Archive: September 30, 2022

TCI Group organized Blood Donation Camps in 27+ locations Pan-India in the remembrance of the visionary Founder Chairman, Shri Prabhu Dayal Agarwal Ji (Shri PD Ji)

Gurgaon, India, 1st October 2022: In the fond memory of the Founder Chairman, Shri Prabhu Dayal Agarwal Ji (Shri PD Ji), Transport Corporation of India Ltd. (TCI Group) organizes blood donation camps every year. Shri. PDJI, regarded as the ‘Pioneer of the Indian Transport Industry’ contributed to society beyond logistics, in spheres of health, education, women empowerment, etc. One of the key areas was his role in establishing private blood banks in India.

In continuation of the legacy, this year’s blood donation drive was over 6 days starting from 17th September 2022 to 22nd September 2022.  More than 27 locations were covered across India, including locations like Rajkot, Raipur, Chakan, Hassangarh, Jamshedpur, Patna, Pune, Lucknow, Rourkela & Madurai. The drive witnessed an active participation of 800+ employees and external associates, consisting of both men and women.

Shri PD Ji continues to live in the hearts of people, known and unknown; each having a story of kindness to tell.

Quote on RBI Monetary Policy – Mr. Rajiv Agarwal, Operating Partner (Infrastructure), Essar and Managing Director, Essar Ports

“The RBI’s decision of bringing about the fourth straight increase in the repo rate in the current cycle was in line with market expectations. The 50bps repo rate hike comes on the back of persistence of high inflation and the continued upside risks. The tone of the policy continues to remain hawkish and is expect to stay unchanged to ensure a stable policy rate, especially with the current global tightening. At some point RBI has to be cognizant of the fact that targeting inflation will slow down growth especially in the infrastructure field. This inflation is due to disruption caused by war and energy rates are already coming down. The domestic economic activities are resilient and have picked up. Some green offshoots are visible in urban demand and rural market is also catching up. Exports recorded a growth of 24.5 per cent during April-June 2022, indicating strengthening domestic demand.”

RBI Policy Review: Hikes by 50bps amidst a global storm

The RBI policy announcement today came with no major surprises and was broadly in line with our expectations. The central bank raised the repo rate by 50bps, aligning itself with aggressive monetary policy action globally. The decision was consistent with elevated inflationary risks and domestic growth that continues to hold up. 

Policy rate announcement: The RBI raised the policy rate to 5.90% and the SDF rate was accordingly raised to 5.65%. The policy rate announcement was not unanimous, with MPC member Ashima Goyal voting for a 35bps rate hike. On stance, all members voted for an unchanged stance, except for MPC member Jayant Verma who dissented. 

Inflation and Growth: The RBI kept its inflation forecast unchanged at 6.7% for FY23, sounding caution on the uncertainty around inflationary pressures, despite the recent moderation in global crude oil, stemming from higher food inflation and continued pressure on services inflation. On growth, the RBI revised down its GDP forecast by 20bps to 7% for FY23 — largely reflecting the lower-than-expected Q1 GDP numbers. The commentary on growth remained upbeat as the RBI highlighted continued improvement in domestic fundamentals, while recognising that there are global headwinds that could present downside risks going forward. 

Stance: The central bank did little to remove the ambiguity and perceived deviation around its stance, keeping it unchanged at “withdrawal of accommodation”, contrary to our expectations that a move to neutral was on the cards. The RBI justified its stance by emphasizing that liquidity conditions remain in surplus mode and that the nominal policy rate continues to trail inflation. This contrasts with 2019 – when the stance was last neutral –liquidity was in deficit and the policy rate was higher than inflation leading to positive real rates in the economy. However, in the post policy press conference, Governor Das abstained from committing to a definitive marker (or any forward guidance) either in the form of the liquidity level, the operating rate, or the level of real interest rate that would trigger a change in stance at this stage. 

Liquidity: The central bank said that it will continue to undertake two-way operations to manage liquidity conditions. With moderation in liquidity surplus, the RBI has decided to merge the 28-day VRR auctions with the fortnightly 14-day main auction. Going forward, from now on only 14-day VRRR auctions will be conducted. In the post policy press conference, Governor Das re-iterated that the central bank would continue to keep liquidity conditions comfortable and as the impact of advance tax flows fades, there is drawn down on excess SLR and CRR by banks, and government spending increases, liquidity conditions are likely to improve. System liquidity surplus stood at INR 0.68 lakh cr as of 29^th September 2022 (as compared to INR 2 lakh crore in August 2022 end). We expect average liquidity in the system to remain in surplus in Q3, supported by RBI’s fine-tuning operations.  That said, the level of systemic liquidity as seen by the balances under the LAF window are likely to average lower than what has been recorded in Q2 FY23 (average: INR 2.16 lakh crore in Q2). 

External resilience and the rupee: The central bank re-iterated the resilience of India’s external balances compared to our peers in today’s policy announcement. On the rupee, as we have argued before, the RBI emphasized that their strategy would be focussed on maintaining investor confidence and anchoring expectations — signalling that FX interventions are likely to continue and be focussed towards defending any extreme volatility in the rupee. The absence of any additional measures in order to shore up reserves and attract capital (like was done in 2013) signals RBI’s comfort with the current level of foreign exchange reserves as well as the level of the rupee. Given the continued dollar rally and elevated global risks, the USD/INR pair is likely to witness continued depreciation pressures and we expect a range of 81-82 in the near-term. In extreme risk-off, we continue to expect the central bank to provide support and curtail the quantum of fall in the currency. 

Policy outlook: The central bank refrained from providing a forward guidance on terminal rates and kept the window open for the quantum and pace of rate action in response to the evolving global and domestic conditions. We expect the RBI to continue with its rate hikes in the upcoming policies taking rates up to 6.5% (terminal rate) by the end of the fiscal year.

Bond yields & FX update: The 10-year yield was largely flattish at 7.343% (post the policy announcement) vs. yesterday’s closing level of 7.34% as the policy was on expected lines. The 10-year yield is trading at 7.355% at the time of writing. We expect the 10-year paper to trade closer to 7.3-7.4% by the end of the quarter. On the FX front, the USD/INR strengthened post the policy announcement to 81.55 vs. yesterday’s closing level of 81.86.

Fpt Industrial Announces The Acquisition Of Minority Stake In Blue Energy Motors To Partner In The Development Of Alternative Fuels & Zero Emission Heavy-Duty Trucks

CHENNAI: Blue Energy Motors, a zero-emission truck technology company headquartered in Pune, which recently launched India’s first heavy-duty LNG truck, pioneering the green trucking revolution, has entered a strategic tie-up with FPT Industrial, the global powertrain brand of Iveco Group (MI: IVG). As part of the agreement, FPT is set to acquire a minority stake in the company. While the association is currently focusing on natural gas fuel applications, the two companies with a strategic agreement in place will closely work on future technology deployments in the areas of electrification of heavy-duty trucks.

The strategic partnership with FPT Industrial will be a significant development for Blue Energy Motors, whose values are rooted in finding solutions to decarbonize the environment. The company, which launched India’s first Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) fuelled green truck at its recently inaugurated plant in Chakan, Pune on September 12, is pioneering the technology for alternative fuels. It has been maintained that EVs will be one of the sustainable solutions towards reducing pollution caused by the commercial vehicle sector. With this partnership in place, Blue Energy Motors will be able to fulfil its target of decarbonising the heavy-transport sector in India, equipped with FPT’s technology and R&D development.

ZEE5 announces ‘ZEE5 TV Uncut’ – gives a peek into your favourite celebrities’ life!

CHENNAI: ZEE5, India’s largest homegrown video on demand streaming platform, announced their weekly and free-to-stream series ‘ZEE5 TV Uncut’ today. Launched on September 24, the series boasts about a great a line-up of celebrities from popular and renowned shows like Krishna Kaul and Mugdha Chaphekar from Kumkum Bhagya [Portrayed as Ranbir and Prachi respectively], Shagun Pandey and Ashi Singh from Meet, Rohit Suchanti (Rishi of Bhagya Lakshmi), Aishwarya Khare (Lakshmi of Bhagya Lakshmi), amongst others will grace the show as guests.  

The audiences can watch their favourite celebrities up close and personal; from their love life to favourite food and what their day looks like to fun behind the scene moments, they can watch it all at the click of their finger! This series is part of ZEE5’s initiative to give viewers a beyond TV experience by not only airing their favourite shows but also giving them a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, a peek into their favourite celeb’s lives, and a lot more.