Top 10 business stories of 2017

The Union budget presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley on February 2 was preponed by a month. “Transform, energise and clean India” said Jaitley, asserting that remonetisation is gaining pace and the note ban declared last year had transient effect. The policies put forth in the budget mostly revolved around developing the business sector along with betterment of the poor, stressing on the use of e-commerce platforms, reforms in taxation and funds for railways.

The year 2017 saw an extended debate - which got dragged to the courts- over the government's push to link benefit schemes and other details like PAN Card, Mobile Number, Bank account No etc. with Aadhaar. Many petitioners cried foul over privacy issues and towards the end of the year, the Supreme Court extended the deadline of linking each of these with Aadhaar to March 31,2018.

On July 1, GST was launched by the Narendra Modi government at the stroke of midnight. GST, touted as the single biggest tax reform since Independence, is expected to add two per cent to the country's GDP (gross domestic product). The ambitious tax reform will subsume around a dozen central and state taxes that are levied on goods and services. The four-tier simplified rate structure has four slabs – 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% - whereas the basic commodities of daily use are kept under no tax bracket.

On August 18, Infosys’ erstwhile CEO and MD Vishal Sikka resigned from the software giant, blaming founder N R Narayana Murthy for the shocking decision. A bitter war of words ensued and the country's second largest software exporter went through a churn in the following months before appointing Salil S Parekh as the CEO in December.

Towards the end of the year, the virtual currency Bitcoin witnessed an unprecedented surge in valuation as it became a worldwide euphoria. In India, regulatory bodies like Sebi, RBI, Income Tax department as well as the government discouraged the use of Bitcoin. The I-T department surveyed bitcoin exchanges across the country and served notices to 4-5 lakh individuals.

At the fag-end of the year, the entertainment industry saw a ground breaking development as on December 15, Walt Disney Co struck a deal to buy film, television and international businesses from Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc for $52.4 billion in stock, giving the world's largest entertainment company an arsenal of shows and movies to combat growing digital rivals like Netflix and Amazon.com. Significantly, the businesses of Fox in India, parked under Star TV, will account for at least one-fourth of the valuation Disney is paying for the game-changing acquisition. The assets of Star- the market leader in Indian entertainment and sports is valued between $14-16 billion.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) added the yellow coloured Rs 200 note bearing a motif of the Sanchi Stupa on the reverse side in the currency family on August 24. Having the exact dimensions of the demonetised Rs 500 note, the use of this specific denomination is expected to bridge the gap between Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes.

The government on October 25 announced an unprecedented mega Rs 2,11,000 crore plan for recapitalisation of the PSU (public sector undertaking) banks in a bid to push growth and create jobs. While Rs 1,35,00 crore will be in the form of front-loaded recapitalisation bonds, the remaining Rs 76,000 crore will be in the form of budgetary support. The move came on the back of mounting bad loans in state-owned banks and is expected to result in various reform measures, including merger of PSU banks.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on August 31 said that all but 1.4 per cent of the old Rs 1,000 notes+ have come back into the banking system post demonetisation. The central bank released the data in its annual report for the financial year 2016-17. The report said that out of 632.6 crore pieces of Rs 1,000 currency notes in circulation, 623.7 crore have been returned, post the note ban last November. The opposition projected this as a show of failure of demonetisation while the government retorted saying objective of note ban was to bring down cash in economy, bring digitisation, expand tax base and fight black money.

IT companies hit the low, mostly due to automation that lead to laying off employees in huge numbers. Top tier professionals with experience of more than 10 years were asked to leave from major firms like Infosys, Wipro, Congnizant and Capgemini. Experts believe that the industry is slowing down far greater pace than anticipated and companies are tending to hire more in the US.