- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Thursday, December 21, 2023:
The Indian parliament on Thursday passed a bill that seeks to allow the government to temporarily take control of telecom services in the interest of national security, and provide a non-auction route for the allocation of satellite spectrum. The Telecommunications Bill, 2023, was approved by the Rajya Sabha or upper chamber of the parliament through a voice vote. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday after a short debate. The Bill seeks to allow the government to temporarily take control of telecom services in the interest of national security, and provide a non-auction route for the allocation of satellite spectrum. It also allows the federal government to take possession of a telecom network in case of any public emergency or in the interest of public safety.
Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) have made 34.63 per cent of their total procurement from MSMEs in 2023-24 (till November) as against the mandated 25 per cent. She said this during a meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to the ministry of finance on ‘Performance of Public Enterprises’. “Another highlight during the meeting was the exponential growth in Government e-Marketplace @GeM_India procurement by #CPSEs from Rs. 7,035 crore in 2020-21 to Rs. 133,720 crore in 2023-24 (upto November 2023),” the ministry said in a post on X.
The Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, known as Vizag steel plant in Visakhapatnam in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has forged a deal with Jindal Steel and Power Ltd to get an infusion of working capital up to Rs 900 crore in a bid to propel sales revenue, monthly turnover and slash losses. The timely deal enables the steel plant to procure raw material and start consistent Blast Furnace-3 (BF-3) operations with the planned blowing-in scheduled on December 30 at a capacity of 200,000 tonnes of hot metal per month, an official said in the coastal city on Thursday.
India’s Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Wednesday quashed two orders issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) against top lenders, prohibiting them from revoking the shares pledged by Karvy Stock Broking. The order came after the Axis Bank, the HDFC Bank, the ICICI Bank, the IndusInd Bank and Bajaj Finance moved the appellate tribunal against the SEBI orders. The SAT quashed the two orders passed in January 2020 and December 2019 that barred lenders from invoking the pledge on shares in the Karvy Stock Broking Limited matter. “A direction is given to SEBI, National Stock Exchange and National Securities Depository Limited to restore the pledge which was made in favour of the appellants within four weeks,” the SAT said in its order.
Unaccounted cash of more than Rs 351 crore and jewellery worth Rs 2.80 crore were seized after officials of the Indian income-tax department conducted searches against a distillery group based in the eastern state of Odisha recently, the Central Board of Direct Taxes said on Thursday. The business of the group is controlled by a family based in Ranchi in the eastern state of Jharkhand and one of the family members is a “politically exposed person”, the board said in a statement, without taking any name. Official sources confirmed that the action was linked to the December 6 searches launched at more than 30 premises in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal against the Boudh Distillery Group, promoted by the family of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu.
DB Schenker India, one of the leading logistics companies, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) to collaborate for EXIM and domestic business with a strong emphasis on sustainability. CONCOR is a prominent logistics service provider in India, with pan India presence at 64 container terminals. The MoU was signed on Tuesday (19) in New Delhi, India, in the presence of Sanjay Swarup, CMD of CONCOR; Kinjal Pande, CEO of DB Schenker (India and Indian Subcontinent), along with senior officials from CONCOR and DB Schenker. This MoU underscores the commitment of both organisations to contribute to sustainable supply chain practices and domestic multimodal solutions in the logistics industry.
(With agencies)
