Morning Scan: All the big stories to get you started for the day

A round-up of the biggest articles from newspapers.

The Joe Biden administration will seek to build a new “collaborative approach” on trade with India that will respect each other’s “sensitivities” and “political requirements”, instead of “locking horns” which makes it a “tug of war” or a “zero-sum game”, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai told in an interview with The Economic Times.

On China’s aggressive economic policies, Tai batted for creating a “new version of globalisation” as many countries were facing the consequences of “over-reliance on a single source”.

On the possibility of a free trade agreement with India, she said the US was refashioning its approach to a more worker-centric model.

US trade policy has become disconnected from people. There’s a significant trust gap between workers and citizens.

Tai stressed the need to forge an innovative trade relationship with India.

Tai identified digital trade as a potential area where new approaches could be developed.

With India, “We need to have more productive ways of engaging and communicating with each other as governments.”

The government will return bank guarantees of telecom companies even for matters which are currently sub judice, The Economic Times reported.

Why it’s important: The DoT is likely to tell the Supreme Court soon that these would be returned in addition to bank guarantees which the telcos had furnished to cover for spectrum payments.

The government will protect its deferment dues by asking the companies to furnish the bank guarantees a year before the spectrum dues are up for payment.

Between Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, the DoT holds some Rs35,000 crore in bank guarantees.

Around Rs 13,000 crore are related to sub judice matters.

The biggest beneficiary of the move would be Vodafone Idea as the company has about Rs 10,000 crore locked away in bank guarantees.

The same is about Rs3,000 crore for Bharti Airtel.

Equity hedge funds are in a spot following a clarification issued by Sebi on their portfolio composition, The Economic Times reported.

Why it’s important: The new guidelines require them to cut exposure to their best-performing stocks.

Category III Alternative Investment Funds, also known as hedge funds, cannot invest more than 10% of their portfolio in a single stock.

On November 22, the Sebi issued a clarification on the concentration norms wherein it brought the concept of ‘passive breach’.

This disparity in the performance of stocks could potentially lead to a situation where the two well-performing stocks will exceed the 10% cap.

AIFs said the passive breach rule could adversely impact them in challenging market conditions.

They are expected to approach Sebi later this week seeking to ease the rule.

Shapoorji Pallonji Group is in talks to raise up to $375 million through the sale of luxurious premium real estate properties in Dubai as the group deleverages, The Economic Times reported.

Why it’s important: The group wants to improve its cash flows.

The funds raised will be used for working capital and growth requirements.

It sold Eureka Forbes and is in the process of selling Sterling and Wilson.

Imperial Avenue is one such premium property that Shapoorji Pallonji Group aims to sell.

The group had been tackling a stretched balance sheet in 2020 after the outbreak of Covid-19.

The government has started work on having an annual auction, The Times of India reported.

Why it’s important: This major reform move will ensure that the industry has enough supplies of the airwaves.

The Centre is also planning a real-time spectrum trading, on the lines of trading of electricity.

The idea of having annual spectrum auctions during pre-decided months is being considered with a timeline of fiscal 2023-24.

This would be crucial as technological advancements happen at a rapid pace and the need for airwaves may go up given new applications around the internet of things, augmented and virtual reality, smart factories, autonomous driving, and immersive education and medical facilities.

A top tax committee is set to weigh an increase in GST slabs to raise an extra Rs 3 trillion revenue annually, a Mint reported.

Why it’s important: A panel will examine proposals to raise the 5% slab to 7% and the 18% slab to 20%.

The additional tax revenue will be shared equally by the Centre and States.

The tax hike will help stabilise tax revenues for the Centre, which is facing a shortfall after the recent fuel duty cuts and create space for spending on welfare schemes.

It will also save States when the GST compensation from the Centre expires in June.

Sunil D’Souza, MD & CEO, Tata Consumer Products, in an interview with Business Standard, said that the idea of creating TCPL was to make sure that we’re creating one company, which has the entire end-to-end FMCG DNA.

The two big businesses we have are tea and salt and we are seeing diametrically opposite trends in them.

Tea cost had gone up 70 per cent in the September quarter.

Also, we use a lot of energy for producing salt which is starting to hurt.

Fundamentally, e-commerce as a channel is primed for growth.

We will be wherever the consumer is, whether it’s Amazon, Grofers, BigBasket, or Tata Neu.

We opened 45-50 Starbucks stores in the last year as we were never in doubt about the brand.

The Indian Railways has sought participation from State governments, private players and PSUs to operate around 150 tourism-focused trains, Business Standard reported.

Why it’s important: This will be treated as a new revenue segment for the railways.

These theme-based tourist circuit trains will be called Bharat Gaurav Trains.

The core strength of professionals in the tourism sector would be leveraged to develop/identify tourist circuits and run theme-based trains to tap the vast tourism potential of India.

There has been interest from multiple State governments for running these trains.

Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said: “Traditionally, the railways eyed passenger and freight earnings. This time, the focus is on developing a segment for tourism as well.”