Business News at 09:30 am on 28th November 2023

Let’s begin – Raymond CMD Gautam Singhania has assured employees and board that “business is as usual” at the textiles-to-engineering conglomerate and he is fully committed towards the smooth functioning of the group. Singhania’s email comes after the company’s share prices began dipping since the announcement of his divorce from Nawaz Modi Singhania. Raymond shares fell by 13.29% to Rupees 1,648.45 in the past nine consecutive trading sessions. On November 24, the company’s market cap fell below Rupees 11,000 crore for the first time in the past five months.“…I remain resolute as the CMD and am fully committed towards the smooth functioning of the company and its business. Even in these difficult times for me, I assure you that at Raymond it is business as usual,” Singhania said in an email addressed to employees and the company’s board. On November 3, Raymond Group entered into an agreement to acquire 59.25% stake in MPPL for Rupees 682 cr.

Now a news related to Adani – Adani Cements is mulling a bid for Kesoram Industries’ cement assets as it explores inorganic ways to more than double its total production capacity to 140 million tonne per annum (MTPA) by FY28. UltraTech Cement, India’s largest cement producer, had earlier evinced interest in the cement assets and initiated negotiations with the promoters. Another source also confirmed development and added that the Adani Group was expected to meet the promoters, following which due diligence of the assets would be conducted.

In a separate development – Sunita Singh (name changed), a teacher, recently made a distress call to the managing director of a brokerage firm who hails from her city. Citing his relationship with her father who was a teacher as well, she sought some financial help. She explained that she was running a ‘side business’ of investing in futures and options and had promised clients 10% returns to her clients. However, her bets had gone completely awry and now she did not have the money to return to her clients. Since her family was unaware of the huge losses, she was afraid to tell them lakhs had been burnt on F&O betting. She pleaded for financial help.

In another development – The Ministry of Railways has extended service of KSR Bengaluru-Dharwad Vande Bharat Express. The national transporter has extended the services of KSR Bengaluru-Dharwad Vande Bharat Express upto Belagavi. This is the second blue and white colour train in the state after MGR Chennai Central–Mysuru Vande Bharat Express. The KSR Bengaluru-Belagavi Vande Bharat Express will cover a distance of 611 km in less than eight hours. This will be the fastest train on the route followed by Rani Chennamma Express and SBC-BGM Express. Both the trains cover the same distance in 09:50 hrs and 10:35 hrs respectively.

Now a news related to economy – India’s continued systemic reforms and participation in the global value chains will accelerate its path to a $7-trillion economy, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday, stressing the importance of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor for international trade. In October, S&P Global Market Intelligence said India will likely overtake Japan and Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy with gross domestic product of $7.3 trillion by 2030. India’s nominal GDP measured in US dollar terms was $3.5 trillion in 2022.

Meanwhile – With telcos unable to monetise 5G, industry experts have said that absence of possibilities to monetise might lead to a potential revenue loss of Rs 2 trillion for the government in the coming 5G spectrum auctions. This because the telecom operators are not expected to bid for additional 5G spectrum till the time they start getting returns on the investments already made by them to rollout 5G networks.The potential loss, however, can be avoided if government delicenses 1,200 MHz spectrum in the 6 GHz band for use of Wi-Fi, experts said.

In another development – Airline major IndiGo on Monday launched an artificial intelligence based chatbot, 6Eskai, powered by GPT-4 technology. The chatbot is capable of performing a wide range of tasks, including booking tickets, applying promotional discounts and performing web check-ins. IndiGo’s chatbot comes days after Air India said it has successfully deployed its generative AI-based chatbot, Maharaja, to assist passengers. According to IndiGo, chatbot is developed entirely in-house by its digital team, in close collaboration with Microsoft. The chatbot addresses customer queries in 10 different languages and offers a first-of-a kind platform for booking tickets across the entire network.

Last but not the least – GIFT Nifty traded up 27 points or 0.14% at 19,862, indicating a positive opening for domestic indices NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex on Tuesday. Previously, on Friday, the NSE Nifty 50 slipped 7.30 points or 0.04% to settle at 19,790.55, while the BSE Sensex dropped 47.77 points or 0.07% to 65,970.04.