- Wednesday, March 05, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are news related to Indian economy and business for Wednesday, January 11, 2023:
Ports-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group on Wednesday said that it has plans to invest Rs 60,000 crore (£6 billion) in mineral exploration, energy, agriculture, renewable energy and coal sectors in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The group, however, did not give timelines for the investment, PTI reported. “During one-to-one interaction with Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the sidelines of the two-day Global Investors Summit (GIS) in the city of Indore, Pranav Adani, managing director (Agro, Oil & Gas), and director of Adani Enterprises, said that his group has plans to invest Rs 60,000 crore in the areas of mineral, energy, agriculture, renewable energy and coal,” an official release said.
G20 leaders are understood to have discussed a wide range of issues on digital financial inclusion, remittances and availability of finance for SMEs during a three-day meeting in Kolkata in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, a senior official said on Wednesday, PTI reported. Delegates of member and invitee countries and officials of international organisations deliberated upon leveraging digital public infrastructure for financial inclusion and productivity gains, he said. “Discussions took place on the progress towards reducing cost of remittances and innovative payment services to bring down the rates,” said Chanchal Sarkar, economic advisor, ministry of finance, department of economic affairs.
A net copper exporter since the early 2000s, India is likely to remain a net importer of the metal, now being called as “new oil”, for the fifth year in row in 2022-23 fiscal as well, hinted at by government data, ANI/PNN reported. The status reversal coincided with the closure of Sterlite Copper’s four lakh (0.4 million) tonnes per annum (LTPA) smelter in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in May 2018. “Domestic copper production fell significantly from FY2019 onwards as a result of the shutdown of the Sterlite Copper plant in Tuticorin. Lower refined production created a huge deficit in the domestic copper market, resulting in large imports for the fifth year in a row. Given the healthy copper demand outlook in the domestic market, the deficit situation is unlikely to improve in the near term,” Jayanta Roy, senior vice-president and group head, Corporate Sector Ratings, ICRA said.
In a setback for Google, an appellate tribunal on Wednesday refused an interim stay on the competition regulator imposing a Rs 936-crore (£94.4 million) penalty on the US tech giant for abusing its dominant position in the market, PTI reported. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) directed Google to deposit 10 per cent of the fine that was slapped by the Competition Commission of India in a case related to its Play Store policies. A week back, Google failed to get relief from the NCLAT on a separate Rs 1,337.76 crore fine imposed by CCI on alleged abuse of the dominant position that the US tech giant has in the Android smartphone operating system in the country. It was asked to deposit 10 per cent of the fine within four weeks. Google challenged that order before the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear it on Monday (9).
The startup ecosystem in eastern India, particularly West Bengal is improving, NASSCOM (East) [National Association of Software and Service Companies] chairman Sanjoy Chatterjee said in state capital Kolkata on Wednesday, PTI reported. NASSCOM, the premier trade body of IT and ITeS sector, has so far incubated 221 startups in the region so far, he told a press conference. It set up the warehouse for mentoring the largest start up ecosystem in the eastern part of the country seven years ago. Out of the 221 incubated start ups, 79 were funded, including 49 with the second series. These startups included both technology and non-tech ones in the MSME and large enterprises space. “The startup ecosystem in the east, particularly West Bengal, is improving. A large number of IT and ITeS firms are going to start operations from the city,” Chatterjee said.
