Will Reliance Jio relent on pricing pressure after 6th consecutive ARPU fall?

• Reliance Jio's present subscriber base is 331.3 million subscribers, according to Jio’s April-June financial quarter
• Jio’s average revenue per user (ARPU) has declined consistently over the past six quarters

New comers MG Motor and Kia buck the vehicle sales trend as incumbents struggle

• MG Motor stopped taking bookings for Hector after the company received 21000 bookings since its 4 June launch
• Kia Motors - a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group - got more than 6000 bookings on the first day it started taking bookings

Aiming for the moon: Measuring India’s leap

• Going behind the scenes of the halted ‘Chandrayaan-2’ mission, Lounge takes a closer look at India’s relationship with the moon
• The Apollo 11 landings had a key impact on India’s space programme too. Isro was incorporated barely a month after the iconic moon mission.

India’s unicorn tribe grows faster than ever this year

• 2019 alone has produced over half a dozen unicorns so far, with a new one just last week
• Unicorns created this year include Icertis, BigBasket, Rivigo, Delhivery, software firm Druva, Dream11, CitiusTech and Ola Electric

Mutual funds pare holdings in commercial papers in June

• MFs’ stakes in commercial paper fell 13.69% from ₹4.31 tn in May to ₹3.72 tn in June
• Mutual funds have significantly reduced their exposure to CPs in the aftermath of the IL&FS crisis

SBI, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda cut MCLR: What it means your home loan EMIs

• If you are an existing home loan borrower, a cut of 5-10 bps on MCLR will not bring down your home loan interest rate immediately
• If you are about to take a floating rate home loan, you are set to get relief. Banks have cut interest rate marginally

Reliance Industries Q1 net rises as telecom, retail offset refining hit

• RIL’s performance in the refining and marketing segment was affected by lower product realization y-o-y
• Revenue from the refining and marketing segment was also up 6.4% during the quarter, while the segment’s operating profit declined 15.2%

Creditors’ panel approves $10 mn interim fund for Jet Airways

• The interim funding of about ₹69 crore will be used for the corporate insolvency resolution process
• The funds will be used to hire people on contracts to verify claims made by different creditors

Karnataka stalemate continues, trust vote postponed to Monday

• Impasse seems to inch toward a Constitutional crisis with governor Vala unsuccessfully trying to intervene
• Both the ruling coalition and Oppn traded allegations during debate on a confidence motion

Shaktikanta Das meets PSB heads, reiterates call for faster transmission

• RBI Governor discussed challenges in the sector with the heads of state-run banks
• The meeting also covered recent initiatives taken to address issues in the NBFC sector

Canada's Brookfield to infuse ₹25,215 crore into RIL's tower arm

• Proceeds from the investment will be used to repay certain existing financial liabilities of Reliance Jio lnfratel
• This is the single largest foreign investment in an Indian infrastructure vehicle, RIL said

CPSE ETF follow-on offer oversubscribed 5 times, gets bids worth ₹40,000 crore

• The government is looking to raise up to ₹10,000 crore through the follow-on fund offer (FFO) of CPSE Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)
• The CPSE ETF tracks shares of 11 central public sector enterprises

Madcap writers and moonwalkers

• Centuries before Apollo 11 landed on the moon, men were already walking on it
• Instead of technological advancement, it was the imagination of writers that made this possible

Previous arrest of Hafiz Saeed made no difference, want concrete steps: US

• 'We have been looking for sustained and concrete steps, not just window dressing,' said US official
• US official said that this was the seventh time that Hafiz Saeed was arrested since 2001 Parliament attack when he was detained right after that attack and was subsequently released

Domestic air traffic volume picks up again, inches up 6.2% in June: DGCA data

• The largest carrier IndiGo continued its market leadership ferrying 5.77 mn passengers in the month, followed by rival SpiceJet with 1.86 mn
• However, Indigo's market share declined 0.9% to 48.1%, while SpiceJet cornered 15.6% of the traffic volume

Insider trading: Sebi provides standardize format for code of conduct violations

• Under PIT norms, all listed firms, intermediaries and fiduciaries are required to formulate a code of conduct for designated persons
• The regulator said it has been receiving various references from listed firms regarding violations related to code of conduct

Ex-IL&FS auditors again question NCLT jurisdiction to ban them

• The corporate affairs ministry has sought a five-year ban on Deloitte and BSR for their failure to do the statutory job properly while they were auditing these group companies
• Deloitte's counsel argued that Section 140(5) of Companies Act does not apply if the auditors are no longer with a company

Tripping on the moon

• Before and after July 1969, popular music has been fascinated by space travel
• From ‘Space Oddity’ to ‘Astronomy Domine’, here are some of rock’s spaciest tunes

Selling inherited gold? Income tax rules you should know

• In India, no income tax is levied on inheritance of gold but subsequent sale of the inherited gold is taxable
• Taxpayers should maintain the documentation on inherited gold: Tax experts

CRPF unveils country's first body protector for women personnel in combat

• CRPF Director General R R Bhatnagar unveiled the new design
• The prototype has been developed after over two years of research

Home to car to health insurance: How to be monsoon-ready

• Monsoon may bring a sense of hope, but it comes with its own set of perils — diseases and damages — that you should be covered for
• There are some comprehensive health insurance plans that cover most of these mosquito-borne diseases

Interest-free loans: Key things you should know

• Financial institutions now provide loans to pay for your food bills and even to buy clothes.
• If you are taking a loan to build an asset such as house or for your education, it is considered as a good loan

World Bank decides not to fund project to build Andhra's new capital Amaravati

• This, after the central government dropped support for the project
• The Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, that was due to finance $200 million of the project, said it was reviewing its involvement

Floods continue to pile agony on people of Bihar, Assam

• In Bihar, 66.76 lakh people form 12 districts of the state have been hit by the calamity
• In Assam, 1.79 lakh hectare of agricultural land has been inundated

IndiGo’s profits may soar, but what investors want is peace

• Of course, all this is not to take away from the impressive performance in the June quarter
• Investors would rather have a firm resolution on the matter, than the company’s well-intentioned assurances

Delhi to Lucknow in 6.5 hours by train: New Tejas Express in 10 points

• The new Tejas Express will take approximately 6.5 hours to cover the distance between Delhi and Lucknow
• The train will also have a swanky mini pantry

Reliance Jio Q1 net profit rises 46% to ₹891 crore; ARPU falls to ₹122

• Despite larger consumer base across tariff plans, customer engagement improved with higher data usage of 11.4 GB per user per month
• Jio's subscriber base was at 331.3 million as on 30 June, 2019

Market bloodbath: Five reasons why investors lost ₹3.79 trillion in two days

• Reports said foreign investors have pulled out more than ₹5,000 crore from the cash segment of Indian equity markets so far in July
• BSE Midcap index declined 2% and BSE Smallcap index ended 1.8% lower

Jio pips Airtel to become No. 2 by user base

• As of May end, Reliance Jio had 322.98 million users, against Bharti Airtel’s 320.38 million users
• Vodafone Idea continues in the top position with 387.55 million users

Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal to triple his stake with $2 bn share buyback

• Agarwal is looking to buy back a part of the equity holdings of Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia India
• The investment by Agarwal has been made through RA Hospitality Holdings (Cayman), the company said in a statement

RBL shares plunge as bank warns of NPA risks over next two quarters

• The RBL Bank management said that gross NPAs are expected to increase to 2.25-2.5% in the next two quarters
• Announcing its first quarter results, the bank’s management said gross NPAs may increase even as the bank has made sufficient provisions

‘Indian customers may drive the next innovation at Uniqlo’

• Clothes should not have attitude. People should have their individuality, says Yuki Katsuta
• We are always researching and studying trends... We want to find out what’s the next trend, and what can go on to become the next essential item

L&T Finance to exit ₹8,660-crore structured finance biz

• L&T Finance has classified its structured finance and debt capital market as 'defocused' book this quarter
• L&T Finance said it is looking to focus on core businesses such as rural lending, housing finance and infrastructure finance

DGCA suspends AirAsia pilot for three months for wrongly sending 'hijack code '

• The pilot erroneously transmitted the 'hijack code' to the Air Traffic Services during a Delhi-Srinagar flight on 9 June
• DGCA issued a show cause notice to the AirAsia India pilot in the matter on 28 June

GST watchdog detects invoice fraud to the tune of ₹7,600 crore

• DGGSTI said a resident of Sirsa in Haryana, has been arrested and produced before a local court
• This was flagged by a special investigation team on black money, led by former Supreme Court judge M.B. Shah, in 2015

Small-cap misery seen ending in India, thanks to RBI rate cuts

• The valuation of the Nifty MidCap 100 Index is near the cheapest since 2012
• Smaller companies underperformed during the sell-off that roiled India and other emerging nations last year

FASTags to be made mandatory by 1 December, says road ministry

• FASTag is an electronic toll connection device installed in the vehicle to help drivers to drive through toll plazas without having to stop
• The move is part of the government’s plan to promote digital payments at toll plazas and decongest national highways

Bandhan Bank’s Q1 profit jumps 45.55%

• Other income grew 48.18% to ₹312.21 crore from ₹210.69 crore a year ago
• Bandhan Bank’s provisions rose 56% y-o-y to ₹125 crore in the June quarter of FY20

Snag hits Delhi Metro's Violet Line for over an hour, passengers face hassles

• The Violet Line connects Kashmere Gate in Delhi to Raja Nahar Singh station in Faridabad
• Many passengers, after facing hardship, left the metro station premises at JLN Stadium and took other means of conveyance to continue their journey

Govt asserts subsidy for EVs only for commercial vehicles, not personal usage

• Under the ₹10,000-crore FAME scheme, subsidy on EVs are given to three- and four-wheelers for commercial and fleet applications
• Elaborating on the plans to promote EVs, Meghwal said that his ministry has invited proposals from entities to develop charging infrastructure in big and smart cities

Dabur bucks the trend in Q1, but its commentary suggests weakness ahead

• The management’s commentary on its future volume growth expectations were a dampener
• Even though its rural business grew 13%, the liquidity crunch in the rural sector is getting sharper and could be a pain point for the company in the coming quarters

Garib Rath train restored on 2 routes, no plans yet to replace them: Railways

• An official from the ministry said no plans are underway to replace the Garib Rath trains, 26 of which are operational across the country
• The initiation of Mail or Express trains in the said route also means that train fare would go up passengers

Metro Phase-IV: SC asks DDA to clarify stand on funding for 3 priority corridors

• As per DMRC, its operational network is 343 km with current average daily ridership of nearly 28 lakh
• The 103.94 km long phase-IV of Delhi metro will consist of six corridors

Tata Steel confirms $600 million fundraising

• The company has set a target of reducing gross debt by $1 billion in FY20
• Tata Steel has net debt of ₹1 trillion, as of March 2019

SC adjourns hearing in case to re-verify, extend NRC deadline

• NRC State Coordinator Prateek Haleja apprised the court that during the sample verification, around 80 lakh people were automatically re-verified
• The NRC exercise is aimed at identifying illegal immigrants in Assam, mostly making their way from Bangladesh

JSW Steel ramps up tinplate production, takes on Tata Steel

• The company has invested close to ₹1,000 crore in its Tarapur unit in Maharashtra to roll out JSW Platina
• Once all units are operational, JSW Steel will have an installed tinplate capacity of 600,000 tonnes

REC raises $650 million in international bond market

• The bond issuance by REC followed the $1 billion bond issued by PFC in the international market last month
• The bond issue comes at a time when power sector lenders are recalibrating their loan portfolio in the backdrop of India’s changing energy mix