Top headlines: RIL's green hydrogen biz, Sebi moots ASBA-like system

Business Standard brings you the top headlines at this hour

Hiring slowdown lifts India's top IT companies' profit per employee

A slowdown in hiring by India’s top IT companies has resulted in a sharp increase in the industry’s profit per employee in Q3FY23.

The top four IT companies earned a net profit of 1.7 lakh per employee during October-December 2022, up 8.6 per cent from Rs 1.57 lakh in Q2FY23 and 16.3 per cent from a record low of Rs 1.47 lakh in Q1FY23. Earnings per employee in the third quarter were, however, still down 0.9 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. In FY21, these four companies earned a net profit of Rs 1.95 lakh per employee during the October-December quarter. Read more...

Sebi moots ASBA-like payment system for secondary market stock trade

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday gave details of a proposed framework for shifting to a new payments system for secondary market trades. The move is primarily aimed at safeguarding investors from potential misuse of their funds by brokers. Read more...

Reliance Industries may hive off green hydrogen business to InvIT

Reliance Industries is likely to hive off its green hydrogen business to an InvIT structure at a valuation of $8 billion, according to global financial services firm Jefferies.

The European Union’s and India’s green hydrogen sector, according to Jefferies, could translate into a $74-billion market for RIL’s electrolyser manufacturing business by 2030. "RIL would replace grey hydrogen with green hydrogen at its refineries. It could monetise the captive green hydrogen production by moving it into an InvIT and inducting investors," the firm said in a note to its clients. Read more...

Gogoro, Belrise to bet $2.5 bn on battery-swapping infra in Maharashtra

Gogoro, a Taiwanese firm that is in the business of sustainable mobility technology and battery-swapping infrastructure, on Tuesday announced a 50-50 joint venture with Belrise Industries (earlier known as Badve Engineering) to invest $2.5 billion (Rs 20,500 crore) over eight years to build battery-swapping and energy infrastructure in Maharashtra. Read more...

Big states lag on capital expenditure front despite Centre's support

At a time when private sector investment plans are taking a hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is the public sector that has been bearing the weight of capital expenditure and new infrastructure spending in the Indian economy in the past few years.

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran had last month said that in the past 10 years, public sector capital investment increased from Rs 6.8 trillion to Rs 21.2 trillion, at a time when the financial sector companies were still repairing their balance sheets. By public sector, Nageswaran meant the central and state governments and state-owned enterprises. Read more...