Interested merchant bankers and legal advisers will have to be submit their bids by Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, respectively, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management said in a notice.

The government holds a 75% stake in RCF and intends to disinvest 10% of the paid-up equity capital through an offer-for-sale.

The merchant banker would be required to advise the government on the timing and the modalities of the offer-for-sale, ensure best return from the government and assist in securing approval and exemptions, wherever necessary, from regulatory agencies.

The government will select and appoint two merchant bankers for managing the share sale process.

Shares of RCF had closed at Rs 54 apiece on Friday. At the current market price, the 10% stake sale would fetch about Rs 300 crore to the exchequer.

China Mobile Ltd., China Telecom Corp Ltd., China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd. will be suspended from trading between Jan. 7 and Jan. 11, and proceedings to delist them have started, according to a statement by the exchange.

In response, China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Jan. 2 that the country will adopt necessary actions to protect the rights of Chinese companies and hopes the two countries can work together to create a fair, predicable environment for businesses and investors.

Quantitative hedge fund managers including Renaissance Technologies LLC, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP and Two Sigma Investments LP were among the largest holders in these U.S. listings but the stakes they held at the end of September were small, 13F filings show.

The three Chinese companies have separate listings in Hong Kong. All generate the entirety of their revenue in China and have no meaningful presence in the U.S. except for their listings there. Their shares are also thinly traded on the New York Stock Exchange compared to their primary listings in Hong Kong, making this NYSE delisting more of a symbolic blow amid heightened geopolitical friction between the U.S. and China.

TikTok, Hong Kong and More U.S.-China Flashpoints: QuickTake

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order in November barring American investments in Chinese firms owned or controlled by the military, in a bid to pressure Beijing over what it views as abusive business practices. The order prohibited U.S. investors from buying and selling shares in a list of Chinese companies designated by the Pentagon as having military ties.

Vowed to Protect

The Chinese Foreign Ministry later accused the U.S. of “viciously slandering” its military-civilian integration policies and vowed to protect the country’s companies. Chinese officials have also threatened to respond to previous Trump administration actions with their own blacklist of U.S. companies.

The executive order has resulted in a series of companies being removed from indexes compiled by MSCI Inc., S&P Dow Jones Global Indices and FTSE Russell.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission in May barred China Mobile from operating in the U.S. In December, it ordered carriers to remove equipment made by Huawei Technologies Co., and begun looking into whether China Telecom should be allowed to operate in the country. China Telecom’s U.S. unit told the FCC in a June 8 filing that it’s an independent business based in the U.S. and not subject to Chinese government control.

FCC Moves Against China Telecom and Huawei, Citing Security

Global exchanges, including NYSE and Nasdaq Inc., courted Chinese companies during the past decade as they attempted to expand their IPO business, particularly in the internet sector. In response, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. changed its rules in recent years to lure back listings, including allowing share sales by companies with weighted voting rights -- strengthening the power of company founders at the expense of weaker protections for minority investors.

Companies including e-commerce giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.Com Inc., which already had listings in New York, conducted secondary listings in Hong Kong in the past two years as tensions between the U.S. and China intensified on a range of issues including trade and the novel coronavirus.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Bullion hit a record in August as investors feared an unprecedented wave of stimulus by central banks and governments would lead to currency debasement and inflation. Holdings in bullion-backed exchange-traded funds set an all-time high in October.

While prices ebbed as the roll-out of vaccines injected optimism into financial markets, the dollar’s continued weakness has helped support gold into the year-end.

Looking ahead, there’s little consensus from Wall Street’s biggest names on bullion’s direction. Morgan Stanley sees gold and other precious metals coming under pressure as financial markets normalize and longer maturity bond yields rise. Meanwhile, HSBC Holdings Plc sees gold climbing higher on continued uncertainty.

Much of gold’s performance next year will depend on whether the eventual return to normality is outweighed by ongoing stimulative policies. Led by Chair Jerome Powell, the U.S. Federal Reserve has signaled that its ultra-easy monetary conditions will last throughout 2021. Efforts to pass further fiscal stimulus through the Senate have hit another roadblock.

“Gold’s main drivers -- weaker U.S. dollar and low real interest rates -- are likely to provide support” even as vaccines are distributed around the world, said Vasu Menon, executive director, investment strategy, at Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. With the lower-for-longer Fed, “it is too early to throw in the towel on gold,” he said in an email.

Gold added 0.2% to settle at $1,898.36 an ounce on Thursday. That’s up 6.8% for the month, and 25% higher for 2020, the biggest full-year advance since 2010. Futures for February delivery on the Comex rose 0.1% to settle at $1,895.10 an ounce. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index had a third straight quarterly loss.

Spot silver was up 48% this year, while palladium had a fifth consecutive annual gain, with a rise of about 26% in 2020. Platinum climbed 11% for the year.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

The companies agreed to terminate the venture after reassessing in part due to the global coronavirus pandemic, they said Thursday. The decision ends a deal reached more than a year ago under which Ford was expected to fold its local operations, including two factories, into a JV that would be majority-controlled by Mahindra, a leading Indian manufacturer of sport utility vehicles.

The future of Ford’s business in India is unclear as it has struggled for more than two decades to grow in the world’s fourth-largest auto market. “The company is actively evaluating its businesses around the world, including in India,” Ford said a statement.

The U.S. carmaker took a $799 million impairment charge in 2019 in anticipation of the asset transfer to Mahindra to account for what it called “fair value less cost to sell.” A spokesman said Thursday the termination of the deal won’t affect that valuation.

“There will be no impact on the impairment that we recorded previously,” said T.R. Reid, the spokesman.

The automakers had said they would cooperate to develop an electric car for emerging markets and work together to introduce three new models to be sold under the Ford brand in India, starting with a midsize SUV.

Ford didn’t specify what would become of those projects. Mahindra said in its own statement the venture’s termination wouldn’t affect its product plans. “Mahindra is accelerating its efforts to establish leadership in electric SUVs,” it said.

The decision came as a Dec. 31 deadline loomed for formalizing the planned partnership. Jim Farley, who became the U.S. automaker’s chief executive officer in October, said in 2019 that the JV with Mahindra could allow Ford to double its revenue from India.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

“There is a possibility that some internal documents may get uploaded by the hackers on public websites and platforms,” IndiGo said in a statement Thursday. “We realise the seriousness of the issue, and are continuing to engage with all relevant experts and law enforcement to ensure that the incident is investigated in detail.”

The setback comes just as the airline, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., could start slowly rehiring staff. Domestic services will probably return to pre-pandemic levels by January or February as capacity rebuilds from “the background of carnage” caused by Covid-19, Chief Executive Officer Ronojoy Dutta said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in December.

InterGlobe Aviation shares slipped as much as 1.8% as of 10 a.m. in Mumbai on Friday while the benchmark index rose 0.3%.

IndiGo, which has some 730 Airbus SE A320neo planes on order, laid off about 10% of its workforce due to the pandemic-driven slowdown. The carrier in August announced a share sale to bring in as much as 40 billion rupees ($547 million) and isn’t looking to raise more funds. IndiGo’s strategy remains focused on reducing costs and rapidly growing its operations, Dutta said in the interview.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

The approval by the DCGI was given on the basis of recommendations submitted by a Covid-19 subject expert committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.

Drugs Controller General of India’s VG Somani said the overall efficacy of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University shot being produced locally by the Serum Institute as ‘Covishield’ was found to be 70.42%. In a statement to the media, Somani said that the interim safety, immunogencity data of Serum’s vaccine was found comparable with overseas clinical studies.

Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of Serum Institute, tweeted following the approval saying that the vaccine is ready to roll out in the coming weeks.

On Bharat Biotech’s ‘Covaxin’, the DCGI said the vaccine is “safe and provides a robust immune response.” The approval for this vaccine has been given even as, Somani said, “The clinical trial ongoing within the country by the firm will continue.” Unlike his comment statement on the Serum vaccine, Somani did not offer a data point on the efficacy of ‘Covaxin’.

Ahead of this announcement, the ‘All India Drug Action Network’, a group of non-government organisations, had urged the DCGI on Saturday to reconsider the recommendations of the CDSCO’s Subject Expert Committee to grant restricted emergency use to ‘Covaxin’. “Disturbingly, it appears that no efficacy data for the vaccine candidate were submitted from the Phase 3 trials that are ongoing and being conducted by Bharat Biotech and ICMR,” AIDAN said in a statement.

On its part, Bharat Biotech on Sunday said it has generated excellent safety data with robust immune responses to multiple viral proteins that persist and their goal is to provide global access to populations that need it the most.

There has been concern on the process, from other quarters as well.

“I thought I knew something about the process of licensure of vaccines, but clearly I do not. I do not understand what ‘the grant of permission in emergency situation in public interest as an abundant permission, in clinical trial mode’, means—either you are doing a clinical trial or you are not. As far as I am aware, Covaxin has no clinical efficacy data whatsoever at this time, so I fail to see how the DCGI can consider this an efficacious vaccine,” said Dr. Gagandeep Kang, professor, the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory, division of gastrointestinal sciences, Christian Medical College, Vellore, told BloombergQuint.

According to Murali Neelakantan, a healthcare laws expert, the issue with using terms like emergency use authorisation and restricted emergency use, that are alien to Indian regulations, is that it causes confusion among doctors and patients about the basis for the approval and the limitations of the data used to grant approvals.

“This lack of transparency could lead to a lack of trust in the vaccine. Contrast this with the U.S. FDA which live streamed the whole regulatory review process and issued a detailed memo on the vaccine, with all relevant data, including restrictions,” said Neelakantan. “The credibility of the regulator is at stake and this is especially telling due to the history of the regulator acting contrary to the regulations in the past. India has had a troubling history of new drug approvals.”

Track all developments around the Covid-19 outbreak in India here.

Zydus Cadila Gets DCGI Nod To Initiate Phase-3 Clinical Trials For Covid-19 Vaccine

Drug firm Zydus Cadila on Sunday said it has received the Drugs Controller General of India’s approval to initiate phase-3 clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D.

The company will now be initiating phase-3 clinical trial in around 30,000 volunteers, Zydus Cadila said in a statement. ZyCoV-D was found to be safe, well-tolerated and immunogenic in phase-1 and 2 clinical trials, it said.

The phase-2 study of ZyCoV-D had been conducted in over 1,000 healthy adult volunteers as part of the adaptive Phase I/II dose-escalation, multi-centric, randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled study, the drug firm said.

“We are reaching a critical milestone in our vaccine development programme and towards our goal of helping people fight the pandemic with an indigenously discovered, safe and efficacious vaccine,” Zydus Group Chairman Pankaj R Patel said.

The launch of the phase-3 trial will determine the efficacy of the company’s vaccine in preventing Covid-19, which continues to pose a major threat world over, he said.

(Source: PTI)

Health Workers First To Get Covid-19 Vaccine In Punjab: Minister

Around 1.60 lakh health workers in Punjab will receive a Covid-19 vaccine in the first phase, Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said on Sunday.

According to Principal Secretary (Health) Hussan Lal, data regarding 1.60 lakh healthcare workers have already been uploaded on the CoWin portal — an online platform for monitoring the delivery of Covid-19 vaccine.

After health workers, Lal said vaccine will be administered to around three lakh frontline workers, including policemen, paramilitary forces, sanitation workers and disaster management volunteers. Thereafter, people above 50 years and those aged below 50 with co-morbid conditions will be covered under the inoculation drive.

To a question on the timeframe of the vaccination drive, Lal said it will depend upon the availability of vaccine. The state, according to him, has the capacity to administer 4 lakh vaccines in a day.

The state has around 4,000 trained vaccinators. "If we get a large number of doses, then we can also use doctors, pharmacists, dental doctors and nurses as vaccinators," he said, adding the state has enough storage capacity for Covid-19 vaccine.

A state-level vaccine store has been set up in Chandigarh, officials said.

Punjab has already conducted a dry run for vaccination in Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. The mock drill of the distribution and administration of Covid-19 vaccine was being conducted in Patiala on Sunday.

Punjab has so far witnessed 1.67 lakh coronavirus cases and 5,364 deaths.

(Source: PTI)

Assam's Covid-19 Toll Climbs To 1,051

Assam reported two more deaths due to Covid-19, pushing the death toll to 1,051, while the coronavirus tally mounted to 2,16,289 with 38 fresh cases, the National Health Mission said in a bulletin.

The overall positivity rate stood at 3.58% against total testing of 60,38,661 samples so far, it said.

The state reported 80 single-day recoveries, taking the total count to 2,12,069, the NHM said late on Saturday.

Assam now has 3,166 active cases and the patients are being treated at different hospitals and Covid Care Centres across the state, while some are in home isolation.

The bulletin said 1,347 more Covid-19 patients have died, but the state government's Death Audit Board has not included them in the tally of fatalities caused by the virus, as they had other ailments, too.

(Source: PTI)

Jan. 3 India Covid-19 Update

The death toll in India due to the coronavirus fell to the lowest in seven months, just as the South Asian nation prepares to roll out an inoculation programme to stem the world’s second-worst outbreak.

India reported 217 deaths due to the Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total toll tally to 1.5 lakh, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on Jan. 3, 2021. The nation has reported less than 300 one-day fatalities for nine straight days.

The country also added 18,177 fresh infections in a day, taking the total tally of confirmed cases to 1.03 crore. This includes 99.3 lakh patients who have recovered.

Key figures:

• Total confirmed cases: 1,03,23,965

• Total number of active cases: 2,47,220

• Total patients cured/discharged/migrated: 99,27,310

• Total deaths: 1,49,435

• Number of fresh cases in last 24 hours: 18,177

• One-day recoveries: 20,923

• One-day deaths: 217

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total of 17.48 crore samples have been tested as of Jan. 2, 2021. Of these, 9.58 lakh were screened just on Saturday.

The nation with 1.3 billion people is only behind the U.S. in the number of confirmed infections. New cases continue to fall in India, with daily additions less than 30,000 since Dec. 14.

The slower pace of adding fresh infections and an improved recovery rate pushed active cases in India below the 3-lakh-mark for the first time since Dec. 22. That’s just 2.4% of the total caseload. India’s active cases had crossed 10 lakh in mid-September.

Recoveries, on the other hand, now account for more than 96% of the total confirmed cases.

All Indian states and union territories started conducting a dry run of its vaccine delivery system and identify potential hurdles on Jan. 2. The Health Ministry has reviewed preparedness and asked state governments to ensure the effectiveness of the programme.

The world’s second-most infected country plans to inoculate 300 million people in the first phase by August, including health care and front line workers, police and military troops and those with co-morbidities and above the age of 50.

Global Update

Globally, the coronavirus cases have topped 84.5 million, with more than 1.8 million deaths.

The U.S. reported at least 267,550 new coronavirus cases on Jan. 2, the worst day since the pandemic began. The country’s death toll is nearing 350,000, more than India and Brazil combined.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn is seeking to extend the country’s coronavirus restrictions beyond Jan. 10 because infection rates remain too high.

Coronavirus clusters in Australia’s two most-populous states, however, may be coming under control. Victoria reported three new cases in the past 24 hours, while New South Wales said it detected eight locally transmitted cases in the same period compared with seven the day before.

The U.K. government has drawn up plans to allow people to receive two different Covid-19 vaccines as part of the two-dose treatment to protect against the coronavirus. More than 800,000 Russians have received the Covid-19 vaccination.

Read more on global scenario here:

No, this year I am determined to make some more realistic ones. So I decided to take a different track for 2021. I am going to totally overreach and create some outrageous resolutions! I reckon at least that way the outcomes may be slightly better than with normal resolutions. And hey, if I don’t stick with them, well, then how is it any different from the usual staid ones that we make every year? So here goes.