Air tickets could become more expensive. The government is mulling a 38% increase in passenger service fee (from ₹130 to ₹180) to fund rising security costs at airports,Economic Times reports, quoting unidentified aviation ministry officials. India spends nearly ₹1,300 crore (largely manpower costs) for guarding its airports, 26 of which come under the “hypersensitive” category. The ministry is compelled to hike PSF as there is a revenue shortfall of ₹500 crore, despite aid from the Consolidated Fund of India.
Apple could release a cheaper iPhone during the first half of 2018, according to China’s Economic Daily News. The iPhone SE 2 would cost roughly $450 and target emerging markets. “Some Apple fans are hoping Apple will put an iPhone X-style edge-to-edge display on the iPhone SE 2, but it sounds like that won’t happen next year. Thedesign on the iPhone SE 2 will allegedly be the same as on the current model,” per Cult of Mac. The company’s revenues from India doubled year-on-year in the September quarter, thanks to rising iPhone sales and the growing popularity of iPads and Macs.
Tata Nano is getting an electric avatar and a new name — Jayem Neo. A product of Tata Motors’ joint venture with Jayem Automotives, the e-car would launch on November 28 with anchor customer Ola, which would operate 400 such cars. Jayem Neo has the ability to clock up to 150 kilometers on a single charge. The original Nano, once billed as India’s cheapest car, is being produced on a subscale level as sales have consistently fallen. The government wants to electrify all vehicles in India by 2030.
India is set to revamp its nearly six-decade-old Income Tax Act. The Finance Ministry has set up a six-member task force to draft a new direct tax law with the aim of bringing more people within the tax base, improving collections and upping the ease of doing business, Livemint reports. The panel would study existing provisions and models in other countries before proposing changes. Just 1.9% Indians pay income tax but salaried citizens pay more tax than high earners in the US and China, data shows.
Moody’s predicts 2018 to be a year of recovery for corporates. Riding on (projected) GDP growth of 7.6% next year, companies could clock a pre-tax growth of 5-6% over the next 18 months, the rating agency said. Their ability to refinance debt would improve significantly because of factors such as GST stabilisation, improvement in production capacity and benign commodity prices. But all this would change if economic growth remains below 6%, Moody’s said. Recently, Moody’s upped India’s sovereign rating for the first time in 14 years.
Idea of the Day: Adelante SCM President Adrian Gonzalez keeps returning to a Thanksgiving story he wrote in 2012 — a story of his family’s hard work and dedication in the face of tremendous odds. Don’t put too much stock in the odds, he says; having them in your favor doesn’t automatically spell success.
“Instead of the odds, I say, give me the will to succeed, the courage to try again whenever I fail, and the love and support of family, friends, and community."
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