News Headlines -Saturday 7th July 2018

1. Britain has a good news for Indian scientists, researchers & teachersThe new visa route, opened from yesterday for researchers, scientists and academics from outside the European Union to come to the UK for up to two years
2. Building planes, drones, 10 lakh jobs part of Modi govt's plan to take India to skiesPrabhu said the country's aviation sector would log the highest continuous growth in the next few years, with technology and land being the key factors.
3. Waiting for flat in Noida? This may solve your woes To begin with, the panel headed by Union housing secretary DS Mishra, will take up the stalled projects of four real estate players - Unitech, Amrapali, Jaypee & 3C
4. Railways is opening doors for contractual hiringRailways also plans to engage retired staff for preserving and reviving railway heritage properties such as steam locomotives, vintage coaches and signals
5. Standard of living has improved in UP under BJP: CMYogi Adityanath, who dedicated nine projects to the public and laid the foundation stones of 45 other schemes in Sonbhadra, said the standard of living ha improved since the BJP govt has come to power.
6. Cong says will put corrupt BJP leaders behind bars"We have raised various cases of corruption against BJP ministers and even the son of BJP president but no reports, no CBI inquiry not even income tax investigation has been initiated," Singh said.
7. Meet the man who all go to when there's agri disputePasha Patel heads a group that has the mandate to recommend remunerative prices for agri commodities. He is the single point of contact whenever issues arise.
8. This potential game changer can give India jobsThere is a clear option for the govt that will not only relieve pressure on our big metros, but will also spread employment better across the country.
9. HDFC is good for the next six months as we expect the markets to be a lot more volatile.
10. As of March 31, 2018, bad loans across listed banks stood at over Rs 10 lakh crore.
11. n May, Indian refiners imported 4.7 million barrels, or about nine times more than April.
12. Reliance has started rocking the boat as far as retail is concerned.
13. ​The attempts to raise realised prices for the farm sector will add to inflation momentum.
14. Only the first bullet has been fired in the trade war and that is going to be negative for all Asian EMs.
15. Citing an example of "letter of credit", a prerequisite for exports to happen, Suresh Prabhu said fundamentals of global trade are "under scrutiny".
16. There is a clear option for the govt that will not only relieve pressure on our big metros, but will also spread employment better across the country.
17. The commerce department is already working on the development of standards. The standard in the Western countries is very high ", said Suresh Prabhu.
18. “We are looking at various options to strengthen and consolidate the financial inclusion initiatives that this government has undertaken so far. One of them is to increase the insurance coverage,” said a govt official.
19. The US-China trade war intensified on Friday as the two sides started slapping additional tariffs on each other's goods, worth nearly $70 billion.
20. Dr. Sudha Murthy, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation called on Chief Minister and held discussion about the subject at his home Office Krishna today.
21. ​​Facebook’s latest stand, however, may land it in more trouble since calling itself a publisher may mean more responsibility for the content posted on its website
22. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a comprehensive set of directives put in place by the European Union to protect personal data of all its citizens.
23. KaiOS will chase markets in Europe and Latin America where the trend of cheap technology and 4G networks is growing.
24. The social media giant is being questioned by govts across the world, asking it be subjected to local regulations. India too has taken a strong position.
25. The govt piece of the domestic market is huge opportunity that we participate in, says Nasscom's Debajani Ghosh and Rishad Premji.
26. These days... the price is dependent on the behaviour of Mr. Trump," Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on state television.
27. May seemed to have persuaded the most vocal Brexit campaigners in the cabinet to back her plan to press for "a free trade area for goods" with the EU and maintain close trade ties.
28. Li also praised the European Union, calling the 28-member bloc an "indispensable force" and very important for global peace, stability and prosperity.
29. Japan's Meteorological Agency issued special weather warnings amid what it called "historic" rains.
30. President Rodrigo Duterte had last week made a similar controversial issue when he said: "Who is this stupid God? This son of a bitch is then really stupid.
31. We have raised various cases of corruption against BJP ministers and even the son of BJP president but no reports, no CBI inquiry not even income tax investigation has been initiated," Singh said.
32. Among the five charge sheeted, brother of BJP MLA, Jai Deep alias Atul Singh Sengar has also been named by the agency.
33. Thakor, a Congress MLA, along with independent legislator Mevani and Patel, on Thursday "raided" the house of a woman claiming they wanted to expose the alleegd "liquor den" operating there.
34. Yogi Adityanath, who dedicated nine projects to the public and laid the foundation stones of 45 other schemes in Sonbhadra, said the standard of living ha improved since the BJP govt has come to power.
35. Chief Minister Raman Singh termed the allegations levelled by the opposition as "direction-less and baseless". The Congress has made a failed attempt to mislead people, he said during his reply which lasted for over an hour.
36. As far as stock futures are concerned, we are very near to the highest-ever open interest with 195 crore shares in open interest.
37. An analysis of 300 Asian small-cap schemes shows DSP BlackRock Micro Cap Fund leading the charge, delivering an 82% return over the past year.
38. Market may see range-bound trading this week in the absence of any major trigger.
39. Prabhudas Lilladher has a ‘reduce’ rating on Infosys Technologies as it feels that the outlook for the company and the software industry is quite weak in the near-term.
40. A crisis of $240 trillion cannot be stemmed with bailout packages of $1 to $10 trillion. 2008: Year of global financial crisis | Survive credit crisis | Ghosts of 1929
41. The falling rupee will severely affect the small companies, whereas the big ones will be impacted moderately. Get rid of Debt | Adopt correct investment strategies
42. At the recent low of 12514 points, the Sensex has tested the 12800-12000-pts support zone and has since then attempted a corrective rally.
43. BusinessWeek's 'The Infotech 100', has ranked Bharti Airtel at the 21st position followed by Reddington India (55th) and RCom (66th). Successful business formula
44. 14 firms present in a new list of world's 500 most valued firms together seeing an erosion of about $150 billion in their market value in the first three months of this year.
45. Shares of Cipla inched up on heavy volumes on Friday, after the company’s first quarter earnings beat the consensus estimate.
46. The Old Fox of Dalal Street has been on a dream run since the past couple of weeks. On Friday, most stocks that he had been steadily building up positions in figured among key gainers of the day.
47. The scrip, which was flat for most of the session, shot up in the final hour of trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange to settle with a net gain of 4.36 per cent at Rs 355.45.
48. In the late afternoon session, the scrip was being traded at 20.61 pounds, down by 5.50 per cent on the LSE. Vedanta opened on a positive note, but soon swung into the red.
49. TT Ram Mohan has rightly suggested that the tax-GDP ratio measures structural improvement. The FM must rethink his medium-term debtto-GDP target.
50. Financial inclusion and financial literacy will be the paramount objective while implementing reforms along with UID project to protect the interests of poor.
51. This refers to your edit ‘A welcome quest’ (ET, Oct 8). It is imperative to have a strong database.
52. Apropos of ‘The climate conundrum’ (ET, Oct 9), Mukul Sanwal rightly suggests that developing countries should lead in setting the agenda for global technological cooperation.
53. Rupee#CAD#Economic crisis#Food Bill
54. The team behind The Artist will have spent the first day of the rest of their lives conforming to the grandest, and most lucrative, of Hollywood traditions.
55. It's the World Book fair, which comes around once every two years sprawling across the giant halls of Pragati Maidan.  This is the fair's 20th edition.
56. An elephant figurine gifted by the then HM LK Advani to US Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2002, has made its way to the State Department hall.
57. Statistical models used by IMD will still be used for monsoon forecast, but the ministry of earth sciences is putting more emphasis on dynamic models.
58. Newly discovered documents have revealed the first telegraph messages and joy when England was linked for the first time with India on 23 June, 1870.
59. Hundreds of worried fans of ailing Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan today performed a yagna here to pray for his speedy recovery.
60. The fact that we are the world’s largest democracy and we are all aware that power and a role in global affairs for a nation comes from economic strength.
61. Ambassador Joao Cravinho, head of the EU delegation, led Ambassadors of various European countries to a quiet lunch with Modi at the capital last year.
62. It is the collective wisdom of the marketplace that there is action and we will move with speed. That improves the confidence level of industry.
63. Directives from the Centre have to be executed at the state level. So, there are many things that are not in Modi’s hands, says Raamdeo Agrawal.
64. Now there is a stage three and stage four of digitisation, we will take a call on this only after taking all things into account.
65. There is a leadership vacuum in the company, because they made the wrong choice of CEO three years ago and that is playing out right now.
66. The move comes in the wake of a joint decision taken by Indian exchanges to stop licensing their indices and provide market data to foreign exchanges by August.
67. Brokers and analysts said they are no longer sure what may be regarded as sensitive information.
68. Smaller Indian stocks did even better—the BSE midcap index rose 48% while the small cap surged 60% in 2017.
69. Benefits including increased tax compliance will likely play out in the medium term.
70. TCS, India’s largest technology firm by revenue, on Tuesday reported a 2.5 per cent sequential drop in net profit at Rs 6,608 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2017.
71. Uber will reportedly continue to operate its own app in China for now. Uber declined to comment on this to the publication.
72. The stocks of DB Realty and Unitech rose after top executives of these companies were granted bail in the 2G scam case.
73. Fitch on Friday said it has withdrawn the ratings on Reliance Capital as the company has decided to stop participating.
74. Shares of cigarette companies have rallied over the past one month, with ITC, Godfrey Philips and VST Industries hitting record highs.
75. Lovable Lingerie is 3rd-best performing stock among companies listed this year, with it doubling in value, as traders bet it could repeat performance of Page Indus.
76. The Economic Times: Breaking news, views, reviews, cricket from across India
77. The UK has launched new visas that will be open to overseas scientists and researchers, including Indians, to encourage the growth of the country's research sector.The new UKRI Science, Research and Academia scheme, which is being added to the already existing Tier 5 (Temporary Worker - Government Authorised Exchange) visa route, opened from yesterday for researchers, scientists and academics from outside the European Union (EU) to come to the UK for up to two years."The UK is a world leader in research and innovation and these changes will make it easier for international researchers to work and train in the UK," said UK immigration minister Caroline Nokes in a statement announcing the launch."We must have an immigration system that makes sure we can attract leading international talent and benefit from their knowledge and expertise."I recognise the crucial contribution science makes to the UK economy and society and I am determined that the UK will continue to welcome leading scientific and research talent from around the world," she said.The scheme will be operated by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which brings together the country's seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England.It will mean that UKRI, along with 12 approved research organisations such as the Natural History Museum, will now be able to directly sponsor highly skilled individuals, such as specialist technicians, to work and train in the UK.The sponsor organisations will be monitored by UKRI as the scheme owner and they will also require individual Tier 5 sponsor licences."Research and innovation is inherently international, as are the unprecedented 21st century challenges we must address," said UKRI chief executive Professor Mark Walport."Global collaboration through the movement of talented people plays an essential role in meeting these challenges and this new scheme will provide further support for international researchers to work and train in the UK," Walport said.The Tier 5 Government Authorised Exchange (GAE) is the principal visa route by which professionals from outside the European Economic Area who wish to undertake training and work experience are able to come to the UK.The route allows individuals entering the UK through this scheme to stay for up to two years.The UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will monitor the activity of the scheme on a regular basis with UKRI, to provide assurance that it is meeting the criteria for a Tier 5 scheme, the Home Office said.The UK government said the new scheme demonstrates its commitment to make the UK a "dynamic, open, globally-trading" nation.Some of the other reforms to the country's visa system in recent months have included removing doctors and nurses from the Tier 2 visa cap, allowing more Indian doctors among others to address staff shortages in the state-funded National Health Service (NHS).A new Start-up visa route is set to replace the Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) route and widen the pool of candidates who can apply to launch a new business in the UK, beyond graduates endorsed by higher education institutions.
78. Terming the creation of infrastructure a big challenge, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday said India will need at least 1,000 planes in the next few years as it prepares a comprehensive and integrated plan for 2035 to boost the sector. "To create infrastructure for aviation is a big challenge and we, therefore, are preparing a comprehensive and integrated plan for 2035.... Aviation is one of the sectors that can play a leadership role in the world," Prabhu said at an event organised by CII here.Delivering the Suresh Neotia Memorial Lecture on "Future of World Trade in Rising Clamour for Protectionism", Prabhu said the government was also preparing a cargo policy that has a tremendous growth potential."Separately, we are preparing a cargo policy as it has a huge potential to grow with the growing need to transport cargo from one place to another. Cargo flights can move at night with the policy coming in," he said.The minister stated that the country's aviation sector would log the highest continuous growth in the next few years, with technology and land being the key factors."We need to create infrastructure on the ground to make flying successful. Procuring land for infrastructure projects is a challenge in India and land is going to be the driving force for many development projects in India."Technology is going to play a big and key role," he said.He said India was also preparing a plan for manufacturing planes in the country."We need al least 1,000 planes in the next few years and don't want to import them. We are separately preparing a plan for manufacturing these planes in India," he said.Another plan was afoot for making drones. "Drones will now play an important role and drones itself is a trillion dollar market. For which we are preparing a plan."Pointing out that a million jobs would be created in the aviation sector, the Minister said: "We need skilled man power and we are working on a skilled development programme.
79. MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has slapped penalty of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh on 8 builders in Mumbai for advertising real estate project without mentioning the authority’s website address and advertising a non-registered project. MahaRERA has taken this action on Suo-Motu basis.Of the 8 realty developers, builder Tridhatu Morya has been fined Rs 10 lakh for advertising a non-registered project. Rest of the 7 builders including Sumit Group, The Wadhwa Group, Ipsit project, Jyoti Builders, Parinee Building Properties, Haware Properties and Karrm Infrastructure have been fined Rs 2 lakh for advertising real estate project without mentioning the authority’s website address.MahaRERA Chairperson Gautam Chatterjee, while levying the penalty, has warned the builders to ensure that such violation is not repeated in future.According to section 11(2) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the advertisement or prospectus issued or published by the promoter is expected to mention the website address of the authority wherein all details of the registered project are entered and include the project’s MahaRERA registration number.Section 3(1) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 states that no builder is allowed to advertise, market, book, sell or offer for sale, or invite persons to purchase in any manner any plot, apartment or building, as the case may be, in any real estate project or part of it, in any planning area, without registering the project with the authority.
80. Now that a constitutional amendment abolishes presidential term limits, it has become possible for China's president Xi Jinping to rule as long as he lives. China's shift from a collective rule indicates how it prizes Xi who has articulated the ambition of China becoming the world leader by displacing the US. Xi has turned China from an inward nation to a country focused on winning the world. Behind Xi's ideological offensive is brainy professor-turned-politician Wang Huning who has guided two previous Chinese presidents too. The chief architect of Xi’s Chinese dream, which aims at empowering the nation in several ways, Wang has also guided previous two presidents.He drafted former presidents Jiang Zemin’s “Theory of the Three Represents” and Hu Jintao’s “scientific theory of development”.After being termed China's Henry Kissinger (he accompanies Xi on most of his international trips), Wang is now being called the Amit Shah of China—the force behind President Xi. In a newspaper article, Jabin T. Jacob of the Institute of Chinese Studies in Delhi says that Wang is to Xi Jinping what Amit Shah is to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "If Shah’s job is to help Modi do the electoral math and draw up strategies to win elections, it is Wang’s job to help create the narrative that legitimizes Xi Jinping in power in an authoritarian system," Jacob writes.Jacob also draws a parallel between how both the countries are being transformed by their top leaders. "If Modi and Shah have together turned a political party otherwise identified with religious extremism and vested business interests into one that appears to espouse a new work ethic based on new technologies – Digital India, smart cities, the expansion of Aadhar -– there has been a similar makeover underway in the Communist Party of China (CPC) under Xi and Wang for much longer."A former Fudan University professor, Wang is known to have translated and introduced the concept of 'soft power' to China, the idea that the country can influence and persuade others through its culture, lifestyle and ideas. Soft power is central to Xi's vision of China as a global power.As an academic, Wang had written about "neo-authoritarianism" by which he meant political stability and economic development should get preference to democracy and individual rights. What underlines the importance of ideas for Xi is the fact that Wang is the first party theorist to get into the Politburo Standing Committee. With Wang by his side, Xi would be able to articulate his idea of China's rejuvenation and global predominance more effectively and also have a strong ideological framework for his foreign policy.
81. MUMBAI: A GVK-led venture that has won the bid for a Rs 16,000 crore second airport project in Mumbai, Saturday announced the financial closure for its first phase of construction.Yes Bank will be the lead bank and mandate lead arranger for phase I and phase II of the airport project, a statement said.The concession agreement for the airport was signed on January 8, 2018 between the GVK arm Navi Mumbai International Airport (P) Ltd and the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd. (CIDCO), the nodal body for the project.CRISIL has assigned an A+ or stable rating for the project, the statement said.NMIAL is a public private partnership venture in which the GVK led Mumbai International Airport (P) Ltd., (MIAL) that operates the existing airport in the city has a 74% stake. CIDCO holds the remaining 26%.MIAL consists of GVK Industries Ltd, Airports Company South Africa and Bidvest. They together hold 74% of the existing Mumbai airport and the state-run Airports Authority of India holds the rest.The new international airport will be built on 1,160 hectares in phases and will eventually cater to 60 million passengers per year.The initial concession period is 30 years from the appointed date and is extendable for a further 10 years.The Navi Mumbai airport is seen as an imperative alternative to the existing Mumbai airport, India’s second busiest and its most saturated.
82. In an interview with ET Now, Prasanth Prabhakaran of YES Securities shares his outlook on earnings, why he is bullish on HDFC and the sin stocks he is betting on. Edited excerpts: ET Now: What are you looking forward to in the upcoming earnings season? Prasanth Prabhakaran: The markets are still overvalued and they are temporarily looking at a 20-25 per cent growth as far as earnings are concerned. We will be closer to the 10 to 15 per cent mark which logically brings us down to the valuations of around 10,000-10,200 levels, where we would be comfortable. But the liquidity is keeping the market up and it can keep you in the range of 10,000 to 11,000-11,200. ET Now: Are you de-risking yourself and keeping the 10-15 per cent band as a range of expectations? Prasanth Prabhakaran: No, that’s not the case. If you look at the last three or four quarters, you would find that there has been no consistency in the way earnings have gone by.In a couple of quarters the earnings growth has been closer to 15 per cent whereas in others it has been around to 10 per cent. That is why this range has been taken. But the good part is that there is an upward trend after a long time and that trend has stabilised. We kept talking about micros, and at some point of time those micros have turned out to be positive in the last few quarters and they continue to be so. However, the macros might have deteriorated. We are a lot more bullish on the micros than what we were around a year ago. ET Now: What is the expectation on IT space? Prasanth Prabhakaran: We expect a larger growth in the smaller IT firms. The larger IT firms will see growth because of the currency appreciation. This advantage will reflect in the quarterly results. At least for the current quarter you will see the larger IT firms doing far better. However, the mid-sized IT firms will, for a longer term, will be a hold in our books. ET Now: It is interesting to see one of Yes Securities’ top bets is HDFC Ltd. What is making you or Yes Securities so bullish on HDFC Ltd? Secondly there is no Godrej Agrovet over here which Yes Securities have been talking about since quite some time, why is that so? Prasanth Prabhakaran: The next six months are likely to be volatile and you would want like to hold on to HDFC because it is a low beta stock and a consistent performer. The other bets are quality lenders too, if you notice. We have ended up with Gruh Finance back in our books after a long time. We are a lot more bullish on the stock obviously. The pedigree is the same as the parent. The fact remains that they have managed to give sizable growth over a period of time. Gruh Finance is a longer term bet. HDFC is good for the next six months as we expect the markets to be a lot more volatile and it is better to have low beta stocks in your portfolio. The BFSI names that we have in our books are Gruh Finance and RBL for the next two or three years. We believe they will play out and Godrej Agrovet remains a buy. I have not put it because it has been a consistent buy. We believe that it is a long-term hold in our portfolio. Godrej Agrovet is into key four businesses; the MSP increase that has been announced last week augurs very well for the stock because one of their key lines of businesses – animal feed and pesticides and the inputs that are there as far as agriculture is concerned, practically takes up around 50-55 per cent of the balance sheet. So, we continue to remain bullish on Agrovet for the long-term. ET Now: What about some of the sin names would you be a buyer in given the movement that you are seeing in some of the liquor stocks especially after the Karnataka government slapping a cess in its budgetary announcement. Then there is the news about the law panel probably recommending that gambling be made legal. Would these two segments find favour with you? Prasanth Prabhakaran: These two segments are not in our buy list at this point of time. But we are bullish on the segment. We have not covered it now it but when we did cover it a year back, we kept on believing that there will be at least a 10 per cent to 12 per cent CAGR growth in United Breweries. Right now this segment is not under coverage, so I cannot give you an immediate view because I have not looked at the balance sheets. ET Now: What is your call on Delta Corp? Prasanth Prabhakaran: Delta Corp is a high beta name and in any case I would avoid this stock. Anything that has been high beta has been under the regulators radar and you need to be cautious having it part of either a leverage portfolio or part of your portfolio by itself. There have been so many stocks that have come into the radar and have mode into ASM which has caused the stocks to collapse. So you need to be extremely careful when we talk about such names.
83. By DK AggarwalWith an aim to resolve the problem of stressed assets of public sector banks, the government recently unveiled another strategy, called 'Project Sashakt'.India’s PSU banks make up 70 per cent of the total banking industry and the ongoing cleanup exercise, initiated by a former RBI governor, has helped dig out much of the hidden dirt from bank balance sheets, but that isn’t enough.Although the government is considering merger of at least four state-run banks namely, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Central Bank of India, as part of a larger consolidation plan, but this will not be sufficient to put PSU banks back on track. On the flip side, government efforts to clean up bad loans through IBC and NCLT have succeeded to some extent. One may take the examples of Tata Steel-Bhushan Steel deal and Vedanta-Electrosteel deal. Undoubtedly, these deals have created a ray of hope because large corporations with deep pockets came forward to acquire these distressed assets. However, the process is very time consuming and many cases are in still in the pipeline.The five-pronged “'SASHAKT” strategy is designed to address bad loans and strengthen the credit capacity, credit culture and portfolio of the public sector banks.Project Sashakt sketches the resolution of bad loans, depending on their size. It includes an SME approach, a bank-led resolution approach, an asset management company (AMC)/ alternate investment fund (AIF)-led approach, an NCLT / IBC-led approach and an asset trading platform approach.In the asset management company-resolution approach, an independent AMC would be set up by state-run banks for resolution of loans above Rs 500 crore and the AMC will set up alternate investment funds (AIF) to raise money from institutional investors, which will then go back to the asset management company. If the arrow hits the target, it will also create additional jobs by reviving businesses and preventing job losses. Also the AMC/AIF will become a market maker and ensure healthy competition and fair price for the debt-laden companies.Unfortunately, most of the reforms efforts introduced so far have focused only on the symptoms of India’s banking crises, rather than the sector’s underlying structural weaknesses.As of March 31, 2018, bad loans across listed banks stood at over Rs 10 lakh crore. RBI in its Financial Stability Report released last week sated that NPA could rise further over the coming quarters. The reform and measures taken by both, the central bank and government in the past several quarters such as asset quality review (AQR), recognition of non-performing loans (NPL), National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) , Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code of 2016( IBC) have not been up to the expectations.But the billion dollar question is that will 'Project Sashakt' help tackle the toxic pile and revive the Indian banking system?
84. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said that Infosys Foundation has come forward to pay Rs 200 Crore to BMRCL for the construction of Konappana Agrahara (Electronic City) Metro Station. Both the parties will sign an MoU on July 19.Dr. Sudha Murthy, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation called on Chief Minister and held discussion about the subject at his home Office Krishna today.He appreciated the initiatives of the Infosys Foundation for the betterment of the society and described Dr. Sudha Murthy as an inspiration to other Corporate Companies.Electronic City metro station is part of the RV Road - Bommasandra stretch which is targeted to be ready by 2021. Companies such as Embassy group, Prestige group and Intel has already signed a MoU to fund Rs 100 crore each on the Silk Board - KR Puram section of Outer Ring Road. Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw too had come forward to fund Rs 100 crore towards Hebbagodi Metro station.
85. Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, who has been at loggerheads with the party leadership in recent years, announced on Saturday that he is quitting BJP. "Today I am taking 'sanyas' from any kind of party politics, today I am ending all ties with the BJP," Sinha while addressing the first meeting of Rashtra Manch, founded by him.Sinha said democratic institutions were being undermined under the NDA regime and vowed to work for the protection of democracy in the country. He said that though he would work to unite non-BJP parties he himself would not join any party."I am not an aspirant for any top post and I am making it clear here that I am not at all interested to seek any post," he added.Sinha made the  announcement came at a meeting of Rashtra Manch in Patna in which dissident BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Congress leader Renuka Choudhary and AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh attended.Yashwant Sinha was external affairs minister under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ( 2002-04) and finance minister in the same government from 1998-2002 . His son Jayant Sinha is the minister of State for Civil Aviation in Narendra Modi's cabinet.Eighty-year-old Sinha, who has been languishing in the sidelines since Modi took over as prime minister  in 2014, stepped up his attack on the Centre in recent months, launching a political action group called the Rashtra Manch.In 2017, Sinha had created a political storm with a newspaper article claiming that the Indian economy was poised for a hardlanding after demonetisation and GST. Again, earlier this week he had written an open letter to BJP MPs asking them to challenge the leadership before the next elections so that correctives could be taken.
86. Unilever uses new age technology and the power of data and analytics in a very big way to transform the human resources function, says Leena Nair, chief HR officer at the consumer goods giant. On her first formal visit to India after being appointed the global HR chief in 2015, Nair, also a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive, talks to Rica Bhattacharyya about the company’s gender diversity agenda and increasing focus on a more humane HR function. Edited excerpts:Is the way you hire or acquire talent changing with new technology?We have digitised the entire recruitment process. Now a young graduate does not need to give the CV. We just pick up from LinkedIn and then there is a three-stage process of gamification, selfie video and interviews. In the first stage they play games on their phones. Then they go through a selfie video answering standard questions. Based on this gamification and selfie video, and using machine learning and algorithm, we analyse the data. About 1.8 million people apply for Unilever globally every year. We then come out with 3,500 people (across all locations) through our discovery centres or interviews (case studies, games, etc.) and through them we meet our 800 graduates globally. This has saved cost and 100,000 man-hours of interview for us and also time wasted on many things.How have you transformed your appraisal process?We have simplified our performance appraisal in a big way. It is a simple conversation between the line leader and the person working with him or her on how the year has been. The process has been made so bureaucratic by companies across the world by hours spent on calibration meeting, who is paid how much, who gets which label — all of this has been simplified. Our line leaders who have a certain number of people under them are given a budget and told to decide based on the answers to three questions: if this was your money how you would distribute it between the people working with you; who are the people in your team whom you would like every single time; and if you reflect on the year that passed by who are the people you think made a big contribution to the performance of the business.Tell us about your gender diversity agenda in India and abroad…Nearly 47% of senior-tomiddle-level management at PHOTO Unilever globally is women and in India, 37.5% is women. We have done really well in shifting the needle from 38% six years ago at a global level. In top management alone, 54% of the board of Unilever is women and we have four women at the top table out of 11 people. In top 100 roles, we have almost 25% representation from women. The progress has been made possible because of serious leadership commitment. Just as you drive top line and profit, you drive gender balance because 80% of our consumers are women. A couple of things that have helped are focus on the number and focus on the culture. For every job that comes up, we push for a balanced slate — if you interview two men, you have to interview two women.After that it is based on merit. Then comes culture to address the biases. Almost 150 senior women across the world are being mentored by senior men and women to help them realise their potentials. Men are still in leadership positions so you have to work with them too on understanding why do you need greater gender balance and how it leads to more innovation and better performance.
87. News about companies and business relating to Business Process Outsourcing, BPO & Call Centre, Outsourcing News, CallCentre,  Jobs India, Indian BPO and Outsourcing Industry.