Month: August 2023

World Breastfeeding Week 2023: History, significance and importance

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

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Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure a newborn’s health and survival, as per the World Health Organisation (WHO). To inculcate more awareness regarding the practice, World Breastfeeding Week is observed from August 1 to 7 every year. This observance aims to promote the adoption of breastfeeding. It also draws attention to what policies are needed to improve child and maternal healthcare in countries.

Importance of Breastfeeding

Breast milk is the ideal food for infants as it contains antibodies which help protect against many common childhood illnesses. It provides all the nutrients an infant needs for the first few months of birth. According to the WHO, breastfed children do better on intelligence tests, are less prone to diabetes later in life and less likely to be obese/overweight. Women who breastfeed face lower risk of breast and ovarian cancers, according to doctors. The WHO recommends that breastfeeding should be initiated within the first hour of a child’s birth and infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life.

History

In 1991, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) was formed to promote the benefits of breastfeeding. A year later, the first World Breastfeeding Week was marked. In 2016, the World Breastfeeding Week campaign was aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (WBW-SDGs).

Significance

The week-long event tries to raise awareness about why breastfeeding is crucial for both mother and child. World Breastfeeding Week also ensures that governments can try and fulfill the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by acting on maternal and infant health. It advocates changes in policy and infant feeding practices to improve the health of newborns.

The WHO states that breastfeeding could save the lives of 8,20,000 children below the age of five years annually. In this context, it becomes imperative to draw attention towards the importance of breastfeeding infants.

Theme

The theme of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week is “Enabling Breastfeeding: Making a difference for working parents”. The campaign highlights the impact of workplace support, paid leave, and emerging parenting norms on breastfeeding. The theme also aims to bring about changes to parental and social parental protection policies in the light of the coronavirus pandemic.

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

Happy Birthday Taapsee Pannu: A look at her net worth, businesses and brand endorsements

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

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Taapsee Pannu is celebrating her 36th birthday today, August 1. Within a span of over a decade in the entertainment industry, Taapsee has garnered a sizable fan following for her versatile roles, including several critically acclaimed women centric roles on the big screens.

Taapsee was born on August 1, 1987, in Delhi in a Jat Sikh family. Taapsee holds an engineering degree in Computer Science from Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology. Before becoming a model and actress, Pannu worked as a software engineer.

As the Manmarziyan actress is celebrating her birthday, here is a look at her net worth and the businesses she owns.

Taapsee Pannu: Net Worth and brand endorsements

The net worth of Taapsee Pannu is estimated to be $6 million, nearly Rs 50 crore, according to reports. Taapsee’s major earnings come from her acting while she also earns from her business ventures and brand endorsements. Pannu endorses 10 major brands, which include Garnier Color Natural, Melange by Lifestyle, Nivea, Lyra and many more.

According to reports, she charges Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore per movie and she earns around Rs 2 crore from brand endorsements annually.

Taapsee owns two flats in the same building in Andheri, Mumbai. She currently resides in one of these flats. Besides the real estate, she owns a BMW 5 Series, a Mercedes SUV and a Renault Captur in her car collection.

Businesses Taapsee Owns

Taapsee owns a NFT platform known as taapseeclub.com. This NFT platform offers membership and the subscribers get a chance of winning exclusive gifts.

Apart from this, Taapsee also owns an event management company namely, The Wedding Factory. The company offers services for corporate events, holiday parties and networking meetings. However, as the name suggests it specialises in organising high-profile weddings.

The actress also owns a badminton franchise Pune 7 Aces, which is a part of Premier Badminton League.

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

Meta shares gained for the ninth straight month in July, its longest stretch since listing

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

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Shares of Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook gained 11 percent in the month of July, jumping to their highest level since early 2022. The gains in July were for the ninth month in a row.

This is the longest monthly winning streak for the stock since Facebook’s IPO in 2012. After losing nearly two-thirds of its value in 2022, Meta’s shares are now 17 percent adrift of its all-time high in September 2021.

Meta shares have gained over 2.5 times in 2023 so far, registering gains in all seven months of the year. The company reported better-than-expected results for the June quarter last week and also issued optimistic guidance for the July-Septeber quarter.

The company reported revenue growth in excess of 10 percent for the first time in five quarters.

Around the same time last year, Meta’s shares were in the middle of a nosedive as Wall Street turned cautious over threats to the business becoming increasingly existential.

Leading the rebound has been a series of cost-cutting measures, which has led to over 21,000 job cuts across various divisions starting late-2022 and spilling over to early-2023. A recovery in Facebook’s digital ad business and a reversal of three straight quarterly sales drops added to the sentiment.

The recent debut and adoption of Twitter-like app called “Threads” has also given Wall Street hope that Meta can turn it into a major hit. Although Mark Zuckerberg on Meta’s earnings call last week said that he is optimistic on Thread’s prospects, the company is nowhere close to monetising the app.

Even as the stock soars, there are concerns nonetheless. The Realty Labs unit, home to its metaverse investments, lost $13.72 billion last year and another $3.7 billion in the March quarter, while sales remain tepid. Apple has increased competition in the VR headset market, while Amazon’s ad business continues to ramp up as well.

After becoming the worst performer on the S&P 500 index last year, shares of Meta are the second-best perfomers in 2023, only behind NVIDIA.

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

Delta Corp puts plans of online gaming unit IPO on hold due to GST uncertainties

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

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Casino and online gaming operator Delta Corp has put the plans of taking its online gaming unit public on hold due to the uncertainties pertaining to the GST rate increase on the sector.

“The investing community obviously would want absolute crystal clarity when it comes to online gaming and they would want a clear picture as to what the way forward is and without which, nobody is going to put $1 into any new investment, especially in a sector which has this kind of overhang,” Delta Corp CFO Hardik Dhebar said during the company’s earnings call last week.

Keeping all of this in mind, Dhebar said that the IPO is on hold and the company will revisit this plan once complete clarity emerges.

As of the June quarter, the online gaming unit contributed 15 percent to Delta Corp’s net revenue, excluding the GST component.

On July 11, the GST council decided to impose a 28 percent tax on turnover of online gaming companies, horse racing and casinos. However, there may be further clarification issued on the definition of online gaming during the council’s upcoming meeting on Wednesday, August 2.

Tamil Nadu IT Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan called the claims of 28 percent GST leading to a demise of the online gaming industry as exaggeragted and emphasised the need for a harmonious balance between regulating the industry, generating revenue and supporting continued growth to boost the economy. You can catch that entire conversation here.

Dhebar mentioned that course correction has now begun with the IPO not happening in the near future and with all the uncertainty looming over the sector. He also mentioned that the online gaming sector on a segment revenue basis is still negative.

For the June quarter, the company’s online gaming revenue stood at Rs 43.12 crore, which is little changed from last June’s figure of Rs 43.83 crore, but lower than the March quarter number of Rs 47.41 crore. However, revenue from gaming operations, which is the company’s core business, increased both year-on-year, as well as sequentially.

Delta Corp reported its highest-ever quarterly revenue during the April-June period.

“We are hoping to turn it positive (online gaming revenue) in the third quarter,” Dhebar said.

Shares of Delta Corp returned to the Rs 200 mark last week for the first time after July 12, when it had its biggest single-day drop on record. The stock is still down 7.1 percent on a year-to-date basis.

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

Ajay Piramal on opportunities and competition post HDFC’s exit, says buyback is to reward shareholders

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

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Piramal Enterprises Chairman Ajay Piramal believes that with HDFC merging into HDFC Bank, there are opportunities in the real estate lending market for existing companies.

“The competition for lending to real estate with HDFC moving away from this market is now reduced and therefore there are opportunities,” Piramal told CNBC-TV18 in a post-earnings interaction.

Aside of the results, Piramal was in the news for announcing a share buyback, its first after a 12-year gap. The company looks to buyback 1.4 crore shares or 5.87 percent of the total equity at Rs 1,250 per share through the tender offer route. The buyback price is a premium of 16 percent to Friday’s closing price.

Piramal said that there are two aspects to the buyback. One is better utilisation of equity and the other is to reward shareholders that have been with the company. He also spoke about whether the company would need more equity post the buyback.

“After this buyback, our debt equity only goes to 1.3 times. Therefore, even if I take a growth of 20-25 percent for the next 4-5 (years), I don’t think we will need any more equity,” Piramal said. “So, in that sense, this is better utilisation of the equity. It’s also a reward to shareholders who have been with us.”

Piramal’s promoters will not be participating in the buyback. Should you, as a retail investor tender your shares in the buyback? Read this piece for more.

“When the company needed the money, that is in 2018-2019, we did the right issue and the promoters fully subscribed to that and at that time, we put in about Rs 2,500 crore into the company. Now we feel it is time for individual and minority shareholders to take advantage,” Piramal explained the rationale behind the promoter non-participation.

By bringing in Wholesale 2.0, Piramal clarified that the company is not moving out of the wholesale business. “We are significantly reducing the old wholesale loans,” Piramal said, adding that this is being done to assuage investor concerns that the quality of the old wholesale loans is not good. “Its difficult for us to challenge that,” he said.

The new Wholesale 2.0, according to Piramal, already has a book size of Rs 3,500 crore. He further added that the company wants to go into areas where the banks do not want to go.

Watch this full interview here 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

High-level Panel to conduct inquiry into Mumbai-Jaipur Train shooting; accused to be produced in court on Tuesday

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

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A high-level committee headed by the Additional Director General (ADG) of the Railways Protection Force (RPF) has been constituted and tasked to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into Monday morning’s killing of 4 people — three passengers and an Assistant Sub-Inspector of RPF — allegedly by a constable of the Railways Protection Force on board a Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express train near Palghar in Maharashtra.

The alleged culprit, who was arrested later in the morning at Mira Road in Mumbai by the Police with help from Government Railway Police and RPF officials, has been identified as Chetan Kumar Choudhary. He was in possession of a gun when he was apprehended. “At present, we have booked him under Sec 302 of the Indian Penal Code (punishment for murder), Railways Act, and Arms Act. He will be produced in court tomorrow.

Sources say the three passengers who were killed have been identified as Abdul Khadir Bhanpurwala, Mohammad Hussain, and Asgar Kai. Sources in the railways tell CNBC-TV18 that prima facie the three victims were chosen at random, and had had no prior engagement with the accused. “This morning the officer first shot his RPF colleague (escort in-charge Assistant Sub-Inspector Tika Ram Meena) dead and then moved to different coaches of the train and shot down three passengers,” says a statement by the Railway Police. Sources add that ASI Meena was likely shot because he tried to stop constable Choudhary from harming passengers.

The investigation is still underway. The reasons behind the shootings are not clear as yet, though theories abound. While initial reports suggested that Choudhary may have been mentally unstable and prone to anger, an as yet unauthenticated  video that has been doing the rounds on social media suggests the shootings may have been a hate crime, and that the victims may have been chosen for their religious beliefs.

We have chosen not to embed the video in this copy due to the disturbing visuals and audio in it. “We are checking the authenticity of the video. Based on that and other evidences we will decide if we need to add more sections,” RPF Commissioner Ravindra Sisave told CNBC-TV18. We also learn that a forensic team has inspected the train and collected evidence, including a window pane which had a bullet track on it.

ALSO READ: Manipur case: “We have to ensure that the process of justice goes to her doorstep,” says CJI

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