Here are the stories making headlines in the business pages today.
Pinsent Masons hikes salaries to entice young lawyers
International legal firm Pinsent Masons is attempting to entice young people into the profession by hiking entry-level starting salaries by £16,000.
The Daily Business Group reports that qualified lawyers offered positions in the firm’s three Scottish offices will receive salaries of £61,000 – a 35.5% increase on existing levels.
Katharine Hardie, partner and chair in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said: “We are committed to attracting, retaining and nurturing the best young lawyers in the profession and are willing to offer top of the market salaries to achieve this."
Whisky could be part of a UK-India trade deal
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he wants a free trade deal with India by the end of this year. But as he prepares to meet his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, it's too soon to toast the prospects of a deal that may well prove hard to agree.
The BBC reports that other nation drinks as much whisky as India - which should have Scotland's world-famous industry celebrating.
But each bottle of Scotch sold in India comes with a hefty price tag attached, thanks to tariffs of 150% on imported liquor. So currently the majority of whisky drunk in India is made within its borders. Scotch whisky accounts for just 2% of the market.
Do away with those tariffs, the Scotch Whisky Association says, and exports could rise by £1bn over five years.
Cost of living crisis sinks consumer confidence
Consumer confidence is in freefall as the cost of living crisis bites, with a closely watched measure dropping to a near-record low this month, according to The Times
Confidence as measured on the monthly barometer produced by GfK fell seven points to -38, with consumers expressing more concern about the outlook for the wider economy than they did in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash.
The lowest score since the index began in 1974 was -39 in July 2008 at the peak of the financial crisis.
Santander cuts branch opening hours
Santander is to reduce the opening hours of its bank branches in Britain as more of its customers move online.
The changes will mean that Santander’s sites will close 90 minutes earlier for walk-in customers on weekdays, while the 316 branches that open on Saturdays will revert to half-days.
The Times says the lender, which has 450 branches in Britain, said its decision had followed a review of customer behaviour. It said that there would be no compulsory redundancies in the revamp and that employees would not be working shorter hours.
The banking industry is wrestling with greater use of online banking, which has forced lenders to scale back their networks in towns and cities.
Musk raises $46billion for Twitter bid
Elon Musk has raised $46.5billion to fund a possible takeover bid for Twitter, with the billionaire putting up about $21billion of his own money.
Paperwork filed with American regulators indicates that the Tesla chief executive has secured backing from a group of investment banks, led by Morgan Stanley, to explore “whether to commence a tender offer” to Twitter investors to buy their shares.
Musk, 50, has been a strong critic of the social media company, saying it “serves as the de facto public town square” and fails to uphold free speech and democratic principles.