Unlike the race to buy airwaves by telecom companies, airports by infrastructure companies and city gas networks by energy companies, the race to develop super apps by consumer-facing companies in India has not brushed up against any regulatory issues. Officials at the ministry of electronics and information technology and at other regulators are happy they do not have to meddle in who among the Tata group, Reliance Industries Ltd, Flipkart or Paytm will manage to build an app that sweeps in customers. Unlike separate apps a customer uses on her mobile to order groceries, buy food or airline tickets or just make payments, a super app can perform all these functions.
From the stock perspective, though, even as all the 10 analysts polled by Bloomberg have a 'buy' recommendation on FRL, their target price of Rs 535 suggest most of the positives are already priced in.
'We are having an outsize impact not only on the lives of the customers and livelihood, but also the economy of India.'
As organised retailers try to squeeze margins, Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group has replaced PepsiCo's Frito Lay snacks with ITC's Bingo at its Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar stores.
Here are the key decisions announced by the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday.
Slowdown in industrial production notwithstanding, a marginal increase in inflation raised the clamour for another round of rate cut by the Reserve Bank on April 4 to boost economic activity.
Most of the changes have come about in the last four years and ITC is now reaping the dividends - standalone revenues from the non-cigarettes FMCG business have grown 40 per cent from FY17 to Rs 14,728.21 crore in FY21 and pre-tax profits 30 times to Rs 823.69 crore. The business accounted for 30.58 per cent of gross revenues and 4.85 per cent of pre-tax profits in FY21. "In the last four years, our margins in FMCG have gone up by 640 basis points (bps) and EBITDA margins have been moving up consistently. "We created levers that enabled a sustained growth trajectory," said ITC chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri. Puri took charge as the chief executive officer in 2017; in 2018, he was redesignated managing director and effective May 2019, he became chairman.
Gross bad loans of banks may rise from 6.9 per cent in September 2021 to 8.1-9.5 per cent by September 2022 if the Omicron variant strikes the economy hard, as per the financial stability report of the Reserve Bank released on Wednesday. The report also said that the rising stress level in the retail loan portfolio of banks -- the mainstay of bank credit for many years now -- was led by home loans, which grew in double-digits so far this fiscal. While asset quality improved, with gross non-performing assets (GNPA) and net NPA (NNPA) ratios declining to 6.9 and 2.3 per cent, respectively, in September 2021, the slippage ratio inched up during the same period as private sector banks showed a higher rate of deterioration in asset quality, as per the report.
Radhakishan Damani is the only billionaire to see his wealth grow by around 20% during the lockdown.
Sources familiar with the development said the Japanese giant had made it a pre-condition to invest in Future Group's food sourcing and back-end infrastructure.
'There is a clear business impact. People are avoiding crowded places and gatherings across cities. This is hitting business, both at traditional and modern trade outlets, during the Holi season, which kicked off from Saturday,' says Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).
India's retail inflation is the highest among the BRICS group of emerging economies.
Smaller Singapore- and US-based venture capital funds, retail associations and trader bodies such as the CAIT and SJM are all planning to approach the government to put pressure on the commerce ministry.
Selling anything from packaged food to home appliances, these kiosk-like shops have sales of Rs 40,000-Rs 50,000 a month in a busy locality, with 25-30 customers a day.
Kishore Biyani, the retail baron, seems ready to smoke the peace pipe with suppliers with whom he has been at loggerheads for the past few months. The move comes at a time when some of his recently launched private-label product categories are outselling those of multinational rivals such as Nestle.The founder of Future Group of retail chains including Food Bazaar and Pantaloon recently launched a series of in-house value-for-money consumer products.
'The idea of modern retail is to drive consumption and grow the economy. If international retailers can do that and add new categories, why not?' asks Kishore Bayani of the Future Group.
Customers want formats which have wide assortment, international products, and so on. Basically, it is an assortment play.
At the benchmark Lasalgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandi, the model onion price shot up to Rs 21.50 a kg on Thursday, as against Rs 16.50 a kg on Wednesday. This was the highest since February 11.
Naukri.com's Hiring Outlook Survey for 2020 reveals the jobs and sectors that saw a surge in demand during the pandemic.
Nature's Basket is changing its offering. Its new strategy zeroes in on pushing joint ventures, focusing on private labels and reentering Delhi.
Together, the top 10 business groups reported a pre-tax loss of Rs 19,342 crore during the January-March 2020 quarter, as against a profit before tax of around Rs 48,500 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 39,600 crore during the December quarter. While Vedanta was the worst hit. others included Aditya Birla, Bharti, Adani, Mahindra, and Tata.
The internals of the food inflation are worrying, given a broad-based uptick across categories that tend to be sticky, such as proteins, and a narrower-than-expected reduction in inflation for vegetables.
PMO being sent daily updates on food cost situation in four major metropolitan cities to ensure no unusual flare-up.
In the current fiscal so far, retail inflation stabilised around 5 per cent, while wholesale price-based inflation averaged around 2.9 per cent during April-December.
Besides Carrefour, Reliance is also talking to tier-2 companies like Salisbury and Marks and Spencer for food business, sources said. When contacted, an RIL spokesperson in Mumbai declined to comment.
The case may drag for a few years, experts say, as CAIT and DVM have said they will appeal against the interim relief granted to Amazon.
India's annual industrial output grew at a slower-than-expected pace of 3.6 percent in September.
Venturing into the outdoor media business, Kishore Biyani's Future group, with retail brands such as Pantaloon, Big Bazaar
Tomar said the government is committed to "peaceful talks with farmers' leaders and does not intend to hurt farmers' sentiments".
High inflation print is the price that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will have to pay to nurse a fragile growth back, say economists. Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rose to a record high of 12.94 per cent in May, aided by low base effect, but also because of higher fuel and commodity prices. Retail inflation, too, surprised by rising to 6.30 per cent, while the core inflation, which is the non-food and non-fuel component, rose to an 83-month high of 6.55 per cent. These numbers are much above RBI's upper limit of 6 per cent inflation target, but there is very little that the RBI can do at this moment.
In addition to Pichai and Nadella, IBM's Arvind Krishna, Micron's Sanjay Mehrotra, Ajay Banga from Mastercard and Ann Mukherjee from Pernod are among the six Indian-Americans among over 200 corporate honchos who will advise the President and offer recommendations on how to revive the American economy.
Most of the economic activity in the country had come to a standstill after the government imposed a 21-day nationwide lockdown beginning March 25 to check the spread of coronavirus.
Rajan addressed a group of investors in Boston on Thursday.
New Delhi says existing food stocks will be sufficient to contain any food price shock.
A day after the Patna high court slammed the Bihar government for its poor handling of the second wave of the pandemic and sought to know whether it was enforcing lockdown or not, the administration on Tuesday announced imposition of lockdown from May 5 to May 15.
Maggi banned in Delhi for 15 days.
Retailers claim online firms' predatory pricing strategy disrupting business
