The BSE Sensex crossed the 45,000 mark for the first time ever, after the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the accommodative stance would continue for the rest of FY21 and revised the growth prospects.
Around 11.10 a.m., Sensex touched an all-time high of 45,033.19 points.
The Nifty50, also touched a fresh all-time high of 13,250.30 points.
In a video statement after the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) meet, Das said that the economic recovery has been faster than anticipated and the real GDP growth for FY21 is projected at (-)7.5 per cent, against the previous estimate of (-)9.5 per cent.
He attributed to the upward revision in GDP growth numbers to the current rate of recovery and vaccine hopes for Covid-19.
The MPC, however, decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent in view of the elevated inflation rate.
Around 11.30 a.m., Sensex was trading at 44,936.33, higher by 303.68 points or 0.68 per cent from its previous close of 44,632.65.
It opened at 44,665.91 and has touched an intra-day low of 44,665.91 points.
The Nifty50 was trading at 13,221.30, higher by 87.40 points or 0.67 per cent from its previous close.
Harley-Davidson’s dealers association said demanded a “fair deal” of compensation from the American cruiser bike major, before it exits the country.
The association represents 33 Harley-Davidson outlets in India.
“All the 33 dealer partners have been facing a problem since Harley-Davidson announced withdrawal of independent operations in India and revealed a new partnership with Hero MotoCorp.
“Given a time-bound, take it or leave it situation that offered them no other option, 10 of the 33 dealer partners have gone ahead with becoming a part of the Hero MotoCorp’s dealership network.”
Given the situation, the association said the dealers continue “to wait to hear” from Harley-Davidson on the issue of adequate compensation.
“With Hero MotoCorp absorbing only 33 per cent of the dealers, it leaves the rest with uncertainty about the fate of the dealer partners investments and future business outlooks. This includes the 10 who will be coerced to act without receiving any benefit,” the association said.
“The company is yet to decide on the fate and plight of the 23 dealers who are not being approached by Hero MotoCorp to be a part of its dealership network. We feel that providing us with a fair deal is Harley-Davidson’s undeniable responsibility towards us.”
Harley Davidson bikes during a rally
In October, Harley-Davidson Inc and Hero MotoCorp, the worlds largest maker of motorcycles and scooters in terms of unit volumes had announced that the two will ride together in India.
As per a distribution agreement, Hero MotoCorp will sell and service Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and sell parts and accessories and general merchandise riding gear and apparel through a network of brand-exclusive Harley-Davidson dealers and Hero’s existing dealership networks in India.
As part of a licencing agreement, Hero MotoCorp will develop and sell a range of premium motorcycles under the Harley-Davidson brand name.
These actions are aligned with Harley-Davidson’s business overhaul, The Rewire.
Post-Brexit UK can tap the $5 trillion global halal consumer market to become the global hub & gateway to Ethical & Shariah Finance … reports Asian Lite News
The World’s 1st Halal Angels Network to tap the $5 Trillion Halal Consumer market was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now they are establishing their headquarters in London.
“Based on our research for an ideal location to move our headquarters, we felt that London, UK would be the ideal location for our new headquarters, as it is home to the majority of investment firms, family office, Venture capital, PE Firms, and Angels network,” said Dr.Tausif Malik founder, Halal Angels Network.
Dr.Tausif Malik founder, Halal Angels Network.
Dr. Malik also said that based on the research post-Brexit UK can reposition as the global hub and gateway to ethical & Shariah Finance to the world.
Post-Brexit financial institutions are relocating to various cities across Europe such as Frankfurt, Dublin & Paris, according to Northwestern University Medill Report.
“London’s emergence as an economic powerhouse has profound implications for the country’s economy post-Brexit. Financial services accounted for 15% of London’s economic output in 2017 and 6.9% of the United Kingdom’s economic output in 2018,” according to another report commissioned by the House of Commons.
This would have overall implications on the economy, jobs, tax revenues, real estate and would have a domino effect. But sometimes challenges throw in new opportunities as London has been the financial capital of the world, and over the years it has developed an entire financial ecosystem to leverage and maintain its numero uno position.
Hence, post-Brexit UK can reposition itself as the global hub & gateway to Ethical & Shariah Finance to the world and leverage its ecosystem due to the following reasons:
Easy to set up business in the UK
Low cost of registration of business
British Common Business Law is used worldwide
English as the primary language
UK the financial hub and capital
Use this opportunity to counter the exodus of financial companies to different countries
UK home to highly qualified Muslim professionals in Finance, Law, Technology, Research, Academia, Entrepreneurs, and Investors, their network can be leveraged to promote Uk can be the global hub & gateway to Shariah Finance to the world.
UK long historical relationship with the Middle East & Muslim Countries.
Sovereign Funds of the Middle East & Muslim Countries can be encouraged to establish their offices.
The wealthy businessman, investors, and entrepreneurs have been investing in the UK in real estate, and businesses they can be leveraged to promote the UK can be the global hub & gateway to Shariah Finance to the world.
Halal is ethical and ethical finance is estimated to be 30 Billion USD
Based on research, return on investment on Shariah finance have been higher. Shariah investments are based on equity sans interest.
Halal Angels Network has partnered with two UK organisations – Educational Partners- UK for training & Fintech Major, Delio for backend compliance.
Post-COVID -19, the startups can give a great fillip to the UK economy and UK can be hub for Islamic Fintech, Halal food manufacturing, Halal cosmetics, and, Modest fashion.
According to Halal Angels Network research, the Ethical & Shariah Finance market there is tremendous potential as it has been never tapped or streamline. Post COVID-19 everyone needs to rethink strategy and tap new markets and this is an ideal time.
Halal Angels Network would keen and open to working with British policymakers, Universities, and organizations to leverage this market potential.
Halal Angels Network would be organizing the next year 2021, a series of Halal & Ethical Finance Summits in 6 Global locations (San Francisco, London, Astana, Dubai, Jakarta, Dhaka & Nigeria) it would be an invite-only event for private investors, VC’s, PE firms, Sovereign funds to promote the market potentials of Halal & Ethical Finance.
The identified sectors for investment are – Future technologies (Blockchain, Fintech AI, etc), Modest Fashion & Cosmetics, Retail, Pharmaceuticals, Food Cafe & Restaurants, Processed Food & Tourism investments. As shariah-compliant investments play an important hence Fintech & Blockchain would be the investment focus.
According to Reuters, the Halal consumer market is valued at $5 trillion and would grow to USD 9.71 trillion by 2025. The economic development of leading Islamic countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Iran is expected to boost the global halal products market reach over the coming years (Reuters, 2019).
Comprising halal food, travel, cosmetics, modest fashion, and Islamic finance, demand for goods and services that align with Islamic principles is on the rise, but just $745 million in disclosed private equity investment was invested in the Islamic economy over three years, far less than the $595 billion in private equity and venture capital investments that occurred globally in 2017 according to the report published by Wamda.
Muslim communities are as technology savvy as any other, especially their younger members who form part of the global rise of ‘millennials’ and their forward-thinking, can-do mindset. With the breaking down of borders through digital platforms, it is easier than ever for Islamic centric entrepreneurs to access the global Muslim population of 1.7 billion people (Gulf Business).
Recently, Halal Angels Network launched ‘The Khadija RA Initiative’, the World’s largest Cohort, Incubation & Acceleration program for 1001 Female Entrepreneurs.
With Chhattisgarh communicating its acceptance of Option-1 to meet the revenue shortfall arising out of GST implementation, all the states barring Jharkhand have joined the Centre’s suggested formula on compensation settlement.
The number of states who have favoured Option-1 has gone up to 27.
All states except Jharkhand and all the 3 union territories with Legislative Assembly have decided in favour of Option-1.
The states & union territories who choose Option-1 are getting the amount of shortfall arising out of GST implementation through a special borrowing window put in place by the Government of India.
The window has been operationalised since October 23, 2020 and the government has already borrowed an amount of Rs 30,000 crore on behalf of the states in five instalments and passed it on to the states and union territories, who chose Option-1.
The funds borrowed through the special window were released to the states and UTs on October 23, 2020, November 2, 2020, November 9, 2020, November 23, 2020 and December 1, 2020.
Now, Chhattisgarh will also receive funds raised through this window starting from the next round of borrowing.
Under the terms of Option-1, besides getting the facility of a special window for borrowings to meet the shortfall arising out of GST implementation, the states are also entitled to get unconditional permission to borrow the final instalment of 0.50 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) out of the 2 per cent additional borrowings permitted by the government, under AtmanirbharAbhiyaan on May 17, 2020.
This is over and above the Special Window of Rs 1.1 lakh crore.
On receipt of the choice of Option-1, the government has granted additional borrowing permission of Rs 1,792 crore to the state government of Chhattisgarh (0.50 per cent of Chhattisgarh’s GSDP).
In a curious turn of events, Air India employees are preparing to bid for the national carrier in partnership with a private equity fund and each employee will be asked to contribute Rs 1 lakh towards the bid.
“The PIM (Preliminary Information Memorandum) thankfully, made it possible for the employees of Air India to take charge and ownership of the airline, and to this end, provides various terms and conditions which need to be fulfilled, and which we intend to collectively achieve and satisfy,” said Meenakshi Mallik in a letter to Team Members of Air India. The last date for the bids is December 14.
“Broadly, the project itself entails participating in a bid process along with all other participants who wish to take charge and ownership of AI and its assets. If the media reports are true, we will be bidding against, presumably, some of the largest corporate houses in India who will be just as keen and interested in the airline and bid,” Mallik said.
In the course of the Project, we will need to submit various documents and proofs certifying our intention and capacity to own, control and operate this airline.
“Financially, I know that we do not have the necessary wherewithal to participate in this bid process alone. We have accordingly searched out for and sought to secure the support of a private equity fund who will invest in the company with us and share the benefit. I must stress that ownership of the Company is what we are bidding for and thus, we are negotiating with our financial partner such that our Employee – Management Consortium will collectively own and control 51% (i.e. majority) of our Airline. The financial partner will hold the balance 49% of the Company,” she added.
“In order to acquire this 51% of the Company, each of us will have to make a financial contribution towards the total corpus. Due to the support we will receive from our financial partner, while I anticipate that each of us will have to make a contribution of no more INR 1,00,000/-, to bid for the Company, this is a detail which I will be better placed to convey to you all once we have passed the initial stage of the EoI. Until we cross Stage 1 (EOI Stage), no monies are needed to be collected from the employees. Moreover, after successfully completing stage one, we are planning our bid in such a way that no single employee will have to take on a financial risk or contribute more than INR 1,00,000/-,” Mallik said.
Dell has been ranked as India’s most trusted brand second year in a row in TRA’s Brand Trust Report (BTR) 2020.
Chinese mobile phone major ‘Mi’ ranked second and led that mobile phone category for the first, it said.
Samsung Mobiles secured the third place, followed by Apple iPhone and LG taking fourth and fifth ranks, respectively.
Oppo is at sixth spot on the trust ranking this year. Sony Entertainment Television, the Hindi general entertainment channel, ranks seventh featuring among the top ten for the first time in ten years.
Maruti Suzuki, the four-wheeler manufacturer makes to eight rank and is also the leader in the automobile. The ninth most trusted brand rank is held by Samsung for the televisions and is followed by Vivo mobile phones at the tenth slot.
Five mobile phone brands make it to the top ten list from among the twenty listed, making it the largest category in the report.
N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA, said: “The Covid times have been harrowing for brands, and even consumers have been in an extended state of anxiety for multiple reasons. The impact of the pandemic is visible on the trust placed in brands, leading to a dethroning of many erstwhile category leaders.”
Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, the owner of the spices brand ‘MDH’ passed away on Thursday morning.
Reports suggest that his health deteriorated recently and he was undergoing treatment at a Delhi hospital.
On Thursday early morning, he suffered cardiac and passed away.
Born in 1923 in undivided India in Sialkot, now in Pakistan, Mahashay, also popularly known as ‘Dadaji’, had a very humble beginning.
Being a school dropout, he soon joined his father’s spices business at a very young age.
The flourishing family business suffered after partion and Mahashay had to move to India and live in refugee camp in Amritsar.
But soon the family business of spices was set in a store in Delhi’s Karol Bagh. From there started the journey of building a spices brand with the birth of MDH in 1959.
Ever since then the brand has now established itself as the most recognisable one in the species segment with a global presence in over 100 countries.
And the brand itself has been synonymous with Mahashay whose presence in TV commercials sporting a flowing white moustache and wearing red turban became an iconic image on Indian television.
His success was not without its share of rewards with reports suggesting that Dharampal Gulati navele the highest paid CEO in the FMCG space in 2017 drawing a mind boggling salary of over Rs 20 crore, much higher than the likes doyens of India Inc. that time.
According to MDH Masala, Mahashay used to donate 90 per cent of his salary to charity. A trust run by MDH runs several hospitals and schools in Delhi.
For his work, Mahashay was awarded the Padma Bhushan, third highest civilian award in India in 2019.
Dharampal Gulati took MDH to new heights with its masala packets selling in crores and becoming a household necessity. MDH now has a capacity of producing 30 tonnes of spices in a day. The baton now passes to the next generation to keep the flag flying.
Leading aerospace and defence technology company Rolls-Royce and IT major Infosys on Wednesday announced their strategic partnership for aerospace engineering in India.
As part of the overall partnership, Rolls-Royce will transition a significant part of its engineering centre capabilities for Civil Aerospace in Bengaluru to Infosys.
“Leveraging its expertise in core engineering services, digital transformation capabilities, and Rolls-Royce product knowledge acquired through the partnership, Infosys will provide a full range of high-end engineering and R&D services integrated with advanced digital service to Rolls-Royce,” a joint statement from the two companies said.
According to the statement, over the past decade, Rolls-Royce has established a multidisciplinary engineering centre in Bengaluru, and this has been an integral part of Rolls-Royce Engineering and R&D services.
“The centre covers a mix of engineering capabilities spanning the full range of sub-functions and specialisms in R&D. Going forward, Rolls-Royce will continue these complex engineering activities in India in partnership with Infosys,” the statement said.
“The engineering centre for Civil Aerospace will strengthen Infosys’ existing capabilities in ‘Turbomachinery and Propulsion’ that are currently delivered through a network of engineering centres in Mysore, Baden, and Karlovac.”
The Finance Ministry has laid down the growth numbers in foreign institutional investment (FII), foreign portfolio investments (FPI) and corporate bond issuances to show a positive momentum in the Indian economy.
“The Indian growth story continues to expand as is demonstrated by the trends in FPI, FDI and Corporate Bond Market flows that indicate and underline the beliefs of investors in the strength and resilience of Indian economy,” an official statement said.
The last two months, October and November, have witnessed a significant resurgence in FPI inflows, driven primarily by equity inflows resulting in the highest ever FPI inflows for a month for India, it said.
As of November 28, FPI inflows stood at Rs 62,782 crore. Of this, equity inflows amounted to Rs 60,358 crore while FPI net investment in debt and hybrid was to the tune of Rs 2,424 crore, it said.
Regarding the equities segment, the inflows in November 2020 is the highest amount of money invested ever since FPI data has been made available by the National Securities Depository Ltd.
FPI flows are known to be less resilient and more sensitive to changing market conditions. Investments through the FPI route are therefore gauged through the metric of net inflow and outflow. In October and November 2020, FPIs primarily witnessed inflows into India.
Further, total FDI inflows into India during the second quarter of financial year 2020-21 (July 2020 to September 2020) have been $28,102 million, out of which FDI equity inflows were $23,441 million or Rs 174,793 crore.
This takes the FDI equity inflows during the financial year 2020-21 upto September 2020 to $30,004 million which is 15 per cent more than the corresponding period of 2019-20, said the Finance Ministry statement.
In rupee terms, the FDI equity inflows of Rs 2,24,613 crore are 23 per cent more than the last year.
In H1 FY21, the total corporate bond issuances amounted to Rs 4.43 lakh crore, 25 per cent higher than Rs 3.54 lakh crore in the same period last year.
The narrowing spread with G-Secs stands testimony to the improved risk perception of corporate bonds.
“Further, the cost of funds also moderated for both the government and the corporate, on the back of RBI’s monetary easing and liquidity infusion, thereby bringing down yields in the various segments of the debt markets,” said the statement.
The MEA Finance Awards honors banking and financial institutions from across the Middle East and Africa region for their excellence in creating robust financial systems through innovation and digital transformation as well as advancing the overall industry…reports Asian Lite News
Commercial Bank of Dubai, one of the leading banks in the UAE, has won the “Best Commercial Bank” award and “Best Digital Transformation” award at the MEA Finance 2020 Awards.
The award was received by Dr. Bernd van Linder, Chief Executive Officer of Commercial Bank of Dubai, along with Abdul Rahim Al Nimer, General Manager – Corporate Banking, Amit Malhotra, General Manager – Personal Banking Group, Stefan Kimmel, Chief Operating Officer and Hassan Al Redha, General Manager – International & Transaction Banking, at a ceremony held recently at CBD Headquarters in Dubai.
The MEA Finance Awards honors banking and financial institutions from across the Middle East and Africa region for their excellence in creating robust financial systems through innovation and digital transformation as well as advancing the overall industry.
Dr. Bernd van Linder, Chief Executive Officer of Commercial Bank of Dubai, said: “It is a matter of immense pride that CBD has won the “Best Commercial Bank in the UAE” and “Best Digital Transformation in the UAE” by MEA Finance Awards. We are a pioneering financial institution operating for over 50 years and have been at the forefront of developing advanced banking solutions to meet the needs of our customers based on an in-depth understanding of their requirements and a consistent focus on providing exceptional customer service.”
