Business News at 05:30 pm on 5th October 2023

Let’s begin – The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to meet from October 4-6 to review the country’s monetary policy. The MPC’s decision will be announced on October 6. MPC is expected to maintain status quo on key rates when it shares the outcome of the meeting on October 6. The benchmark policy repo rate is currently 6.50%. It is also likely to maintain the stance of “withdrawal of accommodation” amidst inflation remaining elevated though expected to ease in near term, higher interest rate yields in developed markets especially US, volatile and elevated crude oil prices and region-wise inequal distribution of monsoon in India. On the global front, over the past two years, the global economy has experienced high inflation and tightening monetary policy. Up next – India has extended the tenure of the chairman of the State Bank of India , the country’s largest lender, until August next year, two government sources said. The tenure of Dinesh Khara has been extended until he attains the age of 63 next year. Khara was appointed as SBI’s chairman on Oct. 7, 2020 for three years. As per norms, SBI chairman can hold the position till the age of 63. The government is likely to issue an order to this effect shortly, the sources said. In another development – Growth in India’s dominant services industry accelerated in September as already robust demand strengthened, according to a survey that also showed businesses were the most optimistic in over nine years. That bodes well for Asia’s third-largest economy, which is expected to be the fastest-growing major economy this fiscal year, defying a global slowdown trend. S&P Global’s India services purchasing managers’ index rose to 61.0 last month from 60.1 in August, confounding expectations in a Reuters poll for a dip to 59.5. With manufacturing activity expanding at the slowest pace in five months but services industry growth robust, the overall S&P Global India Composite PMI Output Index rose slightly to 61.0 in September from 60.9. Meanwhile – A day after the Delhi Police’s action against the NewsClick portal, several prominent press bodies have written to Chief Justice Of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, seeking evolved guidelines for the interrogation of journalists and for seizures from them. The letter addressed to the CJI has been signed by organizations including the Digipub News India Foundation, Indian Women’s Press Corps, and the Press Club of India, among others. The press bodies cited the instance of raids conducted on October 3 on the homes of 46 staffers of news portal NewsClick, including journalists, editors, writers, and professionals. Moving on – Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp’s cloud services face an investigation by the UK’s antitrust watchdog over concerns the US firms may be abusing their market power. The Competition and Markets Authority said on Thursday it’s opening a market investigation into the supply of public cloud infrastructure in the UK. The probe follows a year-long study from telecommunications regulator Ofcom which found evidence that major players such as Amazon and Microsoft made it hard for customers to use multiple suppliers or switch. The two companies provide increasingly essential remote storage and computing which has become more and more prevalent across business. The CMA’s market investigations typically last around 18 months and the agency has the power to impose structural remedies. In other news – At least 14 people have died and 102 others, including 22 Army personnel, are missing after a cloudburst over Lhonak Lake in north Sikkim triggered flash floods in the Teesta River basin on Wednesday. Furthermore, over 20,000 people have been affected due to the calamity. Officials said that one of the 23 Army men who had gone missing in the morning was rescued later. As many as 3,000 tourists from various parts of the country were reported to be stranded in different parts of the state, Sikkim Chief Secretary VB Pathak said. The cloudburst occurred in the early hours of Wednesday and the swirling waters swept away parts of a dam at Chungthang, which is the state’s largest hydropower project, worsening the flooding downstream. Lastly – Twitter now known as X is removing headlines from news articles posted on the platform. The plan to remove the headlines was first announced in August when Musk announced that it came directly from him and it would improve the aesthetics. Under the new design, when a user shares a link to a news article on X, only the lead image and URL of the article will be displayed. The headline and any other text will be removed. For headlines to appear, users sharing news posts will have to manually write them. The move comes just days after Musk in one of posts called X an alternative to news outlets.