Top headlines: Jet to resume all services in 2021; DFI tag for IIFCL

From Jet Airways planning to resume all services in 2021 to FinMin proposing DFI tag for IIFCL, here are top headlines this morning

Jet Airways plans to resume as full-service airline in summer of '21

The new owners of Jet Airways plan to operate it as a full-service airline with a strong presence in the domestic market while connecting prominent European and West Asian cities with Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Jet, which was grounded in April 2019 as it ran out of cash and failed to get emergency funding, will remain listed, according to a person close to the owners. He also indicated that the airline will possibly return to the skies in the summer of 2021. Read More

Domestic firms have an edge in BSNL's contentious 4G-network tender

Prospective bidders for the contentious 4G network turnkey contract of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and MTNL need to have a minimum average annual turnover of Rs 2,300 crore in the past three financial years FY18 to FY20 or calendar years 2017 to 2019. Their company should be registered in India to be eligible to participate in the tender. Read More

Volumes in F&O segment to shrink as peak margin rules kick in today

Volumes in the futures and options (F&O) segment are expected to shrink by a third in the coming months as the new peak margin norms come into effect from Tuesday. The F&O segment contributes about 90 per cent to the overall market volumes, nearly half of which is intra-day and heavily reliant on excess leverage. The maximum intra-day leverage that can be offered by a broker will now be restricted and will keep reducing until September 1, 2021. Read More

FinMin proposes DFI tag for IIFCL to support long term financial needs

The finance ministry has proposed giving the ‘development finance institution’ (DFI) tag to India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) in a bid to support long-term financial needs of infrastructure projects. “The department of financial services (DFS) has prepared a Cabinet note to give DFI status to IIFCL. The proposal being discussed will require the approval of Parliament as a Bill will be introduced to effect the change,” a finance ministry official said, requesting anonymity. Read More

Moderna vaccine 100% effective in severe cases; to seek US, EU approval

Moderna Inc plans to request clearance for its coronavirus vaccine in the United States and Europe on Monday, after a new analysis showed the vaccine was highly effective in preventing Covid-19, with no serious safety problems. The primary analysis, which included 196 cases, found the vaccine was 94.1 per cent effective, in line with preliminary findings released earlier this month. None of the participants in the trial who’d received the vaccine developed severe Covid-19. Read More

Unacedemy gears up to take on Byju's K-12 education, coding space

After raising mega funding from SoftBank and Tiger Global, edtech company Unacademy is gearing up to take on decacorn Byju’s by tapping the K-12 education space and teaching coding to children. Facebook-backed Unacademy is mainly dominant in the area of exam preparation space. “It would be a head-to-head competition with Byju’s,” said an industry source. Flush with fresh funds, the Bengaluru-based company is planning to make acquisitions and pick strategic stakes in firms that would help it to achieve this goal, according to sources. Read More

VC investments in online gaming start-ups hike 114% to $376 mn in 2020

Online gaming gained speed during the lockdown phase and the month-on-month traffic is still increasing, attracting investors. According to Venture Intelligence data, venture capital investments rose by around 114 per cent this year to $376 million (January to date) from $176 million in 2019 (full year). Read More

Delhi HC stops AAI from collecting 38.7% of Mumbai airport's revenue

The Delhi High Court has restrained the Airports Authority of India (AAI) from collecting 38.7 per cent of Mumbai airport’s revenue as annual fee in view of the adverse financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Mumbai airport had invoked the force majeure clause to challenge the transfer of Rs 29 crore from its escrow account to the AAI in July. Read More

Surprise amid pandemic: Firms across sectors beat Q2 earnings expectations

The September quarter (Q2) earnings season has been among the best surprises in the pandemic-hit FY21. Not only did earnings beat expectations, but the beat was also for a larger number of companies and sectors. As a result, most brokerages have revised upwards their earnings estimates, not only for FY21, but also for FY22. Analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, led by its head of research-institutional equities, Gautam Duggad, said: “With an upgrade (>5 per cent) to downgrade ratio (< -5 per cent) of over 4:1, this has by far been the best earnings season. Read More

India's 10-year growth one of the biggest laggards in Asia, EM peers

A lower-than-expected decline in gross domestic product (GDP) during the September quarter might do little to the narrow the widening economic gap between India and its peers in Asia and other emerging markets (EMs). After a decade of poor performance, India economy has become one of the biggest laggards in the Asia and among EMs, with the exception of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. Read More