A round-up of the biggest articles from newspapers.
Festival frenzy at IPO market as 35 firms eyes Rs 80,000 crore in Q3
The October-December quarter to see a flood of IPOs coming to the market, reports The Economic Times.
Why it’s important: It is expected that around 35 firms are mulling to enter the primary market.
This will raise around a record Rs 80,000 crore during the period.
This will to exceed the previous record of Rs 67,147 crore raised by 36 companies in the entire 2017.
Some of the biggies in the fray are Paytm, Aadhar Housing Finance, Star Health & Allied Insurance, Policybazaar, Emcure Pharma, Go Airlines, Ruchi Soya Industries, Adani Wilmar, Nykaa, Paradeep Phosphates, Vedant Fashions, CMS Infosystems, and Northern Arc.
‘Govt Must Go Back to Pre-Covid Bidding Criteria’
Technical aspects should also get weightage to avoid project delays & cost overruns: L&T chief
Larsen & Toubro Group Chairman AM Naik in an interview with The Economic Times said that diluted key financial criteria for bidding processes is not good.
What Naik says:
Naik wants the pre-Covid norms for commercial eligibility in infrastructure project bids that has stringent quality parameters for desired standards.
Awarding projects on the basis of lowest bids do not factor in quality parameters, potentially proving costly for the nation.
L&T lost 14 projects in the hydrocarbon space in the last one year in India due to lowest bid criteria instead of the experience and quality standards.
The Centre had diluted key financial criteria for bidding to help firms execute contracts and projects amid the Covid-induced financial crunch.
Problem is not to come to India, but to stay in India: Alstom India chief
Alain Spohr, Managing Director of Alstom India and South Asia, in an interview with The Economic Times said India can become an export hub of the world.
What he says:
The ease of business in the country has improved over time.
But there’s a need to work on project execution as well as dispute resolution.
Needs well-designed incentive schemes such as subsidies or financial incentives to prod firms to get huge investments to the country.
“Problem is not to come to India, but to stay in India.”
Vedanta plans to invest $ 20bn in India: Anil Agarwal
Vedanta group Chairman Anil Agarwal in an interview with The Times of India, on the sidelines of the Dubai Expo, said his group is planning to invest around $ 20 billion in India.
What Anil Agarwal says:
The investment plan includes in the sell-off of BPCL, Shipping Corporation and Hindustan Copper.
He said there is pressure from foreign companies to block manufacturing in India, highlighting environment and other concerns.
Through privatisation, the government can get $ 1trillion.
He suggests that 20% should be privatisation and the rest should be corporatisation, where public shareholders come in and no one should own more than 10%.
No plan to delist Vedanta.
The group has the lowest debt in the corporate sector.
The world does not want India to produce but be a market.
Bank of Baroda bets its new digital platform bobWorld
Bank of Baroda MD & CEO Sanjiv Chadha in an interview with The Times of India said that BoB wants to position its new digital platform bobWorld as the primary platform for all banking activities.
Why it’s important: The bank has seen a surge in digital transactions and twice the number of branch visits are happening on the app.
“So rather than being an adjunct to the bank, the app will be the bank and the other parts of the lender will become an adjunct.
The thought was to enable everything that can be done in the branch within the app.”.
The app also offers things like airline ticket booking and shopping across merchants.
Banks push new credit cards to make use of festive spends
Banks are eyeing credit cards to boost its businesses during the festival season, reports Mint.
Why it’s important: Several banks launched new cards with attractive offers.
The move is when the banks are cautious on unsecured loans, they are betting big on credit cards.
SBI Card and HDFC Bank are launching new cards
Some other banks that did not have credit cards so far are also entering the market such as Federal Bank.
They are targeting their existing customers.
RBI likely to unwind liquidity support, says survey
The RBI may gradually withdraw emergency liquidity measures unveiled after the covid-19 period, a Mint survey of economists showed.
Why it’s important: The survey shows that key interest rates may be kept unchanged.
In its upcoming meet, RBI may continue its accommodative stance.
But it is likely that they hint at the coming policy normalisation, the survey says.
Facebook bets big on innovative start-ups with global reach
Facebook India Managing Director Ajit Mohan, in an interview with Business Standard, said the company is planning major investments in the country.
What he says:
Facebook is looking at Indian start-ups based on innovation and have global business models for investments.
Facebook is taking it ‘slow and steady’ on WhatsApp Pay with “a lot of pilots and experimentation.”
Facebook is planning to use visual cues to accompany the payment.
NTPC plans to list 3 subsidiaries
Public sector NTPC is planning to list three subsidiary companies reports Business Standard.
Why it’s important: The move is to meet the government stipulated target of ? 15,000 crore worth of asset monetisation.
The three subsidiaries are NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam, North Eastern Electric Power Corporation, and one-year-old NTPCRenewable Energy.
NTPC is also planning to exit its JV with SAIL, NTPCSAIL Power Company, as part of the monetisation plan.
‘India to gain more from digital tax deal’
Pascal Saint-Amans, director at the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at OECD, in an interview with Business Standard said that global digital tax (GDC) and digital service tax (DST) by countries, such as equalisation levy, can’t co-exist.
What he says:
The final agreement this week is most likely to show some more concessions made due to the influence of the G24 and developing countries in general, in particular India.
It is estimated that the global solution on equalisation levy or DSTs will bring in much higher revenues for developing countries, including India.
A similar carbon pricing deal can be thrashed out like digital taxation deal.
Working to develop a reporting framework to exchange information on crypto-assets.
‘Continue to remain positive on India from a long-term perspective’
Ashutosh Tikekar, head of global markets, India at BNP Paribas, in an interview with Business Standard said that two bigger risks for the market is recovery stalling and the cost of funds rising.
What he says:
On-the-ground data points, supportive government policies, a proactive central bank, higher vaccination rates, and structural issues in other emerging countries are behind the outperformance of the Indian markets.
Various high-frequency indicators point to a sustained recovery through FY22 and FY23.
A change in on-the-ground sentiment suggests a revival in the corporate capex plans.
Continue to remain positive on India from a long-term perspective, though there could be some blips along the way.
