Innholdsfortegnelse for 25 April 2022 i India Today

Growing up in countries with a large population, constrained opportunities and learning to always coach your dreams limited to the knowledge of your reality is almost every twenty or thirty something's ultimate truth. There is a phase, rather a significant instance in every teen life stepping into the shoes of a young adult where the fantasy of utopia slowly starts to ghost them as Sir Pragmatism and Ms. Practicality claw their way in. A couple more years into college, guest starring the ever so repelling Mr. Reality, the illusion of that dream is chopped into tiny pieces of aghast despair that now awaits the whistle ready to kick off the rat race. While for the majority of the crowd, the dream remains a fiction, some refuse their wings to be…

Of their monthly income of Rs 75,000, Kumar and his homemaker wife Manorama set Rs 65,000 aside for their household needs. Much of this goes towards the Rs 18,000 EMI they pay on their Rs 20 lakh home loan, the Rs 12,000 school fees for their two children and the remainder on groceries, phone and power bills and fuel. It leaves the couple with very little to save. Of late, their expenses have risen by 30 per cent. “We need Rs 1,000 every day just to meet our daily household expenses,” says Kumar. The couple have cut down on all unnecessary travel, even if it means not attending a wedding or social function, or not buying clothes during festivals. Even watching a movie in a theatre has become a luxury.…

Q. Do you think India is on the brink of stagflation? ADITI NAYAR Inflation is set to be uncomfortably high in FY23—at 5.6 per cent on average, as per our forecast. We have raised our projection substantially after the Russia-Ukraine conflict which has inflamed commodity prices. Some items will see a relatively faster transmission to the CPI (consumer price index) inflation, such as fuels and edible oils. For other items, an uncertain demand outlook may make transmission less rapid. The extension of free food grains under the PMGKAY will soften the blow somewhat by protecting household food budgets for six months. On the growth side, we had cut our FY23 projection to 7.2 per cent last month. We believe that higher prices of fuels and items like edible oils are…

Privatisation has been a long-avowed ambition of the Narendra Modi government across two terms, expressed early on in the catchy slogan, ‘minimum government, maximum governance’. That project has produced mixed results, with the government falling embarrassingly short of targets, so much so that it has considerably scaled down its disinvestment ambitions to more achievable, realistic levels this budget. But what if this very threat of privatisation spurs an enterprise to do better, breathing new life into an old argument—of selling the family silver? This is precisely what seems to have happened with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), or Vizag Steel, as it is popularly known. On the block for privatisation, India’s first shore-based, state-owned steelmaker announced its best-ever performance since its inception in 1982 this April 1. RINL recorded sales…

BJP state president C.R. Patil is ambitious. He is on a mission to surpass the Congress’s 1985 record, when the party under Madhavsinh Solanki won 149 out of 182 seats. No party has touched this magic number since—not even under the almost decade and a half of Narendra Modi’s rule as chief minister. But the BJP did achieve its highest tally so far under Modi—127 seats in 2002. For Patil and the BJP, Gujarat is a must win battle as the PM’s reputation is at stake. Patil is working on all fronts to ensure success, even willing to deviate from his earlier stand that nobody from the Congress would be inducted in the BJP. Among those he won over from the Congress is Jayraj Singh Parmar, a former spokesperson for…

A new financial year often comes with change in income tax laws. Some new rules bridge gaps that existed in the past. Others address fresh developments, calling for introducing new tax rules based on the Union Budget presented earlier this year. Covid has also played a role in changing tax rules, especially when it comes to financial assistance received by people towards treatment of Covid-19. Any such money received is tax free. Likewise, money up to ₹10 lakh received by family members due to death due to Covid is tax free. This limit doesn’t include insurance proceeds. Let us look at the changes and their impact.…

Source: BSE A 2019 study by market regulator SEBI found that over 95 per cent of Indian households preferred to park their money in bank deposits. Money in savings accounts pay interest, but not a lot. The average savings account interest rate is 3 per cent and the current average inflation rate is over 6 per cent, so when you keep money idle in the bank, you actually end up paying money to the bank to keep it safe for you. The value of your savings doesn’t even match inflation, meaning the money in the bank doesn’t even retain its value as long as it sits in the bank. You need to put your money to work to maintain your standard of living. To see growth in the value of…

1. Fundamentals of the Indian economy remain largely intact. The future looks good to most participants in the market. Good companies are likely to do well and more good companies are likely to enter equity markets. 2. COVID-19 virus got tumbled. The hope is that businesses will recover well as the economy unlocks. This will accelerate as and when the pandemic winds down now that vaccinations are happening at pace. 3. In the long run perspective, High liquidity is present in global markets so institutional investors deploy more money into markets across the world, including India. 4. It's not all speculation, though Equity remains the best way to grow wealth across the world and across investment asset classes that seem to be fuelling the record highs we see 5. Banking…

FUNNIEST YOUTUBER Bhuvan Bam After a six-month hiatus, he was back in action on his YouTube channel, BB Ki Vines, with a bang. The eight episodes of his debut series, Dhindora, got more than 300 million views. His relatable and clean humour has made him a favourite among both families and youth. BEST STAND-UP COMIC Anubhav Singh Bassi Born in Meerut and a lawyer by training, his career as a stand-up comic began after an open mic in 2017. The 31-year-old specialises in anecdotal comedy and has over 3 million subscribers on YouTube. His videos have got more than 300 million views. MOST INSPIRATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR Ranveer Singh He delivered a pitch-perfect performance playing Kapil Dev in the cricket drama ’83. He brought alive all of Dev’s essential…

For passersby on Mumbai’s Carter Road crossing, the moon has perhaps never seemed closer. Now only 70 feet above their heads, ‘Chand’ sits on a small iron platform. Conceptualised by designer and installation artist Lekha Washington, the 12-foot-wide steel orb is already turning heads. Commissioned four years ago, as part of the Mumbai Street Art project by the RPG group, ‘Chand’ or ‘Moonrock’ has been created by joining blocks of textured steel surfaces, coated with different paints to mimic ‘moon craters’ and the orb is lit by a set of spotlights. The rear side of the moon has deliberately been left unfinished. The idea is for the dark side of the moon to merge with the night sky, creating an illusion of fullness. In a time when the social and…

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The law gives us the right over our own bodies. The inverse is true too, even if only by degrees—someone who breaks the law (and is caught) seems to lose ownership over his or her body, and therefore can be confined in prison, or even sentenced to death. Ideally, this loss is not absolute, and the degrees depend on how retributive or reformist the law is. On April 6, Parliament passed a law that dredged up some of these fundamental questions of justice. The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022, which replaced the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920, has put the Narendra Modi-led government on a collision course with its critics. ‘Unconstitutional’, ‘invasive’ and ‘violative of privacy’ were some of the words heard through the din. What’s the fuss all about?…

The ‘forest fire’ season (Nov.-Jun.) is peaking, with the first big blaze reported from Sariska Tiger Reserve on March 29. The fire raged for three days and IAF choppers flew multiple sorties using a ‘Bambi bucket’ with water to douse it. The blaze destroyed around 10 square kilometres of forest land. Luckily, there were no major casualties among the wildlife—under threat were more than 20 resident tigers. While forest fires are common in dry, deciduous forests during the season, there has been a jump in their frequency of late. The Forest Survey of India’s (FSI) ‘State of the Forest Report 2021’, released in January 2022, conducted a vulnerability mapping that shows more than 10 per cent area is at very high risk and 36 per cent at medium risk. “In…

“I never knew that about L&T!!° This could well be the refrain that you will hear from people who exit Planet L&T - the latest addition to L&T's marketing and brand promotion arsenal. Spread over 11,500 square feet in L&T's iconic A M Naik Tower in Powai, Planet L&T offers a tour de force of Larsen & Toubro's past, present and future. This technologically enabled exposition speaks volumes about the Company's continuous commitment to the nation and its needs, while sending records toppling like nine pins across its pantheon of products, projects and services. The words 'biggest, largest, heaviest, highest, tallest, longest… roll easily of the tongue when one speaks of L&T's achievements, earning the Company a reputation for being one of the country's most respected organizations across various sectors.…

HEADLINE INFLATION UP, UP AND UP Retail inflation has breached the RBI's targeted range in the last quarter of FY22 FOOD INFLATION HOT PLATE After cooling post the pandemic, food prices have begun to go up again P: Provisional TRANSPORTATION INFLATION TRICKY ROAD With fuel prices going up, transportation charges had to follow suit CONSUMER PRICE INFLATION IN SELECT COUNTRIES A GLOBAL TREND Inflation in India was range-bound up to Dec. 2021 compared to other countries BRENT CRUDE PRICE CRUDE ASSAULT The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sent crude prices into a tizzy…

Owner of a beauty parlour in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar area, Dixit has been finding it difficult to support her family of four on her monthly income of Rs 80,000. Their monthly household expenditure has jumped 25 per cent to Rs 75,000 in a year. The rise in the prices of pulses, vegetables and consumer goods apart, the things that she needs for her business have also become costlier. Waxing kits, for example. Their cost has gone up from Rs 900 per kit earlier to Rs 1,200 now. However, while her expenses have increased, Shrinkhala's income has not; if anything, business has been lacklustre in the wake of the pandemic. “Some of my clients have stopped coming because they think make-up is now a luxury,” she says. She has a car…

● News surrounding the merger of HDFC with HDFC Bank has been received favourably within the investing community. But the merger poses challenges, especially for equity mutual fund managers. One impediment is in schemes where the combined exposure to the two stocks is over 10% of the assets managed by the fund. Mutual funds are permitted a maximum 10% exposure to a single stock to comply with risk management framework stipulated by the regulator. ● On March 31, 2022, HDFC Bank had 8.43% weightage and HDFC, 5.66% weightage in the Nifty50 index, taking their combined equity weight to 14.09%. This is well over the mandatory 10% weightage that mutual funds are permitted and will impact many fund schemes. Should investors worry? No. The merger is likely to take 15-18 months,…

Digital transformation and adoption witnessed tremendous growth in the past two years and has changed consumer behaviour tremendously. “Sitting at home, I had access to anything that was digitally available. I started experimenting with a few things, but since August 2020, all my purchases have been online,” says 25-year-old Ahmedabad-based Divya Shah. She is among the many people who have quickly adopted digital, not just for work and entertainment, but also for day-today household needs. Other than convenience, she uses the digital gateway to her advantage with the ‘buy-now-pay-later’ (BNPL) interest-free option that is available for several online spends. BNPL allows consumers to buy a product or service without worrying about making an immediate payment. The repayment can be either in full or in the form of the very popular…

Even though most of us know that having insurance is important, buying a policy isn’t exactly top priority. Thoughts about meeting with an accident, damage to your car, falling sick or dying are all unpleasant, and delay the process of taking the right type of insurance to deal with the events. The procrastination that sets in when thinking about buying insurance can cause a lot of financial and emotional turmoil when an unexpected event occurs. Moreover, it is unlike other financial goals such as setting aside money for emergencies or investing in the down payment for a house or just saving for the family holiday in the summer, which seem a lot more interesting to plan. With life insurance penetration at less than 4 per cent and any form of…

AROOJ AFTAB For those like Barack Obama who had already discovered the Brooklyn-based Pakistani artist’s blend of jazz, folk and Sufi, her win in the Best Global Performance category didn’t come as a surprise. JOSEPH PATEL The “first Patel” to ever win an Oscar with Summer of Soul, a documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival that he produced, Patel also went on to pick up a Grammy this year for the Best Musical Film. FALGUNI SHAH A Colorful World, the album for which Shah won the Best Children’s Album Grammy, was the singer’s response to her son’s question: why do children of different races live such contrasting lives?…

Sometimes, even to those most cussedly determined to relieve their grim life by buying some moments of happiness in transit, reality can shatter the paradise. In 2019, it happened in Kashmir—to thousands who were soaking in the sylvan beauty of places like Gulmarg, Sonmarg and Pahalgam. The blow fell that August. A government directive first asked tourists to leave Jammu and Kashmir, citing a “terrorist threat”. In a few days, all of 25,000 tourists scrambled back to their homes on the dusty plains. On August 5 came the annulling of Article 370. What ensued was two and a half years of unrelenting gloom for the tourism industry—one of the Valley’s economic mainstays. If at all anyone entertained hopes of a pick-up in 2020, the pandemic extinguished that. Now, in the…

You perhaps wouldn’t expect the war in Ukraine to have an effect in Ujjain. But as March rolled out, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan dialled in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting help in setting up export lines for wheat from his state. The PM brought in commerce minister Piyush Goyal, and the confabulations soon enveloped exporters, the MEA and railways and shipping officials, all very intense and brimming with purpose. And why not? There is at long last an opening in the global wheat market due to the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, both big wheat-exporting nations. India, the world’s no. 2 wheat producer but a laggard in exports, had every right to grab that proverbial skillet to cook some rotis of its own. By extension, so did…

↘ The CBI wants to quiz him in the multi-crore cattle smuggling case. Anubrata’s name came up when the alleged kingpin, Enamul Haque, was interrogated ↘ He has been asked to depose in the alleged murder of a person at Illambazar in May 2021 ↘ He was one of the 41 accused in the alleged murder of Sagar Ghosh, an independent who won a panchayat seat in Parui, Birbhum, in 2013. He was given a clean chit in 2014 ↘ Whispered links to the Bagtui killings of March 21…

In the 35 years that he has been in business, Parikh, owner of Esjay Industries, a steel fabrication firm in Thane’s Wagle Industrial Estate which supplies to firms such as Larsen & Toubro for the defence segment, has never faced such a situation. The prices of basic raw materials—mild and stainless steel—have doubled in just two years. Mild steel, which cost Rs 40,000 a tonne two years ago, costs Rs 80,000 now. Prices of other consumables such as welding rods and industrial oxygen have gone up between 40 and 75 per cent. Parikh is in a fix because he cannot pass on the hikes to his customers. “Our customers take time to absorb the increase in our selling price. Even if we raise prices, it is marginal and not pro-rata,…

The most ardent wish often comes unbidden. After the end of a weeklong political drama that made international headlines, when 70-year-old Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan on April 11, you could tell that it was the culmination of a life-long dream for the three-time former Punjab chief minister. For more than 30 tumultuous years in politics, he had lived under the shadow of his elder brother, former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and it was often considered unlikely that he could ascend to the top office while his more charismatic brother was still around. But a Supreme Court conviction that disqualified the elder Sharif for life in 2017 opened the doors to Shehbaz being appointed president of their party—the Pakistan Muslim…

RINL suffered losses for 12 years after starting operations in 1982 before beginning to post profits from 2002-03. It became a loss-making business for three years again, reporting losses of Rs 1,604 crore in FY2015, Rs 1,263 crore in FY2016 and Rs 1,369 crore in FY2017. The first glimmer of hope appeared in FY2018 when it reported a small profit of Rs 96.7 crore before slipping back into the red. It reported a loss of Rs 3,319 crore in the April-December quarter of FY2019, its highest-ever. But with steel prices touching record highs in 2020, the firm’s financial prospects are looking up again. TURNOVER Figures in Rs ’000 crore PROFIT AFTER TAX…

"Inflation and unemployment ore the biggest societal challenges and this year's budget aims at solving these issues. We aim to generate 20 lakh new employment opportunities for Delhi's people over the next five years. It takes a great deal of courage to even claim such on ambitious goal."-Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister, Delhi Are we, as a nation, ready for the Challenges of tomorrow? How can we engage and employ our population - our biggest strength-perform to its potential7 As the country slowly moves into the post-pandemic era, another crisis is brewing up, which can be just as devastating. It is - the unemployment crisis. There is an urgent need to address it and for some inexplicable reason, it is not talked about as much as it should be. India is…

Happiness is not the first thought that crosses your mind when you look back at the past two years. In fact, we could rechristen the pandemic era as a famine of happiness. But every renunciatory period must be broken, every fast must be followed by a period of replenishment—emotional, physical and spiritual. As a magazine, INDIA TODAY had already chosen to respond to the darkness with light. For the last nine months, we ran a campaign of positivity in mission mode—every week, we showcased life lessons from the exemplary work being done by individuals and companies. On April 9, a balmy summer evening in Delhi, we brought it to a grand finale. Outside was rush-hour traffic and the infinite mess of everyday life. But inside the verdant Sunder Nursery, on…

Think of Sakshi Tanwar and you think of Parvati Bhabhi in Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii (2000-2008), the show that helped the actor find place in the homes and hearts of a loyal soap-loving audience. With Priya of Bade Achche Lagte Hain (2011-2014), Tanwar turned a corner with a more mature love story. Then, in 2016, as the mother of two aspiring wrestlers in the Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal, Tanwar enjoyed a big screen triumph. She followed that up with Karrle Tu Mohabbat (2017-19), a web series in which she reunited with her Bade Achhe… co-star Ram Kapoor. Tanwar says she is delighted with the opportunities and working practices offered by streaming shows and digital media. Her latest is an intense thriller, Mai (streaming on Netflix from April 15), in which she…

Ricky Kej still remembers the first time he felt the true power of music. “I think I was listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for the first time in high school, and I had tears in my eyes. It wasn’t like I was sad. Just that I was overwhelmed,” he says. Kej just picked up his second Grammy in the ‘Best New Album’ category for his album Divine Tides, which he composed with American musician Stewart Copeland—best known as the drummer of The Police. Even though he won his first Grammy for the 2015 album, Winds of Samsara (on which Copeland appeared as a guest artist), Kej still finds it surreal to think of himself as a Grammy winner. “I won the first Grammy when I was 33, I’m 40…