Mobile data consumption rose 142% in last 3 yrs: Kant

New Delhi: Mobile data consumption per subscriber in India has risen by 142 per cent in the last three years, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant today said.
"Significant progress in digital access: During 2014-17, India has seen a 142 per cent year-on-year increase in mobile data consumption per subscriber," Kant said in a tweet.
He further said, "during 2014-17, India has seen a 17X increase in online banking transactions per internet user & a 200X increase in digital wallet transaction." PTI BKS

Return on equity of Sensex firms hits three-year high in FY17

Mumbai: Return on equity (RoE) of Sensex companies rose to a three-year high of 11.27% in 2016-17, while return on capital employed (RoCE) hit a five-year high of 15.1%, data showed.
The 10-year data, sourced from Capitaline, does not include banks, financial companies and energy companies.
RoE measures a company’s profitability by showing how much profit a company generates with shareholders’ money. RoCE measures the efficiency with which a company employs its capital.
Analysts said RoE recovered due to various factors including falling cost of debt. In FY17, cyclicals also had seen a bit of recovery and overall consumption improved.
Pankaj Pandey, head of research at ICICI Securities Ltd, said RoE expansion was led by last fiscal’s higher demand, recovery in cyclicals and decent profits. He expects RoE to improve further this year, led by Sensex earnings per share (EPS) of 18.5%.“Due to decline in cost of capital and fall in inflation expected in FY18, RoE is likely to improve with increase in profitability of companies. Overall, domestic and consumption-oriented firms should do well. Capex recovery is also seen in this fiscal,” Pandey said.
Automobile and consumer goods companies saw an increase in RoE while technology, pharma, metals and FMCG saw a sharp fall.
RoE of auto companies stood at 233.7%, improving in the last two years after it had started falling from FY11. However, in the last 10 years, its best RoE was at 725.26% in FY08. Consumer goods sector RoE recovered to 9.33% in FY17, from a decline of -0.36% in FY15. For this sector, RoE has been declining since FY08. RoCE for consumer goods in FY17 is at 19.84%, up from 13.19% from the previous year.
Siddhartha Khemka, head, equity research (wealth) at Centrum Broking Ltd said, “RoE expansion is led by improvement in margins in a few sectors due to low material cost, coupled with the increase in capacity utilisation.”
IT and pharma companies did not see any improvement in RoE and RoCE. After a recovery in FY14, RoE for IT companies fell to 17.30% in FY17. In the last 10 years, its best RoE was at 24.39% in FY08. Its RoCE, too, fell to 22.05% in FY17 from 25.64% in FY16. After clocking 18.03% in FY15, RoE in the pharma sector has slipped, touching 16.04% in FY17. In the past 10 years, the sector’s best RoE was in FY11 at 35.29%. RoCE of pharma companies also fell to 17.08% from 19.53% in the last fiscal.
Meanwhile, Ambit Capital Pvt. Ltd said in a 15 June report that the smallest stocks in the BSE500 (ex-BFSI) universe have the worst performance in terms of RoCE and RoE ratios. However, these stocks have seen the sharpest price to earnings (PE) re-rating over the last six years.
“Both for Indian midcaps and largecaps, the actual quarterly earnings have kept disappointing consensus expectations – even the ones built at the end of relevant quarter. When one considers the percentage of stocks in these indices with negative earnings surprise has remained consistently upwards of 50% throughout the last 12 quarters. Further, this number looks to be increasing again for the midcap space,” the brokerage firm said.
However, there is widespread optimism in the markets which is driving the momentum. Analysts still believe that earnings recovery will pick up and see healthy growth in FY18. Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd expects steady-state earnings growth to be around 10% which is somewhat higher than the 10-year average of 4.5% and flat growth of the past three years. It sees consensus earnings growth estimate for FY18 at over 20%, but implementation of GST in July may bring forth inventory correction across various sectors, thereby slowing sales growth temporarily, while recent modest appreciation in Indian rupee could also impact near term outlook on earnings.
Stating that, “this could be the beginning of a new growth cycle”, Ridham Desai, managing director and Sheela Rathi, equity strategist, Morgan Stanley said in 6 June note, “We watch for a turn in earnings revisions in the coming months as earnings surprise positively. Relative to US equities, this is about as attractive as Indian stocks have been in a while. India’s own price to book is at historical average. Versus emerging markets, India looks rich but then RoE is gapping higher.”

Maruti, Honda drive industry growth in FY18

New Delhi: Domestic sales of passenger vehicles (cars, vans and utility vehicles) and two-wheelers witnessed a healthy growth rate of about 12 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, in the first two months of the financial year 2017-18. However, this is not the real growth of the industry, as it was dominated by just two companies — Maruti Suzuki in the case of passenger vehicles (PV) and Honda in two-wheelers. Both the companies are controlled by Japanese auto majors — Suzuki and Honda, respectively.
If one looks at the performance of the PV industry minus Maruti Suzuki, the growth rate comes down to sub-five per cent from 12 per cent. Maruti grew at 19 per cent in April-May 2017, pushing the industry’s growth. Maruti’s growth helped it reach a market share of almost 52 per cent during this period, for the first time in over a decade. Three products of the company — Baleno, Brezza and Dzire — enjoy a waiting period of at least two months.
The second-biggest player, Hyundai, saw a volume growth of less than four per cent. M&M, which stood third, witnessed a volume decline of over six per cent. A few other players, all with a market share of five per cent or lower, were able to show double-digit growth but on a small base. These included Honda Cars, Tata Motors, Toyota, Ford, and Nissan.
The story is identical in the two-wheeler segment. After a weak phase post demonetisation, the industry clocked a 9.6 per cent growth rate in domestic sales in the April-May period. But, if we were to look at the industry’s growth minus Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), this rate comes down to below three per cent. HMSI, riding on the rising popularity of scooters, witnessed its domestic sales grow by 28 per cent in April-May. Market leader Hero MotoCorp’s domestic sales registered less than three per cent growth, while TVS Motor, the third-biggest player, grew at 10 per cent.
HMSI, the second-biggest player, sold over a million units in the first two months. “This growth is coming on back of demand for both scooters and motorcycle models,” said Y S Guleria, senior vice president (sales and marketing), HMSI.
HMSI’s scooter sales grew 32 per cent, against the industry’s 24 per cent, while motorcycle sales surged 21 per cent as compared to a four per cent growth rate in the industry. Accordingly, HMSI expanded its market share to 31.5 per cent from 27 per cent during April-May last year. Guleria said the company had set an “aggressive” target, to grow domestic sales by 20 per cent in FY18. HMSI’s growth made India the largest contributor to Honda’s global two-wheeler business by volume last year. India sales contributed 28 per cent to Honda’s volume.
Abdul Majeed, partner at PwC India and a sector expert, said both Maruti Suzuki and HMSI had managed to sustain a high double-digit growth by creating successful mass products and backing them with an extensive sales and service network.

Digital economy can reach US$ 4 trn in 4 yrs: Tech sector to govt

New Delhi: Surpassing the government's expectations to make India USD 1-trillion digital economy by 2022, technology companies today said it has potential to grow up to USD 4 trillion during the period.
IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who chaired a meeting with industry captains to chalk out a growth plan, said the government will formulate a new set of strategies to support growth including a new electronics policy, software product policy and a framework for data security and protection.
"There was unanimity among all the participants that USD 1-trillion digital economy is an understatement. India has the immense potential to go to USD 2 to 3 to 4 trillion digital economy potential," Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters after meeting with top industry leaders.
The meeting was attended by top experts such as Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar, Google India's Rajan Anandan, Wipro's Rishad Premji, Indian Cellular Association National President Pankaj Mohindroo, NIIT Chairman Rajendra Pawar and Hike Messenger CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal, among others.
Notable absentees from the event included Flipkart co- founder Sachin Bansal and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
The government has projected that Indian digital economy will become USD 1 trillion by 2022 from around USD 450 billion digital economy at present.
As of now, the Indian electronics market is estimated to be around USD 100 billion, IT sector USD 150 billion, telecom USD 150 billion, e-commerce USD 30-40 billion and rest is estimated to be size of shared economy like taxi hailing services, start-ups etc.
"One participant said that BPO alone has potential to reach USD 1 trillion potential. One participant said that electronics manufacturing itself has the potential to reach that in coming in 3-4 years. I asked them specifically that is this the hope shared by all. All of them said we share this," Prasad said.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT has projected IT and ITeS sector to grow to USD 350 billion by 2025 from USD 160 billion, while electronics sector is poised to touch USD 300 billion by the same time (from USD 100 billion currently).
Telecom and e-commerce are projected to grow to USD 150 billion each, while sharing economy and digital skilling each presents a USD 30 billion opportunity.
Digital payments, cyber security and Internet of Things -- all of which are expanding at a significant pace -- are expected to touch USD 50 billion, USD 35 billion and USD 20 billion, respectively.
It was also projected that the digital economy will generate 30 million employment opportunities by 2024-25, which is double than the current scenario.
The ministry has identified digital payments, Make In India, Start-Up India, Skill India among the key drivers of the digital economy.
Highlighting the potential of the "new economy" with avenues like digital payments and e-commerce, Prasad said the focus needs to be on creating technology that is affordable, developmental and digitally inclusive.
Prasad said that deliberations at the meeting had also brought out the need to promote an ecosystem to facilitate more start ups in areas like education, agriculture and healthcare.
"I have decided that we will have a coordinated action with Health, Agriculture and HRD Ministries to promote an ecosystem to facilitate more startups in these areas," he said.
Prasad added that the idea of setting up special innovative zones for start-ups will be explored and a framework for startup cluster policy will be developed.
Besides, digital skilling has a lot of potential as India has a rich talent pool that can be used to meet global demand in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.
"We need to re-skill and re-purpose ourselves. We have a list of different skills, where we need people... If you re- skill yourself in blockchain or AI, there is no shortage of jobs globally," Tech Mahindra Managing Director and CEO CP Gurnani said.
Citing a Nasscom report, Prasad said that in the last three years, almost six lakh people have been employed in the IT sector, while in 2016-17, the number of people employed was around 1.7 lakh. About 2.5-3 million new jobs are expected to be created by 2025.
He refuted reports of job losses by Indian IT firms, terming them as "motivated".
"There has been a lot of debate, and by any standards of economy, this talk of job decline in the IT sector is motivated," he said.
In terms of challenges, the participants had pointed out the need for setting up a dispute resolution mechanism and liberal regulatory norms.

Relaxation in return filing procedure for first two months of GST implementation

New Delhi: With the objective of ensuring smooth rollout of GST and taking into account the concerns expressed by the trade and industry regarding filing of the returns in GST regime, it has been decided that, for the first two months of GST implementation, the tax would be payable based on a simple return (Form GSTR-3B) containing summary of outward and inward supplies which will be submitted before 20th of the succeeding month. However, the invoice-wise details in regular GSTR – 1 would have to be filed for the month of July and August, 2017 as per the timelines given below –
Month GSTR – 3B GSTR - 1 GSTR – 2 (auto populated from GSTR-1)
July, 2017 20th August 1st – 5th September* 6th – 10th September
August, 2017 20th September 16th – 20th September 21st – 25th September
Facility for uploading of outward supplies for July, 2017 will be available from 15th July, 2017.
No late fees and penalty would be levied for the interim period. This is intended to provide a sense of comfort to the taxpayers and give them an elbow room to attune themselves with the requirements of the changed system. This not only underlines the government’s commitment towards ensuring that all the stakeholders are on board but also provides an opportunity to the taxpayers to be ready for this historic reform.

RIL-BP to invest USD 6 bn in developing new gas fields

New Delhi: Reliance Industries and its partner BP plc today announced investment of USD 6 billion in developing new gas fields in the KG-D6 block after an eight- year hiatus.
RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said two firms have also agreed on a strategic cooperation on new opportunities for conventional and unconventional fuel trading and marketing including jointly setting up petrol pumps.
"Changed policies have allowed us to develop new resources," BP CEO Bob Dudley said.
He said BP-RIL has agreed to progress on R-Series gas field development in the KG-D6 block and will invest USD 6 billion. The gas project will reduce India's import dependence by 10 per cent.
Addressing a joint press conference, Ambani said RIL-BP after many years will invest Rs 40,000 crore to bring 30-35 mmscmd of gas.
This "new and historic cooperation" will also explore trading of fuel and carbon emission trading, he said.
With regard to pending arbitration, Ambani said RIL will follow legal course for bringing them to conclusion.
"We don't see pending arbitration hampering our new investments," he added
RIL is locked in four arbitration cases with the government. It is in arbitration against the government disallowing recovery of certain KG-D6 gas field costs as a punishment for gas output lagging targets.
Another arbitration is over deferring of a natural gas price hike due to the company from April 1, 2014. The latest arbitration is against government demanding USD 1.55 billion compensation from RIL and its partners for "unfairly" producing ONGC's gas.

Seafood exports to grow above 20% in FY18

Bhubaneswar: Seafood exports are likely to grow over 20 per cent in 2017-18 after the figures touched an all-time high of $5.78 billion (Rs 37,870.90 crore) in 2016-17.
The exporters are upbeat despite the fact that the major importing countries are taking protectionist measures to safeguard their local industries.
Recently, The American Shrimp Processors’ Association has named India, along with Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, China, and Malaysia, as seven of the 13 countries with which the US ran a significant overall shrimp trade deficit in 2016. The US trade deficit in shrimp was $4.5 billion in 2016.
Similarly, the International Trade Commission of the United States had unanimously voted to extend the current anti-dumping orders on shrimp from China, India, Thailand and Vietnam for an additional five years.
"With exports to US setting new records and the markets' rising appetite, the industry is confident of a strong growth for the Indian shrimps. By our current estimates, it would be a surprise if Indian exports don't bring in growth in excess of 20 per cent y-o-y (year on year)," said Rahul Kulkarni, director, WestCoast Group, a leading seafood exporter from India.
USA had imported 1,88,617 tonnes of Indian seafood in the last financial year, accounting for 29.98 per cent in dollar terms. The exports have registered a growth of 22.72 per cent, 33 per cent and 29.82 per cent in terms of quantity, value in rupee and the US dollars, respectively.
The exporters are pinning hopes on growth in exports with the adoption of the Vannamei or Pacific White variety of shrimp in recent years over the Black Tiger by new states.
"The areas brought under Vannamei cultivation is on the rise in states like Odisha and West Bengal. There is also emergence of demands from new countries like Canada and Australia", said G Mohanty, an Odisha based exporter.

RERA to boost GDP growth: PHD Chamber

New Delhi: The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, if implemented with a positive approach, can boost the GDP of the country, industry body PHD Chamber said today.
The Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA) came into force from April 1 with a promise of protecting the right of consumers and ushering in transparency.
Today like GST, the RERA is another burning topic and these changes will have a positive impact for decades to come, PHD Chamber Vice-President Rajeev Talwar said at a conference.
"RERA is yet another big step forward ... its implementation in positive manner can boost the GDP of the country which dipped marginally in the previous fiscal," he said.
He appealed the government to come out with a concept of 'kick start loans' for real estate developers, especially for those whose projects are stuck as also make a provisioning of a loan at the rate of 6 per cent for buyers that have invested their hard earned money in such projects so that their re- launch becomes conclusive.

19.5% growth in foreign tourist arrivals in May, 2017 over May, 2016

55.3% Growth in Foreign Tourist arrivals on E-Tourist visa in may, 2017 over may, 2016
New Delhi: Ministry of Tourism compiles monthly estimates of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) & FTAs on e- Tourist Visa on the basis of Nationality-wise, Port-wise data received from Bureau of Immigration (BOI).

The following are the important highlights regarding FTAs & also FTAs on e-Tourist Visa from tourism during the month of May, 2017.
Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs):
The number of FTAs in May, 2017 were 6.30 lakh as compared to FTAs of 5.27 lakh in May, 2016 and 5.09 lakh in May, 2015.
The growth rate in FTAs in May, 2017 over May, 2016 is 19.5% compared to 3.5% in May, 2016 over May, 2015.
FTAs during the period January- May 2017 were 42.15 lakh with a growth of 16.4%, as compared to the FTAs of 36.22 lakh with a growth of 8.7% in January- May 2016 over January- May 2015.
The percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during May 2017 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (29.73%) followed by USA (14.37%), UK (6.76%), Malaysia (3.64%), China (2.91%), Sri Lanka (2.68%), Japan(2.38%), Germany (2.34%), Canada (2.33%), Australia (2.26%), Singapore (1.99%), France (1.77%), Afghanistan (1.76%), Nepal (1.73%) and Republic of Korea (1.52%).
The percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during May 2017 among the top 15 ports was highest at Delhi Airport (24.17%) followed by Haridaspur Land check post (17.06%), Mumbai Airport (15.04%),Chennai Airport (7.75%), Bengaluru Airport (6.50%), Kolkata Airport (5.29%), Gede Rail Land check post (3.62%), Hyderabad Airport (3.33%),Cochin Airport (3.25%), Ghojadanga land check post (2.14%), Tiruchirapalli Airport (1.76%), Ahmadabad Airport (1.61%), Trivandrum Airport (1.36%), Goa Airport (0.78%),and Attari-Wagh Airport (0.77%).
Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) on e-Tourist Visa
During the month of May, 2017 total of 0.68 lakh tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 0.44 lakh during the month of May 2016 registering a growth of 55.3%.
During January- May 2017, a total of 6.50 lakh tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 4.35 lakh during January-May 2016, registering a growth of 49.4%.
The percentage shares of top 15 source countries availing e- Tourist Visa facilities during May, 2017 were as follows:
USA (15.1%), UK (13.1%), China (8.4%), Germany (4.3%), Australia (4.1%), France (4.0%), Canada (3.9%), Korea (Rep.of) (3.4%), Singapore (2.8%), Malaysia (2.5%), Russian Fed (2.2%), Spain (2.1%), UAE (2.0%), Thailand (1.9%), and South Africa (1.6%).
The percentage shares of top 15 ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during May, 2017 were as follows:-
New Delhi Airport (45.1%), Mumbai Airport (21.4%), Bengaluru Airport (8.6%), Chennai Airport (7.8%), Kochi Airport (3.6%), Hyderabad Airport (2.8%), Kolkata Airport (2.5%), Dabolim (Goa) Airport (1.9%), Ahmadabad Airport (1.4%), Amritsar Airport (1.2%), Tirchy Airport (1.1%), Trivandrum Airport (1.1%), Jaipur Airport (0.4%), Calicut Airport (0.4%)and Pune Airport(0.3%) .

20 Indian firms in top 100 companies in Asia300 ranking

New Delhi: Jun 15: As many as 20 Indian firms have been named in the top 100 of Nikkei Asian Review's Asia300 companies list, which was topped by Taiwan's Largan Precision.
According to the Nikkei Asian Review's second annual Asia 300 Power Performers Ranking -- a compilation of the most powerful and valuable listed companies in Asia, as many as three Indian companies have made it to the top 10 list, while none had made the cut in the previous financial year.
"India's rise in the rankings is remarkable," Nikkei said, adding Indian players held 10 of the top 30 spots, outperforming their Chinese and Southeast Asian counterparts.
The list was topped by Taiwan's Largan Precision, the world's leading maker of lenses for smartphone cameras.
Indian IT service provider HCL Technologies came in at the second place, followed by Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Tata Consultancy Services at the third and fourth place respectively.
Others in the top ten include, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co at the 5th position, Alibaba Group Holding (6th), Eclat Textile (7th), Vietnam Dairy Products (Vinamilk) (8th), Tencent Holdings, (9th) and Airports of Thailand at the 10th place.
Other Indian companies named among top 100 include Sun Pharmaceutical Industries at the 11th place, Infosys (15), ITC (16), Maruti Suzuki India (17), Lupin (18), Dabur India (24), Asian Paints (28), Power Grid Corporation of India (40), Godrej Consumer Products (41), Bajaj Auto (43), Wipro (48), Hero MotoCorp (57), Hindustan Unilever (62), Housing Development Finance Corp (71), Motherson Sumi Systems (72) and Vedanta at 93rd place.
The Asia300 list consists of a total of 327 companies in India, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and six other Southeast Asian nations.
The Nikkei ranked them based on average growth in sales and profit over the past five years, profitability, capital efficiency and financial soundness.
"These results testify to India's solid personal consumption despite the government's demonetisation of two high-denomination bank notes last November," it said.
The combined net profit of Indian companies on the Asia300 list increased 9.8 per cent on the year, a sharp contrast to the 9.8 per cent fall for Chinese and Hong Kong companies combined, it added.