IT firms to shed 5-10% of mid-level workforce: Bala

The global debt load has surged to a new record equivalent to more than double the world’s economic output, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warned. “Global debt — both public and private — has reached an alltime high of $188 trillion. This amounts to about 230 per cent of world output,” she said. That is up from the previous record of $164 trillion in 2016.

India’s plan to set up a Rs

25,000-crore ($3.5 billion) fund to salvage stalled residential projects will only be sufficient to complete about 6 per cent of constructions that are running behind schedule.

The new programme announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday is an improvement on a $1.4 billion real-estate corpus announced in September and, unlike the previous plan, it will also support projects written off by lenders as bad loans. With

$63 billion of housing projects stuck for lack of funds, the latest measure will help unclog the financing pipes, said Anuj Puri, Chairman of Anarock Property Consultants.

The fund size isn’t enough to cover the entire problem but will act as a “lubricant to start the wheel that had

Beijing, Nov. 7: China and the US have agreed to roll back tariffs on each other’s goods in phases as they work toward a deal between the two sides, a Ministry of Commerce spokesman said.

“In the past two weeks, top negotiators had serious, constructive discussions and agreed to remove the additional tariffs in phases as progress is made on the agreement,” spokesman Gao Feng said Thursday.

“If China, US reach a phase-one deal, both sides should roll back existing additional tariffs in the same proportion simultaneously based on the content of the agreement, which is an important condition for reaching the agreement,” Gao said.

If confirmed by the US, such an understanding could help provide a roadmap to a deal de-escalating the trade war that’s cast a shadow over the world economy. China’s key demand since the start of been jammed,” Puri said in an interview. Once projects are revived and completed, money will start circulating in the system, which will help all developers, he said.

Developers say authorities need to carefully structure and price the fund, and roll it out quickly, for it to succeed.

The new fund “will be in the form of an alternate investment fund (AIF) with the government contributing Rs 10,000 corre,” Sitharaman said. Life Insurance Corp., State Bank of India and others are likely to contribute the remaining Rs 15,000 crore.

The fund could take as much as six months to be operational, screening of eligible projects will need time, and “at best” will help around 16 per cent of stalled projects “over a period of time,” Jefferies analysts led by Bhaskar Basu wrote in a note.

In all, about 576,000 projects worth some Rs 4.6 lakh crore ($63 billion) are running behind schedule across seven big Indian negotiations has been the removal of punitive tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, which by now apply to the majority of its exports to the US.

Stocks rallied, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 0.6 per cent. European shares and US stock futures jumped. The yuan strengthened.

“The question right now is what the two sides have actually agreed on -- the market’s focus has shifted to how the US may react to China’s tariff remarks in coming days,” said Tommy Xie, an Economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “Investors are still cautious.”

The two sides continue to negotiate over where and when a “Phase One” deal would be signed. Gao said he had no further information on the location or timing. US locations for a Trump-Xi meeting that had been proposed by the White House, including Iowa and Alaska, have been ruled out.—Bloomberg

The government on Thursday advised homebuyers to approach lenders for additional borrowing or revival of their loans, while clarifying that projects facing litigation in higher courts will not be covered under the Rs 25,000-crore scheme announced on Wednesday.

“Homebuyers are advised to reach out to their respective lending institutions to seek necessary guidance for additional borrowing or revival of

cities, according Anarock data.

“The devil lies in the details,” Boman Irani, Chairman of Mumbaibased developer Rustomjee Group, said by phone. For the fund to be viable, real estate companies mustn’t have to pay

to

New Delhi, Nov 7: Sebi on Thursday directed mutual funds to create segregated portfolios of unrated debt in case of default as the watchdog seeks to curb instances of distressed assets impacting investor returns.

Sebi in a circular said it has decided "to permit creation of segregated portfolio of unrated debt or money market instruments by mutual fund schemes of an issuer that does not have any outstanding rated debt or money market instruments".

This is allowed provided that segregated portfolio of such unrated debt or money market instruments may be created only in case of actual default of interest or principal. Creation of segregated portfolios is a mechanism to separate illiquid assets from liquid assets. their existing home loans within the existing legal and regulatory framework and standard board approved policies of the lending institutions,” said the frequently asked questions (FAQs) issued by the ministry.

“The proposed AIF will not invest in projects that are facing litigation in the high courts or the Supreme Court. The focus of this special window will be on the projects that are stalled for lack of construction funding,” the FAQs said, adding that it shall also look at projects

more than 9 per cent, which may hamper interest from external investors, he said.

State Bank of India’s investment unit SBICAP Ventures Ltd will be the investment manager in charge of determining and monitoring the usage of

Bengaluru, Nov. 7: Information technology companies in the country have no choice but to lay off at least five to ten per cent of their middle-level staff to ward off margin pressure and become more agile, IT industry veteran V Balakrishnan said on Thursday.

The middle-layer accounts for about 20-30 per cent of the total workforce of IT companies.

The former Chief Financial Officer of software giant Infosys Ltd said the companies have no choice because they all have built a lot of fat in the middle, so they have to reduce it and become more agile.

“Also, they have to get employees who understand new technologies, they have to get rid of some of the employees, who are more on the legacy, and try to attract talent which is more digital, that has to happen, there is no choice”, Balakrishnan told PTI. with NPA or undergoing NCLT proceedings that can commence construction immediately after funds are made available.

The funding would be provided to affordable and middle-income housing projects. Such projects are those wherein dwelling units do not exceed 200 square metre carpet area and are priced up to Rs 2 crore in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, up to Rs 1.5 crore in NCR, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, and up to Rs 1 crore in the rest of India.

the fund. The fund will mainly structure its investments in the form of non-convertible debentures and the investment manager will determine expected returns based on the risk profile and other details of specific projects, the government said in a

Asked if other companies would follow suit after lay-offs at Cognizant and Infosys, he said they have no choice, because there was lot of pressure on the margins.

“When you go more on the digital side, customers are also becoming more conscious about the cost. On the other side, you have to become more agile, cut all the flab, that's statement Thursday.

The last-mile funding provided should be made the most senior debt in the waterfall, according to analysts at Nomura Holdings Inc. and Anarock’s Puri.

An analysis of about 11,000 home builders by research firm Liases Foras in February showed that developers on average have to repay twice as much in debt each year as the income they generate that can be used to service it. This comes as property prices in India’s biggest cities are flagging -- home values in Mumbai sank 11 per cent last year following a 5 per cent decline in 2017. India introduced a law with strict punishments for building delays in 2016.

The inclusion of projects that had been written off as bad loans will benefit several incomplete housing projects in areas like Noida near New Delhi, according to Niranjan Hiranandani, President of the National Real Estate Development Council. (lay-offs) inevitable, that will happen with all companies”, Balakrishnan said.

However, he said, the growth of Indian IT services companies in general in the calendar year 2019 has been stable with reasonable growth. There were fears of slowdown in the global economies but that impact has not been seen.

Qatar Airways reiterated it is keen to buy a stake in IndiGo, India’s biggest airline, to help the Doha-based company bolster its presence in the world’s fastestgrowing aviation market.

The company, which signed a code-share partnership with IndiGo’s owner, Interglobe Aviation, on Thursday, first showed interest in acquiring a stake in 2015.

The one-way codeshare agreement will enable Qatar Airways to put its passengers on the Indian carrier’s flights between Doha and Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Qatar Airways will still wait for a battle between IndiGo’s shareholders to end before it announces any decision, Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said in New Delhi.

The company has no interest in buying the government’s stake in flag carrier Air India, he said.

A stake in an Indian carrier will help Qatar Airways to compete with its Middle Eastern rivals by expanding in a market where air-travel penetration remains low. IndiGo has emerged as the biggest Indian airline following the collapse of Jet Airways India. Last week, IndiGo ordered 300 narrow-body jets from Airbus SE — one of the European plane maker’s biggest ever deals.

India has been trying to sell Air India to help raise funds to bridge a budget shortfall. An attempt made to sell the carrier last year failed as no one showed interest in the airline.

“No, we are only interested in IndiGo,” Al Baker said when asked if Qatar Airways will be interested in buying state-run Air India.

— Bloomberg