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Most employees in software firms in the country will get low salary hikes this year, with the sector struggling to overcome a slowdown in business. Increased automation, pricing pressures from clients, and a shift to digital and cloud have adversely affected the revenues of the information technology (IT) companies over the past year. At most of these firms, senior managers will have to contend with salary hikes and promotions being deferred by at least three months. Turnaround in business is likely to bring salary increases quickly. Average increment across companies is largely in proportion with the revenue growth, varying between 6 per cent and 8 per cent. Tata Consultancy Services, the largest IT-services firm in the country, would give 8-10 per cent hikes to employees. Infosys, the second-largest firm in the sector, will give only 4-9 per cent increase to 85 per cent of its employees. Senior employees will get their hikes only after at least three months. ...

On January 9, 2007, at Macworld, Steve Jobs pulled a tiny device out of his pocket, introducing the world to the phenomenon called the iPhone . The iPhone first went on sale on June 29 that year, and it has been an eventful journey since then. A look: iPhone (2007) The device introduced the icon grid layout, a single home button and a multi-touch display. While it wasn’t targeted specifically at enterprises, it did drop the physical keyboard and stylus, either or both of which were present on most mobile devices for that segment then. And it offered “pinch-to-zoom”, a feature we take for granted these days. iPhone 3G (2008) This device introduced the App Store, giving third-party developers a chance to build applications for Apple’s phone. This ultimately led to the popularity of the app-based ecosystem, apps for enterprises also started appearing soon. This phone also supported faster 3G data speeds, push email and GPS navigation, which is a given on any smartphone today....

Financial News Mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) will seek shareholders' approval at the annual general meeting (AGM) next month to raise up to Rs 85,000 crore through various debt instruments. HDFC AGM is scheduled to be held on July 26, 2017. "The approval of the members is being sought by way of special resolution...Authorising the board to issue NCDs and/or any other hybrid instruments (not in nature of equity shares) which can be classified as being tier II capital up to an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 85,000 crore," it said in a regulatory filing. The fund is to be raised by issuing redeemable non-convertible debentures or other hybrid instruments on a private placement basis for cash either at par or premium or at a discount to face value depending upon the prevailing market conditions, it said. The capital may be raised in one or more series during a period of one year commencing from the date of the AGM (July 26...

Financial News The record low bank credit growth of 5.1 per cent in FY17 was led by the top 1,000 listed corporates which saw their net loan outstanding decline by a whopping Rs 1 trillion in the reporting year, said a report. One-third of this massive contraction was led by just 10 companies, which cumulatively availed of Rs 33,571 crore less in the year over the previous year, according to the report by SBI Research. According to SBI chief economic adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh, who penned the report, this could either be perceived as lower debt utilisation levels or prepayment through internal accruals or through asset sale. Other reasons could be QIP or private equity participation. The RBI data showed that bank credit inched up by a tad 5.1 per cent in the year to March 2017, which was the lowest since 1951 when it had grown by a paltry 1.8 per cent which could be attributed rise in bond issuance and cheaper non-bank fund sources coupled with overall credit aversion in th...

Financial News Rating agency CRISIL said the banks in question would need to find an extra Rs 40,000 crore as bad loan provisioning for the 12 big-size cases being referred, on Reserve Bank of India (RBI) order, to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for resolution. These 12 large accounts had become non-performing assets (NPAs) on the banks' books by end-March 2016. CRISIL's study shows the banks had already provisioned 40 per cent for these NPAs worth Rs 2 lakh crore — that is, about Rs 80,000 crore. CRISIL believes the lenders will have to take a haircut (the term for difference between the market value of assets used as loan collateral and the amount of the loan) of 60 per cent. That means banks will have to make a total provision for Rs 120,000 crore, said Krishnan Sitaraman, senior director at CRISIL. If banks were asked to provide the additional Rs 40,000 crore in this financial year, this would create huge pressure on their bottom line. The impact co...

Latest News : There is a scene in Richard Attenboroughs film "Gandhi" where Shriram Lagoo playing Gopal Krishna Gokhale prevails upon the South Africa-returned barrister Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi (played by Ben Kingsley) to travel all over India. As an astute observer, Gokhale's character knows that Gandhi has both the product as well as the potential to recreate the South Africa magic in India. He just needs to understand the pulse of the people. Gandhi takes the plunge, and eventually, the Kathiawadi barrister becomes the Father of the nation. Something similar happened in the Indian movie industry recently. One of the sharpest minds of the movie business, Karan Johar not only did a Gokhale on S.S. Rajamouli but also became his partner to land "Bahubali 2: The Conclusion" into theatres as a Hindi release. Suddenly, Rajamouli has become the savior that the Indian film industry needs and deserves. The Hindi version alone has already raked i...

Financial News As the launch date of iPhone is nearing, a new leak has reportedly "confirmed" the iPhone 8 's brand new design. Following several leaks about Apple's controversial yet virtually bezel-less redesign, OnLeaks has obtained detailed iPhone 8 dummy models which confirm that the devices to be launched in September would have an elongated 18.5:9 aspect ratio like the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, Forbes reported. It would also reduce bezel sizes to just 4mm on all sides and feature a vertically aligned rear camera, the report added. The rear dual-camera system on the iPhone 8 would protrude more than ever before. Earlier leaks have suggested design changes in detail. They also pointed out that the 2017 device would have an all-display front with fingerprint scanner moved to the back. According to a revelation by Chinese site iPhoneros, the iPhone 8 would compete with the likes of Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6 displays. More News...

Financial News Arun Tiwari, about to complete 42 months as chairman and managing director of government-owned Union Bank of India , to Abhijit Lele on current challenges. Edited excerpts: Union Bank has been able to report net profit for all quarters during and after the Asset Quality Review in 2015-16. Beside handling of stressed accounts, did limited exposure to large-ticket cases also help? Correct. Always at the back of my mind is the prescriptive limits for single party exposure or sector exposure. The single party limit might be Rs 5,000 crore but for a particular borrower we might not go beyond, say, Rs 1,000 crore. We have to be prudent in decisions. We don’t have to take exposure up to the Reserve Bank’s set limit. Are we still struggling to find a solution for resolution of stressed assets? If 10-12 coaches of a train get derailed ,it takes time to get these back on track. Being in an out-of-sync situation for three-four years, the curation period will also be l...

Financial News SBI, one of the world's 50 largest banks, pays only a small fraction to its top management as compared to private sector players like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank . Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had flagged the low remuneration issue last August saying it makes difficult for state-owned banks to "attract top talent, especially a lateral entry". SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya took home Rs 28.96 lakh last fiscal, which is pittance when compared to remuneration of her counterparts in private banks receive, according to analysis of annual reports of various banks. In comparison, ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar received a basic salary of Rs 2.66 crore last fiscal besides Rs 2.2 crore performance bonus to be paid over the next few years. In addition, she received allowances and perquisites of over Rs 2.43 crore. The total compensation received by Kochhar in FY17 stood at Rs 6.09 crore. Similarly, Shikha Sharma, MD and CEO of Axis Ba...

Financial News IDFC Bank CFO Sunil Kakar has been elevated to the post of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of parent company IDFC with effect from July 17 for three years. Kakar has also been appointed as additional director. Both the appointments are subject to shareholders' approval at the annual general meeting (AGM). Kakar replaces Vikram Limaye who is set to join leading stock exchange NSE as its new Managing Director and CEO. The Board of Directors has approved appointment of Sunil Kakar as the Managing Director and CEO of the company for 3 years with effect from July 17, 2017, IDFC bank said in a regulatory filing. It further said the Board has accepted the resignation of Vikram Limaye as Managing Director and CEO of the company with effect from July 15. Kakar joined IDFC as the Group Chief Financial Officer and was responsible for finance and accounts, business planning and budgeting and investor relations, among others. More...

Financial News The central government has asked five state-owned banks to raise capital from the markets to meet their requirements for the fiscal year 2017-18. The Department of Financial Services has asked the relatively strong public sector banks (PSBs) — Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda (BoB), Indian Bank, Vijaya Bank, and Syndicate Bank — with a fairly good market capitalisation to not depend on the government’s recapitalisation plan. “ We have asked five strong banks that have consistently performed well, to raise funds on their own from the market. We are encouraging them to tap the market as their market capitalisation is fairly good,” said a government official. “ Three banks — Vijaya Bank, Syndicate Bank, and Indian Bank — are small but with good fundamentals and a good market price. We have encouraged them to tap the market,” the official said. The Budget has allocated Rs 10,000 crore for the recapitalisation of state-owned banks as part of Indradhanush, the seven-...

Financial News Ardent Baahubali fans might already have got the answer to arguably the most ubiquitous question of the past year – “Kattappa ne Baahubali ko kyon maara?’ – but that hardly seems to have tempered the excitement around the mythical story of Mahishmati. After the movie made its millions, now ‘ Baahubali The Game ’ is raking in the moolah. Developed by Bengaluru-based Moonfrog Labs and Baahubali’s producers Arka Media Works and Graphic India, the game has so far been downloaded more than 5 million times from the Google PlayStore and has a rating of 4.4 stars out of 5. Since its launch on April 28, it has been the most downloaded gaming app in India, according to the company. Business Standard reviewed ‘Baahubali The Game’ to see how it compares others with similar play, such as ‘Clash of Clans’. Here’s what we found: Getting started ‘ Baahubali The Game’ is available on Google PlayStore. With a size of 22.52 MB, it is light and quick to load. Once downlo...

Financial News British lender Royal Bank of Scotland said today that it is cutting 443 UK jobs dealing with business loans, and plans to shift many of the roles to India. The UK's largest government-owned bank said it was moving the jobs, which help handle loans for small businesses, as part of an ongoing cost-cutting drive. "As we become a simpler, smaller bank, we are making some changes to the way we serve our customers. Unfortunately, these changes will result in the net reduction of 443 roles in the UK," a spokesperson for the bank said. The bank said it would support staff affected by the "disappointing news", including by moving them into new roles where possible. Workers' union Unite said British workers and taxpayers would lose out from the move. "By shipping these jobs to India, RBS will be getting that work done more cheaply at the cost of jobs and livelihoods here in the UK," the spokesperson said. RBS is 73 pe...

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has removed the restriction on foreign investment in IDFC Ltd after the shareholding of overseas investors fell below the prescribed level. "The foreign shareholding by foreign institutional investors/foreign portfolio investors in IDFC have gone below the prescribed FII/FPI investment limit. Hence, the restrictions placed on the purchase of shares by FII/FPI of the above company, are withdrawn with immediate effect," the RBI said in the notification. Foreign portfolio investors held 32.18% stake in IDFC Ltd as on June 19, 2017. FIIs, NRIs and PIOs (Persons of Indian Origins) can invest in primary and secondary capital markets in India through PIS. The RBI monitors the ceilings on FII/NRI/PIO investments in Indian companies on a daily basis and has fixed the cut-off points two percentage points lower than the actual ceiling. More News: Financial News Latest Financial News Financial News India Financial News Today ...

The government has relaxed conditions for unlisted companies that do not have loans, from banks, financial institutions or deposits from the public, of more than Rs50 crore on rotation of auditors. Currently, these companies can't appoint individual auditors for five consecutive years and auditor firms for two straight terms of five years, if their paid up capital is at least Rs20 crore. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has come out with a notification, amending this rule under the Companies Act, to raise this threshold to Rs50 crore. “ The increase in the threshold on paid-up capital for triggering rotation of auditors would provide relief to a number of private companies where there is limited public interest,” said Sai Venkateshwaran of KPMG. Mamta Binani, past president of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India said this will help in ease of doing businesses for these firms. The rule was changed in line with recommendations of Parliament’s standing com...

Actress Sonam Kapoor and her producer-sister Rhea Kapoor's fashion label -- Rheson has bagged the Compassionate Business Award from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India for a line of bags made exclusively of vegan materials. "Shoppers' demand for cruelty-free fashion is on the rise -- and thanks to compassionate companies like Rheson, it's easier than ever to get a killer look without killing animals," says Benazir Suraiya, PETA's fashion expert and associate manager of celebrity and media projects. This is not the first time that Sonam, who was crowned PETA's Hottest Vegetarian Celebrity of 2016, has stood for animals. In 2015, she wrote a letter to the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, urging him not to revoke the ban on classroom dissection for university life-science and zoology students. In March 2010, she sent a letter on behalf of PETA to then-Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil, u...

The government has permitted banks and post offices to deposit junked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes with the Reserve Bank by July 20. This is the second window the government has provided to banks, post offices and cooperative banks for depositing the junked notes with RBI. The earlier window was open till December 31, a day after the 50-day period of demonetisation of high value currency. "Such specified bank notes may be deposited by such bank, post office or district central cooperative bank, as the case may be, in any office of the Reserve Bank, within a period of 30 days from the commencement of these rules," said a government notification. It further said that they should get the exchange value by credit to the account of such subject to the satisfaction of the RBI of the conditions specified. RBI will accept deposits collected by any bank or post office by December 30, 2016 or by any District Central Cooperative Bank from November 10-14, 2016 shoul...

Private sector Axis Bank has planned a capital raise of up to Rs 35,000 crore in about a year's time in line with its growth projection in domestic as well as overseas operations. In its annual report for 2016-17, Axis Bank said it may need to raise additional funds in one or more tranches from Indian as well as overseas markets to maintain its capital to risk weighted assets ratio (CRAR). The country's third largest private sector lender said it may issue debt securities denominated in Indian rupees or any other permitted foreign currency including long term bonds, green bonds, non-convertible debentures on a private placement basis during the period of one year from the date of passing of the special resolution. The board of directors at its meeting held on April 26, 2017 had approved the fund raise plan. Axis Bank said the planned money raise is "for an amount not exceeding Rs 35,000 crore on a private placement basis during a period of one year fr...

Ravindra H Dholakia’s proposition, that plunging inflation called for a drastic rate cut of 50 basis points (bps) or more, clearly did not find other buyers in the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) that met on June 6 and 7. As the statements of the minutes show, they favoured a wait-and-watch. The MPC voted five against one to keep the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) repo rate (at which it lends to banks) unchanged at 6.25 per cent, though retail inflation had fallen below three per cent in April. From the minutes of the two-day meet, economists say, the chance of a rate cut at the next review, in August, look slim. “ The chances of a 50-bps cut in October is more than a 25-bps cut in August,” said Gaurav Kapur, chief economist at IndusInd Bank. “ One has to see through the noise. Given the nature of the concerns by various MPC members, it doesn’t look like they will all be convinced so soon that a rate cut should be done because food prices are on a downward traje...

Actor Varun Dhawan has praised Southern star Prabhas and has labelled him as a "cool and down to earth" individual. Varun on Tuesday shared a photograph of himself along with the "Baahubali: The Conclusion" star. In the image it can be seen that the "Main Tera Hero" actor is seen doing the iconic pose, where Katappa kills Baahubali in the first instalment of S.S. Rajamouli's magnum opus. "'Baahubali'. (I) did only what Katappa did before this. Prabhas is really cool and down to earth, more power to him but i have got his sword now," Varun captioned the image. "Baahubali 2: The Conclusion", is a 2017 Indian historical fiction film. It is the continuation of "Baahubali: The Beginning". It was originally made in Telugu and Tamil and dubbed into Hindi, Malayalam, German, French, Japanese and English. The film also stars Anushka Shetty, Rana Daggubati and Sathyaraj in lead roles. On the acting f...