2020 Financial News

Methodology note: For each indicator, an average band is constructed around the five-year average value. This band's size varies by volatility (it depends on the standard deviation). An indicator that lies within this range is said to be 'in line with five-year average' (code: amber). Values falling below this range are said to be in red, and those lying above this range are said to be in green. For inflation, the red/green coding is reversed. While calculating the five-year average, data for some indicators for April-May 2020 and April-May 2021 have been removed to eliminate lockdown-induced skews in the trend. However, the five-year averages may still show high figures due to sustained base effect in several indicators in 2021 and 2022. Monthly standings will get updated retrospectively as more data comes in.

₹1.19 in March 2020 to around ₹28.8 currently. This implies a return of almost 2337%. An investment of ₹1 lakh in this stock in March 2020 would have turned into over ₹24 lakh now.

IIFL Finance, the country’s second-largest gold loan non-bank finance company (NBFC), from disbursing fresh gold loans. This comes on the heels of the finance ministry last month asking all banks to review their gold loan portfolios, according to news agency PTI. The ministry flagged issues strikingly similar to the IIFL case, including inadequate collateral, repayments in cash, and problems around collection of fees.

Kangana Ranaut's announcement as a BJP candidate for the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh, a new controversy emerged involving Congress leader Supriya Shrinate and the Bollywood actress. The post allegedly shared by Congress' social media chairperson, Supriya Shrinate, on Monday, featuring a picture of Kangana Ranaut wearing a corset top with an offensive caption, has been deleted.

Donald Trump will in three weeks become the first former US president to face a criminal trial, a judge ruled Monday, hours after an appeals court threw the tycoon a lifeline in his bid to stave off an unrelated, half billion dollar civil fraud judgment. New York Judge Juan Merchan rejected demands from Trump's attorneys to further delay his trial on charges of paying hush money to a porn star and ordered jury selection to begin on April 15.

The market is seeing an upward trend after 12 Bitcoin spots ETFs got approved to be traded on US financial markets. MEME coins like Shiba Inu, SLERF and Befe are taking the top seat here. Here, we will study the future potential of these 3 coins – SLERF, Shiba Inu and Befe Coin. 

Antitrust crackdown looms over Big Tech: How Apple, Google are likely staring at break-up orders in US and EU Dave Calhoun assumed the role of chief executive in early 2020 following the ousting of his predecessor, Dennis Muilenburg, in the wake of a significant scandal. This scandal unfolded when two new 737 Max aircraft were involved in nearly identical accidents within five months, resulting in the tragic loss of 346 passengers and crew.

By Luc Cohen

Investing in residential real estate for the rental market remains profitable overall, but investors may have to be patient for growth in rents to increase.

Taiwan Ministry of National Defence (MND) said that it detected seven Chinese naval vessels and five Chinese military aircraft operating around the nation from 6 am (local time) on Sunday to 6 am (local time) on Monday, Taiwan News reported. According to Taiwan's MND, one of the PLA aircraft entered Taiwan's Southwest Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Taiwan's armed forces have monitored the situation and deployed appropriate forces to respond. On March 24, Taiwan's defence ministry seems to have witnessed an increase in Chinese military presence around the nation with the MND detecting eight Chinese naval vessels and six Chinese military aircraft operating around the nation from 6 am (local time) on March 23 to 6 am (local time), as per Taiwan News.

The Conference Board on Tuesday issues its consumer confidence index for March; on Wednesday workplace uniform company Cintas reports its latest earnings and on Thursday the National Association of Realtors releases its pending home sales report for Fe...

Estonia's defense officials say the U.S. Congress has passed a bill that involves a total of $228 million in military and defense aid to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania this year under the Baltic Security Initiative

Rahul Gandhi in Kerala's high-profile Wayanad constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections that are scheduled to take place in seven phases beginning from April 19. The BJP is striving to break decades-old bipolar politics dominated by the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-led LDF in Kerala. The party had earlier announced the candidates for 12 seats.

Kalpen Parekh, MD & CEO, DSP Mutual Fund, says “we felt that prices are maybe a year ahead of what they should be and part correction has happened, let us say, in the last two-three weeks, but we do feel that even today when we look at our portfolios, we would be happy with some more consolidation either in terms of time or if there is some more price fall, our conviction to buy the same set of good companies with the next five-year horizon would go up significantly. But we would still say it is time to be cautious, time to be more diversified and time to be more asset allocated rather than chasing only one bucket.” You and your team are putting out some great data. In fact, it is just not garnering assets but also educating the ecosystem and learning which I really appreciate about your house. You called out on the froth in small and midcaps very early on. In fact, the buzz may have gotten louder in the last two weeks, but the melting of the indices started in the first or second week of February. Do you think the adjustment is done or not entirely?

Rajnath Singh said that the people of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) are themselves raising the demand for a merger with India. He expressed the confidence that the people of PoK will merge with India. He made the remarks during the 'AAP ki Adalat' programme on India TV. Asked about Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's recent remarks about Kashmir, Rajnath Singh said, «Can they ever take Kashmir? They should be worried about Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. I had said almost one and a half years ago that there will be no need for us to attack and occupy, because a situation is developing there that people of PoK themselves are demanding merger with India.» On being asked whether the government was making any plan, he responded, «I will not say anything more, I should not. We are not going to attack any country. India has a character of never attacking any country in the world, nor has it occupied an inch of other's territory. But PoK was ours, PoK is ours, and I am confident that PoK will itself merge with India.»

Care Edge Ratings shows that the demand for vehicles powered by traditional fuels is progressively shifting towards those that utilise alternative fuels. The share of petrol vehicle sales, as a percentage of total vehicle sales, has recorded a significant decline, decreasing from 86 percent in 2020 to 76 percent in 2023 while for diesel vehicles it has slightly decreased from 12 percent in 2020 to 11 percent in 2023. The sales volume of alternative fuel-driven vehicles recorded a growth of more than 400% in Calendar Year (CY) 2023 as compared to CY2020, though on a much smaller base.

Karnataka government has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to release financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to the state for drought management. The petition has also sought to declare that the Centre's action in not releasing the financial assistance for drought arrangement as per the NDRF is «ex-facie violative» of the fundamental rights of the people of the state guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. It said the state is reeling under «severe drought», affecting the lives of its people and for the Kharif 2023 season, which starts in June and ends in September, a total of 223 out of 236 taluks are declared as drought-affected. The plea said 196 taluks are categorised as severely affected and the remaining 27 as moderately affected.

When a Swedish startup launched a new material made from recycled textiles in late 2022, the fashion industry hailed it as a game changer in its efforts to lessen its environmental impact. Last month, the company, Renewcell, filed for bankruptcy. While some big retailers, including H&M and Zara, were enthusiastic backers, not enough brands committed to buying its material.

S Jaishankar has reiterated India's firm stance on the territorial integrity of Arunachal Pradesh during his visit to Singapore, strongly opposing China's claims over the northeastern state, as per an ANI report. Speaking at the Institute of South Asian Studies of the National University of Singapore, Jaishankar dismissed China's claims as "ludicrous," affirming that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India based on its status within the country, not on external assertions. Responding to recent assertions by China, he said that India has consistently rejected such claims, reiterating that Arunachal Pradesh is an inherent part of the nation.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday dismissed China's repeated claims on Arunachal Pradesh as «ludicrous» and asserted that the frontier state was a «natural part of India». In probably his first public comments on China's frequent claims on Arunachal Pradesh and its opposition to Indian leaders visiting the state, Jaishankar said it was not a new issue. «This is not a new issue. I mean China has laid claim, it has expanded its claim. The claims are ludicrous to begin with and remain ludicrous today,» he said in response to a question on the Arunachal issue after delivering a lecture at the prestigious Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) in Singapore. Jaishankar, who is here on a three-day visit, emphasised that Arunachal Pradesh was a «natural part of India.»

Kate Middleton says she is undergoing chemotherapy to treat cancer Harry and Meghan, known formally as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are no longer working royals. The couple moved to California in 2020, where they live in an exclusive enclave outside Santa Barbara, and are now forging their own businesses, after being cut off from the royal purse. Harry, who married former actress Meghan in a fairytale wedding in 2018, was at one time very close to William, but relations have soured in recent years.