Innholdsfortegnelse for 20 August 2023 i Business Today

▶ INDIA REPORTED higher-than-expected GDP growth of 7.2 per cent in FY23. The International Monetary Fund too has upgraded India’s GDP growth forecast for FY24 to 6.1 per cent from 5.9 per cent earlier. But if you thought that the economy could look forward to sunny weather, curb your enthusiasm. Economic growth may remain subdued this fiscal thanks to global storm clouds. The domestic economy, however, may still do better than anticipated if the capital expenditure of the centre and states remain on track and inflationary pressures ease to allow domestic demand to stay robust. Easing retail inflation—despite the recent spurt in vegetable prices—at 4.81 per cent in June, has raised expectations of improved consumption demand as real wages rise. Besides, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), too, may opt…

▶ NPCI INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS Ltd (NIPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has left no stone unturned in its quest to make the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) a global solution. These efforts appear to be bearing fruit. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to France, he announced that the European country had allowed the use of UPI for retail payments. France joins Singapore, the UAE, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bahrain in allowing UPI. Pretty soon, Indians visiting France, Thailand, the UK and the US could have a potentially cheaper payment option. IN COUNTRIES WHERE CARD NETWORKS ARE STRONG, UPI MAY FACE OPPOSITION FROM INCUMBENTS “Customers pay between 1.2 and 4.2 per cent markup for using a credit-, debit- or prepaid forex card abroad. We…

▶ INDUSTRY AND EXPERTS are eagerly awaiting the report of a high-level panel set up to look into the digital competition law. The panel is expected to submit the report in August, and a Bill will be drafted based on this. With this, India will be one step closer to a law to regulate large tech firms. The committee was set up in February, following a report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance in December 2022 on anti-competitive practices by big tech companies. It had mooted a digital competition bill to check such practices. Industry insiders and experts feel the report will have far-reaching implications. There are concerns about how well it will navigate the complexities of the sector since it encompasses everything from e-commerce to cab aggregators. Wider…

GAUTAM ADANI, 61, loves business jargon. Just a few months ago, the billionaire, caught in the cross hairs of the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, stumbled upon a new term, ‘permacrisis’. The term, which refers to a prolonged period of uncertainty, was chosen as Collins Dictionary’s word of the year in 2022. It describes the turbulent and uncertain nature of that year, and perhaps also the situation the Adani Group’s Chairman and Founder finds himself in—as he navigates the mother of all existential crises of his three-decade entrepreneurial journey. Though the challenges still linger—sparked by a Hindenburg report alleging accounting fraud, stock manipulation, and routing of funds through foreign shell companies, all of which the firm has refuted—there is some breathing space. The group, which has a top line of ₹2.62 lakh…

IN THE WORLD of finance, some may argue that Rajiv Jain, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of GQG Partners, is playing with fire. But this Fort Lauderdale, Florida-headquartered private equity firm has found its special sauce with its successful investment strategies. Whether it’s HDFC Bank or ITC, Jain’s strategy has been to get in early, thereby maximising returns for his global clients. His investments in the Adani Group—more than $4 billion—have attracted considerable attention due to the controversies surrounding the conglomerate. But the 55-year-old, who has a knack for seizing opportunities amidst challenges, is betting on his investment experience of more than three decades to come through for his clients. In an exclusive interview with Business Today, Jain decodes his investment thesis. Edited excerpts: What were your investments in India…

“HELLO MADAM, WHAT is your drop location?” “Koramangala.” Ride cancelled. “Hello madam, cash or online payment?” “Online.” Ride cancelled. “This is my struggle every day now; spending over an hour having these awkward conversations with at least half-a-dozen drivers before I finally get a cab for my commute,” shares Bengaluru-based IT professional Reshma. If you are a regular user of cab-hailing apps, you are perhaps all too familiar with this. But things weren’t always like this, at least not before Covid-19. In that idyllic past, the value proposition that Ola and Uber offered driver-partners and customers was clear: seller would meet buyer in a mediated market that promised a fair deal for both. What ensued was a fierce competition between the two giants for every ride and driver, as they…

Two days after the country launched its Chandrayaan-3 mission to explore the lunar surface, the GST Council, in a surprise announcement, exempted private launch service companies from paying GST if they launched satellites into space using their launch vehicles or rockets. Welcoming the announcement, Lt Gen. (Retd) Anil Kumar Bhatt, Director General of Indian Space Association (ISpA), the country’s apex industry body, tells Business Today that this will definitely incentivise the nation’s space industry and help in its growth. “We hope this is made available across all satellite service domains, including applications.” Space technology start-ups in the country, currently around 150, are over the moon hearing the news. Skyroot Aerospace, which launched India’s first privately built rocket into space in November 2022, hails the move as a historic one towards…

Nations operating in space in 2023 91 5% rise year-on-year (YoY) Size of the global space economy in 2020 $469 BILLION 9% increase YoY Commercial space revenue in 2021 $362 BILLION 6% increase YoY Global govt space programme spending in 2021 $107 BILLION 19% increase YoY Global space investment since 2013 $272.3 BILLION AS OF 2022 Global launch attempts in 2022 186 28% increase YoY No. of payloads deployed in 2022 2,354 36% increase YoY Average number of payloads per launch in 2022 12.7 6% growth YoY $1 TRILLION LIKELY SIZE OF THE GLOBAL SPACE ECONOMY BY 2040 COMPARED TO $469 BILLION IN 2020, AS PER MORGAN STANLEY’S PROJECTION COUNTING STARS India has seen a sharp rise in the number of spacetech start-ups in recent years *OVER 100; SOURCE: EY, BT…

DATA AS OF JULY 27, 2023; SOURCE CMIE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 4.49 PER CENT Food inflation in June 2023, compared with less than 3 per cent in May, thanks to the uneven march of the monsoon 375 PER CENT The surge in the retail price of tomatoes to ₹122 per kg in 2023. The increase was 250 per cent from a year ago 193 PER CENT Increase in garlic prices on a year-to-date (YTD) basis to ₹8,499 per quintal; ginger prices also jumped 188 per cent YTD…

▶ TATA SONS-CONTROLLED TATA Motors continues to show its commitment towards electric mobility, especially after its luxury arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Automotive announced that its Halewood, Liverpool plant will become an all-electric vehicle production facility. JLR has further said its next generation medium-size SUV architecture will now be purely electric as it takes concrete steps towards its financial goals of achieving a net-cash positive position by FY25. Incidentally, Tata Motors is already India’s largest electric carmaker, with over 80 per cent market share. With an investment of over £4 billion, the group has also announced plans to build a 40-gigawatt (GW) battery cell gigafactory in the UK that will develop electric mobility and renewable energy storage solutions for customers in the UK and Europe, with JLR and Tata Motors…

This is the age of artificial intelligence (AI). And one of the biggest questions the world is grappling with is how AI should be regulated. Then there’s social media, which humankind can’t seem to have enough of. And the behemoth that is straddling these worlds is Meta, with its bouquet of three popular social media services—WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. Shepherding the company through the complex process of global regulations and the pressing issues of the day is Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta. Clegg, who is also a former Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, in an interaction in Delhi with Rahul Kanwal, News Director of India Today and Aaj Tak, and Executive Director of Business Today, talks about AI, regulation, Meta’s latest product Threads and innovation, among other things. Edited…

‘SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL’ or ‘the bigger the better’—which one do you think has the best value? Now, imagine the possibility of purchasing a product that has grown to a very large size but still centres around things that are deemed small. That’s the realm of small-cap funds, which invest primarily in small-cap stocks. Though these stocks are considered small in terms of market capitalisation, such has been the investor appetite for them that a few funds in the segment have become so large that deploying investor money has become a problem, forcing some fund managers to temporarily halt new subscriptions. To understand why that is the case we need to first tackle a frequently asked question that always surfaces when the benchmark indices scale record highs: What is the outlook…

IF THERE is one question that irritates 34-year-old Seema Bhatia, a Gurugram-based management consultant, more than anything else in the world, it is her house help asking her every morning, “Aaj khane mein kya banega? (What should I cook for you today?).” Bhatia, who lives alone in the city and is health conscious, says ruefully, “I like to eat healthy, but I also want variety. My cook’s skills are limited and I don’t have much time to try my hand at fancy cooking. So the answer to her question is generally aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower) or paneer, hardly exciting.” It was to add more variety to her daily diet that Bhatia decided to try out Food Darzee, a healthy meal subscription plan. She initially opted for a one-day trial…

REVIEW When looking to buy an ultra-business premium yet lightweight laptop, many are torn between Apple’s MacBook Pro and the HP Spectre x360. Now, add one more from HP to the mix—the Dragonfly G4. The magnesium and aluminium finish, and the rounded corners of the Dragonfly gives it an ultra-premium look, something that could even give the MacBook a run for its money. While the matte metal finish may appear to be heavy, the notebook weighs only 999 gm. Lifting the lid reveals the Dragonfly’s brilliant 13.5-inch touchscreen, with 180° hinge; if you’re concerned about privacy, say on a plane, the touch of a button ensures the screen is obscured for your neighbours. The other thing you notice is the laptop’s super-responsive backlit keyboard, which ensures that typing is a breeze.…

Good Going THE BSE CAPITAL GOODS INDEX CLIMBED 48 PER CENT IN THE PAST YEAR COMPARED TO THE BSE SENSEX’S 23 PER CENT GAIN Data has been indexed to 100; Source ACE Equity Doubling Down THE SHARE OF CAPITAL EXPENDITURE IN THE UNION BUDGET HAS ALMOST DOUBLED IN THE PAST 10 YEARS *Revised Estimate; #Budget Estimate (BE) Source: CMIE Economic Outlook Top Heavy FOR THE SECOND YEAR IN A ROW, THE TOP LINE OF LISTED CAPITAL GOODS PLAYERS IN FY23 REMAINED ABOVE PRE-COVID-19 LEVELS Consolidated figures; companies that are currently a part of the BSE Capital Goods index have been considered for historical calculations; Source: ACE Equity Growing Strength PROFITS OF CAPITAL GOODS COMPANIES HAVE IMPROVED COMPARED TO THE INTEREST OUTGO Note: Rising profit-to-interest ratio indicates increasing capability of these…

▶ MUKESH AMBANI-LED RELIANCE INDUSTRIES Ltd’s demerged entity Jio Financial Services, formerly Reliance Strategic Investments, will be the third-biggest non-banking financial company after the Bajaj Twins—Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv—after its listing, the date for which is yet to be announced. However, at the discovered price of ₹261.85 per share, the market capitalisation of Jio Financial Services will be around ₹1.7 lakh crore at the time of listing. Jio Financial’s discovered price is the difference between RIL’s closing price of ₹2,841.85 on July 19 and the price of ₹2,580, which was derived during the special trading session on July 20. As of July 21, 2023, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv had respective market caps of ₹4.6 lakh crore and ₹2.6 lakh crore. Jio Financial will be larger than LTIMindtree, Tata Steel,…

ONE OF INDIA’S largest hospitals, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, was hit by a ransomware attack in November 2022. The attack cut off access to approximately 1.3 terabytes of data and impacted the hospital’s electronic medical records system. Its patient scheduling and billing systems were also affected, forcing the hospital to curtail its outpatient services for several days. Not only did it inconvenience patients, it also resulted in substantial financial losses for the hospital. After this incident, AIIMS strengthened its network by switching to a dedicated and secure local area network, among other security measures. Six months later, when another malware attack was mounted, it was thwarted. This isn’t an isolated incident. Such instances are rising across both government and private enterprises. Data from…

The millions of TV, laptop and smartphone screens across India that are usually airing news, entertainment or cricket matches, were unexpectedly tuned in to watch the launch of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission on July 14. Meanwhile, in restaurants across Delhi NCR, patrons and servers alike broke into loud applause to celebrate the moment space agency Indian Space Research Organisation’s heaviest rocket LVM3 successfully lifted off from the iconic spaceport at Sriharikota. Described as a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2, it seeks to demonstrate the country’s end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. The propulsion module will bear the lander and the rover up to 100 km of the lunar orbit. The probe will perform experiments to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature, seismicity, plasma density and elemental…

1 DTH leader Tata Play posted a net loss of ₹105 crore for the financial year ended March 2023 as opposed to a net profit of ₹69 crore in the previous fiscal 2 As the company looks to enter the OTT aggregation segment with Tata Play Binge, sceptics wonder if it’s a stroke of genius or a perilous folly 3 While the timing is right for Tata Play to diversify into the OTT aggregator business, there’s still a long way to go before Tata Play Binge becomes a strong cash-flow generator for it 4 Competition from telcos like Jio and Airtel, pure-play OTT aggregators like OTTplay, and OTT-cum-aggregator platforms like Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ is already intensifying 5 Changing customer behaviour in favour of OTT is another huge risk. Experts say that the…

WHAT HAS BEEN the best thing since sliced bread? For most of us who move around a lot, it is Google Maps. But there are times when the app directs you to nowhere as up-to-date data isn’t available. If you’re looking for alternatives, fret not. Here are some free navigation apps that you might want to try. Community Power | Waze A popular community-based app for navigation, Waze was launched in 2008. And its popularity led to it’s acquisition by Google for around $1 billion in 2013. Designed for car and motorbike users, Waze has a clean interface and suggests the best routes based on user-collected data. It also changes routes instantly to avoid traffic. Users can also update information such as traffic, crash, hazard, and more on the map with just…