Weekly Business News: India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021

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India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021. News on Corporates, policies, budget, start-up world, funds, funding. Here’s a roundup of all the India business news that created the buzz in India this week:

Corporates – India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021

• Environment Ministry has issued a deadline by the end of 2022 for thermal power plants to meet the amended guidelines.
• Amid tensions with Saudi Arabia over oil production cuts, India has asked its state refiners to review contracts for buying crude oil from Saudi Arabia and negotiate more favourable terms.
• Competition Commission of India is said to have penalized Uttarakhand Agricultural Produce Marketing Board for anti-competitive ways in the procurement of IMFL. This is the first ruling in favour of industry against a state government commercial enterprise operating in the alcoholic beverages trade.
• ONGC-Tripura Power Company, a gas-based electricity generation entity, is said to have received environmental clearance for setting up its third plant.
• Vedanta Limited is planning to set up a new copper smelter plant in partnership with the State government with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore in a coastal state.
• Franklin Templeton MF has said its six shut schemes received Rs.15,272 crores from coupons, maturities, and pre-payments since being closed down in April 2020.
• Facebook is said to be introducing a new feature called Favourites, which will allow users to prioritize posts from friends and Pages they follow in the News Feed.
• Instagram has announced a new feature ‘Remix’. This feature offers a way to record Reels video alongside a video from another user. Users can react to or interact with another person’s video content while creating their own video.
• Paytm is said to have achieved over 1.4 billion monthly transactions in March 2021.
• Offline smartphone retailers association, All India Mobile Retailers’ Association, is said to have requested commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal to set up a monitoring body to control the unfair and unethical business practices by smartphone brands and online portals.
• ITC has said that NCLT has approved the amalgamation of its recently acquired spice company Sunrise Foods with itself.
• Rohini Nilekani is said to have pledged Rs.50 crores to Bengaluru-based think tank ATREE – Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment.
• Noida authority is said to have allotted a 60,000 sq.m institutional plot to Microsoft India at the premium of Rs.103.66 crores.

India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021

• Tata Sons are said to have valued at $70 billion in a recent internal valuation exercise.
• RBI has reportedly asked Mobikwik to get a forensic audit done on an immediate basis. The firm is facing data breach allegations.
• Sterling & Wilson Solar promoter Khurshed Yazdi Daruvala is said to have sold a 4.99% stake worth Rs.200 crores.
• Maruti Suzuki India has signed an MoU with Karnataka Bank to offer better finance schemes of vehicle loans.
• Amazon Web Services said Amazon WorkSpaces, its fully managed DaaS solution, is now available in the Asia Pacific (Mumbai) region
• Amazon Technologies has acquired Perpule, a retail tech startup, for Rs.107.6 crores in an all-cash deal. The move is to bolster its play in the Kirana-tech space.
• Google Maps will reportedly introduce over 100 AI-powered improvements to Maps to improve accuracy, including a feature that will direct drivers to more eco-friendly routes.
• MobiKwik has denied that the firm suffered a data breach. Several social media users reportedly found their data on a massive data dump on the dark web.
• Bombay High Court has listed a dispute between Bytedance (India) technologies and the Indian government over GST issues. Authorities have blocked bank accounts of ByteDance in India for alleged tax evasion.
• Thomson, a European brand selling televisions, is entering into the Air-coolers market.
• BHEL is said to have bagged a major order for a sulphur recovery unit from IOCL of around Rs.400 crores against stiff international competitive bidding.
• Madison World India has announced that it is exiting the Sri Lanka market.
• Auto-payment rules for mobile, utility, and other bills are likely to be changed. RBI had earlier stated that recurring transactions using debit cards, credit cards, UPI or other PPIs will need additional factor authentication from April 1, 2021.
• Super Cassettes Industries, known as T-Series, has reportedly become a member of the Indian Performing Rights Society. The move ends years of disagreement and many rounds of discussions and negotiations.
• UltraTech Cement is said to have prepaid its long-term loans of Rs 5,000 crores.

India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021

• Punjab & Sind Bank has reportedly declared IL&FS Transportation Network account with total dues of Rs.149.98 crores as fraud.
• DGCA is said to have approved 18,843 flights per week from 108 airports for the summer schedule.
• HDFC Bank was hit by a major e-banking outage on March 30. The bank had faced three disruptions since 2018.
• Torrent Gas is said to have entered into an agreement to take over Sanwariya Gas. It has a licence to retail CNG to automobiles and piped gas to households in Mathura.
• HPCL will buy out share of its JV partner SP Ports in the 5 million MT p.a. LNG re-gasification terminal being set up at Chhara, Gujarat.
• Cairn Energy is said to have moved courts in the US, UK, France, Singapore, Canada, Netherlands and 3 other countries to register the Dec 2020 arbitration tribunal ruling that overturned Rs10,247 cr demand in back taxes by the Indian Government.
• Piramal Capital is said to have been thinking of putting the property developer loan portfolio of Dewan Housing for sale after acquisition.
• Apple Inc has released an update for its iPhones, iPads and iWatches to fix security vulnerability under dynamic attack by hackers.
• Indian Railway Finance Corporation is said to have raised funds at 6.8 basis points. much lower than offered by sovereign bonds.
• Manappuram Finance is said to be contemplating the idea of hiving off and taking Asirwad Microfinance, its microfinance arm, public within one year.

India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021

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India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021

Start-up world, funds, funding and investments – India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021

• Dutch development bank FMO is said to have agreed to invest $137 million in Green Growth Equity Fund that invests in India’s green energy space.
• Easebuzz, a payments infrastructure startup, is said to have raised around $4 million as part of its seed funding round led by 8i Ventures, Varanium Capital, and Guild Capital. Amrish Rau and Jitendra Gupta, Former Citrus Pay founders also participated.
• National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited has announced an investment of INR.2,100 crores in Manipal Hospitals through its NIIF Strategic Opportunities Fund.
• Chingari app is said to have raised around $13 million in a funding round led by OnMobile.
• HealthPlix, a health-tech start-up, is said to have raised $13.5 million as part of its Series B round of funding led by Lightspeed. The round also saw participation from its existing investors Kalaari Capital, JSW Ventures, and Chiratae.
• Uable, a children’s life skill development platform, is said to have raised $3.5 million in pre-series A round of funding led by Jafco Asia and Chiratae Ventures. The round also had participation from its existing investor 3one4 Capital.
• iD Fresh Food, a fresh food brand, is said to have invested around Rs.40 crores to set up its new plant, spread across 80,000 sq.ft. in Anekal, Karnataka.

Some stats: India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021

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India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021

Tie-ups, Agreements & Acquisitions

• Adani Enterprises and its wholly-owned subsidiary Gare Palma II Collieries have signed an agreement with Maharashtra State Power Generation for the development and operation of Gare Palma Sector II coal mine.
• Cube Highways and Infrastructure has entered into an agreement with Bharat Road Network and its partners to acquire a 100% stake in Ghaziabad Aligarh Expressway Pvt. Ltd. at an enterprise value of Rs.1,600 crores.
• Wipro Ltd is said to have entered into an agreement to acquire Australia-based cybersecurity, DevOps and quality engineering services provider company Ampion.
• Himalaya Drug Co. is said to have signed an agreement with ICC to appoint its brand Himalaya Men as the official grooming partner for two years.
• Piramal Pharma Solutions is said to have entered into an agreement to purchase a 100% stake in Hemmo Pharmaceuticals for Rs.775 crores.
• ICICI Bank and Axis Bank have tied up with Amazon and Visa to launch a retail payments entity.
• International Finance Corporation is said to have picked up a 4.55% stake in Dodla Dairy for around Rs.100 crores. Dodla is the third-largest private dairy firm in South India.

Ongoing cases: India Business News Weekly Roundup 29 March to 3 April 2021

People:

• Chingari app has announced to appoint Salman Khan as its global brand ambassador. He has also invested in the app.
• L&T Technology Services has appointed Amit Chadha as CEO & MD.
• Subhash Kumar, Director (Finance) ONGC has assumed additional charge CMD.
• The Board of directors of Britannia Industries is said to have approved the appointment of Dr. Urjit Patel, as an Additional Director for 5 years.
• Wipro Ltd has appointed Subha Tatavarti as its new CTO. Tatavarti was previously with Walmart Inc.

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