Mumbai: Officials at the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) had to burn the midnight oil before they gave their approval to the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to take a controlling stake in debt-laden IDBI Bank.Discussions to explore whether the deal circumvented any provisions of the Insurance Act and the LIC Act, stretched way past 2 am last Thursday at the Hyderabad headquarters of the regulator.However, the architect of the deal –– MK Jain, the former CEO of IDBI Bank who is now deputy governor at the Reserve Bank of India –– was missing.The discussions finally ended when they found a way in Section 27 of the Insurance Act and Section 6(2)H of the LIC Act which allows LIC “to carry on any other business which may seem to the Corporation to be capable of being conveniently carried on in connection with its business and calculated directly or indirectly to render profitable the business of the Corporation.”It all started on Thursday morning when LIC executives visited the regulator to push their plan to take a majority stake in the state-run bank, although there were restrictions in the insurer taking control of a company.“It is a brainchild of Mr Jain. He floated the idea,” said a source in know of the development. “He wanted LIC to buy stakes in non-core. Two months back, he came up with the proposal and the government wanted to act on it.”Before the proposal of selling the stake to LIC, Jain was looking at a demerger between the corporate and retail arms of the bank. IDBI Capital was working on the proposal in which the government was willing to go down to 26 per cent stake from 81 per cent.However, it was difficult to get investors for the bank.Finally, at 11 am on Friday, the matter was placed before the Irdai board. The proposal to increase the stake was presented by Pravin Kutumbe, member finance, through a board note. Since the officials were working on the issue for over 24-48 hours, the discussions lasted barely 10 minutes.The proposal was cleared on condition that LIC should not step into the promoter’s shoe. Irdai chairman Subhash Chandra Khuntia approved the proposal on the agreement that LIC will have to reduce stake in future to the regulatory requirement of 15 per cent.Debashish Panda, additional secretary, financial services, was also present at the meeting.

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By Jeanette Rodrigues, Bhuma Shrivastava and Ronojoy MazumdarA wave of religious intolerance as India heads toward elections is emerging as a new risk for its biggest companies.Over the past weeks, a telecom giant, the Indian lender led by Asia’s richest banker, and the local rival of Uber Technologies Inc. have been roiled by controversies linked to comments on Facebook and Twitter involving a minority community. All these started as social media posts, then gained a life of their own as people backed or vilified the comments, eventually forcing the companies to react to contain any damage.Tensions on social media are mounting as the world’s largest democracy approaches elections early next year that will pit the Hindu nationalist beliefs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party against the main opposition, which often spotlights secularism and rising religious intolerance. Risk consultancy Kroll Inc. says it’s seeing an “exponential increase” in questions from corporate clients on how to manage the fallout from incidents on social media.“It doesn’t just carry reputational and business risk, it can snowball into business continuity risks that can spread faster than a forest fire,” said Tarun Bhatia, a Mumbai-based managing director at Kroll. “Companies can’t choose their customers or control what they say. So it comes down to how companies manage these incidents, how quickly they react.”Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s biggest telecommunications provider thanks to its 304 million subscribers, was tested on that recently. This is how it began: Around noon on June 18, Twitter user Pooja Singh complained about an Airtel customer service representative. An Airtel employee replied, promising to get back with more information, and signed off as “Shoaib.”This is a recognizable Muslim name in a country currently riven by passionate teams of social media trolls, akin to the U.S. experience where political discourse often degenerates into hate-filled accusations.64821832 “Dear Shohaib, as you’re a Muslim and I have no faith in your working ethics... requesting you to assign a Hindu representative for my request. Thanks,” Singh responded. Soon after, another Airtel rep named Gaganjot -- a clearly non-Muslim name -- promised to resolve Singh’s concern.On the morning of June 20, Airtel published a statement on twitter refuting accusations that it gave in to Singh’s alleged discriminatory demand, something that had already attracted severe criticism of the carrier and threats to discontinue its services, including from opposition lawmakers. The statement said that both Shoaib and Gaganjot were just following established workflow processes that “got read as ‘bowing down to bigotry.”’“Airtel has been resolute for 23 years” and “our training manuals will never carry instructions to pause and check one’s identity before serving a query,” the statement read. The company didn’t reply to an email from Bloomberg seeking further comment.The reputational risks to companies of an increasingly polarized political and social discourse online are relatively new in India, according to Kroll.Loss of reputation or brand value wasn’t a key concern for Indian corporates surveyed for the Allianz Risk Barometer 2018, even while it was among the top 10 for companies in the rest of Asia-Pacific and in the U.S. Almost a quarter of a company’s value is estimated to lie in its brand, according to the Allianz report.Corporates are starting to take notice. Some of India’s biggest companies are upgrading training manuals across India and customer service teams are proactively flagging such incidents to colleagues who handle media interactions, officials at three companies said, asking not to be identified as the matter is sensitive.Software is being installed to flag posts linked to the brand that contain trigger words and employees are being reminded of policies that urge them to write on social media only what they’d say in public, two of the people said. There are expectations that as the election draws nearer such risks will escalate and employees are on the watch for incendiary messages about religion, ethnicity or gender, one said.“We have published and communicated a comprehensive policy on social media to our employees,” said Makarand Khatavkar, group head for human resources at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. “Any violation of the policy could result in disciplinary action, including termination.”The lender, controlled by billionaire Uday Kotak, in April fired an employee who published a post condoning the rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl. It was a crime that shocked India, and the involvement of Hindu men linked to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party may erode support for the government, both among voters and donors.“These incidents contribute to the weakening of BJP’s hold, because they spur opposition unity and strengthen the opposition,” said Satish Misra, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. “The corporate world would also take these things into consideration. These incidents have forced them to rethink. The majority of funding went to BJP in 2014, now more balanced funding will take place.”‘Believes in Secularity’India’s biggest ride-hailing app Ola, which is backed by Softbank Group Corp., fired a driver who -- on the night of June 17 -- refused to drop a passenger to an area he said was dominated by Muslims. When reached by Bloomberg for comment on June 21, the company re-sent a statement issued June 18 that apologized to the customer and reaffirmed its policy of non-discrimination.“Ola, like India, believes in secularity,” the statement read.

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By Jeanette Rodrigues, Bhuma Shrivastava and Ronojoy MazumdarA wave of religious intolerance as India heads toward elections is emerging as a new risk for its biggest companies.Over the past weeks, a telecom giant, the Indian lender led by Asia’s richest banker, and the local rival of Uber Technologies Inc. have been roiled by controversies linked to comments on Facebook and Twitter involving a minority community. All these started as social media posts, then gained a life of their own as people backed or vilified the comments, eventually forcing the companies to react to contain any damage.Tensions on social media are mounting as the world’s largest democracy approaches elections early next year that will pit the Hindu nationalist beliefs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party against the main opposition, which often spotlights secularism and rising religious intolerance. Risk consultancy Kroll Inc. says it’s seeing an “exponential increase” in questions from corporate clients on how to manage the fallout from incidents on social media.“It doesn’t just carry reputational and business risk, it can snowball into business continuity risks that can spread faster than a forest fire,” said Tarun Bhatia, a Mumbai-based managing director at Kroll. “Companies can’t choose their customers or control what they say. So it comes down to how companies manage these incidents, how quickly they react.”Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s biggest telecommunications provider thanks to its 304 million subscribers, was tested on that recently. This is how it began: Around noon on June 18, Twitter user Pooja Singh complained about an Airtel customer service representative. An Airtel employee replied, promising to get back with more information, and signed off as “Shoaib.”This is a recognizable Muslim name in a country currently riven by passionate teams of social media trolls, akin to the U.S. experience where political discourse often degenerates into hate-filled accusations.64821832 “Dear Shohaib, as you’re a Muslim and I have no faith in your working ethics... requesting you to assign a Hindu representative for my request. Thanks,” Singh responded. Soon after, another Airtel rep named Gaganjot -- a clearly non-Muslim name -- promised to resolve Singh’s concern.On the morning of June 20, Airtel published a statement on twitter refuting accusations that it gave in to Singh’s alleged discriminatory demand, something that had already attracted severe criticism of the carrier and threats to discontinue its services, including from opposition lawmakers. The statement said that both Shoaib and Gaganjot were just following established workflow processes that “got read as ‘bowing down to bigotry.”’“Airtel has been resolute for 23 years” and “our training manuals will never carry instructions to pause and check one’s identity before serving a query,” the statement read. The company didn’t reply to an email from Bloomberg seeking further comment.The reputational risks to companies of an increasingly polarized political and social discourse online are relatively new in India, according to Kroll.Loss of reputation or brand value wasn’t a key concern for Indian corporates surveyed for the Allianz Risk Barometer 2018, even while it was among the top 10 for companies in the rest of Asia-Pacific and in the U.S. Almost a quarter of a company’s value is estimated to lie in its brand, according to the Allianz report.Corporates are starting to take notice. Some of India’s biggest companies are upgrading training manuals across India and customer service teams are proactively flagging such incidents to colleagues who handle media interactions, officials at three companies said, asking not to be identified as the matter is sensitive.Software is being installed to flag posts linked to the brand that contain trigger words and employees are being reminded of policies that urge them to write on social media only what they’d say in public, two of the people said. There are expectations that as the election draws nearer such risks will escalate and employees are on the watch for incendiary messages about religion, ethnicity or gender, one said.“We have published and communicated a comprehensive policy on social media to our employees,” said Makarand Khatavkar, group head for human resources at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. “Any violation of the policy could result in disciplinary action, including termination.”The lender, controlled by billionaire Uday Kotak, in April fired an employee who published a post condoning the rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl. It was a crime that shocked India, and the involvement of Hindu men linked to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party may erode support for the government, both among voters and donors.“These incidents contribute to the weakening of BJP’s hold, because they spur opposition unity and strengthen the opposition,” said Satish Misra, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. “The corporate world would also take these things into consideration. These incidents have forced them to rethink. The majority of funding went to BJP in 2014, now more balanced funding will take place.”‘Believes in Secularity’India’s biggest ride-hailing app Ola, which is backed by Softbank Group Corp., fired a driver who -- on the night of June 17 -- refused to drop a passenger to an area he said was dominated by Muslims. When reached by Bloomberg for comment on June 21, the company re-sent a statement issued June 18 that apologized to the customer and reaffirmed its policy of non-discrimination.“Ola, like India, believes in secularity,” the statement read.

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This is a rare voice of optimism as the general view is that IT companies will face tremendous disruption and revenue contraction.

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Market returns will be linked more to earnings growth in the coming months as valuations are already above average, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers’ head of equities Vinit Sambre told Anuradha Himatsingka in an interview. Edited excerpts:How is the corporate earnings trajectory likely to shape up over the next nine months of FY19?Over the last two quarters, sectors like automobiles, cement, metals, engineering and consumption have been witnessing a resurgence. Sectors such as pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and software, however, are still showing slow growth trends. Going forward, we expect the growth momentum to sustain, fuelled by increasing rural demand, higher individual income and increased government capex for roads and railways. If India is able to meet the 13-14% corporate growth target, we would be fine for the next nine months. Beyond FY19, we can look at higher growth because by then, the public sector banks will have the potential to add meaningfully to the overall growth numbers.What is your assessment of the current market situation?While on one hand, we saw encouraging demand pickup trends with FMCG companies highlighting improvement in consumer demand, cement stocks reporting betterthan-expected realisation trends and retail private banks seeing strong loan growth, on the other, we have weak macro trends such as rising current account deficit, oil prices, bond yields, inflation and a falling rupee. The market in 2018 so far has been in a seesaw mode. The Sensex hit a peak of around 36,200 in January, dropped 10% over the next two months, rallied 6-7% thereafter, and then corrected again. The small-cap and mid-cap indices are down 15-20% from their peaks, while individual stocks have fallen 30% or more in some cases. In the coming months, market returns are more likely to be linked to earnings growth.The Indian market has yet to reach its peak on parameters like capex cycle, credit growth, corporate earnings and capacity utilisation. What is your take on this?Though the government has implemented GST and increased spends on the core sector of the economy, mainly roads and railways, private sector lacks confidence to begin spends in a big way. Corporates are not sure of the regulations that the government may announce or the impact it would have on the industry. Lack of clarity in the minds of corporates can also be attributed to the changing face of competition. For example, a large share of the retail market today has been taken over by ecommerce. Companies have put their expansion plans on hold as ecommerce players have been gobbling up their market share. Another example is the FMCG segment. Patanjali Ayurved is giving tough competition to MNCs, who have dominated the sector for so many years. All these things create doubts in the mind of entrepreneurs, compelling them to go slow on their capex plans. Corporate confidence will be back when they see more clarity of regulation and sustainability of demand.Do you foresee huge volatility in the market in the near future?Election will create volatility and can have a dampening effect on a short-term basis. Such events tend to create a lot of noise which impacts sentiments but not the fundamentals. But, in the long term, it is the fundamentals which matter. Markets have ended up delivering returns based on corporate earnings growth. So, we should be worried about the long-term macroeconomic picture of our country.Where are you placing your bets?We are bullish on the consumption trend of the economy because of rising aspirations and consumer’s zeal to go for financing to enjoy the luxuries of life. We are also positive on the core sectors — currently driven by government capex and funded by multilateral agencies. The outlook on some of the infra and engineering companies is also positive for the next 4-5 years. We have a fair share of exposure in the banking sector. Private sector banks have been a beneficiary of the PSU banks’ problems and are gaining market share. We are looking at the healthcare category as well. As of now, we are underweight on IT and telecom.

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Bengaluru: BNP Paribas says Indian IT companies seem to be ahead of the curve in building automation technologies, compared to their global peers, and that automation would eventually boost revenues and margins for companies that had invested earlier.The brokerage is a rare voice of optimism as the general view is that IT companies will face tremendous disruption and revenue contraction. "People have underestimated the ability of Indian IT companies to deal with disruption, based on the evidence seen in the past 15-20 years. We think the industry is now in the second phase of efficiency building. The first phase was moving work from onshore to offsite. This second phase will be using automation. The takeaway is that the shift to higher automation across service lines is inevitable,” Abhiram Eleswarapu, Head of India Equity Research at BNP Paribas, told ETin a interview.Elewarapu said revenue productivity trends suggest that Indian players may be ahead of the curve compared to their global peers. The brokerage put out a 48-page note examining the impact of automation on the sector ‘Indian IT services: Welcome to the Machine.’Indian firms have in the last two years brought in automation in maintenance of outsourcing projects, freeing several thousand people to do more value add work. Wipro said it has automated the work done by about 8,000 employees in FY18. In FY17, it had automated the work done by 12,000 employees. Infosys had also said it automated the the work over 10,000 FTEs in FY17. The company did not release a similar figure in FY18. The result has been an improvement in revenue-per-employee. Since FY2008, Indian IT revenue-per-employee has grown to over $52,000 from under $15,000.

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The government’s indirect tax department has identified “thousands of crore rupees” in tax leakage as it strengthens its data analytics capabilities after a year of goods and services tax (GST) implementation. The GST Council has initiated analytics of a large pool of data and text gathered during the past year and released a request for proposal (RFP) for a dedicated fraud analytics work. The fraud analytics activity is aimed to weave in more intelligence, tax accountability, and widen the tax base.“So far, we were able to identify anomalies of thousands of crores of tax leakage, and the government is on it,” a source at the indirect tax department told ET.The system collects data of traders at multiple layers of compliance such as GSTR1, GSTR3B and drawing information like value of product, tax rate, tax amount, sales and purchase details. Tax leakage is considered to be one of the key concerns for the GST Council. Analysts, GST Suvidha Providers (GSP) said both the government and businesses see “inconsistency” in data collected during compliance.“From tax collection perspective, one of the concerning area is tax evasion (leakage or frauds). In order to detect such cases early, data analytics is planned to be used. Accordingly, we have released an RFP for selection of a partner. So we will be performing pure analytics on whatever data is collected, where we will be able to identify anomalies (if any) in the data sets and help tax officials initiate appropriate actions,” said Anand Pande, CISO, GSTN.The GSTN fraud analytics project aims to leverage the power of big data and advanced analytics which will enable GSTN to extract better insights from data and enhance system for reducing fraud evasion. 64821098 The fraud analytics solution is “to run on near real time data and help key stakeholders at the Centre, states and UTs to get quick insights into data through powerful user interface and visualisation”, the RFP details. The solution is also envisaged to perform predictive search, create network between entities, etc, to detect and prevent frauds thereby providing the most relevant results.Data analytics has significantly improved accountability on both the government and businesses sides, said analysts. For instance, both numbers and texts are mined to understand why a disparity persists between consumption of power and turnover of a trader.“We are getting more detailed queries and the companies find it time consuming to get those compliance information. For example, if for a particular company the power consumption is going up but the turnover isn’t, that means there should be further investigation,” said N Balaji, Partner, Advisory Services - Analytics, EY.

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Tax return filing is a process that is often completed mechanically. However, investing a little time and thought into it can allow you to claim deductions you might have failed to while submitting your investment declarations. Read on to see how you can maximise your tax breaks.1. Savings account interestThe balance in your savings account earns interest every quarter, which is considered part of your total income. However, the income tax (I-T) department, under Section 80TTA, allows exemption of up to Rs 10,000 on this interest. Interest earned on post office savings will also fetch a similar benefit.2. Rent exemption without HRAMany taxpayers shell out house rent but can’t claim deductions due to the absence of the house rent allowance (HRA) component in their salary. Under Section 80GG, you can avail of the benefit for the rent even if your salary package does not include HRA, provided you are not eligible for any housing benefit. You will not qualify for this break if you, your spouse or child owns the house you live in. The exemption is limited to the least of: rent paid less 10% of total income; or Rs 5,000 a month; or 25% of total income.3. Breaks for specified illnessesKeeping in mind the fact that treatment of ailments like cancer, kidney failure or AIDS entails huge expenses, the income tax rules allow relief under Section 80DDB to tax-payers suffering from such diseases. Specified diseases under Sec 80DDBTaxpayers can claim up to Rs 40,000 in deductions if he suffers from any of the following ailmentsAtaxia, Full-blown AIDS, Malignant cancers, Dementia Cholera, Hemiballismus, Thalassaemia, Chronic kidney, failure Parkinson’s disease, Haemophilia, Motor neuron disease, Dystonia, AphasiaThey can claim a tax deduction of up to Rs 40,000. “If the person is a senior citizen, then the deduction can go up to Rs 60,000,” says Chetan Chandak, Head, Tax research, H&R Block. If the afflicted taxpayer happens to be a super senior citizen, the relief is enhanced to Rs 80,000. However, if the expenses incurred have been reimbursed by employers or through insurance policies, the taxpayers will not qualify for the deduction. If the reimbursement is partial, they will be eligible for the tax break on the balance amount.4. Ancillary home loan chargesHome loan borrowers know that one of the chief benefits of this loan is the tax benefits it offers on the principal repayment (Section 80C) and interest paid (Section 24). However, few know that even the processing fee paid can be claimed as deduction under Section 24. The processing fees and other ancillary charges are considered as interest and qualify as exemptions.5. Loans for down paymentsHome loan-seekers often borrow from friends and relatives to arrange for the downpayment. They either do not pay any interest on such loans or if they do, fail to claim deductions under Section 24, despite being eligible. Section 24 also covers interest paid on any loan taken for the purchase, renovation or reconstruction of a house. However, you should draw up a loan agreement with the lender. The interest earned by the lender will be taxed as his income.6. Deduction for disabilitiesIf a taxpayer suffers from 40% disability (as certified by a medical authority), she can claim a deduction of up to Rs 75,000 under Section 80U. Expenses incurred in respect of a disabled dependent will fetch a deduction of Rs 75,000 under Section 80DD. In both cases, if the disability is severe (more than 80%), the deduction is Rs 1.25 lakh. This is a flat deduction. The disabled should dependent on the taxpayer for maintenance.7. Income of disabled childIf you have made investments in the name of your spouse or minor child, the income earned will be clubbed with your income under Section 64 and taxed as per the slab applicable to you. However, in case the child is disabled, income from investments made in his/her name will not be clubbed with the income of parents. The latter can use this provision to invest in taxable instruments like FDs and debt funds.8. Setting off lossesIf you lost money in investments during the previous financial year, you can adjust some losses against capital gains from the sale of stocks, property, gold or debt funds. Short-term capital losses can be set off against both short-term capital gains as well as taxable long-term capital gains. Long term capital losses can only be set off against taxable long-term capital gains.9. Benefits for donations madeTypically, deductions under Section 80G on donations made do not reflect in Form 16. So, this exemption can be claimed while filing returns. Depending on where you have contributed, you can claim a deduction of 50-100% of the donation made. However, it cannot exceed 10% of your total income. “If the donation was made in cash, no deduction is allowable if the amount exceeds Rs 2,000,” says Suresh Surana, Founder, RSM Astute Consulting Group.

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Reliance Industries’ (RIL) acquisition of US telecom software firm Radisys underlines the necessity and revenue opportunities for carriers in nextgen services such as Internet of Things (IoT), amarket which could be worth well over $9 billion by 2020 in India.The telcos are keeping in mind that data tariffs have dropped 90% while voice tariff by about 60% in the past couple of years, resulting in gross revenue falling 8% on-year to Rs 2.6 lakh crore in 2017, and are thus shifting focus from core telecom services to emerging technologies and have begun tapping areas such as IoT and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) more aggressively.Rohan Dhamija, head, India and the Middle East for consultancy firm Analysys Mason, said that telcos will need to go beyond their comfort zone of offering services beyond connectivity which only forms 20 to 25% of the IoT value chain in terms of revenue.“There’s a need for an immediate focus to be able to participate in this IoT opportunity. From the experience on OTT (over-the-top, or app) wherein, telcos were late in participating, telcos realize that they have to be aggressive and need to invest now rather than wait for the ecosystem to mature,” he said.He explained that the requirement for investment and the addressable revenue opportunity will increase as telcos move from connectivity to end-to-end solution provider.As per consultancy firm Deloitte, the IoT units in India are expected to see a growth of 31 times to reach 1.9 billion in 2020 from its current base of 0.06 billion. In terms of revenue, this opportunity could represent $9 billion by 2020 from $1.3 billion in 2016 — a growth of 700%. Government of India though is aiming to create a $15 billion IoT industry in India by 2020.Counterpoint's senior analyst Hanish Bhatia said that the key areas in the IoT industry for telcos could be vehicle tracking, smart appliances, smart metering and security & surveillance. "Besides smart cities, telcos also plan to target retail, manufacturing, healthcare and automotive."RIL’s latest buy will accelerate Reliance Jio's push to build in-house development capabilities for fifthgeneration (5G) technology and IoT. Its bitter rival and leading telco, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone, on the other hand — as part of their established enterprise businesses — are now offering IoT services. In a major push, Airtel is in advanced talks with US telecom major Verizon for a broad partnership around IoT. It has already initiated several IoT projects at its Manesar network centre, and is establishing a new centre in Bengaluru to work on these technologies.Vodafone, which is in the process of merging operations with Idea Cellular, has tipped IoT to be one of its fastest growing segments and will bring some global IoT use cases to India, besides launching a narrowband IoT network, mirroring a similar one by Jio.Jio though appears to be the most aggressive of the telcos in India, having already set up a narrowband IoT network which is commercially active in a few cities, including Mumbai. It has now followed it up with the acquisition of Radisys.The company’s vice president, Aayush Bhatnagar, who is currently looking after the software development around domains such as 5G networks, IoT platforms, blockchain and SDN/NFV platforms, will be heading the Radisys team.“The acquisition will help Jio in driving the adoption of open source technologies. In addition, Jio would be able to drive the development of new products — 5G core and radio — and further bolster NFV adoption, paving way for the development for IoT platform and applications,” a person familiar with the matter said.Dhamija said that Indian telcos see a huge IoT opportunity even in the short to medium term, especially with the arrival of 5G due to low latency and higher capacity benefits. 5G technology, according to analysts, will support billions of connected devices, and digitisation of different sectors such as healthcare, education, agriculture, and smart cities, thereby creating a huge demand for IoT and M2M devices which will be connected by the telco infrastructure.

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The usage of Aadhaar dropped to the lowest level in a year in June, declining over 40% from a record 1.48 billion authentications done using the unique identity number last September.Aadhaar was used 859 million times for authentication purposes in June, according to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency that administers the programme. The low was reached barely three months after the Supreme Court extended the deadline for linking Aadhaar with various services and facilities, including verification of bank and mobile phone customers, until it delivers the final judgement on its validity and usage. The court, which resumes after the summer break on Monday, is expected to rule on the matter soon.After the court reserved its verdict on May 10, the government extended the deadline to link permanent account numbers (PAN) with Aadhaar to March 31 next year, while the time limit to link Aadhaar to get subsidised rations has been pushed by three months to September 30.Aadhaar-based authentications have declined every month since September, except in March, when they rose to 1.125 billion from 996 million in February, according to the UIDAI website.After touching a peak of 1.48 billion in September, Aadhaar authentications fell to 1.46 billion in October. Last July, 966 million Aadhaar authentications were done and the figure crossed 1billion last August.An authentication is recorded when a citizen uses Aadhaar to avail of a service or links it to an existing service by providing the identity number, submitting biometrics (fingerprints, eye scan) or using the one-time password (OTP) verification. More than 1.2 billion Aadhaar numbers have been generated so far.COURT CLARIFICATIONDemographic authentication — use of the Aadhaar number for verification — dropped to 170 m in June from 741.6 million last September. UIDAI chief operating officer AB Pandey did not comment on the declining trend of authentication. A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, conceded that the non-mandatory requirement of Aadhaar for some services “was one of the factors” for the drop in authentications. “But one must also consider that there was a huge spike last September and October as the government was going full steam ahead with linking mobile phones and bank accounts with Aadhaar,” the official told ET.Almost 900 million bank accounts and 900 million mobile phones have been linked with Aadhaar after the government first set a deadline of March 31, 2018. “Saturation levels have been reached on Aadhaar linking and now the authentications are mainly regarding transactions being carried out by people to avail of welfare schemes and services,” the senior functionary said. “There is no reason to worry over the present authentication numbers… UIDAI will be raising its capacity to be able to carry out 3,000 million authentications every month.”Since January, the SC has been hearing the case related to the constitutional validity of Aadhaar and whether it can be made mandatory for PAN, mobile phone connections, passports, subsidised rations and bank accounts. In March, the apex court indefinitely extended the deadline for linking Aadhaar with various services and facilities. The court clarified in April that it had never directed the linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar and said the government had misinterpreted its 2017 order. A major issue before the SC is whether Aadhaar violates the right to privacy, which the court determined as fundamental in 2017.

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While the goods and services tax (GST) didn’t make much of a difference in vehicle prices and therefore demand, the new regime has meant efficiencies in manufacturing and logistics. Also, free-flowing goods movement under GST gave the commercial vehicle industry a boost.There was a brief period when the 28% GST rate was significantly lower than the previous excise+VAT levy on some cars but that difference was covered by the cess introduced in August last year. Where there was still a gap, the state government increased road tax to bring the levy closer to the previous regime.GST also prompted consumers to defer and, in some cases, advance purchases, which had an effect on sales growth in June and July, but these fluctuations got ironed out in August with the automotive industry registering a growth of 14% with a cumulative output of 30 million units in FY18 Passenger vehicle sales grew 8%, the two and three-wheeler segment 15% and 24%, respectively, for the year. The biggest beneficiary – commercial vehicle sales – grew 20%, reaching a new peak of 856,000 units.The new tax increased demand for commercial vehicles, tractors and utility vehicles, said Mahindra & Mahindra Group CFO VS Parthasarathy. “GST actually is a ‘good and simple tax’. On the broad economy level, one-nation, one-market, one-tax all in one year is a big benefit,” he said. “What this has led to is the formation of a unified ‘national’ market from myriad state-level, smaller markets. The complexity of taxation is simplified with IT-driven compliance processes.”The siphoning out of money from businesses, which hindered industrial growth, will be corrected through GST, said RC Bhargava, chairman of the country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki. “Indians are frightfully good at evading taxes. The only answer is to have fool-proof IT systems,” he said. “Use of technology under GST should further address tax evasion challenges. If the money is ploughed back, it benefits the industry, it formalises the economy and creates huge employment opportunity. Over time, rates can be simplified.”Despite uncertainties, vehicle makers were proactive in upgrading their ecosystems--dealers and vendors. Executives were stationed at both to help transition to the new tax regime. Vehicle makers even booked losses on stock older than one year.Warehousing has been consolidated 18-20%, said Kavan Mukhtyar, PwC’s automotive lead. Transport time has shrunk 10-15%, manufacturing is getting consolidated and new plants are being set up with business considerations rather than tax efficiency in mind. A hub-andspoke forward distribution model is taking effect.

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MUMBAI: India is one of the most appealing markets for Discovery Communications, the world’s largest factual entertainment network, and the company is ready to take big bets in the country as the top bosses see potential for India to be the growth driver in the coming decade.“We obviously see the growth prospects of this market and would like to be on a much bigger scale in India,” Jean-Briac (JB) Perrette, president, Discovery Networks International, told ET.“We love this market. When you look at the next several decades, India is clearly a global driver and so the market holds a lot of appeal and we would like to continue to find ways to be bigger in this market. We’re constantly going to be placing bets and that’s consistent.”And even as the company’s foray into the Hindi mass entertainment space, Jeet, has failed to perform, Perrette is unperturbed.“We had this great opportunity that the team and Karan (Bajaj, GM, India business) felt was a space that was interesting. We also loved the idea. At the end of the day, it didn’t perform the way we wanted it to, but you know, if we get shy, or if we get concerned and conservative, we’re not going to survive,” Perrette said.He added that the company has no problem taking big bets, particularly in markets that are very appealing. “India meets all the criteria. And even though Jeet didn’t work the way we thought it would, we’re going to keep hammering on various opportunities that we want to pursue.”Despite a setback with Jeet, Discovery continues to enjoy a leadership position in the infotainment genre. It has a strong portfolio of factual entertainment channels such as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Science, and TLC. Its kids channel, Discovery Kids, has seen a sharp jump in viewership since the launch of a new IP, ‘Little Singham’, while its digital product, Veer, is also raking in decent numbers.“The business is very strong. We’ve got TLC leading in the lifestyle genre. Discovery Kids is on a surge now with this great ‘Little Singham’ IP that we co-developed. In a way we’ve got a core business which remains strong, healthy, well-performing, but we understand that’s not going to revolutionise our position in the market. The second piece that we have is branching out to develop leading kinds of digital products and Veer is clearly one of them,” Perrette said.

from The Economic Times https://ift.tt/2MGqFhY

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