Month: February 2024

Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Mittal says India and UK are very close to signing free trade agreement

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

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Bharti Airtel Founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal has said that he is optimistic that India and the UK are very close to signing the free trade agreement (FTA). Mittal suggested that both countries need to consider each other’s demands and positions to move forward on the completion of FTA talks.

In an exclusive chat with CNBC-TV18, Mittal emphasised that there are a lot of complementarities between the two countries; while India is open for foreign investment in most of the sectors, the UK has a lot to offer. 

“It’s (UK) a much smaller market compared to India, but it’s got strength in biotech, defence, and various technologies. We saw the collaboration between Oxford University and the Serum Institute to produce, in a very quick time frame, the COVID-19 vaccine.”

Even though the FTA is imminent, there are last-minute issues that have been delaying the process. Mittal reckons Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will have a task at his hands to sign the FTA between June and September ahead of the UK general elections, as he expects the incumbent Modi government to win the Lok Sabha elections.

Mittal has been convincing companies in the UK to be a bit more accommodating of India’s position, as it only has a few requirements. India, which has a $3.3 trillion economy, has a very strong position. He also added that even India could be a bit flexible in accepting the UK’s demands to reduce tariffs on electric vehicles and Scotch whiskey.

“I would say gone are the days when India would sign something much more easily. India’s requirements are not that many, and equally, I tell my friends on the Indian side that some of the UK demands could be considered as well,” Mittal stressed.

Mittal, who became the first Indian to be conferred with Honorary Knighthood, KBE, by King Charles III on Wednesday, highlighted that with the presence of technology, there is a lot of scope for investment in the UK in telecom, manufacturing and other sectors.

Watch the accompanying video for the entire conversation

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

Breaking Norms: A cinematic ode to unconventional love and identity

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

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Amid the relative invisibility of issues plaguing households, which often remain confined within the four walls, these films tackle themes such as queer identity, old-age loneliness, and breaking societal conformity. They offer a refreshing correction to a history of under-representation and stereotyping of identity and love.

These films collectively form a mosaic that challenges conventional norms, contributing to a more diverse and inclusive representation of love and identity on screen. As audiences embrace these narratives, the cinematic landscape continues to evolve, paving the way for more authentic and varied storytelling.

One such groundbreaking film is “Pleats” (2024), a creation of Anoushka Agrawal. The film revolves around Gayatri, a woman in her 70s who confesses to having an extramarital affair, and sees her world turn upside down. Only her granddaughter, Meera, is willing to listen, harbouring a secret of her own.

The narrative delves into the perspective of a grandmother who is thrust into being introduced to the love her granddaughter Meera knows — love that is abundant; love that compounds on itself. The story challenges conventional notions of love. The movie got into the Boston International Film Festival and the Bensenville Short Film Festival.

Amazon Prime’s “Rainbow Rishta” stands as India’s first unscripted docuseries on queer lives. Directed by Jaydeep Sarkar with story directors Hridaye Nagpal and Shubhra Chatterji, the series celebrates courageous, rebellious love that remains open to change, shedding light on the complexities of real-life situations.

“Memories in March” (2010), directed by Sanjoy Nag and written by Rituparno Ghosh, explores the journey of Arati Mishra, a grieving mother who discovers her son’s secret existence after his death. The film challenges societal norms, particularly focusing on acceptance of homosexuality, as Arati confronts her own biases.

“Joyland” (2022) takes on a patriarchal family’s quest for a male heir, revealing a son’s secret involvement in an erotic dance theatre and his unexpected romance with a transgender starlet.

On a more abstract note, “Gandu” (2010) follows the nihilistic rapper Gandu on a drug-fueled rampage with a rickshaw puller, challenging conventional storytelling in this Indian erotic black-and-white art drama directed by Qaushiq Mukherjee.

Director Sudhir Mishra’s “Daas Dev” (2018) presents a witty twist on the classic Devdas, placing it in the political atmosphere of Uttar Pradesh in 1997. The film weaves a tale of love, power, and corruption, with Paro shedding the traditional role of a dreamy heroine and transforming into a feisty politician.

“I Am” (2010), an Indian Hindi-language anthology film by Onir, features four short films (“Omar,” “Afia,” “Abhimanyu,” and “Megha”) that tackle real-life stories centred around the common theme of fear. The anthology explores diverse social concerns, touching upon child abuse, gay rights, Kashmiri Pandits, and sperm donation. Onir masterfully weaves these stories into a passionate showcase of hidden realities, offering different connotations of the title “I Am” — from identity crisis to coming to terms with oneself and recognising the true colours of others.

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

3 Mins Read

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

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

RBI held more than 200 meetings with fintechs over last 6 months

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

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) held more than 200 meetings with various fintechs over the course of the last six months, CNBC-TV18 has learnt. This assumes significance in the wake of the action on Paytm Payments Bank, which sparked a wave of passionate responses from the startup ecosystem, ranging from concerns about regulatory support to the burden of compliance issues on fintechs.

CNBC-TV18 has learnt that through various in-person meetings, conferences, events and other outreach, the RBI held 202 meetings in total with fintechs in the last six months, including six to seven meetings at the deputy governor and governor level.

“RBI has been open to any discussion and feedback with fintechs before and will remain so in the future,” said a person familiar with these RBI meetings who preferred not to be quoted.

“The need for a continued dialogue between finetchs and RBI came up in the fintechs meeting in New Delhi, and during the course of the discussion, RBI assured the finetchs that it would hold more structured regular meetings with the industry, as it does with banks and NBFCs,” added this person.

The regulatory action of Paytm Payments Bank had led a dozen startups to pen a letter to the government and regulatory officials, urging them to engage in constructive dialogue with the fintech ecosystem. In this letter, the startup founders even asked the regulator to reconsider its action on the bank, raising concerns that such an action would not only impact customers but have far-reaching and detrimental consequences for the entire FinTech ecosystem.

This prompted the finance ministry to hold a meeting with fintechs in New Delhi recently to assure them that the government supported innovation in the financial sector and was there to address any concerns or issues they may have.

“The Union Finance Minister noted the rapid growth of the start-up and fintech sectors of India, especially in the last decade, and welcomed suggestions from the FinTech leaders to achieve greater Ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living for consumers. During the meeting, it was emphasised that innovative solutions by fintech companies are essential to the financial services sector while ensuring strict compliance with regulations,” the finance ministry said in a press release after the meeting.

While the action on Paytm Payments Bank, and more recently on commercial card payments via Visa to unauthorised merchants by certain finetchs, have given rise to apprehensions among the industry that perhaps the regulator has taken a very strict stance on these players and this may affect the morale of the players in the ecosystem, the RBI has maintained that it remains supportive of the sector.

“Let me stress and let me emphatically state that the Reserve Bank is and will continue to encourage and support innovation and technology in the financial sector. Let there not be any doubt about the Reserve Bank’s commitment to promote fintech, to promote innovation, and to promote technology in the financial system,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said during the last policy press conference earlier this month while addressing issues around Paytm Payments Bank.

“Problem of a few startups can’t be taken as the problem of the entire startup ecosystem. Many of them are doing alright. I don’t want any sector to have any apprehension that they “can’t do business in India”. The government is very much with the startups. They will be given all assistance,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also added at an Indian Express event recently.

Regulatory actions in the past, too, have been met with a mixed response from the fintech industry.

The regulator had first come up with Digital Lending Guidelines for the sector a couple of years ago to set guardrails for digital lending to protect borrowers, which brought legitimacy to a sector that was thus far lightly regulated. While this was welcomed by the industry, what followed after made life tougher for some fintechs.

For instance, in 2023, RBI capped the amount of a popular fintech product FLDG (first loss default guarantee) to 5% of the outstanding amount of a particular loan portfolio, which both provided relief to fintechs by allowing them to carry on with the offering, while also imposing a limit on the cover which would make the product less attractive to banks and therefore harder to sell.

Before that, RBI’s rule prohibiting non-bank institutions or fintech firms, including several buy-now-pay-later companies (BNPLs), from putting credit limits onto PPIs such as wallets and credit cards also came as a body blow to the likes of ZestMoney and Slice, which then had to pivot their business models to survive. ZestMoney eventually shut the shop after failed acquisition talks with PhonePe and other funding issues.

On the other hand, the Reserve Bank also instituted a whole host of measures to boost the fast-growing fintech ecosystem. It set up a FinTech Department to give dedicated attention to the sector, setting up of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) as a wholly owned subsidiary of the RBI, to promote innovation across the financial sector, as well as set up a ‘Fintech Forum’ comprising representatives from the industry to promote advanced technologies, facilitate knowledge exchange, forge strategic partnerships, empower compliance and understanding and promote financial inclusion.

Among some of the more supportive policies RBI has recently come up with is a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) framework for fintechs to encourage self-regulation, the proposal to set up a fintech repository to enable the development of appropriate policy approaches, a Regulatory Sandbox (RS) framework wherein entities test new innovative products/services in a controlled regulatory environment with or without regulatory relaxation, and the introduction of Account Aggregators frameworks to manage consent and enable consumers to digitally access and share financial assets data in a secure, transparent, and efficient manner.

The increasing regulatory focus comes amid the fast-paced growth this sector has seen. India has over 10,200 fintech startups, the third-largest such cohort in the world. The mushrooming of instant digital loans, which brought convenience along with financial inclusion, also came with increasing instances of fraud, customer harassment and illegal mining of data. All this led the Reserve Bank to take steps to set more firm regulatory and supervisory guidelines for this industry.

ALSO READ | FAQs: If you are a Paytm customer, here’s what you need to know about RBI restrictions on credit, deposit transactions

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

PFC and MCX are the most owned mid and small cap stocks by mutual funds

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

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Mutual fund industry owns nearly 38 crore shares of Power Finance Corporation (PFC), which is valued at ₹16,803 crore at the end of January. This makes the state-owned company topping the list of mid-caps, with the highest holdings by fund houses in the country.

Shares of PFC have rallied as much as 244% over the last one year, which has taken the value of mutual funds exposure to the current level from about ₹8,000 crore in August 2023. Additionally, mid-tier information technology (IT) companies like Coforge and Persistent Systems are also among the most owned mid cap stocks with an investment value of ₹16,000 crore and ₹14,000 crore, respectively.

Source: primemfdatabase.com

However, unlike other public sector undertakings (PSUs), the Power Finance Corporation has a higher number of shares available in the market for trade. As per the latest shareholding data, the government holds 56% in the company, whereas the remaining 44% is held with the public. Interestingly, more than a fourth of public holding, i.e. 11.64% of PFC is held with mutual funds.

When it comes to the smaller stocks, Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) bags the numero uno position. The country’s fund houses held ₹5600 crore worth of shares in the commodity exchange at the end of January, show data sourced from primemfdatabase.com. Other small caps with similar exposure from the fund houses include Blue Star, Kalpataru Projects International, Brigade Enterprises, and Cholamandalam Financial Holdings.

While shares of MCX have more than doubled over the last six months, the stock of Blue Star, Kalpataru Projects International, and Brigade Enterprises have returned anywhere between 46% to 72% during the same period. In comparison, the benchmark Nifty50 has gained 14% over the last six months.

In fact, the gauge of small stocks –Nifty SmallCap – has outdone other indices with a handsome gain of 33% over the last six months. That compares with the 25% returns yielded by Nifty Midcap during the same period.

Small-cap stocks are those that command a market capitalisation of less than ₹5,000 crore, while mid-cap stocks are defined as those with market values of between ₹5,000 crore and ₹20,000 crore. These two categories are generally less liquid compared to their large-cap peers. On average, promoters own 55% of the Nifty Small cap index against 40% in the broader market.

The mutual fund industry recorded a net equity inflow of ₹21,780.56 crore in January, the highest since March 2022.

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

Krutrim AI Chatbot faces backlash over accuracy concerns in public beta

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

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Krutrim, an AI startup launched by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, rolled out an AI chatbot for public beta testing on February 26. This AI chatbot, the first product launched by the company, is said to be powered by its multi-lingual, large language models.

It claims to work like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, formerly known as Bard. However, the homegrown AI chatbot has been facing criticism from users after its beta launch, about not being properly trained. From general queries to translation, and mathematical problems to logical reasoning, the chatbot is producing inaccurate results, so we decided to test it out for ourselves.

When we asked the chatbot who won the Cricket World Cup in 1983, it confidently replied, “The West Indies team won the Cricket World Cup in 1983”. This answer was incorrect. The World Cup was famously won by the Kapil Dev-led team India that year. Google’s Gemini and ChatGPT, however, provided the correct answer.

Cricket wasn’t the only topic where Krutrim floundered. It erroneously informed us that Hillary Clinton became the US president by defeating Donald Trump in 2014. The chatbot also struggled to answer basic questions like today’s date, who formed the government in India in 2014, who killed Mahatma Gandhi and who was India’s first woman Prime Minister.

When quizzed about India’s first billion-dollar startup, the bot claimed that its parent company Krutrim is the first unicorn of the Indian startup ecosystem. Well, full marks for confidence and zero on fact check. InMobi was India’s first billion-dollar startup.

The series of gaffs by Krutrim AI has also sparked questions about its model, especially considering the significant investment in the startup. Krutrim became India’s first unicorn of 2024 after raising $50 million from Matrix Partners India, an early backer of Aggarwal’s other ventures Ola Cabs, and the IPO of Ola Electric.

Also Read: ‘Happy dance’ — just type text prompts to create your own music with Adobe’s new Gen AI tool

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

Blizzard warning of up to 10 feet of snow in the Sierra could make travel ‘dangerous to impossible’

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

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A Pacific storm packing powerful winds and heavy snow is shaping up to be the strongest of the season, forecasters say, as it pushes toward California with potential blizzard conditions in the Sierra and up to 10 feet (3 metres) of snow in the mountains around Lake Tahoe by the weekend. The National Weather Service in Reno issued a blizzard warning on Wednesday February 28 for a 300-mile (482-kilometre) stretch of the Sierra from north of Lake Tahoe to south of Yosemite National Park effective from early Thursday to 10 am Sunday.

Widespread blowing snow will create blizzard conditions with white-out conditions and near-zero visibility, making travel “dangerous to impossible on Friday into Saturday morning, when the heaviest snow is expected, the weather service said. Between 2 and 4 feet (61 to 122 centimetres) is expected in towns along Tahoe’s shore and 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 metres) at the highest elevations with winds gusting in excess of 100 mph (160 kph) over Sierra ridge tops, the weather service said. Road closures and power outages are likely.

Do not take this storm lightly, the weather service in Reno warned. Potential snow totals vary under different scenarios, but the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre in College Park, Maryland, said there’s little doubt March will be coming in like a lion for the West Coast states.

An impressive winter storm will hammer the Cascades to the Sierra with blizzard conditions to end the week, the centre said Wednesday. Heavy but lesser snow is on its way to the Rocky Mountains, and heavy rain is expected for the coastal areas between San Francisco and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington where a few inches are likely over the next 3 days. The lead scientist at a snow lab atop the Sierra said it’s possible they could break their modern-day record of about 3.5 feet (1 metre) of snow in a single day from back in 1989.

It’s a very serious storm for us, Andrew Schwartz said Wednesday from UC-Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab, founded in 1946 in Soda Springs, California, northwest of Lake Tahoe. Kristi Anderson, a waitress at The Gateway Cafe in South Lake Tahoe, California said she’s already filled up her gas tank and was stocking up on food and firewood.

Last year we had a lot of storms, and the power went out a lot and a lot of people couldn’t get out to get food and the grocery stores didn’t have power so, we’re preparing for that, Anderson said. I’m hoping not a lot of people travel here because the roads will be really bad.” Others remain skeptical. Richard Cunningham said he’s heard before about forecasts for the storm of the century that didn’t materialize since he moved from Las Vegas to Reno in 1997.

Same story, different day, he said Wednesday. Sometimes it doesn’t even snow. But Schwartz, the Sierra snow lab scientist, said he’s been watching the computer models over the past two weeks and, if anything, thinks the National Weather Service’s snowfall predictions are conservative.

The forecasted total at the snow lab of 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.8 metres) is on the lower side of what the models are suggesting, he said. It’s good news for Tahoe-area ski resorts, where the season began with little snow but has been picking up as of late on the heels of last year’s near record snowfall.

Officials at Palisades Tahoe ski resort, where a skier was killed in an avalanche last month, said on its web site Wednesday it’s thrilled about the prospect for heavy snow while at the same time preparing for challenging operational impacts. There will be slick roads, reduced visibility, and closures on mountain passes that are pretty much guaranteed, Palisades Tahoe spokesman Patrick Lacey 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

BCCI set to increase annual retainers for players prioritising Test and domestic cricket: Report

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

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is mulling increasing the annual retainer for cricketers with special focus on players prioritising  playing in Test matches, as per a report by the Times of India (TOI).

The BCCI categorised players in four grades, namely: A+, A, B, and C, in the announcement made on Wednesday, but it didn not mention the amount that individuals will be securing as a part of their respective contracts.

Reportedly, the BCCI is in talks with skipper Rohit Sharma, head coach Rahul Dravid, and chief selector Ajit Agarkar, to reignite interest in the longest format of the game amongst players.

The board has gotten a proposal to increase the match fees and remenuration for red-ball cricket at both the international as well as the domestic level. This will be done in order to ensure that the sum equals the remenuration of lower mid-level IPL contracts.

Also Read: Former Indian player lashes out at Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma for skipping first class cricket

“The board has asked for recommendations from the Indian team management. They are taking a very aggressive approach towards maintaining the sanctity of the longest format of the game. It is imperative that players, who are committed to first-class cricket, are rewarded at a similar level as IPL cricket. That would mean that existing remuneration has to be multiplied,” a BCCI source told TOI.

“The recommendations are on the lines of increasing the Test match and first-class fees by three times. The idea is that if a player plays the entire Ranji Trophy, he should be able to make around ₹75 lakhs which matches an average IPL contract. It has also been suggested that if a player plays all Test matches in a year, he should be able to make ₹15 crores which is at par for any marquee IPL contract,” the source further mentioned.

Currently, a player can make ₹25 lakh if he plays all 10 matches in a Ranji Trophy season.

Whilst increasing it substantially by three times to ₹75 lakhs might not be possible in one go, the BCCI is considering working on these options to ensure that they reach a reasonable mid-point, which is why it has refrained from explicitly mentioning the value of the contract for the retained players already.

Team India regulars Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were dropped from the list after failing to turn up for their respective teams in the current Ranji Trophy campaign. 

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

Dune: Part Two | Breathtaking visuals, unmatched audacity, and Villeneuve’s flawed brilliance

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

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