ZEE Chairman dramatic letter, More troubles for Chanda Kochhar, Over 200 hotels exit Oyo- Weekly Digest #75

The RBI has outlined norms for private parties to apply for the development of retail payment systems such as IMPS, UPI and others. It has said that it could allow multiple entities to set up payment systems in India to encourage competition as there are very few players at present.
In a bid to attract more investors, various domestic mutual funds have slashed the minimum lump sum investment amount in a scheme to ₹100. Earlier, most MF schemes required investors to put in at least ₹500-₹5,000 as a lump sum.
Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Q3 profit rose 23% to ₹1,291 crore, beating Street estimates. It has been attributed to high revenues from all segments – corporate, retail and treasury.
The SC said no punitive action was warranted on Volkswagen over allegations of installing emission ‘cheat devices’ for India, effectively sending a word of caution to the National Green Tribunal.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries said it will restructure the domestic drug distribution business, square off the ₹2,238-crore loan given to an overseas distributor and replace the auditor of its subsidiaries. The market reacted positively as the share closed at ₹418.05 on the BSE after rising to as much as ₹422.75 intraday.
Two of the country’s biggest mutual funds, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund have marked down the value of debt issued by two SPVs of IL&FS as the troubled infrastructure investor’s financial woes continue to rattle financial markets.
The domestic equity market snapped five-day rising spree as investors booked profits amid weak cues from international markets after IMF lowered its global growth projections for 2019 and 2020. The Sensex dropped 134. points to end at 36,445 points while the Nifty finished 39 points lower at 10,923 points.
After withdrawing a circular exempting share transfer for “no or inadequate consideration” from tax, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has asked the authorities to forget the notification completely. “Any view expressed by Board vide Circular no. 10 of 2018 shall be considered to have never been expressed,” it said in a statement.
The NCLAT has deferred a hearing on a contempt petition against Reliance Communications (RCom) chairman Anil Ambani, filed by minority shareholders of one of his group companies to 25th February 2019.

Piyush Goyal was appointed interim finance minister a week ahead of the February 1 interim budget presentation, with Arun Jaitley undergoing surgery in the US. Jaitley, who had left for the US on January 13, has undergone tests for soft tissue cancer.
Priyanka Gandhi took the much-awaited formal plunge into national politics on with her brother, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, appointing her general secretary responsible for eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Vodafone Idea Ltd has finalised a rights issue to raise ₹25,000 crore to help bolster countrywide 4G coverage and take on Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm. VIL’s promoter shareholders, UK’s Vodafone Group and the Aditya Birla Group will pump in ₹11,000 crore and ₹7,250 crore, respectively, as part of the rights issue.
Online food ordering service Zomato has hired psychiatrist Rohit Garg to counsel its employees, a month after one of its delivery boys was captured on camera eating out of the packets he was carrying.
The rupee Wednesday settled higher by 11 paise at 71.33 against the US dollar on increased selling of dollars by exporters and banks.

The CBI booked former ICICI Bank head Chanda Kochhar on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and abuse of official position for “dishonestly sanctioning loans to the Videocon Group”. The CBI has also registered a case against Deepak Kochhar and VN Dhoot.
The founders of Bengaluru-based IT services company Mindtree are looking to shore up their control of the company against a possibly hostile takeover, with 21% stakeholder VG Siddhartha’s exit imminent.
The government is considering extending the deadline of February 1 by when recently announced changes in the foreign direct investment policy for e-commerce are to take effect. however, no final decision has been made.
Ravneet Singh Gill will take over as CEO of private sector lender Yes Bank on March 1, succeeding co-founder Rana Kapoor. Gill has been Deutsche Bank’s India CEO since 2012.
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has denied that the company is planning to exit the online marketplace business but said its newly-launched online wholesale business is expected to generate about 15% of the Paytm Mall’s business in the coming years.

Zee and Essel group chairman Subhash Chandra issued a statement claiming that “negative forces” were trying to sabotage Zee Entertainment’s strategic sale while acknowledging that he had committed mistakes. This triggered a drop in shares – Zee Enterprises fell over 26%, Dish TV by nearly 33% and Essel Propack 16%.
Union minister Arun Jaitley launched an attack against the CBI for naming leading bankers, including New Development Bank president KV Kamath, in a first information report in the ICICI Bank-Videocon Group loans case. Investigative agencies need to be more focused in their probes, Jaitley advised.
The SC upheld the IBC, backing the government’s efforts to deal with the bad-debt burden of banks and rejecting challenges by the promoters of defaulting companies barred by the law from regaining control of their firms.
More than 200 hotels have ended agreements with Soft-Bank-backed Oyo over mismanagement of contracts, arbitrary charges and other disputes, industry associations said. Oyo has refuted the allegations.

Source: The Economic Times
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