Tata group said to have sought details of Air India disinvestment
The Tata group has informally sought details on the planned privatisation of Air India, a government official said, reflecting the group’s interest in the airline it founded in 1932. “They have asked us how do you want to do it, what will you do with debt, and what will happen to the subsidiaries,” the official said, asking not to be identified. Senior Tata group executives posed the questions in informal discussions “at different levels” of the government after the cabinet approved the disinvestment on 28 June, the official said. IndiGo, the largest airline in India owned by InterGlobe Aviation Pvt. Ltd, has already gone public with its interest in Air India.
Reliance Jio says rivals made Rs1.2 trillion from interconnection user charges in 5 years
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd has claimed that India’s top three telecom firms have generated as much as Rs1.04 trillion in revenue in the past five years on account of non-implementation of a 2011 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) road map to cut interconnection user charges (IUC) to zero. Reliance Jio was referring to the 2011 report on IUC by Trai that was filed as an affidavit in the Supreme Court. In the affidavit, Trai told the court that it wanted to bring down IUC to zero from March 2015. This road map was also part of 2009 Trai regulation on IUC that excluded capital cost while calculating the charge.
ONGC to take over HPCL
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the sale of its 51 per cent equity in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), the country’s second largest fuel retailer, to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). The deal will increase the government’s disinvestment proceeds by about Rs 30,000 crore. Senior government officials told Business Standard ONGC, HPCL and the government would now decide how best to proceed with the deal. Once the process of ONGC buying the Centre’s stake in HPCL is decided upon, the Cabinet will give a final approval for the sale.
Privacy right not absolute, observe SC judges
A nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice (CJI) J S Khehar, on Monday began hearing arguments to determine whether the right to privacy was a fundamental right under the Constitution. During the hearing, some of the judges observed that the right to privacy was not absolute and it was subject to reasonable restrictions mentioned in the Fundamental Rights provisions of the Constitution. In this context, they mentioned the Right to Freedom of Press, mentioned in the chapter on Fundamental Rights, but subjected to reasonable restrictions.
GST on sale of used goods online: Relief for Quikr, OLX, no 1 pct levy imposed
Consumers selling their products on online portals like Quikr and OLX won’t be subjected to 1% tax collected at source under the Goods and Services tax regime, which came into force from July 1, tax officials told FE. This basically means that if consumers (people not engaged in selling and buying as trade) sell their old products on online portals, the latter will pay them the full amount and not deduct the 1% TCS. Consumers have been exempted from this tax because it is not their business activity.
Google scraps sparse search page to embrace news feed on mobile
Years ago, Google built a social network separate from its prized asset, web search. The effort failed. Now the company is trying again — only this time, it’s turning its search engine into something that looks a lot like the news feed of a social network. The Alphabet Inc. unit is introducing a tailored feed of news, entertainment and myriad web content based on users’ searches, YouTube video views and other personal information. It will appear, starting Wednesday, beneath the famous Google search box in the company’s search app. It’s looking at ways to bring the feature to mobile web browsers later, while the desktop homepage will stay the same.
Audi under fire in China for ad comparing used cars with brides
German luxury carmaker Audi AG (NSUG.DE) has come under fire from consumers in China for an advert that compared buying a second-hand car to checking out a bride-to-be. Audi, which is attempting to revive its sales in the world’s biggest car market, said on Wednesday it deeply regretted the advert and that it had been withdrawn.
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