Business News at 05:30 pm on 4th October 2023

Let’s begin – The cost of UK visas is set to go up for students, skilled workers and immigrants. From October 4, the new fee structure for UK visas will be in place for foreigners. The cost of family, settlement, and citizenship visas will increase by 20% starting on October 4, while the cost of work and visit visas will increase by 15%. As an illustration, settlement is rising from around £2,400 to £2,900. The health surcharge will rise by 66% to £1,035 a year at a date to be confirmed. The visa charge for students, including child students and dependants, will rise from £363 to £490, representing a 35% increase.

Next up – Arthur D. Little, the world’s oldest management consulting firm, has released a new report titled “Transforming India into a Global Automotive Hub: Roadmap for the Automotive Ecosystem”. The report explores the key areas of automotive value creation in India, such as becoming a destination for global platforms, achieving global scale in software and ER&D, striving for innovation and technology leadership, operations excellence at scale, and being an early mover in building a sustainable value chain. The report highlights the increasing pace of innovation within the local automotive ecosystem and the shifting dynamics of disruption, which if harnessed effectively, can catapult India into a position of global automotive leadership.

Moving on – India’s monetary policy committee is widely expected to keep key rates on hold when it announces its decision on Friday but the recent uptick in global crude oil prices and sustained economic growth are likely to keep its focus on inflation. All but one of the 71 economists surveyed by Reuters in late September said the RBI would keep its key repo rate unchanged at 6.50% at the conclusion of the Oct. 4-6 meeting, with one expecting a 25 basis point hike. Annual retail inflation in August was 6.83%, easing from 7.44% in July — a 15-month high — but remained well above the central bank’s 2%-6% comfort band.

In other developments – HDFC Bank is revamping some parts of its top management as the bank seeks to drive growth in mortgages, where Arvind Kapil will get exclusive charge and optimise branch ramp-up where responsibilities will be split geographically. IT and Digital also get a needed direct reporting to CEO. Ramp-up of deposits and housing book will be key to growth and investor comfort, according to Jefferies. Jefferies has maintained its ‘Buy’ rating on the stock with a 33% upside target of Rs 2,030. The Bank’s gross advances aggregated to approximately Rs 23,545,00 crore as of September 30, 2023, a growth of around 57.7% over Rs 14,933,00 crore as of September 30, 2022 and a growth of around 44.4% over Rs 16,300,00 crore as of June 30, 2023.

Meanwhile – It appears that the iPhone 15 has encountered yet another hiccup in its journey shortly after hitting the market. Following initial reports of overheating problems, a new issue has emerged on Reddit that has got users talking. It seems that the iPhone 15 is grappling with another issue – crackling speakers. This issue seems to be affecting all models of the iPhone 15, and it is most noticeable when the volume is turned up high. Also, going by the complaints posted by users, its seems that the earpiece speaker is most affected by this issue. According to 9to5Mac report,a TikToker going by username Milesabovetech was also among those affected by this iPhone issue.

In other news – India scripted history in the Asian Games 2023 as the country registered its best-ever medal haul of 71 on Wednesday by going past the previous year’s tally of 70. The Indian contingent recorded its its best-ever medal haul at the Asian Games today. Notably, the country’s previous-best medal haul at the Asian Games had come in 2018 in Jakarta and Palembang, when our athletes returned with 70 medals – 16 gold, 23 silver and 31 bronze. Compound archers Ojas Deotale and Jyothi Surekha Vennam on October 4 grabbed the 71st medal for India when they won the mixed team gold medal. It is pertinent to mention that ‘Aab ki Baar, Sau Paar’, which means to cross 100 medals this time, has been the nation’s catch line for this edition.

Lastly – The Canadian allegations regarding India’s involvement in the killing of a pro-Khalistan separatist are “serious” and need to be investigated fully, the White House has said. Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force, was killed in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020. Tensions flared between India and Canada last month following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations of “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar. India has angrily rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated”.