Business News at 05:30 pm on 23rd February, 2024

Let’s begin – Byju Raveendran, his wife Divya Gokulnath, and his brother Riju Raveendran will not attend the extraordinary general meeting scheduled to be held on Friday through video conferencing or other audio-visual means. Since the board comprises of these three members only, it means that the company’s board will not be present during the EGM, which has been called by a group of investors seeking change in the company’s leadership, including the board. This also means that the EGM will be adjourned because of lack of quorum. Byju’s articles of association mandate the presence of its promoter-director at the EGM and if the person doesn’t turn up at the meeting, the EGM can be adjourned for a week.

Moving on, Coal India is likely to come out with the initial public offer for its two subsidiaries Bharat Coking Coal Limited and the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute in the financial year 2024-25, according to sources. Back in 2022, the company had said that its board had given an ‘in-principle’ approval to the divestment of 25% of paid-up share capital of BCCL and its subsequent listing on the stock exchanges. However, the subsidiary has so far not been listed.“ The listing of BCCL, CMPDI is under process. It may happen by the next financial year,” said a government official aware of the development. “BCCL now is in profit and has paid all its debt,” the source noted.

In other news, Aditya Birla Group expects to rake in revenue of Rs 10,000 crore from its paints venture and become profitable within three years of full-fledged operation. On Thursday, the cement-to-textiles conglomerate launched its decorative paints brand, Birla Opus, marking its foray into the `80,000-crore domestic decorative paints market. It is a division of flagship firm Grasim Industries, and the products will hit the market by mid-March starting with Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu. “With an investment of Rs 10,000 crore, we are building six plants across India. This is 40% of the total existing industry capacity built over the last several decades,” Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said.
“Next up, the Indian economy is expected to grow at 6.5% in FY25, mainly driven by the government’s capital expenditure push, softness in global commodity prices and “healthy” corporate performance, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) said in a report on Thursday. The projection, however, is sharply lower than the Reserve Bank of India’s forecast of 7% GDP growth next year. In FY24, the National Statistical Office has projected India’s economy to grow at 7.3%. Despite the base effect, the sequential GDP growth indicates that the economic recovery is on track, said the report while adding that there are prospects of a new private corporate capex cycle in the next fiscal year.

Moving ahead – Bucking the global trend, India’s dairy sector is growing at an impressive rate of 6% with the country’s largest milk cooperative, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation – Amul – contributing significantly to the growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday. Addressing a gathering of farmers and cooperative members here at the Narendra Modi stadium, the PM said, “In the past 10 years, the milk production in India has gone up by around 60% and the per person availability of milk has grown by around 40%. At a time when the global dairy sector is growing merely at a rate of 2%, India’s dairy sector is growing at a rate of 6%.”

In another major development, The government will consider the demand for higher minimum sale prices of sugar from mills in sync with the fair and remunerative price of sugarcane paid to farmers, food secretary Sanjeev Chopra on Thursday said. “The government is aware of the demand.. we are hopeful of finding a solution which will address industry’s concerns of the industry and the consumers,” Chopra told FE. For last many years, Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma) has been urging the government to enhance MSP of sugar by the millers with the corresponding increase in FRP prices. The government on Wednesday approved an 8% hike in FRP of sugarcane to be paid to farmers for the 2024-25 season to Rs 340/quintal.

GIFT Nifty indicated that Indian equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 may see a positive opening on Friday. Stocks in Focus: GIFT Nifty traded up by 71 points or 0.32% at 22,338 indicating a positive opening for domestic indices NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex on Friday. Previously, on Thursday, the NSE Nifty 50 ended up by 162.40 points or 0.74% to settle at 22,217.45, while the BSE Sensex jumped 535.15 points or 0.74% to 73,158.24. The key stocks to watch in trade are Vodafone Idea, Power Finance Corporation, Bank of Baroda, Oil India, Bajaj Auto, IRCTC, IRB Infrastructure, and Concord Biotech among others.