It’s better to stop the creation of bad debt than set up a bad bank

What 2020 did to India’s inequality

• The bottom 10% of Indians lost a fourth of their income last year. Can the Budget put a lid on widening inequality?
• In the shadow of an upcoming Union Budget, these facts acquire more resonance. The govt should consider a covid cess on the rich in order to partly fund direct support to the poor.

Who will blink first in farmers vs govt stand-off?

For over 50 days now, farmers have massed at various border points of Delhi, seeking a repeal of three farm laws passed by Parliament in September. The protests have raged on despite the SC’s call to stay the implementation of the laws. What are the next steps? Mint explores

Why you shouldn’t rely just on EPF for building retirement corpus

• EPF is primarily a debt product as the majority of its corpus is invested in debt products. In 2015, EPFO started investing in equities. Initially, it was given a go ahead to invest 5% of the incremental corpus in equities while the same has been increased to 15% now.

India's first pull-push Rajdhani Express to run daily from today. Check timings

• The Rajdhani Express is one of the most prestigious trains run by Indian Railways, connecting the national capital with other important cities of the country

Delhi nursery admissions 2021: AAP govt says no plan to scrap process amid Covid

'As of now, there is no plan to scrap nursery admissions this year. We are late this year in issuing notification but it will happen,' said Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia

Farm laws: 10th round of govt-farmers' talks postponed to Wednesday

'The government's ministerial meeting with farmers unions will be held on January 20 at 2 pm at Vigyan Bhawan, instead of January 19,' the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Monday

US Capitol lockdown lifted, fire nearby contained

• The lockdown follows the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump
• The city's fire department posted on Twitter that firefighters put out a fire outside near the Capitol complex

Mindtree enjoys a robust Dec qtr but some concerns persist

On the deals front, the total contract value rose to $312 mn in the Dec quarter from $303 million in the Sep quarter

How India’s cryptocurrency exchanges are countering dirty money

• Unlike financial assets like FDs, stocks and bonds, bitcoin and other cryptos are not held in bank or demat accounts. They can be held outside crypto exchanges in what are called cold wallets.

As DHFL’s fate gets sealed, Piramal must beware of buyer’s remorse

• Piramal’s offer is almost 60% lower than the size of DHFL’s balance sheet, say analysts
• Creditors may expect to be compensated for the hit from fraudulent transactions by DHFL

Budget 2021 seen raising import duties by 5%-10% on dozens of items: Report

• The govt is considering hiking import duties by 5%-10% on over 50 items including smartphones, electronic components and appliances in the upcoming budget, the report said
• The move to increase import duties is part of PM Modi's self-reliant India campaign that aims to promote and support domestic manufacturing

As IDFC First Bank sheds legacy for retail, investors eye faster growth

• IDFC First Bank’s retail deposit growth has gathered speed, and retail loan growth, too, is superior
• Retail loans now form 64% of the total book, while legacy infrastructure loans have been run down steadily every quarter

HDFC Bank submits blueprint to RBI on plugging e-banking outages

The bank expects its strategies to take shape in 10-12 weeks, following which it will request an inspection by the regulator

Maruti Suzuki hikes prices on select vehicles by up to ₹34,000 from today

• The price change varies across models and ranges up to Rs. 34,000 (Ex-Showroom - Delhi), Maruti Suzuki said in a regulatory filing
• The company had, last month, announced that it will be increasing prices across its model range from January 2021

Indo-American held for living in Chicago airport for 3 months due to covid fear

Aditya Singh, 36-year, lives in a suburb of Los Angeles was arrested on Saturday for living in a secure area at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport since October 19

L&T Finance to open ₹3,000 crore rights issue on 1 February

• The lender has fixed a price of ₹65 per equity share for the offer and an entitlement ratio at 17:74, as on the record date
• During the October-December period, the company posted highest quarterly disbursements since Q1 FY20, up by 51% QoQ

No drop in WhatsApp usage despite unrest, says global head

We’re grateful that people continue to use and trust WhatsApp to communicate with family, friends, and co-workers, Will Cathcart, global head of Whatsapp said

Covid-19 in Delhi: 161 new cases, 8 deaths; positivity rate dips to 0.32%

• The number of tests done per million, as on Sunday, was over 5.22 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 99 lakh.

Amazon Prime's 'Tandav' team apologizes as controversies hit hard

• The cast and crew of ‘Tandav’ unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments, the director said in a tweet
• An FIR had been lodged against Prime's India head of original content, Aparna Purohit, director Ali Abbas Zafar, producer Himanshu Krishna Mehra and writer Gaurav Solanki

Cinemas may be open, but PVR’s Q3 shows good content is badly needed

Costs remained much lower on a y-o-y basis, which means PVR has managed to negotiate for lower rents

Four types of annuity schemes available under NPS

• When you reach the age of superannuation/attaining 60 years of age, you will have to use at least 40% of accumulated pension corpus to purchase an annuity that would provide a regular monthly pension. The remaining funds can be withdrawn as a lump sum

Low interest rates on credit cards not to cause disruption: COO, IDFC First Bank

• Our approach to the credit card business is different than how it has been done traditionally. We want to make it a credit product instead of a convenient payment mechanism. We want cards to be a credit line for our customers

Hike messaging app shuts down, goes off app stores

• The startup valued at $1.4 billion in a 2016 funding round announced its app was going off the air earlier this month without explanation

Govt releases ₹6,000 cr to states, UTs to meet GST compensation shortfall

• An amount of ₹5,516.60 crore has been released to 23 states and an amount of ₹483.40 crore has been released to the three UTs with the Legislative Assembly (Delhi, J&K and Puducherry) who are members of the GST Council

Mindtree Q3 consolidated net jumps 66% to ₹327 cr

Consolidated revenue from operations increased 3% to ₹2,024 cr

Sensex loses over 1,000 points in two days: 10 things to know

• HDFC and Bajaj Finance led the losers today
• BSE midcap and smallcap indices fell nearly 2% each.

An e-bike maker is out to change some perceptions

• Ultraviolette F77 is positioning itself as an alternative to high powered petrol bikes and challenging notions about e-bikes
• Once Ultraviolette had the prototypes to demonstrate its value proposition, investors such as TVS Motor took bets on it

Uddhav Thackeray speech 'obnoxious': Yediyurappa slams Maharashtra CM

• Karnataka CM Yediyurappa said that it is painful that the Chief Minister of Maharashtra is trying to sabotage an amicable atmosphere

HDFC Bank hits record high after Q3 net profit jumps over 18% YoY

• Gross non-performing assets stood at Rs8,825.56 crore as on 31 December against Rs11,304.60 crore on 30 September, and Rs13,427.25 crore as on 31 December 2019

Jhunjhunwalas raise stake in Indian Hotels to 2.1% in Dec quarter

Their stake was 1.05% in September quarter

World on brink of 'catastrophic moral failure' on vaccines: WHO chief Tedros

• Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the prospects for fairly distributing the various jabs were at serious risk
• 'Not only does this me-first approach leave the world's poorest and most vulnerable at risk, it is also self-defeating,' the WHO Director-General said

Flypast at Republic Day parade will culminate with Rafale aircraft: IAF

'The flypast will culminate with a single Rafale aircraft carrying out a 'Vertical Charlie' formation,' says Wing Commander Indranil Nandi

Steel firms engage with vaccine makers for bulk supply of doses for employees

• JSW Steel and JSPL are in talks with vaccine makers to place orders
• Tata Steel, AMNS India and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam said they will continue to support the govt in nationwide drive and will wait till vaccines are available for corporates