- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
HERE are news in brief on Indian economy and business for Monday, November 6, 2023:
In October, India’s fuel consumption hit a four-month high, spurred by increased industrial operations during the festive season and the onset of winter. Government data on Monday revealed a 5.5 per cent rise in total consumption, reaching 19.26 million tonnes, up from September’s 18.26 million tonnes, and a 3.7 per cent increase compared to the same period the previous year. Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at Kpler, noted that both the festive season and the commencement of the winter season contributed to the heightened consumption rates, with increased construction activity and infrastructure projects.
IndiGo, India’s biggest airline, plans to start flights to Bali in Indonesia and Medina in Saudi Arabia in the current fiscal as the airline continues to expand its network, its chief Pieter Elbers said on Monday. The airline is “well on track” to achieve the target of carrying 100 million passengers this financial year, he told reporters in Gurugram in the northern state of Haryana. In the September quarter, which also saw the carrier posting a net profit of Rs 189 crore (£18.3 million), it carried 26 million passengers. “We will continue our internationalisation,” Elbers said and added that currently, the airline operates around 500 routes, including 100 international ones. The airline CEO said it plans to start flights to Bali and Medina in the current financial year.
Indian ed-tech firm Byju’s is in advanced negotiations to sell its American children’s digital reading platform, Epic! Creations, for approximately $400 million (£323 million) to the private equity fund Joffre Capital, Bloomberg News reported citing sources. Byju’s seeks these funds to alleviate financial strains, with the aim of raising up to $1 billion (£807.3 million) by selling both Great Learning and Epic to streamline operations and repay creditors. This prospective Epic sale is seen as a means for Byju’s to service its disputed $1.2 billion (£968.7 million) term loan, the report added. Notably, other potential buyers such as Duolingo have shown interest in acquiring Epic.
India is looking at ways such as free trade agreements to enable domestic MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) to participate in public procurement of different countries, its commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal said on Monday. He said that 10-15 per cent of the GDP of any country accounts for public procurement, which could be around $10-15 trillion (£97-£145.4billion) in value terms. Several countries give preference to MSMEs in their public procurement. “As more and more FTAs (free trade agreements) are getting signed…we are also looking at…how MSMEs…can have access to public procurement of different countries, so (that) Indian companies may get an opportunity… MSMEs from other countries can get access to our portal,” Barthwal said at an event in New Delhi.
Harbhajan Singh, the power minister of the northern Indian state of Punjab, on Monday sought Viable Gap Funding (VGF) from the federal government for his state to encourage biomass-fueled power plants and to help check the practice of stubble burning by farmers which is contributing to the severe air pollution in the northern parts of the country. Participating in the conference of Power and New and Renewable Energy Ministers in New Delhi, Singh said the total cost of conventional power with the cost of Renewable Energy Certificates for Renewable Purchase Obligation compliance is much lower than the tariff of Biomass power plants which is around Rs 8 (£0.078) per kwh.
(With agencies inputs)
