Top 10 biz headlines: GST rates for 5-star hotels, oil crisis, and more

From rationalising GST rates for 5-star hotels to FDI in coal mining, here are the top 10 business headlines on Wednesday GST Council may rationalise rates for five-star hotels in Friday meeting The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is likely rationalise rates for five-star hotels in its meeting on Friday, holding out hopes for a boost to the tourism industry. The fitment panel, comprising Central and state officials, recommended a rate cut for outdoor catering and rate rationalisation for match sticks in its final agenda circulated to the council members. Rail coach making gets a hand from robots; MCF beats expectations In 2018-19, when Modern Coach Factory (MCF) at Raebareli manufactured about 1,500 rail coaches against a capacity of a mere 1,000, it surprised many. Apart from its human workforce, 44 robots are also being credited for this stupendous success. Robots are now being used increasingly in the integrated-shell assembly line and robotic bogie-fabrication line.

Bain, TPG in talks to buy minority stake in Tata Capital Financial Services Private equity (PE) firms Bain Capital and TPG Capital are believed to be in preliminary talks on acquiring a minority stake in the Tata group’s Tata Capital Financial Services (TCFSL). According to sources in the know, the Tatas are in discussions with a clutch of PE funds to gauge their interest and may offer anything between 10 and 15 per cent, based on the valuation that it could get for such a transaction. FDI in coal mining requires better pricing, logistics and regulation The Union Cabinet’s approval on August 28 for opening commercial coal mining to the 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) gave the impression of major reform in a sector dominated by state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL). Closer inspection suggests that the announcement was part of a continuum of creeping reform in the sector, which began with the auction of captive mines in 2014.

Reserve Bank wants stricter rules for e-commerce payments gateways E-commerce marketplaces acting as payment gateways and payment aggregators to other merchants will stop the activities in three months unless they separate this business and comply with all regulations, according to a discussion paper released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday. Three companies show interest to acquire Emami Group's cement arm Months after the Rs 20,000-crore Emami Group started scouting for a buyer for its group entity, Emami Cement, at least three major cement producers have elicited interest to buy its assets. India takes guard against rogue drones after Saudi Aramco attack Following a major drone attack on Saudi Arabian oil installations last week, Indian defence forces and the private sector are taking stock of counter-drone preparedness. On September 14, Yemen’s rebel Houthis targeted two oil plants operated by Saudi Arabia’s Aramco in the Gulf nation.

Unique ID Number for Landholdings Soon India will soon start issuing unique numbers for landholdings as part of an exercise expected to bring transparency and end dubious land ownership, reports Economic Times. The rural development ministry has started work on assigning a standardised unique number for each surveyed plot, a senior government official said. The unique number will have details of the state, district or zilla, tehsil or taluka, block level and street information, wherever applicable, and information about the plot including size and ownership details. New AI Sale Offer may keep Working Capital Debt Out The government is likely to consider selling Air India in such a way that the acquirer does not have to take on its working capital debt, thus halving the burden and making it a more attractive prospect, said people with knowledge of the matter, according to Economic Times report.

The carrier, which the government is again trying to sell after having failed in 2018, will then be left with just Rs 15,000 crore of debt, for loans taken to buy planes. Voice Mins Leader Jio to Lose IUC from ’20 Reliance Jio Infocomm has become the new leader in the voice minutes market, with a 36% share, pulling ahead of Bharti Airtel (33.5%) and Vodafone Idea (30.7%), reported Economic Times. The change in rank means the Mukesh Ambani-led company will lose a potential revenue opportunity due to scrapping of interconnect usage charges (IUC) from January 2020, a regulatory decision that Jio had backed and its two rivals opposed, but now stand to benefit from.

Business Standard, 18th September 2019

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...

Retail inflation cools to a six-year low of 2.82% in May on moderating food prices

New Delhi: Retail inflation in India cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May, helped by a sharp moderation in food prices, according to provisional government data released Thursday.Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 2.82% year-on-year, down from 3.16% in April and 4.8% in May last year, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed. This marks the fourth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years.The data comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The move signals a possible pivot from inflation control to supporting growth.Food inflation came in at just 0.99% in May, down from 1.78% in April and a sharp decline from 8.69% a year ago.A Mint poll of 15 economists had projected CPI ...

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