Shriram-IDFC merger to miss 90-day timeline

Mumbai: The proposed merger of Shriram Capital and IDFC is likely to miss the October 8 timeline for arriving at an acceptable agreement. This was disclosed by Ajay Piramal, chairman Shriram Group.

“We said that this (merger proposal) is an initial thought, subject to the RBI approval and to valuations. So we are in that process of discussion with the RBI and in respect of valuations,” said Piramal. He added that IDFC and Shriram had chosen to announce the merger proposal before any decision was taken so that there was no allegation of insider trading.

Piramal said that there was no fixed merger proposal and the partners were discussing various alternatives. “We will look at what is in the best interest of the shareholders of Shriram and we are also protecting the interest of shareholders of Piramal Enterprises,” said Piramal.

In July, IDFC and Piramal-backed Shriram Group had agreed to merge and cre- ate the largest retail-focused bank in the country. The merger proposal envisaged Shriram City Union Finance merging with the bank and Shriram Transport Finance getting delisted and becoming a subsidiary of IDFC Ltd — the parent of IDFC Bank, which was to become the group holding company. The managements of the two groups had agreed on a 90-day period. If the two parties arrived at an agreement on the proposed lines, a formal merger was to take place in 12 months. The proposal is subject to approvals from the RBI, Sebi, IRDAI, CCI and stock exchanges. most disruptive player in the telecom space recently with the strategy of building its own content. Amazon has been investing heavily to create original India content for its Prime Video platform here while Netflix, too, is partnering with directors, stand-up artists to create original content exclusively. Amazon is estimated to have spent about Rs 1,200-1,500 crore for its content business in the first year. Prime Video was launched in December last year.

“India is the leading country in the world for mobile data usage, and a significant part of this usage is driven by video content. Jio currently carries over 5.5 crore hours of video daily on its network. This association with Roy Kapur Films will help us to power forward towards our goal of delivering the highest quality video entertainment content to our mobile subscribers,” said Jyotindra Thacker of Reliance Jio.

Govt junks Sinha’s economy hit job

The whole world admits that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. No one should forget this. India’s credibility has been established Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister

Ladies & Gentlemen, this is your copilot & FM speaking. Plz fasten your seat belts & take brace position. The wings have fallen off our plane (sic) Rahul Gandhi, vice-president, Congress

The BJP-led government at the Centre on Wednesday brushed aside veteran party leader Yashwant Sinha’s takedown of the Centre’s handling of India’s economy.

In a scathing piece in a national daily, Sinha, who has been criticising the government of late, blamed the Centre and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for what he called an economic downturn. Yashwant Sinha has been without any important role in the party or the government. His remarks embarrass both the party and government as his son Jayant Sinha is a Union minister.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said India is currently one of the world’s fastest growing economies — a fact that has been documented.

“The whole world admits that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. No one should forget this fact. In the international arena, India’s credibility has been established,” he said, without mentioning Sinha, who had served as Finance Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Cabinet.

The BJP, on the other hand, chose to ignore Sinha’s article that also took indirect pot shots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Apparently, Rajnath’s comments came after the party high command decided that no one from the organisation will speak on the issue, and gave the responsibility to defend the government to the senior leader who is known for his measured tone.

Informed sources said that the party will stick to its stand of not disrespecting its senior leaders, and will let the government do the talking.

“Sinha ji is our very senior leader and we respect him. It is not in our culture to hit back even if a veteran leader says something utterly wrong,” said a BJP leader.

However, Sinha’s article gave an opportunity to the Opposition to attack the government. “Ladies & Gentlemen, this is your copilot & FM speaking. Plz fasten your seat belts & take brace position. The wings have fallen off our plane,” Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

‘Good Friends’ Mittal and Ambani Indulge in Spirit of Bonhomie

New Delhi: The acrimony between telecom giants Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm was set aside for a while at an industry conference when their heads Sunil Mittal and Mukesh Ambani acknowledged each other as ‘good friends’ and indulged in a spirit of bonhomie that hasbeenmissingfromIndia’stelecom sector for a year.

Speaking at the India Mobile Congress in New Delhi on Wednesday, Mittal said that despite competition, both carriers have to come together to build a better ecosystem. They shook hands as well, with Mittal even giving Ambani a friendly pat.

“I hope with friends like Mukesh, we will build something in the future,” said the chairman of India’s largest telco. His quotes from William Wordsworth’s poem‘ThePrelude’—‘Blisswas it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!’ — added to the mood.

Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, the parent of Jio, referred to Mittal as his “good friend” in his speech.

Mittal also acknowledged Ambani when he said that making India a leading telecom player has to be a joint effort.

“We all have to come together. While we compete head on for the benefit of customers, we have to collaborate among ourselves,” Mittal said, referring to how consortiums are running ecosystems, towers, fibres, submarine cables and even satellite projects.

When Mittal mentioned the investmentshiscompanywasmaking to improve infrastructure, he added, “Mukesh is putting up lot of investments” as well. The camaraderie was a sharp contrast to the bitterness between the two rivals over the past year, not missing an opportunity to blame each other for misleading custo- mers, misinterpreting laws, discriminating against subscribers and protesting to the authorities about issues such as points of interconnection, predatory pricing and interconnection usage charges.

It started when Jio entered the market last September with six months of free voice and data, which forced incumbents to lower their tariffs to retain customers. The low data tariffs offered by Jio from April triggered disputes over issues such as interconnection and data speeds. And now that the regulator has cut interconnection usage charges, telcos are alleging it was done to favour Jio, which it has denied.

The spirit of bonhomie between Ambani and Mittal did not go unnoticed. “As long as you and Ambani continue to refer to each other as friends, industry will be okay,” Rajan Mathews, president of the Cellular Operators Association of India, said, much to the amusement of the audience.

19 YEARS OF SAYING ‘JUST GOOGLE IT’

Want to know99 ways to impress your crush, dying to make thatdelicious chocolate cake or anxious to learn whether thatnagging headache is something serious? JustGoogle it, ofcourse. For 19 years, the search engine has been the answer to all our queries, from the most random to the mostmeaningful. And on its 19th birthdayon Wednesday, Google, which made the ‘doodle’ famous and partofall our online lives, spun another surprise.Its special doodle to markthe dayfeatures a spinning wheel to explore 19 surprises launched over 19 years in a simple and fun waythrough games such as tic-tac-toe and snakes and ladders. With everyspin ofthe wheel, the player gets to playthe best of Google’s Doodle games. Over the 19 years, Google has progressed beyond just providing search results. Apart from producing its own hardware and software, it has delved into areas like self-driving cars, synthetic intelligence & gadgetmastering and Google analytics. Google is named after the “Googol”, which is basicallythe number 1 followed bya hundred zeroes. The search giant, which was founded in 1998 byLarry Page and SergeyBrin while theywere PhD students atStanford University, currently serves 4.6 billion users across 160 countries —searching for things in 123 different languages. Here is a glimpse of the searchengine giant:

All help, but no troops to Afghanistan

India on Tuesday ruled out deploying troops in Afghanistan even as it pledged to expand development and medical assistance for the strife-torn nation.

“We have made it very clear that there shall not be boots from India on the ground,” Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in response to questions on the issue, at a press conference she addressed along with her U.S. counterpart James Mattis.

The U.S. Defence Secretary is in New Delhi for the first Cabinet-level visit from the Trump administration. For Ms. Sitharaman, it was the first ministerial engagement with a counterpart since she took charge of South Block.

“Indian contribution to Afghanistan has been for a very long time and has been consistently on developmental issues... Medical assistance is also provided by India... So India’s contribution has been on these grounds, and we shall expand if necessary,” Ms. Sitharaman added.

The Defence Minister’s statement puts to rest speculation about India deploying troops in Afghanistan after U.S. President Donald Trump called for greater Indian involvement. India has already extended $3 billion aid to Afghanistan, provides security assistance in the form of training and has also

supplied some utility and attack helicopters.

Kabul has repeatedly sought lethal weapons and ammunition from India.

In their press statements after the talks, the two leaders also resolved to eradicate terrorist safe havens across the globe.

“There can be no tolerance of terrorist safe havens. As global leaders, India and the U.S. resolve to work together to eradicate this scourge,” Mr. Mattis said, but made no direct reference to Pakistan.

Maritime engagements

With increasing Chinese presence in the region, Mr. Mattis said expanding “maritime engagements” was one of his top priorities.

He said India had a “vital role to play in supporting South East Asia’s regional institutions, particularly ASEAN, and in building partner capacity across the region.” Both sides reiterated their support for “freedom of navigation, over-flight and unimpeded lawful commerce” in the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific Region.

“We also believe that disputes should be resolved through peaceful means and in accordance with the universally recognised principles of international law,” Ms. Sitharaman said, in an apparent reference to China.

Stating that the recent Malabar trilateral naval exercises demonstrated the progress made in “operational synergies” between the navies, Ms. Sitharaman said, “In our talks today, we agreed to explore additional, specialised exercises.”

This visit was largely a familiarisation trip for Mr. Mattis and also a chance for the leaders to know each other. Later in the day, Mr. Mattis held discussions with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

Mr. Mattis called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi later in the afternoon. “The Prime Minister recalled his wide-ranging, candid, and fruitful discussions with President Trump during his visit to the United States in June this year,” a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs said.

Mr. Mattis briefed the Prime Minister on the progress in advancing the bilateral agenda and implementing the decisions taken during that visit, the statement said.

“They also discussed enhanced cooperation, regionally and globally, in pursuing shared priorities for peace, stability and combating terrorism. The Prime Minister appreciated the close engagement between the two countries on regional and global issues of mutual concern,” it said.

From 140 to 280, Twitter pushes its limit

Brevity was the bedrock of Twitter’s brave new world of online talk. That’s gone. On Wednesday, Twitter announced a test-run of 280 character tweets — double the current character limit of 140.

In an official blog post an- nouncing the move, Twitter said only a “small group” of people would get the 280 character tweet feature before it makes “a decision to launch to everyone.”

Some users expressed elation, while others felt it would rob the micro-blogging site of pithiness, the very feature that made it unique among social networks. #280characters was among the top 10 worldwide trends.

“This is a small change, but abig move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence!” said Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey in a tweet, among the first in the 280 format.

Twitter’s bold move comes at the back of a consistently low user growth rate and widening losses.

In the quarter ended July this year, the 11-year-old Twitter recorded a flat monthly active user growth. The year-on-year figure for the same stood at 5% to reach 328 million global users. The July numbers also show an annual revenue decline of 4.7%, and losses widening by 8%. Advertising revenue too dropped 8% year on year. Twitter made its stock market debut in 2013, and has battled to ensure investor confidence since.

Following Wednesday’s announcement, CNBC said shares of Twitter rose more than 1% in extended trading after declining more than 2% during the regular session.

Congress member Shashi Tharoor reacted positively. “I welcome it. So many of my tweets had to be cut down to 140 from longer drafts. Obliged to use less felicitous words to fit within the limit,” he tweeted on Wednesday. Dorsey took it all in good spirit, saying Twitter anticipated the “snark and critique” for the new move. “What matters now is we clearly show why this change is important, and prove to you all it’s better. Give us some time to learn and confirm (or challenge!) our ideas,” he tweeted.

IT’S TIME TO EXPERIMENT NOW

Bengaluru: From a result perspective, the next two games in India’s five-match series are of little consequence, with the home team having taken a 3-0 lead. But as Australia vice-captain David Warner pointed out, “The series is done but there is a lot to play for.”

As the two sides square off at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here on Thursday, the contest is far from being a dead rubber.

With the Indian think-tank’s focus being on building towards the 2019 World Cup, every run scored will be important and youngsters in the team will not want to let go of the opportunity to ply their wares against a team which has struggled to counter India’s assault with both bat and ball.

With the series sealed, home skipper Virat Kohli may look at tinkering with the line-up and hand local boy KL Rahul his first match of the series. If that happens, then it will be interesting to see who gets to go out at No.4, especially with Hardik Pandya emerging as a matchwinner in that position in the last match. Manish Pandey, who has had a rather indifferent series thus far, too will look to steady his place with a sparkling show on his home turf.

On the bowling front, India are unlikely to go in for a change with the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav snaring 13 wickets between them in three matches. They have found support from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Pandya. But with Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Axar Patel in the squad, a change or two can’t be ruled out.

The Australians on the other hand, will look for a turnaround with two ODIs and three T20s remaining in the tour.

Putting the visiting team’s mindset in perspective, Warner said, “It is disappointing to lose the series but we’ve got to look at what to play for. We’re not just walking out there for ourselves, we’re representing our country, that’s what we enjoy doing and love doing. There’s a lot of pride at stake.”

A few wins before they head home for the Ashes, beginning in Brisbane on November 23, will be a huge confidence booster for Steve Smith and his men.

With Ashton Agar out of the series, leg-spinner Adam Zampa, who was dropped after the first ODI in Chennai, may get a look-in. That said, with the spinners failing to impress, the bowling responsibilities will be with the pace department led by Nathan Coulter-Nile. But it’s the middle-order that will be in the spotlight.