Murugappa's Tube Investments plans to set up truck body building plants

TMT bars & Truck Body Building businesses are more like venture capital investments at the incubatory stage, says management.

Tube Investments of India, the flagship company of the Murugappa Group, plans to set up plants to build truck body parts, aiming to shift from the outsourced model with its own manufacturing.

The company believes in a business battling weak vendors, a depressed market and the goods and services tax (GST) it can do better with manufacturing facilities in Chennai, Bawal, Chakkan and Kolkata.

Vellayan Subbiah, managing director of Tube Investments, said truck bodybuilding and TMT steel bars were like venture capital investments that need time to grow. They will "not have any significant impact either on our top line or bottom line in the near term.”

The company’s three main verticals are engineering, metal-formed products and bicycles and it caters to automotive, railways, construction, mining, and agriculture. 

"Over the next 3-5 years' timeframe, there is a lot of opportunity for TII in the present mix of business it is in and some of the businesses that we intend to get TII into in the future as well. Growth will have to come from both organic and potentially inorganic means over that time period," said Subbiah, in a communication to shareholders.

TII's revenue in 2019-20 was Rs 2,258 crore as against Rs 2,896 crore in 2018-19. It started an optic lens business and aims to increase production by next year.

JSW group will bring down China imports to zero in 2 years: Parth Jindal

While the firm's defence division does not import from China, its other businesses source products from that country.

As the clamour to boycott Chinese products grows amid a stand-off between the Indian and Chinese armies in eastern Ladakh, several companies have indicated they would cut imports from the neighbouring country and support the government’s self-reliance theme.

Parth Jindal, managing director of JSW Cement, said on Thursday that the JSW group, promoted by his family, would be bringing down its imports from China to zero within two years.

While Jindal was not available to share the detailed strategy to achieve this, he made the group’s plans public via Twitter. “The unprovoked attack by the Chinese on Indian soil on our brave jawans has been a huge wake-up call and a clarion call for action. We @TheJSWGroup have a net import of $400 million from China annually and we pledge to bring this down to zero in the next 24 months,” he tweeted. Sources in the company said the current Chinese imports included machinery parts for its steel, energy, and cement businesses.

“The idea is to strengthen the supply chain within the country and in that process become self-reliant to whatever extent we can. It is a directional shift that we are looking to make,” Jayant Acharya, director (commercial) at JSW Steel, told Business Standard.

Since the bloody clash in the Galwan Valley last month, in which 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives, a number of domestic companies have asserted they stand with the policy of manufacturing products locally through ‘Make in India’. “We can reduce our dependency on products from China by developing a large-scale, efficient and cost-effective domestic industrial ecosystem,” S N Subrahmanyan, chief executive officer and managing director at L&T, had said last month.

Investors should be cautious on gold after recent rally: Tradebulls Sec

The US non-farm payroll data later in the day could either make gold break the $1,800 level and start fresh momentum on the upside or make the intermediate top.

Gold is the one of the only major asset class to have a positive year-to-date return of around 25 per cent. This quarter has been one of the best quarters for gold after 2009. Gold market continues to go from strength to strength but at around $1,800, it is facing stiff resistance. Today’s non-farm payroll data could either make gold break the $1,800 level and start fresh momentum on the upside or make the intermediate top. The underlying fundamentals are bullish as there are chances of the second wave in China and cases are increasing worldwide. We might see gold prices retrace after a sharp rally in a couple of trading sessions. So, we would advise investors to be cautious at the current juncture.

Silver is around 4 week-high and on the verge of a breakout from sideways trending. In COMEX, it was stuck in the range of $18.20 to $17.30 and now is near the upper end of the range, waiting for a breakout. In MCX, since June 12, it was stuck in the range of 50,450-48,000, and now it is near its upper end of the range. The key for silver is a close above $18.20 September futures and once that happens, we can see silver rally till $19.

Crude Oil jumped after US API reported another crude draw this year. Crude oil is bouncing between 50 DMA and 200 DMA and is in a tug of war between accelerating Covid-19 cases and demand recovery. There is also the possibility of Libyan oil 

coming into the market which was halted due to civil unrest since January. We believe the bulk of the recovery has been played out and now we might see a modest recovery in Q3 and strong recovery towards the end of 2021 when aviation travelling will be in full swing. Market might consolidate around current levels as there are still high levels of inventory and many of the economies are facing a second round of infections.

The rally in Natural Gas has played out as we had predicted last week. We did suggest that prices are at attractive levels and one can go long around 120 with a target of 135. Now that prices have jumped, we expect consolidation going forward. The expectation of hotter weather has played out and prices have jumped 10 per cent. If the economy improves, then from September, we might see LNG exports increase from the US and now two factors are essential for natural gas to go further: hotter weather and lower production.

Emami questions Hindustan Unilever's fairness over skin cream rebranding

Emami said it had trademark rights over the name and that it was consulting legal experts on the matter.

Consumer goods company Emami, which is the maker of the ‘Fair & Handsome’ brand of products, on Thursday said it was shocked to know that competitor Hindustan Unilever (HUL) had rebranded its men’s skincare range as ‘Glow & Handsome’.

Emami said it had trademark rights over the name and that it was consulting legal experts on the matter. “We are shocked to learn of HUL’s decision to rename its men’s range of Fair & Lovely as Glow & Handsome. We are the market leaders in the men’s fairness cream with legal ownership of the trademark,” Emami said in a statement.

“We have already launched a week back our brand ‘Emami Glow & Handsome’ digitally and necessary application has already been made to the relevant authorities,” it said.

HUL on Thursday said it had rebranded its popular skincare brand Fair & Lovely as Glow & Lovely after dropping the word ‘fair’ in its name.

“Over the next few months, Glow & Lovely will be on the shelves, and future innovations will deliver on this new proposition,” the company said in a statement, putting to an end speculation about the new name.

In response to Emami’s claim, HUL said it was “fully conscious” of its rights and position and will protect it fully in all appropriate fora.

WhatsApp brings dark mode to web, desktop; adds Status feature for JioPhone

New features will roll out to users over the next few weeks through the new versions of WhatsApp.

WhatsApp has announced that it shall soon get several new features on Android and iOS platform, web and desktop client and phones based KaiOS. The Facebook-owned instant messaging platform is set to introduce animated stickers and QR codes on WhatsApp for smartphones, improvements to group video calls across platforms, dark mode for WhatsApp web and desktop client, and Status feature on WhatsApp for KaiOS.

These features will roll out to users over the next few weeks through the new versions of WhatsApp.

New features coming to WhatsApp

WhatsApp Animated Stickers

The app update will add new animated sticker pack for its user to communicate in fun and intuitive way.

QR codes on WhatsApp

This will allow WhatsApp user to add a new contact by simply scanning the code.

Dark mode for WhatsApp web and desktop

The dark mode theme now extends to your computer

WhatsApp group video calls

The participants limit have been raised to eight people from four people. Moreover, the app will have a video icon in group chats of eight or less, so you can easily start a group video call with one-tap.

WhatsApp for KaiOS gets Status feature

KaiOS is the operating system that powers JioPhone and JioPhone 2. The upcoming update shall add Status feature to WhatsApp for KaiOS that will let users post an updates that disappear after 24 hour.

UK regulators probe criticise Apple's search engine deal with Google

Apple received the "substantial majority" of the 1.2 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) that Google paid to be the default search engine on a variety of devices in the United Kingdom in 2019.

The payments by Alphabet Inc's Google to Apple Inc to be the default search engine on Apple's Safari web browser create "a significant barrier to entry and expansion" for Google's rivals in the search engine market, the UK markets regulator said in a report released on Wednesday.

Apple received the "substantial majority" of the 1.2 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) that Google paid to be the default search engine on a variety of devices in the United Kingdom in 2019, according to the report.

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, in its final report investigating online platforms and digital advertising, said the arrangements between Apple and Google create "a significant barrier to entry and expansion" for Google's rivals in the search engine market. Those rivals include Microsoft Corp's Bing, Verizon Communications Inc-owned Yahoo and independent search engine DuckDuckGo, all of which also make payments to Apple in exchange for being search engine options on its devices, the report said.

"Given the impact of preinstallations and defaults on mobile devices and Apple's significant market share, it is our view that Apple's existing arrangements with Google create a significant barrier to entry and expansion for rivals affecting competition between search engines on mobiles," the regulators wrote in the report.

Apple and Google did not immediately return requests for comment.

Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi earlier this year estimated that Apple generates about $9 billion per year globally from licensing arrangements, revenue with gross margins above 90% and with about 80% of the total coming from Google. Apple reports the revenue in its services segment, which investors are looking to for growth as consumers slow the pace of iPhone upgrades.

How to recover deleted files using Microsoft's Windows File Recovery tool

Windows File Recovery tool is available on Windows apps store and it is a command line app that allow users to recover deleted files and documents.

Microsoft recently released Windows File Recovery tool, an app that helps its users on Windows 10 operating system retrieve deleted files and documents. The tool is available on Windows apps store and it is a command line app that allow users to recover deleted files and documents from local hard disc, pen drives and SD cards. Here is everything you need to know about the app and how it works:

Windows File Recovery tool: Supported system, formats and drives

Platform: Windows 10 build 19041 or later

File systems: NTFS, FAT, exFAT and ReFS

Drives: HDD, SSD, USB, and memory cards

Formats: JPEG, PDF, PNG, MPEG, Office files, MP3 & MP4, ZIP files, and more

Windows File Recovery tool: Scope

The Windows File Recovery tool allows you to target file names, keywords, file paths, or extensions in your recovery. However, being a command line app, it does not support files recovery from cloud storage and storage drives on network.

Windows File Recovery tool: How it works

Download and launch the app from the Microsoft Store.

Press the Windows key, enter Windows File Recovery in the search box, and then select Windows File Recovery.

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