Mahindra to increase price of vehicles by up to Rs 73,000 from April

Company News

Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) Thursday said it will increase the price of its passenger and commercial vehicles by Rs 5,000 to Rs 73,000 from April to partially offset the impact of rising input costs.

The price of the company’s vehicles will go up by 0.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent from next month due to the price hike, the company said in a statement.

“This year has seen record high commodity price increases. Further there are regulatory requirements effective April 1 that have also led to cost increases.

While we have made efforts to reduce our costs, it has not been possible to hold back the price increase,” M&M President Automotive Sector Rajan Wadhera said in the statement.

Consequently, the company is taking a price increase from April 1, he added.

The company sells various utility vehicles ranging from newly launched compact SUV XUV300 to premium SUV Alturas G4. M&M also sells various commercial vehicles including Supro and Jeeto in the domestic market.

Earlier this week, French car maker Renault had announced increase in price of Kwid range in India by up to 3 per cent from April.

Last week, Tata Motors had also announced increase in price of its passenger vehicles by up to Rs 25,000 from April on account of rising input costs and external economic conditions.

M&M joins the likes of Toyota and Jaguar Land Rover which have also stated that they would raise price of select models from April.

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PFC completes REC acquisition, pays Rs 14,500 cr to government

Company News

State-owned Power Finance Corporation (PFC) on Thursday completed the acquisition of majority stake in REC Ltd by transferring Rs 14,500 crore to the government, an official said.

The transaction has helped the government meet its disinvestment target of Rs 80,000 crore for the current financial year.

“The entire consideration of Rs 14,500 crore for acquiring 52.63 per cent equity of the Government of India in REC is paid by PFC through RTGS (real-time gross settlement) mode this morning,” the official told PTI.

The official said PFC Chairman and Managing Director Rajeev Sharma handed over the RTGS advice to Power Secretary A K Bhalla on Thursday to complete the acquisition.

The money has been transferred into the government’s account online.

The official further said the government’s 52.63 per cent equity in REC would be transferred in the name of the PFC by the closing of the stock market on Thursday.

PFC has raised money from Bank of Baroda, Life Insurance Corporation and State Bank of India, among others, to make the payment.

Earlier on March 20, PFC had inked a share purchase agreement to acquire 103.94 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each of REC Ltd.

This deal was in pursuance to the in-principle approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for strategic sale of 52.63 per cent of paid-up equity shareholding of REC held by the government to PFC, along with the transfer of management control.

Going beyond digital: Google Pay goes offline to take on Amazon Pay, Paytm

Company News

Google showcased an innovation for its mobile payments app Google Pay on Wednesday, wherein merchants at stores can initiate payment requests by punching in a customer’s mobile number on their point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

With this the California-based firm is taking on PhonePe and Paytm in their own home ground and is also challenging its US rival Amazon.

Google also unveiled two other services through which its payments application users can book train tickets and buy gold.

“Digital payments has been a phenomenal story for India,” said Ambarish Kenghe, director, product management, Google Pay, India. “We want to address use cases that are close to our (customer’s) heart.” Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transaction volumes have outpaced all other forms of digital payments including wallets, mobile banking, and credit and debit cards. It has grown 40 times in 18 months, from 17 million transactions in August 2017 to 673 million in February 2019.

Chart Google Pay’s monthly active users have grown three times, from 14 million in March 2018 to 45 million in March 2019. Total money value flowing through Google Pay equals $81 billion at an annualised run-rate level. Google Pay is betting big on this growth and has formed partnerships with payments companies Pine Labs and Innoviti to enable UPI payments across a massive footprint of POS terminals spanning 200,000 stores in over 3,500 cities and towns.

“The reality is that hundreds of millions of Indians still go into the stores to buy and transact. We are going to enable thousands of large-format retail stores (transact) through Google Pay,” said Sajith Sivanandan, Business Head, Google Pay, India.

Crackdown on hate speech: Facebook to curb white nationalism, separatism

Technology News

Facebook announced Wednesday it will ban praise or support for white nationalism and white separatism as part of a stepped-up crackdown on hate speech.

The ban will be enforced starting next week at the leading online social network and its image-centric messaging service Instagram.

“It’s clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services,” the social network said in a statement.

Facebook policies already banned posts endorsing white supremacy as part of its prohibition against spewing hate at people based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity or religion.

The ban had not applied to some postings because it was reasoned they were expressions of broader concepts of nationalism or political independence, according to the social network.

Facebook said that conversations with academics and “members of civil society” in recent months led it to view white nationalism and separatism as linked to organized hate groups.

“Going forward, while people will still be able to demonstrate pride in their ethnic heritage, we will not tolerate praise or support for white nationalism and separatism,” Facebook said.

People who enter search terms associated with white supremacy will get results referring them to resources such as Life After Hate which focus on helping people turn their backs on such groups, according to the social network.

Huawei P30 Pro unveiled: Key things to know about ‘best camera smartphone’

Technology News

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei on March 26 announced the P30-series smartphones in a global unveiling event from Paris. The series includes two devices – the Huawei P30 Pro and the Huawei P30 – both boasting OLED screen, triple camera module on the back (excluding time-of-flight 3D sensor in the P30 Pro), and in-display fingerprint sensor. Taking forward the imaging capabilities that the P-series stands for, the premium P30 Pro has been rated the best camera smartphone with an overall score of 112 by camera benchmark company DxOMark.

Huawei P30 Pro camera specifications and features

The P30 Pro is Huawei’s first to boast a periscope telephoto lens capable of 5x optical zoom, 10x hybrid zoom and up to 50x digital zoom. The phone boasts a 40-megapixel primary sensor of f/1.6 aperture on the back, mated with a 20MP ultra-wide angle lens, 8MP telephoto lens, and a ToF sensor for 3D mapping. The phone’s primary sensor and the telephoto lens are backed by optical image stabilisation and the rear camera module supports artificial intelligence-based stabilisation for shake- free photography and videography. On the front, the phone has a 32MP selfie camera of f/2.0 aperture.

Called the Huawei SuperSpectrum sensor, the primary 40MP sensor on the P30 Pro has a new RYYB (red-yellow-yellow-blue) pixel matrix, instead of the traditional RGGB (red-green-green-blue) bayer filter. This allows the sensor to capture more light and achieve higher ISO speed of up to 4,09,600, resulting in better hand-held low-light imaging.

Interestingly, the Huawei P30 Pro is capable of using all camera lenses while recording a video. Besides using the primary 40MP lens for improved low-light video recording, the phone also uses its 8MP periscope telephoto lens for quick close-up zoom.

Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi’s art sold; taxmen to get Rs 55 crore

Current Affairs

Despite an objection filed by fugitive Nirav Modi’s company Camelot Enterprises, leading Indian art auction house Saffronart went right ahead and auctioned 68 lots of art for sale at its Spring Live Auction on Monday evening in Mumbai.

The catalogue, which was estimated to generate between Rs 30 crore and Rs 50 crore, did better with net sales of Rs 55 crore that will go to the tax authorities.

Of the 68 works, 55 were sold, Saffronart representatives say. The art was auctioned in a bid to recover around Rs 96 crore due from Camelot Enterprises, one of the dozens of subsidiaries and shell companies Nirav was operating, according to a sale notice on the website of the income-tax department in Mumbai.

Dinesh Vazirani, who heads SaffronArt, was also the auctioneer for the event and presented Nirav’s seized collection to an audience of around 100 people, amidst a plushly decorated hall featuring marbled floors and designer furniture, and emulated an ambience eerily similar to Nirav’s Kamala Mills office, with good reason – the art on the walls was all his.

chart As the auction for the evening proceeded, the sales started briskly with the second painting in the catalogue, a Jogen Chowdhury selling for Rs 46 lakh much higher than the projected high estimate of Rs18 lakhs. A few lots later, a 1955 ink on paper work by F N Souza, who was one of Nirav’s favorite artists, sold for Rs 32 lakhs and almost two and a half times the high estimate of Rs12 lakhs. The buyer? A caller from London.

While a few paintings went higher than a crore, the highlight of the evening was 60 inches x 40 inches 1973 oil on canvas by V S Gaitonde that netted Rs 22 crore. Earlier, there had been some conjecture as to whether the paintings would be able to fetch serious buyers.

Cathay Pacific to buy HK Express for $628 mn, enter budget airline segment

International News

Cathay Pacific Airways said on Wednesday it had agreed to buy Hong Kong Express Airways Ltd from cash-strapped Chinese conglomerate HNA Group for HK$4.93 billion ($628 million), giving it a foothold in the fast-growing budget travel market.

A lack of slots at Hong Kong International Airport until an expansion is completed in 2024 had constrained Cathay’s ability to follow peers like Singapore Airlines Ltd and Qantas Airways Ltd and set up its own budget brand.

Cathay said it would continue operating HK Express as a standalone carrier using a low-cost business model.

The purchase price comprises HK$2.25 billion of cash and HK$2.68 billion of non-cash consideration through promissory loan notes, Cathay said in an statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The transaction was expected to be completed on or before Dec. 31, it added.

HK Express reported a HK$141 million net loss in 2018 and had a net asset value of HK$1.12 billion, Cathay said.

Cathay shares rose 3.4 per cent in early trade on Wednesday, outpacing a 0.1 per cent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.

“It seems like a good deal given the value of the slots and the strategic importance of fast-tracking a low-cost carrier, multi-brand strategy and preventing a competitor from making a move in its home market,” CAPA Centre for Aviation Chief Analyst Brendan Sobie said.

“But a proper valuation is hard to figure out given the debts and complex structure of the HNA Group.