The electric scooter juggernaut which has been picking up momentum with heady growth month-on-month is now slowing down. The combined number of registrations in April of eight electric two wheeler companies has seen a dip of over 1 per cent to 43,061 vehicles, according to data from the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways' site VAHAN. The reasons are the continuing shortage of chips, especially after the Ukraine-Russia war, and the spate of fires which have led to scooters being recalled by manufacturers.
Amway maintains the action was related to a case in 2011 and it has been cooperating with the investigative agency.
In 2013, weeks after getting bail in a case of alleged cheating in Kerala, Amway India's then managing director, William Scott Pinckney, declared that the company was aiming to hit revenues of Rs 10,000 crore in India in a decade. Fast forward to 2021, and Milind Pant, Amway's global CEO, announced that the company has designated India as one among the top three markets for growth and investment (after US and China), and is now looking at hitting revenues of Rs 20,000 crore over the long term.
Global rating agency Moody's on Monday said the high commodity prices and supply chain disruptions due to further escalation in the Russia-Ukraine crisis could expose about 42 per cent of rated Indian companies to significant risks. They are mainly in the oil and gas and automotive sectors. The impact may be seen under two scenarios: first, revised base line and second being downside economic scenarios incorporating a global recession and a more severe liquidity squeeze, it said. The military conflict between Russia and Ukraine is impacting companies in Asia Pacific, adding to existing challenges from supply chain disruption and the coronavirus pandemic.
The Indian lenders are worried over the fast depleting asset base of the Future group companies which would make their recovery of dues difficult. The asset base of Future group has eroded in the last two years due to lockdown and takeover of 947 stores by rival Reliance Retail after Future group's lease on the properties expired. Bankers said they have approached bankruptcy court so as to avoid any duplication of legal action and reduce time at the legal forums.
In a fragmented electric three-wheeler market where no company has more than a 10 per cent share, leave alone a dominant presence, can Bajaj Auto storm in and become king? The company is set to launch its range of electric auto rickshaws in June and hopes to replicate its success in ICE three-wheelers where it is the undisputed market leader with a 63 per cent market share. Can it be crowned king of the electric three-wheeler market too? Overall, electric sale volumes are growing at breakneck speed.
Transiting from "survival mode", which took most of the management time in FY21, the bank has been able to take a long-term view in terms of growth and preparing technology in the past 12 months.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has pegged the base price for the combined IPL media rights at Rs 32,890 crore, nearly double the Rs 16,347 that Star Disney paid five years ago. Experts say that at these levels, there does not seem to be any profit-and-loss logic at play. It is more about what premium broadcasting companies are ready to spend for market share dominance. They point out that due to competition, they expect the final price to hit Rs 40,000-50,000 crore.
Consumers can expect a 5G launch in the country soon. Telecom companies (telcos) say if auctions take place on time - the target is July - they would be able to offer some services in a few cities by the end of this year and a full roll-out from 2023. But the question is: will 5G turn the tables for telcos financially? Will average revenue per user (ARPU) improve? Will mobile consumers upgrade to 5G quickly and pay more? Will the expanded functions that 5G enables drum up sufficient revenues? In simple terms, will telcos make more money?
Singapore-based e-commerce platform Shopee - that launched in India only in December 2021 - has decided to close operations in the country. The official reason given by Shopee, which is controlled by NYSE-listed Sea Ltd, is changing global sentiments. In a statement, it said, "In view of the global market uncertainties, we have decided to close risks of our early-stage Shopee India initiative." The e-commerce platform has been hit by growing opposition from trade associations led by Praveen Khandelwal as well as homegrown social commerce start-ups.
Is the worst over for Indian banks? The past two years saw them ride on treasury trades as deposits soared and credit growth dipped sharply. Gross and net non-performing assets (NPAs) moved south, and the provision coverage ratio (PCR), capital buffers, and profitability indicators are back at pre-pandemic levels. So, what's the plot ahead?
Seven months after it was launched in India, Apple is expected to start manufacturing the iPhone 13 at the Foxconn plant in Sriperumbudur near Chennai from April, according to sources. The phones will be for both the domestic and export market. The production of the iPhone 13 in the Chennai plant was meant to start from January but had to be postponed after Apple suspended production following protests in December by women workers about food poisoning. An Apple spokesperson did not respond to an e-mail query.
Oberoi Realty has hit the top slot in Mumbai's ranking of the top-20 developers in terms of sales in 2021, evicting the Runwal group which was number one last year. The Lodha group which had occupied the top slot three out of five times since 2017 slipped to second place in 2020 and continues to be in the same position in 2021. The Oberoi group was in fifth place in 2019 and fourth place in 2020. This is the first time that it has occupied the number one position. The Runwal group which took the top slot in 2020 is down to third place in 2021.
The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) will revamp its banking application (app) YONO and position it as a complete digital bank (DB) under a new rubric 'Only YONO' for enhancing customer experience and ease of use. The bank plans to bring in a consultant to help draw up the project plan, keeping in mind business goals for the next five years. With 54 million monthly active users (MAUs), SBI YONO has seen growth of over 35 per cent in MAUs in 2021.
With the international markets facing uncertainty after Russia invaded Ukraine and Western nations retaliated with sanctions, Indian companies are putting their international fundraising plans on hold as they wait for the markets to recover. Bankers said apart from the geopolitical crisis, international rates are hardening in anticipation of interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve to control rising prices in the US. The Ukraine situation has implications for the market. In such a situation, international investors try to shift to safe haven assets by exiting from emerging markets.
Reliance Industries has put together an aggressive plan to build its drone business which includes expanding manufacturing capacity five-fold, participating in the new drone production linked incentive scheme, and experimenting with limited logistics payloads to deliver goods. The target is to become a key player in the expected $5 billion market in India by the end of the decade. The drone business is being carried out through a Bangalore-based start up, Asteria Aerospace, in which Reliance has taken a majority stake. Asteria is a subsidiary of Jio Platforms Ltd.
Zombies a.k.a perpetually loss-making firms in India seem to have dampened the effectiveness of monetary policy at the margin as they use borrowed resources more for their survival than for undertaking new investment, according to a RBI study. The monetary policy does not hinder the creative destruction process by misallocating credit flows to zombies during periods of economic slowdown, showed a study by officers of Reserve Bank of India. It has been published in RBI's bulletin for February 2022. In India, zombie firms are estimated to account for about 10 per cent of total debt of the non-financial corporate sector.
Commercial banks in the country continued with their improving asset quality trend in the October-December 2021 quarter with slippages remaining under control coupled with healthy recoveries and upgradation of asset classification. The 28-listed banks reported improvement in bottom line with net profits rising 64.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 21.5 per cent sequentially. This is mostly on account of a fall in provisions and contingencies.
Chinese giant Xiaomi is going for the premium segment with a view to grabbing market share in the Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000 smart phone market as well as having offerings up to Rs 70,000 where players like One Plus, Samsung, Vivo and Apple are key players. "Two years ago, the Rs 20,000 plus smart phone market which is considered premium in India was very small. "Out of every 100 phones sold, only 10 were above this price mark. "However, in the last two years, it suddenly grew and we thought it was big enough for us to focus on now," said Manu Kumar Jain, managing director, Xiaomi India.
This is following revival of demand from the corporate sector and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), even as a nascent economic recovery is taking shape. Credit growth of scheduled commercial banks had accelerated to 9.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) by the end of December 2021 after breaching the 7 per cent-mark in November, for the first time since April 2020.
