Category: Finance

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Finance

Ninjacart, a Bengaluru-Headquartered Supply Chain Platform, Gets Fresh Investment From Walmart and Flipkart Group

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Money

Bengaluru, October 12: Ninjacart, a Bengaluru-headquartered supply chain platform got a major business boost after the firm got a fresh investment from Walmart, Flipkart group. Ninjacart sources fresh produce directly from farmers and quickly delivers them to retailers and businesses. This investment follows the one made by Walmart and the Flipkart Group in December 2019, as the companies continue to focus on ensuring access to high quality fresh produce for consumers and retailers. According to a report by IANS, this is the second round of funding comes at a time when Flipkart is focusing on growing its Supermart (grocery) and Flipkart Quick (hyperlocal business).

Launched in 2015, Ninjacart had earlier raised money from top funds such as Tiger Global, Accel, Tanglin, Steadview, Syngenta, Nandan Nilekani and Qualcomm, among other prominent investors. Thirukumaran Nagarajan, CEO & Co-founder of Ninjacart said that the fresh set of investments from Walmart and the Flipkart Group takes us one step closer to our vision of making food safe and accessible for the billion people and changing the way food reaches our plate.

Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group, said in a statement said that the e-grocery market in India has seen tremendous growth over the past several months as people have increasingly taken to ordering groceries and fresh produce online. “At the Flipkart Group, we are focused on ensuring that we continue to work towards developing new and innovative ways to meet our customers’ needs in this space through the growth of Supermart and the recent launch of Flipkart Quick”, Krishnamurthy said.

In the months to come, Ninjacart will use the capital to expand to new markets and build new offerings and supply chains for emerging customer segments, reports said. The firm while continue to innovate on the supply chain to make it more efficient, reliable, and profitable. The transaction is expected to close by the end October, Walmart and the Flipkart Group said, without disclosing the financial details.

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Finance

Gold Rate Today: Price of Yellow Metal Up at Rs 50,584 Per 10 Gram, Silver Jumps to Rs 61,605 Per Kg

Gold jewellery (Photo Credits: Wallpaperflare)

Mumbai, October 9: Gold and silver prices moved higher today in India, tracking firm global rates. On MCX, December gold futures were up 0.8 percent to Rs 50,584 while silver futures rose 1.8 percent to Rs 61,605 per kg on Friday.

Talking about the global markets, gold prices were higher amid optimism over a new US coronavirus relief package after President Donald Trump said talks with Congress have restarted.

Experts predict that Gold may witness choppy trade reflecting choppiness in US dollar and equity markets as more clarity is awaited on US stimulus front.

The dollar to rupee conversion has been constant since Thursday and any fluctuation today in the gold price would suggest no relation with the dollar value.

According to the Good Returns.com, the price of 24-carat 10-gram gold in Mumbai is at Rs 50,500. In Chennai, the price of the same quantity and purity of gold is priced at Rs 52,820. Customers will have to dish out Rs 53,650 for a 10-gram 24-carat gold.

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Finance

GST: Businesses Not Ready With E-invoicing Will Get 30-Day Grace Period, Here’s How E-Invoicing Will Lead to Improvement in Overall Business Efficiency

good and service tax
GST (Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons)

Mumbai, October 1: The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Wednesday announced a 30 day grace period for those businesses which are not yet ready for GST e-invoicing.

In a notification on Wednesday evening, CBIC noted that even after more than nine months of the first notification in this regard, some of these taxpayers having aggregate turnover of Rs 500 crore and above are still not ready.

According to an IANS update, the notification said, “In case a registered person has issued an invoice dated October 3, 2020, without obtaining IRNA but reports the details of such invoice to IRP and obtains the IRN of the invoice on or before 2nd November 2020 then it shall be deemed that the provisions of rule 48 (5) of the CGST Rules, 2017 are complied with and the penalty imposable under section 122 of the CGST Act, 2017 shall also stand waived.”

E-invoicing essentially involves reporting details of specified GST documents to a government-notified portal and obtaining a reference number. According to reports, the corporates, experts had strongly advocated postponement.

How will e-invoicing help?

Use of e-invoicing will make filing the returns easier as all the information will be auto-populated. It will also facilitate standardisation and inter-operability, leading to reduction of disputes among transacting parties. There will also be an improvement of payment cycles, and reduction of processing costs, which will lead to the improvement in the overall business efficiency.

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Finance Process & Business Expansion

Reliance Retail Asset Monetisation Picks Up Pace As Private Equity Firm KKR Announces Rs 55.5 Billion Investment

Reliance Market. (Photo Credit: Facebook)
Reliance Market. (Photo Credit: Facebook)

New Delhi, September 24: The retail asset monetization is picking up pace as private equity firm KKR announced a Rs 55.5 billion ($ 0.75 billion) investment in Reliance Retail. The equity firm announced the investment for a 1.28 percent stake implying a pre-money equity value of $57 billion.  This marks the second investment by KKR in a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, following a Rs 11,367 crore investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year. Bada Business ‘Retail Ka Mahakumbh’ 2020: Dr Vivek Bindra to Share Business Expansion Strategies on September 27; Click Here to Register.

On Wednesday, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) announced that global investment firm KKR will invest Rs 5,550 crore into RRVL. The RRVL is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. This investment values Reliance Retail at a pre-money equity value of Rs 4.21 lakh crore. KKR’s investment will translate into a 1.28 per cent equity stake in RRVL on a fully diluted basis.

A report by Morgan Stanley stated that the valuation is in line with the last transaction that was announced with Silverlake and compares to its retail base case valuation of $45 billion. The report said. “At these valuations, it would add 6 per cent to Morgan Stanley’s base case NAV for RIL. KKR earlier invested $1.51 billion for 2.3 per cent of Reliance Digital platforms. RIL has sold a 3 per cent stake in RIL retail till date for $1.75 billion”.

Reliance Retail Limited, a subsidiary of RRVL, operates India’s largest, fastest growing and most profitable retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls across its 12,000 stores nationwide. Adding further, the report said the firm sees capital allocation, execution and de-gearing as key to the next leg of stock outperformance. “With industry consolidation pickingup pace in telecom, retail,and global refining, we expect RIL to emerge stronger post-Covid-19 and margins to surprise as pricing power rises,” it added.

 

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Finance

Gold Rate Today: Price of Yellow Metal Slips Below Rs 50,000 Per 10 Gram, Silver Down to Rs 58,851 Per Kg

Gold jewellery (Photo Credits: Wallpaperflare)

Mumbai, September 23: The gold and silver rates slipped sharply on Wednesday, extending losses for the third day. October gold futures on MCX were down 1.2 percent to Rs 49,764 per 10 gram while silver futures slumped 4 percent to Rs 58,851. The precious metal prices have slipped sharply this week across the globe.

In comparison to last month’s high of Rs 56,200, gold is now down over Rs 6,000 per 10 gram in India. The Indian markets echoed the sentiments in the global markets, where the gold prices today slipped to a six-week low. The fall was also on the back of the dollar strengthening with the coronavirus crisis rattling sentiment in Europe.

Talking about the spot gold prices, there has been an increase of 0.02 percent in the Indian market in comparison to Tuesday’s rate, taking the value to Rs 50,640. The spot gold prices in India witnessed a marginal growth, despite global gold prices($1887.3) seeing a drop of 0.68 percent.

Customers in Mumbai will be able to buy 10-gram 24-carat gold at Rs 50,000. On the other hand, people will have to dish out Rs 53,460 for a 10-gram 24-carat gold in New Delhi. The same quantity of purity of gold can be purchased at Rs 52,070 in Kolkata. People in Chennai need to spend Rs 52,470 for a 10-gram 24-carat gold on Wednesday.

The dollar to rupee conversion has been constant since Tuesday and any fluctuation today in the gold price would suggest no relation with the dollar value.

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Finance Strategy

MSME Ministry Rolls Out New Guidelines for Pottery, Beekeeping Activities to Rejuvenate Grass Root Economy in India

Pottery (Photo Credits: Pexels)

The Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) on Thursday announced new guidelines for two more schemes which include ‘Pottery Activity’ and ‘Beekeeping Activity’. The Ministry said that for pottery activity, the government will provide assistance of pottery wheel, clay blunger, and granulator. A total of 6,075 traditional and others (non-traditional) pottery artisans/rural unemployed youth or migrant labourers will be benefited from this scheme. “It will also provide wheel pottery training for traditional pottery artisans and Press Pottery training for pottery as well as non-pottery artisans in Self Help Groups,” it added.

The Ministry had few days back announced expanding and doubling the support to Artisans who might be interested in making Agarbatti. These new initiatives of the Ministry with beneficiary oriented Self-Employment schemes, are aimed at rejuvenating the grass root economy contributing to Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

  1. For ‘Pottery Activity’ Government will provide assistance of pottery wheel, Clay Blunger, Granulator etc.
  2. It will also provide Wheel Pottery Training for traditional pottery artisans and Press Pottery training for pottery as well as non-pottery artisans in Self Help Groups.
  3. There is also provision to provide Jigger-Jolly training programme for pottery as well as non-pottery artisan in Self Help Groups.

In case of the Pottery improvements in the Scheme are:

  • Skill-development training on focused products like garden pots, cooking-wares, khullad, water bottles, decorator products, mural, etc. to SHGs of pottery-artisans has been introduced
  • Focus of the new Scheme is to enhance the production, technical know-how of pottery artisans and efficiency of potter energy kilns to reduce cost of production
  • Efforts will be made to develop necessary market linkages by tying up with exports and large buying houses

For ‘Beekeeping Activity’:

  1. In case of the Scheme for ‘Beekeeping Activity’, the government will provide assistance of Bee boxes, Tool kits etc.
  2. Under this scheme, Bee boxes, with Bee colonies, will also be distributed to Migrant workers in Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan (PMGKRA) districts.
  3. A 5 days’ beekeeping training will also be provided to the beneficiaries through various Training Centres /State Beekeeping Extension Centres/ Master Trainers as per prescribed syllabus.

A total of 6,075 traditional and others (non-traditional) pottery artisans/Rural Un-employed youth/Migrant Labourers will get benefitted from this Scheme. As Financial support for the year 2020-21, an amount of Rs.19.50 crore will be expended to support 6,075 artisans with a Centre of Excellence, with MGIRI, Wardha, CGCRI, Khurja, VNIT, Nagpur and suitable IIT/NID/ NIFT etc, for product development, advance skill programme, and quality standardization of products.

Additional amount of Rs 50.00 crore has been provisioned for setting up of clusters in Terracotta, Red clay pottery, with new innovative value added products to build pottery to crockery/ tile making capabilities, under ‘ SFURTI’ scheme of the Ministry.

To begin with, Scheme proposes to cover, during 2020-21, a total of 2,050 Beekeepers, Entrepreneurs, Farmers, Unemployed Youth, Adivasis will get benefitted from these projects/programme.

For this purpose a financial support of Rs 13 crore during 2020-21 has been provisioned to support 2,050 artisans ( 1250 people from Self Help Groups and 800 Migrant labourers), with a Centre of Excellence with CSIR/ IIT Or other Top class Institute to develop honey based new value added products. Additional amount of Rs. 50.00 crore has also been kept for developing Beekeeping honey clusters under the ‘ SFURTI scheme of the Ministry.

It may be recalled that the initiative to rejuvenate Agarbatti making at grass-root level few days back, is a step which also directed towards make India Aatmnirbhar in supply of this household consumption item. The interventions include the support to the artisans through training, raw material, innovation in the fragrance & packaging, use of new / alternate raw materials, marketing and financial support.

The program will immediately benefit about 1500 artisans, in providing sustainable employment with increased earnings. Artisans living in rural areas, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and ‘Migrant workers’ will particularly benefit from the program. In addition to enhancing employment opportunities locally, the programme will also help in capturing the export market in such products.

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Finance MSME

Indian Banks Have Sanctioned Rs 1.63 Lakh Crore Loans to MSMEs Under ECLGS, Says Finance Ministry

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (Photo Credit: PIB)
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (Photo Credit: PIB)

New Delhi, September 13: The Union Finance Ministry on Sunday said that Indian banks have sanctioned loans worth over Rs 1.63 lakh crore to MSMEs and other eligible businesses so far. These loans have been sanctioned under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for over 42 lakh borrowers and till now over Rs 1.18 lakh crore has been disbursed, the Ministry added.

Informing about the sanctioned status, the Union Finance Ministry took said in a statement, “As on 10.09.2020, as reported by Public Sector Banks and top 23 private sector banks, additional credit amounting to Rs 1,63,226.49 crore has been sanctioned to 42,01,576 borrowers. Amount of Rs 1,18,138.64 crore has been disbursed to 25,01,999 borrowers as on 10.09.2020.”

Laying down the progress of the schemes announced under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat economic package in May, the Union Ministry said that around 37 proposals involving an amount of Rs 10,590 crore have been approved under the Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme for NBFCs, housing finance companies and micro-finance institutions till September 11. Adding more, it said, six more applications seeking financing of Rs 783.5 crore are under process.

On the Rs 30,000 crore Additional Emergency Working Capital Funding for farmers through NABARD, the ministry said that as on August 28, 2020, Rs 25,000 crore has been disbursed. The balance amount of Rs 5,000 crore under the Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) has been allocated to NABARD by the RBI for smaller NBFCs and NBFC-MFIs. Also, ANABARD is finalising operational guidelines to roll it out soon.

Apart from this, the Centre said that NABARD has also launched Structured Finance and Partial Guarantee scheme in collaboration with two agencies and banks to help unrated NBFCs and MFIs to get credit from lenders. The mechanism will enhance eligibility of credit by 5-6 times to those small MFIs who do not have any rating.

Among other details, the ministry said that refunds of over Rs 1.01 lakh crore have been issued to more than 27.55 lakh taxpayers between April 1, 2020, and September 8, 2020. Also, income tax refunds of Rs 30,768 crore have been issued in 25,83,507 cases and corporate tax refunds of Rs 70,540 crore have been issued in 1,71,155 cases. The ministry said that all corporate tax refunds up to Rs 50 crore have been issued in all cases.

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Finance Startup

iStandup 2.0: ICICI Bank Launches Dedicated Offering for StartUps in India, Offers Current Account in 3 Variants

ICICI Bank. (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
ICICI Bank. (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Mumbai, September 12: India’s second-largest private sector lender ICICI Bank on Thursday launched a news offering — iStandup 2.0. With this new offering, ICICI is aiming to catch hold on the growing number of startups in the country. Though the new improved features, its customers will get a current account in three variants, offering additional features.

Under the iStandup 2.O, the ICICI bank offers premium savings accounts for the promoters, salary accounts for employees and a dedicated relationship manager. For its effective reach, ICICI has tied up with vendors to offer a ‘concierge-like’ service. This will enable the startups to access various services like company registration, taxation, compliance, logistics, facility management, staffing and digital marketing.

On the issue, the charges of the account, ICICI bank’s Head of Self-Employment Segment Pankaj Gadgil said that the bank will waive average quarterly balance requirement on the current account for a year. Adding more, he said that around 20,000 startups were registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in July 2020, which went up in August 2020. Since the trends are encouraging, the bank launched the new offering.

As per details, all the startups — up to 10 years old — including partnerships, private and public limited as well as limited liability partnerships, will be able to opt for current account. It is to be known that ICICI bank already serves an undisclosed number of startups as part of earlier offering and other offerings that also include a current account.

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E-Commerce Finance MSME

Khadi’s E-Market Portal Empowers Local Artisans Through ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ Initiative, Sells Their Products to Remotest Parts of India

Khadi's E-Market Portal
Khadi's E-Market Portal.

New Delhi, September 9: With just two months of launching the KVIC E-Portal, Khadi and Village Industry Commission’s (KVIC) venture into the online marketing segment has quickly established a pan-India reach. The portal — www.kviconline.gov.in/khadimask/ — has enabled the artisans to sell their products to the remotest parts of India. Currently, the KVIC E-Portal sells over 180 products and many more are in the pipeline.

Aiming to appeal Indians go ‘Vocal for Local’, KVIC has a list of products range including hand-spun and hand-woven fine fabric like Muslin, Silk, Denim and Cotton, Unisex Vichar Vastra by Ritu Beri, Khadi’s Signature Wrist Watch, a variety of honey, Herbal and Green Tea, Herbal Medicines and Soaps, Papad, Kacchi Ghani Mustard Oil and a range of herbal cosmetics among many others.

Apart from this, KVIC is adding at least 10 new products to its online inventory on a daily basis, setting its target to add at least 1000 products by October 2, 2020. Union government stated that KVIC had served nearly 4000 customers in just two months. The product range is priced from Rs 50 to Rs 5000, keeping in view the choice and affordability of all sections of buyers.

Elaborating the aim of KVIC’s E-Portal, its chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said the online sale of Khadi products is a big push to ‘Swadeshi’ and aims at empowering the local artisans. He added, “Khadi’s E-market portal is providing our artisans with an additional platform to sell their goods. This is a concrete step towards the building of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.”

Adding more, he said, “Earlier products of Khadi institutions were sold only through outlets and hence their visibility was confined to a few states only. However, with KVIC’s E-portal, products are now reaching to the far-flung areas of the country and thus giving wider marketing spectrum to Khadi institutions which will ultimately increase their production and add to the income of artisans.”

The government claims that KVIC has received online orders from 31 States and Union Territories that include the far-flung Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. For the ease of customers, KVIC has fixed the minimum order value at Rs 599 for free delivery of goods. It has also entered into an agreement with the Postal Department for delivery of consignments via Speed Post.

Among the variety of products that KVIC sells also includes Modi Kurta and Modi Jackets for men and palazzo and straight trousers for women. Other products like — Khadi Rumal, spices, herbal neem wood comb, shampoo, cosmetics, cow dung and cow urine soap, yoga dress and several varieties of ready-to-eat food — have been included so far.

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Finance MSME

Finance Ministry Sanctions Rs 1.61 Lakh Crore Worth of Bank Loans to MSMEs Under ECLGS to Battle COVID-19 Pandemic

Union FM Nirmala Sitharaman, with other Finance Ministry officials. (Photo Credit: PIB)
Union FM Nirmala Sitharaman, with other Finance Ministry officials. (Photo Credit: PIB)

New Delhi, September 8: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced that the Central government had so far sanctioned loans amounting to Rs 1.61 lakh crore to MSMEs under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS). The amount has been sanctioned as a component of the Rs 20-lakh crore Self-Reliant India Mission package, announced by FM Sitharaman in May 2020 for firms to tackle the economic effect of COVID-19 pandemic.

Informing about the update, the Union Finance Minister took to Twitter and wrote, “As of 03 Sept 2020, the total amount sanctioned under the 100% Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme by #PSBs and private banks stand at Rs 1,61,017.68 crore, of which Rs 1,13,713.15 crore has already been disbursed.”

Adding more, Sitharaman wrote, “Compared to 24 Aug 2020, there is an increase of Rs 5,022.06 crore in the cumulative amount of loans sanctioned & an increase of Rs 7,786.16 crore in the cumulative amount of loans disbursed by both #PSBs and private sector banks combined as on 03 Sept 2020.”

Here’s what the Finance Minister’s office tweeted:

Among other details, the Finance Minister said that public sector banks have so far sanctioned Rs 78,067.21 crore under the ECLG scheme, and Rs 62,025.79 crore has been disbursed as of September 3, 2020. She added that the Union Finance Ministry regularly held review meetings with the banks to ensure that the scheme achieves its objective of providing adequate liquidity to the MSME segment during the current difficult period.

As per government estimate, the ECLG scheme would benefit more than 30 lakh units of MSMEs and other businesses to restart their businesses after the COVID-19 lockdown. It is to be known that the government had announced its plans for Rs 3 lakh crore as an additional credit to MSMEs and small businesses under Aatma Nirbhar package.

Under the scheme, the loans would be available to units — whose accounts are standard — with up to Rs 25 crore outstanding and turnover of up to Rs 100 crore. However, these firms will not have to provide any guarantee or collateral of their own as it will be 100 per cent guaranteed by the government and a total liquidity of Rs 3 lakh crore to more than 45 lakh MSMEs will be provided.