Top 22 finance news today, Sep 29, 2020

Major finance news today at a glance:

Walmart looking at up to $25 billion investment in Tata Group's 'super app' - Mint

Walmart Inc is in talks with Tata Group for a potential investment of up to $25 billion in the Indian salt-to-software conglomerate's new "super app", the Mint newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Read more

India among worst performing economies in world; stimulus inadequate: Abhijit Banerjee

Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee on Tuesday said India is among the worst performing economies in the world and the government's economic stimulus was inadequate to tackle the problem. Read more

All you need to know about the Vodafone-India tax dispute

British telco Vodafone Group won a decade-long battle against the Indian government in a case relating to retrospective taxation under which the income tax department had raised a demand of around Rs 22,000 crore on the telecom major. What does this case pertain to and where did all begin? Explainer

Reliance Jio writes to DoT citing urgent need for spectrum auctions

Reliance Jio writes to DoT citing urgent need for spectrum auctions, says other telcos opposing auction to stifle competition Watch video

Gold prices witness a rise of Rs 10, touches Rs 49,260, silver reaches Rs 60,400 per kg

Gold prices today increased by Rs 10, reaching Rs 49,260 (24-carat) per 10 gram. The price of 22-carat yellow metal has increased from Rs 48,250 per 10 gram to Rs 48,260 per 10 gram, according to Good Returns. Read more

Best-selling scooters in August 2020

In August 2020, the two-wheeler segment clocked sales of 15,59,665 units, marking a marginal 3 percent year-on-year growth. Here's a closer look at their performance in August 2020 as well as their cumulative sales from April-August 2020. Read more

Maharashtra: Total ban on sale of loose cigarettes, beedis

A complete ban on the sale of loose cigarettes and beedis has been imposed by the Maharashtra Public Health department owing to the lack of health warnings on individual items outside the box. Read more

Candid chat with BAJAJ Allianz's Chandramohan Mehra | Brand Equity

India's insurance industry has shrunk by 10%, says Chandramohan Mehra, CMO, Bajaj Allianz Life. Catch him in conversation with Sonali Krishna as they decode how the ongoing pandemic has caused a shift in consumer behavior towards the insurance sector, how the pandemic is challenging the health insurance segment on various fronts but it also represents an opportunity, how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted the insurance penetration in India and how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted the insurance penetration in India. Listen in on Saturday at 2:30 pm & Sunday at 11 am, 2:30 pm & 10:30 pm only on Brand Equity. Watch video

India increased gender parity in workforce during COVID-19 lockdown: LinkedIn

While COVID-19 lockdown measures globally had a severe impact on the share of women being hired, India bucked the trend in maintaining and even increasing gender parity. LinkedIn's second edition of the labour market update released on Tuesday shows that hiring of women in many developed countries followed a U-shaped trajectory in 2020, dipping in April before recovering in June and July. Read more

Ford India Launches Doorstep Delivery Service in India at no Additional Charge

Ford India has announced a doorstep service program for Ford vehicle owners. As part of this, Ford owners can get their vehicles serviced wherever they want – be it at home, or office, for example – at no extra cost, as per the company. This program has been introduced as a part of Ford’s Dial-A-Ford initiative where all sales and service-related queries are addressed through a helpline number. Read more

Centre Plans to Seek Cabinet Nod for 25% Stake Sale in LIC: Report

The Central government is planning to seek Cabinet’s approval to sell 25 per cent stake of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).

According to a report by Bloomberg, the government plans to amend the act of Parliament under which the state-run Life Insurance Corp. of India was set up to prepare for the sale, some officials said, asking not to be identified as the discussions were private. Read more

These are India's top 10 billionaires

2020 has been a devastating year for the world collectively owing to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. But the horrific repercussions of the pandemic did not have much bearing on the growing wealth of these Indian industrialists and businessmen who are seasoned ‘riders of the economic storm’ and have proved to be unshakeable forces to reckon with. Read more

Three Indians launch Faceless Chat, the world's first app that turns Facebook or WhatsApp into an anonymous social network

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 29 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Being able to socialize anonymously or having the option to find out what friends may really think about a question, opinion or a post without having to expose their identities are options that many social networking enthusiasts find incredibly interesting. Now, thanks to the new Android app Faceless Chat both of these options and much more are possible. Faceless Chat works with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snap Chat to deliver links to anonymous posts, where people can respond with their identity protected. Read more

Serum Institute of India to produce extra 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for poorer countries

Serum Institute of India will make up to 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for poorer countries, including India, next year, as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GAVI vaccines alliance have doubled their funding, the company said on Tuesday. Read more

Why this equity mutual fund scheme is the best in its category?

Axis Bluechip Fund has a "5star" rating from Crisil and Value Research. Morning Star, which also provides great information on Mutual funds has also accorded the Axis Bluechip Fund a "5 star rating". This is probably the best from institutions tracking mutual funds closely. Read more

When is it better for individuals to take a loan?

Should one take a loan to buy assets or use cash reserves? This is a typical personal finance dilemma. Cost of debt is less than the cost of equity (normally), that is why companies use leverage to grow their business. [The cost of debt is the interest a company or an individual pays on its loan. Cost of equity is the return a company or an individual requires for an equity investment]. Read more

How to instantly buy & sell crypto directly against your local currency

One of the most exciting things about cryptocurrency over traditional currency is its elimination of third-party risk. Instead of trusting a third-party entity to keep a record of your money — which is a simplified version of how traditional banking works — blockchains use an immutable public transaction ledger which is constantly audited using cryptographic proofs. Read more

Watch: Girl gamers of India that are breaking stereotypes

The people who are into gaming can name online game players within seconds, but when it comes to girl players, we can’t recall any names, can we? Thanks to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) and other Android games that made online gaming accessible to everyone, the gaming world has boomed in recent years, and the scenario is not entirely different, but it is somewhat different from what the Indian girl gamers had experienced in their early days. More

The FinCEN Files: What is the money laundering scandal all about?

Investigating a massive stockpile of leaked government documents, Buzzfeed News along with a consortium of international journalists uncovered that a large group of major banks allegedly approved trillions of dollars of potentially suspect criminals from around the world. Read more

Vedanta gets in-principle nod for delisting from BSE, NSE

New Delhi, Sep 29 (PTI) Billionaire Anil Agarwal-controlled Vedanta on Tuesday said it has received in-principle approval from stock exchanges -- BSE and National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) -- for its delisting from the bourses. Read more

Indian house prices to fall 6% this year, risk to downside due to COVID-19, says study

Indian house prices will fall more sharply this year than expected just three months ago amid surging coronavirus cases which are hurting demand in an economy fighting its deepest recession on record, a Reuters poll showed. Read more

Meet Vivek Ramachandran, a cybersecurity expert and the man who discovered the Caffe Latte Attack

Vivek Ramachandran’s interest in cybersecurity sparked in the year 2000 when the world was rocked by one of the largest cyber attack on internet giant Yahoo. All of 17 then, Vivek wondered how a single hacker could bring down the networks of a giant like Yahoo. And from then till now, Vivek’s interest in the subject has grown by leaps and bounds. Read more