Indian Economy : News,Discussions & Updates

Cabinet announces Rs 10,683 crore PLI for Man Made Fibers & technical textiles​

The Cabinet has approved a Production-linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for man-made fibers and technical textiles sectors.

To run over the next five years, the scheme is expected to bring in 7.5 lakh new jobs and help Indian producers switch from Cotton textiles to these new products which account for two-thirds of global textile production, Textile Minister Piyush Goyal said on 8 September.


The scheme aims to boost the production of these products and regain India's position as one of the largest sources of apparels and textiles globally. While India remains one of the largest producers globally, its share of global production and exports have constantly eroded over the past decade as smaller nations like Bangladesh and Thailand have raced ahead.

Into the details

The new PLI proposes to incentivise eligible manufacturers by paying between 3 percent and 11 percent incentive on incremental production. It has two categories of investments above Rs. 100 crore and Rs. 300 crore. As a result of these, fresh investment of more than Rs.19,000 crore and cumulative turnover of over Rs.3 lakh crore is expected to be achieved, the government has said.

"Companies which will set up factories in aspirational districts and Tier-III and Tier-IV will be given priority while allocating incentives. The number of jobs created will also be taken into consideration," Goyal said.

Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Odisha stand to be the front-running states which are expected to benefit from this, he added. However, he asked other states to also bring out their schemes for textiles and add to this.

The government wants the scheme to cause a shift from traditional textiles to newer more globally sought-after products. Most apparel manufacturing is increasingly becoming dependent on MMF. The new scheme is expected to help India quickly catch up with competing economies by switching to products and production methods more conducive to consumer tastes and corporate demands.

The share of MMF in India's traditional textile export basket remains low with only a-fifth of all textile products are MMF while the rest are cotton. Interestingly, globally the trend is the opposite.

Industry lauds move

The scheme has generated widescale praise from domestic industry. "The global MMF market is about $ 200 billion and India should aim to get 10 percent of the market in the next 5 years. The MMF apparels currently account for 20 percent of our overall apparel exports and we should increase its share to 50 percent in next 5 years, said Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President A Sakthivel.

Kulin Lalbhai, Co-Chairman of the National Committee on Textiles and Apparel at the Confederation of Indian Industry lauded the timing of the scheme as the industry is recovering from the economic impact of covid. "The MMF and technical textile segments are large and very strategic from an export perspective and the PLI scheme will help companies achieve scale and efficiency in these segments," he added.

"We are confident that incentivizing indigenous manufacturers to increase their production capabilities will have a ripple effect that will benefit all stakeholders across the value chain, by driving greater domestic consumption and international trade as well as boost employment generation," Dipali Goenka, Jt MD & CEO, Welspun India, said.
 
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Indian stock market overtakes France; becomes sixth biggest

By Ravindra N. Sonavane
Updated: 16 Sep 2021, 06:00 AM IST
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Both Sensex and Nifty advanced 23% and 25%, respectively, year-to-date, while foreign and domestic investors bought stocks worth $8 billion and ₹23,532 crore (Photo: Reuters)

India is now the world’s sixth-biggest stock market, overtaking France for the first time in market capitalization, with the benchmark Sensex surging more than 23% this year.

India’s market cap stood at $3.4055 trillion on Tuesday against $3.4023 trillion in France, according to Bloomberg data. India posted the biggest gain in market value this year, adding more than $873.4 billion or a rise of 35% from $2.52 trillion on 31 December 2020. Since the March 2020 low, India added nearly $2.08 trillion market cap or a 159% gain. In 2020, it added a $373 billion market cap or gains of 17.4% from $2.14 trillion.

The US stock market is the world’s most valued with a market cap of $51.3 trillion, followed by China ($12.42 trillion), Japan ($7.43 trillion), Hong Kong ($6.52 trillion) and the UK ($3.68 trillion).

“Strong liquidity and positive macroeconomic cues are also likely to support domestic markets to continue their movements to record levels. The consumer demand will be closely monitored as it is expected to pick up, given the festive season has begun and the restrictions are continuing to ease. However, concerns on the third wave of the (covid-19) pandemic still hover," Motilal Oswal said in its report on Wednesday.

Both Sensex and Nifty advanced 23% and 25%, respectively, year-to-date, while foreign and domestic investors bought stocks worth $8 billion and ₹23,532 crore. Continued foreign investor flow with a sharp improvement in key economic indicators such as the index of industrial production for July, which was 11.5% (higher than consensus estimate), almost reaching to pre-pandemic level also offers comfort, analysts said.

Further, the easing of retail inflation to 5.3% for August bodes well. This should help the Reserve Bank of India maintain its soft monetary policy stance to support the ongoing recovery in economic momentum.

Better-than-expected gross domestic product and goods and services tax (GST) collection indicate a sustainable rebound in earnings. This should help the market sustain the premium valuations. The GST council is likely to meet on Friday to decide on the inclusion of diesel and petrol under the GST regime.

Indian stock market overtakes France; becomes sixth biggest

That's only the BSE though. BSE's market cap is at $3.4005 trillion. The NSE is also at over $3.1 trillion. Why doesn't that count ? Shouldn't total market cap of the Indian stock market be BSE + NSE ?
 
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Govt receives max FDI proposals from nations sharing borders with India​

The government has received maximum foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals in three departments -- electronics and IT, industry and internal trade, and heavy industries -- from countries sharing land border with India, an official said.
In April 2020, the government had made its prior approval mandatory for foreign investments from countries that share land border with India to curb opportunistic takeovers of domestic firms following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Countries which share land borders with India are China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and Afghanistan. As per that decision, FDI proposals from these countries need government approval for investments in India in any sector.

The major sectors under which these FDI proposals mainly came included manufacturing of heavy machinery, automobile, auto components; computer software and hardware; trading, ecommerce, and manufacturing of light engineering and electrical, the official said.

Besides, these three departments, the ministry of new and renewable energy and department of pharmaceuticals have also received several proposals from these countries, the official added.

Further, pending FDI proposals received under this decision up to June 15 this year in the Ministry of Electronics and IT; Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT); and Ministry of Heavy Industries are over 40.

Most of the foreign investment proposals have come from China and Hong Kong. Besides, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh too have submitted certain applications.

In April this year, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) came out with a press note stating that a company or an individual from a country that shares land border with India can invest in any sector here only after getting government approval.

An inter-ministerial committee has been formed by the government to scrutinise these proposals, they said adding most of the investments are for brownfield projects (means in existing Indian companies).

All administrative ministries and departments have been advised to have dedicated FDI cells to process these proposals expeditiously.
India has received USD 17.6 billion worth of FDI during April-June this fiscal. PTI RR ANZ MKJ
 
seriously , why in the world do we need foreign firms to analyze our farming industry data? This will only invite more danger.
The idea is simple: Seed all the information such as crop pattern, soil health, insurance, credit, and weather patterns into a single database and then analyze it through AI and data analytics. Then the goal is to develop personalized services for a sector replete with challenges such as peaking yields, water stress, degrading soil and lack of infrastructure including temperature-controlled warehouses and refrigerated trucks.

From the link.
 
The idea is simple: Seed all the information such as crop pattern, soil health, insurance, credit, and weather patterns into a single database and then analyze it through AI and data analytics. Then the goal is to develop personalized services for a sector replete with challenges such as peaking yields, water stress, degrading soil and lack of infrastructure including temperature-controlled warehouses and refrigerated trucks.

From the link.
that is critical data and should never land in foreign hands. They can virtually predict when there will be production downfall and increase the cost of buying food grains from international market. We will not be able to hedge it even with option contracts.
All these services should be handled by our own firms with govt oversight.
 
The idea is simple: Seed all the information such as crop pattern, soil health, insurance, credit, and weather patterns into a single database and then analyze it through AI and data analytics. Then the goal is to develop personalized services for a sector replete with challenges such as peaking yields, water stress, degrading soil and lack of infrastructure including temperature-controlled warehouses and refrigerated trucks.

From the link.
Why can't such analysis be done by Indian brains? If this is really rocket science, give it to ISRO, their planetary missons costs less than Hollywood movies! :geek:
 
Why can't such analysis be done by Indian brains? If this is really rocket science, give it to ISRO, their planetary missons costs less than Hollywood movies! :geek:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, which is seeking to ensure food security in the world’s second-most populous nation, has signed preliminary agreements with the three U.S. titans and a slew of local businesses starting April to share farm statistics it’s been gathering since coming to power in 2014.

Jio Platforms Ltd., the venture controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd., and tobacco giant ITC Ltd. are among local powerhouses that have signed up for the program, the government said this week.

So far, the government has seeded publicly available data for more than 50 million farmers of the 120 million identified land-holding growers. Some of the local companies that have signed up include Star Agribazaar Technology, ESRI India Technologies, yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Organic Research Institute and Ninjacart.
 
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that is critical data and should never land in foreign hands. They can virtually predict when there will be production downfall and increase the cost of buying food grains from international market. We will not be able to hedge it even with option contracts.
All these services should be handled by our own firms with govt oversight.
Government is very much clear that Indian people data must remain within Indian geographical borders if foreign companies have to do business with India. Banning of MasterCard multinational company is an evidence of that policy.
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, which is seeking to ensure food security in the world’s second-most populous nation, has signed preliminary agreements with the three U.S. titans and a slew of local businesses starting April to share farm statistics it’s been gathering since coming to power in 2014.

Jio Platforms Ltd., the venture controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd., and tobacco giant ITC Ltd. are among local powerhouses that have signed up for the program, the government said this week.

So far, the government has seeded publicly available data for more than 50 million farmers of the 120 million identified land-holding growers. Some of the local companies that have signed up include Star Agribazaar Technology, ESRI India Technologies, yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Organic Research Institute and Ninjacart.
I hope this effort is retained in India as food if fundamental to existence of 1.4b people. Lest Micro-Zon comes up with another suggestion of the likes of Monsanto similar to the GM BT-Cotton
 
India may let foreign investors buy up to 20% in LIC IPO- source

By Aftab Ahmed and Nupur Anand
September 22, 20211:20 PM IST
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An exterior view of Life Insurance Corporation of India's (LIC) headquarters is seen in Mumbai September 18, 2014.

NEW DELHI, Sept 8 (Reuters) - (This September 8 story corrected first paragraph to show plan refers to purchases in the IPO, not of the company)

The Indian government is considering allowing foreign institutional investors to buy up to 20% of state-owned Life Insurance Corporation's initial public offering, a government source said on Wednesday.

The listing of LIC is set to be India's biggest ever initial public offering, with the government aiming to raise up to 900 billion rupees ($12.2 billion) from its stake sale.

At present, even though foreign institutional investors are allowed to hold up to 74% of private insurance companies and up to 20% of state-owned banks, they are not permitted to own shares in LIC.

Enabling this would allow foreign pension funds, insurance companies and mutual funds to participate in the IPO of India's largest life insurer.

The government is keen to complete the listing this financial year to help with budgetary constraints and late last month selected 10 merchant banks out of the sixteen that had bid to kick-start the process. read more

In total, the merchant banks will earn a fee of around 100 million rupees ($1.36 million), higher than the token fee charged on some IPOs of state-owned firms in the past, but still significantly lower than fees for private listings.

For instance, food delivery startup Zomato paid $31 million in fees for listing earlier this year, according to Dealogic.

The low fee, however, has not been a deterrent, with nearly all the major banks barring Morgan Stanley queuing up.

"We can’t care less about what is the money that is being offered. It is the biggest IPO in recent times and will be probably the biggest, say for another 5 years," said a merchant banker.

India may let foreign investors buy up to 20% in LIC IPO- source