- Monday, March 03, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Wednesday, March 29, 2023:
India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday said India has got the G20 back to its original agenda of global growth and development a year after it was seen grappling with the Ukraine conflict, PTI reported. Addressing the ‘Rising India Summit’ of the Network18 Group, Jaishankar said the G20 was not the primary forum to debate international peace and security and India would want it to return to matters concerning roughly 200 countries of the world. “I think our contribution was to get G20 back to the G20’s real business. He said issues such as international peace and security do matter, but there were serious issues such as food and energy security, green financing for nations to worry about.
Airbus on Wednesday awarded a contract to Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) to manufacture cargo and bulk cargo doors of the A320neo aircraft family, ANI reported. The contract is a significant step towards increasing Airbus’ competitiveness in the single-aisle aircraft market and supporting the ramp-up of the A320 programme, said the company statement. TASL will produce these doors at a new facility in Hyderabad using cutting-edge robotics and automation technology. Each shipset will include two cargo doors and one bulk cargo door. The contract was signed by Olivier Cauquil, SVP Aerostructure Procurement, Airbus and Masood Hussainy, VP and HO Aerostructure and Aero-Engines, Tata Advanced Systems Ltd, at Hyderabad on Wednesday.
A tribunal in India on Wednesday gave partial relief to Alphabet Inc’s Google by setting aside four of 10 anti-trust directives in a case that is related to the dominant market position of its Android operating system, Reuters reported. In October, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said that Google had exploited its dominant position in Android and asked it to remove restrictions imposed on device makers, including those related to pre-installation of apps. It also imposed a fine of $161 million (£130.7 million) on Google. According to an Indian appeals tribunal, CCI’s findings of Google’s anti-competitive conduct were correct and the company was also liable to pay the fine, but it cancelled four of the 10 anti-trust remedies that had been imposed on Google to alter its business model.
India’s car-servicing startup GoMechanic was on Wednesday acquired by a consortium led by car-parts manufacturer Lifelong Group, bringing to end months of uncertainty after the beleaguered company announced slashing of jobs and an independent review into its finances, Reuters reported. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, the report added. GoMechanic and its investor Stride Ventures, which helped the process, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for further details. Major investors of GoMechanic — Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital and Chiratae Ventures — sought a probe into GoMechanic in January after the company’s co-founder Amit Bhasin admitted to errors in its financial reporting.
Funds worth about Rs 106 crore (£10.4 million) kept in various payment gateway merchant IDs and bank accounts have been attached under the anti-money laundering law as part of an ongoing investigation against mobile phone-based loan apps “controlled” by Chinese nationals, India’s Enforcement Directorate said Wednesday, PTI reported. The money-laundering case was filed by the federal agency after it took cognisance of some Bengaluru (Karnataka) Police FIRs filed against numerous entities who “extorted and harassed” those people who took small amounts of loan through mobile apps (applications).
The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday allowed a plea by the Narendra Modi government seeking allocation of Rs 5,000 crore (493.6 million) out of Rs 24,000 crore (2.36 billion) deposited by the Sahara group with market regulator Sebi to repay its depositors, PTI reported. The direction came on an application filed by the Centre in a PIL by a person, named Pinak Pani Mohanty, who sought a direction to pay the amount to the depositors who invested in several chit fund companies and Sahara credit firms. A bench of justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said the amount shall be disbursed to depositors duped by the Sahara group of cooperative societies. The entire process will be monitored by former apex court judge Justice R Subhash Reddy, the bench said.
In yet another boost to self-reliance in defence sector, India’s defence ministry on Wednesday signed three contracts — two with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Ghaziabad and one with New Space India Limited (NSIL) — at a total cost nearly Rs 5,400 crore (£533.1 million), to bolster the defence capabilities of the country, ANI reported. According to the ministry, the first contract with BEL pertains to the procurement of the Automated Air Defence Control and Reporting System ‘Project Akashteer’ worth Rs 1,982 crore (£195.6 million) for the Indian Army. The second contract with BEL relates to the acquisition of Sarang Electronic Support Measure systems along with the associated Engineering Support Package from BEL, Hyderabad at an overall cost of Rs 412 crore (£40.6 million) for the Indian Navy.
