Radhakishan S Damani, investor and promoter of the D-Mart supermarket chain, has broken into the elite club of the top 100 global billionaires. Damani, who grew up in a single-room apartment in Mumbai, is now ranked 98th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with $19.2 billion as his net worth. The index is a daily ranking of the world's richest people. The other Indians on the top 100 rich list ahead of Damani are Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Azim Premji, Shiv Nadar, and Lakshmi Mittal.
Leading property developers, such as Oberoi Realty, Tata Realty and Infrastructure, and Hiranandani, have turned to redevelopment of existing buildings in the expensive parts of Mumbai as a way of augmenting revenue. Experts estimate that Mumbai's redevelopment projects could be worth Rs 30,000 crore. As such, they are not new. What is new is that the big developers are interested in them. Leading the race is Oberoi Realty, which has set up a separate team for these projects.
Mumbai, India's financial capital, is set for a mega transformation with a massive patch of land opening up for redevelopment; a new metro railway ready to start services by the year-end; and the country's oldest railway station, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, going for modernisation with private sector participation. Work on Mumbai's second airport will start from next month, while construction of the sea link connecting central Mumbai to Navi Mumbai has already moved into a fast lane despite Covid-induced lockdowns. Also, a coastal road project, connecting Nariman Point to Worli, is under way and will help decongest the city to quite an extent. Of all these mega infrastructure projects, the one that has a huge potential to change the city's skyline is the Eastern Waterfront project - to be built on the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) land.
MahaRERA, the authority under Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, in Maharashtra, has blacklisted 644 housing projects in the state for not meeting project deadlines. The authority has prohibited them from being sold, advertised or marketed in the state. These projects were supposed to be completed and handed over to homebuyers in 2017 and 2018. Even though most of the projects are being developed by local developers, one big name on the list is Lavasa Corporation promoted by HCC whose registration expired in 2017.
As the second wave of the pandemic ebbs and the daily caseload falls, the struggles of the urban poor have come into focus. Many have suffered income and job losses after two successive waves. The second wave, in particular, has seen the poor being hit hard on account of lack of medical and financial help. For the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies this has meant that an important segment is under severe distress.
The key demand drivers -- such as low home loan rates and income tax sops, particularly for affordable housing -- that supported the recovery in H2 FY2021, remain in place and will spur recovery again, feel experts.
Mumbai recorded a 4x growth in property registrations on a yearly basis in June this year, as restrictions imposed by the state government ended. Mumbai and its suburbs recorded property registrations of 7,857 units in June, compared to 1,839 units registered in June 2020. The registrations for June were also 39 per cent higher, compared to the same month in the pre-pandemic period of June 2019, said a new report by Knight Frank India.
Sanjiv Mehta, chairman of the country's largest consumer goods company, HUL, believes that the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic between April and June this year has been a mere pause in India's consumption story, and that it will not change the country's overall growth trajectory. India is poised for growth, especially in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, Mehta told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Tuesday. The signs of recovery are becoming evident with many states lifting lockdown restrictions in recent weeks.
While there was a sharp drop in footfalls in malls in H1FY21, there was reasonable recovery in H2. However, the second wave derailed the recovery.
Colgate-Palmolive India is placing greater emphasis on freshness, whitening, therapeutic, and family toothpastes, as rivals such as Dabur and Patanjali dominate the growing naturals segment of the market. Once under 5 per cent of the Rs 10,000-crore domestic toothpaste market, the naturals segment, which includes ayurvedic and herbal variants, is now 25-30 per cent of the market, industry executives said. Growth rates of the naturals segment are estimated to be in the region of 8-9 per cent in volume terms. In value terms, the growth rate for naturals is around 10-12 per cent, sector experts said.
Advertising on television continued to show momentum in May despite the surge in Covid-19 infections and the temporary suspension of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a high-impact television property. The data shared by the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) on Thursday shows that advertising volumes in May were up 64 per cent year-on-year. However, there was a marginal dip sequentially, that is, in comparison to April 2021, when advertising had touched a record high owing to the start of the summer season and the return of the IPL to India after being held in the United Arab Emirates in 2020.
'While most companies were bullish before the second wave of double-digit sales growth in FY22, that may not be the case now.'
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday said that the proposed additional stake buy in United Breweries (UB) by Dutch major Heineken does not raise any competition concerns, effectively clearing the deal. In its order, the CCI said, "It is submitted that the proposed transaction does not give rise to competition concerns regardless of delineation of the relevant market for the purpose of this filing." UB is the country's largest beer company, while Heineken is the world's second-largest brewer after Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev.
Zee is estimated to have paid around Rs 225 crore for the complete rights of Radhe. The total revenue that it may earn could be around Rs 135 crore, implying a shortfall of Rs 90 crore.
With the arrival of the second Covid wave in April, the numbers fell by almost 50 per cent.
From helping their employees infected with the Covid-19 virus to vaccinating them or supporting the families of those who might have succumbed to the infection, several companies in India are trying to do their bit in this difficult time. Some have even widened their support net to include all stakeholders as well as an extended community. To the families of the employees it lost to Covid-19, Noida-headquartered IT services and consulting company HCL Technologies is, for instance, paying salary for a year, medical insurance for three years and extending support for their children's education for five years.
Consultants who help lease these properties say this is the steepest decline at least in a decade.
Since April, India has seen multiple strains of the coronanavirus sweep the nation, upending life and businesses alike. Out-of-home retail and discretionary categories such as durables, auto, fashion, lifestyle, hospitality, food services, travel, and tourism have been the worst-hit as Covid cases remain high, leaving state governments with no option but to curtail mobility and economic activity.
According to research firm IDC, a slowdown in smartphone shipments began showing up as early as late February, though companies insist that the March quarter was fine, albeit on a low base.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances