India wants 110 fighter jets; Boeing sees a 2 yr wait before deal is done

The tender for 110 combat aircraft mandates building at least 85% of the order locally

It could be another two years before India picks the winner of the world’s biggest combat aircraft order, according to a senior Boeing Co. executive.

Boeing is well placed in the race to supply the Indian Air Force with 110 fighter jets, Gene Cunningham, Boeing vice president of global defense sales, told Bloomberg News on Sunday on the sidelines of a security forum in Singapore. The company is a finalist in a separate competition to supply the Indian navy with 57 fighter jets.

“We have gotten to know Indian industry, understand the Indian process,” Cunningham said.

The tender for 110 combat aircraft mandates building at least 85 per cent of the order locally. The deal is likely to be at least $15 billion.

Boeing said in April that it would partner with state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and Mahindra Defense Systems Ltd. to manufacture the F/A-18 Super Hornet in India at a new facility, which can also be used for other requirements. Other companies in the running include Lockheed Martin Corp., Saab AB and BAE Systems Plc.

“We’ll throw our hat into the ring,” Alan Garwood, BAE’s director for group business development, said in an interview on Sunday. “We’ve seen the requirement and we’ve said we’ll put some sort of tender in.”

The British defense and aerospace company makes the twin-engine Eurofighter Typhoon jet.

Garwood said BAE had been making aircraft in India for 70 years, a key advantage given Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s requirement that the new jets be made in India.

“We have good relationships with industry and government there,” Garwood said.

Getting new aircraft is crucial for Modi as the South Asian nation faces increased risks from neighboring Pakistan and China at a time when the Russian MiG fighters -- India’s mainstay -- are being phased out. The defense industry is a key part of Modi’s “Make in India” policy, which aims to promote domestic manufacturing.

After scrapping an order with Dassault Aviation for 126 Rafale jets worth $11 billion in 2015, a process that took nearly a decade, Modi’s administration bought 36 jets separately to speed up the process. Under the new tender, the winner will have to deliver the first jet within three years of securing the contract.

India had previously said that it was looking to replace its current fleet of combat aircraft with a single-engine jet, but subsequently announced that it would also consider twin-engine aircraft such as Boeing’s twin-engine F/A-18 Super Hornet.

Boeing’s Cunningham said the change in direction meant that the timing of the Indian Air Force process was now about 12 months later than the Indian Navy.

“Certainly today, the Indian Navy timeline will conclude sooner than the Indian Air Force,” Cunningham said. “They would appear to us to be sequential, but I’m not assuming that they’re related.”

Sunil Chhetri only behind Ronaldo, Messi; surpasses Villa's 59 goal record

Sunil Chhetri made an impassioned plea to all fans of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo, "abuse us, criticize us but please come to watch the Indian national team"

Sunil Chhetri, one of the greatest footballers the country has produced, played his 100th international match on Monday when India took on Kenya in Intercontinental Cup at Mumbai Football Arena. He broke David Villa's record of 59 goals by scoring two goals, which took his tally to 61 goals for the Indian National Team. Now, he is only behind Ronaldo (81 goals) and Messi (64 goals) in terms of International goals.

Jeje Lalpekhlua scored the 2nd goal in today's match, helping India bag 3-0 win. The game started on a slow note due to heavy rain.

Build up to the game

Earlier, in his 99th match, Chhetri scored a hat-trick to seal the game for India against Chinese Taipei and equalled David Villa's record of 59 goals. After the match on Saturday, he made an impassioned plea to all fans of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo: “Abuse us, criticize us but please come to watch the Indian national team.” India cricket captain Virat Kohli was the first to support Chettri, urging sports lovers to come forward and watch the national football side play, in an instagram post.

With less than two weeks left for Fifa World Cup 2018 to begin and broadcasters urging fans of the 'beautiful game' to profess their love for their 'doosri country' via hashtags and advertisements, the nation's all-time highest goal-getter demanded some love and affection for their 'first country'.

What Sunil Chettri said in the twitter post

"To all of you who are fans of big European clubs and support European clubs with so much passion and sometimes you guys think that the level is not the same, so why do you waste your time? Agreed, the level is not the same, not even close but with our desire and determination, we will try our best to make your time worth," Chhetri's plea was not only about accepting where they stand but also what little they want from the fans. "To all of you, who have lost hope or don't have any hope in Indian football, we request you to come and watch us in the stadium," the skipper said. Chhetri also requested the critics of Indian football -- please abuse but make the 'Blue Tigers' feel relevant. "I mean it's not fun to criticise and abuse othe n internet. Come to the stadium, do it on our face, scream at us, shout at us, abuse us, who knows one day we might change you guys, you might start cheering for us. You guys have no idea how important you guys are and how important your support is," the skipper appealed.

RBI to defer putting lending, expansion curbs on PNB till Q1 results

Andhra Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, and Canara Bank, too, are likely to make a similar presentation before the regulator

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may defer putting lending and expansion restrictions on Rs 143 billion fraud-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) till the first-quarter results of 2018-19 are out.

The regulator has conveyed to the management of the bank in a recent meeting that it will examine, after looking at the June quarter results, whether PNB’s financial conditions warrant putting it under the prompt corrective action (PCA) framework.

“The regulator will take a call after the June-ended quarter results (are declared). The regulator has told PNB to improve recovery, shed risk-weighted assets, and focus on reducing expenditure till then,” an official said.

PNB, led by its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Sunil Mehta, made a presentation on its revival plan to the RBI last Monday, requesting the regulator to defer action under PCA till December, according to sources.

Most public sector banks (PSBs) declare their financial results for the April-June period between the end of July and beginning of August. So PNB may not face any business restrictions till at least August if the regulator has its way.

“Looking at the PCA framework, PNB, like a few other banks, fulfils a couple of important parameters to be added to the list. But PCA will not affect business operations as such. In the present situation, no bank is looking at aggressive credit growth, looking at branch expansion or aggressive hiring, and these are a few things that the banks have to go slow on under PCA,” said Karthik Srinivasan, senior vice-president—group head, financial sector ratings, Icra, adding, “it does not change life for any bank unless the RBI puts a specific lending restriction.” According to a recent report by Credit Suisse, with net non-performing assets (NPAs) over 8 per cent and common equity tier levels down to less than 6 per cent, PNB and Andhra Bank are likely candidates for PCA. Under RBI rules, fulfilling any of the three conditions — net NPA levels above 6 per cent, two years of consecutive losses, or the capital adequacy ratio below the regulatory requirement — could put banks under PCA. PNB suffered the highest ever loss by any domestic bank, at Rs 134 billion, mainly due to the Rs 143-billion swindle on account of fraudulent loans to jewellery firms belonging to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi and the RBI’s new provisioning norms. Last week, on the directives of the finance ministry, apart from PNB, Union Bank also met the regulator, urging a deferment of PCA by citing a revival plan.

From cheating banks to faking identity, Aadhaar frauds peak in 2018: Report

At a recent court hearing, UIDAI admitted that 6% of Aadhaar authentication requests using fingerprints transactions are known to fail

In January 2018, eight persons were arrested in Chandigarh for purchasing expensive mobile phones with fraudulent loans secured using fake Aadhaar cards. The accused, among whom were former bankers and employees of a finance company, had placed their own photographs on others’ Aadhaar cards to secure bank loans, and were booked for cheating, fraud, forgery and criminal conspiracy under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

This is just one among the 73 incidents of misuse of the Unique Identity Authority of India’s (UIDAI) Aadhaar programme that have been reported in the English-language media so far this year (up to May 7, 2018). This averages nearly four incidents each week, as per a new database created by independent researchers Anmol Somanchi and Vipul Paikra.

Of these, 52 cases involved fake or forged Aadhaar numbers–coming up with entirely new Aadhaar enrolment based on fake details, or forging existing cards by replacing certain details like photographs–and 21 involved Aadhaar-related banking frauds.

In the six years since the launch of the Aadhaar programme in September 2011, 164 cases of forged or fake Aadhaar numbers and Aadhaar-related banking frauds have been reported in the English-language media, thedatabase noted. These include 123 cases of fake or forged Aadhaar numbers or cards and 41 cases of Aadhaar-related banking fraud.

“This database does not include the whole gamut of reported incidents of Aadhaar-related fraud and forgery,” Somanchi told IndiaSpend. “We had initially included Hindi reports and found more such incidents. However, since we couldn’t include all other regional languages we restricted the database to English news reports.”

Several attempts to reach out to the UIDAI for comment on the findings of the database met with no response. On April 30, 2018, IndiaSpend reached out to the office of the chief executive officer of UIDAI via email. On May 2, 2018, we reached out again and were told by the communications team that UIDAI would get back to us. On May 3, 2018, IndiaSpend reached out a third time, telephonically. On May 8, 2018, we sent out a third email.

The story will be updated with the Authority’s response when we receive one.

Lack of clarity

“The ambiguity around Aadhaar has led to an increasing number of cases where citizens are swindled of their money,” Somanchi said. “India is still grappling with limited financial, technological literacy–people aren’t sure of what they should or should not share and the authorities have failed to provide that clarity.”

GST collection misses the Rs 1-trillion mark in May, stands at Rs 940 bn

It is higher compared to the average monthly collection of Rs 898.85 billion in 2017-18

GST collections in May declined to Rs 940.16 billion from over Rs 1.03 trillion in April, the Finance Ministry said on Friday.

As many as 6.247 million businesses filed their summary sales return GSTR-3B in the month of May.

The total gross GST revenue collected in May 2018 is Rs 940.16 billion, of which CGST is Rs 158.66 billion, SGST Rs 216.91 billion, IGST Rs 491.20 billion and cess Rs 73.39 billion, the ministry said.

"Though current month's revenue collection is less compared to last month's revenue, still the gross revenue collection in the month of May (Rs 940.16 billion) is much higher than the monthly average of GST collection in the last Financial Year (Rs 898.85 billion). The April revenue figure was higher because of year-end effect," the ministry said.

Also Read : India retains tag of fastest growing economy; GDP rises 7.7% in Jan-Mar

As much as Rs 66.96 billion has been released to the states as GST compensation for the month of March 2018, as on May 29.

Therefore, the total GST compensation released to the states for the FY 2017-18 (July 2017 to March 2018) has been Rs 478.44 billion, the ministry said.

"The total GST collection for May 2018 is Rs 940.16 billion, which is higher compared to the average monthly collection of Rs 898.85 billion of 2017-18. This reflects better compliance after the introduction of e-way bills," Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted.

Fortis shortlists Munjal-Burman, TPG-Manipal, IHH, Radiant for stake sale

Fortis said it has received interest from various parties on May 31, as per the timeline specified in the fresh process for bidding

Fortis Healthcare on Friday said it has shortlisted four entities -- the Munjal-Burman combine, Manipal-TPG consortium, Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhand and Radiant Life Care to bid for the sale of its business.

In a regulatory filing, Fortis said it has received interest from various parties on May 31, as per the timeline specified in the fresh process for bidding.

It said the company's board has decided to include the following four parties -- Hero Enterprise Investment Office and Burman Family Office (Dabur), IHH Healthcare Berhand, Radiant Life Care, Manipal-TPG consortium in the bidding process.

Earlier this week, Fortis Healthcare initiated a fresh time-bound bidding process for its sale after terminating the offer made by the Munjal-Burman combine.

As part of the process, the Fortis board decided to invite three entities that had put in binding offers -- Munjal-Burman combine, TPG-Manipal consortium, and Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhad -- to participate in the fresh bidding process subject to certain conditions.

The three entities were given time till today to confirm adherence to the new bidding process while other interested parties were also required to submit an Expression of Interest (EoI) by May 31.

As per the fresh criteria, the buyers have to make a minimum investment of Rs 1,500 crore into Fortis Healthcare by way of preferential allotment apart from having a plan for funding the acquisition of RHT Health Trust (RHT) and a plan for providing exit to private equity investors of diagnostic arm SRL.

Among others, the bids should be unconditional as well as mention about the source of funds for the transaction and elaborate on the plans for retention of current management and employees.

Last week, Fortis board was reconstituted after shareholders had voted out its director Brian Tempest, who was among the four directors whose removal was sought by two institutional investors.

Three other directors -- Harpal Singh, Sabina Vaisoha and Tejinder Singh Shergill -- had resigned ahead of an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on May 22. During the meeting, shareholders voted out Tempest.

Interestingly, these four directors were among those who had favoured the binding offer made by Munjal-Burman combine.

Following the board revamp, Suvalaxmi Chakraborty, Ravi Rajagopal and Indrajit Banerjee have joined as independent directors.

Maruti Suzuki scores over nearest rival Hyundai, not just in volume

The edge that Maruti Suzuki enjoys over Hyundai and other rivals stem primarily from its gigantic scale

Maruti Suzuki is not just the country’s biggest carmaker with a 50 per cent market share, it also makes higher profit on each car than the industry peers, including its nearest rival and Korean automobile giant Hyundai.

Carmakers do not share the profit they earn per car though they declare the total company profit earned in a year. This profit includes money made on sales of spare parts though it is a small part compared to vehicle sales. A back-of-the-envelope calculation, however, can give an idea of the profit these manufacturers make per vehicle by simply spreading the total profit over the number of cars sold to arrive at an average number. It is true that the profit on different cars would be different. The smaller ones, for instance, will yield lower profits.

Let us take the case of Maruti Suzuki, which sells every second car in the world’s fifth-biggest market, India. The Suzuki-promoted company made a record profit of Rs 77.21 billion in the year ended March 31, when it sold a record 1,779,574 vehicles, a fraction of these were the newly-launched light commercial vehicles. A simple calculation shows the company might have earned as much as Rs 43,386 on an average per unit.

This is an impressive profit, considering the average per unit realisation of Rs 397,000 for the year, announced by the company in April.

Hyundai is not a listed company in India and its financial results are shared with the registrar of companies with a time lag. Information with the Korean parent, however, shows that it made approximately Rs 22 billion in profits in the year ended December 31, 2017. In the same year, it sold a record 678,221 cars. The annual profit translates into a per unit share of Rs 32,437.

A comparison of per unit profit of Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai shows the former makes around 33 per cent higher gains to its Korean peer. While Maruti Suzuki is miles ahead in volume to Hyundai, which has a market share of about 16 per cent, the product portfolio of the two players are not very different. Both thrive on a strong hatchback and SUV product line up.

The edge that Maruti Suzuki enjoys over Hyundai and other rivals primarily derives from its gigantic scale. “Look at the scale of Maruti Suzuki. The second-biggest player in the market sells less than half of what the biggest player does. The sheer volume gives Maruti Suzuki enhanced economies of scale and the capacity to bargain with component supplies.