Business Today 15-Dec-19

We live in dichotomous times. In the midst of one of India’s most debilitating slowdowns, widespread destruction of business in industries such as SMEs, auto and telecom and rampant job losses, the stock market is spiralling out of control GDP growth is at a 25-quarter low, and getting worse; industrial production has gone into the negative territory; new project announcements have halved; goods exports are flat since 2013; and consumer inflation on the rise is back where RBI hates to see it – above 4 per cent mark. Yet, benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, are at an all-time high. What explains this dichotomy is the subject of Rashmi Pratap’s detailed cover story this issue. Hint: Mind your moves and don’t get fooled. This isn’t a secular boom. The yawning divide…

STAY CONNECTED WITH US ON www.facebook.com/BusinessToday@BT_India PERSPECTIVES What Went Wrong with Patanjali’s Fairy-tale Growth Story? Apart from distribution challenges, the quality of Patanjali products has come under the scanner several times and that has impacted its pure and pristine brand promise businesstoday.in/patanjali-growth BSNL VRS Scheme to Make Employees Lakhpati; Highest Payout to Touch ₹90 Lakh The VRS offer is quite generous since it will pay every retiring employee a lump sum salary of the remaining months of their service at the telco businesstoday.in/bsnl.mtnl-vrs Explained: Why You Get Only ₹1 Lakh if Your Bank Goes Bust The IADI recommends a minimum deposit insurance coverage of 80 per cent of the total deposit accounts, and 20-30 per cent in value terms, in a member country businesstoday.in/bankdeposit-insurance NEWS Gandhigiri at Videocon: Unpaid workers Beg on…

WITH THREE QUARTERS of FY2019/20 almost over, and just ₹17,364.26 crore of disinvestment proceeds of ₹1,05,000 crore budgeted for the year in its kitty, the Narendra Modi government was expected to either go on a last minute public asset selling spree or fail to meet its fiscal deficit target. The Cabinet approval for selling the government’s entire stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), Shipping Corporation of India Ltd, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation India Ltd and North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd, and 30.8 per cent stake out of the 54.5 per cent it holds in Container Corporation of India Ltd., shows that disinvestment plans are as per schedule. Assuming all the companies find buyers at current market rates, the government may well achieve its disinvestment target too. The decision to sell…

FINALLY, India’s Data Protection Bill will face the floor test in Parliament in the winter session. Last year, the Justice Srikrishna Committee, after a detailed consultation, had presented the draft Bill to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The Bill seeks to regulate the processing of personal data of individuals by government and private entities incorporated in India and abroad. The Bill says that when it comes to personal data, the 'golden copy' (the master version of data) abroad must have a 'silver copy' (the mirrored version) in India. Also, it seeks to ensure that certain critical personal data is entirely stored in India. While companies have already started gearing towards data localisation, the transitioning cost has always been the talking point. Many others are seeing this as…

THE SUPREME Court has restored the primacy of secured creditors over unsecured creditors when it finally gave a go-ahead to the resolution plan of ArcelorMittal in the Essar Steel insolvency case approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). It not just established the primacy of secured creditors, it also upheld the commercial wisdom of the committee of creditors (CoC). The court reiterated that in IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code), it is the CoC which has the ultimate authority over the matter concerning distribution of resolution proceeds. The verdict would also send a strong signal to the NCLT and the NCLAT against interfering too much into commercial considerations. The apex court verdict in the Essar Steel case has given a new lease of life to the IBC, which was marred…

THE GOVERNMENT recently constituted a committee headed by Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of software firm Infosys, to look into issues related to non-personal digital data and recommend ways to regulate and protect such information. It is a laudable move as the Data Protection Bill that is being considered by Parliament at the moment focuses only on personal data of the individual. The government’s push towards digital inclusion and digital transfer of social benefits and performance monitoring are all generating huge volumes of digitised information pertaining to the Indian population. The growth of e-commerce firms and e-transactions is adding to this ever expanding data base. The committee — compris representatives from the government, industry, academia and civil society — has a broad mandate and should utilise the opportunity to recommend a model…