Action against corrupt shouldn’t be seen as crackdown on India Inc: PM Modi

The target to nearly double the size of the economy to $5 trn is just a phase and the targets are bigger and higher, says Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met top industrialists including Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata for an ‘’extensive’’ interaction and later followed it up with an address meant to revive the business sentiments, sending out a positive message ahead of the Union Budget.

During his meeting with India Inc bigwigs during the day, the PM focused on issues facing the industry and measures needed to boost the economy. Speaking at the centenary celebrations of Kirloskar Brothers in the evening, he encouraged businesses to invest without fear, stressing that action against a few corrupt entities should not be seen as government crackdown on the corporate sector. The government will walk shoulder to shoulder with the industry, he added, in a bid to revive the animal spirit.

Besides Tata and Ambani, the meeting with the PM was attended by Sunil Mittal, N Chandrasekaran, Anand Mahindra, Sajjan Jindal, Gautam Adani, Venu Srinivasan, A M Naik and Anil Agarwal, among others. An official in the Prime Minister’s Office said, “The PM had an extensive interaction with leading business stalwarts to discuss ways to improve growth and job creation’’.

The Modi government will present its next budget on February 1 and Indian companies are expecting a cut in income tax rates to revive consumer demand. Rationalisation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) is also high on India Inc expectations from the Budget. Although the government has already taken a series of steps to boost the sentiments, including a corporate tax rate cut, companies remain hesitant about fresh investments due to low consumer demand…

Bharti Airtel bids for RCom spectrum, Jio seeks deadline extension

It is believed that apart from Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel, there are four players that have made a bid

‘The Bharti group, through two of its companies, on Tuesday made a conditional bid for the spectrum of Reliance Communications (RCom) even as Reliance Jio asked for an extension of the November 12 deadline to make an offer under insolvency proceedings.

The interim resolution professional (RP) had invited prospective companies to make a bid for the company as a going concern with assets and businesses like telecom towers, spectrum, a fibre network, real estate, and an enterprise business, in order to recover debts of more than Rs 33,000 crore of secured creditors.

It is believed that apart from Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel, there are four players that have made a bid. They include US-based Varde Partners, a private equity fund that has a joint venture in India with the Aditya Birla group. But the joint venture has not made the bid, sources say. An e-mail query to Varde Partners did not elicit any response.

A Bharti spokesperson, in response to an e-mail query, said: “A conditional bid has been made primarily for the spectrum, which is a precious asset. Bid conditions include that the overall consideration will primarily be by way of the deferred spectrum payable to the government being passed on to us on terms and schedules applicable to such deferred payments”.

Reliance Jio, according to sources, has asked for an extension of the deadline by 10 days. However, it is not clear as to whether the RP, Anish Nanavaty, has granted it, and queries to him did not elicit any response.

Sunil Mittal bats for Huawei Technologies, says it should be in play

According to Mittal, it is surprising how fast Huawei have improved their technology.

Sunil Mittal, founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, on Thursday lend his voice in favour of Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei Technologies that has been caught in the ongoing US-China trade war.

Sitting beside the US Secretary for Commerce Wilbur Ross, who voiced concerns over security risks involved with firms like Huawei, Sunil Mittal said its products were ‘significantly superior’ than European companies’ on whom the US departments are dependent.

Mittal, who was part of the discussion panel on the trade war at the India Economic Summit, said, “Without getting into a debate on security risks, I can say that over the past 10-12 years, Huawei have become extremely good with their products. I can safely say their products are superior to Ericsson and Nokia, without a doubt. I use products from all three of them.” Mittal was responding to Ross’ allegations on Chinese telecom equipment maker’s breach of internet protocols for American companies in the past.

According to Mittal, it is surprising how fast Huawei have improved their technology. “The power consumption is a fraction of Europeans, the footprint is small if you have to put it on a tower, and they have powerful leading features. They are leading edge and have very powerful features,” he said. His response came after Ross highlighted Huawei’s poor records forced the US to ban it as security risks involved in the 5G technology is much higher..

Railways can generate 1 mn jobs but the system is slow: Piyush Goyal at WEF

Over the years, the system that has been created is slow to move, said Goyal at World Economic Forum

 

“We have the potential to create no less than a million jobs around railways if we can provide an enabling environment,” said Minister of Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal at the World Economic Forum’s India summit on Thursday.

While Railways is already one of the country’s biggest employer, the scope to create jobs is immense.

“There are 2,000 railway stations in India that don’t have a booking office. So rather than having a ticketing office, why not encourage a local entrepreneur from the village to book tickets and earn a commission,” Goyal said.

However, the problem is that the system is slow to move.

Over the years, the system that has been created is slow to move, said Goyal. This causes delays and reduces focus on costs and efficiency. As a consequence, investments are not as effective as desired.(economy policy)

The minister stressed that transformative results are possible but “we need to change the mindset.”

“The investments in the pipeline can alone create thousands of jobs. We can also monetise our real estate. That will also create many opportunities,” Goyal said.

Jobs is undoubtedly top of the agenda at the India economic summit.

Other panelists at the session titled - Creating Indian Narratives – also stressed on the need to create jobs to absorb the millions that are entering the labour force each year.

“India needs to focus on creating jobs and focus on improving productivity by engineering the shift away from informality towards formality,” said Ajay S Banga, president and chief executive officer, Mastercard....READ MORE