Quote from Pritam Bisht, Director – Strategy & Business Development

Business World

Quote from Pritam Bisht, Director – Strategy & Business Development

Aug 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Director - Strategy & Business Development, #Pritam Bisht

“Very proactive on the part of the government, the much-needed lubricant is here.
What has hurt humanity and the world economy in recent times is not just the virus, but really the unpredictability it brought along and the resultant uncertainty that shrouds our future. Speaking of uncertainty, the entire RE sector was reeling under wide-spread and protracted liquidity crunch, which over the last 3 years cast a shadow upon under-construction projects.

Only such definitive moves from the government will bring back the missing mojo into our economy. Not just liquidity, this also brings back hope to all market participants. And we will soon see this trickling into greater consumer confidence and hopefully uptick in purchases in the near future.

While we await the specific guidelines for Real Estate, I will not comment upon the sufficiency of 5,000 cr., as it still is a great supply-side measure at absolutely the right time and we sense the direction in which the government is thinking as well as acting. Kudos!”

Business World

NEW ONE-STOP RESOURCE CENTER GIVES DEVELOPERS A ROBUST ARRAY OF TOOLS TO EASILY MANAGE, MONITOR AND INTEGRATE LIMELIGHT SERVICES

Aug 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Developer Central., #Inc. (Nasdaq: LLNW), #Limelight Networks, #Nigel Burmeister, #VP of Product at Limelight.

As demand for streaming video grows, the pressure is on content providers to deliver, protect, innovate and improve efficiency. To support developers in accomplishing these goals, Limelight Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: LLNW), a leading provider of edge cloud services, today introduced Developer Central. This one-stop resource centre puts Limelight’s innovation in developers’ hands offering unique and evolving content, training, and a library of tools to manage customers’ service environments today and into the future.

“Limelight is relentlessly focused on customer delivery toward our strategic areas in 2020 including expanding capacity, expanding on proactive management of the network, placing more control in the hands of our customers and driving innovation. Today, we’re pleased to announce Limelight Developer Central, a robust resource and a big advancement toward giving customers more control and driving innovation. It addresses the need for rapid prototyping, testing, and deployment in today’s changing business environment. Our customers now have the tools to manage and monitor Limelight services while also improving quality and reducing development time,” said Nigel Burmeister, VP of Product at Limelight.

A few of the many features and functions developers can use Limelight Developer Central to support their applications and workflows include:

· OpenAPI Documentation: Provides consistency and access to endpoint links and syntax example. Automatically generated so developers always have the most current documentation.

· API Explorer: Enhanced interactive tool for developers that provides tutorials, sample code and the ability to try Limelight APIs in a realtime test environment before going into production.

· Software Development Kits (SDKs): Provide pre-packaged code with multiple operations to monitor, configure and manage Limelight services, including necessary authentication steps, that developers can copy and paste.

· Q&A Community Forum: The community’s open forum encourages developers to share ideas, technology and passion with peers and get expert answers to questions.

“With the range of new tools and resources in Limelight Developer Central, it’s easier than ever to configure, manage and monitor your streaming video and other Content Delivery Network workflows. Limelight also offers a range of edge compute options, both CDN-integrated and general-purpose, letting you run your own code in locations around the world. It’s all part of our expanded commitment to developer empowerment,” said Eveline Carr, Developer Community Manager at Limelight.

Developer Central is Limelight’s latest example of driving and developing innovation that delivers the highest performing content delivery and edge services solutions for customers worldwide. To learn more, visit https://www.limelight.com/developers/

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Shapoorji Pallonji Group commemorates 60 glorious years of Mughal-e-Azam

Aug 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #60 glorious years of Mughal-e-Azam, #directed by talented filmmaker K. Asif and produced by Shapoorji Pallonji Group.

Chennai, India, August 7, 2020: Mughal-e-Azam, an iconic Indian period film, commemorates 60 momentous years since its release on the 5th August 1960. The multiple award-winning historical saga, celebrated for one of the finest performances in Indian cinema, was directed by talented filmmaker K. Asif and produced by Shapoorji Pallonji Group.

The project faced multiple hurdles during its making, forcing its temporary abandonment. The political tensions and communal rioting surrounding India’s partition in 1947 stalled the film’s first version. Shiraz Ali, the producer, migrated to Pakistan. In the 1950s, Mr Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry salvaged the film and came on board to produce the film, despite no knowledge about film production. Mr. Shapoorji Pallonji had an inclination towards history and hence wanted to create a landmark historical film. The film cost Rs. 1.5 crores in 1960, ten times the cost of an average film in those days. The shoot commenced in the early 50s with the production canvas involving war scenes with 2,000 camels, 4,000 horses and 8,000 Indian military men.

Mughal-e-Azam was the first black-and-white Hindi film to be digitally coloured and the first to be given a theatrical re-release. Shapoorji Pallonji’s grandson, Mr. Shapoor Pallonji Mistry, the present Chairman of the group, undertook the restoration and colourization of Mughal-e-Azam, originally only 15% shot in colour. Original music composer Naushad Ali recreated the six-track surround sound version for the colour release. In 2004, the colour version of the film was re-released and it was also a complete commercial success.

On this occasion, Mr. Deepesh Salgia, creative visionary of Mughal-e-Azam who also holds a position as the CEO and Director at Grandview Estates Pvt. Ltd. (A part of Shapoorji Pallonji Group) states, “We are proud to continue the legacy of the group by commemorating the movie’s 60 years. Mughal-E-Azam is India’s finest artwork and has created new benchmarks in cinema as well as in theatre production. The Shapoorji Pallonji Group takes this opportunity to thank Director K. Asif, and legendary actors Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Madhubala and the Creative & Technical teams of the original version, the colour version and the musical play. Their immense contribution makes this work of art relevant even today, after 60 years of its release. The Shapoorji Pallonji Group is proud of the love and appreciation the movie has received.”

In 2016, Shapoorji Pallonji Group produced the theatrical version of the film, Mughal-e-Azam; the Play directed by Feroz Abbas Khan. The musical play has also run to packed houses across Asia. Till date, the musical play has had 180 performances across eight Asian cities. It has won seven Broadway India world awards.

The Mughal-e-Azam film was itself a remake of the theatrical play ‘Anarkali’, written by Imtiaz Ali Taj. The popular epic love saga is remembered for its tragic love story between the Mughal prince Salim and court dancer Anarkali.

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India-UK team tackles antimicrobial resistance spread in waterways

Aug 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #AMRflows, #IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Madras., #Newcastle University, #UK’s Natural Environment Research Council and India’s Department of Biotechnology

An estimated 58,000 babies die in India every year from superbug infections passed on from their mothers, whilst drug-resistant pathogens cause between 28,000 to 38,000 extra deaths in the European Union every year.

A research project called AMRflows, which involves experts from Newcastle University, has received £1.2 million of UK and Indian funding to explore the role played by India’s rivers in increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Supported by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council and India’s Department of Biotechnology, the cross-disciplinary team also includes researchers from Newcastle University, the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Madras. Experts will sample and model two contrasting river networks in India – the Musi river in Hyderabad, which has high concentrations of antibiotics released from production facilities, and the less polluted Adyar river in Chennai.

The project – which is supported by UK Research and Innovation’s Fund for International Collaboration – aims to learn how far resistant bacteria travel before they die or are eaten by other organisms in a unique combination of experiments, field sampling and mathematical modelling of resistance dynamics and water flows.

The team from Newcastle will be led by Professor David Graham, an environmental engineer who has spent almost 20 years studying the environmental transmission of antibiotic resistance around the world.

Work in recent years, often led by Professor Graham and international colleagues, has shown that antibiotic-resistant genes are readily exchanged between microbes and move through many pathways, even to places where antibiotics functionally are not present.

Commenting on this new UK-India project, Professor Graham said: “This project has huge potential because it will study AMR spread in a more quantitative and predictive manner, which is urgently needed for assessing environmental exposure risk.

“Additionally, it combines studies at various scales, ranging from the genetics of resistance gene exchange to metagenomics to micro- and macro-scale numerical modelling, which to our knowledge, has never been done before.”

Professor Graham recently contributed to new recommendations for tackling the spread of antibiotic resistance, published in June by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The new guidance aims to provide a framework for countries to create their own locally-driven national action plans that suit their own particular regional setting. It considers growing evidence, including research by Professor Graham, which suggests that the “superbug problem” will not be solved by prudent antibiotic use alone and that environmental factors may be of equal or greater importance, which this new project aspires to quantify.

UK project lead Dr. Jan Kreft, from the University of Birmingham, commented: “We don’t know how quickly antibiotics are degraded in the environment and how much they are diluted by rainfall and by entering larger rivers.”

“In our AMRflows project, we will learn how antibiotics from manufacturing and the resistant bacteria they select will flow through river networks and how far they can be transported in rivers, from where they can spread onto fields and into communities during floods – allowing us to make a quantitative risk assessment to help create environmental standards for safe concentrations of antibiotics in water bodies.”

Indian project leads Professor Shashidhar Thatikonda, from the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad commented: “We know from previous research that the River Musi is now a factory of superbugs. Modelling water flows will be crucial in predicting the fate of resistant bacteria in the environment and we aim to create models that will be applicable in other rivers and countries.”

The scientific advances will also allow the team to compare the effectiveness of different interventions such as separate treatment of waste streams from the manufacturing of antibiotics, decentralized sewage treatment or containment reservoirs.

“The recommendations we will produce will help bring down the levels of resistance in the environment. This will contribute to reducing the abundance of resistant pathogens that make infections untreatable,” added Professor Shashidhar.

In his ‘Insights’ article published earlier this year by The Conversation UK, Professor Graham – who is also a member of the Transmission in Wider Environment Group (TWEG) providing guidance to UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) in relation to the current COVID-19 pandemic – described how resistance to existing antibiotics continues to increase, particularly impacting places with poor water quality and inadequate sanitation.

In the article, Professor Graham and co-author Peter Collignon, Professor of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Australian National University, also talk about the diverse possible pathways or drivers of antibiotic resistance and discuss how it can be tackled.

“Local conditions are key to reducing the spread of antibiotic resistance,” they say in the article. “Governments throughout the world must work together, and actions against resistance should focus on local needs and plans because each country is different.”

“The spread of antibiotic resistance knows no boundaries, so it is everyone’s problem and all countries have a role in solving the problem,” Professor Graham adds.

AMRflows is part of an £8 million package of UK-India Government-backed research aimed deepening existing scientific research collaborations with five new programmes to tackle antimicrobial resistance that could lead to important advances in the global fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes.

Business World

Dassault Systèmes’ Virtual Conference “The World After – Sustainable and Resilient Urban Future” Showcases New Innovation Paradigms for Urban Planning and Infrastructure

Aug 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #“Creative Building Design” and “Design for Fabrication”, #Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, #DSY.PA)

Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) hosted “The World After Sustainable and Resilient Urban Future,” a virtual conference that provided insights on technology trends accelerating smart cities, infrastructure and building construction projects in India. Dassault Systèmes also showcased the “Inclusive Urban Future”, “Integrated Built Environment”, “Civil Infrastructure Engineering”, “Creative Building Design” and “Design for Fabrication” industry solution experiences based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for driving the digital transformation of cities, infrastructure and building construction projects in India. During the event, Dassault Systèmes showcased how the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can contribute to pandemic emergency planning by city administrators.

“The infrastructure sector is of strategic importance to the economy to create growth and employment in the country. Technology can play a major role to support infrastructure development through design, simulation and predictive analysis to help urban planners build smart cities involving the construction of roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, railways, dams, optimizing solar energy, waste management, healthcare infrastructure to pandemic planning,” said Deepak NG, Managing Director, India, Dassault Systemes. “The virtual twin experience on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can enable stakeholders to visualize, manage and execute infrastructure projects in a collaborative environment with reduced costs, time and resource planning.”

Dassault Systemes showcased a “Planning Pandemic Emergencies” solution that can enable public authorities and city administrators with thorough preparedness and response planning for a large-scale healthcare crisis. It offers a single window for “Area Referential for Pandemic Emergency Planning”, “Citizen Sentiment Analysis for Improving the Services Rendered” and “Mass X-ray Analytics for Testing and Segregation of COVID-19 positive Patients”. The 3DEXPEREINCE Platform enables digital referential for the city, planning the hotspot clusters and containment zones in 3D context, planning the access to essential services, generation of heat maps based on data sets and analytics.

The virtual conference “The World After – Sustainable and Resilient Urban Future” had a great line of speakers from global technology experts in infrastructure, to Indian policymakers, to users of technology in the enterprise, public sector, to global consultants and architects and to skill development authorities. The keynote in the plenary session was delivered by Sylvain Laurent, Executive Vice President and Chairman, Infrastructure & Cities, Dassault Systèmes. Eminent and notable speakers included Mr. Rajeshwara Rao, Additional Secretary of Niti Aayog, Jayant Damodar Patil, Whole Time Director and Senior Executive Vice President (Defence and Smart Technologies), Larsen & Toubro, Akhilesh Shrivastava, CGM-Technical, NHAI, Dr S Selva Kumar IAS Skill Secretary to Government of Karnataka. The event also had two tracks on Infrastructure & Cities and Buildings & Facilities.

Business World

Realty sectors on RBI’s decision to permit a one-time restructuring of loans

Aug 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Realty sectors on RBI’s decision

The Reserve Bank of India has decided to permit a one-time restructuring of loans, amid the ongoing COVID crisis which is hitting businesses hard. Announcing a review on monetary and credit policies on Thursday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said a window under the June 7 stressed asset resolution framework will be provided which will enable lenders to implement a resolution plan, without a change in ownership.

Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants

Much along the expected lines, the RBI kept repo rate untouched at 4% and reverse repo rate at 3.35% amid a recent rise in retail consumer prices. The RBI was expected to do all it can to keep the inflation rates reined in for the duration.

However, the RBI announced several additional measures that will go on to accelerate the economy, enhance liquidity, improve the flow of credit and deepen digital payment facilities, among others. Commendably, its allotment of INR 5,000 crore each to National Housing Bank and NABARD is a much-needed step for sectors including real estate reeling under the liquidity crisis. It will help infuse capital into the HFCs and eventually provide relief to developers battling liquidity issues in COVID-19 times.

Pradeep Aggarwal, Founder & Chairman – Signature Global Group & Chairman – ASSOCHAM National Council on Real Estate, Housing and Urban Development

“It was an expected move by the RBI to keep the repo rate unchanged and it is commendable that it is doing its part to ensure that the economy stays on the right path. However, the banks have not yet passed on the benefits to the consumers, which are not benefitting the real estate sector that in turn is affecting the allied industries too. RBI should take action so that banks should extend loans to the real estate sector. Liquidity crisis has to be tackled soon as the situation after Corona is dismal; this cannot happen until and unless banks take a firm decision to back the sector that has many allied industries attached to it”.

Manoj Gaur, MD, Gaurs Group and Chairman, Affordable Housing Committee, CREDAI (National)

“Real estate sector needs hand-holding at this point in time. Though unchanged repo rate is understandable the need to have special measures in place cannot be denied. The buyers are coming back to the sector after realizing the importance of real estate assets backed by historically low EMIs, the developers too need some interventions that can help them expedite the process of development”.

Mr Amit Modi, President (Elect) CREDAI Western UP and Director ABA CORP

Market experts predicted a repo rate cut by 25bps in today’s announcement by RBI, but unfortunately, that was not declared. With the consumer confidence low due to the ongoing pandemic situation, and real estate sector going through a period of strife, we would expect the government to look into initiatives on generating more demand in the real estate market as well as helping millions of first-time homebuyers to realize their dream. At the same time, we would also hope that all the banks would pass on the benefits of previous repo rate deductions to end-users.

Uddhav Poddar, MD, Bhumika Group

“The main issue is that banks have not taken adequate steps to reduce the rates or to ease the liquidity. All the good steps taken by RBI earlier will not bear fruit if the banks don’t take necessary action at their level. Real Estate is badly affected due to the pandemic and we need support from the banks by providing adequate liquidity to the sector and providing cheap home loans to the customers, to make sure the segment can flourish again. We have to understand that real estate is an integral part of economic growth as it is the largest employment generator”.

Ashish Bhutani, MD, Bhutani Infra

RBI Monetary Policy Committee has kept the repo rates unchanged, even when market experts cited the conditions being favourable for it. This decision was taken due to the signs of revival, that the MPC has observed with unlock. However, the continuous surge in cases is constantly hampering the stability that commercial real estate needs for planning the expansion, mapping the already allocated funds, driving international investments, and dispersing some amount of capital to construction and permissions required. We are hoping apex financial institutions assess the realty market closely to deliver, if not repo rate cuts then some other kind of relaxation to improve sentiments of associated stakeholders.

Mr. Rajat Goel, JMD, MRG World

Repo rate cuts have been announced time and again by RBI during the last few months to combat the crisis. The recent announcements made are an indication that the industries and economy have a void to fill created by 3 months of lockdown. Real estate being a sector with high-end products is vast and delivers a major impact on the overall growth of the nation. The benefits provided to this sector will have a far-reaching impact on the economy as a whole. We are elated that the government has shown support towards us with schemes like CLSS & PMAY, realty will now be able to fully utilize its potential with the impetus provided.

Mr. Raman Gupta, Director- Branding & Construction- GBP Group

In today’s announcement, the apex bank has kept the repo rate unchanged to 4% which was an expected move to keep the economy of the country afloat amidst the pandemic. Being one of the major contributors to the economy of the country, the benefits provided to the sector will have a positive impact on the overall growth of the nation. With the schemes like CLSS & PMAY along with the low repo rates, the customers are moving back towards the real estate sector. Along with providing one-time loan restructuring to MSMEs, we expect the apex bank to announce the same for the real estate sector as well.

Deepak Kapoor, Director, Gulshan Homz

The latest announcement by the RBI has been a dampener for the sector as we were hoping for some measures that could provide a much-needed boost. One of the expectations was one-time loan restructuring, which the sector has been demanding for quite some time now. Earlier, the government has urged the RBI for non-classification of these loans as Special Mention Accounts (SMAs) and Non-Profit Assets (NPAs). Banks were hesitant to do this. However, a way out has to be formulated as without the support of one-time loan restructuring it would be difficult to meet the housing demand. Authorities may consider the projects that were stalled or delayed because of delays in approvals or even the projects where more than 60 per cent of work has been completed. The prevailing situation will only get complicated if timely steps are not taken to contain it.

Kapil Kapur, Director – Sales, Strategy & Business Development Bullmen Realty India

Repo rate cut speculated by the experts was not a part of today’s RBI announcement but loan restructuring became the major breakthrough amid the ongoing crisis when businesses are hit hard. As the effect caused due to the lockdown was pervasive, consistent support from apex institutions like RBI had become a dire need for a stable market. Homebuyers are keen on coming back, but their expectations and budgets have changed drastically. Developers were already struggling with developing a plan of action that is accommodating to end-users and investors, but the recent alternative of loan restructuring would help them foster a long-term plan for their projects.

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Puneet Vashist’s path-breaking entry as Lord Shani in &TV’s Kahat Hanuman Jai Shri Ram

Aug 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Lord Shani in &TV’s Kahat Hanuman Jai Shri Ram, #Puneet Vashist’s

Continuing the Gyarah Mukhi Hanuman stories narrated by Anjani (Sneha Wagh) Mata’s, the upcoming episodes will introduce Lord Shani, the supreme deity, punishing or rewarding people for their karma. Essayed by Puneet Vashist the forthcoming episodes will see captivating drama as the Gods have upset Shani Dev by giving Maruti an unmerited power in the form of Daivik shakti. It also marks the entry of Puneet Vashist who has been very popular among audiences for his significant work in the movie Fanaa, and Happy New Year among other Bollywood films and renowned daily soaps.

Speaking about his entry as the angry Lord Shani Dev, Puneet Vashist says, “I am humbled to be part of &TV and the Kahat Hanuman Jai Shri Ram family. A lot of preparation has gone into playing Shani Dev’s character. Right from the temperament to the expressions, to the Shuddh Hindi dialogues, and most importantly portraying the significant character of Lord Shani. Shani Dev is the son of Surya Dev and Chhaya. While his mother was going through severe penance, Lord Shiva, therefore, blessed Shani Dev with darkness symbolizing the power of extreme penance that he possesses. He has always been one of the most popular and the most dreaded Gods in Hindu mythology. I am quite excited about this role and looking forward to seeing it come alive on-screen.”

The Gods have angered Lord Shani, the effects of which will be unleashed on Bal Hanuman and his family. Lord Shani will order Amangal to break Hanuman’s family. How will Bal Hanuman overcome the wrath of Shavi Dev?

To know more, tune in to Kahat Hanuman Jai Shri Ram every Monday-Friday at 9:30 pm only on &TV!

Business World

Genpact and Deloitte Form Strategic Alliance to Accelerate Business Transformation and Build Enterprise Resilience

Aug 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Alison Close, #Anil Nanduru, #Ayan Chatterjee, #chief commercial officer, #Deloitte Consulting LLP., #Digital Business Operations and Analytics Services, #Genpact, #Genpact (NYSE: G) and Deloitte, #IAOP, #IDC., #national managing principal, #Operate Services, #research manager

Genpact (NYSE: G) and Deloitte announced a strategic alliance to offer comprehensive solutions to help organizations scale and optimize critical business operations, drive speed to the outcome, deliver business transformation to enhance competitive growth, and build resilience in an uncertain future.

As clients reimagine their core businesses, the challenges that lie ahead are increasingly complex, creating a need for an ecosystem of partners to help organizations rapidly pivot and prepare for the future. Genpact and Deloitte’s deep domain and technology experience, along with depth in driving transformation at scale, creates a unique combination. Genpact’s strength in running intelligent operations coupled with Deloitte’s breadth across advise, implement and operate services, offer a tailored end-to-end solution for clients.

“Genpact and Deloitte are a natural fit,” said Alison Close, research manager, Digital Business Operations and Analytics Services, IDC. “This alliance is a game-changer and signals a revolutionary model of providing end-to-end solutions for clients.”

The alliance will deliver a number of tangible benefits to clients that can be leveraged quickly to help them accelerate their digital transformation journeys, with an emphasis on mission-critical services in areas such as finance and accounting, supply chain, and procurement. Enabling clients to focus on their core strengths, the alliance will help deliver increased enterprise value without them having to build or run the solutions themselves. It will also provide access to domain depth and knowledge in the latest technologies like digital, cloud, and artificial intelligence while optimizing process expertise.

“Businesses must leverage technology to differentiate, scale quickly, and stay ahead in today’s environment,” said Ayan Chatterjee, national managing principal, Operate Services, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “It’s no longer about just executing the transformations; it is about continuously innovating and realizing the maximum value from these transformations over a period of time. Our alliance with Genpact brings this philosophy to the forefront. Our combined services can often generate the savings that can in fact fund these much-needed transformations.”

The alliance will provide clients with both bespoke and predefined solutions to accelerate the shift to new business models and meet market demands. Genpact and Deloitte has collaborated on several joint go-to-market offerings to help clients in their transformation journeys. Two of the predefined solutions include GenOne™, a finance as-a-service offering powered by Workday, and DEAL (Digitally Enabled Accelerated Lending), that helps accelerate and lower the cost of the commercial lending process. Additionally, Deloitte and Genpact can build and execute bespoke multi-year solutions for our clients leveraging a wide array of technologies to drive large scale transformations, while operating both the legacy and the transformed environments.

“We have always believed an ecosystem of partners is the way of the future. To enable digital transformation, service providers need to create solutions by not only investing in their own people, proprietary tools, and intellectual property, but they also need to build a partner ecosystem that brings comprehensive and specialized solutions to the market,” said Anil Nanduru, chief commercial officer, Genpact. “Through this alliance, clients are already seeing the impact as we address their needs to drive end-to-end operational capabilities and accelerate digital transformation.”

Recently, the IAOP® recognized the Deloitte-Genpact alliance for demonstrating excellence in collaboration, innovation and outcomes with the Excellence in Strategic Partnerships honour.

“In recent years, we’ve seen more and more Global Outsourcing 100 applicants contribute their success to strategic partnerships,” said Debi Hamill, chief executive officer, IAOP. “This is something to celebrate, and for this reason, we added it as an option on the GO100 award application. But make no mistake, our new Excellence in Strategic Partnerships program is a stand-alone, admirable recognition, and we’re thrilled to honour these organizations.”

Business World

Quote on behalf of Anil PM, Head-Legal and Compliance, Bajaj Allianz Life

Aug 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Anil PM, #Bajaj Allianz Life, #Head-Legal and Compliance, #Quote

Quote on IRDA circular on the issuance of electronic policies – On behalf of Anil PM, Head – Legal and Compliance, Bajaj Allianz Life

“The decision to issue electronic policies without having to also send the physical policy document is a welcome move, considering the current situation which poses quite a challenge for physical policy despatch. This is in fact an opportune time to make the policy issuance process digital. It will enable the industry to facilitate the timely issuance of insurance policies to the customers and will help customers start their life cover on time.”

Business World

Central Bank Watch: Keeping the powder dry for now

Aug 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #HDFC Bank, #Treasury research team
  • In line with our expectations, the RBI kept its repo rate on hold at 4%, citing the uncertainty around both inflation and growth as the reason behind this “wait and watch” approach. The policy corridor was also kept unchanged, with the reverse repo at 3.35% and the MSF rate at 4.25%. 
  • RBI stance: The RBI continued to keep its policy stance as accommodative and mentioned that supporting economic recovery assumes primacy in the conduct of monetary policy. 
  • More rate cuts ahead? In terms of forward guidance, the RBI highlighted that while there is still space for further rate cuts, it would like to use this space more “judiciously” when its most effective. Depending on the inflation trajectory, we see room for further rate cuts – between 25 to 50bps- in H2 FY21. Bottom-line: RBI is likely to use the limited space available for rate cuts prudently and wait and watch for further clarity on growth and inflation before cutting again. 
  • Growth and Inflation Expectation: The central bank refrained from announcing specific forecasts for growth and inflation for the year. However, it said that it expects GDP growth to contract in FY21 and inflation prints to remain elevated in Q2 FY21 before moderating in H2 FY21. Going forward, the RBI remained cautious over the upside risks for inflation, including – protein-based food inflation, cost-push pressures due to high fuel pump prices, and any disruption in supply leading to higher food inflation. 
  • Regulatory changes: The more important announcement today was the resolution framework for COVID- 19 related stressed borrowers. The RBI introduced a special restructuring window under the earlier “Prudential Framework of Stressed Assets” (June 2019) for corporate and personal loans, subject to specified conditions and safeguards. The details of the same are still awaited. Furthermore, the RBI also extended the restructuring framework for MSME debt, already in place, for MSMEs that have been hit by the pandemic. 
  • The disappointment: The RBI did not announce any changes to the current HTM limit at 19.5% for banks. As highlighted in our recent report (Monetary Policy Preview, 4 August 2020), in the absence of an increase in the HTM limits, the pressure on the RBI to conduct a larger quantum of OMOs is likely to rise. This could be challenging with the existing liquidity surplus at over INR6trn (as of July-end). What this essentially means is that the pressure at the long-end of the yield curve could rise. 
  • Bond View: The 10 year 05.79% yield (introduced in May 2020) and the new 10-year 05.77% inched up by 3-4bps post the policy announcement. We expect yields to remain range-bound in the near term, with a slight upward bias. Although, any significant upside is likely to be capped by yield management tools like Operation Twists conducted by the RBI. Over the medium term, the outlook remains uncertain and is likely to be influenced by any announcement (or the absence of) around OMOs or raising HTM limits. The Specifics:
  •  Key regulatory measures announced:
  • 1. Resolution framework for COVID related stress: A window will be provided under the Prudential Framework (introduced in June 2019) to enable lenders to implement a resolution plan without a change in ownership for corporate and personal loans.
  • o Borrower accounts that were classified as standard for more than 30 days with the lenders as on March 1, 2020, will be eligible
  • o Lenders to keep additional provisions of 10% on the post-resolution debt
  • o Resolution plan may be invoked anytime till December 31, 2020
  • o RBI to constitute a committee under KV Kamath which will make recommendations on the required financial parameters and safeguards.  2. Restructuring of MSME debt: The RBI allowed stressed MSME borrowers to restructure debt if their loans classified as standard with the lender as on March 1, 2020. This restructuring shall be implemented by March 31, 2021. This is an extension of the already present restructuring framework for MSMEs that is in place as of January 1, 2020.3. Investments by banks in Debt Mutual Funds and Debt Exchange Traded funds (ETF): Currently, if a bank holds a debt instrument directly, it would have to allocate lower capital as compared to holding the same debt instrument through a Mutual Fund (MF)/ETF. It has now been decided to harmonise the differential treatment existing currently. This is likely to result in substantial capital savings for banks and is expected to give a boost to the bond market.4. Other announcements include:
    o Borrowing against gold jewellery: To increase the loan to value ratio (LTV) for loans against gold
    ornaments from 75% to 90%. This facility available till March 31, 2021.
    o Additional liquidity of INR 5000 cr. at repo rate to NABARD and INR 5000 cr. to National Housing Bank Inflation outlook: While the RBI refrained from giving a headline CPI inflation number, it highlighted that the headline inflation is likely to remain elevated in Q2 FY21 and moderate in H2 FY21 on account of a favourable base. The RBI noted that disruption in the supply chain has weighed on both food and non-food inflation. The RBI reckons that factors such as higher domestic pump prices on account of higher domestic taxes on petroleum products, cost-push factors, higher food prices, volatility in financial markets and rising asset prices could pose upside risks to the inflation
    outlook.o We expect headline CPI inflation to remain elevated in the near term, averaging 6.0% in Q2 on account of higher food prices and rise in core CPI (led by higher gold prices and some pent up in demand) and higher wages led by a shortage of labour. Looking at a broader time horizon, we expect CPI inflation to ease below 3% in Dec-20 supported by a statistical favourable base, contained food prices amidst healthy Kharif production and muted demand-side pressures that are likely to keep core CPI in check. On balance, we expect CPI inflation to average at 4.7% in FY21.Average headline CPI inflation (%YoY): HDFC Bank estimates
    Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
    6.5% 6.0% 3.6% 2.7% Growth Outlook: On the growth front, the RBI expects a healthy recovery in the rural economy supported by progress in Kharif sowing. The RBI expects a recovery in economic activity in Q3 and Q4 aided by gradual restoration of supply lines and some recovery in demand. For the full year, the RBI expects the growth to contract with downside risks emanating from deviations from the forecast in the case of sub-normal monsoon, global financial market volatility and
    a more protracted spread of the pandemic.o We expect growth to contract by 7.5% in FY21, with a sharper contraction in Q1 and Q2, and recover somewhat in H2 FY21.GDP Growth (%YoY): HDFC Bank estimatesQ1 Q2 Q3 Q4
    -21% -11% 0.7% 1.5%Treasury Economic Research teamDisclaimer: This document has been prepared for your information only and does not constitute an offer/commitment to transact. Such an offer would be subject to contractual confirmations, satisfactory documentation and prevailing market conditions. Reasonable care has been taken to prepare this document. HDFC Bank and its employees do not accept any responsibility for action taken on the basis of this document.Abheek Barua
    Chief Economist
    Phone number: +91 (0) 124-4664305
    Email ID: abheek.barua@hdfcbank.comSakshi Gupta
    Senior Economist
    Phone number: +91 (0) 124-4664338
    Email ID: sakshi.gupta3@hdfcbank.com