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Mumbai: ICICI Bank Ltd has blocked transactions on payments app PhonePe in at least the second such instance of a commercial bank trying to protect its turf against non-bank mobile wallet and payment companies. PhonePe is a unified payments interface (UPI) app which works on the ecosystem created by the National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI). On Saturday, PhonePe’s co-founder and chief executive officer Sameer Nigam took to microblogging site Twitter to allege that ICICI was blocking transactions since Friday. In a series of tweets, he said that ICICI was blocking “Definitely on purpose! Over 10x txns failed. Bank is not reversing the block.” An email seeking comment was sent to ICICI Bank late on Saturday night. This story will be updated when the bank responds. “We are waiting for an actual confirmation from ICICI through either NPCI directly or through Yes Bank, but we have no official intimation from any party,” Nigam told Mint . Yes Bank is a UPI par...

Regulator Sebi notified rules allowing foreign investors to own up to 15 percent stake in an exchange, a move that is expected to help attract more overseas funds. Currently, foreign entities can hold only up to 5 percent in an exchange. Sebi has amended regulations to increase the limit of shareholding of foreign entities like stock exchange, depository, banking and insurance company and commodity derivatives exchange in Indian stock exchanges to 15 percent, from 5 percent. Now, these entities "may acquire or hold, either directly or indirectly, either individually or together with persons acting in concert, up to 15 percent of the paid-up equity share capital of a recognised stock exchange", Sebi said in a notification dated January 12. The move comes after Sebi board in September approved a proposal to this effect. Already, a number of overseas investors have invested in leading exchanges NSE and BSE and the latest decision will help them enhance their exposure to the Indi...

BENGALURU: Differences between the state government and the railways over the funding pattern for the city's suburban rail network could delay the project. Bengaluru development minister KJ George has said that Karnataka was ready to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the railways for the project. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu is scheduled to visit the city on January 16. George said, "We want to make it a joint venture, with 50-50 equity funding. We have also sent our suggestions on the draft policy proposed by the Indian Railways." As per the draft policy, the state needs to bear 20% of the project cost, raise loans to cover 60% and the railways will contribute the remaining 20%. The draft also enjoins on the state to handle all land acquisition in Bengaluru, and other cities in the state that are in need of suburban railway networks. However, Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan told STOI that the state government wasn't keen on taking ownership of the...

State-owned Coal India arm Central Coalfields Ltd today announced an increase in price of coking coal, which may help the PSU earn an additional revenue of nearly Rs 89.98 crore for the remainder of 2016-17 and Rs 222 crore for the next fiscal. The announcement came at a time when steel companies are feeling the squeeze because of a surge in global coking coal prices. However, the company did not specify the quantum of the increase. In a filing to BSE, Coal India (CIL) said: "The board of directors of Central Coalfields Ltd, a subsidiary of Coal India, has approved revision of coal prices with effect from 00:00 hours of January 14, 2017... this revision, will earn approximately additional revenue of Rs 89.98 crore for the balance period of 2016-17 i.e January 13 to March 2017 and additional revenue of Rs 222 crore for 2017-18 subject to achievement of production and dispatch target norms." According to an official, the price of various grades of coking coal of the PSU varies ...

BENGALURU: Is India's economy prepared to shift from cash to a 'less-cash' model that the government has been talking about since demonetisation ? Yes, says Nandan Nilekani , a name synonymous with Aadhaar, and now part of the Niti Aayog panel on e-payments that is working with chief ministers to promote the use of digital payments systems across the country. In an exclusive interview, Nilekani told TOI that the infrastructure needed to enable more than a billion people to transact digitally is already in place, but unlike the West, where card-based payments are more common, the Indian economy will digitalise through mobile-based payments that are faster and cheaper to roll out. Now, it is a matter of increasing awareness and keeping transaction charges low, he added. At present, only 5% of personal consumption expenditure in India happens digitally. The 600 million debit cards are used mostly for ATM withdrawals while credit cards number merely 20 million. Nilekani said ...

Private steel major Tata Steel's Noamundi Iron-ore Mine in adjoining West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand is all set to become the first mine of the country to launch 'Drone Application in Mine Monitoring' (DAMM) on Monday. Noamundi Iron Mine of Tata Steel will become the first Mine in India to launch "Drone Application in Mine Monitoring" (DAMM) on January 16, a Tata Steel press release here today said, adding the DAMM will be launched by Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Balvinder Kumar. Under the Flagship program 'Make in India', Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised on role of Space Science for achieving good governance during his address at the National Meet on Promoting Space Technology based Tools and Application in Governance and Development. Based on the Prime Minister's vision, Ministry of Mines conceptualised and launched MSS (Mine Surveillance System) on October 15, 2016. MSS is a satellite-based monitoring system through automatic remote sen...

New Delhi :  The EC has directed Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of five poll-bound states to ask top police brass that cash transfers during the election period be done under the protection of cops and that they be kept “informed” about such movements from banks or currency chests, reports PTI. The Election Commission, in its directives to the CEOs of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, has cited the standing orders of the poll-body in this regard even as it appended the recent instructions issued by the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the Finance Ministry on the subject. The DFS has said the “operating procedure for transportation of cash by banks and transfer of currency from one chest to another operated by the banks within the state or inter-state level as laid down in the above mentioned letters shall be followed scrupulously.” “(CEOs) are also requested to kindly advise the Directors General and Commissioners of Pol...

MUMBAI: A Sebi panel has proposed increased transparency in the processes for appointment and removal of board of directors . The panel has also said that companies should have better systems for evaluating the performance of directors and should periodically disclose how board members have performed. Although U K Sinha-led Sebi did not raise any specific issue, the regulator's International Advisory Board said that it has taken note of "the recent developments on corporate governance related issues in India." The Sebi release on IAB came after its two-day meeting in Jaipur ended on Saturday during which there were extensive deliberations on the role of the nomination and remuneration committee (NRC) of the board, role and evaluation of independent directors,and disclosure requirements. The proposal comes a month after Sebi came out with a 'guidance note' on evaluation of board of directors of listed entity. The IAB members includes some of the former financial...

Small-time private sector lender DCB Bank on Friday reported a 25 per cent surge in December quarter net at Rs 51 crore, driven primarily by a surge in the core interest income. The city-based lender had reported a post tax profit of Rs 41 crore in the year-ago period. Its net interest income rose 31 per cent to Rs 209 crore, while the non-interest income was up 36 crore to Rs 64 crore during the reporting quarter. The share of low-cost current and savings account balances increased to 25.85 per cent as on December 31, from the 21.91 per cent three months ago, on the back of a surge in deposits following the move to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes by the Central government. The surge in deposits, coupled with a massive slowdown in advances (which grew only two per cent sequentially) led to a drop in the credit-deposit ratio to 77.41 per cent from 83.33 per cent in the year-ago period. The bank's net interest margin was down 3.95 per cent as against 3.96 per cent in the year-ago per...

In February 1, Anil Bhardwaj hopes Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will read out what he badly wants to hear. And he is more hopeful than he has ever been. As secretary-general of FISME (Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises), he represents 743 countrywide associations with two million members and over 10 million employees. Small and unorganised, FISME members are often unheard and invisible on India’s economic radar. Yet, part of the informal sector — which contributes over half of India’s economic output and employs 90% of India’s 470 million workforce — it is critical for the economy. Right now they are hurting. “Demonetisation has given us the biggest jhatka,” says Bhardwaj. For example, in Uttar Pradesh’s Yamuna Nagar, the hub of India’s plywood industry, factories are shut. “Now, they have only two options: shut down or shift to the formal economy (where cashless transactions can be resorted to),...

MUMBAI - Moving the head of Tata Consultancy Services to the top job at Tata Sons' holding company fills a critical hole for the salt-to-software conglomerate, but it leaves another at its most valuable company ahead of a complex and unpredictable 2017. The promotion of Tata veteran Natarajan Chandrasekaran - the well-regarded, high-performing boss of TCS under whom shares have quadrupled - should be no surprise. But the departure of Chandrasekaran, known as Chandra, from the Tata group's most profitable arm still rattled investors. They sent TCS shares down more than 4 percent on Friday, a day after it also posted better-than-expected quarterly results. "The IT industry is facing headwinds, and shareholders would have preferred Chandra to stay as CEO for some more time," said Souvik Guha, an analyst with Shriram Asset Management, which owns shares in TCS. Indeed, for Tata Sons, promoting one-time Tata intern Chandrasekaran to chairman of the $100 billion conglomerat...

Supporting the letter written by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) employees to Governor Urjit Patel protesting against operational "mismanagement" post demonetisation, the Congress on Sunday said the Central Bank's reputation lies in tatters due today. "RBI was told only on November 7. The currency management and the management of the capital is responsibility of the reserve bank under law. The Reserve Bank could have told the government it cannot be done...RBI's reputation and respect today lies in tatters. It has been battered very badly," Congress leader Anand Sharma told ANI. Calling the step of demonetisation 'illegal', Sharma said the autonomy of the Central Bank has been undermined due to the invalidation of the Indian currency. "The RBI's autonomy has been severely undermined by the invalidation of the Indian currency. What has happened is illegal. It is violation of the RBI act because neither the RBI has the powers to demonetise nor...

Jaipur: To protect the interest of public shareholders, Sebi will strengthen the regulations for mergers whereby very large unlisted companies would be restrained from getting listed by merging with a very small company. Besides, to improve the disclosure standards, an unlisted company merging with a listed one would have to comply with the requirement of disclosing material information. Amendments to the regulatory framework on schemes of arrangements -- mergers and demergers -- has been cleared by the Sebi board at its meeting held here on Saturday. Moving ahead to streamline as well as strengthen the norms, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said that an unlisted company can be merged with a listed one only if it is listed on a stock exchange having nationwide trading terminals. With the revised norms, the holding of pre-scheme public shareholders of the listed entity as well as that of Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) of the unlisted company should not be less t...

New Delhi: Halting its four-day winning run, gold drifted lower by Rs. 100 to Rs. 29,350 per 10 gram at the bullion market here today due to weak retail demand. However, silver recaptured the Rs. 41,000-mark by rising Rs. 250 to Rs. 41,200 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units and coin makers. Traders attributed the slide in gold prices to fall in demand from jewellers and retailers at existing levels but a firm trend overseas capped the fall. In the national capital, gold of 99.9 per cent and 99.5 per cent purity fell by Rs. 100 each to Rs. 29,350 and Rs. 29,200 per 10 grams respectively. The precious metals had gained Rs. 750 in the previous four days. Sovereign, however, held steady at Rs. 24,300 per piece of eight gram. On the other hand, silver ready rebounded by Rs. 250 to Rs. 41,200 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs. 180 to Rs. 41,000 per kg. Silver coins, however,continued to be traded at previous level of Rs. 72,000 for buying and Rs. 73,000 for selling of 100 p...

India’s unemployment index in 2017 will witness a marginal increase in 2017 according to a United Nations labour report. The report noted that workers in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have more than a 70 per cent chance of falling into vulnerable employment. Vulnerable unemployment is the sort of employment that doesn’t grant workers any social security scheme (which is a common feature when it comes to wage and salaried workers), the report titled “2017 World Employment and Social Outlook” noted. Conducted by UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO), the report found that economic Growth trends are lagging in a race against employment needs in 2017. With the Global GDP hitting a six-year low, at 3.1 per cent, in 2016, the global economic growth is expected to pick up in 2017. However, over the past few years forecasts of growth have been revised continuously for 2017 due to uncertainty, leaving behind questions of its ability to g...

Small-time private sector lender DCB Bank on Friday reported a 25 per cent surge in December quarter net at Rs 51 crore, driven primarily by a surge in the core interest income. The city-based lender had reported a post tax profit of Rs 41 crore in the year-ago period. Its net interest income rose 31 per cent to Rs 209 crore, while the non-interest income was up 36 crore to Rs 64 crore during the reporting quarter. The share of low-cost current and savings account balances increased to 25.85 per cent as on December 31, from the 21.91 per cent three months ago, on the back of a surge in deposits following the move to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes by the Central government. The surge in deposits, coupled with a massive slowdown in advances (which grew only two per cent sequentially) led to a drop in the credit-deposit ratio to 77.41 per cent from 83.33 per cent in the year-ago period. The bank's net interest margin was down 3.95 per cent as against 3.96 per cent in the year-ago per...

MUMBAI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Saturday tightened merger and acquisitions norms , lowered fees for brokers, allowed mutual funds to invest in real estate and infrastructure investment trusts and permitted celebrity endorsements of mutual funds At its board meeting in Jaipur, the regulator decided that in case of merger of an unlisted company with a listed entity, it would have to meet the minimum public shareholding requirement of 25% . “The holding of pre-scheme public shareholders of the listed entity and the qualified institutional buyers of the unlisted company, in the post scheme shareholding pattern of the “merged” company shall not be less than 25%. The objective is to have wider public shareholding and to prevent very large unlisted company to get listed by merging with a very small company,” Sebi said in a press statement posted on its website. The regulator said unlisted company would be allowed to be merged with a listed c...

Investors will be keenly watching the IT stocks performance as its performance will determine whether Sensex and NIFTY can deliver a double digit return in 2017 or not. The top three key highlights from the Q3 earnings for Infosys were: - Guidance slightly down along with the attrition rate: - Vishal Sikka revised the revenue guidance from 8-9% to 8.4-8.8% in constant terms for the financial year which translates into a revenue guidance of 7.2-7.6% in dollar terms. The attrition rates for Infosys declined to 14.9% on a standalone basis and to 18.4% levels on consolidated basis in the October-December quarter. The attrition figures are lower when compared to the quarter ended September 30,2016. Revenues decline & Net profit jumps: The net profit improved for the quarter even as the revenues dipped. The bottom line jumped 2.83% QoQ basis to Rs 3,708 cr from Rs 3,606 cr. Operating profit grows: One of the most important figures in the result announcement, the operating profits rose to...

Of late, particularly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to demonetise Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes on 8 November midnight, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has become an object of ridicule and has come under sharp criticism for giving up its autonomy. The institution, which is otherwise regarded as among the few in the country that can claim the highest standards of professionalism and institutional integrity, is now facing flak for giving away its independence in functions and operating as just another department of the finance ministry. Not just by social media enthusiasts, but former RBI governors and deputy governors, economists and now, even RBI staff unions, have lamented central bank’s current plight. A letter written by various employee unions under the United Forum of Reserve Bank Officers and Employees, to governor Urjit Patel ( Firstpost has reviewed the letter), has raised the issue of Modi-government "impinging on RBI autonomy" and has asked Patel to act a...

What is your view on elevation of N Chandrasekaran as the chairman of Tata Sons? Chandra is a perfect choice. He is a true professional. He is a Tata lifer and he is very bright. He is honest to the core. Integrity has been unquestionable. He is a leader. He had led TCS very successfully all these years and in TCS he has exposure to multinational companies, the fortune 500 companies across the globe. He has had experience with getting businesses from foreign companies and he is the ideal choice. I congratulate the selection committee for appointing an insider and a young person. He is still 53, he has many years to go and he will enhance the name of the Tata empire. You mentioned the word insider and that is something which is very relevant in the current scheme of affairs because the Tata Group would have wanted a sense of continuity. Chandra has been working in Tata empire for more than 30 years and recently also joined the board of Tata Sons. What do you have to say about the fact...

Washington: The Senate Intelligence Committee announced a bipartisan investigation into Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 elections, including any links with associates of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. “As part of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s oversight responsibilities we believe that it is critical to have a full understanding of the scope of Russian intelligence activities impacting the United States,” said chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, and Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, in a joint statement late Friday. The committee’s investigation comes a day after the Senate received a closed-door briefing from top intelligence officials on allegations of hacking and other activities by Russian intelligence. It has the backing of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “This issue impacts the foundations of our democratic system, it’s ...

London: WhatsApp , the Facebook-owned mobile messaging service, is vulnerable to interception, the Guardian newspaper reported on Friday, sparking concern over an app advertised as putting an emphasis on privacy. The report said that WhatsApp messages could be read without its billion-plus users knowing due to a security backdoor in the way the company has implemented its end-to-end encryption protocol. The system relies on unique security keys “that are traded and verified between users to guarantee communications are secure and cannot be intercepted by a middleman,” the report said. But WhatsApp can force the generation of new encryption keys for offline users “unbeknown to the sender and recipient of the messages,” it said. Tobias Boelter, a cryptography researcher at the University of California told the Guardian : “If WhatsApp is asked by a government agency to disclose its messaging records, it can effectively grant access due to the change in keys....

Mumbai: Shares of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) tumbled 3.9% on Friday, posting their biggest decline since 9 November, as the exit of CEO N. Chandrasekaran to head the holding firm Tata Sons overshadowed largely in-line December quarter earnings TCS named its chief financial officer Rajesh Gopinathan to succeed Chandrasekaran (popularly known as Chandra) as CEO. On Friday, TCS shares closed 3.9% lower at Rs2,252 apiece on the BSE. In comparison, the BSE IT index shed 1.9%, while the 30-share Sensex closed flat. The plunge shaved of Rs17,990 crore from the market capitalization of India’s most-valued firm. For Mumbai-headquartered TCS, the protracted period of subpar growth continued as India’s largest technology outsourcing firm reported a 0.3% dollar revenue growth, marginally higher than street expectations, in the October-December period. “...major management changes with current CEO being elevated to group chairman and replaced by current CFO overshadowed t...

New Delhi: Signalling a gradual improvement in external demand conditions, India’s merchandise exports expanded for the fourth consecutive month in December by 5.72%, while a 48.5% dip in gold demand saw imports increase by 0.46% during the month. The trade deficit in December declined to $10.4 billion from $13 billion the previous month. However, excluding gold, silver and petroleum products, imports grew 6.1%, which could mean a revival in demand in the economy if sustained. Cumulatively, for the period April-December, exports picked up marginally by 0.75% to $198.8 billion while imports shrank 7.42% to $275.3 billion, leading to a trade deficit of $76.5 billion. ALSO READ: Base effect, capital goods power IIP growth for November In December, exports of gems and jewellery (27.86%), drugs and pharmaceuticals (12.49%), chemicals (18.15%), engineering goods (19.9%) and petroleum products (8.22%) picked up while shipments of readymade garments declined (-0.3%) probably as a fallout ...

New Delhi: Removing squatters from good wind potential sites, inordinate delays in signing of power purchase agreements, timely payments and distribution firms shying away from procuring electricity generated from wind energy projects will be some of the issues that the National Democratic Alliance-led Narendra Modi government plans to discuss at an apex meeting of states and the nodal agencies for ironing out issues plaguing the green energy sector. The meeting called on 23 and 24 January is scheduled to be attended by top officials from the states and the Centre involved in helping India achieve its clean energy commitments. Some of the other issues on the agenda for the meeting, available on the website of the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) inlcude; proper scheduling and forecasting of wind energy, availability of transmission facilities and rationalisation of transmission tariffs for wind energy projects. Under the topic Issues for Discussion with States , the agenda ...

Beijing: India’s trade deficit with China mounted to a whopping $46.56 billion last year as Indian exports continued to decline while the bilateral trade marginally slowed down by 2.1% to nearly $71 billion. The total India-China bilateral trade in 2016 amounted to $70.8 billion, a decline of 2.1% as per the trade figures released by General Administration of Customs (GAC). China exports totaled to $58.33 billion, registering an increase of 0.2% compared to $58.25 billion in 2015, as GAC data accessed by PTI . While it is not clear yet the areas of decline in India’s exports as detailed data is not released yet, officials say it reflected on the continuing declining trend in the last few years. ALSO READ: Chinese head home in world’s biggest annual human migration The exports from India to China pegged down at $11.76 billion, about 12% decline compared to 2015. The Indian exports showed the declining trend for a while as they totaled to $13.38 billion in 2015 and $16.4...

Los Angeles: Sony Entertainment chief executive Michael Lynton will step down to become chairman of the board of messaging app owner Snap Inc, a move that puts an experienced Hollywood executive in a prominent role as the technology company prepares for an initial public offering. Lynton will give up his current position at Sony’s movie and television unit on 2 February but remain as co-CEO for six months to help find a successor, Japanese conglomerate Sony Corp said in a statement on Friday. Snap, the owner of the popular Snapchat app, is expected to go public early this year, vying for a $25 billion valuation. Lynton was an early investor in the company co-founded by 26-year-old CEO Evan Spiegel, and has served on its board for nearly four years. The Venice, California-based company has made a push into news and entertainment content, a strategy that heightened competition with social networks such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc. In 2015, it began sharing video and articles fr...

Detroit/Washington: Japan’s Takata Corp on Friday agreed to plead guilty to criminal wrongdoing and to pay $1 billion to resolve a US Justice Department investigation into ruptures of its air bag inflators linked to at least 16 deaths worldwide. The deal was announced hours after prosecutors in Detroit charged three former senior Takata executives with falsifying test results to conceal the inflator defect, which triggered the world’s biggest automotive safety recall. Takata will pay a $25 million fine, $125 million in a victim compensation fund, including for future incidents, and $850 million to compensate automakers for massive recall costs, the Justice Department said. The auto parts supplier will be required to make significant reforms and be on probation and under the oversight of an independent monitor for three years. The company’s shares rose 16.5% in trading in Japan on news of the anticipated settlement, in which it agreed to plead guilty to a single felony...