Business Today

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget could have unveiled bold policy visions of the Narendra Modi led NDA government's second term. It missed the opportunity. Instead, it stuck to incremental changes and trod the same path as the Budgets of t

The domestic automotive industry has troughed for some time as car sales are dipping. In CY2018, overall passenger vehicle sales grew 5.3 per cent while luxury cars recorded 3.5 per cent growth on a much smaller base. The only exception was Mercedes

There was a heightened sense of anticipation among economy watchers and the corporate sector in the run up to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden Budget, and not just because she was the first full time woman Finance Minister in India. (Indi

For an industry that is still in its infancy, the kind of attention the domestic electric vehicle (EV) industry has received in this year's Budget is unprecedented. The government has laid to rest any notion that its talk of electrification of mobili

In an unexpected move, the finance minister levied 2 per cent TDS (tax deducted at source) on cash withdrawal of Rs 1 crore or more in a year. Nirmala Sitharaman justified this by saying that whatever has to be done with such a large amount of cash,

While the first stint of the Modi government between 2014 and 2019 was a period of relentless public spending on infrastructure, Union Budget 2019, which heralded the beginning of its second stint, is a marked departure from the past with firm focus

Half a dozen weak public sector banks (PSBs) under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) prompt corrective action (PCA) framework will soon be able to re start lending. Union Budget 2019/20 has announced a Rs 70,000 crore capital infusion for state own

After its return to power with a thumping majority, the first major task of the Narendra Modi government was to fulfil the ruling BJP's poll promise to make the PM KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) plan more inclusive. It initially provided a

In a mere 50 word paragraph, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman indicated a shift in policy to raise sovereign debt. She stated that the government would start raising a part of its gross borrowings in external markets, in external currencies. She a

If you go by pure numbers, the Narendra Modi government has increased the allocation for agriculture in Union Budget 2019/20. This is true even if one excludes the Rs 75,000 crore provided for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan). The Fas

In what can be claimed as an incremental Budget, the larger message of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is clear on redistribution of wealth and reinforcing the transparency agenda. With a host of administrative tax reforms, including faceless ass

The Indian economy faces increasing challenges as the government seeks ways of further integrating it, especially with the East Asian region. The most immediate of these challenges are being posed by a potential mega regional trade agreement, the Reg

The first Budget of the newly formed government sets the path and pace for the future. The vision is to build infrastructure, digitalise India, achieve environment friendly growth, provide healthcare, become self sufficient and continue on the path o

On the face of it, Budget 2019/20 does not have magnanimous steps to spur private investments that the Economic Survey underlined. But look deeper, and one can see a series of measured steps. The government's intent to reduce fiscal deficit from 3.4

The principal economic issue in the elections was high unemployment, in addition to concerns over an economic slowdown on the back of low investment and low consumer demand. Understandably, the expectation was that government would propose some 'big'

Budget 2019/20 could lay the foundation for a new India and it seems like a good endeavour towards making India a $5 trillion economy. By laying emphasis on building physical and social infrastructure and ensuring that Digital India reaches every sec

1) The Founder Vikram Kumar, an entrepreneur from Amritsar who did his MBA in marketing before moving to the UK. He worked for top telcos for nearly a decade before deciding to launch several businesses of which the flagship is a full service firm th

As 15 year old Yajur plays PUBG, several of his school friends watch the gaming video live and cheer for him. From sharing photos and videos on social media, they have moved to playing games online and boasting about their achievements on social med

The Indian judiciary has largely demonstrated a pro arbitration stand when it comes to dispute resolution in tune with international commercial arbitration. This alternative legal mechanism can benefit those who do not want to take recourse to length

Miracle cures promised by regenerative medicine using stem cells have been heard about for years. Stem cells are the ones from which all other body cells of specific kinds blood cells, bone cells, brain cells and more are generated, and thus have

Governments that do not respect central bank independence will sooner or later incur the wrath of financial markets." This warning by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Viral Acharya in October last year seems to have gone unheeded. Acharya

Mindtree founders Krishnakumar Natarajan and Rostow Ravanan met Business Today at JW Mariott in Bengaluru's Vittal Mallya Road, a stone's throw away from the Cafe Coffee Day headquarters. It was early April. The two sounded hopeful. They forwarded fi

In Ruskin Bond's short story The Boy Who Broke the Bank, a boy working as a sweeper at a bank causes its collapse after the manager is unable to pay his salary on time. Soon the rumour spreads that the bank has run out of money. Customers queue up in

The evening we met Avneet Singh, The Beer Cafe in Nehru Place was throbbing with loud banter. The upper floor of the bar was cramped with those in skinny jeans and tight shirts; the television, on mute, was airing a Virat Kohli interview; tabletop pa

Bengaluru based Cloudphysician Healthcare was set up two years ago to deliver ICU services remotely to hospitals in far flung areas. Trained ICU doctors are in acute shortage in India about 4,500 doctors cover three lakh beds. So, Cloudphysician pu

Room air purifiers are quite common nowadays but have you ever heard of a personal air purifier? The latest product from Dyson is just that a radically redesigned fan that sits close by and blasts out a stream of clean air directly at you. Technica

Siemens is reinventing itself to face future challenges. What are the changes we are witnessing? If you look at our past, we were a conglomerate in different areas. We want to be more focussed on key markets and be some sort of a king in those market

Memory technologies used in computers and other electronic devices have evolved enormously over the past decades and done their respective jobs well, but there are problems and limitations. Now that the genuinely high speed 5G network is set to take

There are plenty of Android phones, but not many Android One smartphones. The latter is a near stock version of the Android platform released by Google, has a clean user interface (UI) and comes with a promise of timely security and software updates

Apple has finally taken some decisive steps. A few days ago, it had released the beta version of a feature packed operating system (OS) for its iPads and currently allows all to instal the prerelease software for a taste of things to come. The compan

An Atoll Getaway Just when you thought that the Maldives had no space left for yet another hotel, Raffles announced the opening of its 38 villa resort on the Gaafu Alifu Atoll, which is far removed from the gaggle of resorts located all over the isla

One morning in February 2016, when Aditya (Puri) got up from his bed, he felt an acute backache. His wife Smiley found him sweating profusely and turning pale and insisted on seeing a doctor immediately. Usually, the driver does not turn up before 8.