Business Today 30 April 2023

These are interesting times as far as the employer-employee equation is concerned. The Covid-19 pandemic—and the consequent changes it has brought about at the workplace—has led to new models being adopted, such as remote and hybrid working. Equally, a new-generation workforce across sectors has become more demanding and aspirational, and expects much more from its employers. This often leads to shorter tenures and higher attrition, where employees quit jobs because they either want a higher salary, better growth prospects or a greater opportunity to learn more on the job. On the other hand, employers are getting used to newer forms of employment like gig working, contractual staff or consultants. All this requires an overhaul of how companies view their workforce, and people managers across sectors are bracing for an entirely…

NOTE The Top 7 cities are Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Kolkata and Hyderabad S OURCE ANAROCK Research 113,770 UNITS The number of houses sold in Q1CY23 across the Top 7 cities—up 14 per cent year-on-year 23 PER CENT Rise in new launches across the Top 7 cities to 109,570 units in Q1CY23, compared to 89,140 units in Q1CY22 6-9 PER CENT The average year-on-year rise in residential property rates across the Top 7 cities in Q1CY23…

7 BSE 500 firms SAW THEIR STOCKS RALLY OVER 100 PER CENT IN FY23; THEY ARE MAZAGON DOCK SHIPBUILDERS, VARUN BEVERAGES, FINOLEX CABLES, LLOYDS METALS & ENERGY, RAIL VIKAS NIGAM, UCO BANK AND MAHINDRA CIE AUTOMOTIVE ₹6,325 per sq. ft THE AVERAGE PAN-INDIA HOUSING PRICE DURING JAN-FEB 2023. THE FIGURE STOOD AT ₹6,001 PER SQ. FT IN JAN-MARCH 2022, AS PER ANAROCK RESEARCH ₹65,000 per 10 gm LIKELY PRICE OF GOLD BY MARCH 2024, AS PER SMC GLOBAL SECURITIES’ FORECAST; SILVER IS EXPECTED TO REACH ₹82,000 PER KG BY THEN 32 per cent THE DECLINE IN BITCOIN PRICES IN FY23—FROM ₹34.52 LAKH ON MARCH 31, 2022 TO ₹23.40 LAKH ON MARCH 31, 2023 18,000 LIKELY LEVEL OF THE NIFTY BY THE END OF MARCH 2024, ACCORDING TO PRABHUDAS LILLADHER; THE…

▶ WHAT IS A MULE? Well, it’s a hybrid of a donkey and a horse typically used to carry or move things from one place to another. The word is also used as a slang to describe a person who smuggles things. And then there are mule accounts in the capital markets that too “carry” or “move” stuff, but they do it with the ulterior motive of artificially influencing stock prices. That is the reason they are high on the regulatory radar, with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch saying that rules regarding front running need to be tightened to address the menace of mule accounts. Simply put, mule accounts refer to those trading accounts that are opened to carry out front running activities, or…

▶ IN A MOVE that surprised many and threatened to prolong inflationary pressures on the global economy, oil prices spiked after 23 OPEC+ producers announced on April 2 that they would cut oil output by 1.66 million barrels per day (bpd). The move pushed oil prices up by 6.3 per cent, the highest rise in more than a year. The OPEC+ cartel—of 13 member countries and 10 other nations—is looking to further constrict oil supplies from May to support prices that had fallen within days of the Silicon Valley Bank crash in the US on March 10. “OPEC has a granular understanding of the demand-supply factors. They seem to have decided that the world economic situation is not hunky dory and that oil demand may collapse faster than what has…

▶ ALMOST NOTHING CAPTURES India’s changing entertainment viewership patterns in the way the Indian Premier League (IPL) does. Since its inception in 2008, the wildly successful cricket league—the world’s second-most expensive sports league after America’s NFL—has been a centrepiece event for broadcasters. First on Sony Entertainment Television and later, on Star Sports, IPL has driven a lion’s share of the annual revenues of sports channels. But ‘the times they are a-changin’. With the proliferation of the internet, IPL’s TV viewership has been on a steady decline, especially post the Covid-19 pandemic. After peaking in 2019 with 460 million TV viewers, IPL saw its viewership slide from 400 million in 2020 to 267 million in 2021 to 220 million last year. In 2023, it could drop even further. The ongoing 16th…