Top headlines: Stalemate over farm laws continues, HCL Q3 net profit up 31%

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Ninth round of talks inconclusive, farmers and govt to meet again on Jan 19

The ninth round of talks between farmer unions and three union ministers on Friday ended with stalemate over new agricultural laws, that protesters say will threaten their livelihoods. The two sides will meet again on January 19, news agency ANI reported. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash, who is an MP from Punjab, held talks with representatives of 40 farmer unions at Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi. Read more

Indian economy weak, credit growth bottoming out: BofA Securities

American brokerage BofA Securities on Friday said the Indian economy continues to be weak, pointing to activity indicators tracked by it. On the positive side, the brokerage said credit demand is bottoming out and the real lending rates adjusted for wholesale price inflation are falling. It can be noted that there has been a slew of reports lately about a stronger recovery being underway after the jolt caused by the pandemic. The government expects the GDP to contract 7.7 per cent in financial year 2021 because of the reverses. Read more

HCL Q3 net profit up 31%, crosses $10-bn revenue milestone in 2020

Riding the digitisation wave, HCL Technologies posted a strong set of numbers for the December quarter, with net profit up 31.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) at Rs 3,982 crore as compared to the corresponding quarter a year ago. The net profit rose 26.7 per cent on a sequential basis. The Noida-headquartered company’s consolidated revenue rose 6.4 per cent to Rs 19,302 crore YoY and 3.8 per cent sequentially. The EBIT margin of the IT services provider expanded 265 basis points on a YoY basis to 22.9 per cent in the October-December period - a 24 quarter high. Read more

GE alleges Siemens Energy used stolen trade secrets to rig contract bids

General Electric Co accused a Siemens Energy AG subsidiary of using stolen trade secrets to rig bids for lucrative contracts supplying gas turbines to public utilities, and cover up improper business gains totaling more than $1 billion, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday. GE sued the rival company, Siemens Energy Inc, in a U.S. district court in Virginia, alleging the theft traces back to May 2019, when the industrial conglomerates bid to provide gas turbine equipment and servicing to Dominion Energy Inc. Dominion is a Virginia power utility that provides electricity to about 4 million customers on the east coast. Read more

New rules for H-1B visa mild negative for Indian IT services: ICRA

The proposed changes in H-1B application selection process by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are prospective in nature but will have a minor adverse impact on the margins of Indian IT services companies, investment information agency ICRA has said. The H-1B application selection process will be based on wage levels compared to an earlier selection method based on lottery. Under the new rule, the USCIS will select applications offering the highest wages proffered vis-a-vis selected occupation level or position to attract the highest skilled labour. Read more