'We remain positive on technology, private sector financials, gas, infrastructure, and export-oriented plays.'
Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran on Tuesday said India is not defending the rupee and the Reserve Bank of India is taking necessary steps to ensure that the movement of the rupee is gradual and in line with market trends. Nageswaran further said that the rupee is being managed in a manner that reflects the fundamentals of the economy. "India is not defending the rupee... I don't think Indian fundamentals are such that we need to defend the rupee. "The rupee can take care of itself," he said at an event in New Delhi.
Or has the world seen things like this before, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
India's economic growth is now 'extremely fragile' and needs all the support that it can get, as private consumption and capital investment are yet to pick up, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Jayanth R Varma said on Friday. Varma further said out of the four engines of growth for the economy, exports and government spending supported the Indian economy through the pandemic, but other engines need to pick up the baton now. " I like to think in terms of the four engines of growth for the economy: exports, government spending, capital investment and private consumption. "...while exports cannot be the main driver of growth because of the global slowdown, government spending is necessarily limited by fiscal constraints," he told PTI.
'The Indian economy and the Indian financial sector today remain resilient and much better placed.'
'These new laws give complete (impunity) to the police.' 'Whatever little accountability the police had, all that is gone now.' 'There is no accountability mechanism against the police for abusing or misusing in the new laws.'
Discussion has started between blank check companies in the US and Indian PEs on possible deals in certain key sectors.
This is a key reason for the finance ministry's objection to fixing the tenure at 100 years, as it is pushing PSBs to be self-dependent and raise funds from the market, reports Hamsini Karthik.
Three-quarters into the 10 years that Mr Modi had sought for transforming India, the 'output' numbers look impressive, but the key 'outcome' numbers don't show up much, if at all, observes T N Ninan.
In a move that is bound to spell relief for social media users, the government on Tuesday launched the much-awaited grievance appellate committee (GAC) mechanism that will allow users to appeal against decisions of social media platforms by filing their complaints on a new portal.
The report says, the emerging markets continue to have uneven performance but India recovers from decelerating growth. Narendra Modi government, it added, continues business-friendly growth reforms, the economy grows at 6 per cent and the market rises 20 per cent.
Indian society may be more advanced than we think it is, notes Ajit Balakrishnan.
The Indian IT industry will stage a "strong recovery" in 2021-22 with a revenue growth of up to 11 per cent, ratings agency Crisil said on Wednesday. The recovery will be led by increasing outsourcing and accelerating digital transformation services mainly in sectors such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), healthcare, retail and manufacturing, it said. As per Nasscom, the IT services industry grew 2.7 per cent to $99 billion in 2020-21.
Bolstered by bullish investor sentiments, India witnessed companies mopping up a whopping $9.7 billion through initial share sales in the first nine months of 2021, the highest amount for the nine-month period in two decades, says a report. As many as 72 initial public offerings (IPOs) hit the stock market during the January-September period this year in India and strong sentiments were visible in the global markets as well, according to leading consultancy EY. EY, in its latest report, said the global IPO market continued to boom through Q3 2021 resulting in the most active third quarter by deal numbers and proceeds in the last 20 years.
Jio's spectrum trading pact with Airtel has enabled India's largest telco to top-up its holding in three key circles and yielded potential savings of about $400 million, according to a report. It is pertinent to mention here that Reliance Jio has signed an agreement with Bharti Airtel to acquire a portion of spectrum in 800 MHz band for Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai circles at an aggregate value of Rs 1,497 crore -- marking the first such deal between the two telecom giants that otherwise compete fiercely in the market. Market analysts have termed the deal "mutually beneficial" and "win-win for both". UBS in a note cited Jio's spectrum buys in the 800 MHz band in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai in the recently-concluded auctions.
Instead of getting confused by what agents tell you, check waiting period, claim-settlement ratio, price comparison etc to make the right choice.
Measures reportedly being mulled by the government to ease telecom industry's stress and fundraising may give Vodafone Idea the much-needed breather, but structural issue undermining the sector can be fixed only with "sizable" tariff hike for 4G prepaid customers, according to a note by Edelweiss. It further observed that as Voda Idea's large liabilities are falling due, and given the impending launch of JioPhone Next (whose rollout timeline has now been pushed to before Diwali), "the sooner the government measures as well as tariff hikes are rolled out, the better it is". It is pertinent to mention here that the telecom sector has been keenly watching out for the relief package, which could include redefinition of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) to exclude non-telecom items, cut in levies such as Spectrum Usage Charges and easier terms and conditions for surrendering radiowaves to the government.
The current up move, according to analysts, closely resembles the rally post the global financial crisis in 2008-09, not just in quantum and speed, but also the way small-and mid-cap indices outperformed large-cap peers.
Ashok Kumar Gupta, chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), has never minced words while talking about the giant technology companies, referring to them on multiple occasions as "centres for entrenched and unchecked dominance". The anti-trust regulator has, in fact, been cracking down on big technology companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and others, after they were hauled up by regulators and lawmakers in Europe and Australia. However, in several instances, existing regulations have prevented the CCI from going all out against these companies for anti-competitive activities.
When Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was conceived last December, the idea was to reduce the dominance of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. It was also to bring in a level-playing field for small merchants in India's fragmented but fast-growing $1-trillion retail market. However, those goals have changed now as large e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon and Ecom Express are in various levels of talks with the ONDC team. They want to form partnerships like integrating with the network as well as providing their expertise to build it, according to the industry sources.
The formula for success of farm economy is very simple -- farmers should be able to produce more from the same piece of land at reduced cost while minimising risk and be connected to market to get higher realisation for their produce, points out Siraj Chaudhry.
Since when have elections become rocket science that you need to hire highly-priced specialists?And even if in the age of social media every party needs to present its best face, is Prashant Kishor the only one with such expertise, especially when his record is mixed with more losses than election wins to his credit? asks Virendra Kapoor.
Private equity investments in proptech firms rose 35 per cent to $741 million last year as investors sought to tap huge opportunities amid rising use of technology in the realty sector, Housing.com said. Proptech firms that are providing solution in sales and marketing, and construction management got 69 per cent of the total funds. Inflow of funds into proptech firms stood at $551 million in 2020. Between 2009 and 2021, the proptech players in India received a total of $3.2 billion Private Equity(PE) investments.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest World Economic Outlook report, has slashed its forecast for India's FY23 gross domestic product growth to 8.2 per cent from 9 per cent, saying that higher commodity prices will weigh on private consumption and investment. This was one of the steepest cuts for emerging economies compared to the IMF's January WEO forecasts. Saying that global economic prospects have worsened significantly due to commodity price volatility and disruption of supply chains caused by the war in Europe, IMF cut its global growth outlook for calendar year 2022 to 3.6 per cent from 4.4 per cent, and said both Russia and Ukraine could experience large GDP contractions.
And this is how you can highlight them at your next job interview.
The government must expedite its plan for asset sale and privatisation, both of which hardly got any mention in the Budget speech, points out A K Bhattacharya.
The headline for corporate profit growth has been very encouraging in the July-September quarter (Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24), with the combined net profit of listed companies up by 38 per cent year-on-year. However, the earnings distribution has been very lopsided, with most of the growth coming from public-sector oil-marketing companies (OMCs), banks, non-bank lenders, automobile (auto) companies, and cement producers. By comparison, companies from information technology services, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), retail, and consumer durables were disappointed, experiencing a sharp slowdown in net sales growth and a relatively muted increase in reported net profit.
'Then select those that are well-aligned with your risk-return profile and investment time horizon.'
The Supreme Court (SC) recently declared that a Hindu father or the manager of a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) has the power to make a gift of ancestral property for a 'pious purpose', but such an alienation can't be permitted 'out of love and affection'. A petitioner had filed a suit against his father and another person called KC Laxmana for partition and separate possession of his one-third share in the property, and for a declaration that the gift or settlement deed executed by his father in favour of the second defendant, KC Laxmana, be declared null and void. Bharat Chugh, former judge and advocate, says, "The plaintiff argued that the property belonged to the joint family (of which Laxmana was not a part), and transfer of property without his consent was not valid." The SC ruled that gifting out of natural love and affection cannot be interpreted as 'pious purpose'.
'Every time a new tech comes in, there are a set of people who will predict that this will be the end of Indian IT and every time the Indian IT industry and overall technology providers have proven to be resilient.'
'Investors should keep them on their radar and invest over a longer time frame, and expect some of these companies to bite the dust.'
'In 2022, active management, long-short strategies, multi-asset strategies, and asset allocation strategies need to be considered to meet long-term investment goals.'
So, while it is great that India's numbers look relatively good, don't raise a cheer just yet, points out T N Ninan.
The ongoing key reforms such as sops for manufacturing, easier labour laws, wooing FDI inflows and privatisation will help improve productivity and support long-term growth at 7.5-8 per cent levels, which if played out well, can help India contribute 15 per cent of global GDP growth by FY2026, says a report. According to a report pencilled by the India economist at UBS Securities, Tanvee Gupta Jain, the country has the lowest manufacturing costs among peers, even though China retains significant ecosystem advantages and despite that India and Vietnam appear most likely to benefit from a shift out of China.
'The IPO market is cooling off and getting a reality check.'
'Just because you don't see them does not mean they don't exist.' 'The greatest risk is overconfidence.
With the economy gaining pace and large deals back on the table, chief executive officers (CEOs) of tech companies believe global tech spending will witness growth this year. According to CEO Survey by Nasscom, about 71 per cent chief executives expect global spend to grow over 4 per cent. The figure is significantly higher than the previous two years - 41 per cent and 59 per cent in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The survey also said the recovery in global tech spending will be led by the digital segment.
Ajit Balakrishnan on how to arrest a worldwide decline.
Even as regulatory focus has zeroed in on foreign e-commerce giant Amazon, a domestic retail giant has been created almost below the radar in Reliance Retail (RR), one of the most crucial businesses for the group's future. From doorstep delivery of groceries, apparels to branded jewellery, medicines, toys, furniture to high street retailing, RR's presence in the world's fourth largest consumer market is just one part of the story.
As enterprises halt ongoing projects or cancel them, all staffers working on such projects are placed on the bench. In some cases, IT firms have to reduce billable staffers in a project as clients ask for scaling down support, leading to rise in reserved employees.