The slowdown in private consumption in the economy is taking a toll on the growth of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). The net sales growth of listed FMCG companies hit a 14-quarter low of 2.5 per cent in October-December 2023 (Q3FY24). This is the lowest revenue growth for the industry since the June 2020 quarter, when the FMCG firms in the Business Standard sample had reported a 13.2 per cent Y-o-Y decline in combined net sales owing to the lockdown.
Many individual states experienced higher inflation than the all-India figures during the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). Retail inflation figures in Telangana, Haryana, Rajasthan and Dadra and Nagar Haveli have been higher than national numbers every month of this financial year, shows a Business Standard analysis of state-wise figures, after the March inflation data was released on Friday. Experts noted that persistent high food inflation along with differences in the weights of rural and urban indices plays into the regional variation in inflation rates.
Fresh meat and seafood delivery unicorn Licious is intensifying its talent acquisition endeavours as it pursues profitability and readies for an initial public offering (IPO) within the next 24 months. Delightful Gourmet, Licious' parent company, has named 39-year-old Karishma Gupta as its new chief financial officer (CFO). Her appointment aligns with Licious' drive for profitable growth through an omnichannel strategy.
'The long-term impact of elections is minimal.'
For the first time in his political career, he failed to carry his party to even a working majority -- and again, for the first time in his career, he finds himself in a situation where he cannot rule by dictatorial fiat, points out Prem Panicker.
The slowdown in corporate revenue growth over the last one year has begun to reflect in India Inc's capital expenditure, or capex. The country's top listed companies are going slow on fresh investment in capacity expansion, in line with a deceleration in their top line growth. The combined fixed assets of the listed companies, excluding banking, finance services and insurance (BFSI) and the government-owned oil & gas firms, were up 10.1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) during April-September 2023 (H1FY24) - the slowest in 18 months - as against 21.1 per cent Y-o-Y growth in H2FY23 (October 2022-March 2023) and 11.6 per cent growth in the April-September 2022 period (H1FY23).
Retail investors now own a larger share of smallcap companies than they did a year ago, thanks to their conviction in mutual fund (MF) schemes focused on this segment. Data from Capitaline shows that MFs' average holding in the National Stock Exchange Nifty Smallcap 250 Index stood at 9 per cent at the end of the October-December quarter of 2023-24 (FY24), up from 7.76 per cent in the same quarter of 2022-23.
The southwest monsoon season concluded on Saturday with India receiving 'below-average' cumulative rainfall -- 820 mm compared to the long-period average of 868.6 mm -- in an El Nino year.
Key individual parties have cornered a larger share, with some favouring regional and others national players.
The size of Reserve Bank's balance sheet increased by 11.08 per cent to Rs 70.47 lakh crore as on March 2024, leading to the highest-ever dividend payout to the government, according to the central bank's annual report. In actual terms, the increase was Rs 7,02,946.97 crore over Rs 63.45 lakh crore as on March 2023.
Global financial markets are wrong in hoping that the worst is over in geopolitical crises such as the Iran-Israel conflict and the Russia-Ukraine war, wrote Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies, in a recent note to investors called 'GREED & fear'. While most investors and the media are focused on United States (US) Federal Reserve policy and the "endless chatter" of Fed governors, Wood believes the news flow in the financial sphere "pales into complete insignificance" compared with the "tectonic shifts" going on in geopolitics.
Asked how many seats INDIA bloc will get, Gandhi said, "Have you heard Sidhu Moose Wala's song '295'? So 295 (seats)."
There is no association between the Covid-19 vaccines used in India -- Covishield and Covaxin -- and increase in the risk of heart attacks, according to an observational study which emphasises the protective effect of the jabs.
Mutual fund bets in their own schemes are nearing the Rs 1 trillion mark. The total value of sponsor and associate investments across all categories of schemes touched Rs 95,058 crore in February, according to a Business Standard analysis of data from industry body the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi). This represents a 28.9 per cent increase over March 2023.
'In India, political parties want to portray their leaders as cinematic heroes critical of their opponents.' 'This is where memes come into play.'
India on Saturday strongly condemned an assault, including the use of bear spray, on a 17-year-old Sikh high school student in Canada's British Columbia province this week and urged local authorities to investigate the incident and take prompt action against the perpetrators.
Patel lauded Joe Root for supporting the three main spinners with a fine spell.
Describing the DAD as the "guardian of defence finance", he emphasised the need to bolster the internal vigilance mechanism so that any suspicious activity can be detected and reviewed immediately.
A prominent Indian diaspora body has urged various agencies of the US government, universities and student associations to work towards addressing the spike in the deaths of Indian-origin students in the US in recent months.
A prolonged break in monsoon rains in most parts of the country is threatening to hit the yield of kharif crops. It could even delay the upcoming rabi sowing. Major agricultural states, such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and Gujarat, have witnessed a deficit of 30-80 per cent in southwest monsoon rainfall in August compared to the long-period average for the month. Meteorologists see no big revival in monsoon rains from hereon, though they forecast "some activity" over the Bay of Bengal on September 5-6.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared as 'invalid' the arrest of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha in a case under the anti-terror law, and directed that he be released from custody.
In the last five years, 480 candidates with declared cases related to hate speech have contested elections to state assemblies, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, the ADR said.
Amid intense scrutiny from short-sellers and regulators, Adani group stocks have seen a significant shift in their shareholder base: Relatively opaque foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have given way to more recognisable investors and broad-based funds. The list of large public shareholders - those directly holding at least 1 per cent - is now dominated by entities, such as the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), US-based GQG Partners, Abu Dhabi-based International Holding Company, and Qatar Investment Authority's INQ Holding.
Amid the diplomatic sparring and souring of bilateral ties in the wake of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegation of Indian involvement in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Special Envoy and Coordinator, Global Engagement Centre, James Rubin said the standoff was a 'tricky subject' as he sought cooperation into the investigation as far as it goes.
The Centre on Saturday night announced that the probe into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET will be handed over to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation.
Aviation watchdog DGCA has issued a circular to airlines and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on measures to deal with threats from jamming and spoofing of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) amid reports of such interference in the Middle East.
Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) is one of the largest beneficiaries of the defence indigenisation programme. The aerospace Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) has just received a new tender for 97 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk1A, and it is already servicing an earlier order for 83 LCA aircraft. The new order is worth around Rs 65,000 crore with a 65 per cent indigenisation component, whereas the earlier order (February 21) was worth Rs 45,700 crore with 55 per cent indigenisation.
Six decades and more later, we are now captives of our identities. Every poll is based on elaborate calculations of electability of candidates on the basis of their castes and other narrow definers. That, along with voter promiscuity, is what defines our political culture, which remains stubbornly resistant to any change, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
rediffGURU and financial planning expert Colonel Sanjeev Govila (retd) answers your personal finance-related questions.
The country's six largest smallcap schemes would require more than 20 days to liquidate half of their holdings, despite most of them maintaining high cash levels and having considerable exposure to more liquid largecap stocks, stress tests conducted by fund houses reveal. For midcap funds, the time required to sell half of the assets of the top six schemes varies between seven and 34 days, according to disclosures made by asset management companies. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had called for such tests in the face of strong inflows into smallcap and midcap funds, despite concerns over high valuations, to keep investors better informed.
Indian Navy on Wednesday said its ships and aircraft remain 'mission deployed' for maintaining enhanced surveillance and undertaking maritime security operations.
'Commentators have said that dealing with allies as equals will make Modi more sensitive.' 'Remember that the people Modi is dealing with are equally autocratic in their own lairs.' 'Further, Modi always has handy the threat of dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh polls.' 'Most of his own party, and certainly his allies and opponents having blown their budgets of efforts and resources in the just concluded elections, have no stomach for this.' 'They are all greatly looking forward to the loaves and fishes of office on offer.' 'That gives Modi an unbeatable advantage in any push-comes-to-shove situation,' explains Shreekant Sambrani.
A quarter of the stocks have been replaced since 2019, marking the evolution of India's economy.
India's corporate sector is likely to report a slowdown in revenue growth and earnings for the July-September 2023 period (Q2FY24), according to earnings estimates by brokerages, after the country's top listed companies posted higher than expected profits for the first quarter. The combined net profit of Nifty50 companies, based on brokerage estimates, is expected to have grown by 19.6 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 1.75 trillion in Q2FY24 - a sharp deceleration from 37.6 per cent Y-o-Y growth in the combined earnings of index companies in the April-June 2023 period. According to estimates, the combined earnings in the second quarter would be down 8.8 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) basis and the lowest in the past three quarters.
India will launch its own composite index next year to quantify the impact of heat on its population and generate impact-based heat wave alerts for specific locations, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.
'Rather than criticising the kind of candidates fielded by political parties from our living rooms, NOTA in a sense implores the electorate to say this by turning up in person at a polling booth to ensure their protest is registered.'
Weeks before Canada made an explosive allegation implicating Indian officials in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canadian officials sought public condemnation of the murder from their allies, including the United States, but were met with reluctance, The Washington Post reported.
A three-member team each from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and the State Drug Controller visited the plant in Tamil Nadu's Kancheepuram, 40 km from Chennai, on Friday after the company recalled the eye drop.
The cryptocurrency exchanges in India have got a fresh lease of life following the bull run in Bitcoin, which briefly hit a new all-time high of more than $69,000. Siddharth Sogani, managing director of CREBACO, expects the price to cross $1,00,000 by the end of the year. This will see a sharp reversal in the Indian market, which has largely been dormant since the new tax regime was implemented in 2023.
Kumari's dope sample, taken out-of-competition by the AIU last year, was found to contain steroids
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