More job cuts likely at telcos, diesel hits all-time high, and more trending news

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About 50,000 telecom sector employees could get the sack over the next nine months, according to a CIEL HR Services report. That’s because keeping up with Reliance Jio’s disruptive pricing is crimping telcos' margins, forcing them to cut costs. Besides, the high cost of loan servicing and a wave of consolidation have hindered fresh investments in the sector. Salary hikes have been lacklustre: Seven in 10 employees got just 7% annual raise in 2017 compared to an average 10% across industries. Since last year, as many as 40,000 sector employees have got the boot, the report adds.

Fuel prices are going through the roof. Diesel has hit a record high of ?61.74/litre in Delhi and petrol is at a three-year peak of ?71.18/litre. Crude oil continues to trend up in global markets as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia have cut production, putting pressure on supply. Since June, Indian crude imports have become 64% dearer, leading to a run-up in fuel inflation. But experts feel prices will start moderating once US shale producers ramp up output over the next few months.

After a slow start, the Startup India programme is gaining momentum. About 5,800 ventures were onboarded under it last year, up from just 500 in 2016, Quartz reports. There’s also more money on offer: The Centre is putting an additional ?1,400 crore into the Fund of Funds, taking the total capital deployed to ?2,200 crore. Besides, Startup India will roll out a state-wise ranking of initiatives to boost women entrepreneurship. Many have termed the programme a non-starter — a recent survey showed that four in five entrepreneurs felt they did not benefit from it "in any way."

Xiaomi Corp. has been picking underwriters for a planned IPO, according to Bloomberg. The news service, citing an anonymous source, said the Chinese smartphone maker could be valued at as much as $100 billion, but the timing and location of the share sale were yet to be determined. Xiaomi, once China’s biggest smartphone maker, is among the top two players in India, along with Samsung. The company’s strategy of doling out high-end phones at aggressive price points is clicking: Its last big launch — the Redmi Note 4 — recently became India’s top selling smartphone.

India’s trade deficit expanded to a three-year high in December. BloombergQuint reports, citing government data, that the gap between imports and exports widened  by 41.1% to $14.88 billion. Gold and crude oil accounted for most of the 21%-plus rise in the import bill in December, more than enough to offset the 12% growth in exports. Nomura said in a report that supply chain disruptions following the GST rollout and strong demand kept import growth high. The trade deficit would continue to stay elevated thanks to high commodity prices, the brokerage said.

Idea of the Day: To hire the best people, interviewers need to move away from job descriptions that list skills and instead focus on concrete tasks, says hiring expert Lou Adler.

“If you can prove the person can do this work and is passionate about doing it, he/she will have exactly the skills, experiences, motivation, competencies and academic credentials needed AND the compensation/location/title will be less important.”

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Nirajita Banerjee / Share this using #DailyRundown