Month: April 2022

Oil slumps 7% as US plans record crude reserve release

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

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US oil prices fell 7 percent to close just above $100 on Thursday as President Joe Biden announced the largest ever release from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve and called on oil companies to increase drilling to boost supply.

US West Texas Intermediate futures for May delivery settled down $7.54, or 7 percent, at $100.28 a barrel, after touching a low of $99.66.

Brent crude futures for May, which expired on Thursday, closed down $5.54, or 4.8 percent, at $107.91 a barrel. The more actively traded June futures were down 5.6 percent at $105.16, after falling by $7 earlier in the session.

Both benchmarks posted their highest quarterly percentage gains since the second quarter of 2020, with Brent soaring 38 percent and WTI gaining 34 percent, boosted mainly after Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine which Moscow calls a “special operation”.

“This is a market where every barrel counts and (the SPR release) is a significant volume of oil to be put on the market for an extended period of time,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC.

Biden’s 180 million-barrel release is equivalent to about two days of global demand, and marks the third time Washington has tapped the SPR in the past six months.

Starting in May, the United States will release 1 million barrels per day of crude oil for six months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Biden said, adding that 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil could be released in addition by allies and partners.

“We need to increase supply — Oil firms sitting on idle wells or unused leases will have to start producing or pay for their inaction,” he said.

Other members of the International Energy Agency may also release barrels to offset lost Russian exports after that nation was hit with heavy sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine.

IEA member countries are set to meet on Friday at 1200 GMT to decide on a potential collective oil release, a spokesperson for New Zealand’s energy minister said.

However, any SPR release could also be a sign that Washington does not expect a quick resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, which has squeezed oil supplies, said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Desperate times clearly call for desperate measures and clearly the Biden administration believes the spike in oil prices warrants this move to eat into the country’s emergency supplies,” Streeter said.

Goldman Sachs analysts said the move would help the oil market to rebalance in 2022 but was not a permanent fix.

“This would remain, however, a release of oil inventories, not a persistent source of supply for coming years. Such a release would therefore not resolve the structural supply deficit, years in the making,” they said.

Analysts also pointed to low liquidity in the market causing outsized moves in prices.

“We’ve seen dwindling open interest and dwindling volumes. A thin market is a jumpy market, and highly reactive to these various developments. To the extent we gain or lose barrels, you get a big outsized reaction,” Kilduff said.

Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, agreed at a meeting on Thursday to stick to its existing agreement and raise its May production target by 432,000 barrels per day (bpd).

“In the light of the overnight developments, the OPEC+ decision seems to be a non-event. The increase of 432,000 bpd has been expected and built into the price. The decision will be greeted with disappointment from consuming nations,” said Tamas Varga at PVM Oil Associates.

Prices also declined due to fears of lower demand in China as Shanghai is set to expand a COVID-19 lockdown.

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

IndiGo hikes salaries of pilots by 8% from April 1

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

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India’s largest airline IndiGo has hiked the salaries of its pilots by 8 percent with effect from today.

The airline had implemented salary cuts across several categories of employees, including pilots, due to decline in revenues owing to COVID-induced low demand over the last two years.

The airline has further stated that it plans to increase the salaries of pilots by 6.5 percent from November in case there are no further disruptions to the flight operations.

“Now, as we have established continuous steady operations, on behalf of our Managing Director, the board of directors and the senior Leadership team, I am pleased to announce an upwards revision of 8 percent in salaries of all our Pilots with effect from 1st April, 2022. The HR team would share your revised salary structure in the coming weeks. Further, as we look forward to a positive revenue environment and hopefully we don’t witness any further disruptions to operations, we also plan to implement an additional 6.5 percent revision w.e.f 1st November, 2022,” Captain Ashim Mittra – Senior Vice President, Flight Ops, IndiGo, told the pilots in a mail.

While the demand for air travel was severely impacted in India during the first two waves of coronavirus, the sentiment recovered rapidly after the third wave, witnessed predominantly in the month of January-February of this year.

India has also resumed scheduled international passenger flights from March 27 and several airlines, including IndiGo, are betting big on international flights on the back of strong revenue potential.

IndiGo plans to resume international flights on around 150 international routes through the month of April and aims to restore pre-COVID international flights deployment.

The domestic traffic is also witnessing strong passenger sentiment at around 80-85 percent of pre-COVID level with recovery led by corporate traffic.

Also Read: IndiGo’s Chief Commercial Officer Willy Boulter to resign in 4 months

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

Stock market HIGHLIGHTS: Sensex settles over 700 pts with all sectors in green, Nifty ends near 17,700

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

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Stock market HIGHLIGHTS: Benchmark equity indices, BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50, surged sharply higher on Friday despite a sombre start to the first day of the trade on the new financial year. The Sensex ended over 700 points higher, while the Nifty50 settled near the 17,700 mark.

Catch all the highlights with CNBC-TV18’s market blog

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

19-kg commercial LPG cylinder becomes expensive from April 1; price hiked by Rs 250

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

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The price of a 19-kg LPG cylinder has been hiked by Rs 250 to cost Rs 2,253 per unit. In the last two months, the price of a commercial liquefied petroleum gas cylinder has increased by Rs 346. The price of a domestic cooking gas cylinder, however, remains unchanged.

State-run Indian Oil Corp supplies LPG under the brand Indane.

19 kg commercial cooking gas LPG price hiked by Rs 250 per cylinder. It will now cost Rs 2253 effective from today. No increase in the prices of domestic gas cylinders. pic.twitter.com/h8acfRh6mn

— ANI (@ANI) April 1, 2022

The price of a 5-kg cylinder was also revised, to Rs 569 per unit from March 1, 2022.

Currently, the price of non-subsidised LPG is at Rs 899.5 per 14.2 kg cylinder in Delhi and Mumbai each. In Kolkata, the price is at Rs 926 per cylinder, and in Chennai, it is Rs 915.5 per cylinder.

LPG rates vary from city to city and are reviewed on a monthly basis. Any changes in prices are implemented from the first day of each month.

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

IGRUA completes 19,000 flying hours in 2021-22

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

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Indian flying academy Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA) completed the target of 19,000 flying hours, its highest ever since 1986, in the recently concluded financial year of 2021-22.

The academy has completed a total of 19,110 flying hours via a fleet of 18 aircraft in financial year 2021-22.

The previous record was registered in 2013-14 when the academy had completed 18,776 flying hours but with a fleet of 24 aircraft.

IGRUA’s per aircraft utilisation also registered a milestone by crossing the mark of 1000 hours per aircraft per annum in 2021-22 at 1062 hours per annum. The previous record was 782 hours per aircraft per annum in 2013-14.

In 2020-21, IGRUA completed 13,282 flying hours and produced 62 Commercial Pilot License holders and completed 14,830 hours and produced 67 CPL holders in 2019-20.

“IGRUA is likely to complete 20,000 flying hours in 2022-23,” Krishnendu Gupta, Director at IGRUA said in a statement.

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

ATF price hiked by 2% to all-time high of Rs 1.12 lakh per kl

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

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Jet fuel prices on Friday were hiked by 2 percent — the seventh straight increase this year — to an all-time high, reflecting a surge in global energy prices. Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) — the fuel that helps aeroplanes fly — was hiked by Rs 2,258.54 per kilolitre, or 2 percent, to Rs 1,12,924.83 per kl in the national capital, according to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers.

There was, however, no change in the price of petrol and diesel on Friday. Prior to the second pause in 11 days, auto fuel rates had gone up by Rs 6.40 per litre. The increase in ATF price comes on the back of the steepest ever hike 18.3 percent (Rs 17,135.63 per kl) effected on March 16.

Jet fuel prices are revised on the 1st and 16th of every month based on the average international price of benchmark fuel in the preceding fortnight. Jet fuel, which makes up for almost 40 percent of the running cost of an airline, has this year surged to new highs.

ATF prices have increased every fortnight since the start of 2022. In seven hikes beginning January 1, ATF prices have been increased by Rs 38,902.92 kl or almost 50 percent.

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

Excl: IVCA gets new top team; Karthik Reddy of Blume Ventures to take over as chair, Ashley Menezes of ChrysCap is vice chair

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

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The Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) has announced a new crack-team at the helm to set the agenda for India’s thriving venture capital (VC) ecosystem.

Karthik Reddy, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Blume Ventures, is the new chairperson of the executive committee while Ashley Menezes, Partner & COO at ChrysCapital, is the new vice chairperson.

Reddy is taking over from Renuka Ramnath, Founder, MD and CEO of Multiples Alternate Asset Management.

The last couple of years have been unprecedented for the startup ecosystem in India, one where startups reached for the stars. VC funding hit a record $38.5 billion in 2021, with 44 companies joining the coveted unicorn club.

Yet after a historic year of turning India into the world’s third largest unicorn creator, venture investors for their part are not locking, but refilling their war chests. As per a Bain & Company and IVCA report, investing momentum in India is being driven by a pivotal convergence of tailwinds. Digital infrastructural fundamentals (e.g., cheap data access, UPI, eKYC via Aadhar) opened enormous economic opportunities that are increasingly being addressed by the deepening startup ecosystem in India.

“As a thriving startup economy, India is now entering an exciting phase of growth in the PE and VC ecosystem, which continues to fuel FDI and job growth in the country, the contribution being ever larger than before. The IVCA’s goals are aligned with the nation’s desire to grow rapidly and the most fundamental goal of the investments are to create digital infrastructure, efficiencies across value chains, and skill the nation into developing and adopting the latest technologies in the world, propelling the work force to becoming the most competitive in the world and creating millions of jobs for the country,” Karthik Reddy, Chairperson of IVCA told CNBC-TV18.

With 228 members on board including top domestic and global PE/VC funds, LPs, Family Offices and other stakeholders, IVCA represents the India PE/VC industry at government, policymakers and regulatory authorities. Over the last few years, IVCA has worked with the policymakers on issues that impact the investment ecosystem in India. In fact, Union Budget 2022, announced the setting up of an expert committee for PE/VC Investors to address issues ranging from taxation to opening up large stock of domestic capital for AIFs and startups, supporting sunrise sectors and more. ​

Mobilising the large pools of domestic capital is going to be high on agenda for the new IVCA executive committee. This will be done through the Fund of Funds as well as by easing additional inflows from domestic and global investors.

“With the new expert committee announced in the Union Budget, we intend to work closely with the government on the existing regulatory matters. The current government and policymakers have been engaging with the industry body frequently and have acted on several pressing policy matters in the past, and together we intend to create a ‘frictionless economy’, accelerating the 2047 goals for the country,” Reddy added.

IVCA’s new executive committee consists of a panel of investors who have and are helping build some of the most innovative and successful businesses in India like Prashanth Prakash of Accel Partners (Swiggy, Urban Company, Vedantu, Amagi), Sequoia India’s Rajan Anandan (Surge, Polygon, Mamaearth, Rebel Foods), Sandeep Naik of General Atlantic (BYJU’S, Unacademy, Pine Labs), Vineet Rai of Aavishkaar Capital (AgroStar, Vortex GoBolt), Nipun Sahni of Apollo Global Management, 3one4 Capital’s Siddarth Pai (Licious, DarwinBox) and Amit Jain of Carlyle India Advisors.

Everstone Group​’s Pratibha Jain, Rema Subramanian of Ankur Capital (CropIn, Captain Fresh, Niramai), Padmaja Ruparel of IAN Fund (Druva, Wow Momo, FarEye) and Rochelle D’Souza at Lighthouse Funds (Nykaa, Capital Trust, Kama Ayurveda) also join the committee.

Even as the Indian startup ecosystem reached an inflection point in maturity in 2021, fuelled by VC investments, global headwinds are likely to affect the funding outlook for the rest of 2022, according to the Bain & Company-IVCA study.

While investments in 2022 will remain in a similar range as 2021, the pace and quality of deals is likely to shift. A more measured pace of deal-making could see investors doubling down significantly on quality assets with larger rounds.

Exits via public listings may also witness some moderation as IPOs in the pipeline may adopt a wait-and-watch stance given global headwinds in public markets.

Some India-specific trends may further affect momentum in 2022 including stricter IPO norms that are expected to be rolled out by SEBI, specifically focused on capping investor share offloading at IPO. Regulatory shifts are likely to continue to affect a few sectors such as online gaming, cryptocurrency, and fintech and lastly talent attraction and retention will continue to remain top of mind for scaling startups, the report said.

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

Russia won’t defend India if China breaches LAC again, warns US

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

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Top Indian-American US advisor and a key architect of Washington’s punitive economic sanctions against Moscow, Daleep Singh, on Thursday said that no one believes that Russia will come to India’s defence if China breached Line of Actual Control (LAC) again.

Singh was in India on March 30 and 31 to discuss the consequences of Russia’s unjustified war against Ukraine and the development of an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. “Don’t think anyone would believe that if China again breached the LAC then Russia would come running to India’s defence. I came here in the spirit of friendship to explain the mechanism of our sanctions,” Singh said.

Singh said that the US would not like to see a rapid acceleration of India’s energy or other imports from Russia. The US, the UK and other western countries have imposed sanctions on the Russia following the attack on Ukraine. The US has prohibited exports from Russia. “There are consequences for countries that actively attempt to circumvent or backfill these sanctions,” said Singh.

He added that the US allies should not create mechanisms that prop up the rouble and attempt to undermine the dollar based financial system.

Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24 and said it is carrying out a “special operation” to disarm and “denazify” its neighbour.

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

CSK vs LSG Match Report: Evin Lewis’ 23-ball 55* condemns defending champions Chennai to back-to-back defeats

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

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Evin Lewis blasted the fastest fifty this edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) completed a thrilling run chase to condemn Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to back-to-back defeats, despite the defending champions scoring 210/7 at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, on Thursday.

Robin Uthappa scored a 25-ball half-century in the first innings as CSK got off to a flyer despite losing the toss but it wasn’t enough as Lucknow chased down the total in style. Chennai have now lost back-to-back games at the start of the season for the very first time in the IPL.

With 34 runs needed from the final two overs, CSK decided to throw the ball to Shivam Dube for the penultimate over and the decision backfired spectacularly with Ayush Badoni and Lewis wreaking havoc.

Badoni thumped him for 6 off the first delivery and Lewis (55 not out off 23 balls) then brought up the fastest fifty of IPL 2022, from just 23 balls, as he smashed 4, 4 and 6 off the last 3 balls with a total of 25 runs coming from the over.

With just 9 needed from the final over, debutant Mukesh Choudhary (0/39) started off with two wides before Badoni (19 not out off 9 balls) smacked another maximum and wrapped up the win soon after with 3 balls to spare.

Lucknow’s run-chase got off to a blistering start as captain KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock raced to 55/0 inside the powerplay. They were helped by some slack fielding too as Moeen Ali put down a sitter to give de Kock a reprieve when still on 30.

Dwane Pretorius then entered the attack and struck with the 2nd delivery on his IPL debut to get rid of Rahul (40 off 26 balls). The LSG skipper got a thick edge when looking to pull and Ambati Rayudu took a fine catch when running towards the ropes from backward point.

Tushar Deshpande then made it two in two overs as he got rid of Manish Pandey (5 off 6 balls), to reduce LSG to 106/2 in the 12th over.

Pretorius then doubled his tally, getting rid of compatriot de Kock (61 off 45 balls) in the 15th over. The wicket-keeper batter had brought up his half-century off just 34 balls but sliced a shot high for Dhoni to collect behind the stumps in the 15th over.

The three tight overs and two wickets from Pretorius seemed to take the momentum away from LSG, leaving them with 67 needed from the last 5 overs. However, LSG ran away with the game in the final two overs.

There was one highlight for CSK in the run-chase though as DJ Bravo (1/35) entered the record books in his final over when he got rid of Deepak Hooda (13 off 8 balls) to become the outright leading wicket-taker in the IPL. He has 171 wickets from 150 innings, just one more than the legendary Lasith Malinga.

Earlier in the game, Rahul won the toss and didn’t hesitate to bowl first. Lucknow made one change with Andrew Tye coming in for Mohsin Khan. Chennai had three changes with Moeen Ali, Mukesh Choudhary and Dwane Pretorius replacing Mohsin Khan, Devon Conway and Mitchell Santner.

Uthappa walked out to open alongside Ruturaj Gaikwad and the experienced campaigner got off to a blazing start with CSK racing to 26 off the first 2 overs.

However, Tye on his debut for Lucknow, entered the attack and played a role as they got the breakthrough. He hit Gaikwad (1 off 4 balls) on the pads and with the batter looking to sneak a leg-bye amidst LBW appeals, Ravi Bishnoi hit the stumps with a rocket throw to catch the CSK opener short.

Uthappa exacted revenge in Tye’s next over though, as he hit 3 fours to take 18 runs off the 5th over. Moeen Ali, who walked out at No. 3, hit the ground running as well, welcoming Krunal Pandya into the attack with 4,6 and 4 off consecutive deliveries.

Ravi Bishnoi entered the attack in the 8th over and made an instant impact as he stopped the rampant Uthappa (50 off 27 balls) who had just brought up a 25-ball half-century. Bishnoi slipped in a quicker googly to trap Uthappa LBW which was confirmed after a successful review.

Shivam Dube was promoted up the order to maximise the quick start and the all-rounder immediately got going with a flurry of boundaries against Dushmantha Chameera (0/49) in the 9th over. Avesh Khan then got into the act as he flattened the stumps of Moeen (35 off 22 balls) with his 1st delivery in the 11th over.

Dube and Rayudu however didn’t let the momentum slip as they stitched a quick-scoring 60-run partnership off just 37 balls. The stand was finally broken by Bishnoi (2/24) who castled Rayudu (27 off 20 balls) in the 17th over.

Dube (49 off 30 balls) was unlucky not to complete his half-century as he fell short by 1 run when looking to clear the ropes against Avesh (2/38) in the penultimate over. But once again CSK maintained the momentum as MS Dhoni walked out and immediately smashed 6 and 4 off the first 2 balls he faced.

Tye (2/40) got rid of Jadeja (17 off 9 balls) and Pretorius (0) off consecutive deliveries in the final over but Dhoni’s 6-ball blitz of 16 not out coming at a strike rate of 266.66 helped CSK post a dominant total of 210/7.

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