Month: May 2021

Akshaya Tritiya 2021: A look at the trends in gold

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

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Rising inflationary trends should be conducive for buying gold implying that the investment demand for the yellow metal will likely increase in the coming months.

The 20-year chart for gold shows that it has performed well in times of economic crisis. Gold has also given good returns in recent years. According to experts, gold has beaten inflation when you look at the last 10 to even 50 years horizon.

The yellow metal in 2021 is trading in the negative because of the strength in dollar, higher treasury yields and investment money pouring into equities and industrial commodities. However, with inflation concerns rising, gold seems to be getting its mojo back as it holds above $1,800/ounce.

According to banks, gold will hit $2,000/ounce by Q3 2021. In the special segment ‘Commodities Trade’, CNBC-TV18’s Manisha Gupta gets a detailed analysis of the trends in gold.

Watch the video for more.

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

Explained: How much energy bitcoin consumes and why everyone, from Musk to Yellen, is worried about it

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

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Bitcoin fell nearly 25 percent from its all-time high of $64,000 after Tesla’s Elon Musk on Wednesday said that the company will be halting purchases of vehicles using bitcoin.

Initially accepting bitcoins for purchase, Musk in his tweet said that the increased use of fossil fuel for bitcoin mining is one of the reasons for halting purchases via bitcoin.

However, he clarified that they intend on resuming it once bitcoin mining transitions to more sustainable energy. He added that they will look for cryptocurrencies that use less than 1 percent of bitcoin’s energy per transaction.

Not just Musk, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen too warned on the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies.

If you look at the usage of electricity by bitcoin, it uses more energy than entire countries like Sweden and Malaysia.

CNBC-TV18’s Manisha Gupta get more details on the energy usage of bitcoins.

Watch the video for more.

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

COVID-19 pandemic: How to manage health insurance and emergency funds?

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

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The COVID-19 pandemic has taught individuals the need for health insurance as well as emergency funds. There have been several cases wherein people have faced problems due to the absence of these important personal finance assets.

According to Abhinav Angirish, founder, Investonline.in, health insurance, just a year ago, was looked upon as an unnecessary expense. Though, today the situation is different.

“But having health insurance is not adequate,” he stresses.

In this pandemic, health insurance has some exclusions. For instance, nebuliser kits, steam inhalers, thermometers, or sanitizers are not covered in health insurance.

Also, as Angirish points out, there are reports that policyholders are receiving only 50-55 percent of claims.

Having said that, it’s important that customers consider the scope of the coverage and weigh the balance between the premiums paid and the benefits the plan has to offer.

Also read: Here’s how much health and life insurance cover should you buy

“If an individual is employed then he/she would be covered under group health insurance, but even then the cover would be limited to Rs 3-4 lakh. It is important to cover parents too, but the base policy doesn’t come cheap. Even if individuals manage to pay high premiums still the cover won’t be adequate. So, it makes sense to purchase super top-up plans which are relatively cheap,” he explains.

Talking about emergency funds, Angirish tells that it is often the most overlooked aspect of personal finance.

“In the wake of COVID-19 crisis, it however assumes importance. While building emergency funds often people ignore liquidity factors. While bank deposits may be safe, they do not offer liquidity. One can park their emergency funds in liquid funds which are equally safe. Besides liquidity, one can also get decent returns which can be reinvested to the corpus,” he suggests.

For emergency funds, it’s always recommended to keep aside funds that can help an individual bear 6 months of overall expenses. Through access to these funds, any individual can tide through either income-impacting events like job loss or pay cuts or unexpected expenses like hospitalization when every essential medical item seems to be in short supply and spurious elements are trying to take advantage of the same.

Further, if one is confused about health insurance or investing in liquid funds, they should consult their financial advisor.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on CNBCTV18.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. CNBCTV18.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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

India ‘undercounted’ COVID-19 deaths by 4.3 lakhs, says study

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

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India, like the other developed and underdeveloped nations, has preferred to underreport or undercount COVID-19 deaths, claims a new study by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation (IHME).

IHME has analysed and published in their study titled, ‘Estimation of total mortality due to Covid-19’, that India may have underreported or undercounted 4.3 lakh deaths. The study also found that the US may have undercounted death numbers by 3.4 lakhs, Russia by nearly 5.93 lakh.

The study analysed data from 20 countries with the highest numbers of total COVID-19 deaths from March 2020 to May 2021.

“In the IHME estimation of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths to date, we have used officially reported COVID-19 deaths for nearly all locations. As of today, we are switching to a new approach that relies on the estimation of total mortality due to COVID-19. There are several reasons that have led us to adopt this new approach. These reasons include the fact that testing capacity varies markedly across countries and within countries over time, which means that the reported COVID-19 deaths as a proportion of all deaths due to COVID-19 also vary markedly across countries and within countries over time”, IHME researchers said in a note released on May 6.

The study also estimated the total number of deaths worldwide could be more than the reported numbers. “Our analysis estimates that by May 3, 2021, the total number of COVID-19 deaths was 6.93 million, a figure that is more than two times higher than the reported number of deaths of 3.24 million”, the study report mentioned.

In India also, courts and several media reports have raised the issue of alleged underreporting of COVID-19 deaths. Several media reports from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and other states have raised the issue of underreporting of deaths due to COVID-19 based on their inputs from morgues, crematoriums and hospitals.

In April, the Gujarat High Court came down heavily on the government stating, “The state had nothing to gain by hiding the real picture and hence suppression and concealment of accurate data would generate more serious problems including fear, loss of trust, panic among the public at large.”

Other states such as Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Karnataka, Bihar, Haryana and Chhattisgarh too have allegedly underreported COVID-19 deaths, according to several media reports.

The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has framed guidelines for the Cause of Death (COD) due to Covid-19 but it is not being followed by the States for many reasons. The primary reason as told by officials to the Scroll is ‘only deaths of persons who tested positive prior to death and died soon after of causes easily identified with COVID-19 were being counted as COVID deaths’.

The guidelines framed by ICMR states, a COVID-positive person’s death should be recorded as a COVID-19 death under U07.1, the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases code for a confirmed Covid-19 death, even if the person dies without symptoms of the disease.

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

WazirX lists Dogecoin rival Shiba Inu tokens in India

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange WazirX listed the Shiba Inu (SHIB) token on its platform on Friday. The price of the SHIB coin, hailed as the Dogecoin killer, surged soon after the listing.

Presently, the meme coin is trading at a value of $0.000020 (0.0015 INR), according to data from Coingeko.

However, WazirX does not accept direct SHIB deposits or facilitate its withdrawals, the cryptocurrency exchange platform informed via its blog.

SHIB was created in August 2020 by named Ryoshi, the cryptocurrency currently enjoys a market capitalization of over $7.8 billion. Incidentally, SHIB, modelled after Dogecoin, is hailed as the “Dogecoin killer”.

Wrong pricing leads to losses for investors

WazirX listed SHIB coin at a higher price than its actual value leading to a loss for many investors.  The company claimed a misconfiguration led to a liquidity crunch resulting in the trading of the coin at a higher value.

Data reveals when WazirX listed the SHIB coin at Rs 3 on its platform while the actual value of the coin was around Rs 0.0015. In a frenzy to buy these coins, investors ended up losing money.

The platform, though admitted there was a mistake, blamed it on others, saying that the tokens were listed under the Rapid Listing Initiative and it relies on liquidity providers to provide initial liquidity.

“Today, when SHIB market went live, its deposits and withdrawals took longer to go live due to a misconfiguration. There was also a delay in our liquidity provider bringing in liquidity, and that led to a liquidity crunch in SHIB market. With more people trading, SHIB prices climbed up due to the lack of liquidity,” it said.

The Shiba Inu coin is inspired by Dogecoin, with a similar-looking mascot. It is hosted on Ethereum blockchain and is one of the hottest cryptocurrencies today. Adding fire to the whole story, Elon Musk had recently tweeted he is looking for Shiba pup making it rise by a whopping 300 percent.

Other exchanges offer SHIB in India

In India, apart from WazirX, Shiba Inu coin can be purchased from the web version of CoinDCX platform only. Another restriction is these coins cannot be purchased in Indian rupees (INR) but only in USDT/ BUSD with INR resulting in higher transaction costs.

The other platform that allows Indians to buy is the Uniswap Platform as Uniswap is a decentralized trade (DEX) on Ethereum’s network that allows buying and selling cryptocurrencies for ETH and other Ethereum-based tokens.

Also Read: Elon Musk sends Dogecoin to the moon as meme cryptocurrency jumps 17%

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

Four years of RERA in India: The journey so far and the road ahead

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA) finally got a passage in 2016, thereby meeting a long-standing demand from the real estate industry for a central regulator. RERA was largely created to ensure accountability towards allottees, protect their interests and establish symmetry of information between the promoter and allottees.

The Act was a significant sentiment booster with end-user interests protected and developers held accountable for non-compliance. The Act had varying levels of impact on all stakeholders—promoters, end-users, investors, real estate agents and financial institutions/lenders — the main being the promotion of fair play in transactions, while ensuring timely execution of projects and protecting the interest of consumers.

RERA changing the real estate landscape

> Centralized Authority: The establishment of authority provided the much-needed regulator for the sector, thereby allowing a check on developer background, completion timelines, funding, and construction quality among other things.

> Redressal mechanism: A formal mechanism for protecting end-user interests also comes into force for the first time as consumers now have a dedicated authority that can be approached for real estate related grievances.

> Authenticity of information: Initially, lack of authentic resources was a challenge owing to unverified developers/builders contact details, crippled further by limited availability of information. RERA requires mandatory, and legally verified information from the builder that is further certified by the respective RERA authority.

> Transparency: The provisions of the RERA require the builders to update on regular intervals about the construction status of the projects, which instils confidence among the buyers of property in the projects. Also, there has been standardization around factors such as calculation of carpet area, amongst others thereby reducing ambiguity.

> Inclusive: The Act finally covered another very important stakeholder—the real estate agent—through the mandatory registration process and other compliances and bought these facilitators under the purview of the Act. Since enactment, over 50,400 agents have registered under RERA across the country.

> Balance and Accountability: The focus of the act was always end-user interest and increased accountability which was evident with clauses such as development firms paying interest for any default or delays at the same rate that home buyers are charged and also the fact that builders were to be liable for structural defects for five years.

Impact of RERA on residential real estate

– Increased instances of consolidation of players and joint ventures/partnerships in the sector.

– The transparency and credibility of the deals have improved significantly with the exit of smaller/non-reputed brokers.

– Boost in buyer sentiments and a simultaneous rationalization in home loan rates has triggered end-user driven demand, especially in the mid-segment/affordable housing.

RERA: The road ahead

With RERA completing four years, the Act is a definite step towards bringing in greater transparency to the realty sector and moving away from characteristics it has long been associated with—unorganized and lack of accountability.

To help RERA achieve its true objective, it is important to address concerns regarding the lack of responsibility of the authorities as the buck currently stops at only a few stakeholders, particularly promoters of projects – with no specific penalties spelt out for the authority in case of non-compliance with approval deadlines.

The Act needs to take more concrete actions to address key issues such as setting up a single-window clearance should be a priority as it will streamline the approval process and cut down costs and delays significantly.

The ‘Modern Building Bye-Laws, 2016’ can also serve as a reference point, as they emphasize the digitization of the documentation/approval process, integration of certain clearances at a Master Plan level, out-sourcing of certain procedures on behalf of the authority, among other initiatives, to cut down on the time taken for approvals/clearances.

In addition, a risk-based classification of building proposals would fast-track building permission procedures for all non-automatic approvals.

– By, Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO, India, South-East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE

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

Explained: How markets behave when inflation spikes

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Markets have been jolted a bit last couple of days as stronger-than-expected US inflation figures surprised the investors. US consumer prices rose sharply in April ’21 and drove the rate of inflation to the highest level seen in nearly 13 years, 4.2 percent (versus expectations of 3.6 percent rise).

The consumer price inflation rose 0.8 percent on a month-on-month basis and 4.2 percent on a year-on-year basis.

This did not fare well for global markets that were worried about the rising inflation for a long time. And now the data gives way to fresh speculations on whether these figures will assume a monetary policy dimension.

While Federal Reserve has time and again told investors that it aims to keep the monetary policy accommodative, investors continue to worry.

Watch CNBC-TV18’s Prashant Nair explaining the history of the impact of inflation on markets.

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

Govt appoints Vandita Kaul as nominee director on board of Bank of India

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

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State-owned Bank of India (BOI) on Friday said the government has appointed Vandita Kaul, additional secretary in the Finance Ministry, to its board as nominee director. The bank said it has received the communication from the Finance Ministry about Kaul’s nomination on May 13, 2021.

The government has nominated Vandita Kaul, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Department of Financial Services as government nominee director on the board of directors of Bank of India with immediate effect, the lender said in a regulatory filing.

Bank of India has a total of eight members on its board, including the MD and CEO Atanu Kumar Das, its four executive directors, one nominee director each from the government and the RBI and one shareholder director.

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