SC sets aside RBI ban on cryptocurrencies
Gold prices zoomed Rs 1,155 to Rs 44,383 per 10 gram in the national capital with continuous rupee deprecation and strong buying in global safe-haven assets, according to HDFC Securities. On Tuesday, the precious metal had closed at Rs 43,228 per 10 gram. In the international market, gold was trading flat at $1,638 per ounce "Gold prices rallied sharply after the Fed delivered surprise rate cut of 50 bps,” the firm said.
With good response from the qualified institutional bidders on the final day of their bidding, SBI Card's initial public offering was fully subscribed and as per the latest data released by the stock exchanges, the Rs 10,354 crore issue has been subscribed 15.49 times so far.
SBI Card’s IPO in the price band of Rs 750 to Rs 755 per share opened on Monday, March 2 and closes on March 5.
The public issue closes on Thursday but the bidding for the QIB investors closed a day earlier, on Wednesday, March 4 itself.
SBI Card public issue has received good response from all categories of investors so far and has received 27.64 lakh applications so far, according to sources close to the merchant bankers handling the public issue.
The QIB portion, excluding the anchor investor portion, got subscribed 56.66 times. This excludes allotments made to the anchor investors of shares worth Rs 2,769 crore before the issue opened.
The retail individual investor portion has been subscribed 1.77 times so far while the high net worth individual (HNI) or non-institutional portion has been subscribed 2.19 times so far.
The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday to allow banks to handle cryptocurrency transactions from exchanges and traders, overturning a ban on such dealings by the central bank that had come as a major blow to the thriving industry.
The Reserve Bank of
Oyo Hotels is cutting its global workforce by about 5,000 to 25,000 people, with the deepest reductions in China after business there crumbled in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Indian startup, one of the largest in SoftBank Group Corp.’s portfolio, is reducing staff in China, the US and its home country as it seeks to boost profitability. Oyo expanded rapidly after its founding in 2013 and reached a valuation of $10 billion, but investors have soured on money-losing businesses after WeWork’s meltdown
India had ordered financial institutions to break off all ties with individuals or businesses dealing in virtual currency such as Bitcoin within three months, in April 2018.
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies, in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of the currency units and verify the transfer of funds, and SoftBank has pushed portfolio companies to prioritise profitability.
“In our previous phase, we added a lot of properties to our platform and built the brand and mindshare,” said founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal in an interview. “Our first focus of 2020 is growth with profitability.”
Agarwal said the global headcount would fall by about 17 per cent from 30,000 in January. The company is also prioritising improved relations with hotels and stronger corporate governance, he said. The worldwide overhaul was in full swing, he added. operating independently of a central bank. The ban led to plummeting trade volumes and exchanges shutting their businesses.
“Investments had stopped and start-ups were staying away from starting business in the crypto and blockchain space in India which will change now that the Supreme Court has said that the RBI circular was unconstitutional,”
Pharma exporters fear legal proceedings by foreign buyers from the government’s restriction on export of 26 drugs with “immediate effect”, as they are not able to fulfil their previous orders. Several other formulations coming under the same HS Codes of the restricted drugs are also being restricted by the customs department.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade on Tuesday restricted export of 26 drugs in the backdrop of increasing incidences of coronavirus.
Pharmexcil, the promotion body export of the said Nischal Shetty, CEO of WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange.
However, the industry still faces hurdles as a government panel, appointed to look into the matter, has recommended that India ought to ban all private cryptocurrencies. In July, the panel also recommended a jail term of up to 10 years and heavy fines for pharmaceutical companies, in a letter to the DGFT has asked to revisit the effective date of its order restricting the exports. “Most of the manufacturers and exporters have manufactured these listed items before the outbreak of covid-19 and have planned and committed to ship the consignments to their customers in agreed timelines. The reference notification imposing restriction on export of the listed items with immediate effect would severely impact our members, as anyone dealing currencies.
The government though is yet to act on these recommendations and is yet to finalse regulations around cryptocurrencies.
On several occasions, the government along with the central bank, had cautioned the public about the risks of cryptocurrencies. If the government follows the panel's recommendations, in digital many number of consignments are already lined up for export in the warehouses and ports,” Pharmexcil said.
Some of the orders for institutional supplies mandate the supply of all items committed in their contracts. Non-supply of one item would sometimes result in cancellation of entire order for all products and blacklisting and huge penalties on the companies by the procurement agencies. As a result, the exporters will not only suffer monetary losses but also lose their credibility. it could signal the end of the road for these digital currencies in India. The 2018 circular from the RBI
In April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India barred those financial bodies regulated by it to indulge in “Virtual Currencies (VCs) or provide services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling VCs.”
A court in Maharashtra has directed two-wheeler makers to offer two helmets to every buyer of the new vehicle.
The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Feb. 13 ordered that an intimation be sent to eight manufacturers along with the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) to strictly implement the order of supplying two helmets meeting the BSI standards to the buyer.
The two-wheeler manufacturers are Hero Motorcorp, Bajaj Auto, Suzuki Motorcycle India, Royal Enfield, TVS Motor, Piaggioo Vehicles, Honda Mtorcycle & Scooter India, and Yahama Motor.
The dealers had filed an affidavit giving names of these manufacturers, who supplied the vehicles without headgears.
A PIL was filed by an activist Saurabh Mahendrasingh Bhardwaj before the court that two-wheeler makers were not following the Rule 138(4)(f) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.