Mumbai, July 31 (IANS) India is the best-performing stock market among the top five globally, and it delivered over 25 per cent return (in terms of market cap) from the beginning of 2024.

Due to a stellar rally, the total market cap of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) reached Rs 462 lakh crore (over 5.5 trillion dollars) on Wednesday.

During this period, the US stock market surged 13.50 per cent, Hong Kong rallied 4.15 per cent, Japan surged 4.02 per cent, and the China stock market gave a 13.61 per cent negative return.

The US is the world’s largest stock market with a market cap of 57.28 trillion dollars. After this, China is in second position with a market cap of 8.24 trillion dollars, Japan is in third position with a market cap of 6.49 trillion dollars, and India is in fourth position with a market cap of 5.51 trillion dollars. Hong Kong is the world’s fifth-largest stock market with a market cap of 4.92 trillion dollars.

The market capitalisation of the stock market crossed one trillion dollars for the first time on May 28, 2007. After the next 10 years, it reached 2 trillion dollars on July 10, 2017, and after the next four years it reached 3 trillion dollars on May 24, 2021, and then after more than two years, it reached 4 trillion dollars on November 30, 2023, and in the next six months, the 5 trillion dollars mark was crossed on May 24, 2024.

The meteoric rise in the Indian stock market is due to the strong performance of the GDP. In the financial year 2023-24, GDP grew at the rate of 8.2 per cent and the Economic Survey reported that GDP may grow at the rate of 7 per cent in the financial year 2024-25.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 31 (IANS) In a significant milestone, the 14 partner countries of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) have established three councils to strengthen economic cooperation in the region and India has been elected as Vice-Chair of the Supply Chain Council, the Commerce and Industry Ministry announced on Wednesday.

The step has been taken under the landmark Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Agreement relating to Supply Chain Resilience as the world looks for an alternative to China for the production of goods.

The inaugural virtual meetings of the Supply Chain Council (SCC), Crisis Response Network (CRN), and Labor Rights Advisory Board (LRAB) marked a major step forward for cooperation among partner countries for strengthening supply chain resilience in the region, the Commerce Ministry said.

Through these inaugural meetings, 14 IPEF partners reaffirmed their commitments and collective resolve to facilitate closer cooperation to strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of critical supply chains and better prepare for and respond to supply chain disruptions that pose a risk to economic prosperity while strengthening labour rights, according to the official statement.

India is expected to play a crucial role in developing a resilient Supply Chain in the Indo-Pacific region. Earlier in June 2024, Secretary, the Department of Commerce, Sunil Barthwal, at the IPEF Ministerial meeting held in Singapore, highlighted that India, with its skilled manpower, natural resources, and policy support, aims to become a major player in the global supply chain. Government initiatives are proactive in finding solutions and ensuring India’s participation in diverse and predictable supply chains.

Pursuant to the Supply Chain Agreement, the IPEF partners established three supply chain bodies — a Supply Chain Council to pursue targeted, action-oriented work to strengthen the supply chains for those sectors and goods most critical to national security, public health, and economic well-being; a Crisis Response Network to provide a forum for a collective emergency response to exigent or imminent disruptions; and a Labor Rights Advisory Board that brings together workers, employers, and governments at the same table to strengthen labour rights and workforce development across regional supply chains, the statement explained.

India shared its views on the importance of a resilient supply chain network and the ongoing consultations with stakeholders on sectors that are critical to it from the perspective of national security, public health and economic well-being. India also emphasised on the need for collaboration in skill development sector. It was stressed that identifying gaps and ensuring the right skills across our economies will be a priority, including technical assistance for workforce development and digitalisation for a resilient supply chain ecosystem.

During the meetings, each of the three supply chain bodies elected a Chair and Vice Chair, who will serve for a term of two years. The elected chairs and vice chairs are — Supply Chain Council: USA (Chair) and India (Vice Chair); Crisis Response Network: Republic of Korea (Chair) and Japan (Vice Chair); Labor Rights Advisory Board: USA (Chair) and Fiji (Vice Chair).

The Supply Chain Council adopted Terms of Reference and discussed initial work priorities, to be further explored at its first in-person meeting to be held in Washington, D.C. in September 2024 on the margins of the Supply Chain Summit. The Crisis Response Network discussed near and longer-term priorities, including conducting a tabletop exercise, and planned its first in-person meeting to be held alongside the Supply Chain Summit. The Labor Rights Advisory Board discussed priorities for strengthening labour rights across IPEF supply chains. The convening not only will advance the work of the Labor Rights Advisory Board but also focus on the labour provisions in the IPEF Clean Economy Agreement and Fair Economy Agreement, the statement added.

The IPEF partners also underscored the significance of the upcoming in-person meeting to be held in Washington, D.C. in September 2024.

IPEF was launched on May 23, 2022, at Tokyo with 14 partner countries — Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and USA. The IPEF seeks to strengthen economic engagement and cooperation among its member countries with the goal of advancing growth, economic stability and prosperity in the region.

–IANS

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Hyderabad, July 31 (IANS) Claiming that Telangana’s economy is in the pink of health due to the initiatives taken during the last 10 years, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao on Wednesday asked the Congress government not to indulge in politics and curse the state.

Speaking on the Appropriation Bill in the Assembly, Rama Rao disputed the claims of the Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka with regard to the overall economy, especially debts.

Citing statistics from Socio-Economic Outlook and Budget 2024-25 on economic indicators, he slammed the government for trying to malign the previous government with false claims.

He found fault with the ministers for calling the state cancer or AIDS patient. “This is the state we achieved after a struggle. Let us not indulge in politics and curse our own state,” he said.

Reminding Congress leaders that elections were over, the BRS leader asked them to run the government effectively and not to malign the state.

He recalled that when Telangana was formed there was uncertainty and then chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh Kiran Kumar Reddy had predicted in the Assembly that Telangana would plunge into darkness. Doubts were expressed on whether the people of Telangana would be able to govern their own state effectively. It was also said that the state would not attract new investment and even the existing investors would leave and that the state would slip into Maoist and communal violence, he said.

Citing statistics from the Socio-Economic Survey and Budget, the BRS leader said the state was ahead of many states in key economic indicators.

He mentioned that the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), which was Rs 4 lakh crore in 2014, increased to 14.64 lakh crore in 2023-24.

The per capita income grew from Rs 1,24,104 in 2014-15 to Rs 3,47,299 in 2023-24, which is Rs 1.64 lakh higher than the national per capita income. Telangana is the largest state with the highest per capita income in the country.

The state contribution to GDP increased from 4.1 per cent in 2014 to 5 per cent in 2023-24.

KTR, as Rama Rao is popularly known, also mentioned that with 74 per cent development expenditure, Telangana is at the number one position in the country.

He said Telangana’s committed expenditure comprising salaries, pensions and interest payment is 47 paise and the remaining 53 paise are available for development. The national average of committed expenditure is 56 paise.

With 80 per cent state’s own tax revenues, Telangana is one of the top three states. He pointed out that the revenue surplus in 2014-15 was Rs 369 crores while the revenue surplus during 2022-23 was Rs 5,944 crores. The revenue surplus in this budget (2024-25) is Rs. 209 crores.

He asked why the Finance Minister has been repeatedly saying that the state has become bankrupt and is borrowing money even to pay salaries to government employees.

Bhatti Vikramarka intervened to ask if it was not a fact that from 2021 to 2023-24, there was a delay of 15 to 20 days in paying salaries. He asked where the money was diverted.

KTR clarified that the delay was due to the impact of Covid on the economy. He said despite the crisis, the state government ensured the release of money for paying social security pensions, investment support to farmers and other welfare schemes.

He said when Telangana was formed its revenue was Rs. 46,000 crore and the same has now gone up to Rs. 1.20 lakh crore.

Rejecting the claim of the Congress government that the previous government pushed a revenue surplus state into a debt trap, KTR asked it to show the assets created by the previous government along with the debts.

Alleging that the Congress government is trying to mislead the house with wrong statistics, KTR said debts of only Rs 3.85 lakh crores were raised during the BRS rule.

He said worldover loans are given depending on the capacity to repay and pointed out that Telangana’s debt to GSDP ratio is only 27.8 per cent. There are 14-15 states which have higher debt-GSDP ratios while the Central government’s debt-GDP ratio is 59 per cent.

The share of debts in the state’s GSDP was 14.4 per cent in 2014 and the same has gone up to 27.8 per cent in 2022-23.

“Borrowings for investment in productive sectors are not wrong. It’s an investment in the future,” he said.

Citing the debt-to-GDP ratio of the US, Japan and Singapore, KTR said it was not wrong for a growing and aspirational economy to raise debts.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 31 (IANS) India is a key growth market for us and this year has been about scaling up by expanding our smartphone portfolio, leveraging cutting-edge design and user experience innovations into different market segments, Akis Evangelidis, Co-founder of global technology brand Nothing, said on Wednesday.

The company, which became the fastest growing brand in India in the first-half of this year by witnessing 567 per cent growth (according to Counterpoint Research), started with Phone (2a) and followed with CMF Phone 1 — “both of which became our best-selling smartphones with record sales on their respective launch days,” Evangelidis told IANS in an interaction.

He said that the product strategy has been coupled with aggressive offline expansion, including 300 service centres, with exclusive ones in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

“We plan to open two more exclusive centres by year-end,” he mentioned.

In addition to a sizeable online presence, the company have more than doubled its offline presence from 2,000 to 5,000 locations.

“In the first three years, we focused on establishing our operational foundations while navigating one of the world’s most competitive industries. Moreover, over the years, what started as design differentiation evolved into innovative user experiences in both hardware and software,” Evangelidis told IANS.

According to Counterpoint Research, Nothing was the fastest growing brand in the January-June period, driven by the introduction of new models, including the mid-segment Phone (2a) and budget-segment CMF Phone 1.

Carl Pei, Co-founder and CEO of Nothing said that while market share should be the result of creating great products, not the end goal, “I’m thrilled to see this growth”.

“This success demonstrates that we are effectively executing our strategy. The most exciting part is that this achievement is fuelling Nothing’s innovation, which will be a core focus for 2025,” said Pei.

–IANS

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Mumbai, July 31 (IANS) Indian equity indices opened in the green on Wednesday following positive cues from Asian peers.

At 9.41 a.m., Sensex was up 82 points or 0.10 per cent, at 81,542 and Nifty was up 30 points or 0.12 per cent, at 24,887.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,507 shares remained in the green and 480 shares remained in the red.

The Nifty Midcap 100 index was at 58,792, up 169 points or 0.29 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 19,146, down 60 points or 0.31 per cent.

Pharma, FMCG, metal, fin service and media indices were in the green. Realty, energy and PSU bank indices were in the red.

In the Sensex pack, NTPC, Asian Paints, JSW Steel, ITC, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, HUL and Nestle were major gainers. Tata Motors, Power Grid, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank were major losers.

Recently, SEBI proposed new rules for Futures and Options (F&O) trading to prevent speculation in the market.

According to the market experts, “SEBI’s crackdown on F&O trade is eminently desirable and can go a long way towards making the ongoing rally healthy and less speculative.”

“The irrational exuberance of the retail investors, particularly the newbies who entered the market after the Covid crash, will do more harm than good to the overall market in the long run,” they added.

There was a bullish trend in global markets. The markets of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seoul and Jakarta were bullish. However, US markets closed mixed on Tuesday.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their selling as they sold equities worth Rs 5,598 crore on July 30, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 5,565 crore on the same day.

–IANS

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