Adani News

Category: Business

  • Sitharaman presented the report card of nine years of BJP rule

    Sitharaman presented the report card of nine years of BJP rule

    Mumbai (IANS) | Presenting the report card of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nine-year tenure, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday described it as full of progress and development. Addressing the media, Sitharaman said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, 80 crore people were given free food grains, while 220 crore people were given doses of the coronavirus vaccine across the country.

    In nine years, we have raised the country’s position globally, the poor have got food security with dignity, he said. No other country has achieved so much in renewable energy in such a period.

    Discussing the achievements on a larger scale, Sitharaman said that 12 crore households were provided with clean drinking water. 9.60 crore were given free gas connections, and a subsidy of Rs 200 per gas cylinder was given to the poor, despite global price hikes.

    The Modi government has built over 3.50 crore pucca houses for the poor and around 12 crore toilets, resulting in 100 per cent coverage of toilets in mofussil areas, compared to only 39 nine years ago (2014). The percentage was

    Sitharaman was accompanied by state Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule and other senior leaders.

    –IANS

  • Twitter Spaces team down to ‘roughly three’ employees from 100

    Twitter Spaces team down to ‘roughly three’ employees from 100

    NEW DELHI: Twitter Spaces team, which once had as many as 100 employees, is down to “roughly three” people, a report has revealed, as the technical “fiasco” during Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ 2024 US presidential election bid on the platform this week rocked the world.

    For months now, the Spaces team has been operating without most of the “institutional knowledge it accumulated since Twitter added live audio conversations in 2021 to compete with then-hot Clubhouse,” reports Platformer.

    “Practically no one remaining knows the current architecture in-depth,” one person wrote on a pseudonymous employee forum called Blind. After almost 20 minutes into the glitch, DeSantis could finally make the announcement.

    “I am running for President of the US to lead our great American comeback,” DeSantis said. Musk and David Sacks, a tech entrepreneur, admitted that the limited capacity of Twitter’s servers played into the issues it faced getting the event underway.

    “This was by far the biggest room ever held on social media. Twitter performed great after some initial scaling challenges. Thanks, Twitter Team for adapting so quickly to make history,” Sacks said in a tweet.

    Outgoing Twitter CEO, however, said that the technical “fiasco” was actually the “top story on earth” and he welcomes all US Presidential candidates to do so on his platform.

  • Nepal starts selling electricity at 600 Mega Watt per hour to India

    Nepal starts selling electricity at 600 Mega Watt per hour to India

    Kathmandu: Nepal has started exporting electricity to India from Saturday, as the generation of hydroelectricity from run-of-the-river projects increased with the onset of the monsoon in the Himalayan country. Last year also, Nepal exported hydroelectricity to India from June to November.

    “We have started selling 600 MW hour electricity to India from Saturday as there is a surplus in the electricity in the country,” said Suresh Bhattarai, spokesperson of Nepal Electricity Authority.
    From shortage of electricity in Nepal to surplus

    Some time ago Nepal was importing up to 400 MW electricity from India to meet the domestic demand.

    In Nepal the domestic demand for electricity increases in winter, while the supply decreases and in summer the demand decreases while the supply increases.

    Most of the hydropower projects operating in Nepal are based on run-of-the-river. Last year, Nepal earned around 12 billion rupees from exporting electricity to India.

    With the onset of monsoons, hydropower plants in Nepal have been producing excess electricity from the elevated water levels in the Himalayan rivers.

  • Big tech companies may lay off more employees: Musk

    Big tech companies may lay off more employees: Musk

    San Francisco (IANS) | Twitter’s outgoing CEO Elon Musk has said that Silicon Valley companies can cut more workforce without affecting productivity. Musk laid off more than 80 per cent of Twitter employees in October-November last year. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s summit in London, Musk said there are a lot of people on Twitter who don’t seem to be worth much.

    That said, I think that’s true in many Silicon Valley companies. I think there is potential for significant reductions in other companies without affecting their productivity, without actually increasing their productivity.

    Musk told conference attendees that Twitter now has about 1,500 employees, adding that it’s probably a reasonable number.

    Twitter closed two of its three India offices and directed its employees to work from home. In November, Musk laid off more than 90 percent of its employees in India.

    Musk said, we need to be very radical. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.

    –IANS

  • Mukesh Ambani joins COP28 advisory committee

    Mukesh Ambani joins COP28 advisory committee

    New Delhi (IANS) | Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani has been appointed as a member of the Consultative Committee to the President of the 28th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

    Mukesh Ambani COP28 Advisory Council along with other important global leaders like Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, Olafur Grímsson, Chairman of the Arctic Circle (former President of Iceland), COP21/Paris Agreement President, Laurent Fabius, former Prime Minister of France, International Renewable Energy Francesco La Camara, Director General of the Agency (Irina), was joined by Bob Dudley, President of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI).

    Mukesh Ambani is the only Indian in the COP28 President’s Advisory Committee apart from Sunita Narayan, director general of the Center for Science and Environment.

    The COP28 UAE Consultative Committee brings together the climate expertise of thought leaders from six continents. Covering policy, industry, energy, finance, civil society, youth and humanitarian action, the Committee’s 31 members, 65 percent of whom are from the Global South, will provide guidance and advice to the COP Presidency through COP 28 and beyond.

    The UNFCCC Secretariat announced in January 2023 that Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change, has been appointed COP 28 President-designate.

    The United Arab Emirates has been chosen to host the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) from November 30, 2023 to December 12, 2023. It will be held at Dubai Expo City.

    –IANS

  • Delhi High Court’s order against RBI and SBI reserved

    Delhi High Court’s order against RBI and SBI reserved

    New Delhi (IANS) | The Delhi High Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a plea challenging the notifications of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the State Bank of India (SBI) that allow exchange of currency notes without any identity proof. A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramaniam Prasad said, “We will pass appropriate orders.” Senior RBI advocate Parag P. Tripathi objected to the Public Interest Litigation (PIL), saying it should be dismissed.

    The PIL has been filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.

    Tripathi said it was a statutory exercise and not demonetisation.

    He said, none of the points raised by my learned friend affect the public issues in any way.

    The PIL states that the notifications published on May 19 and 20 are arbitrary and violate Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

    The plea has also sought a direction to the RBI and SBI to ensure that Rs 2,000 notes are deposited in the respective bank accounts only, so that black money and people with disproportionate assets can be identified.

    To weed out corruption, benami transactions and secure fundamental rights of citizens, the PIL, which has the RBI, SBI and the Union Home and Finance Ministries as respondents, has sought a direction to the Center to take action with respect to the same. Gives

    Recently, it was announced by the Center that every family having an Aadhaar card and a bank account. So, why is RBI allowing exchange of Rs 2000 notes without obtaining identity proof. It is also necessary to mention that 80 crore BPL families get it for free. This means that 800 million Indians rarely use Rs 2,000 notes. Therefore, the petitioner has also sought a direction to RBI and SBI to take steps to ensure that Rs 2000 notes are deposited only in bank accounts.

    –IANS

  • Tamil actor buys Sundar Pichai’s ancestral house in Chennai

    Tamil actor buys Sundar Pichai’s ancestral house in Chennai

    CHENNAI: A Tamil actor has purchased the ancestral house of Google CEO Sundar Pichai in Chennai for an undisclosed sum. C. Manikandan, a small-time actor and producer who is also into real estate, is thrilled on purchasing the property in Ashok Nagar neighbourhood where Sundar Pichai was born and raised.

    He told mediapersons that he feels proud of buying the house where Sundar Pichai was born. “Since Sundar Pichai made India proud, it is exciting to buy the house where he was born,” said Manikandan, who plans to build a villa there.

    Manikandan has built and delivered around 300 homes under his brand Chellappas Builders in different parts of the city.

    According to Manikandan, Sundar Pichai’s father R.S. Pichai razed the old structure at his own cost and handed over the plot. The actor revealed that since this was R.S. Pichai’s first property, he became emotional while handing over the documents.

    Sundar Pichai was born and brought up in Chennai. He is said to have lived in this house till the age of 20 years. He left the city in 1989 to study Metallurgical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur.

    When Manikandan heard that the property was for sale, he immediately decided to buy it. He, however, had to wait for R.S. Pichai’s return from the US.

    He was impressed by the humility of the Google CEO’s parents. He revealed that Sundar’s mother made a filter coffee herself and his father offered him the documents at the very first meeting.

    The actor said Sundar Pichai’s father also insisted that the name of his son should not be used to expedite the transfer of ownership of the property and the registration.

    Manikandan said R.S. Pichai waited for hours at the registration office, paid all necessary taxes before handing over the documents to him.

    -IANS

  • Indigo reports best ever fourth quarter net profits at Rs 9,192 million

    Indigo reports best ever fourth quarter net profits at Rs 9,192 million

    NEW DELHI: IndiGo continued on the path of profitability as it reported its best-ever fourth-quarter net profit of Rs 9,192 million for the quarter ended March 2023, a 155 per cent jump year-on-year. Excluding foreign exchange gain of Rs 2,528 million, the net profit for the quarter aggregated to Rs 6,664 million.

    For the year ended March 2023, IndiGo reported a profit of INR 26,540 million, excluding foreign exchange impact. Including foreign exchange impact, IndiGo reported a net loss of INR 3,058 million for the year. “The profits of the third and the fourth quarters largely compensated for the losses incurred in the first and the second quarters,” Indigo said.

    Revenue from Operations increased by 76.5 per cent to Rs 141,606 million in the March quarter and increased by 110 per cent to Rs 544,465 million in 2022-23. Coming to passengers number, it increased by 60.5 per cent to 23.4 million during the March quarter. For the entire year, passenger numbers increased by 71.9 per cent to 85.6 million.

    “With a combination of robust market demand and focused execution of our strategy, this was the second consecutive quarter wherein we produced strong operational and financial results, as we reported the highest ever fourth-quarter net profit of 9,192 million rupees,” Pieter Elbers, CEO, Indigo said. “The companywide initiatives undertaken based on the three strategic pillars of Reassure, Create and Develop enabled us to end the year on a strong note with record revenues.

    I would like to thank the 86 million customers for choosing to fly with us in the financial year ended March 2023 and the 6E employees for their immense hard work and dedication.”

    IndiGo is amongst the fastest-growing low-cost carriers. It had a fleet of 304 aircraft and provided scheduled services to 78 domestic and 22 international destinations as of March 2023.

  • Wheels India to invest Rs 200 cr to ramp up production

    Wheels India to invest Rs 200 cr to ramp up production

    CHENNAI: Wheels India has earmarked an investment of Rs 200 crore as capex this year as part of gradually ramping up of production in commercial vehicles, tractor, aluminum wheels and windmills machining segments. Last year, its capex was Rs 143 crore.

    “Cast aluminum is looking very strong with the first supplies to the first OEM taking place this month. We will start ramping this up with a second customer in Q3 of this year,” said Srivats Ram, MD, Wheels India, after talking about the performance of the company.

    Wheels India has registered a net profit of Rs 65.2 crore for the year ended March 31, 2023 compared to Rs 79.8 crore reported during the same period in the previous year. Revenues for the year ended March 31, 2023 went up 18% to Rs 4332.1 crore against Rs 3686.7 crore in the year ended March 31, 2022. The Board of Wheels India has recommended a final dividend of Rs 3.97 per share. The company had in January 2023 declared an interim dividend of Rs 3 per share for the FY 2022-23.

    The company’s net profit was Rs 24.8 crore in Q4 ended March 31, 2023, against Rs 27.9 crore registered in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Revenues for Q4 ended March 31, 2023 went up 6 per cent to Rs 1,169.2 crore compared to Rs 1101.3 crore registered in the Q4 ended March 31, 2022.

    Noting that the company had registered a significant growth in air suspension division during FY 2023, he said the CV and earth mover wheel business had also performed well in FY23. “Machining of large castings which was commissioned in September 2022 was ramped-up towards the end of FY 2023,” he added.

    Air Suspension had reached close to 10 per cent of the company’s overall revenues. “It will remain strong. The windmill business will grow from strength to strength,” he said.

    On the outlook, Srivats said, “Despite the uncertain global environment, exports are showing positive signs. We are confident that strong relationship with customers will ensure export growth this year.”

    The company’s exports looked up in Q4 of last year, he said, adding “we expect this trend to continue into this year. We are looking at double-digit growth to come back in our exports this year, though there is uncertainty in the overall global environment. We are building on our existing relationships with global customers and getting into new platforms. Overall this year looks promising on the exports front.”

    On the domestic market, Srivats noted “we have made reasonable inroads in the aftermarket segment and have reached close to 5% share to our overall business. It is the first time it has reached such a level. There is a certain amount of positivity in the domestic market. CV was quite strong in Q4 and we are continuing to see some momentum this year. Government investment in infra should give a fillip in this segment.”

    -IANS

  • CMRL plans to introduce WhatsApp e-ticket facility today

    CMRL plans to introduce WhatsApp e-ticket facility today

    CHENNAI: In a measure to increase footfall, the Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) has launched the facility to buy e-tickets through WhatsApp at Chennai’s Thirumangalam Metro Rail Station on Wednesday.

    As per the reports, Commuters leaving from their home or office can send a message of the departure and destination location to +91 8300086000 and pay the fare through net banking mobile wallets, credit or debit cards, and download the ticket.

    It has also been informed that commuters can scan the QR code sent to your WhatsApp number and take their ride.This move will help avoiding long queues for buying tickets or for smart card top-ups. Initially, the CMRL had a token and smart card system. During the pandemic, CMRL introduced QR code tickets for contactless transactions.

    WhatsApp e-ticket for Metro is already been introduced in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.