The proposed Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to be issued by the Reserve Bank will play a critical role in improving the speed of transactions and reducing the cost of cash, a Deloitte report said on Wednesday. The Reserve Bank of India is planning to come out with a central bank-backed digital currency, using blockchain technology in 2022-23. As a financial services innovation, CBDCs are likely to play a pivotal role in shaping the 'future of value transfer', the report said, adding that most central banks worldwide are now in various stages of their evaluation of launching their national digital currencies.
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday said underlying economic activity in India continues to be strong, but external factors will cause some "dent" to the economy. Speaking at the BFSI Insight Summit 2022 organised by Business Standard, Das said the RBI tracks 70 fast moving indicators and most of them are in the "green box". It is the external sector, mired by a fear of recession or clear visibility about slowing growth in a large part of the world, where the challenges lie, he said, adding that the impact of external demand will "dent" the economy.
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.
A new generation of investors has taken to stock trading on mobile phones with a renewed zeal, driven mainly by social changes after the Covid-19 pandemic breakout. The proportion of the cash market turnover ascribed to mobile phones has jumped from 5.3 per cent in June 2019 to 18.7 per cent in June this year, reveals BSE data. The share of mobile trading on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for June this year stood at 19.5 per cent.
'The Indian economy and the Indian financial sector today remain resilient and much better placed.'
Equity indices chalked up losses for the second straight session on Monday, in tandem with a bearish trend overseas as ratcheting up of hostilities in Ukraine and prospects of further rate hikes by the US Fed soured global risk sentiment. The rupee slipping to another all-time low against the US dollar amid foreign fund outflows added to the gloom, traders said. After tumbling over 800 points in intra-day trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex clawed back some lost ground to end 200.18 points or 0.34 per cent lower at 57,991.11.
Shoppers Stop returns to its core business after divestments. The retailer plans growth through web and private labels.
Its trajectory in telecom is well known but now it is pushing for a similar leap into the ranks of the top players in its other businesses: media and entertainment, e-commerce, a series of online businesses ranging from health to education, and retail.
Petrol price on Tuesday was increased by 15 paise per litre and diesel by 18 paise as State-owned fuel retailers started passing on the increase in international oil prices to consumers after an 18-day hiatus.
Recovery seen in Q4, companies continue to focus on enhancing cash flow
Distress sales, market closures and anchoring of fishing fleets have been reported from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
'Returns can be very variable in equity markets.' 'That is why I tell small investors don't put 100 per cent of your money in equities, even if you are young.'
Piramal Enterprises (PEL) on Wednesday said it has completed the acquisition of Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) by paying Rs 34,250 crore to creditors of the housing finance company. The company said the creditors of DHFL, including fixed deposit (FD) holders, would recover an aggregate amount of Rs 38,000 crore from the resolution process of DHFL. The amount comprises approximately Rs 34,250 crore to be paid by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Ltd (PCHFL) as a combination of cash and NCDs, and an amount of approximately Rs 3,800 crore which is the entitlement of creditors as per the resolution plan from the cash balance available with DHFL, the company said.
Aramco also plans to invest in building India's largest oil refinery on the country's west coast.
Domestic equity gauges Sensex and Nifty extended their losing run for the third session in a row on Friday as participants remained cautious tracking other Asian markets amid geopolitical uncertainties in eastern Europe. After swinging about 700 points between gains and losses during the session, the BSE Sensex finally closed 59.04 points or 0.10 per cent lower at 57,832.97. On similar lines, the NSE Nifty edged lower by 28.30 points or 0.16 per cent to settle at 17,276.30.
The BSE gauge Sensex tanked over 1,500 points to crack below the 57,000-mark and the NSE Nifty slipped below the 17,000-level in the opening session on Monday, amid heightened tension over the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The 30-share Sensex nosedived 1,540.85 points to 56,612.07 in early deals and the broader Nifty plummeted 458.20 points to 16,916.55. On the Sensex chart, all 30 shares were trading with steep to moderate losses -- with SBI, Tata Steel and IndusInd Bank tumbling over 4 per cent.
'Comparing the rates of interest with PSU banks, the three- and five-year time deposit rates of the post office are more favourable.'
Petrol and diesel prices were raised for the second day in a row on Wednesday as state-owned fuel retailers resumed daily rate revision after a more than two-week long hiatus during assembly elections in states like West Bengal. Petrol price was increase ford by 19 paise per litre and diesel by 21 paise a litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Petrol in the national capital now costs Rs 90.74 a litre and diesel comes for Rs 81.12 per litre.
Ola Electric on Wednesday said it has commenced deliveries of its S1 scooters. The company said it organised special events in Bangalore and Chennai on Wednesday to deliver both S1 and S1 Pro trims to the first 100 customers. "Today is a landmark day for those who have joined the revolution with us as we begin our deliveries of Ola S1. "We are working hard to ramp up the production at the Ola Future factory to get the scooters in the hands of our customers as per their delivery windows," Ola Electric chief marketing officer Varun Dubey said in a statement.
The year 2022 saw the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) start acting on the policy repo rate after a gap of two years. The six-member monetary policy committee of the RBI reduced interest rate sharply - by 115 bps - when Covid-19 struck in 2020. In March 2020, days after the nationwide lockdown was announced, MPC in an unscheduled meeting reduced the repo rate by 75 bps, followed by another 40 bps in May. Status quo was maintained for the next two years since the May repo rate hike.
'Investors need to have a fairly diversified basket of funds within equities.' 'We want them to allocate to largecap funds, midcap funds and flexicap schemes.'
Most players are looking to invest anywhere between $500 million and $1 billion in new ventures in the next couple of years, said experts on this segment.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das kept the red flag on cryptocurrencies flying, warning that the next financial crisis can be triggered by private cryptocurrencies if such speculative instruments are allowed to grow.
Fitch Ratings has upgraded Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL) rating to 'BBB', one notch above India's sovereign rating, as the company benefits from cash flow generation across diversified business segments and continuation of deleveraging. In a statement, Fitch said it has upgraded RIL's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) to 'BBB', from 'BBB-', with a negative outlook. At the same time, the agency has affirmed RIL's long-term local-currency IDR at 'BBB+' with a stable outlook.
Mall owners have incurred a loss of around Rs 3,000 crore during the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last eight weeks due to lockdowns and restrictions imposed by various states across the country. In the wake of the second pandemic wave, around 25 per cent of the business of the retail side across categories has been lost and this is going to impact the mall owners as well, according to Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI) Chairman Mukesh Kumar. However, mall owners would go ahead and complete their under-construction projects as they anticipate demands for commercial and office space once the pandemic recedes, the SCAI said.
The agency proposes to improve revenues from non-advertising segments, integrate non-traditional disciplines and strengthen sister agencies Orchard and Black Pencil.
Indian Sellers Collective (ISC), a trade association of micro and small enterprises and family businesses, on Wednesday urged IT veteran NR Narayana Murthy to cooperate in the Competition Commission of India's antitrust probe against Amazon for alleged anti-competitive practices. In 2014, Murthy's Catamaran and Amazon had formed a joint venture, Prione Business Services. On Monday, the partners announced that they have mutually decided not to continue the JV beyond May 2022. ISC thanked Murthy for deciding to end the joint venture with Amazon.
Amazon's rivalry in India with oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries looks set to head to the cricket field, where they will likely battle media heavyweights for telecast rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) with its hundreds of millions of viewers.
AI and machine learning will only continue to grow in 2022, with a significant increase in the demand for such roles, notes Sekhar Garisa, CEO, Monster.com.
'I hope the trend is sustainable and that economic activity accelerates going forward.'
If you don't have a specific goal, but want intermittent liquidity, then ladder your FDs, that is, invest in FDs of varying maturities, such as one, two, three, five or even 10 years. Laddering ensures FDs mature at regular intervals.
'Rather than experimenting with CBDCs, we must come up with a very simple and straight design.' 'Dematerialise your currency/cash and with that dematerialised rupee allow all the transactions digitally.'
The central probe agency has got an alleged 'close associate' of Sisodia -- Dinesh Arora -- to spill beans by turning approver in the case, they said.
India is facing no risk of recession or stagflation as macroeconomic fundamentals of the economy are strong, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday. Replying to a debate on price rise in the Lok Sabha, she said the GST collection and Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) are indicating that the Indian economy is getting more robust. The GST collection rose 28 per cent to touch the second-highest level of Rs 1.49 lakh crore in July. GST, introduced in July 2017, touched a record high of Rs 1.68 lakh crore in April 2022.
Equity indices made an emphatic comeback on Friday after falling for seven straight sessions after the RBI hiked interest rates by 50 basis points on expected lines and projected inflation coming under control from January next year. A strong recovery in the rupee added to the momentum, traders said. Overcoming a wobbly start, the 30-share BSE Sensex soared 1,016.96 points or 1.80 per cent to settle at 57,426.92. During the day, it rallied 1,312.67 points or 2.32 per cent to 57,722.63.
The rupee on Friday rebounded from the near-80 levels to close higher by 17 paise at 79.82 against the US currency following a recovery in the domestic stocks and weakness in the greenback in overseas markets. The US dollar retreated from the two-decade high levels against a basket of six currencies which supported the rupee sentiment. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 79.95 and witnessed an intra-day high of 79.82 and a low of 79.96 against the US dollar in the day trade. ,
Come October, life insurers may have to tighten their underwriting standards further for retail term plans at the behest of one of the largest reinsurers in the Indian insurance market, Munich Re. According to a source aware of the development, "Munich Re has been studying long-term mortality trends for the past few years, and has suggested some tightening in the underwriting process." "As far as financial underwriting is concerned, the reinsurer has suggested that insurers should ask for additional documents. "For example, apart from income proof, they can ask for bank statements of the prospective customer before issuing policies," added the source.
Petrol and diesel prices are likely to be hiked this week as oil companies prepare to pare losses accumulated from keeping rates steady for over four months in the run-up to assembly elections in five states, including UP, despite international oil prices jumping to a 13-year high of $140 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the US oil benchmark, rose to $130.50 per barrel on Sunday evening, its highest since July 2008, before retreating. The international benchmark, Brent crude, hit a high of $139.13 at one point overnight, also its highest since July 2008.
The workers who were hired straight out of school as unskilled labourers are now struggling to find alternative employment because they lack skills.
Telecom, metal and healthcare came as dampeners.
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