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Over 80,000 employees of BSNL, MTNL apply for VRS

Over 80,000 employees of BSNL and MTNL have already applied for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) notified by the companies last week. Going by the response, it seems that the firms are set to achieve their target of 94,000 employees.

BSNL had estimated that about 79,000 people will opt for the scheme while MTNL had set a target of 15,000 staff to take retirement. As per an official, over 72,000 employees in BSNL and 8,900 in MTNL have already applied for VRS.

After the retirement of excess staff, BSNL is likely to save over Rs. 7,500 crore per year in salary costs. The current salary outgo is over Rs. 14,000 crore for the company. The government had last month cleared a package worth around Rs. 70,000 crore, which includes Rs. 29,937 crore for VRS.

BSNL has about 46,000 executives, which include ranks of junior telecom officer (JTO) and higher. Non-executives staff count like junior engineer, accountant, technicians, etc, stood at about 1.18 lakh.

According to the VRS scheme, all regular and permanent BSNL employees aged 50 years or more, including those on deputation to other organisation or posted outside BSNL on deputation basis, are eligible to avail VRS.

Gold jumps Rs 225

Gold in the national capital rose Rs 225 to Rs 38,715 per 10 gram on Wednesday helped by wedding season demand and rally in international prices, according to HDFC Securities. On Tuesday, the yellow metal had closed at Rs 38,490 per 10 gram. HDFC Securities Senior Analyst (Commodities) Tapan Patel said, “Spot gold prices for 24 karat in Delhi rallied by Rs 225 on wedding season buying and rally in international gold prices. The weaker rupee supported the upside in gold prices which fell around 28 paise against the dollar.”

Britannia Industries reported a 33% jump in consolidated net profit

Britannia Industries has reported a 33% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 402.73 crore for the second quarter. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 303.03 crore in the year-ago period. Britannia Industries share price closed 5% higher at Rs 3,270.25 on BSE. Meanwhile, Macquarie noted that the volume growth of the company remained weak at 3 percent and on the balance sheet side, inventory days have gone up significantly. The global brokerage firm has retained an 'underperform' rating on the stock. Britannia Industries reported consolidated revenue growth of 6% for the quarter ending September at Rs 3,023 crore. Britannia also reported sequential revenue growth of 13%.

India's standing in world mkt could be shaky: Vodafone

Vodafone Plc has reportedly served a hard-hitting warning to the government to either let it fight competition in a fair manner in the market or the country's standing in the international market would take a huge beating.

“Either they take their boots off the neck of the industry and allow it to better compete with Ambani on 5G, or Vodafone Idea is destined for a potentially chaotic final act with potential repercussions for India's international standing,” chief executive Nick Read has been quoted telling the authorities by the UK's Sunday Telegraph in a piece penned by its business editor, Christopher Williams.

By 2030 55% of the power will be from Renewable sources: R.K. Singh

India's Power and Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh sounded confident that the country will have over 200 GW of renewable energy capacity by mid 2022. “We have decided that by 2022 we will establish 175 GW of renewable energy capacity. We are close to achieving the target,” Singh said at BRICS Energy Ministers meet in Brazil. India has set an ambitious target of having 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022. 

“The renewable energy capacity which has been installed is 83 GW and under installation is 31 GW and 35 GW capacity is underbidding. So this becomes around 140-145 GW. In hydro, we have installed capacity of around 45 GW and under installation capacity is about 13 GW, which makes it (hydro) around 60 GW. So we will cross 200 GW capacity of renewable energy by 2022,” the minister said. Singh said that more than 55 per cent of installed power generation in India will be from renewable sources by 2030.

GAIL's Q2 profit down 47%

GAIL India , despite steady volume growth, operating performance was impacted by one-offs in the trading and gas transmission segments. This coupled with poor LPG & liquid hydrocarbon segment profitability resulted in a sub-par performance. Operating profits which were down 30.8 per cent sequentially slid by 47 per cent year-on-year.

Britannia Ind Q2 net profit rises 33%

Britannia Ind posted a profit before tax (PBT) of Rs 498 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2019 (Q2FY19), up 8.5 per cent when compared with the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The net profit for the period grew 33 per cent to Rs 403 crore on a yoy basis on account of re-measurement of deferred tax in accordance with lower corporate tax rate. It reported a consolidated revenue growth of 6 per cent for the quarter at Rs 3,049 crore on YoY basis, in line with industry estimates.

Hind Rectifiers EBITDA increases to 13.47 cr

Hind Rectifiers operating profit (EBITDA) more-than-doubled to Rs 13.47 crore in Q2, as against Rs 5.57 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Net sales grew 40 per cent year-on-year (YoY) at Rs 83.18 crore during the quarter. Net profit increased an over three-times from Rs 2.35 crore to Rs 7.52 crore.

Hind Rectifiers is engaged in designing and manufacturing industrial power electronics and power conversion equipment.

TamilNad Mercantile Bank profit rises to 151 cr

Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB), one of the oldest private sector scheduled commercial banks in the country, is betting on technology to expand its business in a big way. The net profit of the bank for H1 was at Rs. 151.07 crore as compared to Rs. 62.74 crore in the same period last fiscal, registering growth of 141%.

SHF raises Rs 680 cr from banks

Shriram Housing Finance (SHFL), a subsidiary of Shriram City Union Finance, has raised about Rs. 680 crore from various public and private sector banks and the National Housing Bank. The company received Rs. 100 crore each from Indian Bank and United Bank of India, Rs. 150 crore from Canara Bank through a securitisation deal, Rs. 150 crore from Syndicate Bank via term loans, Rs. 50 crore from ICICI Bank via PTC and Rs. 130 crore from NHB through a refinance scheme.

Stop labeling the demonstrators as rioters, Protestors in Hong Kong

Protesters and police faced off again on Tuesday too in and around several university campuses as classes were cancelled. Recent weeks have been marked by escalating protests by both protesters and pro-Beijing supporters on the other side.

The Hong Kong hospital authority said both were in critical condition. Video of another incident showed a policeman on a motorcycle riding through a group of protesters in an apparent attempt to disperse them.

One of their demands is for the government to stop labeling the demonstrators as rioters, which connotes that even peaceful protest is a criminal activity.

Protestors other demands are for democratic changes in Hong Kong's government, criminal charges to be dropped against protesters and for police actions against the protesters to be independently investigated.

In Washington, the US government said it is watching the situation with "grave concern." "We condemn violence on all sides, extend our sympathies to victims of violence regardless of their political inclinations, and call for all parties — police and protestors — to exercise restraint," State Department said in a statement.

In a widely distributed video of the shooting, an officer shooed away a group of protesters near an intersection, then drew his gun on a protester who approached him. It was the second police shooting of a protester since the demonstrations began, although police have repeatedly drawn firearms to ward off attacks. 

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