- Thursday, February 27, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Wednesday, August 16, 2023:
US aerospace giant Boeing has announced the commencement of production for Apache helicopters intended for the Indian Army. A total of six AH-64E Apaches will be delivered. The AH-64 Apache, a cutting-edge multi-role combat helicopter used by the US Army, is being produced by Boeing in Mesa, Arizona. The move follows Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited’s delivery of the initial AH-64 Apache fuselage to the Indian Army earlier this year. Boeing India president Salil Gupte emphasised the company’s dedication to enhancing India’s defence capabilities and lauded the AH-64’s advanced technology and performance. The delivery is anticipated in 2024.
The Narendra Modi government is mulling selling some of its stake in the Indian Railway Finance Corp, which is state-owned, as it aims to meet its divestment targets for the year, Reuters reported citing two government officials on Wednesday. The government currently holds a little more than 86 per cent of the railways’ funding arm. “The stake sale would take place soon,” a government official was quoted as saying, adding that while the government is yet to take a call on the exact quantum of sale, it will aim to sell up to 11 per cent in several tranches. In July, the government sold a more-than-five-percent stake in Rail Vikas Nigam, another state-run railways company, raising more than Rs 13 billion (£122.5 million).
Indian Bank, a public sector one based in Chennai, on Wednesday said it has formed 10 startup cells across various centres in the country to serve its specialised banking requirements. The cells have been set up in cities such as Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kanpur and Mumbai. Under the initiative, the bank said a bouquet of tailor-made banking products and services were designed for the startups, keeping in mind their unique and specialised banking requirements. It includes offering payment gateways, corporate credit cards and credit facilities apart from the existing products of the bank, a press release said.
Indian electric bike startup eBikeGo on Wednesday said it has planned to launch its Muvi brand of e-scooters in the international market in the next financial year. eBikeGo has strategically handpicked places such as Virginia and Barcelona as the pivotal locations for its international operations, which will commence from fiscal year April 2024, the company said in a statement. These regions have been carefully selected for their burgeoning demand for eco-friendly transportation alternatives and their strategic significance in reaching out to a broad spectrum of environmentally conscious consumers, eBikeGo said. The company had in 2021 acquired the manufacturing and marketing rights for the European e-scooter brand Muvi from Spanish automotive company Torrot.
India on Wednesday approved plans for a scheme of nearly Rs 580 billion (£5.46 billion) to deploy 10,000 electric buses in 169 cities over a decade’s time, besides charging and associated infrastructure facilities. The country’s government will fund Rs 200 billion of the scheme’s cost, based on a public-private partnership model, the country’s information minister Anurag Thakur said at a briefing. It was, however, not immediately clear whether the remaining funds would come from state governments or private firms, Reuters reported. Shares of companies that investors expect to benefit from the scheme rose after the news.
(With agency inputs)
