After nearly 4 years of debate and deliberations, Indian government decided to withdraw the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill, 2019. It is proposed to be replaced with a more comprehensive framework.
The JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) has made 12 recommendations and suggested 81 amendments to the bill. The report had stirred a debate after it proposed a single law for dealing with personal and non-personal datasets and mandating full local storage of data. Key objections came from
Big Tech names.
Cabinet hiked fair and remunerative price (FRP) on sugarcane for 2022-23 sugar cycle by Rs15 per quintal to Rs305. Sugar mills also called for commensurate rise in the MSP of sugar. FRP is the minimum price sugar mills must pay to sugarcane farmers, while MSP is the minimum sale price of sugar for sugar mills. This FRP is linked to a basic recovery rate of 10.25%. Key sugar producing states like UP, Punjab and Haryana fix their own cane price called State Advisory Prices (SAP), that is normally higher than the FRP.
IndiGo Airlines clocked record revenues of Rs12,855 crore in the June 2022 quarter growing yoy by 328%. Of course, the base is slightly misleading due to the COVID impact. However, Indigo still reported a net loss of Rs1,064 crore due to high fuel prices and a weak rupee. Fuel prices for airlines in June 2022 nearly doubled yoy. Indigo is planning to deploy 70-80% more capacity in the September 2022 quarter. Indigo still dominates with a market share of over 50% of the Indian aviation market and also flies
internationally.
India anticipates that bilateral trade with Russia and Sri Lanka would touch $9 billion over next 2 months after allowing international trade in rupees. The recent RBI decision to allow importers and exporters to pay in rupees is widely expected to boost trade with countries like Russia, Iran and Sri Lanka. Between the months of February and July 2022, India’s crude oil imports from Russia jumped 5 times to $15 billion as the sanctions forced Russia to offer steep discounts of up to 25%. Lanka is in the midst of a
deep crisis.
On 03rd August, the Indian rupee weakened sharply due to the record rise in the July trade deficit and apprehensions that the RBI may go slow on rate hikes. India had reported provisional trade deficit of $31.02 billion for July 2022. During the day, the Indian rupee weakened from Rs78.7125/$ to Rs79.04/$. In the last few days, the rupee had shown a lot of strength gaining from Rs80/$ to Rs78.5/$. Bond market analysts suggest buying USDINR futures since US inflation could be steady forcing more Fed
hawkishness.
Supreme Court ordered next round of payment of Rs684 crore to the unitholders of wound-up Franklin Templeton schemes. This is a follow-up to the April 2020 fiasco when Franklin Templeton had
announced the summary winding up of 6 of its debt schemes. It may be recollected that at that point, SBI Mutual Fund had been appointed to liquidate the assets of the wound-up schemes and distribute proceeds to unitholders. Court dismissed suggestion that distributor commissions should not be paid to investors.
Investments in semiconductors are picking up steam. Tamil Nadu-based chip company, Polymatech, will invest $1 billion to expand its chip manufacturing and packaging facility. The 1st phase will create capacity to produce 250 million chips per year. Polymatech has also filed for 25% subsidy on capital expenditure via the government sponsored PLI scheme. The company has already invested $130 million to expand its facility in the state. Even the world’s largest chip fab, TSMC of Taiwan, plans to set up India operations.
Recently listed Adani Wilmar registered 10.18% higher net profits at Rs193.59 crore in Q1FY23. Revenues were up 30.23% yoy at Rs14,732 crore on the back of robust volumes in the FMCG and Foods businesses. Revenues were marginally lower on a sequential basis. Overall volumes for the quarter were up 15% yoy at 1.19 MMT in Q1FY23. During the quarter, edible oil volumes surged 6%, while Food & FMCG business volumes soared 53%. Adani Wilmar saw double digit growth in sales via e-commerce and modern trade.