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Cheapest smartphone: Domestic handset maker Ringing Bells will launch India’s most affordable smartphone ‘Freedom 251’ priced at under Rs 500 later this week, a move that is set to disrupt the booming handset market in the country. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikkar will launch the smartphone ‘Freedom 251’ on February 17. The Ringing Bells ‘Freedom 251’ launch is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for “empowering India to the last person, transforming India’s growth story”, the Noida-based company said. (Reuters) [15-02-2016]
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Bank of Baroda shares: The stocks of the country’s second-largest lender, BoB defied the loss after the management said that all non-performing assets were accounted for and it could return to profitability next fiscal. Its newly inducted managing director and chief executive P S Jayakumar said through the clean-up and reorganisation exercise, the bank is confident of posting “reasonable level” of profit next fiscal year. The share price of Bank of Baroda settled 22.04 per cent up at Rs 139.55. [15-02-2016]
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Raghuram Rajan: RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Monday he was not in favour of devaluing exchange rates to boost economic growth, signalling India will not join other countries such as China or Japan in pushing down their currencies.“I personally feel sustained devaluation is neither feasible nor a good strategy,” Rajan said in a speech at a conference on medium scale enterprises in Trivandrum, in southern India. (AP)
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As per the report, average rate of cabbage at APMCs in Maharashtra was Rs 611 per quintal in October this year. It fell to Rs 575 per quintal during November. (Express photo)
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Ratan Tata: Bengaluru-based retail technology startup SnapBizz on Monday said it has raised an undisclosed round of funding from veteran industrialist Ratan Tata. This is Tata’s eighth investment in startups in 2016 so far. Tata, former Tata Group chairman, has invested over 20 startups so far. (Reuters) [15-02-2016]
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Sebi Chairman: U K Sinha will remain Sebi Chairman till March 1, 2017 with the government extending his term by over a year on Monday. The extension for Sinha, whose current term was to end on February 17, was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During his tenure, Sebi has implemented a number of reforms in the capital markets including regarding IPOs, mutual funds and corporate governance.
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Global Financial Integrity: The Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team on black money has asked the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to verify whether $505 billion had flown out of the country during 2004-13, when Congress-led UPA was in power.The instruction to DRI comes on the heels of US-based think-tank Global Finance Integrity stating in a report that India had fourth largest outflow of black money in the world with a whopping $51 billion being siphoned out every year between 2004 and 2013. [15-02-2016]
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Air India: In a departure from its current practice, state-owned carrier Air India has decided that in the future, it will hire all pilots on contract, thus doing away with the permanent-employee status for them. Sources said that the airline is set to hire 532 pilots in the future and of these, 200-250 will be recruited in the current year. The practice of hiring pilots on a contractual basis was started last year when Air India recruited 70 pilots who are currently undergoing training. Now, the airline has decided to institutionalise this practice. [15-02-2016]
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Reliance Jio: Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), the yet-to-be-launched telecommunications venture of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, on Monday said it has partnered with eight other global telecom companies to form a global alliance. The move will help all the nine telecom operators, including Reliance Jio, to bring newer products and solutions to a combined user base of more than 1 billion across 80 countries, and bring down costs of operations, the company said in a statement. Other operator partners of the alliance include BT, Deutsche Telekom, Millicom, MTS, Orange, Rogers, TeliaSonera and TIM, it said. (Express photo) [15-02-2016]
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Budget 2016-17: Reeling under the impact of gross budgetray support cut and falling revenue collection, Indian Railways is firming up plans to to slash operational cost and working expenses considerably to meet its financial requirement. Expecting very little help from the exchequer to meet the additional expenditure due to implementation of Seventh Pay Commission recommendations, railways is in the process of undertaking a series of measures to raise the resources on its own as told by the Finance Ministry.The aim is to reduce working expense by about 15 per cent. “The total working expenses was Rs 1.62 lakh cr last year,” sources said. (Reuters) [15-02-2016]
