Canara Bank Q3, 2018 Sees Huge Net Jump of 152% at Rs 318 Crore

Public sector lender Canara Bank on Monday reported a massive jump of 152% in net profit at Rs 317.52 crore for the third quarter ended December 2018, aided by strong growth in domestic advances and a healthy CASA growth.

The bank had logged a net profit of Rs 125.75 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal. Its net interest income improved to Rs 3,814 crore, an increase of 3.66% from Rs 3,679 crore in the year-ago period. The bank’s domestic net interest margin (NIM) improved to 2.85% and global NIM at 2.65%.

The bank’s total income stood at Rs 13,513.35 crore, an increase of 9.49% compared to Rs 12,341.09 crore. PV Bharathi, executive director of the bank said the amount of gross NPAs stood at Rs 44,621.27 crore compared with Rs 40,311.98 crore. However, the percentage of gross NPAs stood at 10.25% compared with 10.38% in the third quarter of the last fiscal.

Net NPAs of the bank went up at Rs 26,591.07 crore in the third quarter compared with Rs 25,295.26 crore.

“The bank is taking a multi-pronged approach in terms of cash recovery. As far as recovery is concerned, there are proper policies in place. in the third quarter, cash recovery aggregated to Rs 2,814 crore,” she said. The provision coverage ratio has improved by 670 bps to 62.54% from the December 2017 level of 55.81%.

The bank’s CASA deposits were up by 10.66% at Rs 1.74 lakh crore, and CASA share (domestic) stood at 32.23%.

Bharathi said, “By the end of this fiscal, we are aiming to touch CASA deposits of Rs 2 lakh crore.” Going forward, the bank aims at improving the bottom-line further with balanced thrust on both retail and corporate advances.

Canara Bank said its employee stock purchase scheme (CanBBank ESPS) which kicked off on January 21 and closed on January 21 and closed on January 25 was oversubscribed by 134 per cent due to good participation from employees.

"Under the said issue of up to 2 crore equity shares under tranche-I, the bank will be raising a capital of approximately Rs 557 crore," said the bank officials.

Honda’s National Road Safety Awareness Campaign for College Students Reaches Bangalore

Aiming to build a culture of safe riding habits, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. conducted the National Road Safety Awareness Campaign for college students in Bangalore. The event was conducted at the Hasnath College in the city.

Road safety is a global priority for Honda. To further expand awareness on safe riding practices among youth, Honda has flagged off its new National Road Safety Awareness campaign starting January 2019. Through this initiative, Honda aims to cover more than 15,000 young college students and adults of 10 colleges across cities every month. After the start of Honda 2Wheelers India’s road safety campaign earlier this month, this initiative has already expanded to 7 cities including Bangalore and has educated over 11,000 youngsters and adults so far.

Honda 2Wheelers India’s two-day initiative in the Hasnath College in Bangalore spread road safety awareness to over 1100 participants including more than 100 females under the motto of ‘Safety for Everyone.’

Speaking on this initiative, Prabhu Nagaraj, Vice President - Brand & Communication, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Safety is Honda’s top priority and so far we have educated over 25 lac Indians on the importance of road safety. Further strengthening our commitment, we have conducted National Road Safety Awareness Campaign in Bangalore to promote safe riding habits in youth. Through this mega campaign, young college students are now learning through fun and taking #TheSafetyPromise with Honda. Our aim is to educate the young riders to foster the right safety habits amongst themselves and will further take this initiative to other cities across India.”

Making learning on the serious topic of road safety more fun-oriented, Honda had different activities for all.

·         To spread road safety awareness, safety riding theory sessions on correct riding posture, traffic signs and road rules were conducted for students.

·         A special training activity a virtual riding simulator was executed for all to experience over 100 possible dangers on road before actual riding.

·         Riders tested their riding skills through slow riding activities and riding on narrow planks.

·         Women were specially targeted for the Female safety riding session. Here, Honda’s female instructors empowered the females on riding a two-wheeler and knowledge of road safety rules.

·         Above all this, Honda also conducted fun educational activities like road safety games and quizzes on daily basis so that participants have fun learning about safe riding too.

NiYO Launches First-Ever Global Travel Card with Zero Forex Mark-Up

NiYO, the new-age digital banking solutions provider for salaried employees, has launched NiYO Global Travel Card, which is the first-ever forex card with ‘zero forex mark-up’. Travellers, using this card, will not pay any currency exchange premium and international transaction fees – unlike a regular forex card.

With the NiYO Global Travel Card in her pocket, the overseas traveller will effectively have no need for the usual multi-currency forex cards or travellers’ cheques – all the while making international transactions cost-effective across 150-plus countries and 35 million merchants worldwide.

Besides the cost-effective feature, NiYO Global Card also offers instant digital onboarding, convenient loading from the user’s bank account via NEFT/IMPS.

The card is supported by a cutting-edge mobile app, which gives users the ability to lock and unlock either the full card or a payment channel anytime, anywhere in the world. The app also provides real-time notifications on usage, exchange rates and refunds, while helping users find convenient ATM locations, avail nearby offers – thus making it one of the most modern cards in the world today.

Further, business travellers can submit claims on-the-go by adding bills for each transaction right in the app. These claims can be instantaneously approved by their employer organisations via the NiYO Corporate Portal.

NiYO CEO and Co-founder Vinay Bagri said, “The forex card market in India is worth $17 billion; around 20 million people are expected to travel abroad this year. By 2020, this number will rise to 50 million. With such a staggering number of Indians travelling abroad, we aim to capture a lion’s share of the market.”

NiYO CTO and Co-founder Virender Bisht said, “Our aim has been to facilitate hassle-free experience among our customer. Forex is one of the key components for travel and remains a concern. International travellers are always burdened with high currency exchange rate charged by banks, which varies between 1-3% of the amount transacted. Banks also charge either a flat fee or a set percentage of the transaction amount in addition to the currency exchange charge. Moreover, people are also very worried about card security abroad. This card is a one-stop solution for all of these problems. We have invested our best effort and technology in the designing process to provide the safety feature along with other components. The card has already been reviewed and appreciated by many top executives from the India Inc. and today, we are glad to present it to our customers at large.”

Founded by Vinay Bagri and Virender Bisht, NiYO works at the intersection of financial services, HR and technology. NiYO was launched in July 2015 and since then has already clocked in more than 3000 corporates and is being used by over 5 lakh salaried employees in these organisations.

Land Rover Launches Special Landmark Edition of Discovery Sport and Enhances its Design Appeal

Jaguar Land Rover India, has announced the launch of Model Year 2019 Discovery Sport Landmark Edition. The Landmark Edition is powered by the 2.0 l Ingenium Diesel, which delivers a powerful 132 kW output and exhibits the vehicle’s true spirit of adventure.

Rohit Suri, President & Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd. (JLRIL), said:
“The introduction of the Landmark Edition for Model Year 2019 Discovery Sport further enhances the Discovery Sport portfolio. This special edition variant introduces remarkable features to the vehicle that fortify its exceptional capability, versatility and spirit of adventure.”

The Discovery Sport Landmark Edition is available in three colours: Narvik Black, Corris Grey and Yulong White, all crowned with a Carpathian Grey contrast roof. It features a sporty and dynamic front bumper, with Graphite Atlas exterior accents and 45.72 cm (18) 5 Split Spoke 511 wheels in gloss dark grey. The vehicle’s interiors receive further aesthetic emphasis by Ebony grained leather seats and an Ebony headliner, complemented by dark grey aluminium finishers around the centre stack.

Truck Drivers Turn Artists with Tata Motors’ ‘Photo OK Please’ Contest

Tata Motors’ brainchild contest ‘Photo OK Please’, an effort to reach out to the trucking community, recognize the exciting side to their trucking life and encourage digital engagement for the drivers, has been running successfully across the country now. 5500 drivers have registered with more than 13000+ photo entries across 21 cities.

The unique contest by Tata Motors recognizes and rewards the truck drivers as they share photos from their travel experiences. The Tata Trucker drivers get to pass by unique and unseen stretches of India as a regular part of their profession. This makes them privileged in a manner unknown to them and the contest helps them realize their reach and boosts their confidence and contentment in what they do. All the participants needs to do is: Click a picture, upload it to their Instagram account and tag @tata.trucks.

Out of the large volume of image entries received every day from truckers across the country, a daily winner and weekly winner is announced to keep the contest fever alive. Submissions of winners have their names, individual photos and truck model numbers inscribed with location details on the pictures while posting on social media for recognition enhancement. Out of the top 3 entries selected, the 1st and 2nd prize winners will win family holiday packages worth Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 40,000 respectively, and the 3rd prize winner will win a smartphone worth Rs. 25,000. In addition to these, weekly prizes will also be given out.

Commenting on the campaign, UT Ramprasad, Head Marketing Communications, CVBU, Tata Motors said, “At Tata Motors, we are constantly churning unique ways to positively impact the lives of our most important stakeholders, the truck drivers. ‘Photo OK Please’ is meant to be a platform for the drivers to engage with a wider audience and share their experiences on the social media. We hope this contest will reveal the lesser known aspect of a truck driver’s life and inspire the youth to consider it as a viable career option. The campaign has received very encouraging response so far and we look forward to all the wonderful entries still to come.”

Social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are being used to reach the truck drivers. The campaign exhibits moments from the lives of the truck drivers on these social media channels and dedicated website with extensive promotion of the contest and the entries on television programs and digital channels. A multi-lingual website has been created for the contest, which will be used for registrations, tips, announcing the winners, etc. Additionally, on-ground activation at dealerships are also being carried out.

The first phase of the year-long campaign ends on 30th March which will be followed by the final winner selection in the first week of April.  

Emirates Introduces Entertainment Playlist Syncing Ahead of Travel

Emirates has introduced an innovative new function on its app to allow customers to create bespoke playlists ahead of their flight and sync it to their seats once on board. Customers can plan their trip more effectively and maximise their onboard experience by using the Emirates app to browse the expansive entertainment catalogue at any time. Keeping in mind the passion for music amongst Indians, this will only further intrigue the music lovers to plan more for musically enthralling journeys.

ice, Emirates’ award-winning inflight entertainment has reached a new milestone of over 4,000 channels of on-demand entertainment. The catalogue includes over 1,000 movies, more than any other airline, popular television box sets, tens of thousands of music tracks, podcasts and games. All the more reason for Indian music lovers to continue travelling with Emirates.

Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline said: “In keeping with our ‘Fly Better’ promise, our teams work tirelessly to provide ever better world-class travel experiences. Every detail is carefully considered as we continually enhance and develop innovative products and services for our customers. This latest functionality on the Emirates app elevates the customer experience even before they step onto the aircraft. Our customers can now browse the unmatched content on offer and create personal entertainment playlists at their leisure, and once comfortably settled in their seats on board, they simply sync and press play.”

The syncing capability is currently available on over 100 Emirates Boeing 777 aircraft travelling from all the 9 cities in India and will be made available progressively across the entire fleet, including A380 aircraft in the coming months.

With a global customer base, Emirates offers entertainment in 44 languages and each month over 100 movies are added to the system. Emirates ensures its youngest customers are catered for with a large selection of children’s movies and TV channels. In addition to over 75 Disney, Marvel, and children’s movies there are also over 50 TV channels, including Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, CBeebies & the Disney Channel.

ice also features varied content such as Emirates’ own Food and Wine Channels giving customers behind-the-scenes look at how it creates its onboard menus; expert-led LinkedIn Learning courses; as well as uTalk language courses offering lessons for beginners.

The Emirates app is a one-stop travel companion allowing customers to book flights, hotels, car rentals, tours and attractions. In addition to the ice catalogue, travellers can browse through their flight’s menus and wine lists up to a month before the departure date. The Emirates app also features 3D seat maps which allows customers to navigate the interior of the Emirates A380 and the Emirates Boeing 777 during seat selection, and explore the spacious cabin before they board.

The Emirates app is free to download on iOS or Android devices.

Tata Motors in Partnership with Nitol Motors Launches the All-New Tata LPT 1212 Light Commercial Vehicle in Bangladesh

Tata Motors, India’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, along with its authorized distributor Nitol Motors Ltd., today launched the all-new Tata LPT 1212 light commercial vehicle in Bangladesh. The vehicle has been designed for the modern commercial vehicle customer of Bangladesh, with superior performance and high load carrying capacity.

Tata LPT 1212

The Tata LPT 1212 is a perfect cargo transporting solution for the Bangladeshi customer in the light trucks category. The reliable 497 TCIC Common Rail Engine with proven engine life and reparability, optimally powers the truck. The Tata LPT 1212 is designed to deliver improved performance and better fuel efficiency with lower emissions, levels of noise and vibrations. The high performance engine is configured to deliver optimum power output at even lower RPMs enabling one to drive with lesser gearshifts while giving better fuel efficiency. The bigger clutch diameter of 330 mm allows easy engagement of gears leading to driving comfort and efficient power transmission. The high ground clearance of 245 mm makes it a perfect solution for transporting cargo over rough terrains. The loading capability of the truck is enhanced with the bigger tyre size (9X20 – 16 PR)

Speaking at the event, Abdul Matlub Ahmed, Chairman, Nitol Motors Ltd., said, “Our local expertise coupled with a robust dealer network across the country has been crucial to our success thus far. With our partner Tata Motors, we are confident about making a significant impact in the light truck segment with Tata LPT 1212 and thus winning a significant market share.”

Rudrarup Maitra, Head, International Business, Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors said, “The much awaited Tata LPT 1212, has been specifically designed keeping in mind the unique local Bangladesh market loading requirements and duty cycle. With various product enhancements such as a powerful engine, high ground clearance, bigger clutch diameter and tyre size, this vehicle is the best choice for customers in this segment. We are confident of further strengthening our market leadership in Bangladesh with this launch.”