1. Investments in Startups Drop by 24 Percent
Venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) firms cut investments in Indian startups by almost a quarter on a sequential basis in the three months to March, for the second consecutive quarter. Investors, starved of exits and fearful of souring bets, held back cash.
Investors provided $1.15 billion into Indian startups in the first quarter of 2016, which is 24 percent lower than the December 2015 quarter, which itself had seen a slump in investments of 48 percent from the previous quarter, according to a joint report by KPMG and CB Insights.
According to Livemint, the number of startup deals fell 4 percent to 116 in the quarter. The largest deals in the January to March quarter included $150 million received by online grocer BigBasket, $150 million raised by online marketplace Shopclues and $50 million raised by Snapdeal, India’s second most valuable e-commerce firm.
2. Local Production of US F-16 and FA-18 Not Attractive, Says HAL Chairman: ET
In an interview to The Economic Times, Suvarna Raju, the chairman of Hindustan Aeronautics said that the US offer to produce F-16 and FA-18 jets in India is not attractive, as both jets failed to meet the cut at an air force competition for new fighters.
Neither aircraft could win the (air force’s) medium multi-role combat aircraft ( MMRCA) competition. So I really don’t know. It is not very attractive and I sincerely don’t know how serious they are. The F-16 production has stopped and I am sure a parallel line for the FA-18 won’t be worth it. Any gaps in the fighter force can be met by shoring up production of Indian developed Light Combat Aircraft, to which the private sector can contribute 80 percent of parts.Suvarna Raju, Chairman, Hindustan Aeronautics to ET
3. Bharti, DLF and Phoenix in Contest to Build India’s First Airport Mall: Livemint
Many construction groups including DLF, Bharti Land, Phoenix Mills, Xander Group are in the race to build the first airport mall of the country at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.
According to Livemint, the mall will cover an area of 2 million square feet – that’s as huge as the combined area of six football fields.
The mall would cost around Rs 600 crore to develop. The Delhi International Airport (owned by a consortium led by GMR Infrastructure) will receive a one-time payment of Rs 200-250 crore and Rs 30 crore per year.
The Delhi Airport is India’s largest airport by virtue of passenger traffic.
4. PM Modi Pitches Rs 1 Lakh Crore Investment to Develop Ports
The Centre has prepared a comprehensive plan to increase India’s port handling capacity to 3,000 million tonnes by 2025 from the present 1,400 million tonnes.
The government aims at an investment worth Rs 1 lakh crore to meet this target, announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his inaugural speech at the maiden Maritime India summit.
According to Business Standard, the Union Ministry of Shipping is showcasing about 250 projects for investment opportunity in the sector. The proposed plan includes development of five new ports in addition to the existing 12 major ports and ongoing development at three new ones.
Long coastline of India along with diverse coastal regions and hard working coastal communities can become an engine of growth of India. Our vision, is to create ten million jobs under Sagarmala in next ten years.Narendra Modi
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5. China Failure Could Spur Global Deflation, Says Arvind Subramanian: FE
A failure of the Chinese economy could spur global deflation, competitive devaluation of currencies and plummeting real economic activity worldwide, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian said on Thursday.
According to the Financial Express, Subramanian said the ‘hopes’ and ‘fears’ of global leaders at the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington centre around China as its failure and success carry risks for the world economy.
Subramanian said as China slowed, so would global growth and the remaining demand would be redistributed toward China, aggravating other countries’ already severe shortfalls.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) in ‘World Economic Outlook’ released earlier this week has upgraded its China growth forecast by 0.2 percentage points for this year and the next to 6.5 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively.
6. Flipkart Sheds Spending Flab to Get Into Shape: ET
Flipkart has decided to its cut expenses and earn a gross profit ahead of the festival season that starts in September, when demand for big discounts will start the battle to dominate the country’s online retail market.
According to the Economic Times report, the drive to build a self-sustaining business, being led by Flipkart’s new chief executive officer Binny Bansal, includes a series of measures from capping salary increments at 10 percent to giving category heads six months to become profitable at a unit level.
At the same time, clear sales and customer experience targets — to be met by September 2016 — have been set for all category heads as the Tiger Global-backed company closely evaluates the long-term potential of each business unit.
7. Oyo Rooms Starts Leasing Hotels: Livemint
Oyo Rooms has started leasing hotels and guest houses under a programme called Oyo Flagship in a significant shift from its pure play aggregation business.
According to Livemint, the Gurugram-based company intends to improve the consumer experience and have a better repeat rate by having complete control over the day-to-day operations of the establishments, .
This is a shift from Oyo’s earlier strategy of booking a part of the hotels’ inventory, and holding it captive for Oyo customers.
Such a strategy often resulted in hotels making fake bookings, which led to Oyo bleeding more money at a time when investors have become cautious about their bets.
8. Panama Papers: World Bank Head Warns of Weak Economy
The President of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim, on Thursday, rued about the weak state of global economy and asserted that the kind of tax evasion exposed by the Panama Papers investigation is fueling poverty around the world.
According to an Associated Press report, Kim said the World Bank has slashed its forecast of global growth this year to 2.5 percent from 2.9 percent. Addressing the leaked documents from a Panama law firm that have revealed details of offshore financial accounts, Kim said such tax havens can have a devastating effect on global poverty.
I want to stress that when taxes are evaded, when state assets are taken and put into these havens, all these things can have a tremendously negative effect on our mission to end poverty.Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank
9. Oil Dips as International Energy Agency Sees Global Glut Dwindling: ET
Oil prices edged lower on Thursday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said it feels that the global oversupply decrease by the end of 2016 and as traders awaited a key producers meeting this weekend.
According to the Economic Times report, the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in May fell 26 cents to $41.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Meanwhile, in London, Brent North Sea crude for June delivery, the international benchmark for crude, finished at $43.84 a barrel, a decline of 34 cents from Wednesday’s close.
The International Energy Agency, in a monthly report issued on Thursday, said the global glut would likely ease by the end of 2016. The IEA projected the oil surplus would fall to 200,000 barrels per day in the second half of 2016, from 1.5 million barrels per day in the first six months.
The oil market had been slightly higher before dipping late in the session.
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