'This is a race where every technology can be used by the bad guys and good guys.'
All nine Adani stocks saw a rise in their share price in H1FY23, ranging from 6.1% in case of Adani Ports to 102% in case of Adani Power.
Gold prices are struggling and are down 18 per cent from their March highs. But stock prices have fallen even more. As a result, the precious metal has begun to outperform equities - both in the domestic market and international markets. Gold prices are up 2.6 per cent in the domestic market in the current calendar year (CY22) so far, according to the World Gold Council (WGC), compared to a 1.7 per cent decline in the Sensex year-to-date (YTD).
India's equity markets are on a roller-coaster ride, after delivering spectacular returns for two consecutive years - in 2020 and 2021. The benchmark National Stock Exchange's (NSE's) Nifty50 is down 1.5 per cent in the first nine months of the current calendar year 2022 (CY22) as foreign portfolio investors sold Indian stocks due to rising bond yields in the US and across global markets, including India. The sell-off in the Indian equity markets has, however, not been broad-based and largely limited to sectors facing earnings headwinds from rising interest rates, lower commodity and energy prices, and likely economic recession in advanced economies.
The drying up of funds for a number of start-ups is affecting the firms' unicorn status across the globe. The past six months have seen the valuations of 147 unicorns drop, of which 71 were from the US and 29 from China, according to the latest Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2022. Eighty-one unicorns from across the globe saw their valuations drop below $1 billion-the threshold for a start-up to be labelled unicorn-from last year.
Infosys Technologies is being sued again by a former senior employee for discrimination on the basis of age, gender and ethnicity while hiring in the US. The suit filed by Jill Prejean, vice-president of talent acquisition, has alleged that the company discriminated and retaliated when she tried to point out the discriminatory actions. Infosys' motion to dismiss the claims made by Prejean was rejected by a judge from the United States District Court Southern District of New York.
Wipro on Tuesday asked its employees to be in office at least three days a week. It has informed its employees that offices will be open for four days a week, starting October 10. In an e-mail to its employees, Wipro said: "Starting October 10, Wipro's office will be open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays. We will not be open on Wednesdays." The company said in the e-mail, seen by Business Standard, that the move will "help us enjoy the camaraderie and team spirit of connecting in person while maintaining hybrid work flexibility".
India Inc is not in the dark about moonlighting employees. According to a forensic accountant, companies can easily turn to experts and deploy digital tools that can be used to check if an employee is doing a second job or not - reaffirming fears of many who are wary of the practice in the context of the recent sacking of moonlighters by IT major Wipro. Arpinder Singh, global markets and India leader, forensic and integrity services, EY, said that EY had been involved with several companies to gauge moonlighting.
The Indian IT industry recorded 25.2 per cent employee attrition in FY22 and that pain will continue as it loses talent to other industries, said a report by TeamLease. The attrition in the contract staffing industry is predicted to touch at least 50 per cent in FY23 compared to 49 per cent in FY22, said the report called 'Brain Drain: Tackling the great talent exodus in IT sector'. Company policies, payment and work flexibility is making talent move, as non-technology firms step up demand. "Tech talent in non-tech companies will see 3X growth in the coming years, opening up approx 1 million new tech jobs by 2025.
India's largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is mandating its employees to be back in office for three days a week. Teams will have to work with their team leaders, and the human resources team which three day's best suits them. In an email that went out to employees over the past two days, which Business Standard has seen, said: "As part of our return to office initiative, all TCSers are expected to work from office at least three days in a week."
Close to six months since the launch of Tata Neu, the super application (app) from Tata Sons Group is all set for a revamp. The highlights include a reimagined rewards programme or NeuPass, a more seamless user experience by increasing the digital maturity of brands, adding more brands to the platform, and hiring category leaders to drive the next phase of growth. When it comes to brands, Titan will join Tata Neu by Diwali. Tata Motors and Air India will be on board after the Festival of Lights.
When Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was conceived last December, the idea was to reduce the dominance of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. It was also to bring in a level-playing field for small merchants in India's fragmented but fast-growing $1-trillion retail market. However, those goals have changed now as large e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon and Ecom Express are in various levels of talks with the ONDC team. They want to form partnerships like integrating with the network as well as providing their expertise to build it, according to the industry sources.
Online pharmacy platform Tata 1mg turned a unicorn after raising close to $40 million in a funding round led by Tata Digital, media reports said. The company was yet to comment on the valuations till the time of going to press. 1mg has raised $230.8 million across 16 rounds, including this one.
The IT major will give an anniversary hike for lateral hires as they complete a year at the company. And, these employees were entitled to the annual salary revision that followed the anniversary hikes.
'Companies are being forced to pay higher salaries to retain and hire employees due to a big rise in attrition in the industry.'
A few days back, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged the start-up community and public to deal in cryptocurrency with caution because everything that was floating around was not currency. In the first week of August, the country's top nine crypto exchange platforms were summoned by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in Hyderabad. The exchanges were questioned for money laundering, especially over a number of Indian non-banking financial companies and their fintech partners for predatory lending practices in violation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines and by using tele-callers who misuse personal data and use abusive language to extort high interest rates from the loan takers.
The Adani Group has overtaken Mukesh Ambani Group to become the country's second biggest business group in terms of market cap behind Tatas. Adani Group cos now have a combined m-cap of Rs 19.44 trillion against Ambani Group cos combined m-cap of Rs 17.89 trillion. Tata Group leads the league table with the group market capitalisation of Rs 21.73 trillion on Monday. The Adani Group companies, however, continue to out-perform firms from business groups and the broader market on the bourses by a big margin.
Corporate earnings grew in double digits during the April-June 2022 (Q1FY23) quarter but the momentum waned. Overall corporate earnings in the quarter were down sharply from their highs in FY22. The combined net profit of 2,981 listed companies across sectors in the Business Standard sample was up 22.4 per cent YoY to Rs 2.24 trillion in the June quarter, driven by a big jump in the earnings of banks, non-banking lenders, oil & producers, and FMCG companies. Also, earnings in the corresponding quarter a year ago were affected because of the second wave of the Covid pandemic, even though the numbers were a lot better than Q1FY21 when there was a nationwide lockdown.
After a recent fall in profit, Masayoshi Son of SoftBank announced that the Japanese tech investor will look at dramatic cost-cutting. Before he does that, investments in India for calendar year 2022 (CY22) will fall radically, observed sources in the know. Last year, the company had invested around $3.2-3.5 billion in the Indian start-up ecosystem - almost 10 per cent of the total investment the sector received. For CY22, the investments may not even touch $1 billion.
Mirroring the increase in the earnings of their companies, the chief executives and promoters of India's top listed firms gained handsomely from the boom last financial year. Their remuneration includes salaries, perquisites or perks, and profit-linked commissions.