Business Today 27 August 2017

The past 12 months or so have not been the best of times for startups in India. Easy funding had dried up while competition in the popular e-commerce categories increased burn rates. New regulations on the discounts that could be given by e-commerce players, and the demonetisation of high currency notes at the fag end of 2016 created its own set of problems. A number of food and grocery commerce startups closed down in the second half of 2016. In other areas as well, reality was creeping in. Mergers and takeovers increased in pace as many players realised that there could only be one winner in each market segment – and that player would inevitably be the one with the deepest pockets or the biggest scale of operations. The Business…

Bank Defaulters: No Concrete Results to Show This refers to your cover story on top defaulters of Banks (Zeroing in on the Dozen, Aug 13). The sad part of our banking system is that things move very slowly and by the time defaulters are brought to book, their assets have dwindled down. It is all talk with no concrete results to show. Take the example of the Kingfisher Airlines. Despite a total debt of more than ₹9,000 crore to pay to banks, Vijay Mallya has just become the self-proclaimed “poster boy” of defaulters. In a series of tweets, Mallya had offered to negotiate with banks for onetime settlement of dues. He is stated to have said that “public sector banks have policies for onetime settlements. Hundreds of borrowers have settled,…

STAY CONNECTED WITH US ON www.facebook.com/BusinessToday @BT_India NEWS Unevenly Distributed Monsoon a Challenge for Modi Government Rainfall in the country, during this year's south-west monsoon season, has so far been 5 per cent above the long period average businesstoday.in/monsoon-rainfall Why NSE Needs to Become More Transparent It's time for NSE to act and preserve its legacy businesstoday.in/nse-limaye Why the Indian Government Can't Bail Out Banks Can the government buy out the bad assets or buy equity in them, particularly the state-run? businesstoday.in/bank-bailout Merc Brings Glamour to Its SUV Range with New GLC 43 Coupe The GLC 43 leads the luxury space where global rivals like Audi, BMW and JLR also compete Modi's Policies Boost FDI The cumulative FDI in April-May stands at $10.02 billion, compared with $8.12 billion in the…

RENAULT-NISSAN ARE NOW WORLD NO. 1 The alliance of Renault and Nissan has emerged as the number one car maker in the world in the first half of the year. It beat German group Volkswagen. The Renault- Nissan alliance sold 5,268,079 vehicles compared to 5,155,591 by Volkswagen. Toyota came third with 5,129,000. $2 TRILLION The likely valuation of Saudi oil major Aramco after its initial public offering INDIGO TO SHED SALE-AND-LEASEBACK MODEL IndiGo, the country's most profitable airline, is planning to change the traditional sale-andleaseback model for financing aircraft. It will now opt for outright purchases. The model is popular in the industry as it lowers the upfront equity that promoters have to put in an airline. The airline said this would reduce ownership costs. QUOTE “We’re really happy with how…

09-11 IMPROVING GOVERNANCE WHAT: ADB-ADBI Forum on Governance and Institutions WHEN: August 9-11, Seoul WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Despite the recognised importance of good governance and effective public management for achieving country- and sector-level development results, capacity in governance remains weak across Asia. This event aims to promote policy and programme reforms to enhance governance and public sector management 10 ALL ABOUT ICT WHAT: Adopting ICT Solutions for Digital Growth & Transformation WHEN: August 10, Hyderabad WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Information, communication and technology (ICT) solutions are key to rapid development of countries. Innovation in ICT technologies is set to boost India’s global position in manufacturing, healthcare, banking, tourism, retail and agricultural sectors. A FICCI event will discuss threadbare the latest ICT trends. 17 ADOPTING FINTECH HAT: FinTech – Shaping…

The Indian equity market has hardly ever had it so good. It is hovering close to its all-time high, having provided returns of 22 per cent so far this year up to July 31. The Nifty’s price to earnings (P/E) ratio is in the 25-26 times range, very close to its peak of 28.5 in February 2000. Liquidity is gushing, with domestic and foreign investors pouring in funds. But why is this so? What worries analysts is that there is nothing in the prevailing economic scenario to justify such optimism. “The bubble is getting bigger and exuberance among investors seems to be going out of control,” says Pramod Gubbi, MD and Head, Institutional Equities, Ambit Capital, a leading investment bank. To some extent, the Indian market has taken its cue…