Today Sector News – 17.09.2018
* AUTOMOBILES: The Indian automobile industry faces a talent crunch as it gears up for the impending electric vehicle revolution -- there just aren't enough engineers with expertise in the field, say executives and recruitment companies.
* AVIATION: The government plans to soon initiate the strategic sale process for at least four subsidiaries of loss-making Air India, including Airline Allied Services and Hotel Corp of India, according to officials.
* BANKING: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet chiefs of public sector banks on Sep 25 and discuss their quarterly performance.
-The Reserve Bank of India has refused to be part of the cabinet secretary-led panel set up by the Prime Minister's Office in July to resolve issues of the stressed thermal power sector.
-Bankers will approach RBI to seek clarity on whether they can proceed with insolvency proceedings against stressed corporate debtors.
-Banks have decided to continue with their resolution plans for power plants without seeking any advice from the Reserve Bank of India.
* COMMODITY: The food ministry is likely to soon seek the Cabinet's approval for subsidies on export of up to 5 mln tn of sugar in 2018-19 (Oct-Sep) to help push out the surplus and support domestic prices.
* E-COMMERCE: BigBasket and Grofers have revived talks for a merger as their investors Alibaba and SoftBank look to join hands.
* ECONOMY: India does not need higher interest rates to stop the rupee from depreciating further, Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal said.
-Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a series of steps that the government will take to bring back foreign flows into India and control the widening current account deficit.
* ENERGY: The finance ministry has formally told the customs department to reinstate the safeguard duty on solar panels and modules imported from China and Malaysia, following an order of the Supreme Court.
* INFRASTRUCTURE: The Bengaluru International Airport has signed a memorandum of understanding with Siemens Postal, Parcel & Airport Logistics GmbH, an arm of Siemens AG, to jointly initiate digital transformation of the airport.
* OIL AND GAS: Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals, which plans to build a plant in Maharashtra, will source 30 mln tn or half of the crude it requires, from partners Saudi Arabian Oil Co and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.
* PHARMACEUTICALS: The government has banned 328 fixed-dose combination drugs, including some cough syrups, painkillers, and anti-diabetic medicines, with immediate effect, citing lack of therapeutic justification for the medicines.
* STEEL: India is in talks with the US regarding tariffs levied by Washington on import of steel, and the government will take measures to safeguard the industry, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said.
* TELECOMMUNICATION: US technology firm Cisco Systems has entered into a partnership with the Department of Telecommunications to demonstrate India-centric fifth-generation or 5G technology-based use cases.
-The telecom regulator doesn't believe the industry will lose any more players and said that despite the ongoing competition, the sector is at the threshold of the next wave of growth, especially now that the Vodafone India-IDEA CELLULAR merger has been completed and demand for data is surging.
-The Supreme Court has accepted actor Juhi Chawla's plea demanding tighter norms governing cell phone tower radiation.
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* AVIATION: The government plans to soon initiate the strategic sale process for at least four subsidiaries of loss-making Air India, including Airline Allied Services and Hotel Corp of India, according to officials.
* BANKING: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet chiefs of public sector banks on Sep 25 and discuss their quarterly performance.
-The Reserve Bank of India has refused to be part of the cabinet secretary-led panel set up by the Prime Minister's Office in July to resolve issues of the stressed thermal power sector.
-Bankers will approach RBI to seek clarity on whether they can proceed with insolvency proceedings against stressed corporate debtors.
-Banks have decided to continue with their resolution plans for power plants without seeking any advice from the Reserve Bank of India.
* COMMODITY: The food ministry is likely to soon seek the Cabinet's approval for subsidies on export of up to 5 mln tn of sugar in 2018-19 (Oct-Sep) to help push out the surplus and support domestic prices.
* E-COMMERCE: BigBasket and Grofers have revived talks for a merger as their investors Alibaba and SoftBank look to join hands.
* ECONOMY: India does not need higher interest rates to stop the rupee from depreciating further, Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal said.
-Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a series of steps that the government will take to bring back foreign flows into India and control the widening current account deficit.
* ENERGY: The finance ministry has formally told the customs department to reinstate the safeguard duty on solar panels and modules imported from China and Malaysia, following an order of the Supreme Court.
* INFRASTRUCTURE: The Bengaluru International Airport has signed a memorandum of understanding with Siemens Postal, Parcel & Airport Logistics GmbH, an arm of Siemens AG, to jointly initiate digital transformation of the airport.
* OIL AND GAS: Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals, which plans to build a plant in Maharashtra, will source 30 mln tn or half of the crude it requires, from partners Saudi Arabian Oil Co and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.
* PHARMACEUTICALS: The government has banned 328 fixed-dose combination drugs, including some cough syrups, painkillers, and anti-diabetic medicines, with immediate effect, citing lack of therapeutic justification for the medicines.
* STEEL: India is in talks with the US regarding tariffs levied by Washington on import of steel, and the government will take measures to safeguard the industry, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said.
* TELECOMMUNICATION: US technology firm Cisco Systems has entered into a partnership with the Department of Telecommunications to demonstrate India-centric fifth-generation or 5G technology-based use cases.
-The telecom regulator doesn't believe the industry will lose any more players and said that despite the ongoing competition, the sector is at the threshold of the next wave of growth, especially now that the Vodafone India-IDEA CELLULAR merger has been completed and demand for data is surging.
-The Supreme Court has accepted actor Juhi Chawla's plea demanding tighter norms governing cell phone tower radiation.
