Category: Data

World Bank shows green signals for India’s growth numbers in the near future

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Indian economy is set to bounce back to its 7.5% growth rate trend in the near future as it seems to have bottomed out from the impact of its two major reforms in the past – Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation.

After seeing a continuous fall in the last three quarters due to these reforms, the India Development Update, a report by World Bank released every six months, points economic activity has begun to stabilize since August 2017.

The services will continue to remain the main driver of economic growth where industrial activity is poised to grow and manufacturing is expected to accelerate. Agriculture is also likely to grow at its long-term average growth rate, the report stated.

“Durable revival in private investments and exports would be crucial for India achieving a sustained high growth of 8% and above,” said Poonam Gupta, Lead Economist and the main author of the report.

“This will require continued impetus for structural reforms. Resorting to countercyclical policies will not help spur sustained growth and India should not compromise its hard-earned fiscal discipline in order to accelerate growth,” she added.

The reports have pointed a slow yet upward trend across all the sectors in the last 50 years, showing the economy to be stable. The upward trend has shown an increase in labour productivity and total factor productivity.

The report points to the positive impulse expected from India’s new tax regime and shows a thumbs up saying that it will likely improve the domestic flow of goods and services, help in formalising labour in the economy and in turn will enhance growth.

The report assesses that for India to sustain its growth path, the country will need to watch out for the changing landscape of open trade, reforms in the banking sector, strengthening financial institutions, among others.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

February wholesale price inflation at 2.48%, eased for 3rd straight month

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Wholesale price index (WPI) inflation, this month has come down to  2.48 percent  as compared to 2.8% in the last month. It would imply that WPI inflation has eased for the third straight months. In November the WPI was 4% which went down to 3.5% in December.

Manufactured products inflation of February stood at 3.04% which was 2.78% last month. Whereas, food inflation is at 0.07% as compared to 1.65% of January. Vegetable inflation came down drastically to 15.26% from 40.77%. Fuel and power inflation saw a fall by 1%.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Oil may inch up to $65 a barrel as global inventories decline, Moody’s cautions

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Credit ratings major Moody’s raised its medium-term price band for crude oil between $45 and $ 65 per barrel, taking into account prolonged production cuts by major oil producing countries and demand growth that have contributed to declining global inventories.

The ratings’ firm raised the price band from its earlier estimates of $40 to $60 per barrel, arguing that the production cuts and the demand growth are being offset by the rapid increases in US shale production.

The change in the market conditions has resulted in benchmark prices
to be averaged around $65/bbl this year. The firm further expects the price increase to be limited as the additional supply from the shale production and other non-OPEC production limits price growth.

Moody’s has, however, maintained its price band for North American natural gas between $2.50 and $ 3.50 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). The price band has been maintained at Henry Hub, the industry’s chief measure of natural gas prices.

Moody’s raises medium-term band to $45-65/bbl on crude. Get more details from @Manisha3005‘s conversation with Vikas Halan of Moody’s Investors Service pic.twitter.com/gNQ0SfwxRJ

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) March 14, 2018

The firm has raised the price band for natural gas liquids (NGLs) between $20 and $30/bbl, up from the earlier $19 to $27/bbl price band.

“Prices in the upper half of the oil price-band will encourage increased supply as US production grows and countries reduce compliance with their production quotas,” observed Moody’s Senior Vice President Terry Marshall.

“Nevertheless, even with crude prices at the higher end of the new $45-$65 range in early 2018, we expect prices to stay within this range over the medium term amid better balance between increased production and growth in demand.”

Moody’s analysts look to medium-term expectations as the most relevant price considerations when assessing financial performance and ratings for corporate issuers and oil-exporting countries.

According to the agency, the emphasis on a range of outcomes within the price band helps to assess the resiliency to price volatility, and thus durability of credit ratings, for entities.

Oil prices have firmed since OPEC’s November 2016 agreement to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), while non-OPEC members, led by Russia, agreed to cut production by 558,000 bpd.

The result, according to  Marshall, has been a decline in global crude inventories, which has contributed to higher oil prices.

Despite these various factors helping to boost commodity prices, Moody’s says that the prices will remain rangebound, and possibly volatile, amid increases in US shale production.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Possible trade war involving the US could impact air travel demand: IATA

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Concerns over a possible trade war involving the US could have a serious dampening effect on global market confidence, spilling over into demand for air travel,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO on March 8, 2018.

Juniac said that despite the slower start to 2018, economic momentum is supporting rising passenger demand in 2018.

IATA is International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The association announced worldwide passenger traffic results for January 2018 that showed traffic slowest year-over-year increase of revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs).

IATA said that results were affected by temporary factors including the later timing of the Lunar New Year in 2018 as well as less favorable comparisons with the strong upward trend in traffic seen in late 2016-early 2017.

Talking about India, the report registered a growth of 17.9 percent in January 2018 – a two basis point increase from the previous month.

Even though there is a marginal increase, the data points that the RPK (revenue passenger kilometers) rose from its November record – 16.4 percent – making it among the fastest.

RPK is calculated by multiplying the number of passengers, who pay for the fare, etc. into the distance travelled.
In January this year, Asia recorded a 6.6 percent increase in capacity out of which India has contributed the maximum share. China followed with 8.9 percent rise.

The report says, “For Asia-Pacific carriers, the large markets in India, China and Japan mean that domestic travel accounts for 45% of the region’s operations.”

The European carriers’ demand overtook Asia’s 4.6 percent increase with a 6.0 percent rise in the 30-day period of January 2-18.
The Middle East carriers showed the weakest growth with their demand up by 0.5 percent compared to January 2017.
This, according to the report, is ‘the slowest pace since September 2008.’

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Xiaomi’s increase in sales disrupts the Indian smartphone market

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Chinese Smartphone maker Xiaomi has become the undisputed leader in the smartphone market in India displacing the Samsung. The reason behind its No.1 position is that it has outshined Samsung in terms of sales in the Oct-Dec quarter of 2017. In Maharashtra alone, it has 13.7 per cent sales during the quarter. Xiaomi sold 31.2 per cent of the Smartphones during the period as compared to Samsung which sold 15.3 per cent. Redmi Note 4 was the key model behind the increase in sales of Xiaomi.

Vivo, Oppo and Lenovo (including Motorola) were the other three players in the top 5 Smartphone sellers for Maharashtra in 4Q, 2017.  Together top 5 sold more than 84% of the Smartphones.

The increase in the sales of Xiaomi smartphones were also due to replacements and upgrades where users shunned their existing Smartphones.  Micromax (including Yu) amounted to over 26% of the Smartphones that were discontinued by users during the quarter. Intex, Karbonn, Sony Mobiles and iBall were the other brands in the top 5 losers.  Collectively top 5 losers amounted to 66.5% of the Smartphones that were discontinued by users in Maharashtra during the period.

This switch from Indian brands to Chinese and global Tier I brand like Samsung is primarily driven by users upgrading for 4G Smartphones where the Indian brands haven’t been able to establish a foothold.

In the month of October and December, Xiaomi opened two Mi Homes in Maharashtra which strengthened its presence in the state.

Maharashtra registered a decrease of 362,420 subscribers as the net subscriber addition was negative during the quarter. The primary reason for the decrease was due to R-Com and Aircel subscriber reduction during 4Q 2017 in the state.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

‘Every one out of three Indian women receives sexual calls or messages’

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Out of the 586 million women in India, about 78% receive harassment calls and 82% receive ‘inappropriate and sexual’ content in the form of videos and pictures at least once a week, reveals a report by Truecaller. The research which has been conducted in collaboration with an independent market research company states that every one out of three women receives ‘sexual and inappropriate’ calls or SMS’.

According to the report, 50% of these calls and texts were anonymous whereas, 11% were the from stalkers. While, 3% of them were from the ones who knew the receiver. Jaipur has the highest number of women receiving ‘offensive and sexual’ images or videos every week with 90% of respondents reporting the cases.

As per the report, women in India receive 18% more unwanted calls than men which indicates a rise by 5% from last year’s 13%.

72% of the women received calls from fraudsters with an objective to collect payments or their personal data at least once a week. Out of these, 4% received counterfeit calls almost daily.

81% of the women who participated in the survey termed blank calls as ‘harassment’. Blank calls were defined as “an anonymous phone call made with the intention to threaten, harass or offend a caller, without a sales- or phishing-related objective” in the survey.

Though most of these women take actions against these calls, the report found that 38% women still remain silent about it. Out of the 62% who have taken measures against the harassment calls, more than half chose to block the harasser and 90% of them use Truecaller to block the harasser. While only 10% registered a complaint to the police. 7% used social media to name and shame the person.

On an average, every Truecaller user in India receives 22.6 spam calls per month, making it the highest in the world.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow