Indian Navy to start next phase of operation Samudra Setu from June 1

The Indian Navy will start the next phase of Operation Samudra Setu from June 1 to repatriate Indians who are stranded overseas amid the coronavirus pandemic, an official release said on Saturday.
“In this phase, Indian Navy Ship Jalashwa will repatriate 700 personnel from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu and subsequently repatriate another 700 personnel from Malè, Republic of Maldives to Tuticorin,” the Navy said.

YES Bank acquires 24.19% stake in Dish TV through pledged shares

Private sector lender YES Bank has acquired 24.19 per cent in Dish TV, making it the second-largest shareholder in the direct-to-home (DTH) company.
The bank’s move to pick up a stake in Dish TV comes following an invocation of pledged shares to the tune of 445.3 million in the firm, the lender said in a filing to the stock exchanges late on Friday night.

The promoter family, led by Jawahar Goel, brother of Essel group promoter Subhash Chandra, now owns 30.37 per cent in Dish TV, counted among the leading DTH players in India with net sales of Rs 6,166 crore (for FY2018-19). The promoter family earlier held 54.56 per cent in the company, its March 31, 2020, shareholding pattern shows.
As of Friday’s close, Dish TV’s market capitalisation stood at Rs 788 crore. The firm has shed 67 per cent of its value since January this year.
This is the sixth such transaction by YES Bank in a year in various companies. Last year, YES Bank had invoked pledged shares of CG Power, Cox & Kings, and Reliance Infrastructure. While earlier this year, it had invoked pledged shares of Reliance Power and Sical Logistics, as investor pressure to reduce its exposure to debt-laden firms grows. As of March 31, 2019 (FY19), Dish TV’s debt stood at Rs 2,758 crore.
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It is yet to declare its full-year FY20 results.
Pledged shares as a percentage of promoter shareholding in Dish TV now stands at 88.31 per cent. At the end of the March 2020 quarter, it stood at 93.43 per cent.
chartYES Bank clarified on Friday that the decision to buy stake in Dish TV was a "one-time" affair.
"The shares have been acquired subsequent to a default of the terms of the credit facilities sanctioned by YES Bank to Essel Business Excellence Services, Essel Corporate Resources, Living Entertainment Enterprises, Last Mile Online, Pan India Network Infravest, RPW Projects, Mumbai WTR and Pan India Infra projects," it said in its note to the stock exchanges.
Last year, Chandra and his family had to offload a 16.5 per cent stake to existing investors in Zee Entertainment, the flagship firm of the Essel group, to pay off promoter loans.
ALSO READ: IDBI Bank posts Rs 135 cr profit in Q4 on account of bad loan recoveries
While Chandra stepped down as Zee chairman in November last year, he and his family retained management control in Zee with only 5.9 per cent stake. His son Punit Goenka was reappointed Zee MD and CEO from January 1 this year.
Dish TV, on the other hand, which had been talking to Airtel DTH, for a possible merger had to call off the deal in February following differences over valuation. It has since been talking with global financial investors for a stake sale, which is yet to fructify.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Tata Sky has a market share of 31.61 per cent in the DTH market, followed by Dish TV at 31.23 per cent and Airtel DTH at 23.39 per cent respectively.

Here's the list of outperforming stocks rising most since lockdown

Radhakishan Damani groups have outperformed the broad market substantially, clocking 26 per cent gains. Growth has been calculated on the basis of the market cap of all the listed companies of these groups as on March 23, the day before the Central government announced the nationwide lockdown, compared to what it was on Thursday.
#7 K M Birla
#7 K M Birla2 / 8

The Aditya Birla group too have beaten the average increase since the lockdown with 28 per cent gains.

#6 Shiv Nadar
#6 Shiv Nadar3 / 8

The Shiv Nadar group has seen a 30 per cent appreciation in market value.
#5 Anil Agarwal
#5 Anil Agarwal4 / 8

Anil Agarwal-controlled Vedanta Ltd, the flagship company of the group, has seen its share price spiral up as a result of its announcement this month to delist itself.
#4 Sunil Bharti Mittal
#4 Sunil Bharti Mittal5 / 8

The telecom business has bucked the trend during the lockdown, and has seen a 15 per cent increase in data usage, owing to work from home becoming the new norm. As a result, average revenue per user is moving up and is expected to hit Rs 200 in a few quarters. Bharti Airtel has leveraged this opportunity, especially after it earlier raised $3 billion through a qualified institutional placement and an overseas bond issue, and the market has cheered the stock with the group shares rising 41 per cent, coming in at fourth place.
#3 Dilip Shanghvi
#3 Dilip Shanghvi6 / 8

The rally in the pharmaceutical sector amid the Covid pandemic has helped Sun Pharma promoter Dilip Shanghvi gain a 42 per cent appreciation in stock prices.
#2 Gautam Adani
#2 Gautam Adani7 / 8

The Adani group, which saw the second-highest appreciation among business houses, has seen a sharp rise in the prices of both Adani Ports and Adani Green.
#1 Mukesh Ambani
#1 Mukesh Ambani8 / 8

Ambani is the winner by a wide margin with 78 per cent appreciation, thanks to the aggressive and successful fund-raising programme during the lockdown. Reliance Industries’ subsidiary Jio Platforms raised Rs 78,562 crore in Jio Platforms for a 17.2 per cent stake at a valuation of around Rs 4.9 trillion from marquee investors including Facebook. It is also going through a rights issue, through which it will be raising Rs 53,124 crore.

Govt mulls ban on loose edible oil sales post Covid-19 over health concerns

The government is contemplating a ban on the sale of loose edible oil after concerns were raised about its authenticity and the possible impact on health, in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While deliberating on the challenges being faced by the edible oil industry in the post Covid-19 scenario at a webinar today, Atul Chaturvedi, President of the Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA), said, “The government is contemplating on ban on loose edible oils which gives an opportunity for packaged and branded players to boost their sales.”
The ban, if imposed, would affect consumers in India's poorer states, especially in rural areas. Many such consumers still purchase edible oils in very small quantities worth a few rupees. This means, rural and daily wage earning consumers buy their requirements in terms of rupee value from and not by weight. They buy edible oils everyday from the wage they earn and consume it.
Branded and packaged edible oils are selling currently at around 50 per cent premiums over loose their varieties. Hence, products using edible oils would be costlier going forward.
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Apart from daily wage earners and rural poor, producers of fried products on the roadside (like makers of samosa and other such temporary dishes for snacks) normally consume a voluminous quantity of loose edible oils which works out to cheaper than branded and packaged ones.
B V Mehta, Executive Director, SEA estimates such consumers contribute nearly 40 per cent of India’s edible oil consumption to the tune of 23 million tonnes. India imports around 65 per cent of overall edible oil demand primarily from Indonesia, Malaysia and Argentina due to stagnant oilseeds production locally.

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When market opens following ending of the nationwide lockdown, marketing strategy of all staple foods including edible oils would see a drastic change with lot of consumers shifting from unbranded to branded products and loose to packaged products for safety and security of their health. Consumer behaviour is set to change.
“The nationwide lockdown has seen a massive demand destruction due to closure of hotels, restaurants and catering services. While some losses are permanent, others are temporary which may see recovery after the lockdown ends. So, players in packaged oil category would have to be ready to grab this opportunity,” said Chaturvedi.
In a swift change, retailers have stopped stocking loose oils in their showrooms amid fear of weak sales during this Covid-19 pandemic and possible continuation thereafter.
“After Covid-19, we are not going to change like robots but lifestyle is going to change. Consumers are going to be more health conscious and therefore, they will be looking at health benefit products with no cholesterol or fats etc,” said Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman India, Oglivy.

ALSO READ: Use of public transport likely to dip for 6 mnths post lockdown: CSE survey
Pandey emphasized the need to continue reaching consumers even during the period of weak sales through advertising in various media or through messaging to have uninterrupted consumer connect. He stressed upon the one mother brand with many more others with their separate target audience.
“The nationwide lockdown has severely hit India’s ‘out of home’ consumption of edible oils especially from the segments like bakery, ice creams, farsan and other friend products which overall contributes nearly 27 per cent of India’s overall edible oil consumption,” said Angshu Mallick, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Adani Wilmar Ltd, the producer of ‘Fortune’ brand edible oils.
Mallick forecast India’s edible oil consumption to recover in the second half of the current financial year due to possible opening up of schools, offices etc which would increase consumption of biscuits and retail delivery of food products through aggregator.
Priyam Patel, Director of N K Proteins, the producer of Tirupati brand edible oils, however, believes that digital sales and marketing to bring more attraction in the post Covid-19 scenario than ever before.

Sun Pharma to test two drugs for treatment of Covid-19, stock up 3.5%

India’s largest drug maker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is readying to start trials on a few drugs that have emerged as potential treatment candidates for Covid-19. This includes an anti-coagulant and anti-inflammatory drug nafamostat and another plant-based dengue drug candidate that Sun Pharma was developing along with government research institutes.
The development comes at a time when several Indian companies are lining up testing of potential drug candidates on Covid-19 patients. Mumbai-based Glenmark, too, has started trials on favipiravir, an influenza drug that has shown some promise.
On Friday, Sun Pharma said it received the nod from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to initiate a clinical trial with nafamostat mesilate on Covid-19 patients. These will be phase II trials on about 40 patients. The drug is approved in Japan for improvement of acute symptoms of pancreatitis as well as for treatment of DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation). Basically, it is an anti-coagulant drug that has potential anti-inflammatory and anti-viral activities against Covid-19.
ALSO READ: Sun Pharma to test pancreatitis drug in Covid-19 patients in India
Sun Pharma’s stock was up 3.5 per cent on the BSE on Friday. A group of scientists from University of Tokyo, Japan, and Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Germany, have demonstrated that nafamostat, at very low concentrations, suppresses a protein that the Covid-19 virus uses to enter human lung cells. Another group from Institute Pasteur, South Korea, also published data comparing antiviral efficacy of 24 drugs and nafamostat, against SARSCoV-2 in in-vitro studies. The International Journal of Infectious Diseases said, in a May 26 report, three cases of Covid-19 pneumonia improved after treatment with nafamostat and that preliminary findings show that this drug can be considered for use in elderly patients with Covid-19 pneumonia.

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At present, there are three clinical trials underway to test nafamostat in Covid-19 patients around the world. Sun Pharma plans to start the India trials soon, but has not given a timeline for completion of the same.
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Dilip Shanghvi, managing director, Sun Pharma, said: “Sun Pharma is evaluating potential targets that can be explored for treating Covid-19 patients. Nafamostat has shown promising data against SARS-CoV-2 virus in in-vitro studies conducted by three independent groups of scientists in Europe, Japan, and South Korea. We believe it holds promise in the treatment of Covid-19 patients.” Nafamostat is currently not sold in India. Sun Pharma has initiated manufacturing of both, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and the finished product of nafamostat in India, using technology from Pola Pharma Japan.
Meanwhile, Sun Pharma has also received the DCGI nod to conduct clinical trials on a repurposed dengue drug that it was developing with government research institutes. In 2016, the company had started working on this botanical medicine with the Department of Biotechnology - International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (DBT-ICGEB) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research- Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM).
In April, the company submitted a proposal to the DCGI to conduct clinical trials to test the efficacy of the drug derived from plant sources on Covid-19. Sources claimed the company received the regulator’s nod last month. The trials are yet to start.

Important to be even more vigilant now, says PM Modi in 'Mann Ki Baat'

On a day when India registered its highest single-day spike of 8,380 coronavirus cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned people of the country to remain even more vigilant now as major chunk of the economy has opened up. Coronavirus is very much there and we cannot be complacent, he said.
Addressing the nation in the 65th edition of his radio show "Mann ki Baat" on Sunday, the prime minister said that "India's fight against Covid-19 is people-driven and country's 'seva shakti' is visible in this battle".
ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: Highest single-day spike of 8,380 Covid-19 cases in India
However, he clearly stated that it would be a long battle against the pandemic. "Road ahead is a long one. We are fighting a pandemic about which little was previously known," he said.

"There is no class of people who did not suffer due to this outbreak, but poor, labourers hit hardest," Modi said.
Everyone is working to help them, he said, and highlighted the railways' exercise to transport huge numbers of migrant workers to their home.
The prime minister also asked people to be "extra careful" and stick to precautions like maintaining social distance and wearing masks as the economy gradually opens up.
He noted that a big part of economy has reopened, with railway and air traffic being resumed partially and set to be scaled up in the coming says. "You need to be extra careful now," he said.
Modi noted how India has fared much better than many parts of the world in fighting the pandemic and also lauded innovative spirit and the sense of service shown by people in different parts of the country.
He also assured farmers, saying that help will be extended to all those affected by locust attack.
On the destruction caused by Cyclone Amphan, he said, "India stands with Odisha and West Bengal, people of these states have shown remarkable courage."
On Saturday, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued new guidelines for phased re-opening of "all activities outside containment zones for the next one month beginning June 1".
PM Modi in a letter addressed to Indian citizens on Saturday has expressed “firm belief” that the country will set an “example in economic revival” for the world.
"Given the way India has surprised the world with its unity and resolve in the fight against coronavirus, there is a firm belief that we will also set an example in economic revival," he wrote.
In the letter, which marks the completion of one year of the current tenure of his government, the prime minister said sections of the population, including workers and artisans, have “undergone tremendous suffering” because of the spread of coronavirus.

In the 64th episode of 'Mann Ki Baat', the Prime Minister had focused on the situation prevailing in the country due to Covid-19 and urged people to help the poor, migrants and needy during the lockdown.
He had said that India's fight against coronavirus is "people-driven" and is being fought by the masses and the administration together.
The Prime Minister had on March 24 announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19. The lockdown was later extended, in phases, till May 31.
According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India witnessed the highest ever spike of 7,964 coronavirus positive cases on Saturday, taking the total count in the country to 1,73,763.
With as many as 265 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll due to the virus now stands at 4,971. Out of the total number of coronavirus cases, 86,422 are active cases and 82,370 have been cured/discharged/migrated.

CBDT notifies income tax returns forms for 2019-20: Find all the details

The government has notified forms for filing tax returns for income earned in 2019-20 and made it mandatory for people to file ITR in case their deposits in a current account exceed Rs 1 crore or electricity bill in the fiscal is Rs 1 lakh or more.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on May 30 notified Sahaj (ITR-1), Form ITR-2, Form ITR-3, Form Sugam (ITR-4), Form ITR-5, Form ITR-6, Form ITR-7 and Form ITR-V for the assessment year 2020-21 (income earned between April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020).

The new ITR forms require taxpayers to furnish details of specified high-spend transactions, such as deposit of Rs 1 crore or more in a current account, expenditure of Rs 2 lakh or more on foreign travel or spending of Rs 1 lakh or more on consumption of electricity, in case such persons are otherwise not required to income tax returns.
The department has also revised the I-T return forms to allow assessees to avail benefits of various timeline extension granted by the government following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Accordingly, the new ITR forms also require taxpayers to furnish details of tax saving investments/ donations made during June 2020for the 2019-20 separately.
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The government has extended various timelines under the Income Tax Act, 1961, through the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020.
Accordingly, the time for making investment or payments for claiming deduction under Chapter-VIA-B of the I-T Act that include Section 80C (LIC, PPF, NSC etc.), 80D (Mediclaim) and 80G (Donations) for the financial year 2019-20 had been extended to June 30, 2020.
Nangia Andersen Consulting Director Shailesh Kumar said the benefit of simpler forms ITR 1, ITR 2 and ITR 4 would not be available to individuals, who are either director in a company or have invested in unlisted equity shares.
"The ITR forms are modified in line with new disclosure requirements made in the Income Tax Act for AY 2020-21. Taxpayers would need to be careful of these new disclosure requirements, before filing their ITR and to select an appropriate ITR form," Kumar said.
AKM Global Tax Partner Amit Maheshwari said this comes as a relief as now joint owners of house properties and big spenders can use the same Sahaj and Sugam forms, which are easier to fill.
"However, high spenders will have to disclose more information like foreign travel, electricity consumption and deposit in current account in the form itself," Maheshwari said.
Returns in ITR-1 Sahaj can be filed by an ordinarily resident individual whose total income does not exceed Rs50 lakh, while Form ITR-4 Sugam is meant for resident individuals, HUFs and firms (other than LLP) having a total income of up toRs50 lakh and having presumptive income from business and profession.
While ITR-3 and 6 are filed by businesses, ITR-2 is filed by people having income from residential property; ITR-5 is filed by LLP and Association of Persons (AoP). ITR-7 is filed by person in receipt of income derived from property held under trust or other legal obligation wholly for charitable or religious purposes or in part only for such purposes.
Taxmann DGM Naveen Wadhwa said that for the assessment year 2020-21, the tax department has notified the ITR forms twice. In the month of January 2020, the department notified two ITR forms (ITR-1 and ITR-4). Now, in the month of May 2020, all ITR forms (ITR-1 to ITR-7) have been notified which eventually replace the two previously notified forms.
"In the new ITR forms, a new Schedule DI has been inserted to seek details of the investment, deposit and payments made during the extended period till June 2020 for claiming deduction under Chapter VI-A or for rollover of investment in the financial year 2019-20," Wadhwa said.
Usually, the income tax department notifies the ITR forms in the first week of April of the relevant assessment year. However, this year, the department had notified forms 1 and 2 in January. However, with exceptional circumstances arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the I-T department had to revise the forms and has now notified all ITR forms in the last week of May.
"The department has notified the forms without the return filing utility. Thus, a taxpayer, who is required to file the return, cannot do so until the return filing facility is made available on the e-filing portal," Wadhwa said.
Accounting solutions provider HostBooks founder and Chairman Kapil Rana said that in ITR-1, government employees have been bifurcated in state, central government and a new type as "NA" added to the list.
In ITR-4, PAN number is made optional if Aadhaar number is provided.
"It shows the intention that the government is putting all efforts to curb the tax leakages and also allowing law-abiding taxpayers to take benefit of the spent and investments made during the difficult time even if they are done after the completion of the assessment year. This also shows the intention to make the process simple and smoother," Rana added.

India GDP growth slows to 3.1% in Q4 as Covid-19 lockdown hits economy

Amid a recessionary outlook for the current fiscal year, economic growth fell to 3.1 per cent — a low not seen in more than 17 years — in the fourth quarter of 2019-20, with private investment and manufacturing hit hard even as there was the Covid-19 lockdown for only few days in March.
This pulled down gross domestic product (GDP) growth to an 11-year low of 4.2 per cent in 2019-20. This was lower than the government projection of 5 per cent in both first and second advance estimates.
Growth had stood at 6.1 per cent in the previous year. Growth in the January-March quarter slumped against the National Statistical Organisation’s (NSO’s) advance estimate of 4.7 per cent. It came down because of a contraction in the manufacturing and construction sectors.
ALSO READ: GDP to contract 10.8% without more fiscal stimulus, says Pronab Sen
China, with which India is in competition to be the fastest-growing large economy, saw its economy shrinking by 6.8 per cent in January-March 2020.
However, if the entire 2019 is taken into account, the Chinese economy grew 6.1 per cent.
chartFormer chief statistician Pronab Sen has projected a 10.8 per cent contraction in GDP in the current financial year if no more stimulus is given.
He expects a decline in GDP in the first three quarters with a slight recovery in Q4.
Aditi Nayar, principal economist, ICRA Ratings, said the further extension of the lockdown, though with graded relaxations, and the expectation of substantial delays in getting the full supply chain operational would further dampen economic activity.
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“We expect Indian GDP (at constant 2011-12 prices) to contract by 25.0 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively, in Q1 FY21 and Q2 FY21, which implies that a recession is underway. Subsequently, we anticipate muted GDP growth of 2.1 per cent and 5.0 per cent, respectively, in Q3 FY21 and Q4 FY21, which still entails a full year contraction of 5.0 per cent in FY21,” said Nayar.
chartManufacturing contracted 1.4 per cent in Q4 against a 0.8 per cent fall in Q3.
It was the third straight quarter of decline in manufacturing gross value added. It expanded by a statistically insignificant 0.03 per cent in 2019-20 compared with 5.7 per cent in the previous fiscal year.
Agriculture was the only bright spot in the GDP data. It grew by 5.9 per cent in Q4 against 3.6 per cent in Q3. For a year as a whole, it grew by 4 per cent against 2.4 per cent a year ago. Construction saw a contraction of 2.2 per cent in the fourth quarter against fall of 0.04 per cent in Q3. For FY20, the growth rate here fell to 1.3 cent from 6.1 per cent in the previous year. The current quarter would see the impact of lockdown and in the next one the monsoon will dampen construction further.
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Hit hard by the crisis in non-banking financial companies, growth in the biggest segment of the Indian economy — financial services, real estate, and others — declined to 2.4 per cent in the fourth quarter against 3.3 per cent in the previous quarter. Growth in this sector moved down to 4.6 per cent in FY20 against 6.8 per cent a year ago. Another services area — trade, hotels, communication and transport — was dampened primarily by the hospitality segment.
The segment saw growth coming down to 2.6 per cent in Q4 against 4.3 per cent in the third quarter. The growth rate in the segment more than halved to 3.6 per cent in FY20 against 7.7 per cent a year ago.
Investment, seen from gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), declined for the third straight quarter by 6.4 per cent in Q4. It contracted 2.8 per cent in 2019-20, in contrast to a 9.8 per cent expansion in the previous fiscal year. The share of investment in GDP fell to 26.9 per cent in FY20 from 27.5 per cent, given in the government’s second advance estimates.
The government had last year cut the corporation tax rate to 25 per cent to promote private investment. However, not many availed of the option because they would have had to forgo their minimum alternate tax credits.
ALSO READ: Lockdown effect: Core sector output crashes record 38.1% in April
It is government spending that appears to have kept the economy afloat, with government final consumption expenditure growing by 13.6 per cent in the fourth quarter, almost at the same rate of 13.4 per cent in Q3. It rose by 11.8 per cent in 2019-20 as against 10.1 per cent in the previous fiscal year. Domestic demand, denoted by the private final consumption expenditure, on the other hand grew by just 2.7 per cent in Q4 against 6.6 per cent in the previous quarter. It rose 5.3 per cent in FY20 against 7.4 per cent in the previous financial year.
The RBI last week said India’s GDP growth will be in negative territory in 2020-21. The Rs 20.97-trillion Covid-19 package does not appear enough to revive the economy with the fiscal impact of the additional stimulus only about 1 per cent of GDP against the claim of 10 per cent. The figures may be revised because the NSO said the data flow had been affected by the pandemic and lockdown.

Locusts reach Gondia in Maharashtra, Delhi mulls plastic cover for saplings

The Central government is mulling using helicopters to control locusts, as swarms of the deadly pests on Thursday moved towards Maharashtra’s Gondia district after attacking some fields in neighbouring Bhandara.
In capital Delhi, the city state's forest department said that it is considering covering the saplings in its nurseries with polythene to protect them against the desert locust attack.
In the last few weeks, swarms have moved from Rajasthan to newer areas in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, UP, Maharashtra and Punjab.
The Central government on Thursday said it has set up 11 control centres across the country to monitor the movement of locusts and could provide additional financial assistance to states to control the menace.
So far it has sanctioned nearly Rs 19 crore to states such Rajasthan, Gujarat to purchase tractor-mounted sprayers, chemicals and pesticides.
It has already ordered around 15 special chemical sprayers from England which are expected to delivered soon, while orders for another batch of 45 more sprayers has been placed. These are likely to be delivered in the next one and a half months.
It said the pests are presently stationed largely in Dausa, Sri Ganganagar, Jodhpur and Bikaner in Rajasthan, Morena in Madhya Pradesh and also Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, but are splitting and moving to newer areas.
In Delhi, the state government asked its concerned departments to spray insecticides and pesticides on standing crops, vegetation, gardens and orchards to prevent a probable attack.
ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: Karnataka stops entry of travellers from five states
The city state's forest department is also considering covering the saplings in its nurseries with polythene to protect them from the desert locust attack.
In Rajasthan, which has been the worst hit, state government officials estimated that around 90,000 hectares in 20 districts have been affected due to the locust attack. Officials said standing crop in over 4,000 hectares in Sri Ganganagar and 100 hectares in Nagaur has been destroyed, a PTI report said.
In Delhi, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Ishwar Singh said it is not possible to cover the trees, so the government is considering at least covering saplings in the nurseries.
He said covering plants with polythene can also be counter-productive during the heat and hence this measure will only be adopted when they know for sure that any swarm of locusts is headed towards Delhi.

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"If we spray the vegetation, trees and plants with chemical in anticipation of a locust attack, we should also consider how dangerous it will be for the environment," Singh said. There are 1.4 million saplings in 14 government nurseries across Delhi.
In Maharashtra’s Gondia, an agriculture team rushed to Bhandara in the early hours of Thursday and sprayed pesticides with two fire tenders on trees in one-km radius in Temani village of the district, divisional joint director of agriculture Ravi Bhosle told PTI.
"When the team reached the area in the early hours, pests were seen on mango, teak, moha, jambhul, ber and other trees. Pesticides were sprayed and by morning, a large number the crop-eating pests fell from trees and died," he said.
"Mango trees were the most affected. The pests ate leaves but fruits were not damaged. Also, no damage was reported in the paddy fields," Bhonsle said.
The locust swarms were now heading eastwards, in the direction of wind, towards Tiroda tehsil in neighbouring Gondia district, the official said.
Meanwhile, in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, which has been hit by an attack by desert locust, overnight the authorities to clear swarms in Moth and Garautha areas of Jhansi along with Sonbhadra district carried out operations.
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Senior officials, including those from a central team, were present during the nightlong operation and a close vigil is being maintained on further movement of locusts, officials said. Locusts had earlier attacked some parts of Jhansi district on May 22 and 24.
In Sonbhadra, a swarm of locusts reached Bemauri village in Ghorawal tehsil on Wednesday night where a team of the Agriculture Department sprayed chemicals until late night, killing a large number of insects.
District Agriculture Officer Piyush Rai said the swarm reached the village in the evening but as there were no standing crops, no damaged was done by them.
"A team from the Agriculture Department reached there at 11 pm and continued spraying chemicals till 1.30 am, killing the insects in large numbers," he added.
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Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had issued directions to district magistrates of Jhansi, Lalitpur, Agra, Mathura, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Mahoba, Banda, Chitrakoot, Jalaun, Etawah and Kanpur Dehat to take all necessary measures to deal with the situation.
At the state-level, teams have already been formed and control rooms established to track the movement of locusts.
India is battling the worst desert locust outbreak in recent times. The crop-destroying swarms first attacked Rajasthan and have now spread to Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

After Infosys, now Wipro hires a Capgemini top executive as CEO & MD

With Wipro announcing to appoint Thierry Delaporte for its top post, two of the leading Bengaluru-headquartered companies will now have CEOs & MDs who were previously working with French IT services major Capgemini in leadership roles. Salil Parekh, who is presently the CEO & MD at Infosys was a member of the Group Executive Board ay Capgemini looking after the company’s UK, Asia Pacific and financial services business before joining the Bengaluru firm in January 2018.
Wipro on Friday announced that Delaporte who is Capgemini’s chief operating officer and also a member of the group executive board, would join the company as its CEO & MD, effective July 6, 2020. A French national, he would be based out of Paris. Wipro also said that since Neemuchwala would leave the company from June 1, its chairman Rishad Premji would oversee the daily operations of the firm during this interim period.

During his twenty-five year career with Capgemini, Delaporte held several leadership roles including that of chief executive officer of the global financial services strategic business unit, and head of all global service lines. His experience in overseeing Capgemini’s India operations- one of the largest delivery centres of the company- is likely to put him in good stead in managing the operations of Wipro. He has a bachelor’s degree in economy and finance from Sciences Po Paris and a Masters in Law from Sorbonne University.
“I am delighted to welcome Thierry as CEO and Managing Director of the company. Thierry has an exceptional leadership track record, strong international exposure, deep strategic expertise, a unique ability to forge long-standing client relationships, and proven experience of driving transformation and managing technological disruption. We believe that Thierry is the right person to lead Wipro in its next phase of growth,” said Rishad Premji, Chairman at Wipro Ltd. “I want to thank Abid for all that he has done for Wipro and for making this transition as smooth and seamless as possible despite his personal commitments.”
The appointment has come at a time when Wipro continues to lag its peers in driving top line growth in the past years.
In the past years, Wipro has taken many steps to realign its business operations for driving faster growth under the incumbent CEO like. While the West Asia business of the IT services firm has been restructured, Indian business has also been reorganised by carving out a separate unit for state-run public sector undertakings and government organisations from enterprise business. The IT services firm has also divested its low margin data centre business as part of its portfolio restructuring initiatives.
Despite all these measures, Wipro posted 1.7 per cent growth in its revenues from IT segment at $8.256 billion in the last financial year. So, the appointment is critical for the IT services firm to accelerate its revenue growth at a time when the industry is staring at a dip in demand owing to ongoing Covid-19 crisis.
Meanwhile, Wipro also announced the appointment of Deepak M Satwalekar, a financial services professional and former MD of HDFC Ltd, to its board of directors for five years effective July 1, 2020.

Abu Dhabi state fund in talks to invest $1 bn in Jio Platforms: Report

Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Company is in talks to invest about $1 billion in Reliance Industries' digital unit Jio platforms, three sources said on Thursday.
Jio Platforms, which houses music and movie apps as well a Reliance's telecoms venture Jio Infocomm, has secured a massive $10 billion from investors including Facebook Inc within a month.
ALSO READ: GSK to produce 1 billion doses of coronavirus vaccine booster in 2021

Reliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Clearly Jio's platform is attracting a wide range of world-class investors, given its enormous potential to serve one of the world's largest marketplaces," Mubadala said in an email to Reuters.

Google eyes 5% stake in Vodafone Idea, multiple India investments: Report

Global technology giant Google is in talks to buy a 5 per cent stake in Vodafone Idea, owned by Vodafone Plc of the UK and Aditya Birla Group. The move comes about a month after Google’s biggest rival, Facebook, picked up a 9.99 per cent stake in Reliance Industries’ (RIL’s) Jio Platforms for Rs 43,574 crore.
Taking into account Vodafone Idea’s market valuation of Rs 16,724 crore as of Thursday, Google may end up buying the stake for Rs 836 crore.

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that Google’s parent firm, Alphabet, had also held talks with RIL to acquire a stake in Jio, but lagged behind other investors like Facebook in securing a deal. A banker in Mumbai said Google was seeking a large stake in Jio, but could not get it.
ALSO READ: Abu Dhabi state fund in talks to invest $1 bn in Jio Platforms: Report
“Pursuing Vodafone Idea instead would potentially pit Google against Facebook and an increasingly dominant Jio, but the company could also make multiple investments in India,” the report mentioned. Vodafone Plc and Aditya Birla Group own 44.39 per cent and 27.18 per cent stake, respectively, in Vodafone Idea, and have valued their stake in the company at zero. Both partners have also frozen any fresh investment into the firm in view of its huge losses and liabilities.
chartWhen contacted, a spokesperson for Aditya Birla Group declined to comment. Earlier this month, Vodafone Plc attributed its losses in Vodafone Idea to the adverse legal judgments by the Supreme Court. Besides, the British company said it would have an additional potential exposure of Rs 8,400 crore for the contingent liabilities of the Indian telecom company.
Analysts said the transaction could prove to be a lifeline for Vodafone Idea, which has been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay Rs 53,000 crore in adjusted gross revenues dues to the government. “Though the Google investment is minuscule and will not move the needle, it will attract other investors in the company and be a morale booster,” said a banker.
In the past one month, five global players — Facebook, General Atlantic, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, and KKR —have together picked up a 17.12 per cent stake in Jio Platforms for a total consideration of Rs 78,562 crore. RIL is planning to list Jio Platforms on Nasdaq so as to attract global investments into the country.

Coronavirus LIVE: Plasma therapy proves effective on 7 Tamil Nadu patients

Coronavirus update: India has recorded its biggest single-day spike of 7,466 in coronavirus cases. Its total tally has now reached 165,799. While Tamil Nadu's count is nearing the 20,000 mark, Delhi as gone past Gujarat to be become the third-most-affected state. Its biggest single-day jump of 1,024 cases on Friday took Delhi's total to 16,281. Maharashtra continues to have the highest number of Covid-19 cases, at 59,546. Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday spoke to chief ministers of all states and sought their views on extension of the ongoing nationwide lockdown beyond May 31. According to media reports, a lockdown 5.0 could be imposed in India for 15 days.
With the lastest spike in corona cases, India has replaced Turkey to be the ninth-most-affected nation in this pandemic. India has the 5th-highest count of active cases, fewer only than the US, Brazil, Russia and France. India has also overtaken China in death toll; Covid-19 fatalities in the country now stand at 4,710.
Coronavirus world update: The global tally of coronavirus cases has reached 5,906,202, and 362,024 people have died from the disease so far.
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11:42 AM
UK PM unveils 'limited' easing of lockdown
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has unveiled some "limited" and "cautious" easing of the country's coronavirus lockdown measures.

Chairing Thursday's Downing Street daily briefing, Johnson said that from June 1, nurseries and schools will reopen, first to Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, reports Xinhua news agency.

A fortnight later on June 15, secondary schools will begin to provide face-to-face contact time for Years 10 and 12, said Johnson.

Outdoor retail and car showrooms will start to open from June 1 and other non-essential retail will open on June 15, he said.
11:39 AM
US restaurants concerned over sales losses due to capacity constraints
Though dining rooms across the US are reopening and some customers are returning, restaurants have expressed concern regarding sales losses because of capacity constraints imposed to contain the new coronavirus.

According to the Wall Street Journal, restaurants are trying to figure out how to run at a fraction of that capacity.

"This business model is fundamentally altered," said John Cywinski, president of Applebee's, which was on the path to opening new stores for the first time in years before the crisis hit. Across the restaurant industry, he said, "There will be a likely contraction as a result of this." Read on...
11:37 AM
White House punts economic update as election draws near
The White House has taken the unusual step of deciding not to release an updated economic forecast as planned this year, a fresh sign of the administration's anxiety about how the coronavirus has ravaged the nation just months before the election.

The decision, which was confirmed Thursday by a senior administration official who was not authorized to publicly comment on the plan, came amid intensifying signals of the pandemic's grim economic toll.

The U.S. economy shrank at a faster-than-expected annual rate of 5% during the first quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. At least 2.1 million Americans lost their jobs last week, meaning an astonishing 41 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since shutdowns intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus began in mid-March.

Trump argues that the economy will rebound later this year or in 2021 and that voters should give him another term in office to oversee the expansion. But the delay of the updated midyear economic forecast, typically released in July or August, was an indication that the administration doesn't want to bring attention to the pandemic's impact anytime soon.
11:36 AM
SC order on migrant workers is disappointing, surprising: Brinda Karat
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Friday said that the Supreme Court's order stating that no travel fare would be charged from migrant workers for their travel back home amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown is disappointing and surprising.

"The Supreme Court's judgement is both disappointing and surprising. It's disappointing because the Supreme Court did not question any of the claims which were being made by the Central government about what all unprecedented steps they had taken in favour of migrants," said Karat.
11:28 AM
Govt lifts curbs on exports of paracetamol APIs with immediate effect
The Central government on Thursday removed restrictions on the export of paracetamol APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) making it export free.

"In exercise of powers conferred by Section 3 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 (No 22 of 1992), as amended, the Central government hereby makes following amendments in Chapter 29 of the Schedule 2 of the ITCHS Export Policy amending the Notification no 50/2015-20 dated 03.03.2020 related to export Policy of Paracetamol API," said an official statement. Read on...
10:58 AM
Amazon is offering full-time jobs to 125,000 of 175,000 temporary workers it hired since March to deal with the #Covid19 rush, if employees would like to stay at Amazon long term.
10:46 AM
Advance reservation period for all 30 Special Rajdhani type trains extended from 30 to 120 days
10:41 AM
Covid-19 crisis: Karnataka flip-flops on flights from high-risk states
After announcing on Thursday afternoon that Karnataka would not allow interstate air travel from five high-risk states, namely Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, the state government government later backtracked on its decision.

In a clarification issued later in the evening, the state government said it had requested the Civil Aviation Ministry to reduce the number of flights, originating from these five states to Karnataka, in view of the high number of Covid-19 cases prevalent there. According to the schedule, 30 flights are scheduled daily from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan to Karnataka.
10:32 AM
Coronavirus in India update: Five most affected states by cases
Maharashtra (59,546)
Tamil Nadu (19,372)
Delhi (16,281)
Gujarat (15,562)
Rajasthan (8,067)
10:32 AM
Coronavirus in India update: Summary of MoHFW data (May 29)
Active cases: 89,987 (Net increase: 3,877)
Deaths: 4,706 (Net increase: 175)
Cured: 71,106 (Net increase: 3,414)
Total: 165,799 (Net increase: 7,446)
10:24 AM
Coronavirus in UP: 50 new cases in Lucknow's King's George Medical University
50 out of 2,337 samples that were tested yesterday found positive for Covid-19 in Uttar Pradesh: King's George Medical University (KGMU)

PM Modi not in 'good mood' over border row with China: Donald Trump

Reiterating his offer to mediate on the border dispute between India and China, US President Donald Trump has said that he spoke with Narendra Modi about the "big conflict" and asserted that the Indian Prime Minister is not in a "good mood" over the latest flare-ups between the two countries.
Speaking with the reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday, Trump said a "big conflict" was going on between India and China.

"I like your prime minister a lot. He is a great gentleman," the president said.
"Have a big conflict India and China. Two countries with 1.4 billion people (each). Two countries with very powerful militaries. India is not happy and probably China is not happy," he said when asked if he was worried about the border situation between India and China.
"I can tell you; I did speak to Prime Minister Modi. He is not in a good mood about what is going on with China," Trump said.
ALSO READ: Engaged with China to resolve border row: India on Trump's offer to mediate
A day earlier, the president offered to mediate between India and China and tweeted that he was "ready, willing and able to mediate" between the two countries.
Responding to a question on his tweet, Trump reiterated his offer, saying if called for help, "I would do that (mediate). If they thought it would help" about "mediate or arbitrate, I would do that," he said.
India on Wednesday said it was engaged with China to peacefully resolve the border row, in a carefully crafted reaction to Trump's offer to arbitrate between the two Asian giants to settle their decades-old dispute.
"We are engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve it," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, replying to a volley of questions at an online media briefing.
While the Chinese Foreign Ministry is yet to react to Trump's tweet which appears to have caught Beijing by surprise, an op-ed in the state-run Global Times said both countries did not need such a help from the US President.
"The latest dispute can be solved bilaterally by China and India. The two countries should keep alert on the US, which exploits every chance to create waves that jeopardise regional peace and order," it said.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday that both China and India have proper mechanisms and communication channels to resolve the issues through dialogue and consultations.
Trump previously offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, a proposal which was rejected by New Delhi.
The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage" following a meeting at the level of local commanders.
Over 100 Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in the violence. The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in North Sikkim on May 9.

India's economy may have grown at slowest in 2 years during March quarter

Gross domestic product data out later on Friday is expected to show the country's economy grew at its slowest pace in at least two years in the March quarter as the coronavirus pandemic weakened already declining consumer demand and private investment.
The median forecast from a Reuters poll of economists put annual economic growth at 2.1% in the March quarter, lower than 4.7% in the December quarter. Forecasts ranged between +4.5% and -1.5%.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained the lockdown ordered on March 25 to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the world's second most populous country, though many restrictions were eased for manufacturing, transport and other services from May 18.
The full impact of the lockdown on manufacturing and services will become more apparent in the June quarter, with Goldman Sachs predicting a 45% contraction from a year ago.
ALSO READ: Exports likely to improve in May, contraction expected to be 30-35%: Goyal
Economists expect the fiscal year that began in April will see the worst economic contraction in four decades.
"Economic activity will face ongoing disruption over the next year as the country transitions to a post-Covid-19 world," the rating agency S&P said on Thursday, cutting its 2020/21 forecast to a 5% contraction.
Weather forecasts for normal monsoon rains are in Indian farmers' favour at least, giving hope that the rural sector can help support the millions of migrant workers who returned to their villages from the cities when the lockdown began.
Number of coronavirus affected people in India has crossed 158,000 with 4,531 deaths, with an average daily jump of 6,000 cases in the last one week.

ALSO READ: US economy shrank at 5% annual rate in Q1, higher than initial estimate
Unlike some advanced economies, India's stimulus package has largely focussed on subsidised credit to small businesses and farmers, while direct fiscal stimulus was limited to around 1% of the GDP, economists said.
The Reserve Bank of India cut policy rates by 40 basis points earlier this month, and has reduced its key repo rate by 115 basis points since February.

Senior Indian, Chinese Army commanders in talks to defuse tension in Ladakh

High-level Indian and Chinese military commanders met at designated points along the LAC (line of actual control) on May 22 and May 23 to defuse the current situation in Eastern Ladakh. Sources told ANI that parallel diplomatic channels in New Delhi and Beijing were also working towards a peaceful resolution. Since the beginning of May, Chinese army has been involved in several incidents in Eastern Ladakh, along the LAC.
While the Indian and Chinese military commanders are talking face-to-face in Ladakh, diplomatic efforts are underway in the national capitals of the two countries to resolve the situation. The Indian Army has been effectively responding by building and deploying its own capabilities in Eastern Ladakh, including the Galwan sector. Sources have told ANI that no compromise will be made with regard to maintaining the sanctity of India's borders and that while India believes in peace, it is firm and resolute when it comes to the defence of its territory.
This has been reflected in spirit even in the four or more agreements between India and China, which have historically formed the mechanism for border management. The mechanisms are still in place and working at a bilateral level. Two of them are of 1993 and 1996 and there is a CBM (Confidence Building Measures) in place since 2005 and a border agreement since 2013.
These agreements form the framework under which border talks have been held between India and China and not resulted in a full-blown conflict. They have also figured in the summit level meetings held between PM Modi and President Xi and previous Prime Ministers and Presidents of the two countries. However, this is not the first time that the Chinese army has taken an aggressive posture in this region and provoked a face-off with Indian troops since the 1962 China-India war.
There was Sikkim in 2008, Depsang in 2013, Chumar in 2014, and Doklam in 2017. China has not been comfortable with the construction of the Darbuk-Shyok-DBO Road in the Indian side of the LAC. The construction of the 255km road began in 2000 and was to be completed by 2014, but after several hiccups, the entire road finally was ready for use recently.
The current face-off is believed to be in reaction to India steadily building infrastructure in Ladakh and the increase in local civilian activity on the Indian side of LAC. For China, this is an irritant because India is rapidly narrowing down the infrastructure gap in Ladakh. While India has not obstructed in any manner the activities of the Chinese on their side of the LAC, whether it is putting up of the pre-fabricated structures or an increase in their patrolling.
The Chinese patrol units have been aggressive in expressing their displeasure to the Indian army activity on the DBO road. This has manifested in their activity in Galwan sector, Pangong lake and other strategic areas. The Indian army has and will continue to respond as the need arises say sources.


The ramping up of national security apparatus post Kargil that included the eastern sector has been a cause of vexation for the Chinese. The heightened interference with Indian patrolling along the LAC by the Chinese post-2000 saw it become hyper-aggressive in the Doklam stand-off.
If this face off in Eastern Ladakh is a similar strategy then sources indicate that the Indian army is well prepared for bringing in the required forces to ensure that its national security is not compromised even for a minute. China has built up its forces along its side of the LAC as is evidenced from satellite imagery available in open source intelligence data.
It has not hesitated in pushing its troops back and forth in the LAC to provoke a response from the Indian side. These mind games are often played by troops when they are at eyeball-to-eyeball levels in non-demarcated borders like the LAC. However, sources indicate that this time the Chinese side seems to be playing more than normal eye games. Hence the Indian army has moved men and material as much or more than is required in clear view of the Chinese army.
It is incorrect and naive to assume, say sources, that the Indian army was caught napping due to Covid-19 conditions. Those conditions prevail on both sides of LAC, in fact probably more on the other side, hence to say that troops levels are low or lower is an inaccurate assumption say sources. The Indian armed forces are prepared for a scenario that this standoff could not be a short-termed one. If anything the Doklam episode has been a learning experience for India in that China doesn't back down easily, no international badgering works on them and they like to keep testing India on how long and how much pressure it can withstand. Sources indicate that contrary to some reports; Indian frontline commanders have been quick in their response and firmness and continue to hold their ground at the LAC.

Reliance looks at Nasdaq listing for Jio Platforms; IPO likely by 2021

An overseas listing may be on the cards for Jio Platforms, the digital and telecommunications subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL). According to sources aware of the development, work in this regard may commence soon after RIL sells 20-25 per cent in Jio Platforms and the government issues direct listing guidelines.
In the past one month, five global players have picked up a 17.12 per cent stake in Jio Platforms for a total consideration of Rs 78,562 crore, valuing the company at Rs 4.91 trillion (or $73 billion).
Highly placed sources said once the new guidelines for direct international listing were announced by the government, the company would look at various global stock markets. On May 17, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said Indian companies might be allowed direct overseas listing, without a simultaneous listing in the Indian market. Detailed guidelines are still in the works.
ALSO READ: Bharti Airtel promoter raises Rs 8,433 cr by offloading 2.75% stake
While RIL hasn’t zeroed in on its options yet, Nasdaq, the sought-after stock exchange for technology companies in the US, is being considered as the preferred destination for the listing.
E-mail queries sent to RIL remained unanswered till the time of going to press.
chart“While a foreign listing may be a departure from RIL’s core belief of enhancing existing investors’ share value, international platforms may offer better liquidity to absorb a listing of Jio’s size when compared to the Indian market,” said a person in the know.
Morgan Stanley is likely to be appointed the lead banker to manage the overseas listing, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citibank may also be roped in for the IPO, another source informed.
ALSO READ: ED charge sheet: Franklin Templeton in a fix over YES Capital loans
In April last year, RIL had said it would list Jio in the next five years.
RIL struck its first major deal with US social media giant Facebook on April 22, to acquire 9.99 per cent in Jio Platforms. Later, RIL sold a 7.24 per cent stake to various private equity players such as Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, and KKR, which have taken minority stakes of 1.15-2.32 per cent each so far in Jio Platforms.
Investors such as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company are also likely to pick up similar minority interests in Jio Platforms, though these transactions may fructify in the next one to two months, sources said.
Anant Ambani joins Jio Platforms board
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani's youngest son, Anant, has been appointed additional director on the board of Jio Platforms. His elder siblings — Akash and Isha Ambani — had joined the boards of RIL’s telecom and retail ventures in 2014. Anant ( 25) has also been involved with activities of Reliance Foundation and the group’s sports business.

Bharti Airtel slips 5% after promoters sell 2.75% stake via block deals

Shares of Bharti Airtel dropped 5.4 per cent to Rs 561 on the BSE on Tuesday after its promoter, Bharti Telecom, sold some stake in the telecom services provider through open market deals today.
At 09:15 am; around 155.71 million equity shares representing 2.85 per cent of total equity of Bharti Airtel changed hands on the BSE, the exchange data shows. The names of the buyers are not ascertained immediately.

According reports, Bharti Telecom, a promoter entity of Bharti Airtel, was to sell 2.75 per cent stake worth $1 billion in the telecom company via block deals on Tuesday morning. Up to 150 million shares will be available for prospective investors through a book-built offering. The shares are being offered to large, high networth investors at 6 per cent discount to the closing price of Rs 593 a share as on March 22. JP Morgan was to manage the sale with a floor price of Rs 558 per equity share, added the report.
As on March 31, 2020, Bharti Telecom held about 38.79 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel which will be reduced by 2.75 [per cent after the deal. The total promoter shareholding as per exchange data currently stands at 58.98 per cent. Other than Bharti Telecom, other promoters in Bharti Airtel include, Pastel Ltd (13.91 per cent stake), Indian Continent Investment Ltd (6.08 per cent stake) and Viridian Ltd (0.20 per cent stake), data shows.
In January 2020, the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel had raised $2 billion through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) which saw participation by highly reputed global and Indian investors. The company issued 323.6 million equity shares at price of Rs 445 per share. After the QIP issue, the combined holding of the promoter and promoter group, including Singtel and the Bharti Group, in Airtel would reduce to 58.98 per cent from 62.70 per cent.
Analysts remain bullish
Most analysts maintain a positive outlook for the stock and suggest investors use the decline to buy from a long-term perspective.
"Bharti Telecom's 2.75% stake sale in Bharti Airtel for $1.1 billion is mainly to de-lever its balance sheet as the dividend payments from Bharti Airtel are insufficient to service its debt of Rs 85 billion. The stake sale will lower Singtel and promoters' effective stake in Bharti Airtel to 32% and 24% respectively. This is not a de-rating event and we see any potential pullbacks in the stock due to this as a buying opportunity. Maintain Buy with target of Rs 660/share," wrote analysts at Jefferies in a May 25 note.
The stock hit an all-time high of Rs 612 on Wednesday, June 20, 2020 on the BSE. In past six months, it had outperformed the market by surging 41 per cent, as compared to 24 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex till Friday.
At 09:29 am; the stock was trading 3.4 per cent lower at Rs 573 on the BSE, against 0.87 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 194 million equity shares changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE so far.

Uber trims a quarter of its India workforce, lays off 600 employees

Uber India on Tuesday announced it was laying off 600 of its employees – a fourth of its total headcount of 2,400 in the country – across customer & driver support, business development, legal, finance, policy and marketing verticals.
The retrenched employees would be paid 10 to 12 weeks of salary, besides medical insurance coverage for the next six months and outplacement support, the company said. These staffers would also be allowed to retain their laptops and given the option of joining the Uber talent directory. “Today is an incredibly sad day for colleagues leaving the Uber family and all of us at the company. We made the decision now so that we can look to the future with confidence. I want to apologise to departing colleagues and extend my heartfelt thanks to them for their contributions to Uber, the riders, and the driver partners we serve in India,” said Pradeep Parameswaran, Uber president for India and South Asia, confirming the development.

Dara KhosrowshahiIn back-to-back announcements this month, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company would retrench 25 per cent of its 27,000-strong global workforce to save $1 billion. Photo: ReutersThe move is part of the global restructuring plan announced earlier by Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi in view of the company’s stressed fortunes amid lockdowns in several countries, including India, to prevent the spread of coronavirus. These restrictions, according to the CEO, had led to an 80 per cent year-on-year decline in Uber’s global business in April. For the January-March quarter of 2020, the company announced a $2.9-billion loss, its biggest in three quarters. Uber had earlier advanced its target of achieving a measure of profitability by a year, and was hoping to be in the green by the fourth quarter of 2020.
In his back-to-back announcements this month, the CEO of the embattled vehicle aggregator said the company would retrench over 6,700 employees, or 25 per cent of its 27,000-strong workforce, across the globe, in a bid to save $1 billion. India accounts for around eight per cent of its total global employee strength.
Uber has been pushing hard to turn profitable in India, one of its key markets. It has divested itself of some non-core businesses to concentrate on transportation. In January this year, it sold its food delivery business Uber Eats to Zomato to cut its losses, in exchange for a 9.9 per stake in the latter. As many as 245 employees were affected by the deal and were kept on rolls of the company only for a short duration. The company also withdrew offers made previously at management institutes across the country, in a clear indication that it was looking to reduce headcount.
Even as it faces stiff competition in the country from arch rival Ola, Uber maintains it has category leadership in the Indian market. Recently, Ola also announced it was laying off over 1,400 employees. Both Ola and Uber have a common investor in Softbank.
Uber India’s operations have been hit severely by the nationwide lockdown, imposed first on March 24 and extended thrice until May 31. However, the company has sought to limit the damage through innovations like Uber Medics, a transportation service for health workers across cities in collaboration with the National Health Authority. It has also tied up with companies like Flipkart to offer last-mile delivery through cab drivers. With some relaxation in lockdown rules since May 18, Uber has also resumed its services in 50 of the 70-plus cities that it operates in.

MCX enables exchange software to trade negative price or below Re 1

After a month of controversial settlement of crude oil contract at a negative price or price quoted in minus, the MCX has issued a circular saying that it has now enabled its software-system to quote and trade at negative (minus) price or price below rupee one.
On April 20, MCX settled crude oil futures Rs 2,884 minus even as their software was not permitting negative price trade. This was because the contract term was to settle it at Nymex crude oil close on the MCX settlement day and Nymex crude which trade in WTI based shale crude oil close minus -$37 per barrel.
On late Saturday night, MCX issued circular said, “the revised version of MCX Application Programming Interface (API) to accept negative price in the system. The API has been shared with empanelled vendors and members developing software in-house.”
ALSO READ: MCX offers chance to exit trading if crude oil price slips into negative
Now several trading software which brokers are using will have to be updated and tested. After all trading software are approved mock trading will be done and than trading can happen in negative price. This could take long time depending upon how various brokers and software vendors are able to do it at their end. These are front-end software like ODIN or many others.
After negative price settlement in April, several investors incurred huge losses and large brokerages discontinued trading in crude oil while some increased margins significantly higher for crude oil futures trading. The controversy became bigger and brokers went to high court against the settlement.

Although the cases in the various courts have not been resolved yet, MCX enabled their software to trade negative price. Actual implementation could take longer.

States need to ask for permission if they want UP workers back: Adityanath

Any state that wants migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh back has to seek permission from the government and need to ensure their socio-legal-monetary rights, Chief Minister Adityanath said on Sunday.
Upset that migrant labourers were "not properly taken care of" by various states in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, Adityanath said, "These workers are our biggest resource and will give them employment in Uttar Pradesh as state government is going to set up a commission for their employment."

"They are our people... and if some states want them back, they have to seek permission from the state government," Adityanath said in an interaction with the RSS-affiliated publications 'Panchjanya' and 'Organiser'.
As per feedback received from migrant workers who reached Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath said safeguarding their rights should get utmost attention and importance, news agency PTI reported.
"All migrant workers are being registered and their skills mapped. Any state or entity interested in inviting migrant workers will need to assure and provide for their socio-legal-monetary rights," he said.
ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: Maharashtra sees 3,000 cases in a day, tally past 50,000
About the commission, Adityanath said it has been proposed to look into various factors associated with migrant workers' rights and to prevent exploitation while providing an official framework to ensure socio-economic-legal support for them.
"Insurance, social security, re-employment assistance, provision for unemployment allowance are some of the factors that will be looked into by the commission," he said.
Over 23 lakh migrant workers have returned to Uttar Pradesh so far by the efforts of the state government, the chief minister said, adding a large number of them returning from Mumbai and Delhi tested positive for Covid-19.
The state government has made all necessary arrangements for them and, if necessary, will keep them in quarantine facilities, Adityanath said.
By next week, he said, all migrant labourers who want to come back will reach the state and arrangements for their screening and journey to their final destinations have been made.
Adityanath praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "effectively handling the coronavirus crisis", and said India is in a secure position due to the timely decisions taken by the Centre.
Credit should be given to the prime minister as he kept on guiding the chief ministers, Adityanath said.
About generating new employment opportunities in Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath said a German company is shifting its production facility from China to India and may start manufacturing more than 30 lakh shoes in Agra.

ITC set to acquire spice major Sunrise Foods for estimated Rs 2,000 crore

Diversified conglomerate ITC is set to make its biggest acquisition — Sunrise Foods. ITC on Sunday said it had entered into an agreement with the spices major to acquire a 100 per cent stake in the company.
The share-purchase agreement was completed after lockdown was enforced and the final deal is likely to be signed soon. ITC didn’t comment on the deal size, but sources estimated it at close to Rs 2,000 crore.

Sunrise Foods clocked a turnover of around Rs 600 crore last year. However, there would be a premium on the 70-year Sunrise brand.
ALSO READ: $717-mn loan case: China banks will have to move Indian courts against ADAG
While ITC, via its Aashirvaad brand, operates in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Sunrise Foods, which sells its products under the Sunrise brand, has an extensive presence across east India, where it is the market leader, and also operates in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi National Capital Region, Rajasthan, and Bengaluru. It also sells its products in Bangladesh and Nepal.
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Sunrise’s plants are located in Kolkata, Agra, Bikaner, and Jaipur. “Over the years, the brand (Sunrise) has built a loyal consumer franchise, anchored on a differentiated product portfolio tailored to regional tastes and preferences, both in the basic and blended spice segments,” ITC said.
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According to ITC, the proposed acquisition is aligned with its strategy to rapidly scale up its FMCG businesses in a profitable manner, leveraging consumer insights, the distribution network, agri-commodity sourcing, cuisine knowledge, rural linkages, and packaging know-how. The major acquisition move comes a year after Sanjiv Puri became chairman of the company. Mayank Bhardwaj, CEO & MD of Sunrise, said: “We are confident that in passing our legacy to ITC, Sunrise will achieve even greater heights of success.”

Domestic air travel, international arrivals: Check guideline details here

Domestic passenger flights are scheduled to resume from Monday, after a hiatus of two months - ever since the nationwide lockdown was announced. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued new guidelines for both domestic travel and international arrivals.
The Indian Railways has also listed 100 pairs of trains, like Durontos, Sampark Krantis, Jan Shatabdis and Poorva Express, that will operate from June 1.
ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE
The guidelines include installing the Aarogya Setu app on the passenger's mobile devices, mandatory thermal check-ups at the entry and exit points of all the airports, railway stations and bus terminals, and ensuring the availability of soaps and sanitizers everywhere.
International/ Domestic travel:
For international travel, before boarding, all travellers should give an undertaking that they would undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days - 7 days paid institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by 7 days isolation at home with self-monitoring of health. Home quarantining of passengers will be permitted for 14 days, in exceptional cases.
For domestic travel, all asymptomatic passengers will be permitted to go with the advice that they will self-monitor their health for 14 days, and inform the authorities if they develop any symptoms.
Dos and Don'ts will be provided along with tickets to the travelers by the agencies concerned.
Use of the Arogya Setu app made mandatory, while only asymptomatic travelers will be allowed to board after the thermal screening. The screening is also made mandatory at the exit points.
Everyone will have to sign a self-declaration form about his/her health, a copy of which will be given to Health and Immigration officials present at the airport/ seaport/ Iandport.
Precautionary measures such as environmental sanitation and disinfection should be carried out at the airports and the flights, all possible measures to ensure social distancing to be ensured.
Wearing of masks, environmental/ respiratory/ hand hygiene should be observed by everyone.
For domestic and international travel, passengers showing mild symptoms will be given the option of home isolation or isolated in the Covid Care Centre (both public & private facilities) as appropriate and tested as per ICMR protocol.
If tested positive, they will continue in Covid Care Centre and will be managed as per clinical protocol. If negative, the passenger may be allowed to go home, isolate him/herself and self-monitor his/her health for further 7 days.
While in home isolation, if any symptoms develop the passengers should inform the district surveillance officer or call the state/national call center at 1075.
"States can also develop their own protocol with regards to quarantine and isolation as per their assessment, in case any domestic or international traveller shows symptoms of Covid-19," the guidelines added.

$717-mn loan case: China banks will have to move Indian courts against ADAG

Anil Ambani, chairman of the ADA group, can challenge the order by the Commercial Division of the High Court of England and Wales, London, which said a personal guarantee disputed by Ambani is binding on him, say corporate lawyers.
At the same time, Chinese banks will have to move Indian courts to enforce the order in India, they said. The British court on Friday asked Ambani to pay nearly $717 million to three Chinese banks within 21 days. The banks are pursuing the recovery of funds as part of a loan agreement with Reliance Communications.

The ADA group has said Ambani is seeking legal advice and the UK court order will have no bearing on the operations of its other group companies: Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power, and Reliance Capital.
Corporate lawyers said Ambani could challenge the UK court order on grounds of “conclusiveness” under Section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
“Before enforcing a foreign judgment or decree, the party enforcing it must ensure that the foreign judgment or decree passes the tests mentioned in the CPC. If the foreign judgment or decree fails any of these tests, it will not be regarded as conclusive and hence not enforceable in India,” said Rajiv Bansal, Senior Advocate.
Bansal said according to Section 44A of the CPC, a decree of any superior court of a reciprocating territory shall be executed in India as a decree passed by the Indian district court. “A judgment from a court of a reciprocating territory can be directly enforced in India by filing an execution application. While filing the execution application, the original certified copy of the decree along with a certificate from the superior court stating the extent to which the decree has been satisfied or adjusted, has to be annexed to the application,” he said.
Other top lawyers said India and England are reciprocating countries which means that judgments will be enforced in India as if they were judgments of an Indian court. “Therefore, the Indian court will not reconsider the arguments but only execute the judgment. At that stage Ambani has a very limited number of arguments such as fraud for instance and it is unlikely that these will be given much credence unless there is some substance to the arguments,” said a Mumbai based lawyer asking not to be quoted.
Besides, the lawyer said any court judgment has to be enforced as a decree. It may be enforced against any of Ambani’s assets outside India or against assets in India. In the latter case, an Indian court process has to be followed, he said.
The dispute between Reliance Communications (RCom) and Chinese banks led by ICBC started after RCom defaulted on its loans to Indian as well as Chinese banks. Chinese banks claim that Ambani had given personal guarantee for a corporate loan availed by RCom in 2012 for global refinancing.
The ADA officials said Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and others made their claim based on an alleged guarantee that was never signed by Ambani and he has consistently denied having authorised anyone to execute any guarantee on his behalf.
The amount ordered to be paid based on the alleged guarantee will in any case reduce upon the resolution of RCom’s debt in accordance with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. The amount claimed under the alleged guarantee would reduce by up to 50 per cent according to the resolution plan of RCom’s debt, which has been approved its lenders and has already been filed in the National Company Law Tribunal on March 6.
As far as the judgment of the UK Court is concerned, the question of any enforcement in India does not arise in the near future, and Ambani is seeking legal advice on the future course of action.
According to the UK Court Order, the final amount owed under the alleged guarantee will be assessed based on the outcome of the RCom resolution plan filed before the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai, ADA officials said.

Covid-19 crisis: Domestic flights resume today as talks go down to the wire

A 20-minute chat between Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday seems to have paved the way for a partial resumption of flights to and from Mumbai, which makes up for a bulk of domestic air traffic in the country, besides some other cities in the state. On Day One, 50 flights will be allowed to and from Mumbai.
However, the Maharashtra government has not yet approved taxi or auto service in Mumbai and passengers will be required to make their own travel arrangements to and from the airport.

Till the time of going to press, airlines were unable to finalise their schedule. Mumbai’s schedule was being reworked. Tamil Nadu’s airports — Chennai and Madurai — hadn’t yet communicated to the Centre how many flights it would allow.
Airline call centres were flooded with calls from worried passengers as their flights were being cancelled last minute due to states reducing the number of flights.
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Maharashtra government, which has been trying to ground the Centre’s flight plan due to a spike in Covid-19 cases in the state, had told Mumbai International Airport on Saturday that commercial air transport must not resume at this point.
“We believe passengers who have booked over the last two-three days will need to travel as soon as possible. Hence, we will be allowing free date change as requested by passengers,” said Vistara’s Chief Commercial Officer Vinod Kannan.
Besides Maharashtra, the Centre held back-to-back meetings with some other states through the weekend to be able to resume domestic air operations from Monday.
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However, Kolkata and Bagdogra airports will resume business from May 28 as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked the Centre to defer flights due to the recent super cyclone.
Similarly, after opposition from Andhra Pradesh, which asked for more time to prepare, resumption of Vizag and Vijayawada airports was pushed to May 26. “It has been a long day of hard negotiations with various states to recommence civil aviation operations in the country,” Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted. Puri had on Saturday said resumption of flights will be seamless.
ALSO READ: Maharashtra will gradually lift lockdown after May 31: Uddhav Thackeray
The Centre’s plan to resume domestic flights from Monday had run into rough weather, with many states suggesting at least a week-long quarantine for airline passengers and some others resisting commercial air transport altogether during the lockdown. The impasse threw schedule and network planning of airlines into disarray as flights had to be curtailed and schedules revised, following a high-level meeting that ended at 8 pm. Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola headed the deliberations.
Officials and network planners of airlines worked till midnight to work out the procedure and finalise schedules.
“After Saturday’s announcement by Mumbai airport, we were on standby to cancel all flights to and from the city. Then we were told that 45 departures and 45 arrivals will be permitted. Finally, it was reduced to 25 departures and 25 arrivals. We had to cancel at the last moment and inform passengers. Things should have been done in a more planned manner,” said an airline executive late on Sunday.
ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: India overtakes Iran in cases, becomes 10th most affected
However, a ministry official defended the Centre’s move, saying states’ disagreement had more to do with political calls rather than operational. “We have to understand that the economy needs to restart and cannot be perpetually kept under lockdown,” the official said. Airlines said for the first day, occupancy of flights will range between 60 per cent and 70 per cent. However, despite attempts by the Centre, states haven’t agreed to dilute their quarantine guidelines. Almost all prominent states, except Delhi, have mandated quarantine after landing.
“This will hit demand further. On one Bengaluru flight, we just have 35 passengers,” said an airline executive. Only 35 per cent of the original summer schedule flights will be allowed in the first phase to maintain social distancing. Delhi airport, which has over 60 aircraft movements per hour, is allowing 14 per hour. Initially, airports will operate for a limited period against whole day to make time for sanitisation of terminals. Persons above 80 years of age will not be allowed to fly during the first phase, while wearing mask will be compulsory in airport and for the entire duration of the flight.

Cyclone Amphan LIVE: PM begins aerial survey of affected areas in Odisha

Cyclone Amphan LIVE updates: The central government will give West Bengal Rs 1,000 crore as interim assistance for the damage caused by Cyclone Amphan, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday after a visit to the state.
Families of those killed will get Rs 2 lakh each as ex-gratia and the injured will get Rs 50,00, he said after flying over flooded areas of the state. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said 80 people have died in the cyclone and requested Modi to treat it as a national disaster.
The India Meteorological Department said squalls with wind speed at 30- 40 kmph are "very likely" in Meghalaya and west Assam in the next 12 hours.
Stay tuned for LIVE updates on cyclone Amphan and weather updates
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03:36 PM
Sheikh Hasina speaks to Mamata Banerjee on Cyclone Amphan
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinpoken ta has so West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over phone to enquire about the damages caused by extremely severe #CycloneAmphan: Bangladesh media
03:14 PM
PM Narendra Modi reaches Odisha received by CM Naveen Patnaik
PM Narendra Modi received by CM Naveen Patnaik and Governor Ganeshi Lal on arrival at Bhubaneswar Airport. The PM will be conducting an aerial survey of the areas affected by #CycloneAmphan.

03:07 PM
We've to help people so we've started relief work: Mamata
We've to help people so we've started relief work. I told PM that we'll get Rs 53,000 Cr from central govt regarding food subsidy, social schemes & central schemes wherever our money is there. So I said you try to give some money to us so that we can work in this crisis: WB CM
02:57 PM
PM didn't clarify whether it'll be advance or a package: Mamata on financial assistance
He (PM) announced Rs 1000 Crore for the emergency fund but he didn't clarify whether it'll be advance or a package. He said he'll decide later on but he said it may be advance also. I said whatever you will give you decide, we'll give you details: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee
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West Bengal under leadership of Mamata ji is fighting well: Modi
Dealing with COVID19 requires social distancing whereas battling the AmphanCyclone requires people to move to safer areas. Despite these contradictions, West Bengal under leadership of Mamata ji is fighting well. We are with them in these adverse times: PM
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#WATCH Dealing with #COVID19 requires social distancing whereas battling the #AmphanCyclone requires people to move to safer areas. Despite these contradictions, West Bengal under leadership of Mamata ji is fighting well. We are with them in these adverse times: PM
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01:11 PM
We are with those impacted by the cyclone in Odisha and West Bengal: Narendra Modi
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Centre offers Rs 1,000 crore assistance to West Bengal after Modi's aerial survey
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Cyclone Amphan caused massive damage, says PM Modi
12:56 PM
PM Narendra Modi conducts aerial survey of areas affected by Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal
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#WATCH: PM Narendra Modi conducts aerial survey of areas affected by #CycloneAmphan in West Bengal. CM Mamata Banerjee is also accompanying.
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Treat cyclone Amphan as national disaster, says Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee