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☆ Indian winemaker Sula not losing sleep over foreign rivals - CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Biplob Kumar Das | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BENGALURU, Sept 15 (Reuters) - India's largest winemaker, Sula Vineyards (SULA.NS), is expanding its production capacity and counting on a pricing sweet spot to fend off foreign rivals in its home turf. Last year, the Indian government slashed import duties for some Australian winemakers as part of a foreign trade agreement (FTA) between the two nations. But among all the Indian wine companies, Sula has the least to fear," Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Samant told Reuters. He is counting on Sula's pricing strategy to thwart rivals. Wine consumers are getting "turned on" by the 800 rupee-plus category, he said, adding that the rise in demand for premium wines was largely limited to India's big cities.

Persons: Rajeev Samant, Samant, Grover Zampa, Biplob Kumar Das, Dhanya Skariachan, Gerry Doyle Organizations: Reuters, Grover, Diageo, Spirits, Heineken, United Breweries, Thomson Locations: BENGALURU, Sula, India, Mumbai, Bengaluru

The company already owns digital streaming rights to the popular Indian Premier League Twenty-20 (IPL T20) tournament. Ambani snatched away the rights from the Disney Plus Hotstar streaming service in a $2.9 billion bid last year, and then streamed games for free. This prompted Disney subscribers to flee - out of 61 million users in October 2022, about 21 million had left by July this year. Last year, Disney renewed its media rights to show International Cricket Council's tournaments in India from 2024 to 2027 after winning a bid for $3 billion. It later licensed the TV broadcast rights to India's Zee Entertainment (ZEE.NS) and only regained the digital streaming rights, a source told Reuters.

Persons: Mukesh Ambani, Francis Mascarenhas, Mukesh Ambani's, Walt Disney, Viacom18, Ambani, Karan Taurani, Aditya Kalra, Nandan Mandayam, Biplob Kumar Das, Sonia Cheema Organizations: Reliance Industries, REUTERS, Walt, Control, Cricket, BCCI, Indian Premier League, Disney, Elara, Reuters, Asia Cup, ICC Cricket, India's Zee Entertainment, Thomson Locations: Mumbai, India, India's

A man checks his mobile phone as he waits while recharging his Ola electric scooter at an electric vehicle charging station in New Delhi, India, February 12, 2022. REUTERS/Aditi Shah/File PhotoPOCHAMPALLI, TAMIL NADU, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Ola Electric, India's largest maker of electric scooters, launched its most affordable rides on Tuesday, in an effort to woo more buyers as the price of e-scooters moves closer to gasoline models. The cheapest gasoline scooter in India costs about 64,000 rupees. The Softbank Group-backed (9984.T) company on Tuesday said it has opened 100 more service centres across the country, taking their total tally to 500. ($1 = 83.3916 Indian rupees)Reporting by Varun Vyas in Pochampalli, Riddhima Talwani in New Delhi and Biplob Kumar Das in Bengaluru, editing by Aditi Shah and Sonia CheemaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Aditi Shah, Ola, Varun Vyas, Riddhima, Biplob Kumar Das, Sonia Cheema Organizations: REUTERS, Softbank, Thomson Locations: New Delhi, India, Pochampalli, Bengaluru

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Indian gaming app Mobile Premier League will lay off 350 employees as it takes steps to "survive" a tax imposed by the Indian government on online gaming companies, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday. The move comes on the back of the government's decision last month to impose a 28% tax on funds that online gaming companies collect from customers. The new rule will increase the company's tax burden by 350%-400%, MPL CEO Sai Srinivas said in the memo, adding that the company is revisiting expenses related to their server and office infrastructure. The source could not be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media. Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Additional reporting by Biplob Kumar Das and Ashish Chandra; Editing by Sonia CheemaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Sai Srinivas, Srinivas, MPL, Aditya Kalra, Biplob Kumar Das, Ashish Chandra, Sonia Cheema Organizations: NEW, Mobile Premier League, Reuters, Thomson Locations: NEW DELHI, BENGALURU

☆ Indian shares set for muted start to week after Russia turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BENGALURU, June 26 (Reuters) - Indian shares were set for a muted open on Monday, on the heels of their first weekly loss in over a month, as crude prices rose on supply concerns after a short-lived mutiny by mercenaries in Russia. Foreign institutional investors sold a net 3.45 billion rupees ($42.1 million) worth of Indian equities on Friday, while domestic investors sold 6.84 billion rupees of shares, as per provisional NSE data. STOCKS TO WATCH:** ICICI Bank (ICBK.NS), ICICI Securities (ICCI.NS): Boards of the companies to consider delisting of ICICI Securities shares on June 29. ** HDFC Life Insurance Company: India's insurance regulator granted approval for transfer of its shares from HDFC Ltd (HDFC.NS) to HDFC Bank (HDBK.NS). ** Shree Cement (SHCM.NS): NDTV reported that tax evasion to the tune of 230 billion rupees ($2.80 billion) has been found in tax searches at multiple locations of Shree Cement in Rajasthan.

Persons: Wagner, Brent, Chris Thomas, Biplob Kumar Das, Eileen Soreng Organizations: Singapore Exchange, BSE, ICICI Bank, ICICI Securities, Life Insurance, HDFC Ltd, HDFC Bank, Ipca, U.S, FDA, of Maharashtra, Axis Bank, Kashmir Bank, NDTV, Shree, Thomson Locations: BENGALURU, Russia, Russian, Moscow, Asia, India, Pithampur, Jammu, Kashmir, Shree Cement, Rajasthan, Bengaluru

[1/2] A smartphone with the Netflix logo lies in front of displayed "Streaming service" words in this illustration taken March 24, 2020. Companies often face legal cases and police complaints their content sometimes hurt religious sentiment, and many have self-censored content over the years. As part of India's anti-tobacco drive, the health ministry this week ordered streaming platforms should within three months insert static health warnings during smoking scenes. The companies, and India's health ministry, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. But in India, companies from Netflix to Amazon (AMZN.O) to Disney (DIS.N), also have popular Hindi content which often shows Bollywood actors smoking, something activists say encourages tobacco use.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Mukesh Ambani's, Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine, Ambani's JioCinema, Kaushik Moitra, Dylan Mohan Gray, Aditya Kalra, Biplob Kumar Das, Tony Tharakan, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, David Evans Organizations: Netflix, REUTERS, Disney, Companies, Reuters, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros, Bharucha, Partners, Thomson Locations: India, DELHI, New Delhi, Bengaluru

☆ India's PhonePe launches e-commerce app on government's open network
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Varunvyas Hebbalalu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Saumya KhandelwalBENGALURU, April 4 (Reuters) - Walmart Inc-backed (WMT.N) digital payments firm PhonePe Pvt Ltd launched an app called Pincode on the Indian government's open network on Tuesday to strengthen its e-commerce business. The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was launched last year to enable small merchants and local stores across India to access processes and technologies typically deployed by large e-commerce platforms like Amazon (AMZN.O) and Walmart (WMT.N). Pincode, which will focus on hyperlocal commerce, is currently live only in Bengaluru and available on the Google Play Store and the App Store, PhonePe said in a statement. PhonePe already has an e-commerce platform, called Switch, on its app, which offers services including food delivery, grocery shopping, travel, hotel booking, retail fashion and healthcare. India's most valuable payments firm, PhonePe had raised $200 million from majority-backer Walmart in a pre-money $12 billion valuation in March.

☆ India's Adani partners with Leyland, Ballard to make hydrogen fueled electric truck
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The project led by Adani, will have Ballard supply the fuel cell engine, while Indian truck maker Ashok Leyland will provide vehicle and technical support for the project. If the devices that do that, electrolysers, are powered by renewable energy, the product is called green hydrogen. The Indian government had recently approved an incentive plan of 174.9 billion rupees ($2.11 billion) to promote green hydrogen and had set green hydrogen consumption targets for some industries earlier this month. Indian companies such as Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), Indian Oil (IOC.NS), NTPC (NTPC.NS), Adani, JSW Energy (JSWE.NS), ReNew Power (RENE.BO) and Acme Solar (ACMO.NS) have big plans for green hydrogen. Adani has a tie-up with French energy company TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) as part of a deal to form a new green hydrogen project in India.

☆ India's Tata Group to open 100 exclusive Apple stores -report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Dec 12 (Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Tata Group-owned Infiniti Retail, which runs the 'Croma' chain of stores, plans to open 100 stores across the country that will only sell Apple Inc (AAPL.O) products, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Monday, citing two people aware of the matter. Reporting by Biplob Kumar Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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