Top headlines: Two options for GST compensation; Covid to hit IT employees

From Centre giving options to states for GST compensation to GMR planning to list airport business, here are top business headlines this morning

Unlock BFSI 2.0: Banks' extreme risk aversion self-defeating, says RBI Governor Das

Banks must shed their extreme risk aversion and focus more on risk management and the quality of decision making to remain resilient in a challenging financial environment, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday in his keynote address at the virtual Business Standard conclave Unlock BFSI 2.0. Read More

Centre gives states two options to meet GST compensation cess shortfall

The Centre on Thursday offered two options to states to compensate them amid inadequate cess collections under the goods and services tax (GST) regime. One was an offer of a special window to states, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to the tune of Rs 95,000 crore at a reasonable interest rate. The other was for states to borrow Rs 2.35 trillion from the market, with the RBI as a facilitator. Read More

Fee discord stokes company-auditor divorces amid Covid-19 pandemic

Compensation has become a contentious issue between companies and auditors amid the coronavirus pandemic. So far this year, nearly 12 firms have reported resignations by their auditors due to disagreement over fees. While in some cases, companies asked the auditors to lower the fees they charge to inspect the financial statements, in other cases, the latter demanded a raise, leading to disassociation between the two. Read More

GMR group to list airport business, raise Rs 5,000 crore via securities

India’s largest airport operator, GMR, has decided to separately list its airport business. The company’s board on Thursday passed a proposal that will see the holding company, GMR Infrastructure, demerge into airport and non-airport entities. Read More

SBI's Kumar, HDFC's Puri speak on their careers, legacies, motivations

"Picture abhi baki hai” was HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri’s cryptic comment when he was asked about his post-retirement plans. Participating in a fireside chat at Unlock BFSI 2.0, a series of webinars organised by Business Standard, along with Rajnish Kumar, State Bank of India’s chairman, Puri said he derived tremendous satisfaction from the fact that “his successor thinks he is lucky to have got things on a platter”. Read More

Covid-19 likely to impact 5% IT employees in India, take away 200,000 jobs

Performance-related retrenchment has always been part and parcel of the IT industry, but the current spate of layoffs in the IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sectors has more to do with the pandemic. Industry insiders and analysts peg the number of IT and ITeS employees set to lose their jobs over the next few quarters — because of the Covid disruption — between 150,000 and 200,000. Read More

Oberoi, Godrej Prop to gain most from Maharashtra stamp duty cut: Analysts

The cut in stamp duty rates on apartments in Maharashtra from the current 5 per cent to 2 per cent till December 2020-end and retaining them at 3 per cent between January 2021 and March 2021 will benefit players like Oberoi Realty and Godrej Properties most, say analysts, who do caution that it’s still a long road to recovery for the realty sector. Read More

PM Narendra Modi urges industry to play a larger role in defence

In an unscheduled appearance at a Ministry of Defence (MoD) webinar that even caught Defence Minister Rajnath Singh by surprise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered an 18-minute speech on Thursday, talking up the government’s “self reliant India” policy in defence and urging private industry to play a larger role. Read More

In the works: Priority list of who gets the Covid-19 vaccine first

India is preparing a priority list of who will get the Covid-19 vaccine first when it becomes available. A member of the expert group on vaccine administration preparing the list told Business Standard that work had started on an “approach paper”. The Centre has also contacted five domestic and three multinational vaccine makers to understand how soon a candidate vaccine against Covid-19 will be ready. Read More

Govt's portal with data on land banks launched, but experts wary

The Union government’s land portal for attracting investors comes at a time when states have adopted land pooling, readjustment and myriad compensation models to acquire the increasingly scarce resource. The latest exercise by the Delhi government, which wants e-commerce, retailers and smaller manufacturing units to invest in the city, is one such example. Read More