Combined debt-equity ratio of top companies declines but interest expenses outgrow profits.
India's real estate market is poised for growth across categories - residential, commercial, and rental. Currently valued at Rs 24 trillion, or about $300 billion, it is projected to surge to $1.3 trillion by 2034, and then grow further to $5.17 trillion by 2047, indicates a report by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (Credai).
While the corporate sector has benefited from massive capital expenditure, leading to sky-rocketing stock prices, investors would do well to keep an eye on the macroeconomic picture and government finances, not just corporate profits, for signs of trouble, alerts Debashis Basu.
The Cabinet has cleared a Bill to set up a government-owned development finance institution (DFI) with initial paid-up capital of Rs 20,000 crore so that it can leverage around Rs 3 trillion from the markets in a few years to provide long-term funds to infrastructure projects as well as for development needs of the country. To put it in perspective, Rs 3 trillion constitutes slightly less than 3 per cent of the Rs 111 trillion to be spent on over 7,000 projects in the National Infrastructure Pipeline from 2019-20 to 2024-25. Besides, the government will give Rs 5,000 crore as grant to the institution, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday told the media after the Cabinet meeting.
If 4,000 workers could work round the clock for the construction of the new Parliament building, then there is no reason why all infrastructure projects too cannot follow that model, asserts Dr Sudhir Bisht.
The rally in the equity markets in the second half of 2023 has led to a sharp surge in the cutoff for stocks to qualify as largecaps and midcaps. On the latest list put out by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), the smallest largecap stock now has a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 67,000 crore, 35 per cent higher than in July 2023. In the case of midcaps, the cutoff has surged 26 per cent to Rs 22,000 crore.
The minister tells Subhomoy Bhattacharjee that he wants to set up a financing corporation for the road and shipping sectors, which will throw up a business opportunity of Rs 25 lakh crore!
Britain's wealthiest family, the Hindujas, have said they were 'appalled' by a Swiss court's ruling of jail terms for some members and have filed an appeal in a higher court challenging the verdict finding them guilty of exploiting vulnerable domestic workers from India at their villa in Geneva.
Given the broken balance sheet and the limited fiscal room, the government has to kick off investment: Vikas Khemani & Stephen Gallagher.
Buoyed by the government's big push for infrastructure, companies expect growth to resume by the end of the year.
But the industry's chief executives remain confident of the long-term growth potential of NBFCs in India, given their specialised lending on the asset side, last-mile reach, and a well-capitalised balance sheet. "Over the years, NBFCs have faced many crises.
Private sector firms need to be re-engaged for better infra planning.
The challenge is to convince productive sectors that a lower general rate would benefit all and remove the prevalent system of favours targeted towards narrow industry and service sector groups.
'What happens in the real estate market is that once the prices go up it goes on to stay at that level.' 'It might not increase and at the same time the prices will not come down too.'
The World Bank must become Archimedes's lever to help change the world into a more prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable planet in the 21st century. The change in leadership now provides that opportunity, observes Ajay Chhibber.
With the reality of coalition politics staring the BJP in its face, this was inevitable, points out Ramesh Menon.
Diwesh Sharan, a deputy director general of ADB, says beside the PPP model and viability gap funding, there is a 3rd option - value capture - to raise funds for India's ambitious infrastructure projects.
Industry experts on Friday called upon the new BJP-led NDA government to focus on attracting investments in key sectors, especially the infra space, to revive growth and investor confidence.
The Reserve Bank on Thursday said it will come out with a framework allowing borrowers to switch to fixed interest rate from floating interest rate, a move that would provide relief to borrowers of home, auto and other loans reeling under the impact of high interest rate. Unveiling the bi-monthly monetary policy, Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said under the framework, to be put in place shortly, the lenders will have to clearly communicate with the borrowers about tenor and EMI. "The supervisory reviews undertaken by the Reserve Bank and the feedback and references from members of public have revealed several instances of unreasonable elongation of tenor of floating rate loans by lenders without proper consent and communication to the borrowers," he said.
The sales of construction companies are expected to rise in the current quarter and financial year on the back of strong order books and increased activity in infrastructure.
The problem for the NBFC sector is the funding inertia by banks and not lack of funds.
'An area of land has already been earmarked for their protected habitation.' 'There are also steps being taken to take care of the coral zone and mangroves.'
To sell off L&T IDPL, Nabha Power; transfer Hyderabad Metro to an InvIT.
'There have been many cases where clients have indicated that they feel suicidal as they feel they have no other options to deal with their financial hardship.'
L&T Infra is undertaking a public issue of 'Long Term Infrastructure Bonds 2011 A-series'.
As many as 86 per cent of senior business executives have deployed artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance revenue streams or create new ones, said a report by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Wednesday. As many as 69 per cent of businesses are more focused on using AI for innovation and increasing revenue than on improving productivity and optimising cost, said the 'TCS AI for Business Study'.
First Rajya Sabha approved the Rs 45 lakh-crore spending proposed in the Budget, followed by the nod to the Finance Bill that contains tax proposals.
The sector faces many challenges and calls for prompt corrective action.
The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has named Ravneet Kaur, a Punjab cadre IAS officer of 1988 batch, as chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kaur will hold the post for five years or until attaining the age of 65. She is the second woman to serve in an 'economic regulator' role after Madhabi Puri Buch, who was appointed chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India last year and the first woman to head the country's chief national competition regulator.
As spending on infrastructure has three times the desired impact, the government's Rs 111 trillion National Infrastructure Pipeline should be accelerated: Assocham president, Vineet Aggarwal
Keen to capitalise on the growing geopolitical support from African nations after the recently concluded G20 Summit, India is working with the African Union to hold the fourth India-Africa Forum Summit later this year in Kenya's Nairobi, sources said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the mega meet along with as many as 50 African leaders, they added. First held in New Delhi in 2008, the India-Africa Forum Summit marked India's initial diplomatic efforts to seek a comprehensive partnership with the African bloc of nations as a whole, at a time when China had begun its own outreach.
While BSE has identified 373 companies whose securities will remain under restricted category, NSE has listed over 116 companies.
The number of infrastructure projects cleared by a monitoring group set up in the Cabinet Secretariat had increased consistently in the past year.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said Pradhanmantri Suryodaya Yojana will enable one crore families to get up to 300 units of free electricity monthly and help them save up to Rs 18,000 annually. "There is provision of Rs 10,000 crore for rooftop solar (scheme) in the Budget," said finance secretary T V Somanathan in press conference on Budget later in the day. Earlier in the day Sitharaman in her interim Budget speech said through rooftop solarisation, one crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity each month.
The fund is being set up in association with two off-shore partners -- HSH Nordbank, (HSH) Germany and Noor Financial Investment Company of Kuwait. HSH Nordbank is a major financier in the transportation sector especially in shipping and aviation. In India, it has participated in debt financing for the modernisation of the Delhi airport. Noor is the financial arm of NIG Group, a conglomerate.
India Infrastructure Finance Company has joined hands with Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services to develop and finance 10,000 MW of power generation and transmission, entailing an investment of upto Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion).
Notwithstanding the recent sharp decline in the stocks of public sector companies, analysts at Jefferies remain bullish on this segment. State Bank of India, Coal India, and NTPC are their top picks in this space, they said in a recent note. The public sector undertaking (PSU) or state-owned enterprise (SOE) index, with a 70-percentage-point outperformance versus the National Stock Exchange Nifty50 over the past 12 months, comes after a decade of underperformance before 2020.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in May announced that there will be a maximum of four public sector companies in strategic sectors, and state-owned firms in other segments will eventually be privatised.
With liquidity crunch hitting operations, many finance companies have put the brakes on sanctions in the third quarter in the aftermath of the IL&FS crisis.
