1) Vistara cuts 25-30 flights per day in April amid shortage of pilots.
India's Vistara Airlines said on Sunday it was scaling back operations by around 25-30 flights per day, amid disruption that sources have said is caused by a shortage of pilots. Vistara, owned by the Tata group and Singapore Airlines, opens new tab, currently operates more than 300 flights a day, but has cancelled scores of flights since April 1 after a number of its pilots went on sick leave.
Some of those who went on leave complained that their pay had been cut ahead of a merger with Tata-owned Air India later this year, as they struggled with growing fatigue from a busy schedule. The company did not refer to pilot absences. But its spokesperson said the cancellations will "provide the much-needed resilience and buffer in the rosters".
Operations were scaled back mostly in the airline's domestic network and would reduce overall levels back to where they were at the end of February, the statement added. The company said the changes would help stabilise operations for the rest of the month and beyond.
2) Vodafone ldea board clears raising ?2,075 crore from Aditya Birla.
Oriana Investments is an entity under the Aditya Birla Group. The VI board also okayed an increase in the company's authorised share capital, from the existing ?75,000 crore ( ?70,000 crore equity share capital plus ?5000 crore preference share capital) to ?1 lakh crore, the filing noted.
The increased authorised share capital will be divided into an equity share capital worth ?95,000 crore and ?5000 crore preference share capital. On May 8, the telecom firm will hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to seek shareholders' approval on all the proposals.
VI, in which the central government now holds a stake of over 33%, has a debt of ?2.1 lakh crore, and is seeing quarterly losses due to falling subscriber base. According to Trai's (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) latest data, the company continues to lose on the subscribers' front. Trai's data shows that Vodafone Idea lost 15.2 lakh wireless subscribers, plunging its mobile subscriber base to 22.15 crore in January, in a sharp contrast to rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
3) Finfluencer Ravindra told to deposit ?12 crore earned from unregistered advisory business: SEBI
Sebi has barred Ravindra Bharti Education Institute, co-founded by finfluencer and YouTuber Ravindra Balu Bharti, from the securities market and directed to deposit Rs 12 crore "unlawful gain" earned from the alleged unregistered investment advisory business. It has been directed to deposit the amount to an interest-bearing escrow account created specifically for the purpose in a nationalised bank.
Additionally, the regulator has barred Ravindra Balu Bharti, his wife Shubhangi Ravindra Bharti and directors -- Rahul Ananta Gosavi and Dhanashri Chandrakant Gosavi -- from the securities market. Also, these persons have been restrained from associating themselves with any intermediary registered with Sebi in any capacity.
In its interim order issued on Friday, the regulator noted Ravindra Bharti Education Institute was involved in imparting advice relating to investing in, purchasing, selling or otherwise dealing with insecurities or investment products in lieu of consideration. Investors were lured to take the advisory services by projecting returns in the range of 25 per cent to 1,000 per cent.
4) India's forex reserves jump $2.9 bn to hit record high of $645 bn.
India's foreign exchange reserves (forex) increased $2.98 billion to $648.562 billion for the week ended April 5, data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed on Friday, April 12. This is the seventh consecutive week of a jump in overall reserves. In the previous reporting week, the forex kitty had increased by $2.951 billion to $645.583 billion, which was an all-time high.
In September 2021, the country's forex kitty reached an all-time high of $642.453 billion, a level that was breached in March this year. The reserves took a hit as the central bank deployed the kitty to defend the rupee amid pressures caused majorly by global events, but there has been a steady accretion over the past few months.
For the week ended April 5, the foreign currency assets (FCA), a major component of the reserves, increased by $549 million to $571.166 billion, the data released on Friday showed. Expressed in dollar terms, the FCA include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.
5) Voltas becomes 1st Indian firm to sell 20 lakh ACs in 12 months, sales up 35% yoy.
Voltas is the first Indian company to sell 20 lakh air conditioners (ACs) in 12 months, and the company has achieved this by increasing sales by 35% year-on-year, reaching 2 million units in the 2023-24 fiscal year. This is a significant achievement in the Indian market. The company attributes this milestone to its extensive retail and online distribution network, year-round demand for cooling solutions, and the introduction of new products.
The company's AC sales saw a 72% volume increase in the fourth quarter of 2024. The market welcomed the increase, with Voltas shares rising nearly 13% intraday, before closing with a 6% gain.
Investors in Voltas Ltd have reasons to cheer, as the company on Sunday announced a remarkable 35% year-on-year increase in air conditioner (AC) sales for FY24, reaching 20 lakh units. This surge was even more pronounced in the March quarter (Q4FY24), with a volume growth of 72%, provisional numbers showed.
6) The lndian real estate sector is expected to contribute 13% of lndia's GDP by 2025: Hiranandani
According to Construction Week India, the Indian real estate sector is expected to contribute 13% to India's GDP by 2025, and its market size is estimated to reach $1 trillion by 2030. This is a significant increase from $200 billion in 2021.
The real estate industry is expected to see substantial growth in the coming quarters as more people return to offices and demand for residential properties in urban and semi-urban areas comes to normal levels. The growth prospects of the sector are strengthened by factors such as:
- A stable government
- Consistent interest rates
- Job creation
- Increased private sector investment
- E-commerce
- FMCG
- Healthcare
- IT
The industry has started to turn around and be lucrative for both developers and buyers alike as more institutional investors put their money behind projects and financial organizations lower interest rates for their home loan products.
7) Ola cabs, shuts operations in UK, Australia and New Zealand, thus closing all international business.
SoftBank-backed ride-hailing giant Ola is reportedly winding up its operations in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, almost six years after expanding its services to international markets. The company trying to focus more on its domestic business ahead of an initial public offering, an OLa spokesperson said, TechCrunch reported.
The firm has started sending notifications about its closure to users, confirming that its operations will stop in Australia from April 12. Ola was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in India in 2011. The company had initially launched operations in Australia and New Zealand during the year 2018.
It was a direct competitor of Uber and was available to customers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra. Ola scaled back its operations across Australia in late 2020, with major staff redundancies and shutting down local driver offices. The company has also been silent on its Australian social media accounts, with no new posts since mid-2021. The spokesperson said the SoftBank-backed ride-hailing startup sees “immense opportunity for expansion in India,” where it operates in hundreds of cities and offers a range of transportation options, including two-wheelers.
8) Spain to scrap 'golden visa' scheme for foreign real estate investors, as it led to speculation.
Spain’s cabinet has approved measures to scrap the country's so-called golden visa scheme. It was introduced in 2013 in the wake of a housing market crash and euro currency crisis in a bid to revitalise the property sector and granted residency rights to wealthy foreigners who invested in real estate.
But critics say it creates inflationary pressure and acts as a back door for dirty money to enter the economy. That prompted Pedro Sanchez’s government to announce in October that the scheme would be phased out.
“We are going to take the necessary measures to ensure that housing is a right and not just a speculative business,” Sanchez said. The Minister of Housing said that between 2013 and 2023, more than 14,000 such permits had been issued, mostly to citizens of China and Russia. Those from the United Kingdom, United States, Iran and Venezuela are also among those dreaming of a house in the Spanish sun.
9) At $17.5 bn IndiGo becomes world's third largest airline by market cap.
Shares of InterGlobe Aviation, the operator of IndiGo, on Wednesday hit fresh record high as they rose 5 per cent to record Rs 3,806 apiece, extending gains for fourth day in a row. With the latest surge in shares, the budget carrier became world’s third-largest airline in terms of market capitalisation, according to a Bloomberg report.
In the last one month, InterGlobe Aviation’s share has jumped 22 per cent, taking the airline’s mcap to over Rs 1,46,000 crore ($17.5 billion) in total value. On the BSE, InterGlobe Aviation’s shares on Wednesday jumped Rs 175.2 or 4.82 per cent to close at Rs 3,806.85 apiece. The share price has almost doubled in the last 1 year.
In the last one month, InterGlobe Aviation’s share has jumped 22 per cent, taking the airline’s mcap to over Rs 1,46,000 crore ($17.5 billion) in total value. On the BSE, InterGlobe Aviation’s shares on Wednesday jumped Rs 175.2 or 4.82 per cent to close at Rs 3,806.85 apiece. The share price has almost doubled in the last 1 year.
10) Zetwerk, a Noida based startup valued at $2.8 bn, will invest Rs 1,000 cr to expand its electronics manufacturing capabilities.
Zetwerk, a managed marketplace for contract manufacturing, said it has earmarked an investment of INR 1,000 Cr (around $120 Mn) to grow its electronics manufacturing capacity across IT hardware, television, mobile phones, hearable and wearable product segments. In a statement, the unicorn said it aims to lead the ODM (original design manufacturer) as well as electronics manufacturing services space in the mobile phones, hearable and wearable space categories.
The startup said it is expanding its capacity in the mobile phones, hearable and wearable spaces from 16 assembly lines in one factory in Noida to 60 assembly lines across six manufacturing facilities, increasing the capacity to over 4 Mn units per month. Zetwerk also claimed that it is now producing one device a second from its factories.
The startup also said that it is solidifying its foothold in the computer devices space by manufacturing motherboards, desktop PC power supplies, and other electronic components for major multinational corporations and original equipment manufacturers at its Bengaluru facility.
11) Fitch downgrades China's outlook to Negative over rising risks.
Rating agency Fitch said Wednesday that it has revised China’s sovereign credit rating to negative, reflecting the rising risks to the country’s public finance outlook and growing uncertainty surrounding its economic outlook. Fitch noted that from a ratings perspective, China’s fiscal buffer has been eroded by high deficits and rising government debt in recent years.
“In the coming years, the role of fiscal policy in boosting economic growth is likely to increase, driving debt upwards,” it said in a note. “Slower nominal growth could lead to an intensification of the challenge of controlling high macroeconomic leverage and raise contingent liability risks.”
The agency has still assigned an “A+” credit rating to China, citing China’s “large and diversified economy, still solid GDP growth prospects relative to peers, integral role in global goods trade, robust external finances and reserve currency status of the yuan.” However, China scores lower than A-rated countries in terms of high macro leverage, increasing fiscal challenges, Gross National Income per capita and governance.
12) Zimbabwe launches new gold-backed currency ZiG after is old currency lost 75% of its value last year.
Zimbabwe has introduced a new gold-backed currency called ZiG - the name stands for "Zimbabwe Gold". It is the latest attempt to stabilise an economy that has lurched from crisis to crisis for the past 25 years. Unveiling the new notes, central bank governor John Mushayavanhu said the ZiG would be structured, and set at a market-determined exchange rate. The ZiG replaces a Zimbabwean dollar, the RTGS, that had lost three-quarters of its value so far this year.
Annual inflation in March reached 55% - a seven-month high. Zimbabweans have 21 days to exchange old, inflation-hit notes for the new currency. However, the US dollar, which accounts for 85% of transactions, will remain legal tender and most people are likely to continue to prefer this. The new ZiG banknotes come in denominations of between 1 and 200. Coins will also be introduced to overcome the shortage of US coins, which has seen people receive change in sweets, small chocolates and pens. Mr Mushayavanhu said the new currency was being rolled out with immediate effect and banks must convert current Zimbabwe dollar balances to the ZiG. He committed to ensuring that the amount of local currency in circulation was backed by equivalent value in precious minerals - mainly gold - or foreign exchange, in order to prevent the currency losing value like its predecessors.
Zimbabweans have a historic mistrust of the central bank, dating back to 2008, when it was printing Z$10tn notes while inflation had run out of control. It then abolished its own currency and for many years only used foreign banknotes such as the US dollar and the South African rand. In late 2016, the body introduced a new currency called the bond note that was backed by the US dollar loan facility. The then-central bank governor John Mangudya vowed it would remain on a par with the US dollar. But the bond note crashed when the government began printing excess money. Promises have now been made by the central bank's new governor that overprinting will not be allowed to happen again.
13) Resume generated by AI, poor formatting and typos are seen as red flags by HR while hiring.
Here are the three biggest resume red flags that could cost you a job offer, and how to avoid them, according to a hiring expert:
AI-generated resumes
More than half (53%) of hiring managers say they have reservations about resumes that include AI-generated content, with 20% calling it a "critical issue" that might prevent them from hiring someone."It's extremely important that your resume is a truthful, authentic reflection of the skills and experience you bring to the table," says Michelle Reisdorf, district director at recruitment firm Robert Half. "If you use AI to write a resume for you in minutes, it tells me you didn't put a lot of time and thought into applying to my job."
Reisdorf, who has worked in recruiting and hiring for over 30 years, still encourages jobseekers to use AI to review and edit their resume — but says you should write the first draft.
Frequent job-hopping
Similarly, resumes showing a pattern of frequent job-hopping make 50% of hiring managers hesitant to move forward with a candidate, Resume Genius found. This red flag is trickier to avoid: If you've switched jobs a lot, you can't lie about your employment history. Plus, hiring managers have different definitions of what constitutes excessive job-hopping.
Poor formatting
Another red flag hiring managers look out for on resumes is poor formatting, whether it's a disorganized layout, using an obscure font or simply forgetting to spell-check. Reisdorf says clean, simple resumes are the most effective as they're easy for anyone to read and understand. That means using a basic black font, trimming it to one page and having clearly labeled, organized sections.
14) Vietnam's 67-year-old billionaire realtor Truong My Lan was sentenced to death for $12.5 bn fraud. She's accused of looting Saigon Commercial Bank for over a decade.
A Vietnamese real estate tycoon was sentenced to death Thursday in the country’s biggest ever financial fraud case, a shocking development in an intensifying anti-corruption drive in the southeast Asian nation. Truong My Lan, a high-profile businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022. The 67-year-old was formally charged with fraud amounting to $12.5 billion – nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP. Death sentences are not uncommon in Vietnam, but it is rare in financial crime cases and for someone this well known.
She and her family established the Van Thinh Phat company in 1992, when Vietnam shed its state-run economy in favour of a more market-oriented one that was open to foreigners. Over the years VTP grew to become one of Vietnam’s richest real estate firms. Today the company is linked to some of Ho Chi Minh’s most valuable downtown properties including the glittering 39-story Times Square Saigon, the five-star Windsor Plaza Hotel, the 37-story Capital Place office building and the five-star Sherwood Residence hotel where Lan lived until her arrest.
Lan was involved in the 2011 merger of the beleaguered Saigon Joint Commercial Bank, or SCB, with two other lenders in a plan coordinated by Vietnam’s central bank. She is accused of using the bank as her cash cow, illegally controlling it between 2012 to 2022, and using thousands of “ghost companies” in Vietnam and abroad to give loans to herself and her allies, according to government documents.
15) DGCA gives Airlines right to choose how much alcohol to serve in a ruling after cases of passengers peeing.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said that airlines have the discretion to decide how much alcohol to serve on flights, and to formulate policies to prevent passengers from becoming intoxicated enough to be unruly. The DGCA has said that the number of alcoholic drinks an airline serves should ensure that passengers aren't so intoxicated that they become unruly. The DGCA has also said that airlines should formulate a policy to not leave passengers inebriated, which can increase the risk of them committing nuisance.
The DGCA has made this statement in response to a petition by a 72-year-old woman who was urinated on by a co-passenger on a flight from New York to Delhi. The woman moved to the Supreme Court seeking "zero tolerance" rules for such unruly passengers.