Top headlines: Modi unveils Taxpayer Charter; India regains $2-trn m-cap

From India regaining $2-trillion market capitalisation to Centre giving 5-month extension to renewable projects, here are top headlines this morning

Modi unveils Taxpayers' Charter: Faceless assessment and faceless appeals

The income-tax (I-T) department will be accountable for its actions and taxpayers not satisfied with the department’s working can approach the specific cell in the (I-T) zone in their area, according to the taxpayers’ charter unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. “An income tax officer will not get an opportunity to harass a taxpayer. Scrutiny will be allotted on a random basis. The assessment of a taxpayer in Mumbai could well be carried out by an officer in Chennai. It will put an end to needless litigation. This platform has big reforms like faceless assessment, faceless appeal, and the taxpayers’ charter — which are big reforms,” Modi said in his inaugural address via video-conferencing. Read More

Even with Covid, our fresh slippages will be in control: SBI chairman

SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar doesn’t see any reason to fear a sudden rise in bad debt during the pandemic. Legacy loans are well taken care of, the bank has enough capital, and the exposure to sectors affected by the Covid-19 stress is minuscule in relation to the balance sheet, Kumar tells Abhijit Lele, Vishal Chhabria and Anup Roy in an interview. Read More

Centre may empower public sector banks to induct non-executive directors

The government is working on a plan to empower state-owned banks to appoint their own independent directors, along with a slew of other governance reforms. Governance reform in public sector banks (PSBs) was one of the key issues deliberated on at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with chief executives of private and state-owned banks, along with a few non-banking financial companies, on August 5. Read More

China's Huawei, ZTE set to be shut out of India's 5G roll out plans

China’s Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp are set to be kept out of India’s plans to roll out its 5G networks as relations between the two countries hit a four decade low following deadly border clashes. India will apply investment rules amended on July 23 that cite national security concerns to restrict bidders from nations it shares land borders with to keep out the companies, people familiar with the issue said, asking not to be identified citing rules. Read More

Reclaiming lost ground: India regains $2-trillion market capitalisation

The Indian market has once again topped the $2-trillion market capitalisation (m-cap) threshold as shares in the broader market joined the party. The country’s m-cap slipped below the psychological level in March ahead of the sharp sell-off triggered by the pandemic. During the depth of the correction, the combined m-cap of all listed stocks had slipped to multi-year lows of $1.3 trillion on March 23. Read More

India Inc faces rough weather in overseas biz; domestic ops take priority

In the past 12 years, Indian companies — led by the Tatas, Birlas and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries — poured billions of dollars in acquiring assets overseas. The gold rush was followed by other groups like Bharti, JSW Group, and the Mahindra group. But, as global economies contract because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the focus of most of the India Inc has now moved back to the home market where demand is expected to pick substantially from the coming festival season, bankers said. Read More

Andhra Pradesh govt to invest Rs 12K cr in first phase to build four ports

The Andhra Pradesh government is planning to build four ports with an initial investment of Rs12,000 crore to increase its port-handling capacity from 100 million tonne (mt) per annum now to around 400 mt by 2025. The proposed four non-major greenfield ports are Bhavanapadu Port in Srikakulam district, Kakinada SEZ Port in East Godavari, Machilipatnam Port in Krishna, and Ramayapatnam Port in Prakasham district. Read More

Covid-19 impact: Centre gives 5-month extension to renewable projects

Solar power projects delayed due to Covid-19-induced lockdown and disruption in supply chain from China have been granted five-month extension in their commissioning deadline. This comes in the wake of several renewable power developers cancelling their contracts, citing Covid-19. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in a notice on Thursday said all renewable energy implementing age­ncies will treat lockdown due to Covid-19 as ‘force majeure’. The time period stipulated by the MNRE is March 25 to August 24 for all renewable energy projects under implementation as of March 25. Read More