Vedanta Group firm Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) on Thursday said it is planning to scale up capacity to 1.35 million tonne (MT) in the next three years after the company posted a 14.6 percent increase in net profit at Rs 2,081 crore for the quarter ended on September 30, 2019.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Sunil Duggal, chief executive officer, said, “As all the facilities get stabilised, it will give the company an opportunity to do 1.2 million tonne for next year.”
With regards to the cost of production of zinc, he said the company is a bit conservative because of 3-4 structural change, “HZL has undertaken digitisation of mines and it will help to lower the costs. Also, hauling costs are also expected to come down.”
With regards to linkage coal, Duggal said, “Last quarter HZL has received 10 percent, but prior to that it was 40 percent. In the current quarter, the flow has increased slightly to about 20 percent, but there was a flood impact on Coal India production. In Q4, it could rise to 30-40 percent as supply from Coal India stabilises.”
Donald Trump impeachment effort passes first test of support in US Congress
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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The US House of Representatives took a major step in the impeachment effort against US President Donald Trump on Thursday when lawmakers approved rules for the next stage of the Democratic-led inquiry into the president’s attempt to have Ukraine investigate a domestic political rival.
The US House of Representatives took a major step in the impeachment effort against US President Donald Trump on Thursday when lawmakers approved rules for the next stage of the Democratic-led inquiry into the president’s attempt to have Ukraine investigate a domestic political rival.
The Democratic-controlled House voted by 232 to 196 to establish how to hold public hearings in Congress, which could be damaging for Trump ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
It was the first formal test of support for the impeachment probe and showed that Democrats have enough backing in the House to later bring formal charges, known as articles of impeachment, against Trump if they feel they have enough evidence.
House Democrats say Trump has abused his office for personal gain and jeopardized national security by asking Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy to investigate Trump’s Democratic political rival Joe Biden, a former US vice president, and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Biden is a leading candidate in the Democratic presidential nomination race to face Trump in the November 2020 election.
“It’s a sad day. No one comes to Congress to impeach a president,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the vote.
Republicans have largely stuck by Trump, blasting the effort as a partisan exercise that has given them little input.
“This is Soviet-style rules,” said Representative Steve Scalise, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, as he stood next to a poster depicting the famous onion domes of Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral.
The vote largely broke along party lines. Only two Democrats voted against and no Republicans backed it.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the inquiry a sham.
If the House eventually votes to impeach Trump, that would set up a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate. Trump would not be removed from office unless votes to convict him by a two-thirds margin.
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
On September 11 2019, Naspers, a global internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world, listed all its international internet assets on the Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam as Prosus. Recently Prosus Ventures has pumped in USD 40 million into Pune-based logistics startups ElasticRun and Payu, the payments and fintech business of Prosus, and injected USD 11 million into consumer wealth-tech company Fisdom.
Having invested more than USD 4 billion in its Indian operations and partner companies, Prosus has some big plans for India. CNBC-TV18’s Megha Vishwanath spoke to Bob Van Dijk, Group CEO of Prosus and Naspers and discussed their India plans.
After the BSE Sensex galloped to its fresh lifetime high in intra-day trade on Thursday, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company said that investors should avoid the trap of investing in expensive large-cap names.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Nilesh Shah, managing director, said, “On one side, large-cap indices led by the select number of stocks are at the all-time high level and there is undoubtedly some amount of pain in small-caps and mid-caps.”
“SIP flows, which have remained so solid over the last 18 months of ups and downs, the numbers which were looking subdued and lower single digit, suddenly with this rally has started looking higher single digit. This kind of rally does give confidence to SIP investors and that is definitely a good feeling,” he added.
Speaking about the drivers of the rally, he said, “I think there are two positives which the market kind of had ignored. One is oil prices remained subdued and second is monsoon was reasonably above average. The other thing is related to steps taken by the regulator and government in order to revive the economy, whether it is related to liquidity infusion in the banking system, whether it is related to interest rate cut or a big bang reform like a corporate tax rate cut. Put all these things together, the market has got the confidence to go long. We have seen select stocks recovering.”
WhatsApp introduces new fingerprint lock for Android phones
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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WhatsApp on Thursday introduced fingerprint lock on supported Android phones to help users protect their chats from being seen by hackers, family members or jilted lovers.
WhatsApp on Thursday introduced fingerprint lock on supported Android phones to help users protect their chats from being seen by hackers, family members or jilted lovers.
Users who install the new version of WhatsApp will have to scan a fingerprint to open up the Facebook-owned platform.
“Earlier this year, we rolled out Touch ID and Face ID for iPhone to provide an extra layer of security for WhatsApp users,” the micro-blogging platform said in a statement.
“Today we’re introducing similar authentication, allowing you to unlock the app with your fingerprint, on supported Android phones,” it added.
To enable it, tap Settings, go to Account, then Privacy and Fingerprint Lock.
Turn on Unlock with fingerprint, and confirm your fingerprint.
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
Climate change threatens Wayanad’s agrarian and tourism prospects
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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Mananthavady, a major town of Kerala’s northern district Wayanad which shot into national limelight in the recent months after emerging as the chosen parliamentary constituency of Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, witnessed a rare kind of protest on October 24 when over 3,000 local people formed a human chain declaring that they would not …
Mananthavady, a major town of Kerala’s northern district Wayanad which shot into national limelight in the recent months after emerging as the chosen parliamentary constituency of Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, witnessed a rare kind of protest on October 24 when over 3,000 local people formed a human chain declaring that they would not allow the conversion of a 21 hectare-pristine local forest land to a monoculture teak plantation.
The human chain comprising both adivasis (tribal people) and settler farmers was unanimous in its demand to the Kerala government’s forest department to abandon their plan of clearing the natural forest land in Thrissilery section of the Begur forest range. What fomented the protest was a recent order issued by the chief conservator of forest (northern Kerala circle) permitting to clear-fell 21 hectares of forest in the first phase to raise a monoculture teak plantation.
“We will not allow this to happen. A dense forest had naturally developed in the area over the last 60 years after the department had attempted to raise a teak and softwood plantation in the plot. It was in 1958 when the plantation was started after clear-felling. Though the department had planted teak, elavu and matti trees in the area that time, the majority of the planted trees had perished and the area became a dense forest with native tree species far outnumbering the planted species over the years. In this age of climate change, we are keen to protect our remaining forest wealth,” said V.R. Praveej, municipal chairman of Mananthavady.
He said it may sound strange to outsiders when urban residents form a human chain to protect a forest in their locality but “we have no other option as we are climate change refugees.” Mananthavady was one of the worst affected areas of heavy floods occurred during the month of August in 2018 and 2019.
The floods and landslides which occurred in the last two years have ruined a major portion of Wayanad. Photo by Abhijith Madhyamam.
Until now, such a protest for forest protection involving the local community was a rarity in Wayanad, where the interests of the local settler farmers and green activists always remained on a collision course. Wayanad was the epicentre of the series of protests a few years ago against the recommendations of the expert panel on the Western Ghats ecology led by Madhav Gadgil.
The local community has even conducted marches and roadblocks demanding the killing of tigers and elephants which engage in crop raids as a result of habitat destruction. The district has recently witnessed a series of protests against a ban on night traffic on the forest stretch of the National Highway-766, a key route between Mysore in Karnataka and Kozhikode in Kerala, that passes through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala.
Although the night ban was first enforced a decade ago, the sudden trigger for the latest agitation that hogged national attention was a recent Supreme Court direction to the central government environment ministry to suggest alternative routes so that NH 766 could be shut down permanently. Since then, Wayanad has witnessed an ongoing indefinite hunger strike and several protest marches. The protest had ended only after Karnataka and union government had made it clear that the permanent closure of the highway stretch was not on their agenda.
Rahul Gandhi, who was elected as a member of parliament from the constituency during the 2019 parliamentary elections, had also visited his constituency and supported the youth fasting against the night ban on traffic.
“I stand in solidarity with the youth on an indefinite hunger strike since September 25 protesting against the daily nine hour traffic ban on NH-766 that has caused immense hardship to lakhs of people in Kerala and Karnataka. I urge the central and state governments to safeguard the interests of local communities while upholding our collective responsibility to protect our environment,” Gandhi had tweeted.
In 2019 parliamentary elections, Congress-led alliance had won 19 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala of which Congress alone had won 15. But on this issue, all parties seem to have come together.
“As far as the lifting of the travel ban on NH-766 is concerned, there is a broader unity among political and social organisations in Wayanad. During the protests, our representative went on a hunger fast along with those from the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. We will remain united in the future as well,’’ said a top leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Kerala legislative assembly member C.K. Saseendran.
A house destroyed by landslides in Wayanad. Photo by Abhijith Madhyamam.
Wayanad’s climate is getting erratic
Wayanad-based environmentalist G. Balagopal explains that Wayanad is one of the major places in south India where the impacts of climate change are being acutely felt.
“The floods and landslides which occurred in the last two years have ruined a major portion of Wayanad where a complete recovery and rehabilitation continue to remain a mirage. So the people are anxious and now there is a renewed public affinity to conservation and environmental activities. The Mananthavady protest must be viewed in that background,” Balagopal said.
At Puthumala, a plantation area where a major landslide occurred during the floods of August 2019 killing 12 people and washing away 80 households, 63-year-old agricultural worker women Biyyathu Seidalavi said she had reasons to believe that the district once known for its rich flora and fauna is dying.
“There was no respite from rains ever since they started playing spoilsport during July last. There might not be any break between the southwest monsoon and northeast monsoon. Though the rains came very late, they continue to lash heavily on the district affecting adversely our agriculture calendar. Cash crops are getting badly affected because of the continuing rains. Landslides are now a recurring phenomenon and people are really getting scared,” she said.
Gopinath Parayil, a promoter of responsible tourism who recently shifted his base to Chundale in Wayanad, remarked that it seems that “Wayanad is now under the grip of a very serious climate crisis.”
“Livelihood and food security are getting challenged along with the safety of dwelling places and lands for cultivation. Indiscriminate human interferences on the environment and forests are turning a contributing factor. Unscientific mono-cropping, mindless tourism and greedy real estate business had ruined Wayanad already. Now climate change is making the destruction complete,” he said.
Landslide have become an annual affair in Wayanad. Photo by Abhijith Madhyamam.
Bordering both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on the Western Ghats, Wayanad had emerged as a tourist spot in recent years due to its unique landscapes dotted with pristine forests, coffee and cardamom estates, paddy fields and crystal-clear streams and rivulets. As per the Kerala government’s tourism department, 8,995 foreign tourists and 815,624 domestic tourists visited Wayanad during 2018.
Known for large scale human-wildlife conflicts, Wayanad has a long story of settlers from other parts of the state arriving and encroaching on precious forest lands to set up plantations filled with cash crops. Now farmers state that all are in crisis because of the unpredictability of rains and dry days. While heavy rains are showering in most of the areas, some parts of Wayanad are facing an acute shortage of drinking water.
According to Najal Kumar, a Supreme Court lawyer who hails from Neervaram in Wayanad, it seems the normal rain pattern has been destroyed forever. “Farmers across the region had maintained a monsoon calendar intact for over 100 years to decide on the cultivation of crops. That calendar now remains completely irrelevant,” he said.
“The situation seems frightening. Climate change is a reality in Wayanad and it is increasing the magnitude of extreme weather events. The rains may be followed by droughts. Areas like Pulppally and Mullankolly which shares a border with Karnataka are already in the grip of drought. We have to use our natural resources judiciously,” says P.U. Das, district soil conservation officer of Wayanad.
Rainfall pattern has changed
Among the farmers in Wayanad, there is an old tale that involves both the representatives of British East India Company and Zamorin, the then ruler of Northern Kerala to which Wayanad belonged. When the company officials attempted to take away pepper vines from Wayanad to replant in their native land, the Zamorin said to have told the officials that only the vine they can take away; not the climate. He was indicating about the peculiar climate situation of Wayanad with equal amounts of rain and shine that facilitate the easy growth of pepper.
In Wayanad, agriculture has always been climate dependent. Even small changes in soil temperature and moisture levels can adversely affect the yield. In the last two years, the production of cash crops such as pepper, tea, coffee, areca nut and cardamom in Wayanad have taken a major hit. Even the cultivated areas are shrinking. Most of the plantations located in the high-altitude valleys are under the threat of landslides.
“As per the pattern visible in the last few years, there would not be any rain in the early phase of the south-west monsoon in June and July (southwest monsoon begins in Kerala on June 1 every year). Then the rains are happening by August with a high frequency which impacts the maturation of a variety of crops. The rains are continuing till the end of December and a dry season would start after that,” said Balagopal.
According to Gopinath, the climate crisis is now a reality and it would be very difficult for Wayanad to escape from its grip. “We have no option other than adapting to the given situation. The government and social organisations are duty-bound to ensure climate literacy for the local community. Everything must change and that includes our attitude to land use, tourism promotion and farming practices. Sustainable models that survived climate change threats in other parts of the world must be replicated here. Floods and landslides are now turning an annual affair. So a permanent risk reduction facility must be ensured here,” he demanded.
Annual floods and landslides in Wayanad have made complete recovery and rehabilitation a mirage. Photo by Abhijith Madhyamam.
Implement district master plan
Experts are demanding a strict implementation of the Wayanad Master Plan which is in cold storage at present. Prepared by the district administration after consulting experts, it demands a blanket ban on multi-storeyed buildings, mainly apartment complexes and posh hotels.
In the case of tourism, there is increasingly a demand to study the carrying capacity of the district. Wayanad remains overcrowded with tourists and their vehicles mainly on weekends. The tourism infrastructure development also must be on par with the normal genuine requirements of the local community, experts say.
“There are several factors that need to be seriously addressed if we have to reduce the occurrence and intensity of natural calamities in Wayanad. Studies indicate that the inter-annual variability of the monsoon rainfall likely to increase in the coming years. They would cause both floods and droughts erratically. In addition to this, the duration of monsoon is also likely to change. The onset could be early and retreat can be delayed, leading to a longer duration of rainfall,” said climate researcher Abhijith Venugopal, a native of Wayanad and working presently with Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Venugopal stated that significant portions of Wayanad comprise of structural hills and eroded plateaus, two geological features that rank high across the world in the landslide susceptibility estimation. “In addition to this, changing monsoon with extreme precipitation becoming more frequent, and the presence of steep slopes, can aggravate the debris flow and landslide in the next coming years,” he added.
Experts also believe that open-pit quarries in the area are another cause of concern because they act as a trigger for landslides and thus they feel vigilant quarry maintenance is crucial.
“As Wayanad is a place where nature and livelihood of people are intertwined, displacement of the people from the hillsides may not be a proper solution. The best way is helping them to adapt to the changes. Measures for this can be of both short-term and long term. An immediate requirement is the zonation of the landslide hazard areas in the district. By doing this, a clear idea of the most vulnerable to least vulnerable areas can be derived. Another measure is to have a firm building protocol based on the zone of hazard. The success rate of all these measures depends on how effectively people, and the various departments such as geology, soil conservation, meteorology, civil engineering and agriculture coming together and taking each other into confidence,” observed Abhijith.
Unscientific mono-cropping, mindless tourism and greedy real estate business had already ruined Wayanad and now climate change is completing the cycle of destruction. Photo by Abhijith Madhyamam.
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
As part of CNBC-TV18’s 20th-anniversary celebrations, we bring you a unique insight into the mind of some of the top fund managers. In this episode of Fund Anatomy, CNBC-TV18’s Sumaira Abidi is in conversation with Suyash Choudhary, head of fixed income at IDFC Mutual Fund.
Suyash has almost two decades of experience managing fixed-income investments. His strength lies in his in-depth understanding of the macroeconomic environment, the ability to anticipate interest rate movements and the ability to identify attractive investment opportunities across market segments.
Business services provider Quess Corp on Thursday said it expects 20 percent organic growth year-on-year (YoY) after it reported a 5.49 percent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 65.03 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2019.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Subrata Nag, Group chief executive officer said, “Q3 and Q4 are better quarters for us and therefore, we think the momentum is picking up.”
“Adding employees is a difficult prediction but whenever we add the numbers in Q1 and Q2, we get most of the benefits in the latter quarter. So that’s the good thing that will happen for us and help us in increasing our overall revenue and profitability and EBITDA,” Nag said.
On the margins front, he said, “Our target is to reach 8 percent margin in a certain amount of time. We are working towards. We reached our benchmark of more than 6 percent.”
“The business process management (BPM) segment, the Allsec Technologies and new acquisition are helping us to increase our margin to a large extent. Therefore, we would like to improve our productivity and efficiency in the technology which is 10 percent of margin and with the change of revenue mix, we will be able to reach 8 percent margin,” Nag added.
Further, he said, “In the last quarter, we had a debt of almost Rs 1,200 crore. In the July-August-September quarter, we reduced our debt by about Rs 325 crore. As on September 30, our gross debt was Rs 920 crore but our net is Rs 272 crore. Our aim is to reduce the debt further and a couple of quarters down the line, our aim to make Quess a net debt-free company.”
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 61.64 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Quess Corp said in a BSE filing. The consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 2,650.25 crore for the quarter under consideration. It was Rs 2,091.71 crore for the same period a year ago
Piyush Goyal heads to Bangkok for final touches to RCEP FTA; farmers and traders oppose
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will leave for Bangkok on Thursday night to attend a crucial meeting of trade ministers on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) duty-free deal – the biggest of its kind that is under negotiation. The crucial ministerial meeting will be the penultimate step before the heads of states of the RCEP nations take a call on the mega trade deal on November 04.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will leave for Bangkok on Thursday night to attend a crucial meeting of trade ministers on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) duty-free deal – the biggest of its kind that is under negotiation. The crucial ministerial meeting will be the penultimate step before the heads of states of the RCEP nations take a call on the mega trade deal on November 04.
The ministerial meeting scheduled for November 1 will finalise the statements of the heads of states of the 16 member RCEP group that includes India, China, ASEAN, Australia, Korea, and New Zealand.
Indian farmers, MSMEs as well as the trading community, that is aligned to the ruling BJP party, have raised red flags on the mega duty-free deal due to the presence of China. The All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee, an umbrella organization of 250 farmer groups will organize a nationwide agitation against the deal on November 04. On that day, Prime Minister Modi and his counterparts will take the final call on formally announcing the end of plurilateral parleys that seeks to create the biggest global trading block.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in RCEP summit,” Vijay Thakur, Secretary East, Ministry of External Affairs today said in a media statement. “Hope there will be greater clarity on issues that are important to us after the RCEP meeting,” he added.
Sources told CNBC-TV 18 that Goyal will also have one-on-one meetings with his counterpart from China and other RCEP members to bilaterally solve last remaining stumbling blocks to the deal.
While negotiations on the RCEP FTA are over, India and other nations technically still have time to iron out differences till the end of February 2020, as legal scrubbing of the documents related to the deal is scheduled to go on till then.
Concerns of India include extending the base date for calculating tariff cuts to 2019 as well as product-specific duty reduction, especially with China. The politically sensitive Indian dairy industry also raised concerns on duty-free import of milk-related products from New Zealand under the proposed trade deal.
Sources in the know told CNBC-TV18 that if India joins the RCEP FTA, tariff cuts will be brought down in tranches over a period of up to 25 years. “Some tariff cuts ware proposed to be done immediately. But for products emanating from China, the tariff cuts will be spread across two and a half decades.”
Moreover, RCEP member nations are also negotiating a safeguard duty mechanism specific to the trade deal, where any spike in imports would authorize a country to impose additional customs duty for over 6 years.
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
Amit Dixit, the senior steel analyst with brokerage firm Edelweiss Financial Services, has a buy call on Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) with a target price of Rs 140.
Talking on increased hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices, he said, “My channels check also with dealers and companies suggest likewise. We will have to wait and see whether these prices are absorbed in the market. We see the continuous decline and the sustained decline has been arrested in part. It is too early to call an end game to the price decline. But nevertheless, it is a positive development I would say.”
“HRC prices have stabilised in the key markets particularly in east and west and in the major cities. However, it is the longs that interest us. If you see longs and bifurcate it into two parts between secondary players and the primary large players in the secondary market, we have seen some semblance of stability, the price has been range-bound between Rs 30,500 and Rs 31,000 a tonne,” Dixit added.
“However, we hear that there have been some price increases by a few players and as far as the large producers are also concerned in longs. So longs, we hear a price increase of roughly Rs 700-1,000,” he further added.
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