FBI to publicly release report on Hillary Clinton email investigation

FBI to publicly release report on Hillary Clinton email investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) expects to publicly release the report sent to the Justice Department in July recommending no charges in the Hillary Clinton email server investigation in the coming days, officials said.

The release is in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests including from CNN.

Also to be released is Hillary Clinton's 302, the FBI agent notes from Clinton's voluntary interview at FBI headquarters, CNN reported on Tuesday.

The report is about 30 pages, and the 302 is about a dozen pages according to the officials.

Not yet being released are additional notes from interviews of Clinton aides or other investigative materials that were sent to Congress.

Last month, FBI Director James Comey recommended against charges for Clinton for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, but he did describe her behaviour as "extremely careless" with classified material. Read Full Story>>>

Asus India eyes 1 crore smartphone sales in 2 years

Asus India eyes 1 crore smartphone sales in 2 years

Asus India is eyeing to secure seven per cent market share with sales of around one crore smartphones in the next two years, a top company executive said on Tuesday.

"The company has seen good performance in Indian market and hopes to secure seven per cent market share with sales of around one crore smartphones in next two years," the company's Regional Head (South Asia and Country Manager) Peter Chang told reporters here.

Chang was in the city to unveil and showcase Asus' largest range of premium products in Bengaluru market.

In the next one year, the company hopes to secure five per cent of India's smartphone market, Chang said but declined to divulge the five-year long-term goal.

The company has had a good start and been growing at a good pace by securing 2.5 per cent since its inception in 2014, inspite of facing tough competition, with around 20 to 30 brands operating to get customers' attention, Chang said. Read More

New a/c rules to hit FMCG firms' revenues

New a/c rules to hit FMCG firms' revenues

Ind-AS, the new accounting standards that came into effect from April 1, might squeeze the revenues of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies by up to eight per cent in 2016-17.

The key cause is deduction of sales promotion expenditure from the revenue figure, hitherto part of the profit & loss (P&L) statement under the earlier IGAAP accounting norms.

In the just-concluded June quarter, for instance, the top line of the country's largest consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), was affected by 2.6 per cent or Rs 214 crore under Ind-AS. Godrej Consumer Products’ revenue was squeezed 10.4 per cent.

Sunil Duggal, chief executive, Dabur India, said six to seven per cent of its FY17 revenue would be hit. “Some part of promotional expenditure, mainly below-line expenses, will be deducted from revenue, expected to be around Rs 600 crore,” he said.

Vivek Karve, chief financial officer, Marico, said: “On an annualised basis, sales will get restated downwards by approximately Rs 100 crore under Ind-AS. But, as the previous year's numbers are also restated, there is hardly any impact on year-on-year growth.”

At a time when companies are struggling to improve revenue growth, a readjustment of expenses in the P&L statement hardly bodes well for them, sector experts said. Many see an impact on margins, both operating and net.

Companies are also studying the possibility of contract manufacturing being considered as a finance lease, as opposed to an operating expenditure, under Ind-AS. This is key since mostFMCG firms have opted to have an asset-light strategy, choosing to outsource manufacturing to third-party entities. Experts say there might have to be a re-look at strategy. Read Full Story>>>

Scorpene leak: New set of documents out, gives details on sonar system of submarines

Scorpene leak: New set of documents out, gives details on sonar system of submarines

Australia's The Australian newspaper on Thursday uploaded a fresh tranche of leaked documents relating to information about operating instructions of underwater warfare system of the six Scorpene submarines which are being built in India by French firm DCNS.

However, a top defence analyst allayed fears that it could compromise the security of the strategically important combat vessels.

Like in the previous case, the newspaper has blacked out all details which it felt would compromise India's security interests.

However, the new set of documents, with Indian Navy insignia on it and marked "Restricted Scorpene India", gives details about the sonar system of the submarines which is used to gather intelligence underwater.

It talks about a wide range of technical specifications of the sonars and at what degree and frequency it will function. It has a System Technical Manual and an Operating Instruction Manual that have crucial details of the combat management system (more)

IndiGo's Aditya Ghosh gets Rs 21-cr incentive after record profit

IndiGo's Aditya Ghosh gets Rs 21-cr incentive after record profit

IndiGo’s President and whole-time Director Aditya Ghosh took home Rs 27 crore in salary, including Rs 20.9 crore in one-time incentive for the financial year ended March 31, 2016.

India’s most profitable airline was also generous in rewarding its 12,000-plus employees who received an average 42 per cent rise in remuneration in FY16.

Ghosh received the incentive “in recognition of his efforts towards the growth and success of the company during the financial year ending March 31, 2016,” the airline said in its annual report.

Ghosh earned Rs 27 crore in gross salary and 700,000 shares in stock options in FY16. In FY15, he had received a gross remuneration of Rs 3.7 crore, according to the airline’s initial public offering prospectus. (more)

France's DCNS, builder of Australia's new submarines, suffers huge data leak

The leak contains more than 22,000 pages outlining the secret combat capability of six submarines that DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.

File photo of Malaysia's first submarine, "KD Tunku Abdul Rahman", a Scorpene-class diesel-electric submarine, docks in Port Klang outside Kuala Lumpur September 3, 2009. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad/Files

The French shipbuilder which earlier this year won a A$50 billion ($38.06 billion) contract to build Australia's next generation of submarines has suffered a massive data leak, raising doubts about the security of one of the world's biggest defence projects.

France's DCNS Group beat out Germany's ThyssenKrupp AG and a Japanese-government backed bid by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, in a blow to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to develop defence export capabilities as part of a more muscular security agenda.

The leak, which was first reported in The Australian on Wednesday, contains more than 22,000 pages outlining the secret combat capability of six submarines that DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.

The documents cover the Scorpene-class model and do not contain any details of the vessel currently being designed for the Australian fleet.

"As a serious matter pertaining to the Indian Scorpene programme, French national authorities for defence security will formally investigate and determine the exact nature of the leaked documents," a DCNS spokeswoman said in a statement. (more)

Waterways is game changer, mass rapid transport on electric to be India's future

Waterways is game changer, mass rapid transport on electric to be India's future

The Centre has accorded top priority to cost-effective, pollution free and import substitute transport. Besides, integrated transportation to reduce logistic cost and increased road safety. Union Minister of Roads, Highways, Ports and Shipping Nitin Gadkari explains the government’s strategy In an interview with Sanjay Jog.

Q: What will be the government's approach for integrated transport since transportation is a major part of industry cost?

A: Our effort is for cost effective, pollution free and import substitute transport. This means implementation of roads, highways, railways, ports, waterways, shipping, and airports in a time bound manner. The plan to connect them, integrate them.

Shipping industry will be made LNG-based which is pollution-free and cost effective. The ministry will encourage operations of sea planes, catamarans, hover crafts and cruise ships. About 2,000 ports are being developed. Read More

Pfizer nears agreement to buy Medivation for $14 billion

Pfizer nears agreement to buy Medivation for $14 billion

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is nearing a deal to buy US biotech firm Medivation, which specialises in cancer treatments, for nearly $14 billion, US media reported.

Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal said the deal could be made public as early as today. The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said it could be an all-cash transaction.

Pfizer's offer for the San Francisco, California-basedMedivation goes far beyond the company's market value of $11.1 billion. Medivation shares closed at $67.16 in Friday trading.

By purchasing Medivation, Pfizer would add to its portfolio the drug Xtandi, a promising treatment against prostate cancer that analysts estimate will generate some $1.33 billion in annual sales by 2020. Visit Here

At townhall, Sachin Bansal concedes that Flipkart missed targets

At townhall, Sachin Bansal concedes that Flipkart missed targets

India’s largest e-commerce marketplace Flipkart has seengrowth stagnate and has come under pressure from global rival Amazon for the past year and a half. While the company has on many occasions tried to bury media reports on layoffs and high-level exits, in a rather frank discussion with employees on Friday co-founder Sachin Bansal admitted that the company has indeed missed targets.

Bansal, in a townhall meeting with around 200 employees at Flipkart’s headquarters in Bengaluru, addressed their concerns over recent layoffs by saying that even the top management was not exempt from scrutiny over performance, including himself. Bansal who stepped down as the CEO of Flipkart in January this year, said that the move was “performance linked”.

The frankness of the co-founder might be a rare occasion where top executives at largecompanies news admit to their failures, but it’s also the first time Flipkart is admitting to missing performance targets. Binny Bansal (not related to Sachin Bansal) who took over as CEO of Flipkart has been putting together an entirely new management team, after several top-level exits seemingly due to their inability to hit targets, according to Sachin Bansal. Click Here

Ola shuts down TaxiForSure business; lays off 700 employees

Ola shuts down TaxiForSure business; lays off 700 employees

India’s largest taxi aggregator, Ola, has shut down its TaxiForSure (TFS) business and has laid off 700 employees in the process, as it looks to consolidate its presence and reduce cash burn to fend off an attack from Uber.

Ola had acquired smaller rival TFS in March 2015 for $200 million to help it maintain market leadership against Uber. While Ola had said it would maintain TaxiForSure as an independent entity, the company soon began moving drivers from TFS to its own platform.

The Economic Times newspaper first reported this story on Wednesday. Ola declined to comment on the story.

While the TFS Android app was still functional, apart from the Ola Micro category, which the company cross-sells, no cabs were available in the Nano, Hatchback and Sedan categories. Since the acquisition, Ola has been pursuing drivers on TFS to join its own platform.

Apart from cross-selling cabs on both platforms, Ola did not go in for larger integration of the two services, picking its own technology as the successor. With the lack of any sort of autonomy, TFS saw a slew of senior level exits, including that of CEO Arvind Singhal. (More)

Google launches Duo to take on Apple's FaceTime, Skype

Google launches Duo to take on Apple's FaceTime, Skype

Knock, knock, Google's video chatting app has arrived.

The app, dubbed Duo, represents Google Duo response to other popular video calling options, including Apple's FaceTime, Microsoft's Skype and Facebook's Messenger app.

Duo isn't much different from the other video chatting services, except that it gives a glimpse at who is making the call, helping the recipient decide whether to answer. Google calls this feature, "Knock, knock."

The new app, announced in May, is being released Tuesday as a free service for phones running on Google's Android operating system as well as Apple's iPhones.

Like FaceTime for iPhones, Duo only requires a person's phone number to connect. Many other services require both participants to have account logins to use their video calling options.

Google has been offering video calling through its Hangout feature for several years, but the internet company is now tailoring that service for business meetings.

Duo is being billed as a simpler, more reliable way to see friends and family as you talk to them.

It is the first of two new mobile apps that Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., has planned for this summer. The Mountain View, California, company also is preparing to unveil a new messaging app called Allo featuring a robotic assistant that will suggest automated responses to texts. (more)

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Is it a good time to buy Infosys?

Is it a good time to buy Infosys?

Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS’) last week’s decision of not pursuing its plan to separate and list a new bank –Williams & Glyn (W&G) – hit Infosys in trade on Tuesday with the stock plummeting 3% in intra-day deals to its eight-month low of Rs 1,028 levels on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Click here to track Infy's stock price movement

Since then, it has recovered and is trading at Rs 1,046 levels, down nearly 1.5% around noon deals. By comparison, the Nifty 50 index was trading lower by 0.7% at 8610 levels, while the Nifty IT index slipped 1.3% to 11,029 levels.

Also Read: I am disappointed, says Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka in a letter to employees

Given the RBS’ decision, Infosys would see a ramp down of around 3,000 resources. The likely impact on revenue could be around $50 million, reports suggest. This comes at a time when Infosys recast its annual revenue guidance for FY17 while announcing its results for the June 2016 quarter to 10.5 – 12% in constant currency (CC) terms, as against a market expectation of 11.5 – 13.5%.

While the decision dented sentiment on Tuesday, analysts had already warned regarding such Brexit-related shocks.

Also Read: Infosys sticks to 2020-vision despite cut in FY17 outlook

Analysts at Nomura, for instance, had cautioned in their July report that the Brexit impact are not incorporated in the guidance and could cause downside risks going ahead.

“While the company has not seen any delay in decision making on account of Brexit, it remains cautious in the near-term given the potential for a high degree of volatility and uncertainty across industries, especially in the financial services which could lead to softer demand in the coming quarters as companies decide on their future strategy regarding the UK and Europe. However, over the longer term, the company sees possibility of additional opportunities,” wrote Ashwin Mehta and Rishit Parikh of Nomura in their July post Q1 result report on Infosys.Read More

OnePlus to start manufacturing OnePlus 3 in India by year end

Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus might manufacture its latest device OnePlus 3 in India.

The company last month suspended local production of its OnePlus X smartphone within five months of launch, due to tepid demand. But, demand for its latest OnePlus 3 model is outstripping supply and the Chinese company could make the handsets at the Foxconn factory in India.

“We are facing a supply crunch. Since we dropped the invite-only approach, demand is higher than expected,” said Vikas Agarwal, general manager, India, OnePlus.

“We are importing handsets from China but are looking to start assembling in India by the end of this year. We are searching for component suppliers for OnePlus 3,” he added.

“We ceased production of OnePlus X recently,” Agarwal said. “The demand was not enough to justify production,” he added.

According to a CMR report published in June, OnePlus became one of the top five in the high-end smartphone market, with 6.1 per cent market share in 2015.

This segment has smartphones priced above Rs 20,000 and accounts for five per cent of the overall smartphone market in the country.

Samsung dominates the premium segment with 44 per cent market share, Apple has 27.3 per cent, Sony 8.3 per cent and HTC 7.6 per cent.

India is among the top three markets for OnePlus. “When we launched OnePlus One in India, we did not have high hopes. But after a good response, we figured India was a value-conscious market,” Agarwal said. (more)

Patanjali Ayurved successfully bids for food park in Nagpur

Patanjali Ayurved successfully bids for food park in Nagpur

Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, founded by yoga guru Baba Ramdev, has successfully bid for setting up a modern food park at Mihan here.

Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) earlier floated two global tenders (in May and July 2016), but failed to get any bidder.

In the third call, MADC has received Patanjali Ayurved as the technically qualified bidder, the state-run agency said in a release here on Friday.

MADC has decided to develop agro, food, herbal and forest -based industrial park on a sprawling 230 acres of land in Mihan.

The project is part of the company's efforts to develop the Vidarbha region.

According to conditions set by the company, the bidders should have a minimum turnover of Rs 300 crore per annum from agro, food, herbal and forest-based processing business in the last three years. Also, their net worth should be Rs 75 crore in the last financial year, the release said.

Patanjali, a FMCG firm headquartered in Haridwar, was found to be the successful bidder, it said.

MADC wants a commitment from the park developer to procure raw materials to the tune of at least Rs 100 crore per annum from farmers and members of tribal community living in areas surrounding Mihan.

Another condition was that the bidder should make a commitment to train a minimum 1,000 farmers per year across Maharashtra to improve productivity, quality and market intelligence to get them ready for agro-business development.

Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 7 with iris scanner for Rs 59,900

Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 7 with iris scanner for Rs 59,900

Giving a refreshing look to its Note series, South Korean giant Samsung on Thursday launched its flagship device Galaxy Note 7 in India with iris biometric scanner for enhanced security, upgraded S Pen and a dual-curved screen.

"Galaxy Note 7 is the combination of all our learnings to take smartphone experience to a whole new level and I am confident that the new edition will help Samsung Note loyalists to achieve more in life," H.C. Hong, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia, told reporters here.

The company also launched a new wearable portfolio with new Gear VR, Gear Fit2 fitness tracker and Gear IconX earplugs.

"Our wearable portfolio comprising Gear Fit2, Gear IconX and Gear VR will further strengthen Samsung's commitment to a connected ecosystem strategy," added Manu Sharma, Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India Electronics.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 comes with a 5.7-inch QHD super AMOLED dual-curved display protected by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is the first device in the Note family to be water resistant to a maximum depth of 1.5 metre upto 30 minutes.

The device is dust-proof and the display is 30 per cent stronger and 20 per cent more scratch resistant from its predecessor. Read More

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Azim Premji and Shiv Nadar in Forbes list of 100 richest tech tycoons

Azim Premji and Shiv Nadar in Forbes list of 100 richest tech tycoons

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji and HCL co-founder Shiv Nadar are the only two billionaires from India in Forbes' list of the world's 100 richest people in technology, ranking in the top 20 ahead of Google boss Eric Schmidt and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

The '100 Richest Tech Billionaires In The World 2016' list has been topped by Microsoft founder Bill Gates with an estimated fortune of USD 78 billion.

Premji ranks 13th on the list with a net worth of USD 16 billion and Nadar comes in on the 17th spot with USD 11.6 billion of net worth. Two Indian-American technology czars Symphony Technology Group CEO Romesh Wadhwani and founders of IT consulting and outsourcing company Syntel Bharat Desai and his wife Neerja Sethi are also on the list.

Forbes said Premji, who heads India's third-largest outsourcer, Wipro has been on a buying spree in the past year to boost growth. Azim Premji son Rishad, who heads strategy and sits on the board, also oversees Wipro's USD 100 million venture capital fund.

Nadar co-founded HCL, which is reportedly mulling a US listing, Forbes said adding that Nadar also owns HCL TalentCare, a skills-development firm that provides training to new graduates. His latest venture is a USD 500 million fund to invest in start ups and US healthcare tech firms. Read More

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Electric car charging station companies issue warning over VW settlement

Electric car charging station companies issue warning over VW settlement

Electric vehicle charging companies are calling for independent oversight of the $2 billion Volkswagen AG

is required to invest in clean car infrastructure, saying VW should not have the power to shape the nascent electric car charging space.

The German automaker agreed to invest the money, which includes $1.2 billion nationally and $800 million in California, as part of its penalties for equipping hundreds of thousands of its diesel vehicles sold in the United States with software designed to cheat tailpipe emissions tests.

While charging station companies called the money a potential "game changer," they worry that if it is misspent, it could hurt competition.

"The agreement shouldn't pick winners and losers, especially given that this emerging market transition will in no small part define 21st century transportation," twenty eight companies, including ChargePoint, EV Connect and Electric Vehicle Charging Association, said in a letter to the US Justice Department on Friday.

The letter, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, said an independent administrator is key to ensuring that the programme treats all industry participants, regardless of business model and technology, fairly.

VW did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Read More

RJio is choking our networks: telcos

RJio is choking our networks: telcos

The war that had so far been brewing silently between incumbent telecom operators and Reliance Jio has come out in the open. Industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) fired a salvo at Jio on Monday by writing to Telecom Secretary J S Deepak alleging that Jio was masquerading full-blown services in the guise of a trial, which they said amounted to predatory pricing.

The COAI's letter was a response to one sent by Jio to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) claiming that incumbents were not providing enough interconnect bandwidth.

In response, the incumbents have alleged that the burgeoning voice traffic emanating from RJio is choking their networks, given that 1.5 million subscribers of Jio are calling people who are on the networks of other leading telcos. When a subscriber of one network makes a call to a subscriber of another network, the point at which the two networks connect are known as Points of Interconnect (PoIs). Depending on the nature of traffic emanating from different networks, each operator has a certain capacity on its PoIs. Given that few Airtel or Vodafone subscribers are calling Jio subscribers, the traffic is skewed.

An e-mail sent to Reliance Jio remained unanswered.

Incumbent operators claim that the incoming traffic being dumped is burgeoning and even the hugely augmented count of PoIs are getting choked, as millions of users are calling for free. Incumbents have claimed their paid subscribers are getting affected because of this. Read More

Wal-Mart buying Jet.com to lift online sales, battle Amazon

Wal-Mart buying Jet.com to lift online sales, battle Amazon

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, vying to better challenge Inc, will pay about $3 billion for internet retailerJet.com and its innovative pricing software in the largest-ever deal for an e-commercestart-up.

The deal disclosed on Monday follows a five-year e-commerce acquisition spree in whichWal-Mart, the world's biggest traditional retailer, has already bought 15 start-ups, seeking the talent and technology needed to make it a dominant player online and narrow the massive gap with market leader Amazon.

Wal-Mart's online division has underperformed against Amazon, posting its slowest growth in a year in the first quarter as it struggled to gain traction with consumers, especially millennials.

Jet.com was launched by internet entrepreneur Marc Lore in July 2015 and includes software that can offer a customer lower prices as they add items to their shopping cart. Wal-Mart has said it would integrate that software into its main website while keeping Jet.com as a separate entity.

"One of the things we really like (about Jet) is that the customer is even more in-charge of the price that they pay," Chief Executive Doug McMillon said on a media call.

McMillon said Wal-Mart will take time in getting the technology and design components from Jet and that they will grow both brands separately in the short-term.

"Over time, piece-by-piece, we will end up running a business that is simpler and not completely independent."

McMillon said Lore would run its new U.S. e-commerce business. Lore had cofounded Quidsi, the owner of sites like and which was sold to Amazon. more