Tata Sons gets a new boss, SpiceJet’s $10 bln deal and other news from India

Change of guard: There’s a new boss at Tata Sons and he has a tough job ahead of him. N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD of Tata Consultancy Services, the technology arm of the group and its best performing company, was elevated to chairman of Tata Sons, the most powerful role in the country’s biggest business group. Chandra, as he’s popularly known, has taken on this job at a time when the group’s reputation had been dragged through the mud after a bout of infighting between former chairman Ratan Tata and ousted Cyrus Mistry. Top of his list of priorities will be to bring the Tata group’s focus back to business and restore shareholders’ faith in the group companies.

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“Consumers will not be burdened with card use charges. Retail outlets will also be kept out of its purview. It is between banks and oil marketing companies how they share it,” Indian oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan weighs in on the fight between banks and oil companies on card charges.

Flying high: The Indian airline is all set to close a $11 billion deal with Boeing to buy 90-100 planes to expand its services in world’s fastest growing aviation market. This is a remarkable turnaround for SpiceJet, which came dangerously close to down its shutters just over two years ago as it ran out of cash.

Time of reckoning: Infosys, once a bellwether stock and a market darling, will be announcing its quarterly results today. Analysts expect it to scale down its growth targets for a third time this year because of forex turmoil. This will be its first earnings announcement since Donald Trump won the US presidential election. CEO Vishal Sikka has said he expects some headwinds, given the new administration’s hawkish view on foreign worker visas. Rival TCS which announced results yesterday said its full year growth may skid to a seven-year low and is tweaking its business model to adapt to a “visa constrained regime.” (Pic credit: Business Standard).

Disney’s swan song: Disney India recently announced that it was bowing out of the chaotic Indian film business and will hang around to release the under production movies. Its last movie released a month ago. Dangal, a movie about wrestling has earned 3.5 billion rupees or $50 million, making it India’s highest grossing Bollywood film ever.

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