Uber appoints India chief Amit Jain as Asia-Pacific head
Jain, who leads the India business of the world’s largest ride-hailing service Uber Technologies, has been tasked with heading its entire Asia Pacific business, signalling the company’s intention to focus on markets such as Australia and take on Indian rival Ola, which recently launched its service in that country.
Jain, who has been designated regional general manager of Asia Pacific for Uber, will oversee the company’s operations in Australia, New Zealand and North Asia as part of his new role, while continuing to manage the India and South Asia businesses. Uber appointed Jain as its India head in June 2015.
Jain’s elevation comes weeks after Ola expanded its service in Australia, launching in Brisbane, Canberra and the Gold Coast. Over the coming months, Ola is expected to launch in several more cities in the country, where it has already started gaining market share at a brisk pace.
In a statement, Uber said that India and South Asia continued to be strategically important markets for the company. In an interview last year during the aftermath of co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick’s ouster from Uber, Jain had emphasized that India remained a priority for the company and the cab-hailing firm would double down on its investments in the country.
“Business in India is absolutely rock solid. It continues to grow at an exponential rate. We continue to grow the number of cars that are there on our platform. India continues to be a very strategic market for Uber. The investment in the India business is strong—so, nothing changes from that perspective,” Jain had said in an interview on July 3 last year.
Jain’s elevation comes at a time when Uber is engaged in a bruising market share battle in the entire Asia Pacific region against local rivals such as Ola, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, a common investor in both start-ups.
“I am really excited to be stepping up to lead Uber’s ridesharing operations in APAC. We have amazing people doing phenomenal work, here at Uber, and I am excited to work with them to grow and expand our business in APAC. We will remain committed offer the best ride experiences to our riders, creating sustainable economic opportunities for our driver partners, and redefining the future of urban mobility in our cities across the region,” said Jain in a statement.
Mint reported earlier in May that SoftBank is in the midst of a boardroom battle with Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola, after Aggarwal blocked a proposed deal involving Tiger Global Management selling part of its stake to SoftBank.
Mint also reported earlier on Monday that Ola is adopting a holding company structure similar to that of India’s most successful internet startup Flipkart to boost the cab-hailing company’s valuation and improve the management of its businesses.
State-run power major NTPC on Monday posted a 40.69% jump in its standalone net profit at ₹2,925.59 crore for the March 2018 quarter, mainly on the back of higher revenues. The company’s standalone net profit was ₹2,079.40 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago, NTPC said in a BSE filing.
Its total income on standalone basis stood at ₹2,3617.83 crore in Q4 of 2017-18, against ₹20,886.85 crore a year ago. For the entire 2017-18 fiscal, its consolidated net profit came in at ₹10,501.50 crore, marginally down from ₹10,713.94 crore in the previous fiscal.
On a consolidated basis, its total income for the fiscal stood at ₹89,641.59 crore as against ₹83,009.31 crore in 2016-17. The company said sales include ₹210.33 crore, as on March 31, 2018, on account of income tax refundable.
Sales also include ₹66.98 crore on account of deferred tax materialised which is recoverable from beneficiaries. During the quarter, the company paid an interim dividend of ₹2.73 per equity share (par value ₹10 each) for 2017-18. The board of directors recommended a final dividend of 2.39 per equity share (value ₹10 each). Total dividend (including interim dividend) for 2017-18 is ₹5.12 per equity share (of ₹10 each). The plant load factor (PLF) or capacity utilisation of coal based plants was down at 79.03% in March quarter from 81.21 year ago.
During 2017-18, the PLF of coal based plants was 77.90% down from 78.59% in 2016-17 . Gross power generation was 68.58 billion units (BU) in March quarter up from 63.77 BU a year ago. During 2017-18, the gross generation of electricity was 265.79 BU, up from 250.31 BU.
BENGALURU:Amit NEWDELHI: ON A CONSOLIDATED BASIS, NTPC’S TOTAL INCOME FOR THE FISCAL STOOD AT ₹89,641.59 CRORE