Business

  In order to address the inadequacies of capacity constraints and improve its modal share in total freight ecosystem of the country, Indian Railways on Friday issued draft   National Rail Plan. "A long term strategic plan called the National Rail Plan has been developed to plan infrastructural capacity enhancement along with strategies to increase modal share of the Railways. The National Rail Plan will be a common platform for all future infrastructural, business and financial planning of the Railways. This plan is being circulated among various Ministries for their views now. Railways aim to finalise the final plan by January 2021," said Ministry of Railways in an official release. The objective of the plan is: • To create capacity ahead of demand by 2030, which in turn would cater to growth in demand right up to 2050 and also increase the modal share of Railways from 27% currently to 45% in freight by 2030 as part of a national commitment to reduce carbon emission and to ...

  Last Saturday, several thousand contract workers at the factory near Bengaluru - angered over alleged non-payment of wages - destroyed property and factory gear; the Apple supplier had put the damages at $7.12 million. Bengaluru:  Nearly a week after violence erupted at a Karnataka factory owned by Taiwan-based Wistron Pvt Ltd that manufactures Apple iPhones, the firm today removed its top executive who oversaw India operations. "Safety and wellbeing of our team members is always our top priority," Wistron said, admitting that "some workers were not paid correctly, or on time".  In a statement, Apple said the supplier has been put on probation and it "will not receive any new business before completing corrective actions".  Last Saturday, several thousand contract workers at the factory near Bengaluru - angered over alleged non-payment of wages - destroyed property and factory gear;   the Apple supplier had put the damages at $7.12 million . Ear...

Each  ₹ 5 share to get  ₹ 974; distribution of $594 m from sale of US arm Software exporter Majesco’s board has approved an interim dividend of  ₹ 974 per share, in what could be one of the highest dividend payouts ever in the history of India’s stock market. Shareholders will collectively get  ₹ 2,788 crore as dividend payout. “The board of directors at its meeting held on December 15, 2020, approved payment of interim dividend at the rate of 19,480 per cent or  ₹ 974 per equity share of the face value of  ₹ 5 each for the financial year 2020-21,” the company said in a filing to the exchanges. In July, private equity firm Thoma Bravo had acquired the US arm of Majesco for $594 million. Majesco had then said that the proceeds from the sale will be distributed to shareholders because 99 per cent of the revenue earned was from the US subsidiary. Majesco owned 74 per cent stake in this unit. Majesco started out as the US subsidiary of Mastek and in 2014 was sp...

  Billionaire Anil Agarwal’s  Vedanta group  plans to raise as much as $8 billion through a mix of debt and equity to secure funds for the acquisition of state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL), two people directly aware of the talks with investors and banks said. London-based Vedanta Resources Plc has initiated talks with a clutch of banks to tie up the funds, the people said, seeking anonymity as the discussions are private. The talks are currently on to appoint an anchor bank for the purpose and discussions with JP Morgan are at an advanced stage," said one of the two people. Last month, the mining conglomerate showed preliminary interest in buying the government’s 53% stake in  BPCL . The sale, part of India’s asset-sale programme, is expected to fetch the government about  ₹ 45,000 crore and is aimed at helping it make up for the revenue loss caused by covid-related disruptions and secure funding for additional spending to boost the economy. Both Vedant...

  BENGALURU   :   Infosys Ltd ’s deal momentum has been steady and strong during the third quarter ending in December, typically a seasonally weak quarter for IT companies,   Salil Parekh , CEO & MD, said on Tuesday. The December-ended quarter is considered a seasonally weak quarter due to the holiday season in key geographies such as the US and Europe. “Many of the large deals are new digital transformation projects...while the decision-making process has progressed at about the same pace as in Q2, the intensity of connecting with clients has actually gone up with everyone working remotely using video platforms," said Parekh. In July, Infosys won a multi-year digital transformation deal from US investment firm Vanguard. The deal, pegged at about $1.5 billion, is one of the largest ever for the company and an indication that digital technology spending is on the rise. The company’s digital business has grown 25.4% since last year and contributed 47.3% to the reve...

  Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Niti Aayog member (health) VK Paul enumerated the legwork being done across the country for the logistics and training that will be required to deliver vaccines to hundreds of millions of people by next summer. India has bucked the global trend and is showing a sustained improvement in containing the Covid-19 outbreak, senior government officials said on Tuesday but warned that trends in other countries are also a strong reminder of how the situation can quickly go out of control even if one peak is contained. Speaking at the government’s routine briefing on the Covid-19 situation, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Niti Aayog member (health) VK Paul also enumerated the legwork being done across the country for the logistics and training that will be required to deliver vaccines to hundreds of millions of people by next summer. "Active cases have declined from over 10 lakh in mid-September to fewer than four lakh at present... Ind...