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UM in partnership with Lohia Two-Wheelers unveiled three motorcycles at the Auto Expo being held in Greater Noida on Thursday. The motorcycles include one electric cruiser Renegade Thor and two petrol-based motorcycles Renegade Duty S and Renegade Duty Ace. Renegade Thor is, as the company claims, the world’s first geared electric cruiser. The engine in the bike delivers a maximum 30 Kw of power @8000 rpm and produces a maximum torque of 70 Nm. The engine is mated to 5-speed transmission gears. The bike features twin-adjustable shocks at rear and hydraulic telescopic suspension at the front. Starting price of Renegade Thor is Rs 4.9 lakh. The range of the motorcycle is up to 270 km in a single charge and can reach a maximum speed of 180 kmph. The Li-Po battery which powers the bike can reach 80 percent of charging in 40 minutes with a fast charger. The company also announced that free charging facility will be available to customers at UM dealers for the first two years. “The Indian m

The bond markets in India have been witnessing significant volatility l ately. The 10-year Gsec yield has risen from the low of 6.37 percent in the month of Jan 2017 to 7.52 percent as of date. By any count, this is a major bear grip on the market. The bond market has been wary on two counts — One is the rising CPI inflation and the second is the slipping fiscal deficit. The CPI inflation has risen from 1.5 percent in June-17 to 5.2 percent in December 2017. This rise is partially on account of the seasonality of food & vegetables. But, a more important contributor of this increase in inflation has been the energy segment. Since June-17, the crude oil has risen by 49 percent and is presently trading at around US$67 per barrel On the other hand, the major taxation changes due to GST; and the impact of demonetisation, may have led to some hiccups in tax collection. That and the need for supporting vital investment in infrastructure and social sector led to marginal slippage in the

Twenty Two Motors on Thursday unveiled a ‘smart’ scooter for Indian roads at the Auto Expo – Flow. The electric scooter is AI-enabled and equipped with machine learning technology. Praveen Kharb, CEO of Twenty Motors said that the scooter has multiple sensors which record data while the scooter is in use. The data is then sent to a cloud server operated by the company. The cloud server has a digital model of every scooter the company manufactures. The digital scooter will run a simulation of the actual scooter, ahead in time, i.e., if your scooter has run 450 km, the simulation on the cloud would be at 500 km, forewarning the user about the need to replace any spare part such as brake pads, Kharb informed the media persons present at the Expo. Flow’s engine delivers 2100 watt power at its peak. The engine produces a torque of 90Nm @ 100 rpm. It is powered by a Li-ion removable battery which can charge up to 70 percent in an hour (fast charging). The charging can be done through a norm

After Budget 2018, all eyes are on RBI monetary policy scheduled to be released on February 7. Economists largely expect status quo on policy rates but key to watch would be the commentary. According to a majority of economists, RBI may start hinting about rate hike in forthcoming policies in line with a tightening global interest rate cycle. "We continue to expect the RBI to persist with its slightly hawkish pause in its Wednesday policy, from February, to err on the side of caution," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in its research note. "That said, falling onion prices, after tomatoes, support our call that inflation risks are overdone," it added. In fact, the government has reportedly removed the US$700/t minimum export price for onions. Inflation is seen cooling to 5 percent in January from 5.2 percent in December with the vegetable price spike expectedly reversing, according to the research house. December inflation actually printed a benign 4 percent, well

Expediting public services and ensuring fairness in procurement will supplement rapid economic growth in the South Asian region including India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today. The pick and choose system in public procurement, he warned, leads to unfairness and serious allegations of corruption and nepotism. Speaking at the South Asia Region Procurement Conference here, Jaitley said: "Countries across the world, and we in India, have have seen this evolve administratively within the governments and jurisprudentially when it came to matters of procurement. "When it came to matter of awarding largesse, contract, public private partnership itself, there had to be procedural fairness that state had to follow." Procedural fairness would always ensure that it could eliminate all elements of nepotism, favouritism and ensure transparency, he added. "This is the region (South Asia) where the fastest growth in the world is taking place and therefore this is the regi

N- Urjit Patel, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and his five colleagues on the Monetary Policy Committee will not find it too hard to keep the key policy interest rate unchanged at the upcoming policy review on February 7. The 2-day deliberations on February 6 and 7 by the MPC on the repo rate decision are expected to remain tilted towards a pause mode, keeping the near term outlook hawkish. However, they may raise rates later given the risks of higher inflation with fiscal slippages and higher food prices with the government planning to increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP). In the Budget last week, the government promised to ensure MSP of key crops at 1.5 times the cost of production. This could mean at least a 50-70-basis-points increase in the headline inflation number. While banks and bond markets have already signaled the end of the interest rate easing cycle, the MPC may keep the repo rate unchanged at 6 percent. Inflation risks Although, experts suggest the infl

#Business #EconomyWith the Budget spooking the market sentiment with the 10 percent long-term capital gains tax on equities gains, American brokerage Morgan Stanley has opined that life insurance products, particularly Ulips could be relatively attractive from a medium-to-long-term. The Dalal Street has been bleeding in since the Budget announcement, after the finance minister sought to reintroduce the long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax on equity investments at 10 per cent on profits in excess of Rs 1 lakh. It also has slapped a 10 per cent distribution tax on long-term capital gains from equity mutual funds. That apart there is also a dividend distribution tax at the hands of the receiver. While on the day of the Budget, the market was on see-saw ride and closed marginally down, the next day (on Friday), it saw the worst plunge since November 2014 with a massive 2.3 per cent drop. "We believe against the given backdrop, life insurance products, particularly Ulips (unit-linked ins