Business news – The News Desk

Birla eyes top three slots in financial services business

17Apr

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Business

Birla eyes top three slots in financial services business

MUMBAI: Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla has set an ambitious target for the financial services arm of the conglomerate to be among the top three players in each of its primary businesses - lending, asset management, insurance, and payments. Birla said this during the launch of Aditya Birla Capital Digital's new direct-to-customer app platform.He said that the platform would add three crore new customers in three years, almost doubling the existing customer base from 3.5 crore.Birla said that the group is now focusing on consumer-facing businesses. "The launch of new consumer-facing ventures marks the group's commitment to constructing a growth platform characterised by a unique confluence of strength and breadth. Just last month, we launched our paints business, with an i...

Tomorrow Capital invests in kidney start-up VitusCare

16Apr

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Business

Tomorrow Capital invests in kidney start-up VitusCare

NEW DELHI: Tomorrow Capital, a $100 million VC fund, is investing $2.7 million in VitusCare as part of its Series A funding round. VitusCare, a kidney care start-up founded in 2017, has emerged as a player of quality dialysis care, particularly in regions where access to such services is limited, a company statement said. The fresh capital injection will empower VitusCare to aggressively expand its operations, with a targeted focus on deeper penetration into the hinterland. In addition, the funding round saw participation from existing investor 1Crowd, alongside support from 3i Partners and a consortium of angel investors, totalling approximately $5 million in funding across all the funding rounds. Tomorrow Capital, part of Lodha Ventures, has investments in healthcare, fitness and educat...

Byju’s founder Raveendran to take over firm’s daily operations after CEO Mohan’s resignation

15Apr

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Business

Byju’s founder Raveendran to take over firm’s daily operations after CEO Mohan’s resignation

NEW DELHI: Byju Raveendran, the founder of Think and Learn, the edtech company that owns the Byju's brand, will assume control of the company's daily operations following the departure of CEO Arjun Mohan, as announced by the company on Monday. The company has revealed a significant restructuring of its business, consolidating its operations into three focused divisions: The learning app, online classes and tuition centres, and test-prep."The changes follow an extensive seven-month operational review and cost optimisation exercise led by outgoing BYJU'S India CEO Arjun Mohan.This new phase will also see Byju Raveendran taking a more hands-on approach in spearheading the daily operations of the company," the company said.Mohan will transition into an external advisory role, offering his ext...

Cautious investors brace for volatility, negative opening

15Apr

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Business

Cautious investors brace for volatility, negative opening

MUMBAI: Dalal Street investors are bracing for heightened volatility and a negative opening on Monday as the Iran-Israel conflict will compound turmoil in global markets. Traders would remain cautious and wait for cues to take a view about the market's trend, they said. For one, any escalation of the conflict could have a direct impact on crude oil prices globally.Over the past two weeks, crude prices have been on an upward path after Ukraine and Russia both targeted each other's energy installations. With crude among India's top import items, this could mean pressure on the currency and domestic inflation, economists and analysts said.In the last one month, Brent crude prices have jumped about 6% to above the $90/barrel level, and analysts expect it could soon break above the $100-mark i...

India a country with most business potential: Japanese printing giant Fujifilm

14Apr

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Business

India a country with most business potential: Japanese printing giant Fujifilm

NEW DELHI: The $20 billion Japanese printing and medical devices company Fujifilm finds India as one of the most high-potential markets for business globally while it also looks at outsourcing R&D and tech centre work to support its global needs, a top company official has said.“It’s a well known fact that India is a very populous country, where the GDP has also been showing steady growth.From that perspective, I do believe that India is probably the country with the most potential in the world,” Naoki Hama, Global president & CEO of Fujifilm’s Business Innovation Corp, told TOI here.The Business Innovation division provides multifunction printers to businesses of various sizes — from large to small-and-medium to help address business challenges related to documents and communicat...

Automobile exports from India dip 5.5% in FY24

14Apr

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Business

Automobile exports from India dip 5.5% in FY24

NEW DELHI: Automobile exports from India declined 5.5 per cent in FY24 due to the monetary crisis in various overseas markets, according to the latest data shared by industry body SIAM. Overall exports stood at 45,00,492 units in the last fiscal compared to 47,61,299 units in FY23. Commenting on the drop in overseas shipments last fiscal, SIAM President Vinod Aggarwal said the situation remains volatile in various overseas markets. "Some of the countries, where we are very strong with commercial vehicle and two-wheeler exports, have been facing foreign exchange-related issues," he noted. The last fiscal saw a sizeable drop in commercial vehicle, two-wheeler and three-wheeler shipments, although passenger vehicles grew marginally. However, in the January-March quarter this year, we have se...

‘Bournvita confidence’ jolted? No ‘health drink’ label on ecommerce sites

14Apr

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Business

‘Bournvita confidence’ jolted? No ‘health drink’ label on ecommerce sites

NEW DELHI: Generations of children have guzzled it with milk or hot water. Others just munch it, a spoonful at a time. Their parents did the same - indeed, some still do so. Some restaurants put it in their beverage menu. And, some will remember it being sprinkled on coffee, or what went by the name of coffee, that came from big, boxy coffee machines, popular in pre-reforms India.Bournvita is one of those brands that seep into collective consumer consciousness - its ad taglines like "Tann ki Shakti, Mann ki Shakti" and "Do you have Bournvita Confidence?" are all too familiar.So, the news that govt has advised ecommerce companies to remove Bournvita, as well as other drinks and beverages, from portals' health drinks category, will likely stir up memories. Bournvita isn't banned, of course....

TV viewership of IPL 2024 crosses 40 crore: Disney Star

13Apr

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Business

TV viewership of IPL 2024 crosses 40 crore: Disney Star

NEW DELHI: TV viewership of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 crossed 40 crore, marking the highest-ever cumulative reach for the live broadcast of 18 matches. , the official broadcaster of IPL, which is airing the matches on the Star Sports network, said it recorded 12,380 crore minutes of watch time (citing Broadcast Audience Research Council), a growth of 15% compared to the 2023 edition. TV viewership for 18 matches in the previous IPL season was 36.4 crore. Further, the TVR of IPL witnessed a growth of 17% compared to the previous year. "The growth in viewership reflects fans' unwavering support and love for IPL on TV,'' it said in a statement. The inclusion of Indian Sign Language Feed and AI tech in the Tata IPL 2024 broadcasts has met with positive response, attracting a wider audi...

Stock market today: BSE Sensex drops 250 points; Nifty50 below 22,700

12Apr

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Business

Stock market today: BSE Sensex drops 250 points; Nifty50 below 22,700

Stock market today: BSE Sensex and Nifty, the Indian stock market benchmark indices, opened in red on Friday with the 30-share index dipping 250 points and Nifty50 going below 22,700. At 9:25 AM, BSE Sensex was trading at 74,882.02, down 156 points or 0.21%. Nifty50 was at 22,702.65, down 51 points or 0.22%.Equity markets continued their upward trend on Wednesday with active movements in individual stocks.Rajesh Bhosale, Technical Analyst at Angel One, advises caution amidst market uncertainty, suggesting disciplined stock-specific trades with proper exit strategies.The resistance and support levels are likely to be at 22,700-22,750 and 22,600 respectively, with a potential rally towards 23,000 in the short term.Markets will keenly watch the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation numbers an...

Worst is behind us, we have stabilised operations: Vistara CEO

11Apr

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Business

Worst is behind us, we have stabilised operations: Vistara CEO

NEW DELHI: "The worst is behind us and we have stabilised our operations," Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan said Thursday. The airline had seen severe flight disruptions at the start of the month due to reasons like inhumane rostering that pilots protested by reporting sick en masse. In an internal communication to employees, Kannan said: "(Reasons for disruptions seen recently included) ATC delays, bird hits, and maintenance activities...We were stretched in our pilot rosters and there was not enough resilience to withstand injects that we would otherwise have weathered. We could and should have planned better. This has been a learning experience for us..." Unlike the merger of AIX Connect (erstwhile AirAsia India) with Air India Express, which has been smooth as the former's employees realise t...