After a tentative start, quick commerce (q-commerce) is ablaze, with Blinkit and Zepto slugging it out in a market distinct from other competitors. The latest entrant is Flipkart, which is ramping up its infrastructure in around 12 cities where it will launch the service in the next six to eight weeks, taking on existing players such as Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart, and BigBasket, among others. According to data analysed from Sensor Tower by BofA Global Research, the daily active user (DAU) base of Blinkit has grown by 58 per cent between February 2023 and February 2024.
Apprentices get at an average of Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 per month which can double after one year of on-the-job training.
The exclusive club that dominates the global semiconductor fab scenario is about to get a new member. Taiwan, South Korea, and China control nearly 70 per cent of the global capacity. SEMI, the global industry body for semiconductor and electronics design and manufacturing, projects all fabs collectively will churn out 30 million wafers a month this year.
The new scheme, promoting manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs) by global majors, will give a fillip to companies like Tesla and its upstart rival Vinfast, both of whom have lobbied for lower import duties from the Centre. While Vinfast has already announced an investment of Rs 4,000 crore to set up an electric vehicle (EV) plant in Tamil Nadu, Tesla's next move will be watched carefully. Four years ago, Musk announced that his company would come to India.
India is all set to make its presence felt in the $47 billion global outsourced semiconductor testing and packaging market, an arena where Malaysia and Vietnam have been way ahead so far. The Cabinet last Thursday cleared two projects, the Tata's assembly testing and packaging plant (ATMP) and the Murugappa-owned CG Power with Renesas from Japan as its tech partner. These, together with Micron's assembly and testing plant which is already being constructed in Sanad in Gujarat, will collectively invest Rs 47,300 crore to set up the factories.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has proposed to raise the minimum local content under public procurement order in government contracts. But several local suppliers and multinational companies (MNCs) are saying such a steep target is not attainable. Class-I suppliers, whose goods, services or works offered for procurement has local content equal to or more than 50 per cent may see it hiked to 70 per cent, while it may go up to 50 per cent from 20 per cent for Class-II suppliers.
At $16.8 million per match, the IPL is only behind America's National Football League.
koda Auto India is set to drive in a new car by the first half of next year to reach its target of 100,000 unit annual sales in the country by 2026. The compact sports utility vehicle (SUV) will be positioned against the likes of Maruti Brezza, Hyundai Venue, and Kia Sonet, and would be competitively priced, a senior company official said. koda will also export the car to right-hand-drive markets like Australia, New Zealand and the Asean nations.
'However, we have seen weakness in our active pharmaceutical ingredients business.'
Can the launch of smartphones under its own brand name by Finnish company HMD Global - despite having a licence to use the Nokia brand which it bought from Microsoft - help it regain its once dominant position in the mobile phone sweepstakes in India, where it was once routed? In 2009, Nokia was the country's largest MNC with revenues of $4 billion and a market share touching 80 per cent in 2010. After this, its fortunes fell. Although it had been the first global player to set up an assembly plant, not only to assemble phones for the local market but for exports, it had to shut down operations in 2014.
Even as the government debates whether to continue the FAME-II subsidy for electric vehicles (EVs), the share of such vehicles in overall sales is decelerating, after witnessing a heady growth in the first few years. The penetration of EVs - electric two-wheelers, passenger vehicles, three- wheelers and other segments collectively - in the first 10 months of FY24 has been pegged at 4.3 per cent, compared to 3.7 per cent in FY23, according to credit rating agency ICRA.
South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor Company is considering tax implications of listing its Indian unit before taking a final call, according to sources privy to the development. Hyundai Motor is mulling an initial public offering (IPO) for its Indian arm to raise around $3 billion (at a valuation of up to $30 billion), and talks are in the early stages between the company and bankers, banking sources revealed. Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), however, declined to comment on the development.
The push given to rooftop solar installation in the Interim Budget ties in with its high rate of adoption in Tier-II and -III cities of India. If original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the automobile industry, government, and the solar sector are to be believed, in cities of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Kerala, 45-50 per cent of electric-vehicle (EV) users are employing rooftop power to charge their vehicles. This is compared to the national average of 25 per cent, say industry sources.
In a big push to the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, the government has nearly doubled (increase of 81 per cent) the allocation in five key industry segments from Rs 8,405 crore in the Revised Estimate of FY24 to Rs 15,198 crore in the Interim Budget for FY25. The segments cover over eight PLI schemes, including mobile phones, IT hardware, pharma (PLIs for medical devices, intermediates and pharmaceuticals), food processing, telecom hardware and, auto and auto components. In FY24, DPIIT officials, however, said that the disbursements would be much higher at around Rs 11,000 crore than what has been budgeted for the year.
For the consumer, there would be practically no impact on prices of essential medicines this year.
Bajaj Auto, the king of the market for CNG-powered passenger three-wheelers, now wants to replicate this dominance in two-wheelers. The difference is that while the former is zooming - registrations for CNG-powered passenger three-wheelers nearly doubled during January-December 2023 - the latter, meaning a market for CNG-powered two-wheelers, does not exist.
The pharmaceuticals sector is expected to post a revenue growth of around 13.5 per cent and a net profit growth of 30.3 per cent for the third quarter of 2023-24 (FY24), riding on the approval for niche drugs in the US market, fall in raw material prices and correction in shipping rates. In the healthcare segment, hospitals are expected to post revenue growth of 13 per cent during the coverage, while net profit growth would be around 37 per cent, ICICI Securities said in a note. However, the performance may not be comparable on a sequential basis due to the offset of the festive season in Q3FY24, the analysts noted.
'From data on enquiries, we can build what we call a data lake or a data warehouse where data is classified into various cohorts and then we use AI and ML tools to predict demand down the line.'
'Now that we are a pure-play India business, many investors are open to investing.'
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