COST Financial News

Economic Survey 2024 which was tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman on Monday stated that food inflation based on the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) increased from 3.8 per cent in FY22 to 6.6 per cent in FY23 and further to 7.5 per cent in FY24, suggesting a 97 per cent surge in the last two years.

blockchain technology presents a game-changing alternative. Blockchain guarantees transparency in the context of unclaimed assets at every stage of the transaction, from the first share issuance to the declaration and dividend distribution. The defining feature of blockchain technology, smart contracts, can reduce administrative costs and guarantee regulatory compliance by automating the process of identifying rightful owners and transferring assets based on predetermined criteria.

ApeCoin DAO, the decentralized autonomous organization responsible for ApeCoin, is considering a proposal that could bring Bored Ape-inspired luxury to the heart of Bangkok.

Yogi Adityanath from some BJP leaders as well as NDA partners in the state have led to speculations that there may be a change of guard after the by-elections to ten vacant Vidhan Sabha seats are over. While any such move will come at a cost that the high command will have to factor-in, a reshuffle in the party’s organizational set-up appears more imminent. The contest between Yogi Adityanath and deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, who has been vocal about his disenchantment and not hidden his ambitions, goes back to the 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections. A strong OBC leader and the then BJP unit president, Maurya played a key role in BJP’s impressive performance where it won 312 seats. He was naturally a contender for the CM post. Most of the candidates fielded by BJP were of his choice and hence backed him. BJP Chief Amit Shah decided to make Yogi Adityanath the CM, ostensibly keeping the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in mind. In the fight between Kamandal and Mandal, Hindutva usually trumps caste as religious polarization blurs the community differences. Maurya had to settle for the Deputy CM post and also share the post with Dinesh Sharma, a Brahmin leader.

One of the first steps in the financial planning process is setting goals. Every person has some requirements that do not fit in their incomes. Though Singh has listed out his requirements, his income is too small to accommodate all of these. Hence, he needs to evaluate and prioritise his goals. If, in today’s rupee terms, his higher education costs Rs.25 lakh, car costs Rs.10 lakh, house Rs.1 crore and wedding Rs.25 lakh, he is looking at a spend of Rs.1.6 crore. With an annual salary of Rs.7.8 lakh, this is almost 20 times his income. If, after allowing for expenses, he manages to save Rs.3 lakh a year, at current estimates, his goals are almost 50 times his saving capability. Inflation will also increase the value of goals. So, he needs to save and invest in assets that beat inflation if he plans to fund his goals with savings. However, even this may not be sufficient considering his current income level.

health insurance coverage for their employees to include extended benefits for household help, parents and parents-in-law, and are encouraging employees to set aside 10% of their annual objectives towards health goals, which in turn will impact their variable pay and bonus. The move is designed to ensure that health benefits are not just a ‘feel-good’ mechanism but are also designed to help curb employee attrition and measure performance.

PC Jeweller has reached a one-time settlement (OTS) with a consortium of lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) to settle its debt by offering banks a mix of cash and equity in the Delhi-based company. The ₹2,250-crore offer represents about a 20% haircut to lenders' principal amount, estimated at ₹2,900 crore, and 64% recovery of total dues, including interest of ₹3,500 crore, said people familiar with the details. PC Jeweller informed stock exchanges over the past month that six of the 14 lender banks have agreed to the OTS proposal. It, however, did not disclose the settlement details. The lenders include Union Bank of India, SBI, IndusInd Bank, Punjab National Bank, Karur Vyasya Bank and Axis Bank. «Each bank will have to take separate internal approvals for the transaction. Banks expect to complete the process, including taking equity stake in the company in the next three to four months,» said one of the persons cited above.

paddy cultivation emits 5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent/ha of GHG emissions in these states, the highest GHG/ha among states. Climate change-induced erratic weather patterns, rising temperatures and heatwaves exacerbate this existential threat. While many experts advocate farmers diversify from paddy, the economic reality is that policies and subsidies are skewed towards paddy cultivation. According to an ICRIER study, 'Saving Punjab and Haryana from Ecological Disaster: Re-aligning Agri-Food Policies', paddy received highest subsidy among all crops in Punjab, approximately ₹38,973 per ha during 2023-24. This included subsidies from GoI (fertiliser) and Punjab state government (power and canal irrigation). When considering additional subsidies for managing crop residues in the field and post-harvest, financial support for paddy cultivation would easily go beyond ₹40k per hectare.

insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of bankrupt companies to providing financial support to fight arbitration suits or even helping companies find sector expert lawyers for fighting costly disputes, a clutch of litigation funding startups are offering a range of services in the third-party funding market in India. Startups such as LegalPay, LitiCap, LegalFund and FightRight are helping companies fund their costly disputes, focusing on sectors including infrastructure, real estate, logistics, media entertainment and manufacturing.

Sheikh Hasina government cracking down on students-led demonstrations — more than 100 people have been killed in clashes with the police — Bangladesh is in chaos. On Sunday, the Supreme Court ordered the government to scale back a controversial job quota proposal.

Things seem to be falling comfortably into place for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yes, he lost seats in India’s recent general election—but he was, nevertheless, re-elected for a third term. Yes, he is dependent upon allied parties for the first time in his political career.

Vedanta Limited raised Rs 8,500 crore (over USD 1 billion) through Qualified Institutions Placement (QIP) of 19.31 crore equity shares at an issue price of Rs 440 per share, according to a stock exchange filing by the company. The issue, which closed on July 19, implied a discount of 4.61 per cent to the floor price of Rs 461.26 per equity share. In a stock exchange filing, Vedanta said it sold 19.31 crore shares to raise Rs 8,500 crore.

India’s 7,600 km-long coastline presents an enormous opportunity to ramp up the country’s offshore wind power capacity, thereby increasing clean electricity supply for the country’s growing economy, and creating sustainable jobs. The government last month approved a ₹7,453 crore (~USD 900 million) offshore wind funding scheme, a welcome move to kickstart the industry —but a considerably larger financial support will be required to ensure the sector’s sustainable growth and promote manufacturing of offshore wind turbines.

investing has grown by leaps and bounds creating a vibrant startup ecosystem in India. The Private Market Play

Here’s everything you need to know about watching Miss USA 2024 and the current buzz surrounding the event, as mentioned in the report by TVLine.

HDFC Bank will be circumspect about the quality of wholesale and retail loans and how they choose to price. The bank’s chief financial officer Srinivasan Vaidyanathan hinted that intense competition was bringing down profitability on wholesale loans. “On the wholesale category, we have seen that credit demand is high but the rates are benign,” said chief financial officer Srinivasan Vaidyanathan. “The spread over government securities is thinner and competition pushes it even down. We want to be circumspect in how we price and choose (loans). In the retail segment, we are leaders on mortgages but on the unsecured side, we have seen regulators talking about being cautious of credit quality. We are cautious of the credit and calibrate accordingly.” The lender said advances grew 52.6% on year in the June quarter driven by retail loans, which more than doubled. Corporate and wholesale loans grew 18.7% on year. Total loans stood at Rs 24.8 lakh crore.

Imported items sourced from local suppliers and royalties, technical charges paid out of India as well as supply of repackaged or refurbished goods will be excluded from the calculation of local content, an official said. These changes are included in the modified public procurement norms with an objective of giving maximum preference to companies that use higher levels of local content in their products. The government prefers made in India goods in their purchases, which run into lakhs of crores of rupees every year. Major preference in government purchases is given to companies whose goods and services have 50 per cent or more local content, a move aimed at promoting 'Make in India' and making the country self-reliant.

Canada’s auto theft problem might be showing signs of easing, but drivers are likely to continue feeling the pinch on their insurance premiums, experts tell Global News.

Your company may be sufficiently insured if your business is interrupted due to data breaches or hacking incidents. But does it also cover losses due to software updates, especially in a world of interconnected devices, where a buggy software update on a central server could impact multiple devices like computers, smartphones, smart kiosks, ATMs, smart TVs, etc., and hence impact many business channels, simultaneously? Under normal circumstances, such a question would sound odd since one would assume that most companies would have insured themselves against data breaches, ransomware attacks, cyberattacks and other such business interruptions or even power outages.

filing returns. However, instead of easing compliance, it has often increased the burden on taxpayers mostly because details related to equity transactions in the statement are inaccurate. To make matters worse, the onus of fixing the errors lies with the taxpayers.

After a tumultuous week for broker-dealers facing higher yields on client cash, one securities analyst on Friday said that higher interest rates on clients’ cash held in advisory accounts may cost LPL Financial Holdings Inc. as much as $380 million, shaving off $3.80 per share on the company’s earnings in the future.