “Currently the OTT market is very fragmented. Even YRF has announced an OTT platform and are trying to build a platform with YRF films. There’s going to be a huge overlap in terms of content offering,” he said.