INDIAN ECONOMY: OVERVIEW, GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
PUBG LITE pre-registration event starts in India
The lighter version of the Battle Royale game PUBG has opened up for registration. PUBG wants to expand in India and tap a large section of the population that do not have high-end gaming PCs. As the name PUBG Lite suggests, the game is built to cater to people who do not have access to expensive gaming hardware. PUBG Lite is already available in 15 countries, the majority of them being in Asia.
PUBGs mobile version has contributed to the success of the game in India. With dirt cheap data rates and reasonable mobile spec requirements, PUBG Mobile has managed to dominate the mobile gaming scene in the country. But PUBG on PCs has still not taken off, owing to its typically high-end requirements. And now, PUBG Lite registrations have opened up in all SAARC countries. The pre-registration event started on June 20 and will go on for the next 13 days. The last date for registering for the PUBG beta is July 3.
During the registration period, the players who were looking forward to the game will be able to create an account on PUBG Lite’s website for free. On the other hand, the existing PUBG account holders can directly login using their credentials. Once the player is in, the user will have to click on the ‘Participate in Event’ button and link their accounts with their existing accounts on Steam, Xbox and PS4. The users who participate in the event will be eligible for special awards as well.
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Only 33percent women take independent investment decisions as compared to 64percent men
Only half of Indian women take independent investment decisions as compared to men, even as a large proportion of the industry workforce are females, according to a study.
According to the findings of DSP Winvestor Pulse 2019 Survey in association with research agency Nielsen, just 33 per cent of women take independent investment decisions as compared to 64 per cent of men.
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Mutual fund industry wants new govt to act on consumption, investment
The industry welcomed Modi’s win for a second term, saying this will ensure policy certainty.” market will focus on steps taken by the government to encourage investment and give push to consumption, which is hitting a soft patch,” Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Nilesh Shah said in a statement. He added that the voters have shown a “maturity” in voting the same government, which will help do away with the policy uncertainty. Industry body Amfi’s Chief Executive N S Venkatesh said he expects the political stability to drive pro-reform economic agenda. “We now look forward to the new government creating a conducive investing environment for the financial asset class,” he said. The new government will have to “deftly” handle issues like head winds like growing oil prices and global trade wars which are being faced by the economy, LIC Mutual Fund’s Head of Product and Business Development Lav Kumar said. He added pace of reforms in various sectors will gain pace and the growth rate will also accelerate. As per the results and trends available, the National Democratic Alliance is set to retain power, with the BJP alone having single party majority.
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Sobha share price falls 11percent post block deal
Sobha Developers share price fell in trade amid reports of block deal in the stock. According to media reports, 40.15 lakh shares of the realty developer changed hands at a deal price of Rs 507.10 in block deals worth Rs 203.63 crore. Sobha Ltd share price has fallen after three days of consecutive gain. Sobha Ltd stock touched an intraday low of Rs 500, down 11.00percent on BSE. The small cap stock’s market capitalisation slumped to Rs 4,922.77 crore. Sobha Ltd saw 52.40 lakh shares changing hands amounting to turnover of Rs 266.05 crore on BSE. Sobha share price hit its 52-week high of 585 on June 13, 2019 and fell to its 52 week low of 380.50 on October 10, 2018. Meanwhile, Sensex was trading 223 points lower at 39,377 level. Nifty too fell 57 points to 11,774 level.
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First GST meet under Nirmala Sitharaman begins
Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman is chairing her first GST Council meeting which has begun to take crucial decisions on myriad proposals. Sitharaman replaced Arun Jaitley as new FM under the Modi 2.0 government as he decided to opt out on health grounds. Speculations are rife that the Council in its 35th meeting under the new FM could consider slashing Goods and Service Tax (GST) on electric vehicles to 5 per cent from 12 per cent. Other topics that are likely to be discussed during the GST meeting are tax evasion issue, extension of the tenure of the National Anti-profiteering Authority till 2020, electronic invoices system, the revenue position of states, the new return filing system, setting up an appellate tribunal for north-eastern states and another one for all Union Territories (UTs), levy of GST on extra-neutral alcohol (ENA) used in manufacturing liquor for human consumption.
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Solar needs an aggressive push to reach the 2022 target
India’s plans of reaching 100 Gigawatt (GW) of solar installations by 2022 may fall short of the target by almost 30 per cent, unless further aggressive incentives are offered and focus is given more on rooftop installations, experts say. A recent Mercom India Research report estimated India’s cumulative installed solar capacity reached 30 GW at the end of the first quarter of 2019. However, rooftop installations still only make up 12 per cent of total solar installations and the country has achieved only 9 per cent of its targeted rooftop capacity addition of 40 GW by 2022.
Despite the hype and incentives, solar installations in the country are slowing down. Though the first quarter of 2019 saw a 4 per cent jump in installations to 1,737 megawatt (MW) but when compared to the 1,638 MW installed in Q4 2018, it was down 49 per cent compared to 3,377 MW added in the first quarter of 2018.
Investments in the sector were over $2.8 billion in the first quarter, though 12 per cent lower compared to investments made in the first quarter of 2018. The report notes that while 85 per cent of the installations were large scale, only 15 per cent accounted for rooftop solar. Rooftop installations fell by 33 per cent year-on-year with capacity additions of over 260 MW in the first quarter of 2019, compared to 390 MW in Q1 2018.
According to the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), 75 GW of renewable capacity has been installed across India, 28 GW has been auctioned and 37 GW of capacity is under various stages of tendering and bidding with a view to come on stream in the next couple of years. Of the 22 GW odd auctions awarded, most were awarded at below Rs 3 per unit.
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Defence ministry invites private players to build 6 submarines
The Indian Navy has issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) for shortlisting potential strategic partners for the construction of six P-75 (I) submarines, the defence ministry said on Thursday. A major boost to the ‘Make In India’ initiative, the project would cost nearly Rs 45,000 crore.
“As a major initiative towards ‘Make in India’, the government immediately on taking over has issued the Expression of Interest(s) for shortlisting of potential Indian Strategic Partners (SPs) for “Construction of six Conventional Submarines” for P-75(I) Project of the Indian Navy on June 20,” the Navy said.
The government with this programme under its flagship Make in India initiative has taken a decisive step towards developing advanced submarines for the naval branch of the Indian armed forces. This is the second such project undertaken by the NDA government under the latest Strategic Partnership (SP) Model where private players are invited to bid for a major defence contract. The first project cleared by the government was the procurement of 111 Naval Utility Helicopters (NUH).
This new initiative would provide a big boost to the indigenous design and construction capability of submarines in India and will bring in the latest submarine design and technologies, the Navy said.
“The Indian companies would be shortlisted based on their capability for integration of system of systems, expertise in shipbuilding domain and the financial strength. The OEMs would be shortlisted primarily based on their submarine design meeting the Indian Navy’s Qualitative Requirements and qualifying the Transfer of Technology and Indigenous Content (IC) criteria,” the Defence Ministry said.
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10.43 Lakh jobs created in April
Net employment creation in the formal sector was reported at 10.43 lakh in April 2019, according to the latest EPFO payroll data. In the twenty-month period since September 2017, April 2019 has the highest net job creation numbers. It’s also the first time that formal job creation as per EPFO has crossed level of 10 lakh for a single month.
As per the release, 61.12 lakh jobs were created in the financial year 2019. While 15.52 lakh jobs were created in the seven-month period starting from September 2017 to March 2018. Bringing the total job creation in the twenty month since September 2017 to April 2019 at 87.08 lakh.
In April 2019, 8.78 lakh new members joined EPF while 3.35 lakh members exited EPF scheme. However close to 5 lakh members re-joined and re-subscribed to the EPF scheme.
In spite of recording the highest net job creation numbers of 10.43 lakh in April 2019, the monthly average number of net job creation has declined by over 2,000 jobs. The monthly average job creation numbers have consistently been declining after every release of EPFO.
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