Business Today 20-Sep-20

You earn. You manage. You protect. That’s easier said than done though. Especially under the circumstances when businesses and individuals alike have their eye set on wealth erosion and wealth protection rather than wealth generation. But wealth is really in the eye of the beholder. Nothing is more awe-inspiring than super wealth generators. They remain THE role models to emulate in democratic, free economies. In the past five years, Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani, Bajaj Finance’s Sanjiv Bajaj, Minda Industries’ Nirmal Minda and GMM Pfaudler’s Ashok Patel have made investors and themselves far wealthier than their peers. Coupled with some equally impressive wealth creation at HDFC Bank, The Titan Company, Deepak Nitrite and Alkyl Amines, they represent the cream of the money spinning super-large, large, medium and emerging enterprises in the country…

You took over the leadership of SRM Technologies in the middle of the lockdown. How difficult was it to connect with an entirely new team digitally? What was the biggest challenge that you faced in doing so? I took over as the CEO of SRM Technologies in late May in the middle of complete lockdown. I only had digital tools at my disposal and the unique challenge of not only getting up to speed with a new company and its operations but also communicating with employees and stakeholders. I was quick to realise that the multitude of never-before-seen challenges presented as many opportunities as roadblocks. The biggest opportunity I would say was to disrupt the way the company has been traditionally operating, at a lightning speed, something that would have…

Forex Reserves Surge to All-time High… ($billion) …Thanks to Foreign Currency Assets and Gold FOREIGN CURRENCY ASSETS GOLD SPECIAL DRAWING RIGHTS RESERVE TRANCHE POSITION IN IMF India Now Has Fourth Biggest Reserves ($billion) Contributing Factors Lower Trade Deficit Trade Balance ($billion) Surge in Gold Prices Highest Price 24 Carat Gold (₹Per Gram) Rise in FDI Inflows Foreign Direct Investment ($billion); quarter ended…

↘ Bank credit to 13 out of 19 key industries contracted in first quarter of FY21 ↘ This was in spite of the government going all out to push banks to provide liquidity to industrial/services sectors to tide over the coronavirus-induced slowdown ↘ Credit offtake to industrial sector declined 1 per cent (v/s 2.6% fall in first quarter of FY20) ↘ In case of services, the fall was 2.6 per cent (v/s 5.4% rise in first quarter of Q1 FY20) CONTRACTION IN BANK CREDIT (Y-O-Y %)…

↘ The index of eight core industries, which was at 134 in March, had fallen to 82.3 in April. It recovered to 106.9 in May and then rose far more slowly to 112.9 in June ↘ In May and June, output of fertilisers, natural gas, cement, electricity and crude oil, recovered substantial ground and reached close to pre-lockdown levels ↘ Output of refinery products, steel and coal is still far from pre-lockdown levels. Coal output fell MoM in June M-O-M CHANGE (%)…

↘ Indian Railways carried 95.2 million tonnes of freight traffic in July (1.7 per cent more than in June) ↘ There has been a sharp recovery after the 36.6 per cent dip in April when goods movement was badly hit due to the lockdown RAIL FREIGHT TRAFFIC (Million Tonnes) Crude Oil Usage Down 22% ↘ While domestic crude oil output was down 6.9 per cent in Q1 FY21, consumption slumped 22.2 per cent due to the lockdown, as opposed to a 2.3 per cent fall in the previous year ↘ One reason for low output was massive fire at Oil India’s field in Baghjan in Assam Y-O-Y CHANGE (%)…