businessline podcasts

March 31 -- the last day to make tax-saving investments -- is around the corner. What are the best options for tax saving, if you are in the old system? What are the common mistakes made when choosing instruments ? How should you factor in home loans into the equation?  Should you go for mutual funds, PPF or tax-saving FDs?

Parvatha Vardhini C, Head, Research Bureau talks to Hari Viswanath. Listen in.

The Supreme Court has set aside the NCLAT order reinstating Cyrus Mistry as Tata Sons chairman. Thomas K Thomas, BusinessLine's Chief of Bureau, Mumbai tells us what the verdict means for Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry.

On the heels of re-aligning the ownership of group companies in line with the management, family members of the TVS Group have taken the next step of drawing up a formal Brand Agreement on the use, adoption, and registration of trademarks such as TVS, Sundaram and Sundram as also several other trademarks. Some Group members have now decided to execute the ‘deed of adherence’ to the Brand Agreement. Here's all you need to know.

In the first episode of BusinessLine's special series on the State Assembly elections, we take a look at battleground state of West Bengal, where TMC's Mamata Banerjee is looking to come back to power for the third time. Will she be successful or will the BJP's lotus bloom in the eastern state?

Associate Editor Poornima Joshi joins us to help us understand the major issues in the State.

On March 24, The Competition Commission of India directed its investigation arm to conduct a probe into WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy and terms of service.This came on prima facie finding that the firm has contravened competition law provisions through its “exploitative and exclusionary conduct” in the garb of the policy update.

CCI has said a thorough and detailed investigation was required to ascertain the full extent, scope and impact of data sharing through involuntary consent of users. The order against WhatsApp LLC and parent Facebook Inc came after the Commission took suo moto cognisance of the matter on considering media reports and the potential impact of the policy and terms for WhatsApp users and the market.

The Commission said that users, as owners of their personalised data, are entitled to be informed about the extent, scope and precise purpose of sharing such information by WhatsApp with other Facebook companies. Besides, CCI said it is also not clear from the policy whether the historical data of users would also be shared with Facebook companies and whether data would be shared in respect of those WhatsApp users who are not present on other apps of Facebook.

It observed that the users have not been provided with appropriate granular choice, neither upfront nor in the fine print, to object to or opt-out of specific data sharing terms, which prima facie appear to be unfair and unreasonable for WhatsApp users.

WhatsApp said that it would engage with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in the probe on its updated privacy policy and terms of service.

In February Whatsapp had said that it would display a banner in WhatsApp allowing users to read, review and accept the policy “at their own pace” before the May 15 deadline.It noted that users will have to mandatorily accept the new terms and policy in their entirety, including the terms with respect to sharing of their data across all the information categories with other Facebook companies.

As per WhatsApp’s submissions, the 2021 update does not expand its ability to share data with Facebook and the update intends to provide users with further transparency about how WhatsApp collects uses and shares data.

So, what happens after May 15? Here's what's likely to happen

Users who do not accept the update will lose certain functionalities within the app, followed by the implementation of WhatsApp’s inactive accounts policy.

Users can still accept the updates after May 15, but WhatsApp’s policy related to inactive users will apply. As per the policy, WhatsApp accounts are “generally deleted” after 120 days of inactivity.

Users can export their chat history on Android or iPhone, and download a report of their account before May 15.

Barbeque-Nation Hospitality Ltd (BNHL), a casual-dining restaurant chain, has raised ₹202 crore from 15 anchor investors ahead of its Initial Public Offering (IPO), which opens for subscription on Wednesday. The company has allocated 40.58 lakh shares at ₹500 a share, the company informed the bourses. Should you subscribe to the IPO? Listen.

What makes the Redmi 10 Pro Max stand out? Mala Bhargava of the BusinessLine shares here views.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution titled ‘Promotion of Reconciliation Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka’ after 22 members out of 47 voted in favour of it. Eleven members voted against the resolution and India and 13 other countries abstained from voting.

What is the resolution about? and what impact will it have in India? Here's all you need to know.

Even as India scales its vaccination drive against the coronavirus, many Indian companies have inked various deals with foreign companies to manufacture and sell billions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Here's a look these deals and what it means for the country.

India witnessed the highest daily tally of COVID-19 cases this year.

India recorded 43,846 new coronavirus cases in a day, the highest single-day rise so far this year, taking the nationwide COVID-19 tally to 1,15,99,130.

On Sunday, The Union Health Ministry said that Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh account for 83.14 per cent of the new infections.

Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 27,126. It is followed by Punjab with 2,578 while Kerala reported 2,078 new cases.

Karnataka, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh reported 1,798, 1,565 and 1, 308 infections in a day.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in West Bengal on Sunday said that anticipating defeat in the West Bengal assembly elections, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has already started questioning the functioning of EVMs which had brought her to power 10 years ago.