Business Today 17-Oct-21

The ever-smiling face of 56-year-old HDFC Bank Managing Director and CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan belies the grim determination of the man. Having stepped into the big shoes of his predecessor, the iconic Aditya Puri, Jagdishan was aware of the burden of expectations he had to shoulder. But as if that wasn’t enough, the new CEO of the bank, India’s largest in the private sector with ₹17.46 lakh crore in total assets, walked right into the middle of a series of problems—serious tech glitches, disruption in banking services, and a hard rap on the knuckles from the Reserve Bank of India. There were two things the former HDFC Bank CFO could do: either rue his luck and get bogged down by the weight of the problems, or convert the crisis into an…

EV SALES HIT A NEW HIGH India’s registered EV sales in August saw a month-on-month jump of 10.6 per cent, clocking 28,906 units—the highest number of registrations in a month so far in 2021. Source: Vahan dashboard ROBUST FUND FLOWS In the first seven months of 2021, makers of electric two-wheelers, four-wheelers, commercial vehicles, EV components, and last-mile delivery firms made a total investment of ₹25,045.31 crore. Source: CEEW Centre for Energy Finance EV MARKET SHARE SHARE OF EVs IN NEW CAR SALES *Projected UTTAR PRADESH LEADS THE PACK REGISTERED EVs BY REGION IN FY21 Source: Vahan dashboard, JMK Research GROWING CHARGING INFRA NUMBER OF NEW CHARGING STATIONS Source: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Autumn Brings Joy to Indian Indices ◼ Returns in the Indian stock market shot up…

Over 125 projects. In just 7 years since the inception of his architecture firm. With the likelihood of being the first man from the homeland to achieve such an impeccable record in the UK, the story of this exceptional Indian who built himself on British soil, is an interesting one. And this impeccable record, won’t be the only curious thing about Ninad Patil you’ll learn today. After his graduation in architecture from Rachna Sansad in Mumbai, Ninad attended Newcastle University in the United Kingdom to complete his Masters in Urban Design. In 2014, his brainchild Bryonn Architecture Limited was born, quickly gaining recognition for specialization across a broad range of sectors, within a span of just 7 years. Bryonn Architecture’s spectrum includes master planning, bespoke architecture, mixed-use developments, Grade ll…

RENEW POWER HAS become India’s largest publicly traded renewable energy company, in terms of generation capacity, by combining its business with the US-based RMG Acquisition Corporation II and getting listed on the Nasdaq. Among the top 10 renewable independent power producers (IPP) globally by capacity, ReNew Power has more than 100 operational, utility-scale wind and solar energy projects in nine Indian states. It also owns and operates distributed solar energy projects for more than 150 commercial and industrial customers in India. In an exclusive interview, Sumant Sinha, Founder, Chairman, and Managing Director of ReNew Power, explains how the listing gives an opportunity to showcase India’s capabilities globally and attract leading investors to the country’s green energy space, among other things. Edited excerpts: ReNew Power is the first major Indian renewable…

ON US LISTING With the US listing, we have a large pool of top global investors… [And the money] we have and the [net] proceeds [of $610 million] will help us fund our plans till 2025. LED BY BOARD We are transforming into a Board-run company with professional independent directors from all over the world. ReNew Power will not be Sumant Sinha’s or Goldman Sachs’s company. It will be fully professionally run. ON INDIA India’s total current generation and consumption is about 1.4 trillion kWh. This is growing at 5 per cent a year and over the next 10-12 years, we need additional capacity of 1 trillion kWh. The bulk of it has to come from renewables. BIG BUSINESS With more big companies coming in, it will lead to faster…

ON JUNE 8 THIS YEAR, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved the resolution plan for Videocon Industries Limited. The consumer durables company and its 12 subsidiaries had defaulted on repayments of ₹64,838.63 crore. Of that amount, Videocon’s lenders had agreed to a resolution amount of ₹2,962.02 crore. That was a massive 95.85 per cent haircut—the dues banks are ready to forgo in case of settlement—on the admitted claims. However, the NCLT bench—comprising Member (Judicial) H.P. Chaturvedi and Member (Technical) Ravikumar Duraisamy—made a very interesting comment while passing judgment. They questioned, in writing in their 47-page judgment, whether the Committee of Creditors (CoC) was taking a haircut or a “total shave” The jibe was aimed at Videocon’s lenders, led by the State Bank of India (SBI)…