- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief on Indian economy & business for Wednesday, February 28, 2024:
Walt Disney Co and Reliance Industries on Wednesday announced signing of binding pacts to merge their media operations in India to create a Rs 70,000 crore (£6.67 billion) behemoth. Reliance and its affiliates will hold a 63.16 per cent stake in the combined entity that will house two streaming services and 120 television channels. Disney will hold the remaining 36.84 per cent stake, the companies said in a statement. Reliance has also agreed to invest at closing Rs 11,500 crore (£1.09 billion) into the joint venture to give it muscles to fight rivals such as Japan’s Sony and Netflix. Disney+Hotstar has seen its paid subscriber base decline from around 55 million to about 40 million in the first quarter of this financial year because of Reliance’s Jio Cinemas winning exclusive rights for live sports.
India has made significant strides in the semiconductor sector in the last two years and during this period, Rs 2.5 lakh crore (£23.8 billion) worth of investment proposals have been received by the government from global chip makers, said the country’s minister of state for electronics & technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Wednesday. He said India has become a source of inspiration for countries across the world in terms of its inclusive policies. Speaking at the ‘Viksit Bharat Ambassador Meet’ organised in Pune, Chandrashekhar said in the last 10 years, India has moved out of the league of ‘Fragile Five’ and become the world’s fifth largest economy. “We have become a beacon of hope and inspiration for countries across the world in terms of our inclusive policies, in terms of how you transform governance and make governments work for people,” he said.
OTT (Over the top) platforms are growing significantly in various regional languages across India, secretary of the ministry of information and broadcasting, Sanjay Jaju, said on Wednesday. In his keynote address at India Digital Summit 2024 in Mumbai, Jaju pointed out that there were over 60 OTT platforms in India, of which 30 per cent OTT originals were operating in regional languages. The number is expected to go up to 50 per cent this year. He also said that the media and entertainment sector was a huge sector and played a pivotal role in the Indian economy. “It’s been growing phenomenally at a rate of 20 per cent and is approximately Rs 2 lakh crore (£19 billion),” he said.
Reliance Consumer Products Ltd (RCPL), the FMCG arm of Reliance Retail, on Wednesday announced a partnership with Sri Lanka-headquartered beverage maker Elephant House to manufacture and sell beverages under the Elephant House brand across India. This would be the second major beverage brand for RCPL which had earlier acquired soft drinks brand Campa. “This association will not only help RCPL bolster its growing beverage portfolio that boasts iconic brands such as Campa, Sosyo and Raskik but will also bring exceptional new products and value propositions to Indian consumers,” said a joint statement. Elephant House is owned by Ceylon Cold Stores PLC, a subsidiary of John Keells Holdings PLC, Sri Lanka’s largest listed conglomerate.
India’s Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has frozen about Rs 123 crore (£11.7 million) worth bank deposits during recent searches in cities such as Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi as part of money laundering investigation against “Chinese-controlled” betting and loan apps which allegedly duped numerous people. The searches were carried out on February 23-24 against a company named NIUM India Pvt Ltd and its directors based in Mumbai, Xoduz Solution Pvt Ltd, Vikrah Trading Enterprises Pvt Ltd, Tyrannus Technology Pvt Ltd, Future Vision Media Solutions Pvt Ltd, Aprikiwi Solution Pvt Ltd. in Chennai and Raphael James Rozario at Kochi. A total of 10 locations in Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi were covered, the federal agency said.
The non-oil bilateral trade between India and the UAE has seen a sizable jump to over $50 billion (£39.4 billion) ever since the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) agreement and the aim is now to take it close to $100 billion by the end of this decade. Since 2022, when the CEPA was signed, non-oil bilateral trade has witnessed a 16 per cent increase between the two partner countries, reaching over $50 billion, said UAE-India CEPA Council director Ahmed Aljneibi, speaking to news agency Asian News International. “And we aim to make that around USD 100 billion (£78.9 billion) by 2030. The CEPA Council aims to leverage the benefits of the agreement by informing the business community here in India, and specifically today here in Chennai, one of our first roundtables that we had. It’s been a fruitful discussion,” Aljneibi said in the southern Indian city of Chennai.
(Agencies)
