Daily Pulse India: Uber Surge Return Annoys Kejriwal, No Takers For Mallya’s Brands, Cautious Optimism on Earnings

To Surge Or Not To Surge: The battle between taxi cab aggregators and state governments heated up over the weekend after Uber restarted surge pricing when the Odd-Even period ended. For those who came in late, the Delhi government, in an attempt to control pollution, declared that cars with odd and even number plates should be driven on alternate days for two weeks. As demand for cabs rose among car-owners who weren’t allowed to take their car out every other day, surge pricing kicked in. Uber and Ola had suspended surge pricing during this two-week period. But, with the odd even rule lifted, surge is back. And Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is not happy.

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Celebs Get Expensive: As the government firm up rules that hold celebrities responsible for claims made by brands they endorse, it’s the companies themselves that will eventually pay for it. Celebrities are apparently turning to insurance plans to safeguard against the possibility of a jail term and the costs of these plans will naturally be worked into these contracts. Some celebrity managers say that even existing contracts may have to be reworked. While holding an endorser responsible for what the company does may seem illogical, we have seen the case of Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and a dubious real estate company that went south.

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Corporate Earnings: A look at the companies that have declared earnings so far shows that nearly two out of three have beaten street expectations in the March quarter. The increase in government spending and a drop in commodity prices over the past few months seems to have had an effect. Shareholders can go home happy as dividend payments are also steadily increasing. Can we now say we’re cautiously optimisitic?

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Mallya’s properties: A second attempt by banks to recover money by selling Vijay Mallya’s assets fell flat after there were no takers for his trademark brands. Banks had set the reserve price at the auction at 3.7 billion rupees, a fraction of what they had lent against the brand value. It makes the chances of recovering the money seem more and more remote.

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No Labour Laws: The government has put its plans to usher in changes in labour laws on hold after trade unions came down heavily on them. Some changes, which are seen as necessary to bring in more investment into Make In India, such as easier retrenchment laws or exempting smaller businesses from some of the laws, have been fiercely opposed by the unions. State government, on the other hand, are going ahead with the changes they can as they fight for a piece of the foreign investment pie.

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Silver Lining: Banks that are bracing themselves for a 120 billion rupee hit on their books, thanks to a food scam in Punjab, can breathe a little easier. The central government may confirm that the loans are backed by a sovereign guarantee, which means those loans will not be classified as bad. While, it does seem like robbing Peter to pay Paul, at least smaller banks can get a break.

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Cover Image: Laughing out loud on World Laughter Day.

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