Business News LIVE: Canara Bank classifies RCom and Reliance Telecom as 'fraud'

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday responded to an X user seeking tax relief for the middle class, saying the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government attends to people's concerns.

"PM @narendramodi's government is a responsive government. Listens and attends to people's voices. Thanks once again for your understanding. Your input is valuable," Sitharaman replied to the user on X.

Negotiations for all the proposed free trade agreements, including those with the UK and European Union (EU), are progressing as per the schedule and the country's FTAs are not paused, a top government official has said.    

The official said that an impression is going around that FTAs are paused, which is not correct.    

Realty firm Prestige Estates Projects Ltd plans to launch housing projects worth Rs 52,000 crore by March next year to encash surge in demand for residential properties.

In its latest investors presentation, Prestige Estates has mentioned that the company plans to launch multiple projects in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Goa, and Delhi-NCR comprising more than 53 million sq ft area with a total sales bookings value of Rs 52,114 crore.

Retail tomato prices declined 22.4 per cent month-on-month on improved supplies across the country, the Consumer Affairs Ministry said on Sunday.

The all-India average retail price of tomatoes stood at Rs 52.35 per kg on November 14, down from Rs 67.50 per kg on October 14, according to an official statement.

Anil Ambani's Reliance Group has launched the Reliance Group Corporate Centre (RGCC) as part of its 2030 growth strategy.

"The RGCC will serve as a strategic hub, providing guidance to the Group's companies as they pursue new opportunities and technological advancements," the firm said in a statement.

Tata Electronics has agreed to buy a majority stake in Taiwanese contract manufacturer Pegatron's only iPhone plant in India, forming a new joint venture that strengthens Tata's position as an Apple supplier, two sources told Reuters.

TikTok's parent company ByteDance is valuing itself at about $300 billion, after it recently approached investors about a share buyback program, according to two people familiar with the matter and a document viewed by Reuters.

ByteDance reached out to investors in recent weeks, offering a price of $180.70 per share, the people said.
 

Debt-oriented mutual funds witnessed a strong recovery in October, driven by investments in liquid schemes and attracting a net inflow of Rs 1.57 lakh crore after huge redemptions in the previous month.

Notably, 14 of 16 debt mutual fund categories reported net inflows during the month, while medium-duration and credit risk funds maintained their trend of consistent outflows.

City gas companies like Indraprastha Gas Ltd and Adani Total Gas Ltd are mulling an increase in CNG prices after supplies of cheaper input gas was cut for the second time in a month, but the government officials say the retailers must give a cost breakup to justify the hike.

The government, with effect from November 16, cut supplies of low-priced natural gas coming from old fields to city gas retailers by up to 20 per cent. This reduction came on the back of a 21 per cent reduction on October 16.

Tata Motors is expecting passenger vehicle (PV) retail sales to maintain growth momentum in the ongoing quarter driven by year-end demand, according to a top company executive.

As per FADA data, festive demand helped PV retail sales rise 32 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 4,83,159 units in October.

Foreign investors have pulled out Rs 22,420 crore from the Indian equity market so far this month, owing to high domestic stock valuations, increasing allocations to China, and the rising US dollar as well as Treasury yields.

With this sell-off, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have recorded a total outflow of Rs 15,827 crore in 2024 so far. 

Amid a surge in threat calls targeting airports, educational institutions, hotels, and other establishments, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) customer care department received a threatening call on Friday. 

According to reports from ANI, the caller claimed to be the "CEO of Lashkar-e-Taiba" (LeT), sparking concerns of a potential security issue.  
 

India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves declined for the sixth consecutive week, reaching a near three-month low of $675.65 billion as of November 8, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday. The reserves dropped by $6.477 billion during the week, marking a total decline of $29.2 billion from the all-time high of $704.89 billion recorded in September.  

Canara Bank has classified accounts of Reliance Communications and its subsidiary Reliance Telecom as "fraud", according to a BSE filing by the company.

RCom, which is under corporate insolvency resolution process, said that the classification by Canara Bank is not expected to have any impact on the company.

"This is to inform you that company and its subsidiary Reliance Telecom Limited has received letters from Canara Bank, with subject 'Classifying the Account as Fraud', classifying accounts of company and its subsidiary, Reliance Telecom Limited as 'fraud'," the filing by RCom said.

 Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed on Saturday to work with the incoming US administration of Donald Trump as he held his final talks with outgoing President Joe Biden on conflicts from cyber crime to trade, Taiwan, the South China Sea and Russia.

The US utility industry wants the incoming Trump administration and Republican-led Congress to preserve clean energy and EV tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, Pedro Pizarro, the CEO of utility Edison International (EIX.N) said on Saturday.

Netflix (NFLX.O) said on Saturday that 60 million households worldwide had tuned in for the highly anticipated boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, and the event peaked at 65 million streams, according to a statement.

The bout between the 27-year-old social media influencer-turned-prize fighter Paul and the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Tyson, which Paul won, was streamed live on Netflix.

Rolled steel products manufacturer Aditya Ultra Steel Ltd has reported a net profit of Rs 5.87 crore for April-September period of 2024-25 and also announced setting up a 5 MW solar plant at Rajkot in Gujarat.

The company in a statement on Saturday said its revenue from operations stood at Rs 312.39 crore in the first six months of 2024-25. Operating profit stood at Rs 10.50 crore in the period under review.

Delhi-NCR is the sixth most expensive office location in the Asia Pacific region, with an average monthly rental of Rs 340 per sq ft, while Mumbai ranked eighth in the list, according to Knight Frank India.

Real estate consultant Knight Frank, in its latest edition of the Asia-Pacific Prime Office Rental Index for Q3 (July-September) 2024, said Delhi-NCR is the 6th most expensive office space rental market across the APAC region.

Video streaming platform Netflix Owas back up on Saturday after an outage that lasted roughly six hours in the United States, according to the outage tracking website Downdetector.com.

Downdetector, which collates status reports from a number of sources, showed that there were fewer than 100 user reports of problems accessing Netflix as of 5 am ET

 President Vladimir Putin is looking into slow speeds and disruptions on YouTube in Russia after the country's top cinema official raised the matter with him, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Critics believe YouTube is being deliberately disrupted by the authorities to prevent Russians from viewing a mass of content there that is critical of Putin and his government.

Adani Total Gas announced a 13 per cent reduction in the supply of APM-priced domestic gas from GAIL (India) Ltd, effective 16th November 2024, according to an exchange filing. 

The development follows an earlier notification on 17th October regarding a reduction in gas allocation across the City Gas Distribution (CGD) industry.  
 

ussian gas producer Gazprom said it would send 42.4 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Saturday, the same volume as on Friday, despite expectations of gas supply cuts to Austria over a contractual dispute.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday expressed deep sorrow over the deaths of children in a fire at the children’s ward of Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district.

PM also announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh for the families of each deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured.  

Nepal on Friday, for the first time, exported 40 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh through an Indian transmission line, marking “a milestone in the area of electricity trade in South Asia.”

The electricity was transmitted to Bangladesh via the Indian transmission line at around 1 pm local time, said Chandan Ghosh, spokesperson of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

 Strong U.S. economic and inflation data continue to reshape the debate among Federal Reserve policymakers over the pace and extent of interest rate cuts as investors on Friday further downgraded their expectations for a rate reduction at the central bank's December meeting.
In the latest round of comments on U.S. monetary policy, U.S. central bankers continued to express faith that inflation was coming under control and would allow the central bank to lower its benchmark rate over time from the current 4.5%-4.75% range, a level felt to discourage spending and investment, to a more neutral setting.

 Chinese President Xi Jinping told Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in their first meeting that China hoped Japan would "properly handle" major issues such as history and Taiwan, according to Chinese state media on Saturday.

Xi called for the two Asian neighbours to safeguard the global free trade system, as well as stable and unimpeded production and supply chains, as they met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Lima, Peru.

Streaming platform Netflix was down for thousands of users in the United States late on Friday, outage tracking website Downdetector.com said, just as viewers tuned into a highly anticipated boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.

The number of users indicating problems was 85,021, by 10:35 pm ET (0335 GMT Saturday), according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from various sources.

China is willing to be partners and friends with the United States, China's ambassador to Washington said, seeking to strengthen dialogue between the world's two largest economies.

China has no plan to surpass or replace the United States, Xie Feng said in a speech in Hong Kong on Friday, addressing Chinese officials and the US ambassador to China.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman congratulates Tulsi Gabbard on being appointed as the Director of National Intelligence in the United States.

In a social media post Sitharaman said, "Congratulations @TulsiGabbard on being selected to serve as Director of National Intelligence. For 21 years, you served the USA as a soldier, becoming a Lt. Colonel in the Army Reserve. In my few interactions with you, I have been impressed by the clarity of your thoughts and dedication. Good wishes."