Category: Finance

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Business motivation Finance

India Emerges As Top Choice for Future Investments in the Next 2-3 Years: Survey

New Delhi, October 14: Business in India that have been severely affected by COVID-19 this year, have been limping back to normalcy over the past one month or so. Reports inform that India is believed to emerge as one of the top three choices for overseas investments in the next 2-3 years, a CII-EY FDI survey report showed on Tuesday. According to the survey, India is the first choice for future investments for more than two-thirds of the MNC respondents. The CII-EY FDI survey also showed that 25 percent of the respondents, who represent non-Indian HQ MNCs, view India as the first choice for future investments.

The report said more than 80 percent of all the respondents and 71 percent of the non-Indian headquartered respondents plan to make investments globally in the next 2-3 years. Moreover about 30 percent of companies are planning to invest more than $500 million. About 50 percent of the respondents see India among the top three economies or leading manufacturing destinations of the world by 2025.

According to a report by IANS, the respondents have picked market potential, skilled workforce and political stability as the top three reasons to make India their favoured destination. The other key factors which contribute to the attractiveness of India as an investment destination include cheap labour availability, policy reforms, and availability of raw materials, the report said.

“Recent reforms in the country such as corporate tax cuts, ease of doing business measures, simplification of labour laws, FDI reforms, and focus on human capital have emerged as the top drivers for fresh investments,” the report said. “Non-Indian HQ MNCs have also opined that major investment in infrastructure and 100 Smart cities as well as financial sector reforms will also help establishing India as a favourable destination for FDI,” it said.

The survey brought out some key recommendations sought by the respondents. The report said infrastructure development, faster clearances, and proper implementation of the improved labour laws and labour availability as the top three issues that the companies want the government to focus on, followed by R&D and innovation, and tax reforms. “In terms of trade policy reforms, investors would like to see a faster turnaround time for exports and imports, improved cargo handling, and trade facilitation measures to be in place”, it added.

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Finance

Paytm Launches Same-Day Bank Settlement For Businesses That Depend on Immediate Availability of Funds; Here Are Details

Paytm (Photo Credits: Paytm website)

Bangalore, October 13: Paytm has started same-day settlement facility for all kinds of fund transfers on its payment gateway, the company said in a press note today. This settlement feature will help businesses that depend upon immediate availability of funds for their business. It includes e-commerce companies, government institutions, and all businesses involving inventories.

The feature can be accessed from Paytm Merchant Dashboard or Paytm for Business app. The minimum amount that can be transferred is Rs 50, and the maximum amount is Rs 2 lakhs in a single transfer request. The merchants will be able to define the frequencies and the funds will get transferred automatically. Frequencies can be once a day, twice a day or even three times a day.

As a norm digital payments made to a merchant is usually not settled on the same day. According to industry standard, the settlement happens after one day or two days, depending on the specific day of the week. However, payment startups have been innovating on same day settlements to encourage small merchants who need cash in their bank account daily to start accepting digital payments.

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Finance

Ninjacart, a Bengaluru-Headquartered Supply Chain Platform, Gets Fresh Investment From Walmart and Flipkart Group

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Money

Bengaluru, October 12: Ninjacart, a Bengaluru-headquartered supply chain platform got a major business boost after the firm got a fresh investment from Walmart, Flipkart group. Ninjacart sources fresh produce directly from farmers and quickly delivers them to retailers and businesses. This investment follows the one made by Walmart and the Flipkart Group in December 2019, as the companies continue to focus on ensuring access to high quality fresh produce for consumers and retailers. According to a report by IANS, this is the second round of funding comes at a time when Flipkart is focusing on growing its Supermart (grocery) and Flipkart Quick (hyperlocal business).

Launched in 2015, Ninjacart had earlier raised money from top funds such as Tiger Global, Accel, Tanglin, Steadview, Syngenta, Nandan Nilekani and Qualcomm, among other prominent investors. Thirukumaran Nagarajan, CEO & Co-founder of Ninjacart said that the fresh set of investments from Walmart and the Flipkart Group takes us one step closer to our vision of making food safe and accessible for the billion people and changing the way food reaches our plate.

Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group, said in a statement said that the e-grocery market in India has seen tremendous growth over the past several months as people have increasingly taken to ordering groceries and fresh produce online. “At the Flipkart Group, we are focused on ensuring that we continue to work towards developing new and innovative ways to meet our customers’ needs in this space through the growth of Supermart and the recent launch of Flipkart Quick”, Krishnamurthy said.

In the months to come, Ninjacart will use the capital to expand to new markets and build new offerings and supply chains for emerging customer segments, reports said. The firm while continue to innovate on the supply chain to make it more efficient, reliable, and profitable. The transaction is expected to close by the end October, Walmart and the Flipkart Group said, without disclosing the financial details.

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Finance

Gold Rate Today: Price of Yellow Metal Up at Rs 50,584 Per 10 Gram, Silver Jumps to Rs 61,605 Per Kg

Gold jewellery (Photo Credits: Wallpaperflare)

Mumbai, October 9: Gold and silver prices moved higher today in India, tracking firm global rates. On MCX, December gold futures were up 0.8 percent to Rs 50,584 while silver futures rose 1.8 percent to Rs 61,605 per kg on Friday.

Talking about the global markets, gold prices were higher amid optimism over a new US coronavirus relief package after President Donald Trump said talks with Congress have restarted.

Experts predict that Gold may witness choppy trade reflecting choppiness in US dollar and equity markets as more clarity is awaited on US stimulus front.

The dollar to rupee conversion has been constant since Thursday and any fluctuation today in the gold price would suggest no relation with the dollar value.

According to the Good Returns.com, the price of 24-carat 10-gram gold in Mumbai is at Rs 50,500. In Chennai, the price of the same quantity and purity of gold is priced at Rs 52,820. Customers will have to dish out Rs 53,650 for a 10-gram 24-carat gold.

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Finance

GST: Businesses Not Ready With E-invoicing Will Get 30-Day Grace Period, Here’s How E-Invoicing Will Lead to Improvement in Overall Business Efficiency

good and service tax
GST (Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons)

Mumbai, October 1: The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Wednesday announced a 30 day grace period for those businesses which are not yet ready for GST e-invoicing.

In a notification on Wednesday evening, CBIC noted that even after more than nine months of the first notification in this regard, some of these taxpayers having aggregate turnover of Rs 500 crore and above are still not ready.

According to an IANS update, the notification said, “In case a registered person has issued an invoice dated October 3, 2020, without obtaining IRNA but reports the details of such invoice to IRP and obtains the IRN of the invoice on or before 2nd November 2020 then it shall be deemed that the provisions of rule 48 (5) of the CGST Rules, 2017 are complied with and the penalty imposable under section 122 of the CGST Act, 2017 shall also stand waived.”

E-invoicing essentially involves reporting details of specified GST documents to a government-notified portal and obtaining a reference number. According to reports, the corporates, experts had strongly advocated postponement.

How will e-invoicing help?

Use of e-invoicing will make filing the returns easier as all the information will be auto-populated. It will also facilitate standardisation and inter-operability, leading to reduction of disputes among transacting parties. There will also be an improvement of payment cycles, and reduction of processing costs, which will lead to the improvement in the overall business efficiency.

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Finance Process & Business Expansion

Reliance Retail Asset Monetisation Picks Up Pace As Private Equity Firm KKR Announces Rs 55.5 Billion Investment

Reliance Market. (Photo Credit: Facebook)
Reliance Market. (Photo Credit: Facebook)

New Delhi, September 24: The retail asset monetization is picking up pace as private equity firm KKR announced a Rs 55.5 billion ($ 0.75 billion) investment in Reliance Retail. The equity firm announced the investment for a 1.28 percent stake implying a pre-money equity value of $57 billion.  This marks the second investment by KKR in a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, following a Rs 11,367 crore investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year. Bada Business ‘Retail Ka Mahakumbh’ 2020: Dr Vivek Bindra to Share Business Expansion Strategies on September 27; Click Here to Register.

On Wednesday, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) announced that global investment firm KKR will invest Rs 5,550 crore into RRVL. The RRVL is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. This investment values Reliance Retail at a pre-money equity value of Rs 4.21 lakh crore. KKR’s investment will translate into a 1.28 per cent equity stake in RRVL on a fully diluted basis.

A report by Morgan Stanley stated that the valuation is in line with the last transaction that was announced with Silverlake and compares to its retail base case valuation of $45 billion. The report said. “At these valuations, it would add 6 per cent to Morgan Stanley’s base case NAV for RIL. KKR earlier invested $1.51 billion for 2.3 per cent of Reliance Digital platforms. RIL has sold a 3 per cent stake in RIL retail till date for $1.75 billion”.

Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates India’s largest, fastest growing and most profitable retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls across its 12,000 stores nationwide. Adding further, the report said the firm sees capital allocation, execution and de-gearing as key to the next leg of stock outperformance. “With industry consolidation pickingup pace in telecom, retail,and global refining, we expect RIL to emerge stronger post-Covid-19 and margins to surprise as pricing power rises,” it added.

 

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Finance

Gold Rate Today: Price of Yellow Metal Slips Below Rs 50,000 Per 10 Gram, Silver Down to Rs 58,851 Per Kg

Gold jewellery (Photo Credits: Wallpaperflare)

Mumbai, September 23: The gold and silver rates slipped sharply on Wednesday, extending losses for the third day. October gold futures on MCX were down 1.2 percent to Rs 49,764 per 10 gram while silver futures slumped 4 percent to Rs 58,851. The precious metal prices have slipped sharply this week across the globe.

In comparison to last month’s high of Rs 56,200, gold is now down over Rs 6,000 per 10 gram in India. The Indian markets echoed the sentiments in the global markets, where the gold prices today slipped to a six-week low. The fall was also on the back of the dollar strengthening with the coronavirus crisis rattling sentiment in Europe.

Talking about the spot gold prices, there has been an increase of 0.02 percent in the Indian market in comparison to Tuesday’s rate, taking the value to Rs 50,640. The spot gold prices in India witnessed a marginal growth, despite global gold prices($1887.3) seeing a drop of 0.68 percent.

Customers in Mumbai will be able to buy 10-gram 24-carat gold at Rs 50,000. On the other hand, people will have to dish out Rs 53,460 for a 10-gram 24-carat gold in New Delhi. The same quantity of purity of gold can be purchased at Rs 52,070 in Kolkata. People in Chennai need to spend Rs 52,470 for a 10-gram 24-carat gold on Wednesday.

The dollar to rupee conversion has been constant since Tuesday and any fluctuation today in the gold price would suggest no relation with the dollar value.

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Finance Strategy

MSME Ministry Rolls Out New Guidelines for Pottery, Beekeeping Activities to Rejuvenate Grass Root Economy in India

Pottery (Photo Credits: Pexels)

The Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) on Thursday announced new guidelines for two more schemes which include ‘Pottery Activity’ and ‘Beekeeping Activity’. The Ministry said that for pottery activity, the government will provide assistance of pottery wheel, clay blunger, and granulator. A total of 6,075 traditional and others (non-traditional) pottery artisans/rural unemployed youth or migrant labourers will be benefited from this scheme. “It will also provide wheel pottery training for traditional pottery artisans and Press Pottery training for pottery as well as non-pottery artisans in Self Help Groups,” it added.

The Ministry had few days back announced expanding and doubling the support to Artisans who might be interested in making Agarbatti. These new initiatives of the Ministry with beneficiary oriented Self-Employment schemes, are aimed at rejuvenating the grass root economy contributing to Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

  1. For ‘Pottery Activity’ Government will provide assistance of pottery wheel, Clay Blunger, Granulator etc.
  2. It will also provide Wheel Pottery Training for traditional pottery artisans and Press Pottery training for pottery as well as non-pottery artisans in Self Help Groups.
  3. There is also provision to provide Jigger-Jolly training programme for pottery as well as non-pottery artisan in Self Help Groups.

In case of the Pottery improvements in the Scheme are:

  • Skill-development training on focused products like garden pots, cooking-wares, khullad, water bottles, decorator products, mural, etc. to SHGs of pottery-artisans has been introduced
  • Focus of the new Scheme is to enhance the production, technical know-how of pottery artisans and efficiency of potter energy kilns to reduce cost of production
  • Efforts will be made to develop necessary market linkages by tying up with exports and large buying houses

For ‘Beekeeping Activity’:

  1. In case of the Scheme for ‘Beekeeping Activity’, the government will provide assistance of Bee boxes, Tool kits etc.
  2. Under this scheme, Bee boxes, with Bee colonies, will also be distributed to Migrant workers in Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan (PMGKRA) districts.
  3. A 5 days’ beekeeping training will also be provided to the beneficiaries through various Training Centres /State Beekeeping Extension Centres/ Master Trainers as per prescribed syllabus.

A total of 6,075 traditional and others (non-traditional) pottery artisans/Rural Un-employed youth/Migrant Labourers will get benefitted from this Scheme. As Financial support for the year 2020-21, an amount of Rs.19.50 crore will be expended to support 6,075 artisans with a Centre of Excellence, with MGIRI, Wardha, CGCRI, Khurja, VNIT, Nagpur and suitable IIT/NID/ NIFT etc, for product development, advance skill programme, and quality standardization of products.

Additional amount of Rs 50.00 crore has been provisioned for setting up of clusters in Terracotta, Red clay pottery, with new innovative value added products to build pottery to crockery/ tile making capabilities, under ‘ SFURTI’ scheme of the Ministry.

To begin with, Scheme proposes to cover, during 2020-21, a total of 2,050 Beekeepers, Entrepreneurs, Farmers, Unemployed Youth, Adivasis will get benefitted from these projects/programme.

For this purpose a financial support of Rs 13 crore during 2020-21 has been provisioned to support 2,050 artisans ( 1250 people from Self Help Groups and 800 Migrant labourers), with a Centre of Excellence with CSIR/ IIT Or other Top class Institute to develop honey based new value added products. Additional amount of Rs. 50.00 crore has also been kept for developing Beekeeping honey clusters under the ‘ SFURTI scheme of the Ministry.

It may be recalled that the initiative to rejuvenate Agarbatti making at grass-root level few days back, is a step which also directed towards make India Aatmnirbhar in supply of this household consumption item. The interventions include the support to the artisans through training, raw material, innovation in the fragrance & packaging, use of new / alternate raw materials, marketing and financial support.

The program will immediately benefit about 1500 artisans, in providing sustainable employment with increased earnings. Artisans living in rural areas, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and ‘Migrant workers’ will particularly benefit from the program. In addition to enhancing employment opportunities locally, the programme will also help in capturing the export market in such products.

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Finance MSME

Indian Banks Have Sanctioned Rs 1.63 Lakh Crore Loans to MSMEs Under ECLGS, Says Finance Ministry

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (Photo Credit: PIB)
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (Photo Credit: PIB)

New Delhi, September 13: The Union Finance Ministry on Sunday said that Indian banks have sanctioned loans worth over Rs 1.63 lakh crore to MSMEs and other eligible businesses so far. These loans have been sanctioned under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for over 42 lakh borrowers and till now over Rs 1.18 lakh crore has been disbursed, the Ministry added.

Informing about the sanctioned status, the Union Finance Ministry took said in a statement, “As on 10.09.2020, as reported by Public Sector Banks and top 23 private sector banks, additional credit amounting to Rs 1,63,226.49 crore has been sanctioned to 42,01,576 borrowers. Amount of Rs 1,18,138.64 crore has been disbursed to 25,01,999 borrowers as on 10.09.2020.”

Laying down the progress of the schemes announced under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat economic package in May, the Union Ministry said that around 37 proposals involving an amount of Rs 10,590 crore have been approved under the Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme for NBFCs, housing finance companies and micro-finance institutions till September 11. Adding more, it said, six more applications seeking financing of Rs 783.5 crore are under process.

On the Rs 30,000 crore Additional Emergency Working Capital Funding for farmers through NABARD, the ministry said that as on August 28, 2020, Rs 25,000 crore has been disbursed. The balance amount of Rs 5,000 crore under the Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) has been allocated to NABARD by the RBI for smaller NBFCs and NBFC-MFIs. Also, ANABARD is finalising operational guidelines to roll it out soon.

Apart from this, the Centre said that NABARD has also launched Structured Finance and Partial Guarantee scheme in collaboration with two agencies and banks to help unrated NBFCs and MFIs to get credit from lenders. The mechanism will enhance eligibility of credit by 5-6 times to those small MFIs who do not have any rating.

Among other details, the ministry said that refunds of over Rs 1.01 lakh crore have been issued to more than 27.55 lakh taxpayers between April 1, 2020, and September 8, 2020. Also, income tax refunds of Rs 30,768 crore have been issued in 25,83,507 cases and corporate tax refunds of Rs 70,540 crore have been issued in 1,71,155 cases. The ministry said that all corporate tax refunds up to Rs 50 crore have been issued in all cases.

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Finance Startup

iStandup 2.0: ICICI Bank Launches Dedicated Offering for StartUps in India, Offers Current Account in 3 Variants

ICICI Bank. (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
ICICI Bank. (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Mumbai, September 12: India’s second-largest private sector lender ICICI Bank on Thursday launched a news offering — iStandup 2.0. With this new offering, ICICI is aiming to catch hold on the growing number of startups in the country. Though the new improved features, its customers will get a current account in three variants, offering additional features.

Under the iStandup 2.O, the ICICI bank offers premium savings accounts for the promoters, salary accounts for employees and a dedicated relationship manager. For its effective reach, ICICI has tied up with vendors to offer a ‘concierge-like’ service. This will enable the startups to access various services like company registration, taxation, compliance, logistics, facility management, staffing and digital marketing.

On the issue, the charges of the account, ICICI bank’s Head of Self-Employment Segment Pankaj Gadgil said that the bank will waive average quarterly balance requirement on the current account for a year. Adding more, he said that around 20,000 startups were registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in July 2020, which went up in August 2020. Since the trends are encouraging, the bank launched the new offering.

As per details, all the startups — up to 10 years old — including partnerships, private and public limited as well as limited liability partnerships, will be able to opt for current account. It is to be known that ICICI bank already serves an undisclosed number of startups as part of earlier offering and other offerings that also include a current account.