Tata Motors is set to reveal its first electric vehicle for the Indian market in September. Tata Motors has been working on electric vehicles with its UK subsidiary Tata Motors European Technical Centre. Vodafone and Idea expect their merger, approved by regulators, to be completed in 2018. Baby Marine Ventures has hired consultants KPMG to prepare an expansion plan over the next 10 years. Government has started linking all NREGS worker accounts to Aadhaar to reduce duplication and prevent funds leakage in the rural jobs scheme.

1. Weekly News
24/07/2017 – 29/07/2017

2. Tata Motors' first electric vehicle set to hit Indian
markets
Tata Motors is all set to reveal its first ever Electric Vehicle (EV)
for the Indian market in September this year. The Tata Tiago EV
is expected to borrow heavily from the Bolt BEV prototype, the
electric version of the Bolt, according to reports.
Tata Motors, in collaboration with its subsidiary, the UK based
Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC), has been
working on battery-operated electric vehicles for quite some
time.

3. Vodafone, Idea expect merger to be completed in 2018
A day after competition regulator gave its nod to the Idea
Cellular and Vodafone merger, Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman
of Idea Cellular and Vittorio Colao, chief executive, Vodafone
Group in a joint statement Tuesday said they expect the merger
between the two companies to be completed in 2018.

4. Baby Marine Ventures ropes in KPMG draw up
expansion plan
Baby Marine Ventures group, a Rs 750-crore conglomerate
based in Kochi, has roped in leading consultants KPMG to
prepare a roadmap to consolidate and expand its ten
verticals over the next 10 years.
The flagship seafood vertical remains the principal revenue
earner for the group with a turnover of Rs 350 crore. It has
made its online seafood sales company Daily Fish into a
separate vertical.

5. The Intellectual Property Rights remains to be one of the top
bilateral trade issues between India and the US even as India
became the ninth single country trading partner for the US in
2016.
IPR remains one of top bilateral trade issue with
India: US report

6. Government starts mega drive to link NREGS
accounts with Aadhaar
The government has started a drive to bring all active workers
of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(NREGS) under the Aadhaar framework to bring down
duplication under the scheme and prevent leakage of funds.

7. India Inc's overseas investment plunges 46% to $1.12
billion
Direct investments by Indian firms abroad plunged by 46 per
cent to USD 1.12 billion in June this year, according to the RBI
data.
They had invested USD 2.07 billion in their overseas ventures
in June last year.
In previous month, May 2017, the investment figure stood at
USD 1.26 billion.

8. Large state-run banks such as SBI, PNB, BoB may be
added to ETF basket
State-run lenders such as State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab
National Bank and Bank of Baroda (BoB) may be included in the
new exchange traded fund (ETF) the government is setting up.

9. Accenture sets up big innovation hub in Bengaluru
• Accenture has built a 4,40,000 sq ft centre in Bengaluru,
dedicated to showcasing the innovations it has created to
global clients who visit the city , as the IT giant looks at
growing its footprint in digital offerings..
• The centre -which can house 4,000 employees and comes
with virtual reality cricket and a piano-playing robot -will
house Accenture Labs, its prototyping Liquid Studio,
automation offerings and even a few Indian startups.

10. Bengaluru street vendors can soon tap solar energy
• The National Association of Street Vendors of India estimates
that there are around 30,000 street vendors in Bengaluru.
Small businesses like these face innumerable challenges,
given their make-shift existence. Availability of light in the
evening is one of them.
• It is this challenge that non-profit Selco Foundation is hoping
to address. The foundation has been finding sustainable
solutions for marginalised communities. It called for entries to
build sustainable, cost-effective energy kiosks that can be
used by street vendors and marginalised immigrant
communities for their daily energy needs through the
competition Design

11. ITC likely to report 6-8% growth in Q1 net; negative
growth in cigarette volumes
• MCG major ITC is expected to post a modest 6-8 per cent
growth in net profit for the June quarter dented by a flat to
marginal fall in cigarette volumes.

12. Facebook profit jumps as user ranks grow
• Facebook on Wednesday reported a surge in profits in the
past quarter, fueled by strong growth in money-making ads to
its more than two billion users.
• Net profit in the second quarter leapt 71 percent from a year
ago to $3.9 billion while revenue climbed 45 percent to $9.3
billion.
• The vast majority of Facebook's revenue came from
advertising, and 87 percent of that was derived from ads
served to people connecting with mobile devices.

13. Snapdeal board clears the decks for sale of FreeCharge
to Axis Bank
• The board of Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech), which owns and
operates FreeCharge, has agreed to sell the digital payments
platform to Axis Bank, India’s third-largest private sector
lender
• The conclusion of the deal marks a closure to a two-year long
process during which Gurgaon-based Jasper Infotech--which
also owns and operates beleaguered online marketplace
Snapdeal—has also sought to raise fresh funding for the
payments provider that competes with market leader Paytm.

14. Amazon opens its wallet for India, promises 10% cash-
back even on items returned
• Amazon has an eye-popping offer for its mobile wallet – a 10%
cash-back even on items returned. The ecommerce giant’s
payment vehicle, Amazon Pay India is wooing local consumers
with this promotional: “Select Amazon Pay balance, get 10%
extra as refund amount.” Although the offer is valid once per
customer, some sellers believe this could tend to increase
unnecessary returns.

15. Guess what is Baba Ramdev's next business
plan?
India's self-made multi-millionaire Baba Ramdev's latest business
move is here: The monk would now be venturing into a Rs 40,000cr
private security market.
Ramdev's FMCG venture made that amount of money in FY17. But
Ramdev has set the bar higher for next year.
The yoga guru aims to double his firm's profit with a bigger market
presence and even bigger production plan.
Ramdev has already sounded a warning to his MNC rivals of a
dominant position
Ramdev's home brand Patanjali would increase its mega production
units in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, which are
under full-fledged construction. Once done, these units will aid
production of goods worth Rs 60K and more next year, compared to
Rs 35,000 crore this year.

16. Continuation...
The monk's brilliant business strategies have helped Patanjali
achieve a zooming growth in the FMCG market; from Rs 5,000 cr
in 2015-16, the company, head-quartered in Haridwar reached a
whopping Rs 10,000 crore in 2016-17.
Ramdev has also spoken of creating about five lakh jobs in the
coming years through domestic expansions. Patanjali is hoping
to clock Rs 50,000 crore in revenues by 2020. Ramdev, according
to some, may be working on a plan for an initial public offer.

17. ICICI Bank falls on 8% decline in Q1 net profit
• Shares of ICICI Bank fell in Friday's trade after the private
sector lender on Thursday reported 8.21 per cent year-on-
year fall in net profit at Rs 2,049 crore for the quarter ended
June 30, 2017.

18. Capillary Technologies hires former Dell India MD, Ganesh
Lakshminarayanan as COO.
• Capillary Technologies, which provides cloud-based software
solutions to retailers, has brought on board Ganesh
Lakshminarayanan as its chief operating officer. The former
managing director of Dell India will be responsible for focusing
on the company’s profitability and scaling up its product
offerings.

19. GST compliance delays billing cycle for telecom companies
• A section of postpaid users and corporate customers are
getting their monthly mobile bills late as big phone companies
are struggling to capture the impact of the goods and services
tax (GST) on invoices issued post-July 1.

20. Running against time' to close Aircel deal: Reliance
Communications to NCLT
• Reliance Communications (RCom) told the National Company
Law Tribunal (NCLT) it is “running against time” to close the
merger of its wireless business with Aircel, which will help it
repay a majority of its loans to its creditors.

21. NTT Communications unaffected by Tata-Docomo issue,
pumps in $160 million
• Japanese tech firm NTT Communications said the row
between its sister concern NTT Docomo and domestic
conglomerate Tata Sons, which has been resolved now, has no
impact on its business plan for India.
• NTT Com announced plans to invest $160 million to almost
double its data centre capacity of its Indian arm — Netmagic

22. Starbucks to buy remaining stake in East China joint
venture for $1.3 billion
• Coffee chain Starbucks Corp said on Thursday it would buy the
remaining 50 percent share of its East China business from its
joint venture (JV) partners for about $1.3 billion, in its biggest
ever acquisition.
• China is Starbucks' fastest-growing market outside the United
States by number of stores

23. Marico acquires a South African hair styling
brand Isoplus for around Rs 36 crore
• Marico has acquired a South African hair styling brand Isoplus
for around Rs 36 crore in an effort to complete its ethnic hair
care portfolio in the country.
• The brand of styling products such as oil sheens and gels has
an annual sales of Rs 30 crore and is the market leader in the
styling products with about 27% share. The acquisition is
through Marico's wholly owned step-down subsidiary and
includes manufacturing facilities, working capital and all
intellectual property rights from its original owners - JM
Products and Mary L Harris.

24. Tencent in talks to invest $400 million in Ola
• Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent is in advanced talks to
invest in India’s largest ride hailing app Ola, according to four
people aware of the talks, which if successful could result in
an investment of $400 million providing the Bengaluru
company with more cash to stave off the challenge from close
rival Uber.