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New Delhi: Six of the 10 most valued domestic firms witnessed a combined erosion of Rs 96,642.51 crore in their market valuation last week, with Reliance Industries Limited taking the biggest hit. Last week, the 30-share BSE benchmark dipped 388.96 points or 0.73 per cent. While Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever Limited, HDFC and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the laggards, Infosys, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and Bajaj Finance were the winners. The market valuation of Reliance Industries tumbled Rs 44,249.32 crore to Rs 12,90,330.25 crore. Tata Consultancy Services witnessed an erosion of Rs 16,479.28 crore to Rs 11,71,674.52 crore in its valuation. The valuation of Kotak Mahindra Bank plunged Rs 13,511.93 crore to Rs 3,28,122.93 crore and that of HDFC Bank by Rs 8,653.09 crore to reach Rs 7,88,769.58 crore. HDFC's market capitalisation (mcap) declined by Rs 7,827.92 crore to Rs 4,40,738.35 crore and that of Hindustan Unilever Limited dipped Rs 5,920.97 crore to Rs 5,48,405.78 crore. In contrast, the valuation of Infosys rose by Rs 8,475.58 crore to Rs 6,85,819.28 crore. ICICI Bank added Rs 4,210.38 crore to its valuation at Rs 4,72,849.46 crore. Bajaj Finance's valuation increased by Rs 2,972.7 crore to Rs 3,75,972.88 crore and that of State Bank of India by Rs 2,275.78 crore to Rs 3,85,275.48 crore. In the top 10 table, Reliance Industries leads the chart, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, HDFC, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

For a father, buying a gift for a daughter who has just entered her teens is a dicey proposition. Balancing the conflicting roles of a protective dad versus the uber cool one is like skating on thin ice. The BlackBerry mobile phone sorted out that predicament for me. While the USP of the gadget was its push-email (the corporate world was completely addicted to it), it had become a global sensation with adolescents because of a feature called BBM (BlackBerry Messenger). The BBM was the first messaging service that appeared like a private bubble, offering both confidentiality and unlimited texting for free. So prized was the BlackBerry that former US President Barack Obama in his autobiography A Promised Land talks about his heart-breaking separation from his favourite device for security reasons.Of course, that was eons ago. BlackBerry does not exist anymore (it has an enterprise software model now). Like BlackBerry in the smartphone industry, Congress once overwhelmingly dominated the political narrative in India. If BlackBerry in 2009 had 50% of the US smartphone market, Congress regularly won absolute majorities on its own in the Lok Sabha; its peak was 404 seats in 1984. By 2014, BlackBerry’s market share had nose-dived to less than 1% (with losses at $1 billion). In the same year, Congress was reduced to 44 Lok Sabha seats and WhatsApp, which initially appeared to be a poor third cousin of BBM, got a whopping valuation of $19 billion from Facebook. BBM had sunk into a rabbit hole. Do you see the similarities here? Both remained adamant that all was well, and the slipping customer/voter mindshare, at worse, a transient aberration. It would naturally fix itself. It did not.The Congress, plagued by internal hubris, underestimated the regional satrap from Gujarat who was revolutionising BJP. It seemed content with delusions of grandeur of being “India’s natural party of governance”. Once again in 2019 the Congress was vanquished, getting 52 seats, while the BJP won a massive 303.One of management’s most over-used clichés is reinvention. Periodically, every CEO pays homage to this homily, though few really walk the talk. Politicians more so; in fact, the Congress has chosen to be fossilised, a reluctant reformist. But as the Congress trouble-shooters attempted to put an end to the months of infighting between a confident but smug Captain Amarinder Singh and a recalcitrant and trigger-happy Navjot Singh Sidhu, many political pundits applauded the magic formula of brokering peace by the Congress in Punjab as a “pragmatic bold risk”.Is the Congress belatedly waking up to the reality that the good old days of incremental fiddling are over? That perhaps the time has come to take some imaginative strides which might even boomerang in the short-term? Or was this just a desperate reaction to being pushed to a corner, an unsustainable frail détente at best? Time will tell.In his seminal work Think Again, Adam Grant, an organisational psychologist at Wharton, talks of the “overconfidence cycle” trap that BlackBerry had fallen into. The Congress has been afflicted by the same bugbear, and many of my colleagues were convinced that at most the BJP would be a seasonal flavour. They have been proven wrong.The Congress must aspire to be an Apple, pushing boundaries, forcing inventions, periodically rejigging its mammoth organisation and recalibrating its storytelling. It has limited options, because political depreciation can become a death-wish. Unlike Blackberry that had to contend with several competitors, Congress is the only pan-India alternative to the BJP. The latter’s subpar performance (pandemic mishandling, Pegasus snooping, ravaged economy, high fuel prices, sectarian tensions, undermined institutions, record unemployment etc) could affect its political fortunes in 2024. But the Congress is being unusually magnanimous towards it. There are five things the Congress can do to seize the governance debate: elect a Congress president, bring the Congress under RTI and disclose source of funds (a game-changer move to checkmate BJP’s electoral bonds chicanery), decentralise by appointing vice-presidents for different regions, revitalise grassroots by having transparent elections from block levels to the CWC, and instead of focusing on personality politics like the BJP, bring back the original ‘Congress collective’, a culture of dynamic teams (Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Bose, Maulana Azad etc.) who challenged each other, prioritising nation-building over petty politics.The Congress must create an alternative national blueprint and knock on every door to inspire a shared vision. The BJP for all its current hegemony must know that BlackBerry’s cataclysmic fall was also because it had just one product category: mobile phones. The over-dependence on Modi makes the BJP a one-trick pony, and diminishing returns have already kicked in.You have to break eggs to make an omelette; the ball is in the Congress’s court.(The writer is former Congress Spokesperson)( Views expressed above are the author's own.)

New Delhi: Equity investors have witnessed a wealth addition of more than Rs 31 lakh crore (Rs 31,18,934.36 crore) in the first four months of the current fiscal, helped by an overall bullish sentiment in the market. The 30-share BSE Sensex has jumped 3,077.69 points or 6.21 per cent during April-July this fiscal. Reflecting an upbeat sentiment in the market, the benchmark had reached its all-time high of 53,290.81 on July 16, 2021. It closed at its lifetime high of 53,158.85 on July 15. Thanks to the optimistic investor sentiment, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies have zoomed Rs 31,18,934.36 crore to reach Rs 2,35,49,748.90 crore -- its record high level -- on July 30. "Money flow and liquidity are the key factors behind investors' bullish sentiments," said Rahul Sharma, Co Founder, Equity99. Sharma added that markets have performed extremely well post the sell-off in 2020. The benchmarks have more than doubled from the lows of March 2020. "Once the rally began, volatility dropped, and the bull market climbed significantly," he said. In the entire 2020-21 fiscal, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies zoomed Rs 90,82,057.95 crore to Rs 2,04,30,814.54 crore. The 30-share BSE benchmark had jumped 20,040.66 points or 68 per cent last fiscal, braving many uncertainties due to COVID-led disruptions. V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services said, "First, it is important to appreciate the fact that this is a global bull market. Except a few markets like Egypt and Iran, all other markets are experiencing a bull run. "The major factors powering this rally are: huge liquidity that has been created by the leading central banks of the world, particularly the US Fed, the historically low interest rates and unprecedented retail investor participation. Of this, the huge global liquidity factor is very important." Analysts also said that Covid-19 vaccination drive is also adding to the bullish sentiment. When asked if this market rally would continue, Vijayakumar said, "The biggest threat to the continuation of the rally is the excessive valuation in the market. At high valuations markets are vulnerable to corrections. Some presently unknown factor can trigger a correction, globally. If that does not happen, the global liquidity will keep markets resilient, or it may even take the markets forward."

Amid continued stand-off with China, the Leh administration is augmenting oxygen supply in the forward areas by adding new plants, a move that will boost the fight against Covid-19 in ‘zero-mile’ villages and far-flung settlements along northern and eastern Ladakh.“We have a new oxygen plant operating at Diskit in the Nubra sub-division earlier this month and a tender has been awarded for another plant at Nyoma sub-division to improve oxygen supply in these areas. Both are rated at 100 lpm (litre per minute) capacity,” deputy commissioner Shrikant Balasaheb Suse told TOI.Diskit is 113km north of Leh and 11km from the Army’s Siachen Brigade headquarters. The area has villages on the border with POK on its western flank. Nyoma is 180km east of Leh and forms the supply roadhead to villages in the Chushul and Indus sectors along the eastern part of LAC.Suse recently inspected the healthcare infrastructure in forward villages to take stock of their Covid preparedness. The administration is also weighing the option of setting up plants at Tangtse, the Chushul brigade headquarters and Khaltse, some 90km south of Leh.The new plants will ensure continued oxygen supply even in winter when road connectivity, especially with Nubra and Tangtse, become vulnerable to heavy snow and avalanches on the high passes – Khardung La and Chang La, respectively.Strict monitoring and medical planning by the district administration had averted oxygen shortage in Leh even though cases spurted during the second wave. The Ladakh administration had started work on augmenting oxygen supply right after the first wave had ebbed. Leh and Kargil has one oxygen plant each in the government sector. Leh has two more plants in the private sector. One plant for Zanskar sub-division of Kargil district was also under consideration, divisional commissioner Saugat Biswas had recently told TOI.

Cold calculations and frozen franchises American ice-cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry was furiously attacked for politicising the pleasures of eating the frozen desserts, after it refused to sell ice-cream in Israel’s West Bank over the displacement of Palestinians. But this is misplaced, both for the brand, which was built on its progressive image, and for ice-cream itself, which has a long political history.Chilled desserts were once reserved for the rich, who could build houses to store ice. But in the 18th century, Americans pioneered the global sale of cheap ice, and mechanical cooling later made ice-cream even cheaper. But it was hard to do at home, and benefitted from scale, making it an ideal mass market product. 84939754American democracy delighted in ice-cream. George Washington brought ice-cream making equipment, but it was the third US president, Thomas Jefferson, who was the first American to record a recipe for it. Every president since has professed to love ice-cream, except Barack Obama, thanks to his first job at Baskin-Robbins in Hawaii: “Rows and rows of rockhard ice-cream can be brutal on the wrists.” Being able to eat it for free also quickly dispelled the pleasure. Donald Trump, on the other hand, insisted on being served two scoops, where others only got one.American ice-cream’s populist appeal, paradoxically, had its greatest impact with communists. To demonstrate the success of Cuba’s revolution, Fidel Castro wanted every Cuban to be able to enjoy ice-cream. He built a giant parlour named Coppelia, which served 1,000 at a time, and the ice-cream it still dishes out is one of the few pleasures left for Cubans. 84939742Soviet Russia was also known for high-quality ice-cream, which Russians enjoyed even in the winter. In Elizabeth David’s book Harvest of the Cold Months, she suggests this was because ice-cream making know-how was imported from the US in the ’20s, before the countries became implacable enemies. American ice-cream went mass-market in the ’50s, with a sharp decline in quality, but the Cold War protected Russian ice-cream from such “improvement”.One person who contributed to this was Margaret Thatcher who, before becoming a politician, worked on industrial icecream production. Her paper entitled ‘On the Elasticity of Ice Cream’ described how to incorporate more air, giving an illusion of creaminess at less cost.There is a photograph from the early 1970s, staged yet still poignant, showing Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi eating ice-cream near India Gate. In 1998, The Times of India reported that when George Fernandes visited Jayalalithaa to persuade her to join the NDA, she flattered him by serving Baskin-Robbins, despite her diabetes, and he flattered her back by saying, “I normally don’t have foreign icecream, but today in your honour, I shall have some.”And when our austere prime minister promised to eat icecream with PV Sindhu after the Olympics, was it a hint of the famous Gujarati love of ice-cream?

In May 2020, after four phases of nationwide lockdowns due to the coronavirus, India started hobbling towards unlocking. Districts were colour-coded according to the positivity rate and restrictions were eased accordingly. Containment zones remained closed, though.Businesses that were shut since March started gulping air as the unlock window started to open. But they struggled to figure out how employees and essential workers can travel without landing in or going through a containment zone. This was important, as a misstep meant possible contamination and quarantine.In the midst of this chaos, Srinivas Chitturi had a eureka moment. His firm, Bengaluru-based MTAP Technologies, provides SaaS to streamline the fleet management operations of service providers to companies and schools. Why not, thought Chitturi, use the company’s services to help essential workers and fleet operators who have to commute now but also avoid containment zones. So MTAP came up with a software that uses geofencing to detect Covid zones in a route and suggest an alternative course of travel.“If, say, a delivery executive has to go to a specific location, we will notify him that it falls in a containment zone. In case the location is near a containment zone, it will give the delivery executive a route that does not go through the red zone,” explains Chitturi, the CEO and co-founder of MTAP Technologies, which was set up in 2013.MTAP started providing automated solutions to several clients to make the trips of their employees safer and easier. “This updated info can be very helpful for essential workers and individuals who are required to step out of their homes daily — such as warehouse workers or hyper-local delivery staff,” Chitturi says.The algorithm even determines the optimal seating capacity in a vehicle within the social distancing guidelines at the same time. The software can alert a company if its employee is living in or near a Covid-containment zone. This is helpful when a driver goes to pick up or drop the employee. Other features include contactless boarding and monitoring through in-vehicle cameras. MTAP can also collect Covid self-declarations from vehicle drivers and passengers.Potential in the PandemicSuch services have helped companies take better routing decisions and reduce the chances of accidental Covid-19 transmission. Today, MTAP has over 100 customers in India, Vietnam, the Philippines and the Middle East, including DHL, Flipkart, HCL, Ericsson, Myntra, TESCO, Omega Healthcare and Parexel. In India, it covers 16 cities.Chitturi says they did more than Rs 500 crore worth of transport billing on the platform. In 2019-20, the company had earned revenue of Rs 13 crore.Such business has hit a sweet spot at a time when the $14.59-billion global fleet management software market (in 2019) is estimated to reach $50.09 billion by 2027, with a CAGR of 16.8%, according to a Fortune Business Insights report. 84847440Chitturi even has an expansion road map in place. “Everything is going towards hyperlocal, where you can get anything delivered from nearby shops. While many technology companies have emerged to cater to the demand side of this market, we want to focus on the fulfilment side. This means helping these companies with verification proof of delivery executives, routes to take, volume to pick up — we provide the entire automation cycle,” he says.This is a big turnaround for MTAP, which is in a sector that was floored by the pandemic. Lockdowns and fear of the coronavirus had discouraged people from leaving their homes, leaving fleet management companies in the lurch. Work from home meant staffers did not need a pick up or drop. Despite these challenges, some firms in this segment, like MTAP, were able to find opportunities to survive — even thrive, in some cases.Pune-based location intelligence platform Dista.ai also started mapping the containment zones, assigned resources for minimum exposure and made schedules for optimal routes. “With Dista, you can define zones either by pin codes or by drawing them on a map. Not only did it help define zones for better customer serviceability, but it also helped companies avoid these areas, keeping employee exposure to the minimum,” says CEO Shishir Gokhale.The second wave saw more defined delivery rules at district, city and state levels, he says. There were also specific rules for essential and non-essential services and what deliveries were allowed and in which zones. “We helped organisations redefine their serviceable areas with new guidelines and traffic patterns. This helped them cater to areas that were initially far off or were unserviceable due to distance and traffic constraints.”Game of PlanningGokhale explains that one of key learnings in this period has been adjusting to the shift in clients’ operations. Earlier, many restaurants and small outlets used third-party delivery personnel. As the pandemic forced cost reductions, these restaurants started to use their own staff for deliveries. “They wanted to find ways to re-employ their people instead of letting them go,” he says.Territorial-based planning has gained a lot more prominence, says Mohneesh Saxena, Senior VP-Product and Strategy at logistics planning and optimisation firm Locus. This was seen in e-commerce and food delivery services during the second wave. “It is now imperative to account for nuances of regions and micro regions in the last-mile delivery value chain, given the multitude of constraints put forth by the pandemic,” he says. 84847465While the Bengaluru-based company has always considered zone-based routing its forte, the pandemic threw up new challenges. Locus — which was founded in 2015 and has operations in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East — had to deal with a fluid situation as containment rules were changing regularly. “As countries recovered at different paces, new zones were introduced, removed or reintroduced at different times. These zones came up with separate challenges and multiple kinds of restrictions across geographies. This made dispatch planning even more challenging for companies,” says Saxena.The behaviour within these zones varied even after the lockdowns were lifted, as residential societies and other institutions restricted the entry of delivery personnel, he says. This led to missed deliveries and wasted time.But Locus — which has Unilever, Mondelez International, Nestle and Blue Dart, among others as clients — seems to have done well, considering that it raised $50 million in the Series C round. It was led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and saw participation from Qualcomm Ventures, Tiger Global and Falcon Edge.Transporting EssentialsHome delivery became more of a necessity than convenience during the pandemic. Work from home (WFH) — once a preserve of the few and the envy of many — has become the norm. However, implementing WFH was easier said than done for many corporations. Homes aren’t ideally designed to enable a work environment. Companies had to shift devices to their employees’ homes so that work could go on.But WFH was a boon for fleet operators such as Routematic, which had lost its main source of income as companies no longer needed cab services. With its fleet of vehicles lying idle, Routematic pivoted into delivery of office equipment and devices to employees.Arjun Bhojaraj Manipal, VP-Business Development at Routematic, explains how they grabbed an opportunity amid the crisis. “As soon as the lockdown started, there was a massive need for transporting a lot of technical infrastructure such as laptops, PCs and dongles to employees’ homes. As regulations around cab services were not clear, many cab companies had shut down their business. This is where we came in.”Later, companies realised that some essential workers had to report to offices, and they needed safe and dependable transportation. “We helped these essential workers with their daily commute. These included people who needed to be in office every day — for example, the IT guys who manage servers, accountants and administrative staff,” Manipal says.To do this, Routematic had to upgrade its safety and hygiene standards. It had to ensure cars, drivers, and passengers were sanitised. We monitored the temperature of the drivers before a trip. A plastic partition separated the front and backseats. Health and vaccination status of drivers and passengers, a trip history feature and mapping of consignment zones ensured everyone remained safe. It also helped in contact tracing in case a driver or staffer became Covid positive.This year, too, Bengaluru-based Routematic could capitalise on a business opportunity when companies started vaccinating camps for its employees. They wanted safe transport options to the vaccination venues and back, in the midst of the second Covid wave and strict lockdowns. “There was also transport and logistics involved for medical supplies. Companies wanted to store oxygen concentrators in their office and we transported these equipment across various offices in around four cities,” Manipal adds. 84847535Routematic’s efforts have paid off. It raised $2 million from Bosch last November and reached a valuation of $28 million.Helping HandIn Mumbai, Everest Fleet was among the firms that pivoted from being a fleet management platform to a safe transporter of frontline corporate workers. When the pandemic hit, it started receiving calls for transport services for emergency purposes, such as banking and hospital operations.Siddharth Ladsariya, co-founder, says it started the emergency transport service through WhatsApp broadcasts to family and friends. It received 1,200 requests within a month. Several appeals for help were from people who had friends or relatives in hospitals. “During the first Covid wave, there were several restrictions. We had to move pillar to post to obtain the required permits. However, during the second Covid wave, the government realised the importance of keeping cab services running. It was easier for us to implement our services. There was a massive need for essential transport services during the second wave as the medical infrastructure was under pressure,” he says.Everest Fleet’s employees also were affected by Covid. But, Ladsariya says, they took all precautionary measures and ensured that their track record was never blemished.Locus’ Saxena says their experience during the pandemic has revealed the challenges in the supply chain. There is a need for robust, AI-based planning as well as an increased need for contingency planning. “Companies need to understand their supply chain network design end-to-end to understand vulnerabilities and consequently optimise their operations based on their supply chain robustness,” he adds.As the Coronavirus infections rise and fall and warnings of a third wave get louder, transport services are again likely to become the need of the hour.(Editing by Ram Mohan)

Motivation can be hard to muster up between rolling out of bed and turning on your computer. But top bosses have found fun ways to keep their employees enthusiastic.SOUL SPACESachin Saxena, founding member of unicorn healthcare company Innovaccer, even has a name for their downtime — Ministry of Fun. “[We play] Call of Duty (CoD) and Clash Of Clans to Scribble and Among Us. We kid around, rib one another; it’s our soul space,” he says.Suhasini Sampath, co-founder of YogaBar, says, “Who doesn’t love games?” Right from Scribble to Pictionary to quizzes, Sampath says the games engage the team.Shubhra Chadda, co-founder of Chumbak, says her team enjoys playing virtual Pictionary on Fridays. “We crack up when we look at each other’s drawings,” she says. Chadda also introduced a 4.5-day working week, with work ending at noon, along with a no-meeting policy on Wednesdays. “We have catch-up sessions twice a month to chat about everything under the sun [other than work],” she says. 84939655FRI-YAY FUNBosses are encouraging their employees by offering new experiences. Pravin Prakash, chief people officer at BYJU’S, says, “We have had workshops on creating a vibrant workspace at home or spine care tips and hosted sessions on yoga, zumba, bhangra, nutrition and Bollywood fitness.”Laughter is the best medicine for Kabir Siddiq, founder of SleepyCat mattresses, who says that working remotely has been a challenge. “We organised monthly sessions with stand-up comedy and music jamming, etc. The idea is to encourage laughs, unwind and be ourselves on a Friday evening,” says Siddiq, adding that sometimes Mondays begin with game sessions.Next up? A live music session. Mixing it up keeps employees more positive, which is why unicorn e-commerce company Moglix’s founder Rahul Garg says their team has virtual coffee catchups, along with yoga, dance and gaming sessions. “It helps mitigate the effects of isolation,” he shares.Employees all over the world missed their water-cooler and coffee chats. Shantanu Deshpande, founder of Bombay Shaving Company, found a solution. Open sessions were held between the team and management on topics apart from work. Steaming hot tea and snacks were delivered to their homes, right before the session. “These open chai-sessions helped us unwind,” says Deshpande.But it’s not just fun and games. Sampath says it helps break the ice and allows a free flow of ideas, as well as getting to know the team. “I learnt who is the better tactical planner and the better fighter [doer] in my team after several intense games of CoD,” he says. 84939645Top of the GamesPictionary Scribble Among UsCall of Duty Virtual Trivia

Post Q1 results, one should be very cautious in terms of being positive on the market, says Mahantesh Sabarad, Head-Retail Research, SBICAP Securities. In the series gone by, there was a clear leadership from ICICI Bank and SBI. What could SBI deliver in terms of numbers and is the leadership going to stay with these two names?First of all, I cannot comment on SBI results. We are part of the SBI Group but when it comes to the banks, you have rightly said that there are a few banks which are now taking leadership positions in terms of cleaning up books. The cleaning activity that has been going on for several years, has now translated into good results for ICICI Bank and Axis Bank. The private banks have been doing well relative to the public sector banks in terms of the clean up act. I am not saying that the PSU banks have not done that. They have done a bit of cleaning of their own. But as far as PSU banks are concerned, their capitalisation ratios are poorer compared to the private sector banks and therefore their ability to grow post the cleanup of the book is likely to be limited. Having said that, if you go a little lower in terms of the banks’ sizes, then some of the PSU banks at the lower level -- Uco Bank, Indian Bank or even Canara Bank to some extent-- are doing relatively better when it comes to delivering a good set of results. The theme for most of the banks is that the leadership will come once you are up and ahead in terms of clean up of your books.As far as pharmaceuticals go, what do you make of Sun Pharma and the API story? Is there still a lot of upside left?Sun Pharma posted a very good set of numbers. The US business has actually grown even on a quarter-on-quarter basis from Q4 to Q1. Many of the other pharma companies -- be it Dr Reddy’s or Alembic -- have reported huge price erosion when it comes to their US market presence and Sun Pharma actually has seen no such price erosion so far. Over a period of time, Sun Pharma has pursed a brand strategy in the US and gradually built brand. That seems to have worked out well. Even Taro, which is their subsidiary, has posted a very good set of numbers but there is an exceptional item that they have reported in Taro -- close $60 million on the litigation side. We do not know whether that fully provides for the price fixation related litigation. I assume that is what they would have provided for when it comes to litigations or if there is something more left to be provided for in subsequent quarters. Sun Pharma’s strategy over the years has included paying rich dividends. From a stock point of view it is still at price levels which we had seen five years ago. Many other pharma companies are very close to their all time highs -- be it a Cipla, Dr Reddy’s or others. Sun Pharma has posted a good set of results; we now need to hear a little bit more from the management in terms of their commentary because we do not know whether the growth is going to be sustainable for Sun Pharma in the quarters ahead. Today’s price action was stunning and really unexpected. It has been exactly one week since the Zomato IPO got a blockbuster listing. Why have we not seen a rub-off effect on InfoEdge India? Afterall, InfoEdge discovered Zomato.I disagree that there is no rub off effect simply because you are looking at a one-week period or probably a very short period. If you look at a longer period, the rub off effect is clearly there because Zomato IPO process had started nine to 12 months ago and that IPO process got accelerated in this calendar year. Even from a calendar year perspective, InfoEdge has done quite well for itself. Also, Zomato is not the only IPO or the gem in their basket. InfoEdge has other start-ups and other tech based platform based companies which are gearing up for IPOs. There is PolicyBazaar, 99 Acres etc. Having said that, Naukri or InfoEdge has a lot to go in terms of maturing and growing in terms of its size. It is purely coincidental that we are just looking at a one big phenomenon since the listing of Zomato in terms of the rub off effect on InfoEdge. What needs to be looked at is a longer term period and InfoEdge has been fairly valued.Now that most of the big counters and their earnings are in, are you looking at any new themes?It is clear that the IT companies are doing substantially well and the deal win momentum is continuing. Infosys upgraded their guidance for FY22 when the first quarter results came in, Look at Tech Mahindra results; the last year’s total deal wins were some $2.2 billion. This quarter alone has seen $0.8-0.9-billion deal wins. That is quite substantially high and the reaction can be seen in the results as well. But the one theme that one can see cutting across sectors seems to be that the companies having climbed over that base effect of last year’s Q1, are now facing margin pressures. Not only that, going forward, the demand outlook is getting a little hazy. In the case of automobile companies, the demand outlook does not seem all that rosy. We have the festival season coming up. Typically the automobile sales spurt during festive seasons but some of that spark is missing in the monthly numbers that are getting reported by automobile companies. Look at NBFCs, we had a shocker of a result from M&M Finance when their NPA levels zoomed quite substantially. Talking of NPA levels, even HDFC Bank exhibited NPA pressures on their retail book side. So the theme that seems to be emerging here is that margin pressures are going to remain and many of the companies will have to either raise the prices of their products and services to ward off the margin pressure and have to contend with falling demand. So post Q1 results, one should be very cautious in terms of being positive on the market.

We are a little underweight on the financials but that is because they haven’t reached a stage where the capex cycle begins and probably is still four to six quarters away. But that could be changing going forward, says Ravi Dharamshi, Founder & CIO, ValueQuest Investment. Why is there no financial name in your top five holdings?Yes, we are a little underweight on the financials but that is because I do not think we have reached a stage where the capex cycle begins. Some of the consumers in India are still facing the brunt of the Covid and the spending is getting redirected towards other things. MSMEs are also suffering because of Covid. So, there is a little bit of tension on that front. Also the capex cycle has not yet begun and probably is still four to six quarters away is why we are underweight. But that could be changing going forward. I would like to just put that caveat in. How can one bet on the entire digital wave and bet on a beneficiary because ultimately the benefits will also be captured by the beneficiary or a company which is adopting digital and enabling platforms or services or customer experience using the digital platform?Absolutely. In the adoption curve, usually it is the shovel sellers that benefit first and for sure the eventual benefit of the technology might be realised by the consumer at some point of time. When I say consumer, I am talking about the companies that are consuming the technology. That benefit will take some time to percolate down to the shareholder wealth creation. At this point of time, we have to look at companies that are enablers and who are riding this wave at the crest. So, we have to go after the shovel sellers or the enablers of this opportunity because the opportunity is still unfolding, the technology is still evolving and the winners are not yet very clearly known in each and every space. They are much better formed in shape and size than they were probably 10 years back but it is a very fast evolving space in terms of technology and in terms of business model. The good thing for us as an Indian shareholders or Indian investors is that we can see those trends unfolding in other geographies -- be it the US or China -- and see that a similar kind of trend is going to pan out over here. We have some benchmarks. It becomes easier. We just have to look for companies that are emulating them and one can have a good winner there. Let us talk about your portfolio companies with a disclosure that you have vested interest in them. You have a large investment in Laurus Labs. What excites you as an investor about Laurus Labs?I would also like to add that we are likely to be acting contrary to whatever gets spoken over here. This discussion is purely for illustration purpose. The decision about Laurus Labs we took almost a year back. What got us excited was that it had invested ahead of the curve. It had leveraged itself, the company and the promoter both were leveraged and it had created the capacities and the costs had been borne but the fruits had yet to come. Now it just happens to be luck that Covid struck and that just accelerated the opportunity for them. Besides, they are the largest ARV API company and there was a big shift happening in the ARV market where the treatment was moving away from the last gen to the next gen -- from TLD to DTG, Dolutegravir and they were very beautifully positioned to take advantage of that. So that was the immediate trigger/ Besides that, we always admire Dr Satya in terms of his technical and his risk taking abilities. So, here was a company that was really positioned to take advantage of the coming wave and the market was very sceptical about it and was not giving any valuation. It was giving low multiples to a very subdued P&L and balance sheet. That is why the returns have been so big because suddenly the P&L as well as the balance sheet has improved dramatically in the last four to six quarters. Route Mobile is another portfolio company. You have been an investor in Route Mobile right from the IPO day. What gives you the conviction of being invested in a tech company which is a disruptor and where you have the likes of Google and Amazon which are just changing the rules of the game?Unlike most of the tech companies, Route Mobile does not burn cash and that was the first thing that attracted us. In fact, the company has been set up with barely Rs 6 lakh capital. So, it is a profitable model. The unit economics is very attractive and the strategy was to bolster their balance sheet and try and go for scale. We can never be very sure which way the technology is panning and the twists and turns of technology can end up disrupting the disrupter as well; at this point of time, we are trying to gauge how successfully we are riding this wave. Based on the management interaction of Natco and Route Mobile which are part of your top holdings, how much of your top five holdings are likely to change in the next two to three years?I really wish I knew myself. I am going to let it pan out. At this point of time, there is no intention to change this. It will happen as we progress and we will let the fundamentals dictate it rather than trying to anticipate anything. That is an honest answer. I have no idea. I am not looking to sell any of them with a three to five year view but as fundamentals change we will keep changing our view.

The Olympics host city Tokyo, as well as Thailand and Malaysia, announced record Covid-19 infections on Saturday, mostly driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant of the disease.Cases surged in Sydney as well, where police cordoned off the central business district to prevent a protest against a strict lockdown that will last until the end of August.Police in Sydney closed train stations, banned taxis from dropping passengers off downtown and deployed 1,000 officers to set up checkpoints and to disperse groups.The government of New South Wales reported 210 new infections in Sydney and surrounding areas from the Delta variant outbreak.Tokyo's metropolitan government announced a record number of 4,058 infections in the past 24 hours.21 New Covid Cases Related to OlympicsOlympics organisers reported 21 new Covid-19 cases related to the Games, bringing the total to 241 since July 1.A day earlier Japan extended its state of emergency for Tokyo to the end of August and expanded it to three prefectures near Tokyo and to the western prefecture of Osaka. Olympics organisers said on Saturday they had revoked accreditation of a Games-related person or people for leaving the athletes' village for sightseeing, a violation of measures imposed to hold the Olympics safely amid the pandemic. The organisers did not disclose how many people were involved, if the person or people were athletes, or when the violation took place.Malaysia, one of the hotspots of the disease, reported 17,786 coronavirus cases on Saturday, a record high.More than 100 people gathered in the centre of the capital Kuala Lumpur, expressing dissatisfaction with the government's handling of the pandemic and calling on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to quit. Protesters carried black flags and held up placards that read "Kerajaan Gagal" (failed government) – a hashtag that has been popular on social media for months.Thailand also reported a daily record high of 18,912 new coronavirus infections, bringing its total cases to 597,287. The country also reported 178 new deaths, also a daily record, taking total fatalities to 4,857.The government said the Delta variant accounted for more than 60% of the cases in the country and 80% of the cases in Bangkok. The Delta variant is not necessarily more lethal than other variants, but much more transmissible, Supakit Sirilak, the director-general of Thailand's Department of Medical Sciences, said.China is battling an outbreak of the Delta variant in the eastern city of Nanjing which has been traced to airport workers who cleaned a plane which had arrived from Russia.

Parliament disruptions and frequent adjournments since the monsoon session began on July 19 have meant the two Houses functioned for only 18 hours of the scheduled 107, leading to a loss of more than `133 crore of taxpayers’ money.Government sources said the Lok Sabha has been allowed to function for about seven hours out of 53 hours in these nine working days. Rajya Sabha has a slightly better record with 11 hours out of 53. This adds up to 18 hours out of a possible 107 hours and a wastage of 89 hours of working time.If the taxpayers’ money spent on convening Parliament is calculated for this period, it would mean a total loss of more than Rs 133 Crore.In Rajya Sabha productivity was pulled down to 21% in the second week. Four Bills were passed in an hour and a half with only seven members participating in the debates.The Bills passed so far are The Marine Aids to Navigation Bill, 2021; The Juvenile Justice Amendment Bill, 2021; The Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and The Coconut Development Board (Amendment) Bill, 2021.Congress and TMC have been raising the unauthorized phone tapping through the Pegasus spyware of leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Abhishek Banerjee as well as several journalists and people from civil society. The Opposition has also been demanding repeal of the three farm laws.While the government has tried to reach out to the Opposition to end the impasse, the latter have stuck to their position that a debate on Pegasus be held first, and Home Minister Amit Shah give a reply. Efforts by Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi have had little effect. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to now hold discussions with various political parties.

With the second wave of Covid-19 having tapered off, a host of startups are looking to grow headcount. Many are looking to set up new verticals, expand territory and invest in rapid growth seen over the past months.New-age companies such as HomeLane, NoBroker, CashKaro, Meesho, slice, Droom, Clovia and Cashfree are aggressively ramping up technology and product teams, with a majority of hiring to be lateral. In demand will be front- and back-end developers, data analysts and operations managers, while roles in marketing, growth, supply chain and customer service are also up for grabs.NoBroker is looking to hire 500 people in the next six months for its technology, product, data science and customer service teams. “Our revenue doubled in the past year and we grew heavily in terms of numbers of customers and properties,” said Amit Agarwal, cofounder of the Bengaluru-based startup. “With the second wave of Covid ending, we have seen a jump in customer interactions. In the next six months, we will see pent-up demand in our favour.”HomeLane, another Bengaluru-based startup, is looking to grow its team size by 800, focusing on increasing diversity and enabling women to rejoin the workforce. This increase in hiring is driven by a shift in consumer behaviour, such as a rise in time spent at home, increasing the need for home improvement services. Customers are looking for more organised players in the home interiors market, said cofounder Tanuj Choudhry.84938239 While hiring will be predominantly in tech and product functions, HomeLane is also looking to ramp up its sales, customer service, supply chain, marketing and interior design teams.While Meesho intends to onboard about 150 new employees for its technology team over the next year and a half, CashKaro will recruit about 75 people across technology, assisted ecommerce, influencer marketing, data analysis and design verticals.“One of our major hiring projects will be building the team for our new fintech vertical,” said Swati Bhargava, cofounder, CashKaro and EarnKaro. The company is also looking to fill up some senior positions, such as data and product heads, among others.Fintech firm Cashfree is looking to hire about 100 employees over the next six months, across roles in marketing, growth, engineering, product design and software architecture.International Expansion“Our bulk disbursal product, Payouts, surged over 200% in FY21, compared to FY20. We are also actively looking at expansion into international markets,” said Sapna Sukumar, HR vice-president at Cashfree.Slice is looking to hire about 300 employees for its product, analytics, design and technology teams. “We plan to achieve a GTV (gross transactions value) run rate of $1 billion in FY22. There are also plans to introduce some products that will transform and elevate the whole fintech space for millennials and GenZ,” Rajan Bajaj, founder of slice, told ET.Droom is also looking to hire 100-odd employees for its product, engineering, loan and insurance, last-mile delivery and inspection services teams. “We are looking forward to international hiring as we are aggressively planning to continue our expansion in South East Asian countries,” said founder Sandeep Aggarwal.Others looking to increase their tech and product teams in coming months include Clovia, BharatPe and RateGain, which are collectively planning to hire 200-odd people.

Over 97 per cent students, who appeared for the 2021 Uttar Pradesh board examination, have cleared it, the state government said on Saturday. The overall pass percentage for class 10 was 99.53, while it was 97.88 for class 12, it said in a statement. The pass percentage of boys stood at 97.47 per cent, while that of the girls was 98.40 per cent in class 12, the state government said. In class 10, the pass percentage of the boys was 99.52, while that of the girls was 99.55, it said. Director of Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Council Vinay Kumar Pandey said that in all 56,06,278 students appeared for the examination. This includes 29,96,031 students in class 10, and 26,10,247 students in class 12. Pandey informed that of the 29,96,031 students who appeared for the class 10 board examination, as many as 29,82,055 cleared it. This includes 16,68,868 boys and 13,13,187 girls, he said. In class 12, out of 26,10,247 students, as many as 25,54,813 students cleared the examination. This includes 14,37,033 boys and 11,17,780 girls, Pandey said. Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma congratulated the students who cleared the examination. In a statement issued here, Sharma said, "Our students worked hard during the difficult COVID-19 time, and today's result bears testimony to this fact." "The students will make the state and the country proud by their talent and skills. At a time during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the entire world came to a standstill, the efforts of the state government kept the education system moving," he said. Sharma also claimed that Uttar Pradesh has become an example for different states as far as conducting "cheating-free" examinations was concerned.

India has made no commitment to submit fresh targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, a senior official from the environment ministry said on Saturday while dismissing reports that the country has missed the deadline set by the UN climate change agency to provide an update. A foreign news agency has reported that India and China have missed the deadline of July 30 set by the United Nations (UN) to provide an update on their plans for curbing the release of planet-warming gases. Dismissing the report, Environment Secretary R P Gupta said, "India has no such commitment of making and declaring fresh targets. We have not signed any such agreement." According to the report, UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa welcomed that 110 signatories of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met the cut-off date, which was extended from the end of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But she said it was "far from satisfactory" that only 58 per cent of the signatories had submitted their new targets in time, the report said. Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Syria and 82 other nations also failed to update their nationally-determined contributions (NDCs) for the UN to include the input in a report it is preparing for an international climate change conference in November, the report claimed. "Espinosa noted that a previous report found countries were doing too little to meet the goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century compared with pre-industrial times. The more ambitious target of capping warming at 1.5C (2.7F) is far out of reach," the report said.

With an improvement in the COVID-19 situation, the Odisha government on Saturday announced reopening of shopping malls, parks and cinema halls among several relaxations in all the districts, barring three cities where coronavirus caseload is relatively high. The administration granted the relaxations for a month starting from 6 am on Sunday, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) P K Jena said, adding that the existing 10-hour night curfew from 8 pm will be in place in all the districts. "The new guidelines will be enforced for a month till 6 am on September 1," he said. The SRC also said the unlock measures will not be implemented in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri where the pandemic situation is worrisome. The weekend shutdown will remain in force in the three cities. "There has been a significant improvement in the COVID situation in 27 districts, though Khurda Cuttack and Puri are reporting more than 100 cases every day," he said. Khurda district comprises the state capital Bhubaneswar. All weekly and monthly markets, shopping malls and parks are allowed to reopen across the state from Sunday but the restrictions on social and political gatherings are not withdrawn. Offices, both government and private, are also permitted to function with half the manpower, the SRC said. The state government asked the district administrations to decide on the reopening of religious places, except Shree Jagannath temple in Puri and Shree Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar, he said. Malls, restaurants, roadside eateries, bars, theatres and cinema halls are also allowed to operate with 50 per cent seating capacity and strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols. People have been allowed to only take away food from eateries till Sunday and were not permitted to avail of dining facilities. "Those who have received both doses of the COVID vaccine will be allowed to enter these facilities in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri," he said, adding that authorities of shopping malls, restaurants and theatres will have to ensure enforcement of health safety protocols on their premises. An official notification said educational institutions, including coaching centres, museums, tourist places, zoos and archaeological monuments across the state will reopen with adherence to COVID protocols. Bus operators are also permitted to resume services, allowing passengers only up to seating capacity, it said. The public transport authorities have decided to restart bus services across Bhubaneswar from Monday. Capital Region Urban Transport general manager DiMahapatro said the 'Mo Bus' (My bus) services will be available on 25 routes from 7 am to 7 pm on weekdays. The authorities will run 194 buses, she said, adding that the service will continue to remain suspended on the weekends.Indoor or outdoor shootings for films are also granted, Jena said, adding that home delivery by e-commerce companies is also allowed. He, however, said there is "no relaxation" in marriages and funeral functions. Marriages will be permitted with the maximum limit of 25 guests, and the number of people participating in thread ceremonies and funerals should not exceed 20, he said. All official meetings will be allowed with a maximum of 100 participants but the highest number of 30 people will be permitted to take part in programmes such as inauguration and laying of the foundation stone of projects, Jena said.

As a keen follower of women’s beach volleyball, I was watching Brazil take on Canada in the Olympics, when the doorbell rang. ‘Good morning, sir, good time?’ said the young man who looked like a young Anna Hazare. I mumbled something, and let him in while Eduarda ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa passed a signal behind her bikinied back to her teammate on my TV screen.‘Sir, we’re conducting Hicklin tests in the area. It will take only 15 minutes,’ the Hazaresque said. I told him I had taken my two Covid shots and had also come up negative in my RT-PCR a week back. ‘No, sir, not a Covid test, but a Hicklin test.’He went on to tell me there would be no poking down my nostrils or throat. Not even questions. He would just quietly observe me for 15 minutes while I went about own business. That sounded odd. But fearing that non-compliance would mean health ministry officials breaking down my door, I returned to watching beach volleyball. Exactly 15 minutes later, the chap straightened his back, thanked me and left. I was intrigued. What was this Hicklin test?It turns out to be a ‘psycho-legal test’ named after a 1868 case in England. A chap was caught reselling copies of a pamphlet, ‘The Confessional Unmasked: Shewing the Depravity of the Romish Priesthood, the Iniquity of the Confessional, and the Questions Put to Females in Confession’ — a sort of 19th century Letters to Penthouse. The pamphlet was deemed obscene and was ordered to be destroyed. The accused appealed, and the case came to the court of a Benjamin Hicklin.Hicklin revoked the order, saying that the intention was not to ‘corrupt morals’ but to expose unpleasant truths inside the Catholic Church. But his order was challenged, and the highest court charged the accused under the Obscene Publications Act, allowing any publication to be banned if it has the ‘tendency… to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences’. The intention of the work could go self-fornicate. That’s when the paisa dropped! The man had come to test what I may find ‘lascivious’. Thankfully for me — and unfortunately for Raj Kundra and Co. — the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 that finds ‘any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest, or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons’ don’t punish the consumer of obscenity, but only its producers. Poor Shilpa Shetty has even gone to theological lengths to prove that her husband’s adult films were ‘erotica,’ not ‘porn’ — when she should be really saying, ‘Yes, it’s smut. So?’Indian law is still ruled by the 1964 Supreme Court ruling in the ‘Ranjit D Udeshi vs State of Maharashtra’ case, which had it that unless the obscenity has a ‘preponderating social purpose or profit,’ it would appeal to ‘the carnal side of human nature and no longer come under the constitutional protection of free speech and expression’. (‘Obscenity with a social purpose’ is my new life goal.)And whenever Public India, even in 2021, hears the words ‘appeals to the carnal side of human nature’, it conjures up thought-bubbles of rape, real-life Shakti Kapoors, ‘ma-behen,’ ‘izaat’ — the whole jingbang that 19th century western Orientalists would fantasise about us: a people incapable of real pleasure, but only capable of engaging in ‘filth’.Watching pornography, like having a good meal, is a sensory pleasure that we can jolly well partake of without having to explain ourselves. Dragging up Kama Sutra and Khajuraho as ‘defence’, or hairsplitting over how Prabuddha Dasgupta’s nude photos are art, 50 Shades of Grey is erotica, and anybunny.tv is smut just adds to the confusion of what grown-up Indians can and can’t watch for their legit, sexual pleasure.And if all of us can watch porn legally, without blubbering like schoolboys or MPs caught watching a vintage Sunny Leone 14-minuter on their phones, then producing porn must be made legal. Enough of ‘We actually didn’t mean it that way’, and ‘It’s art, not obscenity’. Make smut, consume smut, responsibly. Am I worried about flunking my Hicklin test? Not at all. If anyone flunks it, it’ll be the channel broadcasting a fine, gruelling game of women’s beach volleyball. And how lascivious would the authorities be even if they think that.Views expressed are author's own

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday decided to hand over the probe into hit-and-run case of Dhanbad judge to the Central Bureau of Investigation. An official spokesman said that the chief minister has recommended handing over the probe in the death of District and Sessions court judge Uttam Anand to the premier investigating agency. The 50-year-old judge was allegedly mowed down by a heavy autorickshaw while he was on morning jog on July 28 morning in Dhanbad. The Jharkhand government had set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to crack the judge death case.

The Haryana government Saturday extended the COVID-19 lockdown in the state by another week till August 9, according to an official communication. However, the current lockdown relaxations with respect to the reopening of shops, malls, restaurants, religious places and corporate offices will continue. "The Mahamari Alert-Surakshit Haryana (coronavirus lockdown) is extended for another week, that is from August 2 (5 am onwards) to August 9 (till 5 am) in the state of Haryana," according to an order issued by Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan. The order was issued under provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. According to the order, Anganwadi centres and creches run by women and child development department shall remain closed till August 15 in the state. It further said that vice chancellors of universities are advised to plan reopening of universities from the next academic session and share the programme of the same with the departments concerned of the state government. Immediate action may be initiated by the university administration to fully vaccinate all the hostel students, day scholars, faculty and staff including the outsourced ones, it said. The state government has termed the lockdown "Mahamari Alert-Surakshit Haryana (Epidemic Alert-Safe Haryana)".

Mumbai: Shares of fertiliser producers rallied on Friday after some of the Chinese companies in the sector said they would stop exporting to assure supplies in their domestic market. Analysts said this move could benefit Indian companies, which are already on investors’ radar due to cheaper share valuations.While Coromandel International and Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) gained 6% each, Madras Fertilizers, Zuari Agro, Khaitan Chemicals, Nagarjuna Fertilizers, and Deepak Fertilisers rallied nearly 5% each.China’s state planner said in a statement that it had summoned the fertiliser firms for a discussion against hoarding and speculation. The move is the latest by Beijing to tackle soaring prices of major raw materials, according to Reuters.“Fertiliser companies are expected to benefit, as there are talks of China suspending exports, post the floods,” said S Ranganathan, head of research, LKP Securities. “Monsoon in India has been good in select states, and with subsidies being released, many fertiliser companies are seeing investor appetite due to attractive valuations.”At home, the government told fertiliser companies in April to roll back the maximum retail price (MRP) of non-urea fertilisers after some firms raised prices. To cover the cost of the increase in subsidy, the government in May has allocated `14,800 crore towards fertiliser subsidy for Kharif-2021. Expectations of a normal monsoon for the third consecutive year could boost demand for complex fertilisers, said analysts.“The fertiliser space continues to look good from a medium to long-term perspective as the domestic market offers sizeable opportunities for domestic players due to higher dependence on imports,” said Binod Modi, head strategy, Reliance Securities. “Further, the expectations of favourable monsoon and sufficient water levels augur well for the industry.”

NEW DELHI: Every market cycle has its own set of winners and most of the time the variation in returns among the best and worst performers during a cycle is too large, underscoring the importance of picking themes.This phase is no different, said Aditya Birla SL AMC, which expects themes such as manufacturing, digitisation, ESG and real estate may play out well over the next 3-5 years. The mutual fund house also sees midcap and smallcap stocks outperforming their largecap peers going ahead.Aditya Birla SL AMC said the phase of the economic cycle, the focus of government policies, industry disruptions and emerging sectors do lead to a change in trends. The fund house said that emerging sectors are initially ignored due to low revenues and perceived risks. "The unorganised market in such sectors," Aditya Birla AMC said, "is usually large, which can be taped by more efficient players."Meanwhile, the fund house said disruptions do hit sectors every 5-7 years and tend to change the cost structure for the industry due to changes in consumer preferences.Sectoral performance In its study, the fund house noted that consumer durables, chemicals, and real estate stocks delivered a 26-32 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) during February 2016 and January 2020. During this period, communication, media compounded and industrials fell up to 9 per cent annually.Automobile, pharma and financial themes led the August 2013-February, 2016 gainers, with 27-42 per cent annual returns but real estate and banks fared badly during this period. 84891220The consumer staples sector performed fairly well during November 2010-August 2013 at the expense of industrials, metals and real estate. From October 2008 to November 2010, media, automobile and banks performed well while retail and communication sectors were laggards, it noted.Themes for next 5 yearsThe fund house said it is bullish on the manufacturing sector. It said a mix of push and pull factors such as Atmanirbhar Bharat and Vocal for Local initiatives by the government, along with diversification of global supply chains will drive the manufacturing sector's outperformance.A low interest rate environment, Covid-induced work-from-home, industry consolidation induced by RERA and availability of capital to larger players is seen benefitting sectors such as real estate and building materials.On ESG, Aditya Birla said risking risks from the environment has prompted the government and corporates to adopt sustainable ways of doing business through green fuel, green technologies, and green mobility. It is positive on the digitalisation theme as digitalisation in India is fast-tracked due to the low cost of data, government initiatives such as Aadhar and UPI. Finally, Aditya Birla sees small and midcap stocks outperforming largecaps, due to economic recovery, lower interest rates and increased representation of emerging sectors such as chemicals and digital platforms.

Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week.1/ OUT OF SURPRISES?Is this year's sharp U.S. growth rebound losing momentum? A raft of economic data due in the world's biggest economy will provide clues.U.S. non-farm payrolls on Aug. 6 will offer a snapshot of July hiring. Economists polled by Reuters forecast the economy added 926,000 jobs in July after June's forecast-beating 850,000 in June. Before the payrolls, the ISM manufacturing report and Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) surveys will be released.The strength of U.S. economic numbers has at least partly driven stock market gains. But forecast-beating data might become the exception rather than the rule.Have a look at Citi's U.S. Economic Surprise Index (.CESIUSD), which measures the degree to which the data is beating or missing economists' forecasts. It stands at 3.2 -- a far cry from July 2020's record high of 271.2/CHINA CRACKDOWNRegulators' crackdowns have frightened investors away from Chinese stocks. As the leash tightens on tech titans, the aggressive moves might well signal the end of internet firms' "barbarian growth".Authorities have rushed to calm market nerves with soothing editorials and promises to take things steadier in future. That's put a floor under stocks and the yuan.What investors will want to see now is how serious China's economic growth slowdown really is. If PMI surveys in the coming week point to moderating manufacturing growth and flatlining services, that could be the next test for markets.3/ STERLING GROWTHThe Bank of England is set to keep stimulus running at full speed when it meets on Thursday, despite some dissent within its board over the size of its bond-buying programme amid rising inflation and improving economic growth.Thanks to a speedy COVID-19 vaccination rollout and an economy adapting well to lockdown and subsequent reopening, the International Monetary Fund expects Britain's 2021 growth to hit a stellar 7%.It's all rosier than a few months ago and sterling has rallied as Britain's reopening remains on track.What to watch for at the BOE meeting? Its view on the economy of course, but after two policymakers broke ranks recently to suggest an early end to its nearly 900 billion pound ($1.2 trillion) bond-buying scheme, it will be interesting to gauge whether that view is garnering more support.4/EUROPE'S INFLATION FRONTLINEThere's a unique flavour to each earnings season and unlike recent quarters, this one isn't about lockdowns or tax cuts but all about inflation, and how companies deal with it.Europe's consumer staples sector is on the frontline of concerns about how raw materials, shipping and labour costs might hit margins. Mentions of inflation rose more than 400% year-on-year during STOXX 600 firms' Q2 earnings calls, BofA analysts note. Materials, financials and consumer firms were most prominent.Many such as Unilever, Reckitt or Nestle have bemoaned feeling the pinch. Other inflation-sensitive heavyweights may follow suit in the coming week, as Nivea maker Beiersdorf (BEIG.DE), fashion retailer Zalando (ZALG.DE) and automotive supplier Continental (CONG.DE) report.A huge week for banks too, with HSBC (HSBA.L), Societe Generale (SOGN.PA), Standard Chartered (STAN.L), Commerzbank (CBKG.DE), Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) and Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) all due to report.5/ ETHER WAKES UPAfter piggybacking on booming bitcoin to hit a record of almost $4,400 in May, the second-biggest cryptocurrency ether fell to earth with a bump, slumping by nearly half.Now ether faces a change to its underlying protocol, potentially slashing its supply. The shift, known as EIP-1559 and due for Thursday, aims to stabilise the fees users of the ethereum network pay. Near-term, that could support prices - and may also make the token more easily used in mainstream finance.But perhaps the move was already priced in during ether's stellar rally earlier in the year? Crypto fans may want to watch this space.

Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the city-based vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII), will be honoured with the prestigious Lokmanya Tilak National Award for 2021. Deepak Tilak, president of the Lokmanya Tilak Trust, has made the announcement. "Poonawalla will be felicitated for his work during the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein he helped in saving many lives by manufacturing Covishield vaccine. Under his leadership, crores of doses of Covishield vaccine were made available to the world in record time. Poonawalla has been at the forefront of making different vaccines at affordable prices," Tilak said on Friday. The award ceremony will take place on August 13, he said, adding that the award comprises cash prize of Rs one lakh and a memento. The award is annually given on August 1, the death anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak, but due to the coronavirus situation, the date has been changed this year, Tilak added. The award was started in 1983 and so far, several prominent personalities from different walks of life have been honoured with it. Some of the recipients include socialist leader S M Joshi, former prime ministers Indira Gandhi, Dr Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress leader late Pranab Mukherjee and Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy.

India and China are discussing disengagement of troops from friction points including Gogra Heights and Hot Springs area during the 12th round of Corps Commander-level talks, said Indian Army sources on Saturday.The 12th round of Corps Commander-level talks between India and China began at 10:30 am in Moldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control.India and China have already disengaged from the banks of Pangong lake after extensive talks and the Gogra Heights and Hot Springs areas are left to be resolved as these friction points were created post-Chinese aggression last year.The two countries have been engaged in a military standoff for almost a year but disengaged from the most contentious Pangong lake area last month after extensive talks at both military and political levels.The credit for the disengagement was given to all stakeholders by Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane who also talked about the country benefitting from the inputs given by the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval during the crisis.Earlier, India and China held 11 rounds of talks at the Corps Commander level to reach the arrangement to disengage from the Pangong lake area.

With Piyush Goyal replacing Smriti Irani as the new textile minister, following the recent union cabinet reshuffle, there seems to be a humongous task lying ahead of him. It is reviving the ailing textile and apparel sector. Providing direct employment to 45 million people, and indirect employment to 60 million people, this highly labour-intensive sector is only behind overall agriculture in terms of employment generation.However, in recent years, India has significantly lost its global competitiveness in textile and clothing to countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam. As a result, textile and garment exports in the sector have plummeted. While India’s overall merchandise exports reached an all-time quarterly high of $95 billion in the three months ending June 2021, readymade garments experienced double digit declines, as compared to June 2019 levels. India currently ranks sixth in the top world exporters of textile and apparel and has witnessed a decline in its share in global exports of textile and apparel from 4.84 per cent in 2015 to 4.34 per cent in 2018 at a CAGR of (-) 1.14 per cent (Trade Map, 2019).While the sector’s growth performance had deteriorated even before Covid, the pandemic induced subdued domestic demand coupled with declining exports because of the lockdowns have had a double blow for the manufacturers. To boost local manufacturing and exports to shore up employment in the sector, the government had recently approved the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for the sector, with a total outlay of Rs. 10,680 Crore under the aegis of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.The focus of the scheme is proposed to be on Man-Made Fibre (MMF) apparel and technical textiles. It is expected that the scheme could cover forty product categories under MMF, whereas ten under the technical textile segment. It is likely that incentives would be provided to both greenfield and brownfield investments under this scheme, between 3 to 11 per cent of the incremental revenues’ year-on-year for five years. By focusing on these two non-conventional segments, the PLI scheme for textiles is expected to bring about structural changes in the textile sector.While these changes could definitely help to diversify the export basket, the revival of exports could be short-lived. What we require is a much deeper participation by India in the manufacturing global value chains. The current Indian technical textiles market constitutes merely 13 per cent of India’s total textile and clothing market. As the production process is getting fragmented globally, the idea to boost production alone does not go very far in alleviating exports. Nor does it help the ‘Make in India’ cause of the government. Our recent study at ICRIER shows that India’s exports are becoming import-oriented, as the foreign content in exports increased sharply from 15.9 per cent in 2003-04 to 27.2 per cent in 2013-14. In the textile sector, the study estimates that the foreign value-added share rose from 13.03 per cent in 2003-04 to 19.40 per cent in 2013-14. As the cost of labour has been rising progressively in China, it is losing its competitive edge in labour-intensive industries like textiles. India, with its large labour force and a vast domestic market, has a great opportunity to step up and fill the gap. Getting integrated into the GVC for textiles can help immensely in creating widespread employment and reviving exports by fostering innovation. While integrating into GVCs seems the way forward, one must be mindful of the huge skill gap existing in the sector. According to our 2019 study at ICRIER, skill mismatch in India’s textile and clothing sector stood at a whopping 68 per cent in 2011-12, as against the overall skill mismatch of 33 per cent in Europe, and 54 per cent in Turkey.Over the years, export related jobs have grown at a much faster rate than overall employment. While a chunk of these jobs has gone to persons with below secondary education, the rate of growth of these low-skilled jobs has declined. Our recent estimates show that the share of unskilled jobs tied to textile and allied exports declined from 29.64 per cent in 2003-04 to 23.67 per cent in 2013-14. The share of high-skilled jobs increased from 20.91 per cent to 26.15 per cent during the same period. With the skill composition of export related jobs shifting towards high skill, we require greater investment in skill development to make sure that we do not expose the less skilled workers to the risk of offshoring.The newly appointed textile minister, Piyush Goyal, who also leads the Centre’s PLI scheme under his charge as the Minister of Commerce and Industry is likely to review the scheme soon. It is expected that the scheme would incentivize the textile manufacturers to integrate more deeply into the GVCs for reviving growth and generating employment in the textile industry.(The writer is Consultant at ICRIER. Views expressed are personal)

Twenty one new COVID-19 cases related to the Olympics were reported by the organisers on Saturday, none of them athletes, amid surging infections in the host city.Out of the total new cases, 14 were contractors and seven Games-linked officials. Sixteen are residents of Japan and five from overseas.None of them were staying in the Olympic village, the organising committee said.The cumulative COVID-19 cases related to the Games now stand at 241.As of Thursday, 40,558 people from overseas had arrived in Japan to take part in the Games, the organisers said.On Friday, the organisers had announced 27 new COVID-19 cases linked with the Olympics, including three athletes, the highest daily count so far.The three athletes included US pole vaulter Sam Kendricks, a two-time world champion, who on Thursday pulled out of the Games after testing positive for the virus.Friday's figure in Games-related cases came a day after Tokyo reported over 3,000 new infections for the fourth straight day, and the nationwide single-day count topped 10,000 for the first time.The organisers and the International Olympic Committee have insisted that the showpiece is not behind the record upswing in the host city.Authorities are alarmed by the surging cases in the Japanese capital which is in a state of emergency.

India has been positioning itself as an attractive investment destination for manufacturing, now for a few decades. The story has been sold aggressively though not as effectively as policymakers would have liked and there is little doubt that we are some distance behind the other big hitters in this space. Meanwhile, there are ambitious targets of achieving $ 1 trillion in annual exports and $ 5 trillion in GDP within the next few years.Amongst the examples held up before India for pursuing growth through trade and investment are some countries of East Asia who have grown rapidly in the past three decades. It is notable that some of these countries are not democracies and a few of them are held by many to be non-market economies. Besides, it would not be out of place to remind ourselves that one often hears of the predictability and decisiveness of the regulatory authorities and officials in these countries. This is then contrasted with the lack of predictability and speed of policy, executive action and even judicial authorities in India. Quite obviously therefore, India is held by many to be a complex jurisdiction to deal with. The governance style and ethos of a country are often more important than the physical infrastructure for trade and investment. They go a long way to contribute to the confidence of the external as well as the internal participants in the economy, who need to put up their capital for investment.Nonetheless, the governance structure and ethos of India can be the differentiator that attracts and promotes external as well as internal investment in India, that is, if they are operated closer to theory than the aberrations that have proliferated through practice. India is a democracy with its governance system premised upon rule of law. The Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana has very aptly emphasized, in writing and action, upon rule of law as one the foundational principles of our society and polity. Thus, in theory, the implementation of laws, rules and regulations and dispute redressal systems are dependent only to a certain extent upon persons.Whereas, this leads to long drawn out resolutions, the businesses impacted by laws, rules or executive action, can seek legal remedies against actions of the state. Such a system thus gives assurance of a law driven rather than person driven resolution of regulatory issues faced by businesses. Contrast this with an authoritarian system wherein a local, state or federal official can take a quick decision in a matter affecting a business, can even get written policies amended in less than a day, but there is little legal recourse available against such a decision if the business wants to contest the same.This does not mean, however, that the governance systems in India are not in need of significant improvement. Two important aspects of rule of law are stability and predictability. This is an area in which much progress needs to be made as policy unpredictability does not allow long term commitments by businesses. A case in point is instances of retrospective legislation in matters of taxation which have in the past heavily dented India’s image as an investment destination. Retrospective legislation is not in violation of the law, but stretches the concept of rule of law almost to breaking point.Businesses have to often deal with authorities like Customs, Indirect and Direct Taxes, Departments of Trade and Commerce, Bureau of Standards and the like. Officials in these departments are vested with executive as well as quasi-judicial authority. A common grievance of many who deal with these departments, is that decisions are often taken by authorities without sufficient appreciation of facts or rigorous legal position.The underlying premise followed by officials is that those affected can anyway get relief in appellate forums like Tribunals, High Courts or the Supreme Court. Such relief is, however, time consuming and such an attitude getting ingrained in lower level judicial or quasi-judicial forums goes against the very concept of rule of law. Similar is the case in many executive actions wherein officials at times go far beyond the written rules leading to situations which finally are resolved only by judicial intervention. Such cases happen in other countries as well, but their profusion in India does not bode well for predominance of rule of law.Another pertinent aspect of rule of law for trade, is the international sphere. Governments enter into agreements and implement internationally applicable rules in their trade and tax governance. Examples are the agreements forming the basis of WTO, regional/bilateral trade agreements and tax treaties. It not only is a requirement, rather sine qua non of international rule of law, that governments implement the agreements/treaties which they are signatories to and take reasonable interpretations of clauses therein which are commonly accepted across signatories. Not doing so would contribute to a chaotic world order, sully the country’s reputation and in some cases invite retaliatory action by other nations. Undoubtedly, this too is an area in which India can do better than the present and showcase itself as a model jurisdiction inspiring confidence in domestic and international businesses. Deepening the ethos of rule of law in overall governance is by no means a short-term project. However, in matters relating to trade and investment, a few measures could lead to early results. Firstly, the accountability of officials in relevant departments should be based on their rigorous application of the law rather than on their taking decisions that favour the state in the short term. This seemingly simple remedy can vastly improve the quality of administrative and quasi-judicial decisions. Secondly, a sufficient number of competent legal experts could be appointed in departments of the executive to guide administrative actions. In sum and substance, while India, with its market and talent potential, can indeed become a favoured destination for trade and investment, strengthening both its internal and external operation of the rule of law can become its strategic differentiator, changing the course of its economy.(The writer is Partner – Trade and Customs, KPMG in India)

Syngene International, the innovation-led contract research and manufacturing arm of Biocon, is seeing a shift in clientele with a large number of small and newly founded startups from the West partnering with the company to research new treatments and medicines, said CEO and managing director Jonathan Hunt.“What India offers now in the biopharma sector is not cost arbitrage but intellectual arbitrage, and the trend is reflected across the industry,” Hunt told ET.The Bengaluru-based company last week reported a 33.27% year-on-year increase in its consolidated net profit for the quarter to June to Rs 77.3 crore, led by progress across all business divisions and particularly boosted by the manufacturing of remedesivir drug used to treat Covid-19 patients.“Clients are more interested in integrated services than ever before. But it is not just about the cost. It has got to do with the speed and capabilities of companies like Syngene,” said Hunt. “Services we offer today are world-class, scientifically smart and add value because of our innovations.”Small startups that have become marginal clients of the biopharma industry want to take science forward but without investing in building a large organisation, said Hunt. “These firms look at large companies like us to offer them scale, high quality systems and processes and innovative ideas. We are seeing real growth coming from these smaller biotech companies,” he said.Syngene International, however, continues to share good business partnership with biopharma and biotech firms such as Bristol Myers Squibb and Amgen that have been its traditional customers. “We have got a high retention rate, an indication that we are getting something right,” said the managing director.The growth in India’s biopharma sector has also opened up immense opportunities to young scientists who were earlier forced to take a job in the US or Europe. “A young scientist joining a company like Syngene can travel the world scientifically without ever having to leave Bengaluru. It provides opportunities to collaborate with some of the best scientists in the world by working out of the campus here,” said Hunt.The company has been tapping into the talent pool from Indian universities and hugely investing in their training and development. “We are probably one of the largest recruiters of young scientists in India, and I am incredibly proud of that,” said Hunt.Syngene International has also been working on relationship building activities with key universities to bring best young scientific minds on board.Although just a small portion of its business comes from non-medical clients from sectors such as aerospace, cosmetics, animal health and nutrition, the company is looking at these segments to grow. “For now, the business from non-medical clients is in single digits. But we are looking at good opportunities in animal health because of its similarities to human health,” said Hunt.

An Olympic medal in archery remained elusive for India. A day after his world number one wife Deepika Kumari choked in the last-eight stage against eventual gold medallist An San of Korea, Atanu Das exited in the pre-quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday. Das, who knocked out London Olympics gold medallist Oh Jin Hyek in the last-32, failed to overcome home favourite Takaharu Furukawa, a silver winner in the 2012 edition, and lost 4-6 in an intense five-setter. Returning to action a day after his stunning shoot-off win over the Korean heavyweight, Das had two loose arrows in the 8-ring in the first set that proved costly in the end, and Furukawa prevailed by just one point in the decider to seal a thrilling win. "In the Olympics, every match is different, the situation, mindset, everything is different. I don't want to compare (with the match against Oh). I tried but it's okay I failed," Das said after the loss. "Maybe, I took too much tension, it's a game we have to deal with. Next time, I will try harder." The lone Indian in medal contention on the concluding day of archery events at the Yumenoshima Park, Das looked under pressure and his inconsistency did him in. Das hit four perfect 10s but also misfired as many in the 8-ring to suffer a second successive pre-quarterfinal loss in the Olympics. In his maiden Olympics at Rio 2016, Das had lost by an identical 4-6 margin to former Korean world champion Lee Seungyun, a team gold medallist at the Games. The 29-year-old conceded the opening set, hitting the red circle twice as Furukawa won it 27-25. He finally found a 10 in his first arrow of the second set but that was not enough as the home athlete also matched him, shooting an identical 28-28, and the Indian trailed 1-3. Both players then shot two 8s but the Indian prevailed, drilling in two 10s to see it locked at 3-3. There was more drama in store as the duo shot an identical 9-10-9 in the fourth set to take it to the decider after being tied 4-4. Both had 9s in their opening arrows but Das, who was shooting first, slipped to another 8 and failed to find a 10, as Furukawa clinched it by a slender 27-26 margin in the deciding fifth set. Das' compatriots Pravin Jadhav and Tarundeep Rai had already exited the competition. India had made quarterfinal exits in both the men's team and mixed pair events, going down to Korea in their respective matches. "We need proper planning and strategy to excel at these Games. We have learnt a lot and it's about keeping your nerves stable. Looking forward to the World Championship and World Finals now," Das concluded.

MUMBAI: While many have scoffed at the valuations being commanded by online food aggregator Zomato given its lack of profit track record, the Indian stock market is riddled with even worse examples that may make the fence-sitters wonder if the ongoing bull market is getting out of hand.In the darkest alleys of Dalal Street, a different kind of bull market is unfolding that defies generally accepted logic or precedence. Here ability to corner market, low free-float and price momentum are drivers, not a story of growth or earnings prospects.Gita Renewable Energy, a BSE-listed entity, is one such story.Shares of the renewable energy company have risen 3,600 per cent in the past year aided by a puny free-float of 1.1 million shares and a 10,600 per cent surge in turnover. The stock has not dropped a paisa in 104 consecutive sessions and is on a streak of hitting its upper circuit limit in 64 straight sessions.Such has been the demand for the stock that it has seen a down day in only three out of the past 162 sessions.“This just shows that there are fly-by-night operators in the market taking advantage by creating stories that are in vogue,” said independent market expert Ambareesh Baliga.It is difficult to ascribe reasons to the monstrous rally seen by Gita Renewable over the past 12 months. Some would say the mere presence of the “renewable” word in the name has attracted investors given the market’s new found love for all things “green”.Gita Renewable has not reported annual profits for the past four consecutive years, while its net sales have remained stagnant during that period. To the company’s credit, it did manage to break its streak of reporting net losses for 10 straight quarters in the previous quarter.In the quarter ended March, Gita Renewable reported its first quarterly profits in several years aided by a surge in revenues. Some would say investors are betting on a turnaround story given the increasing focus of the government on renewable energy sources, a tailwind that could brighten the company’s prospects.Others would point to the large buying by corporate, Hindu Undivided Family offices and non-resident Indians on the counter since the end of the September quarter. Corporate bodies held more than 15 per cent stake in the company as of June 30; it was zero back in September 2020.Similarly, NRIs and HUFs held 1.1 per cent 0.3 per cent stake in the company respectively at the end of June quarter from zero holdings three quarters ago.Gita Renewable is one among many similar stories in India’s stock market that defy conventional logic and also epitomize the animal spirits that have percolated throughout the market since the crash of March 2020.“In a market like this where there is exuberance, people just look at the name and price action without thinking about what the company does or why,” Baliga said.

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday noted that passing a blanket gag order on the media against reporting anything against Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, wife of arrested businessman Raj Kundra, shall have a “chilling effect on the freedom of press” and said there is a judicial limit on what can be construed as good or bad journalism.Justice Gautam Patel, however, directed that three videos uploaded on YouTube channels of three private persons be deleted and not uploaded again as they were “malicious and with not even a slightest attempt to investigate into the truth of the matter”. The court noted that the freedom of press has to be balanced with the right to privacy of an individual. The three videos made comments on Shetty's moral standing and went on to question the quality of her parenting following the arrest of her husband Raj Kundra in a case related to alleged production and streaming of pornographic content on apps.The court was hearing a suit filed by Shetty against alleged defamatory articles published against her and family after the arrest of her husband on July 19. Kundra (45) is currently in jail under judicial custody. Shetty, in an interim application, had sought for media to be restrained from publishing any “incorrect, false, malicious and defamatory” content. Justice Patel, however, noted that the plaintiff's prayer seeking media to be restrained will have a “chilling effect on the freedom of press”. “There is a judicial limit on what is good or bad journalism as this comes very close to freedom of press,” the court said. 84914458The court noted that the articles referred to by Shetty in her suit do not seem to be defamatory. “It cannot be like if you (media) are not going to write or say anything nice about me (Shetty) then do not say anything at all. How can this be?” Justice Patel said. The court noted that most of the articles referred to in the suit, including one that claimed that "Shetty cried and fought with her husband Kundra" when he was brought to their house by the police for joint interrogation was based on what police sources said. “Reportage of something based on what police sources have said is not defamatory. If this had happened in the four walls of your house with no one around then the issue is different. But this has happened in the presence of outsiders. How is this defamation?” Justice Patel said. The court added that at the most this shows that the plaintiff (Shetty) is human and there is nothing wrong with it. “You chose a life in the public eye then all this will come as part of the territory. Your life is under a microscope,” Justice Patel said. Shetty's counsel Birendra Saraf also took objection to an article published on a website, 'Peeping Moon', in which it was claimed that Shetty "destroyed evidence" in the case in which her husband has been arrested. Justice Patel, however, said he was not inclined to direct for this particular article to be taken down as the material in it was prima facie drawn from an understanding of what the police said or indicated. 84914435“No part of this order shall be construed as a gag on the media,” Justice Patel observed. The actor's application also sought damages of Rs 25 crore, stating that the respondents (several media publications and social media sites like Google, Facebook and YouTube) are causing irreparable loss and damage to her reputation. In her plea, Shetty sought directions against social media platforms like Google, YouTube and Facebook to remove all defamatory content related to her and family.To this, Justice Patel said, “Your prayer seeking for social media platforms like Google, YouTube and Facebook to exercise control over editorial content is dangerous.” The HC directed all defendants in the suit to file their affidavits and posted the matter for further hearing on September 20.

Last week, amid the cheerleading of the Zomato IPO, a small minority of commentators pointed out the advanced state of undress the emperor was in. However, the general talk was that there was some kind of euphoria about this IPO. In the Zomato IPO as well as the IPOs of similar outfits that will no doubt follow, this talk of euphoria will no doubt be at a fever pitch. To explain the reason, I’ll narrate an old lawyer joke.A famous professor of law was lecturing on courtroom strategy. “If you have facts on your side, hammer on the facts. If you have the law on your side, hammer on the law.”“But if you do not have the facts or the law,” asked a student, “what do you do?” “In that case,” replied the professor, “hammer on the table.”The cheerleading and euphoria that you will keep hearing in the IPOs of these kinds of companies is the hammering on the table. When there’s no track record or profitability to speak of, when there’s no precise plan on what the collected money will be used for, then one has to necessarily talk of just the euphoria and the ‘hotness’ of the stock.However, this is not to say that these are the only reasons that individual investors like you should have avoided the Zomato IPO. You should avoid almost all IPOs, regardless of the quality of the stock. That sounds like a radical view but it’s actually quite logical. First of all, while investing in any stock, the reasons should all be based on the track record of the company and its prospects. Whether a stock is an IPO or not does not matter at all as far as this evaluation goes. However, there are other reasons why IPOs are avoidable. The basic problem in IPOs is that, unlike secondary market investing, there’s a huge information asymmetry between the seller and the buyer. In India, we have long entertained this idea that IPOs are somehow especially suited for retail investors. In the days of the Controller of Capital Issues and administered price IPOs, that may well have been true, but not anymore. Market regulator Sebi, as well as other bodies, have frequently tried to encourage the small investors’ interest in IPOs. Parts of the IPO process have also been tailored to suit this purpose.However, retail investors should studiously ignore them. There is nothing about IPOs that makes them especially suited for the casual retail investor. If anything, compared to listed stocks, IPOs are actually less suitable for such investors. The reason is simple. IPO companies are not understood well. The balance of power (in the sense of information being power) lies with the seller. The companies have not been in the public eye at all. Invariably, the promoter has spent the preceding months carefully building up an image to ensure that the investing public has a positive image. Unlike listed stocks, the financials haven’t been scrutinised closely for years and years. And of course, the price is the promoter’s gambit, rather than one that has been found out by the price discovery mechanism of the markets.The lottery days are long gone. Now, even the best-performing IPO stocks have periods where they are available below the issue price at some point. This is the inevitable result of IPOs being priced as aggressively as possible. If a company is good, you’ll get another chance, and if it is not then let that be discovered at other people’s cost. Institutional investors may be under pressure to not miss out on anything but for individuals like you or me, equity investing is not like batting in the last over of a T20 where you must hit everything. Rather, it’s like building a long innings in a test match where you can always let a doubtful ball through to the keeper and hit only the ones that are certain boundaries.(The author is CEO, Value Research)

If you invest in stocks and equity funds, you must have earned healthy returns in the past few years. But while the going has been good on the investment front, there is bad news flowing from the tax department. In the past few years, the tax monster has spread its tentacles and started moving into what were considered safe havens till now. In 2018, the tax exemption for long-term capital gains from stocks and equity-oriented funds was removed. Last year, dividends from stocks and mutual funds were made taxable as income.Even fixed income options have not been spared. The interest earned by contributions to the Provident Fund above Rs 2.5 lakh a year will now be taxed at the marginal rate applicable to the individual. And Ulips with premiums of more than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum will now get taxed as mutual funds.The spread of the tax net coincides with a sharp fall in incomes and savings in the past two years. Almost 74% of the respondents to an online survey conducted this month said their income either stayed stagnant or decreased due to the pandemic last year. Though some people say that the worst is behind us, this optimism is yet to show up in salary slips and appointment letters.Earning higher returns is not in the hands of investors. However, they can take steps to minimise their tax outgo. There are enough opportunities in the tax laws that smart investors can utilise to bring down their tax liability. We reached out to tax professionals and investment advisers to know how taxpayers can legitimately utilise the tax rules to their advantage.Mind you, we are not suggesting tax evasion, only tax avoidance by intelligent use of the provisions in the tax laws. We have identified five such strategies that can help you save tax without violating the law. Some of these, such as distribution of income and investing through family members, are already known. But some, like the advice to invest in the NPS, are based on recent developments. We hope you will find these suggestions useful.Keep in mind that not all these strategies will be relevant for all investors. There’s no point investing through your spouse if she is also in the same tax bracket as you. It would be a mistake to gift money to a financially irresponsible child. And investing in the name of a parent or grandparent could trigger a legal battle among heirs and siblings. Even if the nomination has been done properly, a legal heir can stake claim on an investment. An airtight will is required to ensure that the rightful owners get the assets left behind by an individual.1. Invest in NPS, but not in annuityIf the corpus is below Rs 5 lakh, the entire amount can be withdrawn on maturity. 84703546One of the biggest stumbling blocks of the NPS is the compulsory annuitisation of 40% of the corpus. Not only are annuity rates in India very low, but the thought of putting away their retirement money forever is unacceptable to many investors. But an amendment in the withdrawal rules of the NPS has changed this to a certain extent, making the pension scheme especially attractive for those in their 50s.The new rule says that if the corpus at the time of maturity is up to Rs 5 lakh, the subscriber can withdraw the entire amount without buying an annuity. This reopens a tax-saving avenue for investors who have stayed away from NPS due to the compulsory annuity rule. One can save tax in three different ways through NPS. First, NPS investments are eligible for deduction under Section 80C. If one has already exhausted the Rs 1.5 lakh ceiling under Section 80C, one can claim an additional deduction of up to Rs 50,000 under Section 80CCD(1b). Lastly, up to 10% of the basic salary put in the NPS can be claimed as deduction under Section 80CCD(2).An investor in his 50s can safely put away Rs 50,000 in the NPS every year to claim the tax deduction under Section 80CCD(1b). By the time he retires at 60, his total NPS corpus would not have grown to more than Rs 5 lakh and the entire amount can be withdrawn.Those very close to retirement can claim more tax benefits if their company offers the NPS benefit. Under Section 80CCD(2), up to 10% of the basic salary put in the NPS by the company on behalf of the employee is tax free. Individuals who have enough liquidity can squirrel away up to 10% of their basic salary in the NPS in the last 2-3 years of their employment. “This particularly suits high income earners who can escape tax in the last few years of their working life,” says Raj Khosla, Managing Director of MyMoneyMantra.com.However, keep in mind that the entire amount withdrawn will not be tax free. Though there is no reference to this in the tax laws, it is reasonable to assume that 60% of the withdrawn amount will be tax free while the balance 40% will be taxed at the normal rate.It is here that another change in the NPS rules comes to the rescue of the investor. “A subscriber can now continue in the NPS even after retirement till the age of 70 years, so the withdrawal of the corpus can be managed to reduce the tax outgo,” points out Khosla.2. Rent to parents makes HRA tax-freeClaim tax exemption for house rent allowance if you live in your parents’ house. 84703557The house rent allowance (HRA) is a significant amount and normally accounts for 25% of the salary. This amount is tax free if the person is living in a rented accommodation, but fully taxable if she does not pay rent. Many young taxpayers who live with their parents do not claim exemption for HRA. “Missing the HRA exemption is a big loss, which can be avoided in many cases,” says Sudhir Kaushik, Cofounder of tax filing portal Taxspanner.Kaushik says a person living in her parents’ house can pay them rent and claim exemption for the HRA. This is possible only if the parent is the owner of the property. Of course, the rent received by the parent will be subject to tax. Keep in mind that if the rent exceeds Rs 1 lakh a year, one has to furnish the PAN number of the landlord while claiming exemption for HRA. If the landlord does not have a PAN, he must submit a declaration to this effect.In cases where the house owner is not in the high income bracket, the rental income will not push up his tax outgo significantly. But even in the highest 30% bracket, the arrangement will be beneficial because there is a 30% standard deduction on rental income. So, if the parent gets a monthly rent of Rs 50,000 (Rs 6 lakh per year), he will be taxed only for Rs 35,000 (Rs 4.2 lakh per year).Tax savings if HRA is exemptIf the individual’s basic salary is Rs 9.6 lakh and gets Rs 4.8 lakh as HRA, the tax payable on this would be Rs 1.49 lakh 84703578This arrangement can also be done with any other relative or even a sibling. But you cannot pay rent to your spouse or minor child and claim HRA exemption.The taxpayer must have proof of the transaction. Ideally, he should transfer the rent to the owner’s bank account every month or pay through a cheque so that there is evidence of the payment. Incidentally, a taxpayer can claim exemption for the rent paid even if he does not receive HRA in his salary. One can claim exemption for monthly rent of up to Rs 5,000 under Section 80GG.3. Invest in homemaker wife’s nameThe income will be clubbed with yours but there are ways to escape tax. 84703700The tax department doesn’t care if you gift money to your wife. But it will be very interested if that money is invested and earns an income. The taxman will club the earnings from the investment with your income and tax you accordingly. This clubbing provision under Section 60 is meant to check tax evasion.But financial planners say that money given to the homemaker wife for her personal expenses do not come under the purview of the clubbing provision. “There is no fixed amount or percentage prescribed under the tax law, but it can be safely assumed that someone with an income of Rs 1 lakh a month will give Rs 10,000-15,000 to his wife for her personal expenses,” says Chhaya Kothari, founder of the Mumbai-based CK Financial Advisory.If the wife invests out of this personal money, the income will not get clubbed with the income of the husband. However, some tax professionals are not convinced. “The money for personal expenses remains a grey area and should not be stretched to unreasonable limits,” says Gunjan Kapoor, a Delhi-based chartered accountant. Kapoor says there are better ways to get around the clubbing provision. The clubbing happens only at the first level of income. If the earnings are reinvested, the income from that reinvested money will be treated as that of the wife and not clubbed with the income of the husband.Let’s see what happens if the wife invests the gifted money in tax-advantaged options such as stocks and equity funds. The husband will not be taxed for long-term capital gains of up to Rs 1 lakh in a year. That amount will then be treated as the income of the wife and can be reinvested without fear of clubbing. “The income from the reinvested income does not attract the clubbing provision,” points out Kaushik.4. Utilise exemption for senior citizensUp to Rs 50,000 interest earned by senior citizens is tax free. 84703722If income clubbing is a problem, you can take help from your parents, and even your grandparents. Unlike the investments in the name of a spouse or a minor child, there is no clubbing of income in the case of parents and grandparents. If any parent is a senior citizen and does not already have investments, you can invest in that individual’s name to earn tax-free interest. Every adult above 60 already enjoys a basic exemption of Rs 3 lakh. In case of very senior citizens above 80, the basic exemption limit is even higher at Rs 5 lakh. Two years ago, the government extended an exemption of Rs 50,000 to interest income of senior citizens. If you assume an interest of 7% on bank deposits, up to Rs 50 lakh invested by a senior citizen will not attract any tax.The best options are the Senior Citizens’ Saving Scheme which is currently offering 7.4% interest. The Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana is another safe and secure bet. Banks also offer higher rates on fixed deposits to senior citizens.Besides these fixed income options, one can also get senior citizens to invest in stocks and mutual funds. That way, every person can individually benefit from the Rs 1 lakh exemption per year for long-term capital gains. If the total income is below the basic exemption limit, even the short-term capital gains from stocks and mutual funds will not attract any tax.But these options should be exercised with due care. Make yourself the sole nominee of the investments in your parents’ name. This will ensure that there are no disputes with siblings. You need to take extra precautions when it comes to investing through your grandparents because there might be more legal heirs in the family.5. Invest in name of adult childIncome earned by the adult child not subject to clubbing. 84703737Just like parents, your children can also help you save tax. Investments made in the name of minor children below 18 will not help because the income gets clubbed with that of the parent. But after a person turns 18, he is treated as a separate individual for tax purposes. He enjoys the same basic exemption and other tax deductions like any other adult and the income from investments is no longer clubbed with his parents’ income.Being a legal adult, an 18-year-old can also invest in stocks and mutual funds on his own. Open a demat account and stocks trading account in her name and let the Warren Buffett in her come alive. Up to Rs 1 lakh of long-term capital gains will be tax free in a year and short-term capital gains will be tax-free till the basic exemption of Rs 2.5 lakh a year.There are other advantages too. In case of minors, the annual contributions to the Public Provident Fund are clubbed with that of the parent and the total cannot exceed the annual limit of Rs 1.5 lakh. But once a child turns 18, she can have her own PPF account, which increases your investment limit in the tax-free option. You can separately invest up to Rs 1.5 lakh a year in her PPF account.Gifting money to an adult child and investing in his name is tax-efficient but be very careful when you do this. If the child is financially irresponsible, you can say goodbye to your money. Unlike a will, which can be changed whenever you wish to, a gift is irrevocable, and once given, there is no looking back. In your attempt to save 20-30% tax, you could lose 100% of the principal.