Business News at 10:00 am on 6th June, 2024

Let’s begin…To boost sales of highly subsidised Bharat rice, the food ministry has asked agencies such as Nafed, NCCF of India and Kendriya Bhandars and others to sell par-boiled rice in the southern states.Sources told FE that the government has supplied more than one million tonne of common variety of rice under Bharat rice initiative so far which is much lower than anticipated. Par-boiled rice available with the Food Corporation of India will be sold under Bharat rice initiative in southern states aimed at curbing rise in prices. Sources said the FCI has offered around 0.13 MT of par-boiled rice for retail sales.
Next up, Indian universities are climbing up the global pecking order faster than their G20 peers, according to the latest World University Rankings 2025 by global higher education specialist firm Quacquarelli Symonds. Although there are no Indian universities in the top 100 list, the rankings show that 61% of the universities in the country have improved their rankings as compared to the previous year. Delhi University, for instance, has witnessed the biggest jump by climbing 79 notches to reach the 328th position this year. Also, over the past decade, India has experienced the highest growth in university representation among all G20 nations, with a remarkable 318% increase from 11 universities in the 2015 edition of the QS World University Rankings to 46 in the 2025 edition, the report said.
In other news, To beat the lull of the lean season, airlines are offering discounts on fares for travel during the upcoming monsoon season on domestic and international routes.Vistara, the full-service carrier, announced a four-day sale on June 4 offering one-way domestic fares starting at Rs 1,999 for economy, Rs 2,999 for premium economy and Rs 9,999 for business class. There was competition among budget carriers — Air India Express and IndiGo — to woo the fliers as both simultaneously launched a limited period ticket sale last week.While Tata group-controlled Air India Express advertised fares starting from Rs 1,177, IndiGo, the country’s largest carrier, announced a sale on both domestic and international flights with all-inclusive fares starting at Rs 1,199.
Moving on, IT services major Wipro has successfully completed over 2,000 client proofs of concept in artificial intelligence, with an additional 300 underway, Sanjeev Jain, chief operating officer at Wipro told FE. He said, quote, Wipro has made significant progress in identifying potential applications across all sectors we engage with…These achievements span various outcomes, including improved healthcare results, optimized contact center efficiency, increased productivity for financial advisors, content generation, engineering documentation summarization, and many more,’ end quote. Jain was appointed as the new COO of Wipro in May after his predecessor Amit Choudhary resigned. Jain had joined the IT company in 2023 as the global head of business operations.
In another development, Domestic airlines are likely to widen their losses to $400-600 million in FY25 despite a likely rise in traffic, aviation consulting firm CAPA India CEO, Kapil Kaul said on Wednesday. In FY24, the losses of the domestic airlines are estimated to be at around $300-400 million, excluding IndiGo, which is profitable. The number excludes those of cash-strapped SpiceJet, which is yet to declare results for the last two quarters. InterGlobe Aviation, which operates IndiGo, reported a profit of Rs 1,894.8 crore for the January-March quarter, which was its sixth straight quarter of profit. One of the reasons for the losses would be on account of capacity shortage due to the grounding of aircraft.
Up next, Micro, small and medium-sized-focused Clix Capital is planning to borrow around Rs 5,000 crore in FY25 from various sources. Rakesh Kaul, chief executive officer at Clix Capital said, quote, We have very active relationships with 43 lenders in India, which includes almost all PSU banks, large private sector banks, NBFCs, DFIs and other state-sponsored institutions like Sidbi, end quote. He added that the company will continue to focus on raising debt as a part of the overall strategy. Term loans from banks and non-banking financial companies comprise less than 50% of the company borrowings. In April, the company had secured debt funding of $6 million from DCB Bank.
Lastly, GIFT Nifty indicated that Indian equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 might see a positive opening on Thursday. Here is all you need to know before the market opens.GIFT Nifty was 177.50 points or 0.79% higher at 22,679.50 indicating a positive start for the domestic indices NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex on Thursday. Previously, on Wednesday, the NSE Nifty 50 advanced 736 points or 3.36% to finish at 22,620.35, while the BSE Sensex soared 2,303 points or 3.20% to finish at 74,382. Meanwhile, The Wall Street or US market closed soared reaching their new lifetime highs as Nvidia led the tech stocks rally and weak labour market data bolstered the hope of an interest rate cut later this year.