It is likely the government will divide the country into different zones during the proposed extended period of lockdown and might permit a few services to function in safe zones.
The sale is key to meeting the government's disinvestment target of Rs 2.1 trillion in the financial year 2020-21. So far, the disinvestment exercise has fetched the government Rs 34,845 crore during the current financial year.
Oil India and other PSUs had filed clarificatory /modificatory petition before the Supreme Court. These companies own and operate telecom networks though they do not provide telecom services.
Though the NDA government had been trying to privatise 20 companies, a decision for which was taken in 2017, and included national carrier Air India, the investor community evinced little enthusiasm for any of them. Now, with an in-principle approval for privatisation of BPCL, CCI and SCI, the government has taken the plunge again.
Tata Power will target 10,000 micro grids across India, for which it has formed a company, TP Renewable Microgrid.
With the government reducing the net worth for new entities in fuel-marketing space to Rs 250 crore, the market is open for new players like Total, Adani, and Saudi Aramco -- and even supermarkets - to open fuel outlets.
Though the Railways is yet to declare any five-year action plan, it is clear the government is not in a position to hand-hold it for any major expansion or upgrade. The issue, however, is how far the Railways can function within the PPP format. Recent history highlights some of the challenges.
More than half of the total subsidy provisioning, amounting to 54 per cent, is going towards food subsidy, which is estimated at Rs 184,220 crore for 2019-20 - a 7.5 per cent increase over the revised estimates for 2018-19.
Long-term funding was a requirement for infrastructure projects, and asset-liability mismatch in the banking system, impacts the access to finance for infrastructure projects. One of the key challenges would, however, be to get private sector back into investing.
'A sum of Rs 6,000 a year is very significant for a small farmer whose land holding is very small and whose produce is very small. All these calculations on a daily basis are extremely unfortunate and an insult to farmers.'
Paytm Travel claims to have a base of around 13 million customers, a threefold increase over the user base in FY17. While significant, it is but a fraction of Paytm's wallet user base of more than 300 million.
As regular promotional discounts and offers rolled out by well-funded apps determine the demand trend, online hospitality aggregators face growing discontent from restaurants and hotels over commissions and pricing power.
Issues like high insurance cost and the announced price hike effective January could also weigh on sales in 2019. The only bright spot is the softening seen in fuel prices over the past month.
'Tourism is growing between 10% to 12%.'
The slowdown in growth is an industry-wide trend and companies are adjusting production to bring down the inventory levels at plants as well as dealerships.
Dipak Haksar, bottom, left, chief executive, ITC Hotels and WelcomHotels, tells Ajay Modi that FY19 is going to be a year of strong growth, and tariffs are likely to see a substantial improvement in the fourth quarter
Large number of buyers has put purchases on hold because of a combination of factors, including high fuel prices, higher insurance cost, and firm interest rates.
Market leaders Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai, who together control two-thirds of the domestic market, have not yet firmed up a decision on raising prices.
Factors like high fuel prices, higher insurance cost and firm interest rates kept buyers away, especially in case of passenger vehicles.
The key beneficiary of this expansion in the motorcycle market happens to be Bajaj Auto.