太陽系は約46億年前、銀河系(天の川銀河)の中心から約26,000光年離れた、オリオン腕の中に位置

 EX-HIMACあHAL CM AND CONG LEADER VIRBHADRA SINGH DIES AGED 87

 
Virbhadra Singh
 

Shimla : Six-time Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who crafted a distinguished political career spanning 50 years before getting embroiled in financial irregularity charges that he denied, died in Shimla on Thursday.

He was 87.

A scion of the Rampur-Bushahr royal family, Singh was a tall leader of the Congress and also served as a Union minister. The veteran leader breathed his last at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) in Shimla at 3.40 am, senior medical superintendent, Dr Janak Raj, said.

“Popular for his affable and grounded nature, he remained close to people brought about far reaching positive changes through his administrative acumen,” Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said. P7

New team starts with focus on farm, health
 

Rhythma Kaul and Zia Haq

letters@​hindustantimes.com

New Delhi : The revamped Union Cabinet announced major decisions for the health and agriculture sectors after its first meeting on Thursday, highlighting the government’s priority areas in its bid to curb a possible third wave of Covid-19 infections, and ongoing farmer protests against three central laws.

The Cabinet approved ₹23,123 crore for Covid-19 emergency response and upgrading of grassroots medical infrastructure in preparation for a future surge in infections. It also cleared a proposal to extend a flagship ₹1 lakh crore fund to agriculture produce marketing committees (APMC), the backbone of farm trade in the country.

“Important decisions regarding agriculture and farmers’ welfare have been taken in today’s Cabinet meeting,” tweeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The virtual meeting of the 30-member Cabinet took place a day after Modi dropped 12 ministers, inducted 36 new faces, and promoted seven in the first major reshuffle of the council of ministers of his second term.

The briefing was addressed by Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, and health minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

Mandaviya, who took over from Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday, said the Centre will provide ₹15,000 crore and states ₹8,123 crore in the new package that will be implemented jointly across 736 districts to improve medical infrastructure at primary and district health centres. Projects under the plan will be implemented within nine months.

“In April 2020, the first package of ₹15,000 crore was announced by the government; it has been utilised well and the results are also for all to see,” said Mandaviya.

Around 240,000 normal medical beds and 20,000 intensive care unit beds will be created, of which 20% percent will be earmarked for children, he added. Storage facilities for oxygen and medicines will also be created at the district level.

“This scheme aims to accelerate health system preparedness for immediate responsiveness for early prevention, detection and management, with the focus on health infrastructure development, including for paediatric care, and with measurable outcomes,” said a government statement. To ensure there is no oxygen supply shortage, provisions will be made in each district to have 10,000-litre storage facility.

Earlier this year, the government faced criticism from the public, judiciary and opposition parties as cases and fatalities rose sharply during the second wave this summer. Hospitals ran out of oxygen supplies, leaving patients gasping and life-saving drugs were in short supply.

The Cabinet also decided to extend the ₹1 lakh-crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to APMCs, which are government-run market yards for buying and selling farm produce. The fund is primarily aimed at creating durable farm assets, from warehouses to processing plants. The fund can now be utilised by APMCs to modernise market facilities used by farmers to sell their produce.

“There should be no apprehension about APMCs. Some people have said that the new farm laws will lead to the end of APMCs. This is not true. The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund can now be used to strengthen APMCs and will place more resources at their disposal,” Tomar said.

The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is designed to address longstanding investment gaps in the rural assets because of its concessional rates. All of the country’s 12 public-sector banks and nine private lenders are part of the fund.

“I want to appeal to protesting farmer unions to end their protest and to hold discussions. Government is ready for discussions,” Tomar said.

The fund, which figured in the ₹20 lakh crore first stimulus package to deal with the Covid crisis in 2020, aims to offer medium-to-long term debt financing for investment in farm projects.

It provides loans on easy terms totalling ₹1 lakh crore over four years, starting with a sanction of ₹10,000 crore for 2020-21 and ₹30,000 crore each for the next three financial years.

Borrowers get an interest subvention, where part of the interest is paid by the government, of 3% per annum up to a loan limit of ₹2 crore for a period of seven years.

Tomar said that as part of changes made to the fund, investors and institutions will qualify for multiple loan accounts if they invest in more than one project up to a ceiling of 25 projects provided they are planned in different areas.

“Indian agriculture has always depended more on subsidies than investments. The new fund will help correct that. It is important that the fund is managed in a way that farmers are able to achieve scale and connect with markets efficiently,” said Ananth Kumar of the TN Agriculture University.

Last year, the government passed three contentious farm laws that quickly triggered a controversy with farm unions from foodbowl states alleging that the legislation will threaten their livelihoods by forcing them to sell to corporate giants with greater bargaining powers at poor prices instead of government-run markets, which offer assured prices for cereals.

The government rejected the charges, saying the laws will bring competition and widen farmers’ market access. Despite assurances, cultivators have been sitting at Delhi’s borders in protest against the laws for nearly eight months.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said farmers are ready to talk with the government but without conditions. “They are imposing conditions that we should go to them for talks. They say that they can amend the laws but will not scrap them. Farmers have not been protesting for eight months so that they can follow the government’s orders,” Tikait told ANI.

As part of the health infrastructure plan, the government will support to all major central hospitals and other institutions of national importance.

The hospitals include Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital; RIMS, Imphal; NEIGRIMS, Shillong; PGIMER, Chandigarh, and JIPMER, Puducherry, for repurposing 6,688 beds for Covid-19 management.

National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will also be strengthened by providing genome sequencing machines, besides sanctioning scientific control room, epidemic intelligence services and Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) secretariat support.

At present, only 310 district hospitals are implementing hospital management information system that collates data coming from hospitals, and as per the plan government will provide support to all district hospitals for its implementation.

“We also look at integrating digital health systems scaling up of use of telemedicine services in the country,” said Mandviya.

Money will also be allocated for improving the information technology system, including strengthening the central Covid-19 war room, country’s Covid-19 portal, 1075 Covid help lines and the CoWIN platform that is the backbone of Covid-19 vaccine delivery management system, said the government statement quoted above.

Dedicated paediatric units will be created in all 736 districts and also paediatric centre of excellence in each state. Of the 20,000 intensive care unit beds planned for the public health care system, 20% will be paediatric ICU beds, said the statement .

“For the rest we will try to follow a hybrid model wherein ICU beds are designed in such a way that it can be utilised for both adults and children… support would also be provided to establish bigger field hospitals (50-100 bedded units) depending on the needs at tier-II or tier-III cities and district headquarters,” said Mandviya.

Experts said strengthening health care delivery system at the grassroots level is crucial.

“It is important to have a robust health care system in place in villages and small towns and if that gets strengthened than it will significantly reduce burden on tertiary hospitals,” said Dr KK Talwar, former director, PGI Chandigar

Give plan to comply on oath: HC to Twitter
 

Richa Banka

richa.banka@​htlive.com

New Delhi : The Delhi high court on Thursday pulled up Twitter for its delay in appointing the resident grievance officers, making it clear that the social media company cannot be given eight weeks to meet the terms of the new Information Technology (IT) rules, and said the Union government was free to take action if the company did not comply.

Twitter had sought eight weeks to appoint permanent grievance officers and to set up a liaison office in India, a request the court denied.

“No, no... I am not giving eight weeks,” said justice Rekha Palli, while adding: “I am not going to protect you… You have also not set up a liaison office which was another requirement under the Rules”.

Senior advocate Sajan Poovaya, representing Twitter, told the court that it was not seeking any protection. “The consequence (of non-compliance) is that the protection to intermediaries falls off. I’m not seeking any protection,” he said.

Poovaya said the company was reserving its right to challenge the rules for now, to which the judge said: “You have the right to challenge but till the Rules are there, they’re there for everybody.”

Close to 10 entities – tech companies, news websites, advocacy groups and private individuals – have challenged the new IT rules. While some, such as Facebook-owned WhatsApp, have challenged specific clauses, others, like Carnatic musician TM Krishna, have argued that the rules in entirety violate multiple provisions of the Constitution.

The government has said that the rules are an important tool to protect the rights of Indian users and compel the digital companies to respect Indian rules and regulations.

“While Twitter is striving to comply with the 2021 Rules, Twitter reserves its right to challenge the legality, validity, and vires of the Rules, and Twitter’s submissions regarding compliance are filed without prejudice to its right to challenge the Rules,” a document filed by Twitter in the high court said.

Twitter on Thursday informed the high court that it appointed an interim chief compliance officer (COO) on July 6 as a contingent worker through a third party contractor, who is a resident of India, and it would require eight weeks to replace the position with a permanent employee.

The social media intermediary also said that it is in the process of making an appointment of an Indian resident as its interim resident grievance officer (RGO) and expects to do so on or before July 11.

The company also added that it intends to employ an interim nodal contact officer within two weeks and a regular employee within eight weeks.

On yet another compliance requirement, which mandates big social media companies to publish a compliance report, the company promised to do so by July 11, the government’s deadline.

Twitter’s submission came after the high court on July 6 asked the social media intermediary to give a deadline for appointing the three grievance redressal officers. The court had warned Twitter “will be in trouble” if it doesn’t comply.

It had also pulled up the company for “misleading” the court and giving “wrong impression” on the appointment of a regular grievance officer. The court took exception to not being informed that an earlier appointment of the resident grievance officer was only on interim basis.

Proceedings in the high court started with senior advocate Poovaya telling the court that his client was making all out efforts to comply with the new IT Rules. He said that usage of “interim” would not lessen or minimise the responsibilities on these officers.

The high court, however, said: “Tomorrow you may take benefit of “interim”. This (your stand) is neither in the letter (to the Centre) nor in an affidavit.”

Responding to a query of court, Poovaya said the officers have been appointed in interim because they do not have a permanent address in India and some tax issues might crop up. To this justice Palli said, “Okay, but I am not going to protect you.”

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Chetan Sharma, for the Centre, objected to the reply filed by Twitter and said that the appointments made could not be permitted through a third party.

“This is not diplomatic parlance. We want accountability, full accountability of great servitude. It can’t be left in half-way house via third party…They’ve talked about making appointments through a third party. What is this third party? Where is it coming from? Let’s say I am a pharma or an IT company in the US…No court would give them leeway like this. I have to be in 100% compliance with the Rules,” Sharma argued.

When Poovaya said that the Centre cannot hold them for contempt for the contents of their affidavit, the court observed: “I am not going into that right now, but you are already in contempt. You had said something in the last hearing, now you are going back on it and trying to salvage the situation maybe.”

The court noted that Twitter has not filed an affidavit but has given a short memo signed by the counsel in which they stated to fully comply with the Rules, as long as there is no stay.

It granted two weeks’ time to Twitter to file hard copies of the notarised affidavit of a competent officer, along with the affidavit of the officer already stated to have been appointed and the persons who are being appointed.

Since early 2021, the company has had multiple disputes with the government, beginning with tweets relating to the farm protests that the government sought to be taken down. In recent weeks, former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has publicly spoken against Twitter for its content moderation practices, while cases have been filed against Twitter’s executives over user content.Six terrorists, two soldiers killed in three encounters

 

Six terrorists, including three from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), were killed in three separate encounters with security forces in Kashmir’s Kulgam, Pulwama and Rajouri districts on Thursday, police said. Two soldiers, including a Junior Commissioned Officer, were also killed in a fierce gun battle in Rajouri, the officials said. According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, based on inputs about the presence of terrorists, a joint search operation was launched in Puchal area of Pulwama early on Thursday. The two terrorists there fired indiscriminately, and were killed in retaliatory action. One of them was affiliated to the LeT. In Kulgam, when a suspicious vehicle was signalled to stop, two terrorists belonging to LeT inside the vehicle started firing and were killed in police action. In the Dadal area of the Sundarbani sector in Rajouri, two Pakistani terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces. htc

Govt removes post of chairman for LIC
 
 

The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will now have the post of Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director instead of the Chairman position, with the government making changes to relevant rules ahead of the insurer’s initial public offering this fiscal. The changes have been made by the department of financial services under the finance ministry by amending Life Insurance Corporation of India (Employees) Pension (Amendment) Rules. Besides, some other rules under LIC Act, 1956, have been amended. “Chief Executive and Managing Director means the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director appointed by the Central Government under section 4 of the Act (LIC Act 1956),” according to a gazette notification issued on July 7. To facilitate the listing of the insurer, the government has already approved raising its authorised share capital to ₹25,000 crore. pti

Uncertainty in Haiti after prez killed
 
 

Haitian police were on Thursday hunting for more gunmen behind the assassination of President Jovenel Moise after killing or capturing six “mercenaries”, with the nation under a state of siege. Security forces engaged in a fierce shootout with the suspected assailants in the capital, Port-au-Prince, early Wednesday after the overnight attack on the president’s private residence. Four gunmen were killed by Haitian police, and two more taken into custody, while other members of the hit squad are at large, Police chief Leon Charles said. The assassination has pitched the already impoverished and violence-plagued Caribbean nation into further turmoil. Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph declared a national “state of siege” and said he was now in charge. P15

Violence erupts ahead of local polls
 
 

Incidents of violence were reported in 17 different blocks in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday during filing of nominations for the post of block panchayat heads across 75 districts, senior police officials said. Additional director general of police (ADG), law and order, Prashant Kumar, however, said the incidents were reported from only 14 places. Kumar said that several cases have been filed, adding that directives have been issued to district police authorities to ensure stern action. The ADG also said that extra police arrangements have been ordered for Friday, when candidates can take back their nominations. A video from Sitapur, which has been widely shared on social media, purportedly shows police personnel running for shelter amid indiscriminate firing by miscreants. HT could not verify the video. P13

Necessary to control population: Yogi
 
 

It is necessary to control population growth for better living, said Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday after attending a presentation on the proposed population policy for the state amid a law commission exercise on the same. UP is the most populous state in the country with its current population estimated to be over 230 million (the 2011 Census put UP’s population at 200 million). “For providing better standard of living to all, it is necessary to control the population growth. And for development of Uttar Pradesh, it is necessary to check the population growth rate. By controlling the population, we can realise the dream of a better tomorrow,” the CM was quoted as saying in an official statement. Last month, UP state law commission chairman justice AN Mittal said there must be a law in place to check the state’s population so that future generations could get better facilities. HTC

City driving test tracks set for slew of reforms
 

Sweta Goswami

sweta.goswami@​htlive.com

New Delhi : The Delhi state transport department is rolling out a plan aimed at improving services at its automated driving test tracks by introducing an electronic queue management system, increasing operation timings, allowing people to take driving tests on all days of the week, and reducing human intervention in the testing process.

The department floated a tender on Thursday to outsource the operation and maintenance of all ADTTs in the city, transport minister Kailash Gahlot said.

“The idea is to offer a comfortable experience to applicants who visit our regional transport offices (RTOs) to give driving tests for a permanent driving licence (DL),” said Gahlot.

“To give an example, the experience will be similar to what one witnesses during visa application for countries like the UK or Japan. Currently, the entire driving test system is manned by our own government officials, which leads to a lag in service delivery as the demand is high and the manpower scarce. So, outsourcing the job will help address all these issues, while simultaneously ensuring that the quality of the service offered to customers is premium,” said the state transport minister.

Three years after the Delhi government introduced the city’s first ADTT in 2018, such tracks are operational in 10 locations.

The tender document, a copy of which was seen by HT, states that the operation hours during which driving tests will have to be conducted will be from 8am to 8pm — a 12-hour window against the seven-hour window, from 9am-4pm, currently in place for an applicant. It also says that driving tests will be conducted on all days of the week, instead of six days.

The system is likely to be put in place in three months, once the tender process is complete, officials said.

Ashish Kundra, Delhi’s transport commissioner, said that some of the operational tracks conduct tests for two-wheelers and four-wheelers sequentially. He said that, under the new system, the number of tests conducted in a single day will also increase as multiple applicants will be assessed parallelly on different tracks in a single centre.

“Our automated test tracks have already reduced human intervention and the subsequent requirement of manpower. The test results are now given immediately without any scope of manipulation. But the existing operational hours and days limit the number of people who can take the test in a day. The idea is to further remove manual intervention and create a system where the transport department only has to play a supervisory role. Once appointed, the company will have to supply trained manpower to manage the driving licence test services and maintain hardware and equipment at the sites,” said Kundra.

He said special focus will also be given to ensure people do not have to wait long at the centre for the test.

“The applicants of DL skill tests will file online applications. The facilitation/DL test executives (two at each centre), will receive the applicants and will verify the documents as per the Department’s instructions; The applicants... will be taken to the test site in batches on their turn. They will be escorted to the test site by the site manager. The applicants will be entertained using the EQMS system and no candidate will need to stand in a queue. The DL test engineer (one at each site) will ensure that the tests are taken by automated software and he will be responsible to hand over the computerised results to the MLO/MVI. He will also ensure the compliance of other provisions of CMVR i.e. seat belt, rear view mirror etc,” said the tender document.

The project will first be rolled out from ADTTs at Loni road, Rohini, Shakur Basti, Janakpuri, Sarai Kale Khan and Raja Garden. For other sites, the 12-hour shift will be decided by the transport department based on the volume of applications.

Ravindra Kumar, senior principal scientist, transportation planning and environment division, CRRI said the government should also set up other infrastructure to make its approach more holistic.

“The government should also bring in simulators to some of its centres to prep the applicants. It should also empanel a set of authorised driving schools and create a set of guidelines that need to be followed by such institutions,” he said.

Delhi currently has 11 ADTTs, and another track being constructed in Hari Nagar will be ready by next January. The transport department is in talks with Maruti, which owns two automated tracks, and Ashok Leyland, which owns one, to use their centres for driving licence tests.

The first automated driving test track was built at Sarai Kale Khan in February 2018.

HC censure for North MCD, Delhi govt over delays in paying salaries
The bench also came down on the civic body for its insistence to run six hospitals, despite not having enough resources. HT archive
 

Richa Banka

richa.banka@​htlive.com

New Delhi : The Delhi high court on Thursday pulled up the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and the Delhi government for their failure to pay salaries and pensions, and said it was “pained” to see employees approaching courts for their wages. The high court also directed the government to pay ₹293 crore due to the North MCD within 10 days.

“We are pained to see such people (employees and pensioners) coming to courts. They need to have a lawyer just to tell us that they are not being paid. You are doing your job but we are pained by the callousness. It’s shocking,” the court told the North body.

The court was hearing a clutch of petitions relating to non-payment of salaries and pensions to teachers, hospital staff, sanitation workers and engineers.

It observed that corporations are meant to not only pay employee salaries, but also make the city “world class” as well as manage health issues such as dengue, chikungunya and malaria.

A bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh also ordered the Delhi government to disburse dues to the civic body towards the second and third quarter of grant in aid (GIA) and basic tax assignment (BTA).

“Let’s agree that people are sitting in a cosy environment. Your government is no better. We want officers to act with responsibility. Tell us the money you are incurring on advertisements,” the court told the government.

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, said it was not the responsibility of the government to ensure that civic body employees are paid salaries. He said advertisements in newspapers are for dissemination of important and meaningful information.

To this, the court said, “Advertisements with a political push do not indicate meaningful advertisement. When you say that you are short of funds to give to the corporation, you are also not behaving in a prudent or responsible manner.”

The bench also came down heavily on the North body for its insistence to run its six hospitals, despite not having the resources to do so.

“You are very possessive about running your hospitals…but we can’t have a situation where on one hand, NrDMC is not able to meet its primary obligation of paying salaries and pensions, and on the other hand, it is insisting on retaining and running hospitals, which could not generate any revenue and are source of expenditure.”

It said a decision has to be taken by the corporation as to whether the hospitals can be taken over by the Centre or the Delhi gover

Grenade found in drain during clean-up draws NSG team from Manesar
A police officer who spoke to the cleaner said the man initially thought the grenade was some sort of a metal ball. sourced
 

HT Correspondent

letters@​hindustantimes.com

New Delhi : For over nine hours on Thursday, police officers on the road outside Nasirpur, an urban village in Delhi’s Sagarpur, were on high alert. Until late Thursday evening, the police team were waiting for officers from the National Security Guard (NSG) headquarters in Manesar to reach this nondescript village in a south-western corner of the Capital.

A drain cover on the footpath, with sand bags next to it, and police teams guarding it, were the focus of attention as curious passersby peeked to check what had been discovered at the spot — an old grenade, rusty on the outside, with parts of its surface chipped away by the years.

It wasn’t the police who first discovered the suspicious device.

On Thursday morning, a sanitation worker, cleaning drains as part of the civic body’s annual de-silting exercise before the monsoon, saw a round object in the drain.

A police officer who spoke to the cleaner said the man initially thought it was some sort of a metal ball. He checked with other workers, and they thought it looked like something they had seen in Hindi films — a hand grenade with the “safety pin” on.

Ingit Pratap Singh, deputy commissioner of police(south west), said: “At 11.55pm, we received a distress call on the 112 number about a sanitation worker discovering a grenade while cleaning a drain under the walkway. Immediately, the station house officer of the area rushed to the spot along with district bomb disposal team and found the old, corroded grenade at the spot. The district ballistics team safely placed it away from the crowded area, in an open space. Area around it has been buttressed using makeshift sandbags. A local police guard is posted there to ensure that no one goes near the grenade.”

Singh said police asked for the NSG’s assistance to ascertain the make and model of the grenade. Police suspect the grenade could be several decades old. They have no idea yet how it got there.

Till late Thursday evening, the NSG commandos were yet to reach the spot.

“We have been told the NSG team has left Manesar. There is nothing to worry. It is totally safe. It is an old grenade. It has the marking HE 36. Our officers wasted no time in checking it out on Google. We were told it isn’t in use these days. We alerted our senior officers, issued an alert and they have asked for the NSG. The situation is kind of funny but there is a protocol, and we have to follow it,” said an officer HT spoke to around 9pm.Equity MF inflows almost halve in June

 

Nasrin Sultana & Neil Borate

mumbai :

Net inflows into equity mutual fund schemes in June fell by half from the previous month, as many investors chose to book profits when the markets hit record highs.

According to data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) on Thursday, net inflows into these schemes stood at ₹4,608.75 crore in June, down 50% from ₹9,235.48 crore in May. It was ₹225.25 crore in June 2020.

Redemptions rose to ₹18,974.82 crore in June from ₹14,169.63 crore in the previous month and ₹13,520.03 crore in June last year. “It should be noted that prior to March 2021, the segment witnessed net outflows for eight continuous months. With the net inflows in March, April, May and now June, clearly, investors are gaining conviction back on equity markets,” said Himanshu Srivastava, associate director, manager research, Morningstar India.

According to Srivastava, June’s lower net inflows could also be due to profit-booking amid the market rally.

Domestic institutional investors, including mutual funds, insurance firms and banks, invested ₹7,043.51 crore in stock markets in June, sharply higher than the ₹2,067.23 crore in May. Both Sensex and Nifty indices gained 1% in June, touching record highs. Meanwhile, inflows into monthly systematic investment plans (SIPs) increased slightly to ₹9,155.84 crore in June from ₹8,818.90 crore in May. “Significant improvement on the coronavirus situation, along with improving recovery rate, and the pickup in vaccination drive have provided comfort to investors. Good quarterly results and positive earnings growth outlook over the long-term have alleviated concerns of any severe impact of the second wave of the pandemic on the economy. Additionally, the surge in markets despite challenges also boosted investor sentiment. These factors have prompted them to again allocate assets towards equities,” Srivastava added.

Except for the ELSS category and value/contra fund category, all the equity-oriented categories received net inflows in June. The mid-cap fund category attracted significant investments, with net inflows of ₹1,729.07 crore. However, overall net inflows into equity schemes in the first six months of 2021 disappointed. Data showed net inflows into equity schemes were at ₹4,036.25 crore in January to June of this year, compared to a robust inflow of ₹41,141.50 crore in the same period last year.

“The trend surely is in favour of Indian equities by domestic investors. It is particularly encouraging to witness the good amount of interest in dynamic/asset allocations funds,” said Akhil Chaturvedi, associate director, head of sales and distribution, Motilal Oswal Asset Management Co.

Debt mutual funds saw net outflows of ₹77,225 crore in the six months to June, including open- and close-ended funds. This is mainly on account of fixed maturity plans (FMPs) maturing and the money not flowing back into fresh FMPs.

FMPs are close-ended schemes with a fixed maturity, and investors get back the maturity value when the FMP’s term ends. Low yields have dissuaded mutual fund houses from launching fresh FMPs, experts said. The net outflow in the first half of 2021 is worse than the ₹23,414 crore that flowed out in the first half of 2020 when credit risk fears dominated the market.

“Three years back, FMPs were one of the most preferred avenues in fixed-income investing, as the yields were in the range of 8% CAGR for AAA-rated portfolios. But this calendar year 2021 tells a different story. FMPs in April-June 2021 quarter are negative by more than ₹50,000 crore. In fact, the MF industry is shying from launching FMPs for three years at such low yields as there is hardly any investor appetite for them,” said Chetan Gill, a Chandigarh-based mutual fund distributor.

Zomato set to break into India’s top 100 most valued firms
 

Ravindra Sonavane & Tarush Bhalla

mumbai/bengaluru :

Zomato Ltd’s much-awaited initial share sale could propel the 13-year-old food delivery firm into the ranks of India’s 80 most valuable companies.

At ₹76 per share, the upper end of the price band of ₹72-76 announced on Thursday by Zomato, the country’s largest food delivery platform will have a post-money valuation of ₹59,623 crore, giving it the 78th position among listed firms in India by market value. The share sale will open for subscription on 14 July.

Zomato’s valuation will be more than long-established and well-known names such as Hero MotoCorp Ltd, India’s biggest two-wheeler maker; drugmaker Aurobindo Pharma; Piramal Enterprises; Apollo Hospitals, Biocon Ltd and Bandhan Bank.

Startups such as Zomato are benefiting from an explosive growth in users as people order in everything from food to groceries instead of dining out or visiting stores during the pandemic. Some of these pandemic-era habits are unlikely to change, experts say. The growth in smartphone users has also helped these consumer startups, several of which are set to go public in India over the next few months. “The management team met more than 300 institutional investors, across markets, including the US, Europe, Asia and India. Investors recognize Zomato is the largest food delivery player in India, the first of its kind, going public. They also recognize several macro themes such as a very large growing addressable market, headroom for growth and increased adoption of technology,” said V. Jayasankar, senior executive director and head of equity capital markets, Kotak Investment Banking, which is managing the share sale.

The issue, which closes on 16 July, comprises an offer for sale of ₹375 crore by the company’s early investor—Info Edge—and a fresh issue worth ₹9,000 crore. The stock is likely to list on the exchanges on 27 July.

“Proceeds will be used for organic growth of the business, including customer acquisition, growing the delivery infrastructure and technology platform. The second is for inorganic initiatives, which will include minority share purchases or full buyouts. And the third bucket is general corporate purposes, where we will be investing up to 25% of the proceeds,” said Akshant Goyal, chief financial officer, Zomato.

Post the IPO, Zomato will have about $2 billion, or roughly ₹15,000 crore in cash in the bank, he added.

While Zomato saw a 23.5% drop in revenue from operations to ₹1,993.7 crore in FY21 on account of lockdowns, the firm said its order volumes have recovered. “In Q4 of 2021, we have seen the highest gross order volume ever for our food delivery business. We are healthy from an economic standpoint, and that will reflect in results going forward,” said Goyal.

Gaurav Gupta, co-founder, Zomato, said the company hasn’t seen an impact on order volumes in spite of restaurants opening up. “Our experience says once a consumer orders 2-3 times from a restaurant, it becomes a habit. And another thing is that for our tier-II, -III and -IV markets, we have been pleasantly surprised at the uptick. Consumers have accepted food delivery. And we believe there is still a large market of consumers who haven’t ordered from food delivery apps yet,” Gupta said.

On average, 6.8 million customers ordered food every month on Zomato in FY21, an average monthly frequency of approximately three times, the company said in its prospectus. Zomato had 169,802 delivery partners and 148,384 restaurants on the platform in March 2021. It had 1.5 million Pro Members and 25,443 Pro Restaurant Partners as of 31 March.

“With >80% contribution to revenues, food delivery is the bedrock, a two-player market now, although more competition is possible. Covid impacted revenues but helped unit economics, and sustainable level is unclear. Clarity is needed on the usage of ~45% proceeds for M&A, nutraceutical foray, etc. The technical factors may drive investor interest, which may have broader implications,” Jefferies India said in a note to its clients.

Oil cos plan InvITs to monetize assets
 
The companies may offload 26-49% of their stakes in these projects. BLOOMBERG
 

Kalpana Pathak

kalpana.p@​livemint.com

mumbai :

State-run Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) and GAIL (India) Ltd are working on infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) to monetize stakes in their pipeline networks, said three people aware of the development, operationalizing plans first announced in the Union budget.

InvITs are investment vehicles housing infrastructure assets or projects of companies that allow investors to make small investments and receive regular income. The three companies have prepared blueprints to float InvITs that will house pipelines totalling 5,000km, said one of the three people cited above, adding they may offload 26-49% of their stakes in these projects.

“These pipelines are worth lakhs of crores of rupees and, to begin with, a minority stake would be offloaded. The companies may select one or two pipelines, to begin with. The condition, however, is that the companies retain the operations and control of the pipelines,” said the person cited above.

IOCL, HPCL, and Gail did not respond to queries emailed on Monday.

“InvITs are a good model to monetize and internationally very popular too. These are very stable cash-generation assets, an attribute foreign pension funds look for. So, it would be a step in the right direction for these companies to monetize these assets and use the capital generated to invest in green energy so that their reliance on bank debt is also reduced,” said Prashant Vasisht, vice-president and co-head of corporate ratings at Icra Ltd.

Foreign pension funds scout for opportunities to invest in captive-use assets that have high utilization rates. These are called yield assets, and investors seeking high single-digit or low double-digit returns over long periods of time find them attractive.

“Whether it is a large infrastructure fund or a pension fund, people who have big pools of capital and are willing to look at this option. These are not private equity kind of returns, but infrastructure asset returns as these are considered safe investments,” the second person said.

The three public sector companies have both gas and crude oil pipelines; crude pipelines are mostly dedicated for transfer from refineries to market in the case of product and from ports to refineries in the case of crude oil.

While HPCL has a petroleum product pipeline network of 3,775km, IOCL has a pipeline network of over 14,600 km.

TCS reports 28.5% jump in Q1 net profit
 
 

Ayushman Baruah

ayushman.b@​livemint.com

bengaluru :

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) reported a 28.5% increase in fiscal first-quarter profit amid strong demand from financial services, retail and healthcare clients in the US and UK.

Profit rose to ₹9,008 crore in the three months ended 30 June from ₹7,008 crore a year earlier, the company said. Earnings, however, missed the consensus estimate of ₹9,382.5 crore in a Bloomberg survey.

June quarter revenue grew 16.4% in constant-currency terms to ₹45,411 crore from ₹38,322 crore a year ago, slightly below the consensus estimate of ₹45,748.6 crore. However, weakness in some regional markets, including India, impacted sales growth.

“We believe the impact on India revenues will be reverted in the coming quarters. Hence, we expect improving revenue trajectory and expect the company to achieve double-digit revenue growth in FY22,” ICICI Securities said in a post-earnings note.

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by firms, driving demand for software services companies such as TCS. Infosys Ltd is expected to report earnings on 14 July.

Dollar revenue for the quarter grew 21.6% from a year ago to $6.15 billion, helped by new orders worth $8.1 billion from banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and retail clients. “Our business in North America, BFSI, and retail all showed appreciable growth, which underlines the resilience of our operating model, the relevance of our offerings and, above all, the passion and dedication of our associates. Given the variants of the virus and fears of a potential third wave, we are watchful of the emerging situation and remain optimistic of opportunities in our core markets and verticals,” said Rajesh Gopinathan, chief executive officer and managing director, TCS.

“The deal pipeline is strong, and the nature of deals is distributed across large and smaller deals, which is a healthy sign,” he added.

TCS’s operating margin narrowed to 25.5% in the June quarter from 26.8% in the preceding three months due to the impact of wage hikes and an increase in hiring. “Overall, we will be able to sustain our margins to our aspirational levels,” said Samir Seksaria, chief financial officer, TCS.

Growth was led by the life sciences and healthcare vertical, which grew 7.3% sequentially in constant currency. The financial services sector, the largest vertical for TCS contributing about 30% to total revenue, grew 3.1% sequentially, while retail and consumer packaged goods, the second-largest, bounced back with a sequential 4.4% increase in constant-currency terms.

“TCS has a solid foundation for growth. It is reorganizing itself and changing its operating model to align with the requirements in the market. It has managed to control attrition and provided stability, which is a good indicator for a stable organization,” said D.D. Mishra, senior research director, Gartner.

On a trailing 12-month basis, the attrition rate stood at 8.6% in the June quarter, up from an all-time low of 7.2% in the March quarter, indicating strong demand in the industry. The company recorded a quarterly net addition of 20,409 employees in the three months ended 30 June, taking the total headcount to 509,058.

Ahead of the earnings, shares of TCS fell 0.56% to close at ₹3,257.10 on the BSE.

Govt to roll out unorganized sector database by end of JulThe aim is to enrol nearly 380 mn workers and provide them benefits during times of distress
The development comes more than a year after the exodus of migrant workers following the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of covid. PTI
 

Prashant K. Nanda

prashant.n@​livemint.com

new delhi :

The Union government will roll out the unorganized sector database by the end of July to enrol almost 380 million workers, weeks after the Supreme Court rapped the labour ministry, saying that it showed “unpardonable” apathy towards workers in the informal sector.

The development comes more than a year after the mass reverse migration of workers following the nationwide lockdown imposed on 25 March to contain the spread of coronavirus.

However, the exercise has already been delayed and the second covid wave exposed the shortcomings and also highlighted that the labour ministry has lagged behind in putting in place a national database that would help informal sector workers get welfare benefits.

Every informal sector worker will now be registered in a national database and each account will be linked with the 12-digit Aadhaar number and bank account, according to the plan of the labour ministry.

At least 300,000 common service centres and 100,000 post offices shall be roped in for the exercise, at least three government officials said requesting anonymity.

The ministry shall spend around ₹750 crore for the exercise, one of the officials mentioned above said.

“We are confident that we shall roll out the national database by the end of July. The National Informatics Centre is preparing the technology backbone at a cost of ₹45 crore. Overall, the expenditure is around ₹750 crore,” said the second official.

“States, the Centre and individuals themselves can enrol either directly or via common service centres and post offices. Once in place, the migrants and informal sector workers will be able to enjoy seamless benefits, including social security, when the government announces anything for them,” the second official said.

“A database will help the government in several ways. It will help keep track of the movement of migrants and deal better with situations such as covid-19. It can also help the governments of both the origin state and the destination state plan welfare measures, including social security provisions,” said the second official.

In the last week of June, the Supreme Court had said that the “apathy and lackadaisical attitude by the ministry of labour and employment is unpardonable”, while hearing a case related to migrants and workers in the unorganized sector.

The labour ministry had in September drawn a lot of criticism after it told Parliament that it does not have information on the number of migrant deaths during the lockdown.

An open-source database set up by a group of academicians and technology experts showed that more than 900 migrants had died because of non-covid reasons during the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus during the first wave of infections.

Work on this front remained slow for almost 10 months even after the criticism faced by the government.

On Wednesday, during the cabinet reshuffle, Santosh Gangwar was replaced as Union labour minister by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Bhupendra Yadav, who took charge of the ministry on Thursday.

Yadav will be instrumental in rolling out not only the national database but also the four labour codes on wages, industrial relations, occupational safety and social security, and maintaining a balance between workers’ welfare and pro-industry reforms.

MINT SHORTS
 

LTI completes acquisition of digital engg firm Cuelogic Technologies

New Delhi: Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI) on Thursday said it has completed acquisition of Cuelogic Technologies, a digital engineering and outsourced product development company. In June, LTI said it will acquire Cuelogic Technologies for $8.4 million (about ₹61.6 crore). The company completed the acquisition of 100% shareholding of Cuelogic on 7 July. Consequently, Cuelogic is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the company and Cuelogic Technologies Inc., US, is now a wholly owned step-down subsidiary of the company, LTI said in a regulatory filing. pti

Teachmint raises $20 million in Learn Capital-led funding round

New Delhi: Edtech platform Teachmint on Thursday said that it has raised USD 20 million (around Rs 149 crore) in a pre-series B round led by Learn Capital with participation from CM Ventures. The company plans to use the fresh funds on the development of live teaching technology as well as aid the enhancement of their product. “The funding will also fuel Teachmint’s expansion into newer markets and the hiring of skilled talent,” the company said. pti

Vahak raises $5 million in RTP Global led pre-series A round

Mumbai: Vahak, a marketplace for road transport businesses and individual commercial vehicle owners, has raised $5 million (about ₹37 crore) in pre-series A funding. The round was led by RTP Global with participation from Luxor Capital and Leo Capital. The company aims to use the funds to strengthen its tech capabilities and team, and expand its network.

ashwin ramarathinam

Backpacker hostel brand GoStops raises $1 mn in pre-series A round

New Delhi: Backpacker hostel brand GoStops on Thursday announced that it has raised $1 million (about ₹7 crore )in pre-series A round led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Yuj Ventures, the private investing arm of the family office of Xander Group founder Sid Yog. The startup plans to use the funds to aggressively grow its supply over the next 12 months.

. saumya tewari4.0

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古蹟 吉田松陰腰掛けの岩
遥か故郷の島である周防大島を望みながら、「この場こそ、三県一望の地である。
 
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古蹟 吉田松陰腰掛けの岩
近くに残念社や玖波宿場があって、見所も多いです。
 
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古蹟 吉田松陰腰掛けの岩
古蹟 吉田松陰腰掛けの岩
スポンサードリンク
 
 
 

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