2020 Financial News

The world could have its first trillionaire within a decade, anti-poverty organization Oxfam International said Monday in its annual assessment of global inequalities timed to the gathering of political and business elites at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose

By Mark John

Milind Deora was part of the youthful cohort who were considered close to Rahul Gandhi. Among those were Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, RPN Singh and Jitin Prasada. Except for Sachin Pilot, the remaining members of this cohort have either joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or aligned themselves with other political affiliations.

Reserve Bank of India on Monday (January 15) issued a draft framework seeking to harmonise regulations of Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) with those of Non-banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) in several areas including deposit directions. The banking regulator has invited comments from NBFCs (including HFCs) and other stakeholders by February 29, 2024. The RBI, in its circular, said it has reviewed the deposit directions for deposit-taking HFCs, participation of HFCs in various derivative products for hedging purposes, diversification into other financial products, adoption of technical specifications by HFCs under the Account Aggregator ecosystem, etc.

The anti-poverty organization Oxfam International says the world could have its first trillionaire within a decade

Though all such data are quite encouraging, electric two wheeler sales slowed down significantly earlier this year after the govt reduced subsidies provided under the FAME Scheme which is an abbreviation for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India. In FY24 till December, 6,42,048 units of electric two-wheelers were sold in the country. Considering average sales of more than 60,000 units per month, total sales in the financial year should comfortably cross FY23's sales figures. However, it would still miss Niti Aayog's ambitious target of 1.9 lakh per month sales. EV two-wheelers need more boost? The EV sector initially needed a huge push from the government in its infancy and it did get that. The Indian government brought the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME-India) Scheme, under National Mission on Electric Mobility in 2011/National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020, in 2013 to give the sector the necessary boost.

Fox News has stopped running MyPillow commercials in a payment dispute with chief executive and election denier Mike Lindell

By Maria Martinez

Tata Consultancy Services is planning to focus more on markets such as Japan, Latin America and Southern Europe amid weakness in North America, its chief executive said. The plan to diversify more comes after the industry leader reported its slowest quarterly profit growth since 2020, and revenue contributions from its mainstay market, North America, have declined for four straight quarters.

township in Ayodhya which will be a blend of contemporary and traditional architectural elements, Nitin Gokarn, the state's additional chief secretary for housing and urban development, told ET. The 'New Ayodhya', for which the state government has already secured land, will be India's first vastu-based township, he said. With the Ram Mandir's inauguration set for January 22, developers are lining up to acquire land in the region for commercial and residential development. «New Ayodhya City is going to be a river-centric city with a focus on sustainability,» said Gokarn. «It is going to be in one of the best cities in the county.» The senior official said they recently auctioned a plot for a hotel, where the reserve price was Rs 88,000 per sqm, and the successful bid was for Rs 108,000 sqm. «We are witnessing significant demand.

REITs and InvITs have gained popularity as preferred investment options, with fundraising, through the route, surging 10-fold year-on-year to ₹11,474 crore in 2023, supported by measures taken by regulator Sebi and attractive returns offered by the instruments. Going ahead, fund mobilisation by REITs (real estate investment trusts) and InvITs (infrastructure investment trusts) is poised for significant growth in 2024, driven by several key factors, including anticipation of rate cuts and introduction of a range of policies aimed at encouraging investments like tax incentives and relaxed investment norms, Claravest Technologies co-founder Manaki Parulekar said. «This year, we are likely to see interest rates decrease in the first half of 2024 due to the expected drop in inflation. These conditions are favourable for investors who are looking to invest in long-term opportunities, such as REITs and InvITs,» he added. According to data compiled by Prime Database.com, REITs and InvITs collectively raised ₹11,474 crore in 2023 compared to a record low amount of ₹1,166 crore clocked in 2022. Before that, funds to the tune of ₹17,641 crore were collected through the route in 2021 and ₹29,715 crore in 2020, the data showed. REITs and InvITs are new concepts in the Indian market but have been a popular choice globally for their lucrative returns and capital appreciation. A REIT is made up of a portfolio of commercial real estate assets, the majority of which are already leased out, and InvITs consist of a portfolio of infrastructure assets like highways. Overall, InvITs and REITs have seen tremendous growth.

Queen Margrethe II will become Denmark's first monarch to abdicate in nearly 900 years when she hands over the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik, on Sunday. Margrethe always maintained during her 52-year-reign that she wouldn't quit, but back surgery and other ailments left her unable to undertake as much as she could in the past. «Time takes its toll,» she said, announcing her plans to abdicate in a New Year's address that stunned the kingdom.

By Tim Reid and Nathan Layne

By Nathan Layne, Gabriella Borter and Tim Reid

Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Lakshadweep and derogatory remarks by three Maldivian ministers against India and PM Modi have led to a resurgence of interest in visiting the island chain, despite 2023 recording the lowest number of aircraft movements to the archipelago since 2015, excluding the archipelago 2020, according to AAI data. The Agatti Island airport in Lakshadweep registered the lowest number of flights during the April-November 2023 period, the lowest in eight years, according to the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission has successfully surmounted a critical challenge that threatened to impede the exploration of asteroid Bennu's concealed mysteries. This seven-year mission, which aimed to retrieve a sample of Bennu's surface, encountered obstacles in accessing the bulk of rocky material collected in 2020.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa—For those who speculate about what Vivek Ramaswamy really wants out of his long-shot Republican presidential bid—perhaps a podcast or a television contract—the wealthy biotech entrepreneur has one answer. “I expect to be the president," he said in an interview as he crisscrossed this state ahead of the presidential caucuses Monday that will start the 2024 nomination balloting. But that expectation rests on hopes for a dramatic change in the race: Donald Trump’s departure.

Congress' Milind Deora to join Eknath Shinde-led Sena faction over seat sharing issue? Here's what he said Jyotiraditya Scindia, a former union minister and once one of the most prominent young faces of the Congress party, tendered his resignation from the party's primary membership amidst high political drama in his home state of Madhya Pradesh in March 2020. He was the first of Gandhi's "young brigade" to cut ties with the party. Scindia's resignation came as a jolt to the Congress party whose family's association with it dates back decades as his father Madhav Rao Scindia too served as a union minister under the party's regime.

China which has repeatedly denounced him as a dangerous separatist. 1. The Chinese Foreign Ministry reaffirmed its claim to the breakaway territory as part of its own in its first official response to the presidential elections in neighbouring Taiwan.

2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medal match — was it. India’s Olympics campaign had hit the wall and the team failed to make the final despite a brilliant effort. And the girls, understandably, were inconsolable. The men’s team was giving them a rousing ovation from the stands.