Indian Economy News & Discussion - Nov 27 2017

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 04 Nov 2020 00:38

Deleted

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 04 Nov 2020 17:37

India Services PMI Expands For First Time In Eight Months

A gauge of India’s services sector moved back into the expansion zone for the first time in eight months as economic activity continues to pick up on easing lockdown curbs. The India Services Business Activity Index, compiled by IHS Markit, stood at 54.1 in October compared with 49.8 in September, according to a media statement. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in business activity. The latest reading pointed to a solid rate of growth in output that was stronger than its long-run average, the release said. With manufacturing activity climbing to the highest in over a decade, the Composite PMI Output Index rose to 58 in October from 54.6 in September. That’s the strongest in close to nine years.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 04 Nov 2020 17:46

India's exports dip 5.4% in October, trade deficit narrows to $8.78 billion

"India's merchandise exports in October 2020 were $24.82 billion, as compared to $26.23 billion in October 2019, showing a fall of 5.4 percent," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said in a statement. Major export commodities which recorded negative growth during October included petroleum products(53.30 percent), cashew (21.57 percent), gems and jewellery (21.27 percent), leather (16.69 percent), man-made yarn/fabrics/made-ups (12.82 percent), electronic goods(9.40 percent), coffee(9.25 percent), marine products(8.09 percent) and engineering goods (3.84 percent).

Sectors which showed positive growth included rice, oil meals, iron ore, oil seeds, carpet, pharmaceuticals, spices, cotton and chemicals. During April-October 2020, exports declined 19.05 percent to $150.07 billion, while imports fell 36.28 percent over the same period last year to $182.29 billion.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Sharad Kumar Saraf said the nominal decline in exports during the month was mainly because of huge container shortage and hike in sea freight, which upset exports, particularly for those who have negotiated on CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight) or C&F (Cost and Freight) basis. Besides, farmers' agitation in some of the hinterland states also affected exports during October, he said.

"…as the election process gets over in the US, with the upcoming Christmas and New Year season, both global and Indian economy are slated for economic revival. Exporters have continuously been receiving a lot of enquiries and orders, further adding to the positive sentiments with signals of further resilience in the global supply chain," he added.

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 06 Nov 2020 12:14

WhatsApp Pay gets nod to go live on UPI
By Ashwin Manikandan, ETtechLast Updated: Nov 06, 2020, 10:52 AM IST

The National Payment Corp of India’s clearance for WhatsApp Pay limits the number of users who can use the feature on the platform to 20 million in the first phase. Facebook-owned WhatsApp has about 400 million users in India.

The NPCI’s approval came on the same day it limited the transactions a third-party app like WhatsApp Pay can carry out to 30% of the total volume on the UPI network. The move is expected to allay fears of regulatory authorities including the Reserve Bank of India over potential monopoly risks. WhatsApp has been offering the service on a trial basis in India since February 2018.
NCPI in a statement on Thursday said WhatsApp Pay would now go live in a “graded manner” from its current registered user base of 1 million who were using the service in a beta mode. It will use a multi-bank model with one of the payment service providers banks being private lender ICICI Bank, said the organisation that operates the UPI.

NPCI’s move comes just days after its popular UPI network has for the first time crossed the 2 billion monthly transaction mark to firmly establish itself as the primary retail payment channel in the country. In October, UPI processed 2.07 billion transactions worth Rs 3.86 lakh crore.

Market participants expect the UPI volume in India to further increase, aided by the entry of WhatsApp Pay and a growing propensity in the country’s massive consumer market towards digital payments.

As per latest undisclosed statistics on UPI, Walmart-owned PhonePe is currently the most used UPI app in the country, having processed nearly 835 million transactions in October with a market share of close to 40%, sources with knowledge of the data said. Google Pay is a close second with about 820 million transactions.

Both these applications backed by US-based giants in the past months had exceeded the 30% transaction share. These companies have been given time till 2023 to bring down their market share, the NPCI said in a circular uploaded on its website on Thursday. The move was prompted keeping “to address the risks and protect the UPI ecosystem as it further scales up.”

WhatsApp Pay will have to comply with the 30% transaction volume from the onset, as apps with a market share below 30% currently must ensure compliance from 2021.

Red Full Article Here//ET Link........
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/te ... 066734.cms

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 06 Nov 2020 12:17

Few more details here.........

Facebook CEO says he is 'excited' that WhatsApp has received nod for India launch
By Anumeha Chaturvedi, ET Bureau Last Updated: Nov 06, 2020, 10:51 AM IST

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/te ... 074568.cms

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 06 Nov 2020 12:44

X-post from IT thred.......

Just like GST, Labour laws, Doing away with APMC act & Bringing Co-operative banks Under RBI This one is also Biggggggg
Just imagine its effect on all IT companies specifically medium and and small ones as 5G is coming soon. Most of the IT delivery works can be done sitting in home, reduces requirement to relocate to IT hub cities, reducing crowd & pollution on already overcrowded cities. It will definitely have SOME impact on real estate (commercial & personal) both.

Govt relaxes rules, facilitates work from home for tech industry
By Surabhi Agarwal, ET Bureau Last Updated: Nov 05, 2020, 11:35 PM IST

In a massive reform for the tech industry, which will facilitate permanent ‘work from home’ and ‘work from anywhere’ for the companies, the government has done away with most of the registration and compliance requirements.

Under the Other Service Provider (OSP) guidelines of the Department of Telecom (DoT), the registration requirement for OSPs has been done away with altogether and the BPO industry engaged in data related work have been taken out of the ambit of OSP regulations. Also, requirements such as deposit of bank guarantees, for static IPs, frequent reporting obligations, publication of network diagram, penal provisions etc. have also been removed. Similarly, several other requirements, which prevents companies from adopting ‘Work from Home’ and ‘Work from Anywhere’ policies have also been removed, the government said in a statement on Thursday.

The industry has been requesting for these relaxations which are currently temporary to be made permanent and was in dialogue with the government on these reform measure. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the prowess of India’s IT sector is recognised globally and the government is committed to doing everything possible to ensure a conducive environment for growth and innovation in India.

“Committed to furthering ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and making India a tech hub! GoI has significantly simplified Other Service Provider (OSP) guidelines of the Telecom Department. Compliance burdens of BPO industry will be greatly reduced due to this,” Modi said.

Union minister for electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad also tweeted that the Govt has taken a major reform initiative to liberalize the regulatory regime for OSPs. “This will boost the IT/ ITeS/ BPO industry and create a friendly regime for Work from Home in India. #DigitalIndia.”

Ashish Aggarwal, Head of Public Policy at Nasscom said that the latest DoT guidelines are a bold reform for the Indian BPM/ ITES industry. “Nasscom has worked closely with the government on this and it is to the credit of the government and specially the DoT who have gone the extra mile to ensure that all the requirements of the industry are met. The reforms will give a tremendously strengthen India as the global BPO outsourcing hub, encourage remote working leading to newer job opportunities in smaller cities,” he added.

The industry applauded the move with experts such as former Infosys board member TV Mohandas Pai calling it a “Great move by Govt for all citizens” and a “wonderful reform” on Twitter.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/te ... 065334.cms

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 09 Nov 2020 17:03

Good riddance.............

Centre preparing ministry-wise notes to shut down, merge departments to rationalise costs
Kamalika Ghosh, Last Updated : Nov 09, 2020 02:07 PM IST | Source: Moneycontrol.com

As part of cost rationalisation drive in a pandemic year, the government is readying recommendations to either shut or merge a number of its own departments and divisions. "We are preparing recommendations for every ministry. There are a host of bodies and divisions within government departments that can be shut down or merged with other relevant wings, in order to cut costs," a senior government official told Moneycontrol.

The government is preparing recommendations to merge Registrar of Newspaper with Press Council of India, India Brand Equity Foundation under Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade into Invest India, and publication division under Information and Broadcasting ministry, into Bureau of outreach and Communication, among others, according to documents reviewed by Moneycontrol.

"We are preparing department-by-department, ministry-wise, rationalisation notes by mapping out every department under the government. There are bodies like The Salt Commission and Tariff Commission. These need to be abolished," the official said.

According to the recommendations, Children's Film Society, Directorate of Film Festivals, Film Division of India, National Film Archive of India and National Film Development Corporation, should be merged to create efficiency of scale and end duplication.

The government is also planning to shut down almost a dozen autonomous bodies to rationalise costs. Some of the autonomous bodies that might be shut down are the National Productivity Council (NPC) and the Tariff Commission, among others,...............The Union Textile Ministry in August abolished the All India Handicrafts Board and the All India Handloom Board — advisory bodies that were created to help the government in “formulation of the overall development programmes” in the handicrafts and handloom sectors, “keeping in view socio-economic cultural and artistic perspective.”
This was followed up with abolishing another advisory body - the Cotton Advisory Board. The government also notified that all eight Textiles Research Associations have ceased to be ''affiliated bodies'' of the ministry.

Two public sector undertakings under the ministry of textile — the British India Corporation and the Handicrafts and Handlooms Exports Corporation of India — have been reportedly proposed to be shut down, and a Cabinet note for the same has been circulated.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/busin ... 91841.html

yensoy · Post by **yensoy** » 09 Nov 2020 18:34

^^^^ it's not like the employees of the shut down entities will vanish into thin air. There has to be a VRS scheme for them or some way to reassign them to more productive activities. BTW, this kind of house cleaning has to happen on a regular basis, every year by every administration.

disha · Post by **disha** » 11 Nov 2020 03:30

^Nobody came in support of Smriti Irani when Union Textile ministry abolished the All India Handicrafts Board and All India Handloom Board. Several of these 'advisories' are sinecures for babooze and the equally corrupt political gadfly's who we now call the Congressi eco system.

JTull · Post by **JTull** » 11 Nov 2020 03:51

Vips wrote:UPI hits 2 billion payments mark in October on festive, Covid push.

About $1.67bln per day! I hope a desi alternative to PayTM, Google Pay and WhatsApp stands up. All this data is incredibly valuable!

tandav · Post by **tandav** » 11 Nov 2020 09:20

The C2C, C2B payment space via UPI has become really good. However the reverse, B2B and B2C payment space is still dominated by NEFT IMPS RTGS CASH and cheques.

In B2B B2C online payment pain point is elaborate KYC, adding account details to the corporate bank account and then making payment via a 2stage maker, approver system.

It takes 10sec for C2B payment of Rs 10k however it takes a business 3-4 days to make a Rs 10k to a vendor.

Bart S · Post by **Bart S** » 11 Nov 2020 13:24

JTull wrote:
Vips wrote:UPI hits 2 billion payments mark in October on festive, Covid push.
About $1.67bln per day! I hope a desi alternative to PayTM, Google Pay and WhatsApp stands up. All this data is incredibly valuable!

I hope you realize that the system is already desi and that those apps are essentially just a user interface to access the UPI system. There are a dozen plus desi bank-owned apps and several others like PhonePe, Airtel, Jio etc that are alternatives.

Bart S · Post by **Bart S** » 11 Nov 2020 13:36

tandav wrote:The C2C, C2B payment space via UPI has become really good. However the reverse, B2B and B2C payment space is still dominated by NEFT IMPS RTGS CASH and cheques.

In B2B B2C online payment pain point is elaborate KYC, adding account details to the corporate bank account and then making payment via a 2stage maker, approver system.

It takes 10sec for C2B payment of Rs 10k however it takes a business 3-4 days to make a Rs 10k to a vendor.

This is incorrect, both factually and in terms of the effect on B2B that you describe.

[*]There is no KYC (beyond what the banks already hold for payer and payee) required for NEFT or RTGS (whether B2B or B2C is irrelevant, it applies to any payee). You just need their account number and IFSC code. Adding a payee for NEFT is a 5 min process with most banks and it is usually available for transactions either immediately thereafter or with some banks after a cooling off period of a few hours.
[*]Adding a payee for NEFT and RTGS (and IMPS for that matter) makes sense as these are typically not small ad-hoc payments but larger sums/recurring payments and it makes sense to have a couple of additional steps to prevent mistakes or accidental transfers.
Once payees have been added:
[*] IMPS transactions are instantly credited, 24x7x365
[*] RTGS transactions are instantly credited (RT in RTGS stands for Real Time), between 7AM-6PM on working days. RTGS payments are typically for larger sums (lakhs) and it makes sense to do it during working hours so that accounts team at both ends can verify.
[*] NEFT transactions take up to 2 hours (max; typically half hour) and are now enabled for 24x7x365

So the only difference between UPI and the other payment modes is the extra caution/due diligence necessitated by the nature of the transactions, and for B2B transactions they are probably easier in the long term as you are working with an already defined and verified payee rather than running the risk of accidentally transferring to the wrong number/account each time you do a repeat transaction.

If a business/vendor has cited lead times for IMPS/NEFT/RTGS as an excuse for delaying the payment, it is probably just the old habit of dragging their feet on making the payment, rather than the actual limitations of the system.

csaurabh · Post by **csaurabh** » 11 Nov 2020 14:03

tandav wrote: It takes 10sec for C2B payment of Rs 10k however it takes a business 3-4 days to make a Rs 10k to a vendor.

This is quite ridiculous, what world do you live in.
It just takes half an hour to approve adding a beneficiary (vendor) - one time only- and then you can transfer to them any time using NEFT/IMPS. Just GST number needs to be quoted in the invoices.
B2B transfers are beyond smooth running. Really no complaints here.

JTull · Post by **JTull** » 11 Nov 2020 14:43

Bart S wrote:
JTull wrote:
About $1.67bln per day! I hope a desi alternative to PayTM, Google Pay and WhatsApp stands up. All this data is incredibly valuable!
I hope you realize that the system is already desi and that those apps are essentially just a user interface to access the UPI system. There are a dozen plus desi bank-owned apps and several others like PhonePe, Airtel, Jio etc that are alternatives.

Counter question would be why the three vendors mentioned above are in this business? UPI is just the back-bone. Solutions from desi banks cannot compete with these players. This needs a desi FinTech solution. The big 3 telecom companies need to create a common platform. [Whine] But RIL is too busy trying to create a captive (read, monopoly) business by selling off stakes to key phoren players.[/Whine]

Bart S · Post by **Bart S** » 11 Nov 2020 15:00

JTull wrote:
Bart S wrote:
I hope you realize that the system is already desi and that those apps are essentially just a user interface to access the UPI system. There are a dozen plus desi bank-owned apps and several others like PhonePe, Airtel, Jio etc that are alternatives.
Counter question would be why the three vendors mentioned above are in this business? UPI is just the back-bone. Solutions from desi banks cannot compete with these players. This needs a desi FinTech solution. The big 3 telecom companies need to create a common platform. [Whine] But RIL is too busy trying to create a captive (read, monopoly) business by selling off stakes to key phoren players.[/Whine]

No, the reason why Google Pay or Whatsapp Payments have market share have nothing whatsoever to do with Fintech, just convenience for users. I use Google Pay because it is simple and hassle free due to it being a single-purpose app but would just as happily use a couple of bank apps if needed. To tackle them would need alternate homegrown digital platforms (like WeChat in China) in general and NOT Fintech ones per se. In any case unlike with a completely private/proprietary platform (like PayTM started out with initially) the govt/RBI still collects most of the data here, which would otherwise be monopolized by the likes of Google or Facebook/Whatsapp.

Also, Reliance is working on payment platforms, just not customer focused. They are focused on retail/kirana type businesses. This won't target GPay etc as you rightly mentioned, but it will take a big chunk out of the Visa/Mastercard type cos market, especially their future marketshare growth.

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 11 Nov 2020 15:04

Cabinet approves PLI scheme for 10 sectors worth Rs 1.46 lakh crore; auto sector gets biggest share
Total allocation under PLI may likely be of about Rs 1.46 lakh crore over five years

Lakshman Roy//Last Updated : Nov 11, 2020 01:54 PM IST | Source: Moneycontrol.com

The Union Cabinet has on November 11 approved Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for 10 sectors, sources told CNBC-Awaaz. Total allocation under PLI may likely be of about Rs 1.46 lakh crore over five years. Among sectors, auto components and automobile sectors have received the maximum incentive of Rs 57,000 crore, the sources said. Other sectors include advance cell chemistry battery, pharmaceuticals, food products and white goods.

As per the scheme, the Centre will provide incentives on additional production and will allow companies to export products made in India, they added.

(This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.)

Read Full article from here--->>>> Moneycontrol Article Link
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/busin ... 03181.html

nash · Post by **nash** » 11 Nov 2020 19:00

https://twitter.com/KirenRijiju/status/ ... 1261407232

Union Cabinet chaired by PM Sh @narendramodi
ji today approved Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme of nearly 2 lakh crores for 10 key sectors.
This will make Indian manufacturers globally competitive, attract investment and enhance exports.
#NewIndia #AtmanirbharBharat

Good to see they are encouraging telecom, consumer and other industrial electronics, not just mobile phone.

george · Post by **george** » 11 Nov 2020 19:17

JTull wrote:
Vips wrote:UPI hits 2 billion payments mark in October on festive, Covid push.
About $1.67bln per day! I hope a desi alternative to PayTM, Google Pay and WhatsApp stands up. All this data is incredibly valuable!

Its called Bhim!

Though, its not gonna give you 'cash back'

tandav · Post by **tandav** » 12 Nov 2020 09:15

csaurabh wrote:
tandav wrote: It takes 10sec for C2B payment of Rs 10k however it takes a business 3-4 days to make a Rs 10k to a vendor.
This is quite ridiculous, what world do you live in.
It just takes half an hour to approve adding a beneficiary (vendor) - one time only- and then you can transfer to them any time using NEFT/IMPS. Just GST number needs to be quoted in the invoices.
B2B transfers are beyond smooth running. Really no complaints here.

The process to add account requires information from vendor. Check to see if the data is correct and then the addition to Corporate account. In many business vendors are one time buys. We don't buy from them again and again.

You probably do not use the different account adder, maker, approver system. In most corporates the process is...
1) finance head has to verify vendor data and bank account such as scan of cheque with ifsc and account detail. Involves submitting vendor data to corporate database
2) login to Corporate account and add the new vendor in most banks this is atleast 30 mouse clicks and atleast 1 OTP and 30min wait
3) Once vendor is added accounts team has to prepare check which is another 30 mouse and keyboard movements
4) authorizer has to login and another 30 mouse and atleast 1 otp to process payment via NEFT IMPS RTGS

The key issue is step 1 where payment can be made to account and ifsc . I have had a case in past where an accounts person of a vendor submitted their personal account number in vendor invoice and when we paid it became a huge issue. For added safety generally I make small payment to vendor take confirmation and then make full payment

I have moved one time vendor payment to a UPI enabled platform however the pain points in UPI is frequent failure of payment though account gets debited.

Interesting you can make UPI payment to any bank account using
Direct from BHIMapp. It generally show account holder name when the payment page comes up. Only issue is only 40K allowed per day

accountnum@IFSCCODE.ifsc.npci
Example
34445678@KKBK000345.ifsc.npci

tandav · Post by **tandav** » 12 Nov 2020 09:21

There are many MSME whose vendors are small time folks doing assigned project work. The business there does not have huge transactions but many small transactions to pop up subvendors around 2k to 40k range.

nandakumar · Post by **nandakumar** » 12 Nov 2020 10:17

tandav wrote:
csaurabh wrote:
This is quite ridiculous, what world do you live in.
It just takes half an hour to approve adding a beneficiary (vendor) - one time only- and then you can transfer to them any time using NEFT/IMPS. Just GST number needs to be quoted in the invoices.
B2B transfers are beyond smooth running. Really no complaints here.
The process to add account requires information from vendor. Check to see if the data is correct and then the addition to Corporate account. In many business vendors are one time buys. We don't buy from them again and again.

You probably do not use the different account adder, maker, approver system. In most corporates the process is...
1) finance head has to verify vendor data and bank account such as scan of cheque with ifsc and account detail. Involves submitting vendor data to corporate database
2) login to Corporate account and add the new vendor in most banks this is atleast 30 mouse clicks and atleast 1 OTP and 30min wait
3) Once vendor is added accounts team has to prepare check which is another 30 mouse and keyboard movements
4) authorizer has to login and another 30 mouse and atleast 1 otp to process payment via NEFT IMPS RTGS

The key issue is step 1 where payment can be made to account and ifsc . I have had a case in past where an accounts person of a vendor submitted their personal account number in vendor invoice and when we paid it became a huge issue. For added safety generally I make small payment to vendor take confirmation and then make full payment

I have moved one time vendor payment to a UPI enabled platform however the pain points in UPI is frequent failure of payment though account gets debited.

Interesting you can make UPI payment to any bank account using
Direct from BHIMapp. It generally show account holder name when the payment page comes up. Only issue is only 40K allowed per day

accountnum@IFSCCODE.ifsc.npci
Example
34445678@KKBK000345.ifsc.npci

It has been a long time since I worked in a commercial organisation. So my knowledge is a bit outdated. My recollection is that the invoice has a mention about payment by account payee cheque favouring XXX Company which is usually the name in which the invoice had been raised. The same process can be modified slightly where the account number together with the IFSC Code of the bank branch should do the trick. Any payment to the account number/IFSC Code mentioned in the invoice should be a valid discharge of the claim. So the question of crediting a wrongful beneficiary doesn't arise, in my opinion.

csaurabh · Post by **csaurabh** » 12 Nov 2020 10:31

tandavji, I have been making these kind of small payments (2k-40k) to vendors for a while now. There has not been a single case where the vendor has misrepresented himself or given a wrong bank account number. In fact the company bank accounts are directly tied to GST number and both are mentioned on proforma invoices which are a norm nowadays.

If you are communicating with vendor on whatsapp, the entire process is exceedingly smooth. I can see how it would be a problem if multiple people are involved in a large company, but it is an internal problem of the company itself.

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 12 Nov 2020 14:34

More clarity emerges for second round of PLI scheme................

Cabinet gives in-principle nod to PLI in 10 sectors, sops worth Rs 1.4 lakh crore likely
By Yogima Seth Sharma & Kirtika Suneja, ET Bureau Last Updated: Nov 11, 2020, 06:33 PM IST

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday has given in-principle clearance to Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme for ten sectors including white goods, auto, auto components and battery manufacturing wherein sops worth Rs 1.47 lakh crore would be given over the next five years, sources said.

Those under discussion were............
battery manufacturing, auto components, network products, textiles, food processing, solar photovoltaic cells, genomics, artificial intelligence, 5G, robotics and drones.

A bulk of the outgo will be directed to sectors such as auto, auto components and battery manufacturing, followed by solar photovoltaic cells, according to sources.

The government has identified 24 focus sectors as part of its manufacturing push via the PLI and PMP schemes. These include footwear, ceramics and glass, ethanol, ready-to-eat food, aluminium, gym equipment, toys and sporting goods, drones, robotics and electric vehicle equipment. Of these, a few sectors have been identified as priorities with potential for domestic manufacturing and import substitution through import restrictions and quality control orders such as toys and footwear.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ne ... content=23

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 12 Nov 2020 15:15

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 12 Nov 2020 15:42

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announces 'Aatmanirbhar' Package 3.0

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said the Indian economy is witnessing a strong recovery after a long and strict lockdown. Addressing a press conference to announce more stimulus measures to boost growth, she said macro-economic indicators are pointing towards recovery. Her address came a day after the the Union Cabinet approved a ₹2 lakh crore production-linked incentive (PLI) package to boost demand in the country.

Here are the highlights from FM Sitharaman's press conference:

- ₹900 crore provided for Covid Suraksha Mission for research and development of the Indian Covid-19 vaccine to the Department of Biotechnology

- ₹3,000 crore will be given to EXIM Bank for promotion of project exports through Lines of Credit under IDEAS Scheme.

-An additional outlay of ₹10,000 crores will be provided for PM Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana in the current financial year, to boost rural employment.
- ₹65,000 crore to be provided for subsidised fertlisers. This will help 140 million farmers.

-For primary residential real estate sales, relief on the difference between circle rate & agreement value up to 20% vs 10% earlier.

-Income tax relief for developers and home buyers.

-Support for Construction & Infrastructure-Performance security on contract to be reduced to 3% instead of 5%. Earnest Money Deposit will not be required for tenders and will be replaced by Bid Security Declaration. Relaxations will be given till 31st December 2021.

-This extra budgetary resource being provided will help 12 Lakh houses to be grounded & 18 Lakh houses will get completed as a result.

- ₹18,000 crore will be provided over and above the budget estimate which was mentioned in the Budget 2020-21 under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. particularly for the urban areas.
- ₹1.46 lakh crore boost for Aatmanirbhar Manufacturing Production-linked incentive for 10 champion sectors.

-Guaranteed credit support for 26 stressed sectors identified by the Kamath Committee. Original ECLGS had one year of moratorium and 4 years of repayment, the new scheme will have 1-year moratorium and 5 years of repayment.

--The existing Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme extended till 31st March 2021.

-If new employees of requisite number are recruited from October 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, the establishments will be covered for the next two years

-Every EPFO registered organisations - if they take in new employees or those who had lost jobs b/1 March 1 & Sept 30 - these employees will get benefits.

-Establishments registering with EPFO after the commencement of Scheme to get subsidy for all new employees. Scheme to be in operation till 30 June 2021.
-Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Protsahan Yojana was implemented up to 31.03.2019. It had covered all sectors and is expected to run for 3 years. So even if someone joined the scheme on 31.03.2019, they would be covered under that existing scheme from then three years

-Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0: Finance Minister announced new job scheme called Atma Nirbhar Rozgar Yojana to create jobs in the country. The new scheme will be effective from 1 October 2020

- ₹1,32,800 crores have gone as income tax refunds to 39.7 lakh taxpayers

-SBI Utsav cards being distributed, under the festival advance scheme announced on 12th Oct11 states sanctioned ₹3,621 crores as an interest-free loan towards capital expenditure

-Under the Emergency Credit Liquidity Guarantee Scheme, a total amount of ₹2.05 lakh crores has been sanctioned to 61 lakh borrowers, out of which ₹1.52 lakh crores has been disbursed
- ₹7,227 crores disbursed under the Special Liquidity Scheme for NBFCs/HFC

-Credit boost has been given to 2.5 crore farmers through Kisan Credit Cards, ₹1.4 lakh crores has been distributed to farmers.

- ₹25,000 crores has been disbursed to farmers from Additional Emergency Working Capital Funding through NABARD.

-The work has commenced on creating a portal for migrant workers.

-There has been very good progress on 'One Nation-One Ration Card' in 28 states covering 68.8 crore beneficiaries.

-About 157.44 lakh eligible farmers have received Kisan Credit Cards and sanctioned a limit of ₹1,43,262 crore in two phases.

-26.2 lakh loan applications were received under the PM SVANidhi scheme for street vendors.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 12 Nov 2020 15:46

India In Historic Technical Recession, RBI Says In First "Nowcast"

India's economy probably shrank for a second straight quarter, according to a team of economists including Michael Patra, the central bank's deputy governor in charge of monetary policy, pushing the country into an unprecedented recession.

Gross domestic product contracted 8.6 per cent in the quarter ended September, the Reserve Bank of India showed in its first ever published 'nowcast,' which is an estimate based on high-frequency data. The economy had slumped about 24 per cent in April to June.

"India has entered a technical recession in the first half of 2020-21 for the first time in its history," the authors wrote. The government is due to publish official statistics on November 27.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 12 Nov 2020 15:53

Goldman Sachs Upgrades India As Economic Activity Gains Pace, Raises Nifty Target

Goldman Sachs turned bullish on India on hopes of a rebound in corporate earnings and economic growth picking up pace after the lockdown curbs were eased across the country. “Our Asia strategy team upgraded India to ‘overweight’ and revised its Nifty target to 14,100 by end-2021,” the global investment bank said in a note. The revised target implies a potential upside of 13% from the current level. Goldman Sachs had downgraded India to ‘marketweight’ in April expecting a significant contraction in economic activity after the coronavirus outbreak, and a delayed recovery compared to some of its North Asian peers.

Ambar · Post by **Ambar** » 12 Nov 2020 18:45

40% of EMI debit requests bounce in October.

https://www.financialexpress.com/indust ... m/2125914/

Unfortunately they haven't given a breakup of the types of loans (credit cards, auto, mortgages etc), but 40% delinquency rate is shocking. In the west, during the peak of 2009-10 recession, the monthly delinquency rate stood at ~5% for comparison. I suspect a large number of these delinquencies is on credit cards, personal loans and auto loans. On credit card and personal loans front in India last year i noticed the marketing push and the promise of "easy approval" reminded me of 2004-07 period. Similarly, with auto loans stretching out to 84 months on a fast depreciating asset, i suspect quite a few loans are under water. The recovery on some of these loans will be much harder if the borrower does not return to the towns/cities where the loan originated because of job loss etc.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 12 Nov 2020 23:44

The PLI scheme has been an unexpected success so far, generating significant new investment commitments that will generate tens of billions in annual exports from the next fiscal year on. No wonder that GoI has committed so much more - always a good idea to strongly back a policy that hits the sweet spot of what the industry desires.

I say 'unexpected' because devising that right combination of policy is an exercise in calibration and some luck and often takes some years of tinkering , e.g. Make In India didn't immediately drive domestic manufacturing. Once a good approach is found, it's important to back it strongly so that industry aligns itself around it.

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 13 Nov 2020 03:15

https://www.bloombergquint.com/business ... t-lockdown
India Company Profits Rebound After Worst Decline in a Decade

Key Highlights Energy and financials posted the best profit growth on average. State-run refiner Indian Oil Corp.’s net income of 62.3 billion rupees ($840 million) compares with 5.63 billion rupees a year earlier as its refineries operated at an average capacity of 93%. Materials and consumer discretionary companies posted the biggest earnings surprises. Most banks beat estimates, buoyed by inter

Materials and consumer discretionary companies posted the biggest earnings surprises. Most banks beat estimates, buoyed by interest income and lower provisioning as retail lending recovered.

Vamsee · Post by **Vamsee** » 13 Nov 2020 21:39

India’s Forex Reserves Surge $7.78 Billion To Record High of $568.5 Billion

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 13 Nov 2020 23:27

Catching up with the bear:

Code: Select all

1 China	      3,266,286	
2 Japan	      1,389,779	
3 Switzerland	1,015,321	
4 Russia     	587,600	
5 India	      568,494

Shanmukh · Post by **Shanmukh** » 13 Nov 2020 23:31

Deleted.

tandav · Post by **tandav** » 14 Nov 2020 01:56

csaurabh wrote:tandavji, I have been making these kind of small payments (2k-40k) to vendors for a while now. There has not been a single case where the vendor has misrepresented himself or given a wrong bank account number. In fact the company bank accounts are directly tied to GST number and both are mentioned on proforma invoices which are a norm nowadays.

If you are communicating with vendor on whatsapp, the entire process is exceedingly smooth. I can see how it would be a problem if multiple people are involved in a large company, but it is an internal problem of the company itself.

As a simple test please add your friend account number to your corporate bank with a changed FICTIONAL name. Make a small payment to account. You will find that payment will be accepted. Meaning names are not checked / cross verified by the NEFT system when payment is made. I have a video that shows account successfully debited and credited to person with false name

This implies that anyone can put any account number on invoice. In our case the vendor account person had put their own personal account details into invoice and taken our payment to their personal account. In many small companies the accounts person on receivables side can submit company invoices with their own account on company letterhead and tell management that payment is not received and pocket that amount. Its fine when amount are small however many times if payment of few lakhs are made by vendor to a wrong account then the process of rectification is very very long especially if fraudster goes AWOL

isubodh · Post by **isubodh** » 14 Nov 2020 10:06

tandav wrote:
As a simple test please add your friend account number to your corporate bank with a changed FICTIONAL name. Make a small payment to account. You will find that payment will be accepted. Meaning names are not checked / cross verified by the NEFT system when payment is made. I have a video that shows account successfully debited and credited to person with false name

No need of experiment. Its stated fact that names are not verified. Only IFSC code n account number are used. They got rid of this check few years back.

Sicanta · Post by **Sicanta** » 14 Nov 2020 11:05

In addition, the banks software flags this transaction and holds the money in sundry account till it is verified by an official.

tandav · Post by **tandav** » 14 Nov 2020 14:05

I have tried it again today see what happens. The amount was debited but has not been credited to the other account. Will update if the money comes back

tandav · Post by **tandav** » 14 Nov 2020 15:13

tandav wrote:I have tried it again today see what happens. The amount was debited but has not been credited to the other account. Will update if the money comes back

I wonder if the software mentioned is standard for all banks or is it implemented differently for different banks. I have also faced any issue in UPI payment IDs.

In other payment related gaffes The UPI payment ID is typically mobnumber@upi however most apps allow you to create your own yourname@oksomebank . I have mistaken paid someone else instead in UPI also.

jayaram99@oksomebank got mixed up jayram99@oksomebank

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 15 Nov 2020 17:50

Indian economy may be recovering faster than anticipated: Oxford Economics

The Indian economy is seen recovering faster than expected and the Reserve Bank is likely to have come to an end of the rate easing cycle, according to global forecasting firm Oxford Economics.

It further said that inflation is expected to average significantly above 6 per cent in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal and the RBI may hold policy rates in December monetary policy review meeting.

"Consumer inflation rose back to pre-virus highs in October, with almost every broad category other than fuel experiencing a rise in prices. While Q4 is likely to mark the peak for inflation, we have turned more cautious on the trajectory over 2021," it said.

At the same time, robust bottom-up activity data suggest that the economy may be recovering faster than we anticipated. As such, we see an increasing possibility that the RBI's easing cycle has ended," Oxford Economics said.

Moody's Investors Service has also revised upwards its GDP forecast for India to (-) 8.9 per cent contraction in the 2020 calendar year, as the economy reflates after a long and strict nationwide lockdown but added the recovery is patchy.