Innholdsfortegnelse for 11 May2025 i Business Today

AFTER A WAIT of one and a half months, the crucial department of revenue in the finance ministry has got a new full-time secretary with the appointment of Arvind Shrivastava, who was till now serving as Additional Secretary, Prime Minister’s Office. A 1994 batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre, Shrivastava, takes over from Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, who held additional charge after Tuhin Kanta Pandey was appointed as Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Chairperson on February 27. Along with Shrivastava, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought in three more new faces in the North Block, including secretaries in the departments of expenditure and public enterprises as well as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the Department of…

INDIGO MADE HISTORY in the week starting April 7 by momentarily surpassing global giants Delta Air Lines and Ryanair to become the world’s most valued airline. This capped a series of headline-grabbing moves over the years since it took to the skies. The most significant was in mid-2023 when it announced non-stop flights to four Central Asian cities, not usual travel destinations for Indians and not connected by an Indian carrier till then. Within months, these destinations recorded triple-digit growth in the number of Indian visitors. To meet the growing demand, IndiGo had to prioritise fleet allocation to Baku, Azerbaijan; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Baku registered 283% traffic growth from India in January-September 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. It was followed by Almaty (172%),…

AS GLOBAL CRUDE oil prices plunge, the question that’s being asked in India and around the world is whether this is a silver lining or a dark cloud? That’s because US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements have dampened sentiment and heightened fears of an impending global recession. For India, falling crude oil prices are typically a reason to cheer when it’s business as usual. After all, India is the third-largest importer of crude oil after China and the US and a fall not only lowers its import bill, but also reduces inflation and the fiscal deficit, cuts the subsidy bill, makes exports more competitive and boosts overall economic growth. For consumers, it means that their fuel bills could possibly go down with a cut in retail prices. But since the…

BUYING HEALTH INSURANCE today feels more like visiting a restaurant with a menu full of choices, where you can pick and choose add-ons to create a plan that suits your unique needs. It’s no longer a dull, rigid process. With rising lifestyle-related risks and medical inflation, it is important that health insurance seekers have the option to choose from what they want and control what they pay for. Hence, insurance providers have moved away from the one-size-fits-all approach of the past. From unlimited sum insured to locking in your premium, new-age health insurance plans are transforming how Indians perceive and purchase medical coverage. “Customers are no longer limited to predefined plans,” says Anand Roy, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Star Health & Allied Insurance Co Ltd, which has a…

DR LAL PATHLABS LTD 2021 Acquired Suburban Diagnostics, enhancing its presence in Maharashtra and Gujarat METROPOLIS HEALTHCARE LTD 2019 Acquired four laboratories in Surat, Gujarat for ₹18 crore 2021 Completed the acquisition of Hitech Diagnostic Centre and its subsidiary Centralab Healthcare Services for ₹636 crore, strengthening its footprint in Chennai and Bangalore 2024 Acquired Core Diagnostics for ₹247 crore to bolster its oncology testing capabilities THYROCARE TECHNOLOGIES LTD 2021 Acquired by API Holdings, the parent company of PharmEasy, in a deal valued at ₹4,546 crore, facilitating the growth of sample collection centres in Tier II and Tier III cities VIJAYA DIAGNOSTIC CENTRE LTD 2014 Acquired a majority stake (62.14%) in Medinova Diagnostic Services in Hyderabad 2024 Agreed to acquire the remaining 37.86% stake in Medinova Diagnostic Services for approximately ₹13 crore…

SOURCE CMIE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK SLOW LANE INDIA’S MER-CHANDISE TRADE WITH THE WORLD HAS REMAINED NEARLY FLAT OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS 13.73% INDIA’S SHARE IN US SMARTPHONE IMPORTS IN 2024, UP FROM 7.88% A YEAR AGO $383.51 BILLION WORTH OF SERVICES INDIA EXPORTED IN FY25, UP 12.4% YEAR-ON-YEAR. SERVICES IMPORTS ROSE 9.33% TO $195.95 BILLION $500 BILLION THE BILATERAL TRADE TARGET INDIA AND THE US HAVE SET TO ACHIEVE BY 2030. THE FIGURE WAS $107 BILLION IN FY25 TILL JANUARY TOP BUYERS MORE THAN 25% OF INDIA’S EXPORTS GO TO THE US AND THE UAE NOTE DATA FOR FY25 TILL JANUARY SOURCE CMIE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK TRADE BALANCE TILT INDIA ENJOYS A SURPLUS WITH THE WORLD’S LARGEST ECONOMY, THE US, BUT FACES AN $84-BILLION TRADE DEFICIT WITH THE LARGEST EXPORTER, CHINA…

TIGHTER VISA RULES, political pressure on top US universities, and fewer scholarships under the Donald Trump administration have led many Indian students to prefer leading Indian B-schools over US ones. An indication of this is the reportedly lower applications for GMAT this year. “Student applications for our MBA programme have been at an all-time high. And the conversion of shortlisted candidates to final admissions has been quite encouraging,” says Professor Harvinder Singh, chairperson, admissions, IMT Ghaziabad. The 2025 admissions to B-schools are ending. Most of the schools have finished their interview rounds of shortlisted candidates from the exams and will announce the final selected list over the next few weeks. A few like the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai and the National Capital Region (NCR) have already announced the…

IT’S BARELY 7 AM and the sun is already making its presence felt at Ras. The village, in Rajasthan’s Pali district, is home to a Shree Cement plant. There are eight imposing kilns that are operating, as we make our way around the large tract of land. It is hard to miss the limestone mines or the water bodies or the multiple heavy vehicles at the site. For the workers here, this—with all the din and dust—is just another day at work. That we chose to visit a Shree Cement plant in northern India is for a reason. This region is the company’s biggest market and accounts for 40-41% of its sales. Another 28-29% comes from the east, 16-17% from central India, while the west and south contribute 9-10% and…

Rolex Datejust 31—Light and Shade THE DATEJUST, WHICH represents Rolex’s definition of classic elegance, has consistently reinvented itself since its creation in 1945. Being the first selfwinding waterproof chronometer wristwatch featuring a date window, it marked a significant milestone in watchmaking history. Now in its latest edition, the Datejust 31, in 18k yellow gold, comes with the brand’s first-ever red ombré—the gradual blending of one colour into another—dial adorned with 10 diamond hour markers and a diamond-set bezel. While previous ombré dials featured more subtle colours such as blue and green, the red dial makes this watch a collector’s delight. ENQUIRE AT www.rolex.com PRICE On request Cartier—Panthère de Cartier IN ITS LATEST avatar, the iconic Panthère de Cartier has undergone a spectacular jewelled transformation. Not wanting to choose between the…

A VIBRANT SPRING MORNINGat Pune’s Oxford Golf Resort dictated the mood of the curtain downer edition of Royal Ranthambore Business Today Golf’s silver jubilee edition in Pune on March 29. India’s longest-running, and most prestigious golf competition saw a healthy turnout and great competition. With the venue in impeccable condition and the weather acting as a good friend, it made for a fitting end to a journey that spanned seven cities in four months and created a host of special memories. On a cool March morning, the click and clump of club on ball, unstinting encouragement for shots well hit and the occasional muffled curse when a putt slid agonisingly past its target abounded around the Oxford course. At the end was a generous repast and liquid refreshments that awaited the…

IT MAJOR TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) is considered a bellwether of the Indian IT sector. The company kicked off the Q4 earnings season kicked off on a muted note, with the tech titan posting 1.7% year-on-year (YoY) fall in its consolidated net profit at ₹12,224 crore, the its first quarterly fall in 18 quarters. On the other hand, the company’s revenue grew by 5.29% YoY at ₹64,479 crore. The country’s largest IT services firm by revenue indicated that global uncertainty has led to an overall impact on business, with consumer, manufacturing, life sciences, and healthcare verticals affected the most. Meanwhile, it also deferred salary hikes for employees for the current year, citing the growing macroeconomic uncertainty, intensified by the ongoing tariff war between the US and other countries. Pranay Aggarwal,…

FOR INDIAN FAMILY businesses, blood is thicker than water, but only till brand equity enters the room. The Lodha brothers’ clash over the family brand name is more than a legal skirmish and provides a glimpse into disputes over legacy. At the centre of the brand dispute were the Lodha siblings, Abhishek and Abhinandan. Four months after Abhishek and his company, Macrotech, filed a brand infringement suit against Abhinandan and his company, House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL), a settlement has been reached. This after Abhishek filed a suit in January, alleging Abhinandan of using the Lodha brand name for its projects in Goa, and Ayodhya among other locations. The demand was ₹5,000 crore in damages. Interestingly, the recent dispute between the siblings involves a family settlement that was inked in 2017.…

The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is known for iconic brands Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Six Senses, and, of course, InterContinental. It has a strong presence across the world, though India has emerged as a key market of late. In a freewheeling chat, Haitham Mattar, Managing Director, MEA & Southwest Asia, IHG Hotels & Resorts, tells Business Today’s Krishna Gopalan how he chooses which brand is ready for which market, the opportunities in India, and a lot more. Edited excerpts: Q: Which market does India remind you of and at what point in time? What makes it unique? A: There’s a lot of cultural cross-exposure between India and the Middle East. After all, it is one of the oldest countries from where some of the oldest religions have come. A country that is…

AS INDIGO STRETCHES its wings to position itself as a global aviation giant, CEO Pieter Elbers speaks about the glide path to global domination while maintaining cost leadership. Edited excerpts: What is IndiGo’s international action plan? If you look at the decisions over the past two-and-a-half years, first we placed an order for 500 aircraft, the largest single aircraft type order in the world. We have a total of 900 planes yet to be delivered. The second building block was making sure we cater to the aspirational India, which also needs a proper business class proposition. With more and more people taking flights, that’s where the loyalty programme comes in. For a long time, a lot of Indian international air travel was about connecting to places just outside India. We are…

YOUNG AND UPWARDLYmobile professionals have for long equated success with ownership of a premium home—perhaps a three- or four-bedroom condo in a gated community with acres of greenery and a clubhouse that comes with a gym, swimming pool and spa. Many of them were forced to put their dream purchase on hold as the pandemic raged between early 2020 and 2022, taking a heavy toll on lives and livelihoods. As the effects of Covid-19 receded, home sales made records in 2022 and 2023. The pandemic led to the introduction of a work-from-home culture and middleclass buyers bought roomier apartments to accommodate a home-office even if they had to borrow more. Last year, the music stopped playing and the party lost its zest. Economic uncertainty at home and overseas, conflict in…