- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Thursday, May 18, 2023:
A plan to develop eight new cities to alleviate population burden on the existing urban centres in the country is under consideration, a senior official said in Indore in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, PTI reported. The 15th Finance Commission in one of its reports had recommended that new cities should be developed, said M B Singh, director of the G20 unit of the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Department. Singh was speaking to PTI on the sidelines of a meeting of `Urban 20 (U20)’ in Indore. “After the finance commission’s recommendation, the states sent proposals to the central government for 26 new cities, and after a scrutiny, eight new cities are being considered for development,” he said.
US electric car maker Tesla Inc has held talks with Indian officials about incentives being offered by the South Asian nation for car and battery manufacturing, said an informed source, as the company looks anew at entering one of the largest automobile markets in the world, Reuters reported. Reuters reported on Wednesday (17) that the carmaker has proposed setting up a factory in India to build electric vehicles (EVs). Plans to locally manufacture EV batteries are also being held, said source. During the visit, details of which have not been revealed either by the company or any Indian ministry, Tesla officials on Thursday met India’s junior information technology minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said a source in the Indian government, Reuters added.
India’s opposition Indian National Congress on Thursday said only a joint parliamentary committee probe into the Adani issue will reveal the “full truth of the Modani scam”, with former parliamentarian Rahul Gandhi alleging that the government is not bothered about the public money getting “looted”, PTI reported. “Market capitalization of LIC – May 2022: Rs 5.48 lakh crore. May 2023: Rs 3.59 lakh crore. Decline: 35 percent. ‘Saheb’ has only one focus – how to save the businessman. Even if the hard-earned money of the public gets looted, or the investment of shareholders sinks,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi. Senior leader Jairam Ramesh, in a tweet, cited a news report that has alleged a “cover up”.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a leading oil and gas company in India, is pleased to announce its ambitious expansion plans worth Rs 49,000 crore (£4.7 billion), further increasing the company’s footprints in petrochemical segment and renewable energy, together with augmenting marketing infrastructure, ANI/NewsVoir reported. The core component of the expansion projects is the Ethylene Cracker Project, which will drive the production of essential petrochemicals. The project encompasses the establishment of an Ethylene Cracker Complex, downstream Petrochemical Plants, as well as the expansion of the existing Refinery capacity from 7.8 million metric tons per annum (MMTPA) to 11 MMTPA and associated facilities at Bina Refinery.
Timex Group on Thursday said it is acquiring India’s premium watch retail brand Just Watches, The Hindu BusinessLine reported. The sum was undisclosed. The report said that under the deal, Timex India will take over all physical stores of Just Watches besides their e-commerce platform-justwatches.com. Timex is one of the leading watch brands in the country that are sold through more than 5,000 offline trade stores and key online portals.
India’s most trusted luxury furniture brand Durian on Wednesday (17) announced the launch of their Surat store, ANI/BusinessWire India reported. This is the first store in Surat and the fifth store opened by the brand in the western state of Gujarat. The store is located at Surat-Dumas main road and is well-connected to the city. Durian Furniture, a trusted brand with over 40 years of experience, has relocated their Surat store and it is now bigger and displays a wider range of luxury furniture.
Indian online food-ordering and delivery platform Swiggy on Thursday said its food delivery business reached profitability in March, less than nine years since inception. According to a report by The Economic Times in January, the company, which also offers grocery delivery services, had registered a wider loss for the financial year 2021-22 on a rise in expenses. The company also has had several rounds of layoffs in the last six months. In a blog post, Swiggy’s chief executive and founder Sriharsha Majety said, “We’ve also made strong progress on the profitability of the business and we’re on track to hit contribution neutrality for this 3-year-old business in the next few weeks.”
