News This Week

PV Demand In Domestic Market Expected To Rebound Slowly This Fiscal, Says ICRA

Passenger vehicles demand in the domestic market is expected to rebound slowly and gradually this fiscal unlike China, which witnessed a V-shaped recovery, owing to low income and weak consumer sentiment, ratings agency, ICRA said in a report on Tuesday.

Currently, affected by an economic slowdown and the coronavirus-induced lockdown, both demand and production have been disrupted. The recovery is likely to happen in the two-wheeler and used car segment first, as concerned buyers will want to own personal transport over public transport due to possible infection fears, ICRA said.

"ICRA Ratings has ruled out repetition of Chinese V-shaped recovery of the Indian passenger vehicle (PV) industry, instead indicating that the demand is expected to witness a gradual and a slow-pace recovery in volume," the rating agency said in the report. The industry is pinning hopes on revival in rural income to support growth during the festive season and thereafter, ICRA said. 

SBI To Save  Rs 1,000 Cr With New Infrastructure

Amid COVID-19 induced disruption, the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) will institute work-from-anywhere infrastructure and expects to save Rs 1,000 crore from this measure, Chairman Rajnish Kumar said.

Speaking to shareholders at the bank's 65th annual general meeting on Tuesday, he said the focus going forward will be on cost reduction, rationalization and reskilling of workforce, improving staff productivity and redeployment of workforce from admin offices to sales roles.

"The measure is expected to save Rs 1,000 crore through cost optimization and will be a key component of our business continuity during times of COVID-19," Kumar said. As the COVID-19 pandemic is still playing out, FY21 will be a challenging year for the bank like any other bank or financial institution, he said. However, the bank is well prepared to deal with such challenges.

Contactless Parking Solution Coming Soon

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Tuesday said it will expand its fully contactless parking solution with FASTag to cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.

It informed that the first-of-its-kind contactless car parking facility at Hyderabad Airport received a huge response, prompting it to take this service to other metros. "As the first bank to extend this facility of collecting parking charges through FASTag at the GMR Hyderabad International Airport, ICICI Bank, with NPCI, is set to roll out contactless car parking in other metros," it said in a release.

The facility of 100 per cent contactless and interoperable parking solution with NETC FASTag is currently being implemented by 10 FASTag issuing banks at the GMR Hyderabad International Airport. 

Indian Pharma Industry Can Provide COVID-19 Vaccines To Entire World: Bill Gates

India's pharmaceutical industry will be able to produce COVID-19 vaccines not just for the country but also for the entire world, according to Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, Bill Gates.

A lot of "very important things have been done" in India and its pharma industry is working "to help make the coronavirus vaccine building on other great capacities that they have used for other diseases", said the Co-Chair and Trustee of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Commenting on the strength of India's pharma industry, he said, "India has a lot of capacity with the drug and vaccine companies that are huge suppliers to the entire world. More vaccines are made in India than anywhere, starting with Serum Institute, which is the largest." 

I-T Refunds Rs 71,229 Cr To 21.24 Lakh Taxpayers 

The Income Tax Department has issued refunds worth Rs 71,229 crore to over 21 lakh taxpayers during April 8 to July 11. This includes Personal Income Tax (PIT) refunds of Rs 24,603 crore issued to 19.79 lakh individuals and corporate tax refunds amounting to Rs 46,626 crore to over 1.45 lakh taxpayers during this period.

"It is further emphasised that all the refund-related cleaning up of the tax demands is being taken up on priority and is likely to be completed by August 31, 2020," an official statement said.

Exit Option For Unitholders Of REITs, InvITs

Markets regulator Sebi on Friday came out with a mechanism to provide exit options to dissenting unitholders of emerging investment vehicles, REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and InvITs (Infrastructure Investment Trusts).

Sebi said the acquirer will facilitate tendering of units by the unitholders and settlement of the same through the stock exchange mechanism. This will be done for the prime purpose of takeover, buy-back and delisting in case of equity listed companies. 

An acquirer providing exit option to dissenting unitholders of REITs and InvITs needs to appoint one or more merchant bankers as lead manager(s) for the exit offer, Sebi said in two separate circulars. 

Compiled from Press Trust of India