Ratings agency Crisil on Monday said the information technology sector is likely to lose its position as a mass employment engine and new recruitments will nearly halve over the next three years, even though companies will continue to report good revenue growth.
After the easing of lockdown in mid-May, auto companies were able to resume production in a phased manner, but the ramp-up was slow due to a broken supply chain, and lockdown-induced restrictions.
Nearly a decade ago, the first fully electric vehicle (EV) caught fire on the road in the US. It was a model from Tesla, the world's most admired EV maker. A metal fragment punctured the underbelly of the vehicle, penetrating its battery pack, leading to a fire. Indian lawmakers and automakers have had nine years to study the incident (in fact, three Tesla Model Ss caught fire in two months in 2013) but seem to have learnt little.
Santosh Patkar of Devgadh Taluka Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra is a worried man these days. Devgadh, which is known as the home to world famous Alphonso variety of mangoes, has seen an unusual drop in yields which is affecting farmers' income. Being one of the primary agricultural produce from the area, Santosh is not untouched by this somewhat rare phenomenon. He said in his own mango garden, yields have come down by a third from most trees.
Crisil Research expects retail inflation to rise 60 basis points to 4 per cent this fiscal from 3.4 per cent in 2018-19.
Russia's war on Ukraine has sent steel prices soaring to its highest levels in the domestic market since November 2021. But there is little cheer in the industry. That's because input costs are spiralling out of control, leaving the big boys nearly as high and dry as the small, medium and secondary steel producers. Russia and Ukraine are major providers of steel and raw materials to the world.
The rupee has depreciated by over 12 per cent since the beginning of the fiscal.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Bold reforms and prudent monetary and fiscal policies by the incoming Narendra Modi government will help the economy to grow at 6.5-7 percent, says a report.
LIC identifies the problems well, but what the markets will watch is how nimble it is with the solutions.
South leads; North-East at bottom but moves ahead, finds out the IndiaSpend Team
CRAs are getting more business than they were getting a year ago. This could indicate expectations that investment demand will rise in the mid-term, says Devangshu Datta.
Earlier bidders in the SHAKTI auction were finding it difficult to meet their PPA obligations owing to shortfall in coal supply. The industry lobby has urged the Centre to review the guidelines and allow former participants as well.
What could be more uncertain than Virat Kohli's agonising wait for a century for over two years? Perhaps it's what you will pay tomorrow morning to fill your vehicle's tank. Pump prices have joined cricket scores as the country's favourite discussion topic. Steep increases invite widespread protests, while moderate additions make the government anti-reformist. The ongoing fuel price conundrum is no different.
India must be prepared for a big, fat fuel import bill in FY23 - barring any further avatars of the Covid virus - as refiners crank up runs, or crude processing rates, to meet the growing demand for fuels, and crude prices soar. Capacity additions by an Indian state-run refiner will reinforce the need for foreign crude. Demand for all fuels is expected to increase by 3-8 per cent next fiscal from 2021-22, reaching pre-pandemic levels, according to analysts and industry experts.
India has a history of jugaad, and retrofitting vehicles is one such manifestation of the legendary Indian skill. Not so long ago autorickshaws and small Marutis used to strap on subsidised LPG cylinders and power themselves to a cheap ride. There were the odd explosions, lives were lost, but the jugaad continued. Then compressed natural gas (CNG) was introduced in Delhi following a court order. Initially, customised CNG kits were fitted to conventional (internal combustion engine or ICE) autos cheaply, enabling commuting at less than half of what you would cough up for diesel. The industry is better organised now with Suzuki and Hyundai designing CNG-fired vehicles, and Mahindra and TVS manufacturing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)-powered three wheelers.
Many developers are facing financial challenges after the IL&FS defaults, after which non-banking finance companies - the major financiers to real estate firms - slowed disbursals.
Falling core inflation on the back of slowing economic growth is likely to create space for the Reserve Bank to ease monetary policy in the early part of the next year, rating agency Crisil said.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Revenues of Indian companies, excluding those engaged in banking and oil, are expected to grow marginally at 5-6 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal.
The regulator is more carefully scrutinising applications by infrastructure investment vehicles that have a limited number of investors. They have been asked to broaden their investor base before application approval, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Securities and Exchange Board of India is concerned about the structure being used for getting around tax requirements, according to one of the sources.
The airport, which will now be built to handle 20 million passengers, will likely start operations by mid-2020. However, rating agency CRISIL in its report in May-end had said operations are expected to start in 2023.
Auto component makers in India are bracing for a tough time. High absenteeism among workers owing to Covid-19, shortages of critical parts, and temporary closures of plants by automobile manufacturers have thrown a spanner in the works for the Rs 3.2-trillion sector, which derives 60 per cent of its revenues from automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), with the balance split equally between replacement demand and exports. Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India on Saturday said it was extending the maintenance shutdown, which was from May 1 to 9, till May 16, "keeping in view the current pandemic situation". Some activities will continue in the plants.
Revenue and profit contractions to continue till investment cycle does not revive.
Retail sales of cars are back to January 2018 levels in August 2021. Two-wheeler retail sales are 22 per cent lower, nearly four years down the line.
The stimulus package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman "fails to involve" banks in the economic revival process, a member of the Reserve Bank of India's central board said on Wednesday. The stimulus package is "imaginative and forward looking, yet fails to involve banks as frontline warriors in revival of economy," Satish Marathe, a member of RBI's central board, said in a social media post.
These are the top 8 out of 88 funds that the diversified equity fund category has to offer.
Obtaining reliable information is the essence of a sound investment strategy and one of the most reliable suppliers of financial information in India is CRISIL or the Credit Rating and Information Services of India Limited.
A normal monsoon, softer interest rates and inflation, pent-up demand, along with mild budgetary support may help growth pick up in coming quarters.
Between fiscals 2009 and 2014, India's energy import bill surged at an average 14 per cent annually to $161 billion.
In spite of the high decibel financial inclusion drive being carried out for the past three years, a Crisil study has revealed stark disparities in the spread of banking services, saying the top six cities are home to an astonishing 11 per cent of bank branches.
Debt-oriented mutual funds have continued to give positive returns in February, while almost all the equity schemes ended in the negative, a latest study said. According to Crisil FundServices, provider of fund evaluation and risk solutions to the Indian MF industry, debt funds showed positive momentum, while equity funds continued to slide in February.
'The levy proposed to be charged on air tickets for regional connectivity fund would marginally increase cost.'
Rating agency Crisil has said rising interest rates and the reintroduction of teaser loans by various banks would put an additional burden of Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) on them.
Rogue lending under political influence was rife in the Congress-led regime and is not happening in the Modi regime, certainly not on that scale. But if PSBs cannot lend as indiscriminately as they did last time in the name of 'credit expansion', how well will these banks do, asks Debashis Basu.
Investment in such companies exposes an investor to severe price volatility in case a promoter is not able to meet payments.
Volatility in exchange rates are also expected to increase.
"Profitability of companies will be negatively impacted due to rising input prices, as the ability of companies to pass on these hikes to customers is limited. Further, higher interest rate outlook would lead to lower investment, as profitability margins will be reduced," Crisil Ratings Director Pawan Agrawal said over the conference call.
Direct economic stimulus measures such as tax cuts for individuals and industry would have helped to prop up the Indian economy which was hit hard by the lockdowns across several states in India, say economists and corporate leaders. While the measures announced on Monday are focussed more on the supply side, these steps would take a lot of time to move the needle for the economy.
