Myntra Goes Omni, Banks Get More Government Money, Rejig At Infy And Other India News

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Expansion Plans: Online fashion store Myntra is now planning to open brick and mortar stores to showcase its store brands, a testament to the fact that India’s retail players cannot afford to ignore either channel to reach their customers. Its first store will open in three months in Bangalore or New Delhi, according to CEO Ananth Narayanan. As a part of its expansion plan, Myntra may also buy a majority stake in HRX, a clothing brand owned by actor Hrithik Roshan, taking the total number of store brands it owns to 12. Considering the drama that’s going on at its biggest online rival Jabong, Myntra will do well to focus on boosting its advantage while it can.

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Bank Booster: Cash strapped government banks are set to get 230 billion rupees from the government to meet capital requirement rules and help them increase lending. Three-quarters of this money will be given immediately, while the rest will be performance linked. Banks are struggling to find money to lend, especially after new RBI rules forced them to be more transparent about their bad loans, bringing their troubles into the spotlight. Analysts are skeptical, although Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said he may release more funds if required. Propping up banks is critical for the government as more lending will help economic growth, which big on the Modi government's list of objectives.

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Infosys Rejigs Top Team: After weaker than expected results and a cut in its yearly forecast disappointed investors, Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka has rejigged his top team. The main changes were to the big deals team, artificial intelligence team and the M&A team. The change was preceded by the exit of two top executives from Infosys, both veterans, earlier this week.

“I am disappointed. Disappointed that our revenue performance was not what we could have delivered, but even more so, that this overshadowed the many strong strides we made on executing our strategy.” Vishal Sikka in an email to employees

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Wipro: Joining Infosys and TCS in posting worrying results for the quarter is their third counterpart: Wipro. Its earnings missed analyst expectations and its forecast wasn’t anything to write home about. Profitability is dropping even as it tries to gain more business from existing clients, but CEO Abid Ali Neemuchwala said it will take three more quarters to show an improvement.

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FTIL: After Financial Technologies CEO Jignesh Shah was arrested last week, authorities have seized property worth 20 billion rupees, including the headquarters of FTIL, now curiously renamed 63 Moons.

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IMF has lowered its growth projection for India in 2016 to 7.4 percent from 7.5 percent. Part of the reason is the impact of Brexit, which has also pulled down its global growth projections, but the IMF is also worried about the weak investment climate in the country.

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Parliament Update: The NDA government seems to have added another ally as it seeks to get the GST Bill cleared through Parliament in this session. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar appears to have been won over, a respectable win, as the Modi government inches towards the majority it needs to get the bill passed.

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