The first half of 2019-20 will be under pressure, since prices are expected to go up by Rs 7,000-8,000 at a time when sentiment is poor.
'We need to encourage the next generation of farmers to continue in farming'
Not all companies are generous with numbers these days - they're willing to share details of their core operations, but many of them are reluctant to let shareholders get even a glimpse of newer ventures
It might be a cheaper option, but lack of clarity is choking its growth
Recently, world headlines buzzed with Elon Musk's announcement that he was shelving his audacious bid for social media platform Twitter. Away from the media spotlight, questions are being asked about the maverick billionaire's plans in India, too. A few days ago, a Reuters report said Musk's flagship Tesla had put on hold its plan to launch electric cars in India.
Infosys has emerged as the fastest growing IT services brand following 52 per cent brand value growth since last year and 80 per cent since 2020 to $12.8 billion, earning it third spot, the brand valuation consultancy said in its latest Global 500 IT Services Ranking report. TCS and Infosys have pushed IBM to fourth spot from second. IBM's brand value now stands at $10.6 billion, a decline of 34 per cent from last year and 50 per cent since 2020.
Reliance Power (R-Power), the Reliance-ADAG group company, which plans to set up 28,000 mw of power plants in India, has secured $1 billion (or around Rs 4,200 crore) funding from three Chinese banks for the Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP) in Madhya Pradesh.
The telecom regulator on Friday released a list of 40 "defaulter" principal entities, including large banks like HDFC Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank, that are not fulfilling the regulatory norms on bulk commercial messages despite repeated reminders. Hardening its stance on the issue, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) warned that defaulting entities should comply with the stipulated requirements by March 31, 2021 "to avoid any disruption in the communication with customers" from April 1, 2021. "As sufficient opportunity has been given to principal entities/ telemarketers to comply with the regulatory requirements and that the consumers cannot be deprived of the benefits of the regulatory provisions any further, therefore it has been decided that from April 1, 2021, any message failing in the scrubbing process due to non-compliance of regulatory requirements will be rejected" by the system, TRAI said in a statement.
The Sensex ended up 48 points at 28,386 and the Nifty gained 13 points to close at 8,476.
Mutual funds (MFs) are set to be net sellers of Indian equities for the first time in the past seven financial years, having sold stocks worth about Rs 1.27 trillion so far in 2020-21 (FY21), making it the highest net sales on record in a financial year. MFs had been net buyers in the previous six financial years, including purchases of over Rs 1.41 trillion in FY18, Rs 88,152 crore in FY19, and Rs 91,814 crore in FY20. The last time they offloaded Indian equities was in FY14, when they net sold stocks worth Rs 21,159 crore. In contrast, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have ramped up buying in FY21, purchasing more than Rs 2.6 trillion worth of shares.
With the dizzying rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country, India Inc has transitioned from a wait-and-watch policy to full-on emergency mode, bringing back remote and flexi work, stringent safety protocols, and allowing only essential travel. Companies - especially in metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata - that had adopted a hybrid work model during the last few months when the caseload remained low, are either switching back entirely to work-from-home (WFH), or calling skeletal staff to office on select days. Take the case of cigarettes-to-hotels major, ITC, which had been on a hybrid work model over the last few months.
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.
With banks staying out of the bond market, and foreign investors exhausting their investment limit, the question is: Who will buy the Rs 4.6 trillion bonds that will be issued from April.
When he speaks of them, it is either in denial or to highlight successes that are only part of a larger story that is worrisome in its totality, observes T N Ninan.
Wondering if you did the right thing with your mutual fund investments?
Investment in market leaders with a safety-first approach could yield reasonable returns across sectors.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your queries.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers queries on how to invest in stocks.
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.
Though India was under lockdown for only seven days of the quarter, global demand and commodity prices began falling from February as COVID-19 was spreading in other countries. 1,002 listed companies - excluding banks, non-bank lenders, insurers, brokerages, and IT firms - reported a combined pre-tax loss of around Rs 2,700 crore during Q4.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled a Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget with a view to fire up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic. This was Sitharaman's fourth Budget. While the taxpayers were left in the lurch, once again, was she able to cheer Corporate India?
Indian names that figure on the list, but lower down the pecking order include Tatat (101). Airtel (rank: 252), Infosys (287), Life Insurance Corporation of India (292), State Bank of India (334), HCL (390), Indian Oil (427), Reliance (445) and Larsen & Toubro (464).
Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, chess champion Viswanathan Anand and Bollywood stars took to Twitter this week to support a campaign against child labour, using their fame to draw greater attention to the issue. The campaign, launched by Indian insurer Reliance General Insurance and children's rights NGO Child Rights and You (CRY), used the hashtag #DONT_EMPLOY_LITTLE_ONES to urge people to promise not to use child labour. Bollywood stars Soha Ali Khan and Mandira Bedi also tweeted their support. "Every child deserves to chase dreams. Let dreams be chased," Tendulkar tweeted. The former India captain's tweet was retweeted almost 2,000 times and liked nearly 5,000 times. There are 5.7 million Indian child workers aged between five and 17, out of 168 million globally, according to the International Labour Organization. More than half the Indian children work in agriculture, toiling in cotton, sugarcane and rice paddy fields, and over a quarter in manufacturing, embroidering clothes, weaving carpets or making matchsticks. Children also work in restaurants and hotels, and in middle-class homes.
Japan's Orix Corporation, which was in talks with Reliance Industries (RIL) to sell its 23.87 per cent stake in Infrastructure Leasing and Finance Company (IL&FS), has bowled a googly.
The 12-year loan will part finance the proposed expansion of RIL's petrochemical plants and setting up of new gasification unit and refinery off-gas cracker over the next 2-3 years.
State-run insurer LIC and private fund house Franklin Templeton have hiked their stake in Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries by collectively buying about 23 lakh shares, currently worth an estimated Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion).
Life Insurance Corporation of India, Housing Development Finance Corporation and State Bank of India together own a little over 45 per cent in IL&FS. The deal is expected to be valued around $2.5 billion.
New norms are in place to strengthen regulations for this set of lenders which has been playing a critical role in Asia's third largest economy, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Banks have Rs 10 trillion in stressed assets - Rs 7.8 trillion of bad loans and Rs 2.2 trillion of restructured ones.
The National Commission indicted LIC for working in cahoots with doctors for baseless certificates to repudiate claims and held this to be an unfair practice.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The one common theme across companies that have rewarded shareholders is consumption.
By contrast, the fraud enabled Raju's kin and aides to make hundreds of crores, charges CBI.
There is a dearth of talent in the Indian banking industry. A testimony to this is the two new CEOs in the private sector -- Sandeep Bakhshi in ICICI Bank Ltd and Amitabh Chaudhry in AXIS Bank Ltd -- have come from the insurance sector, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Vaidyanathan, former managing director and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, as a sign-on bonus got 20 lakh (2 million) warrants worth Rs 47.40 crore (Rs 474 million), DNA said.
The RBI governor's assurance should give investors enough confidence to start believing in the NBFC sector again, say bankers.
Priyadarshini Maji evaluates the impact that payment banks are likely to have on your financial life.
