India Financial News

Viacom18, the official broadcast and digital partner for Paris 2024, announced the biggest Olympics presentation yet in India, with 20 concurrent feeds and a roster of Olympians, starting July 26, 2024, across the Sports18 Network and for free on JioCinema. The network has lined up former champions across multiple sporting disciplines to amplify the best Olympic presentation ever. It also launched its campaign film ‘Dum Laga Ke… Haisha’. For the first time, Olympics coverage in India will be presented across 20 concurrent feeds on JioCinema for free, allowing fans to catch their preferred action and Indian performances at the Olympic Games anytime, anywhere, on their preferred device.

The Indian stock markets had yet another excellent week for the bulls, with the benchmark index maintaining its winning streak for the fifth consecutive week aided by broader participation along with positive global sentiment, Osho Krishan, Senior Analyst — Technical & Derivatives at Angel One said.

agriculture sector wants the upcoming budget must prioritise funding for climate-smart agriculture, promoting innovations like solar-powered irrigation and rainwater harvesting. Moreover, the sector wants to boost the agricultural supply chain through expanded storage capacities and improved transportation networks are essential to reducing wastage and enhancing farmers' incomes. Rajesh Aggarwal, managing director, Insecticides (India) Ltd said «In anticipation of the upcoming budget, the agricultural sector eagerly awaits increased investment in rural infrastructure and comprehensive reforms. Strengthening road networks, irrigation facilities, and storage infrastructure is pivotal to minimising post-harvest losses and enhancing market access for farmers. This initiative not only intensifies productivity but also generates employment, catalysing rural economies. Collaborative efforts between the government and private sector are imperative, facilitating the integration of advanced technologies and efficient farming practices. Enhanced supply chain management, supported by public-private partnerships, ensures streamlined operations and accessibility to quality agricultural inputs, including crop protection products like insecticides and biologicals. Addressing climate resilience remains critical, necessitating robust strategies for pest management and sustainable water management.»

Kamala Harris, who is of Indian and African heritage, has a better chance of retaining the White House in the US presidential polls than her boss Joe Biden, according to the latest CNN poll. The approval rating of President Biden, 81, has plummeted after his dismal debate performance in Atlanta last week against his predecessor and Republican rival Donald Trump. Since the debate, there have been increasing voices in the ruling Democratic Party for Biden, the oldest sitting US President, to step down and let someone else run the race for the crucial November 5 presidential elections. According to the CNN poll conducted by SRS, Trump, 78, is ahead of Biden by six points.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd. plans to start gauging investor interest in the coming weeks, with a listing likely in September or October, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.

The Government of India has decided not to intervene or prevent Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) from raising mobile tariffs, according to a report. Despite the price hike, mobile tariffs in India continue to remain among the lowest globally, prompting authorities to urge telcos to prioritise improving service quality, according to officials. They emphasised that the situation is “not critical.” “There is enough competition in the telecom sector, and the situation is not critical. Consumers may feel some pinch of the price rise, but the hike has happened after three years,” an anonymous government official was quoted by The Economic Times as saying.

Galaxy Buds 3 series is the integration of Galaxy AI, enhancing communication capabilities. Users can enable the Interpreter feature in Listening mode on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 or Galaxy Flip 6, facilitating real-time translations during lectures directly through the earbuds.

Lexus Granito(India)Ltd.(up 10.16%), MOIL Ltd.(up 6.82%), Ashapura Minechem Ltd.(up 4.22%), NMDC Ltd.(up 1.77%), 20 Microns Ltd.(up 1.50%), Sandur Manganese & Iron Ores Ltd.(up 0.92%), The Orissa Minerals Development Company Ltd.(up 0.78%), Coal India Ltd.(up 0.75%), KIOCL Ltd.(up 0.36%) and Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Ltd.(up 0.12%) were among the top gainers.

Offline fashion discovery and savings platform Magicpin has reported 100% year on year increase in terms of brand on-board, as it added 1000 brands across fashion, QSR, and fine dine category. It has also added more than 75,000 local merchants in the last 12 months, taking the total to 2,75,000 merchants and 3,000 brands till date. 80% of these merchants became transactional within the first month of onboarding and witnessed substantial growth in the same month.

Skoda Kodiaq 2024 demonstrated outstanding performance across all safety parameters assessed by Euro NCAP. The SUV achieved an 89 per cent score in adult occupant protection, 83 per cent in child occupant protection, 82 per cent in pedestrian safety, and 78 per cent in safety assist features.

Kazakhstan, which will host the SCO Summit this week, will be hosting a series of international meets this year including ‘World Nomadic Games’ to celebrate local and unique traditions. “Under the leadership of President Tokayev, the country will continue a constructive and balanced foreign policy, taking into account the national interests of the country. In 2024, our country will host a number of representative summits and forums. Kazakhstan will chair several authoritative international organizations at once, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, the Organisation of Turkic States, the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, and the Islamic Food Security Organisation,” Kazakh Ambassador to India Nurlan Zhalgasbayev told ET. A significant event will be the hosting of the World Nomadic Games in Kazakhstan. They are important both for promoting national sports and a healthy lifestyle and for expanding cultural and humanitarian ties between fraternal peoples, heirs of the nomadic civilization of the Great Steppe, according to Zhalgasbayev.

India’s rapidly growing youth population is a double-edged sword for its economic aspirations. While the demographic dividend presents a tremendous opportunity for growth, capitalizing on it calls for equipping the workforce with skills in line with the changing demands of the global economy. World Bank data shows a concerning trend: India’s labour mobilization rates have fallen from over 70% in 1990 to 56% in recent years.

Bengaluru/Mumbai: In the run-up to the Union Budget 2024, Indian fintech firms are seeking regulatory clarity, hassle-free licensing procedures, tax considerations, and provisions for financial inclusion to facilitate easier access to credit for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in their wishlist for the finance ministry. As the fintech industry looks to deepen their presence, they seek a clearer regulatory framework that establishes legal recognition, licensing procedures and supervision which will help level the field with traditional lenders.

Bank of India is likely to tap the debt market next week to raise up to Rs 10,000 crore through infrastructure bonds and Bank of India may follow suit a week later to raise Rs 5,000 crore. Infrastructure bonds help lenders reduce their overall cost of funds amid an ongoing battle for deposits as these debt instruments are exempt from the regulatory requirement of maintaining cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR). SBI, the country’s largest mass lender, is likely to raise the funds through 15-year infrastructure bonds, people aware of the developments said. The debt sale is likely to take place around July 10-11, they said. The upcoming bond sale comes on the heels of an infrastructure bond issuance by the bank on June 26, through which it had raised Rs 10,000 crore amid strong demand from institutional investors. “They (SBI) are likely to again opt for a 15-year maturity infrastructure bond as they wish to actively develop the longer-term yield curve for these instruments,” one of the persons cited above said. “They would likely be looking for a coupon rate of around 7.35-7.36%, similar to the one that was set at the last issuance.” Bank of India is likely to carry out its infrastructure bond sale around the third week of July, with the state-owned lender likely to opt for securities maturing in 10 years, people aware of the matter said.

commerce ministry on Wednesday clarified that the interest equalisation will be capped at Rs 1.66 crore per IEC (import-export code) for the July 1-August 31 period. Last month, the government extended the interest equalisation scheme (IES) on pre- and post-shipment rupee export credit for two months to promote the country's outbound shipments. The scheme, which provides exporters interest benefits, ended on June 30 this year. In a trade notice, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said the scheme extended on June 28, 2-24 is applicable only to MSME manufacturer exporters, who are eligible for IES benefit of 3 per cent.

Andhra Pradesh police registered an «attempt to murder» case against former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, two senior IPS officers and two retired officials, following a complaint lodged by a TDP MLA, an official said on Friday. The complaint was lodged by the ruling party's Undi MLA K Raghurama Krishna Raju. Besides Reddy, police booked senior IPS officers PV Sunil Kumar and PSR Sitaramanjaneyulu and retired police officer R Vijay Paul and former Guntur Government General Hospital superintendent G Prabhavati, the official said. Vijay Paul and Prabhavati have superannuated. «Raju sent his police complaint through mail one month ago and after taking legal opinion, I registered a case at 7 pm on Thursday against the former CM and others,» the official told PTI. Raju also alleged that he was subjected to «custodial torture,» the official added.

capex agenda and retain focus on fiscal discipline, PSU stocks from the stable of railways and defence are leading the bull run with up to 77% return in just one month. A pre-Budget rally has taken most of these PSU stocks to fresh all-time high levels even as purists find the valuations to be quite bizarre when compared to their fundamentals. The current leg of the bull run has been largely led by Modi stocks — being used to denote scrips related to capex and infrastructure-linked sectors.

inflation data when it is issued on Friday. Inflation for the month is likely to rise 5% year-on-year, higher than the trend expected earlier in the month, according to a senior economist at a global bank. Climatic factors are playing an increasingly key role in influencing food and fuel inflation, which tends to impact overall inflation levels, creating a new area of concern for policymakers. Gayatri Nayak explains how climate change can impact monetary policy: How have climatic factors affected prices in India?

GE Power India Ltd.(up 5.85%), Indowind Energy Ltd.(up 4.98%), Hitachi Energy India Ltd.(up 3.38%), PTC India Ltd.(up 2.93%), GE T&D India Ltd.(up 2.26%), Power and Instrumentation(Gujarat)Ltd.(up 2.00%), SJVN Ltd.(up 1.83%), JSW Energy Ltd.(up 1.74%), Inox Wind Energy Ltd.(up 1.73%) and Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd.(up 1.66%) were among the top gainers.

Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said the PM called for consensus outside Parliament but opted for confrontation within it, and if anybody was a "parasite", it was the BJP as its track record shows how it had «eaten up» the regional parties. In an interview with PTI a day after the Parliament session ended, the Congress general secretary, in-charge communications, said the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha had shown that a «new, aggressive, revived, rejuvenated» Opposition had emerged in the form of INDIA bloc. «The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha and the simultaneous session of Rajya Sabha has certainly seen two things — a new, aggressive, revived, rejuvenated Opposition in the INDIA group which is the way it should be in a democracy, but at the same time we have also seen no change in the attitude, approach, behaviour of the non-biological PM,» Ramesh said in a swipe at Modi. The Congress leader claimed that the 2024 election result was a decisive, personal, political and moral defeat for Modi but that was not reflected in the way he allowed Parliament to be conducted.

Shares of Phoenix Mills Ltd.(up 7.11 per cent), Sunteck Realty Ltd.(up 2.5 per cent), Macrotech Developers Ltd.(up 1.43 per cent), Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd.(up 1.09 per cent) and DLF Ltd.(up 0.35 per cent) ended the day as top gainers in the pack.