Thursday 23 September 2021

What’s next in the data-driven world – A vivid picture at the #DellTechForum 2021

Dell Tech Forum 2021


Dell Technologies is truly pulling out all stops to enable its customers and partners navigate towards the digital future. And this message was brilliantly delivered at the Keynote Sessions at Dell Technologies Forum, today.

It was very inspiring to hear Dell Technologies’ leaders at the keynote sessions, as they shared vivid pictures of what the digital future is going to look like, and how businesses can accelerate forward with the right technology at the right place. The President and Managing Director of Dell Technologies India, Alok Ohrie, had the audience hooked at the very beginning with his inspiring statement on how humanity can thrive under any circumstance. Some of the statistics from Mr. Ohrie’s session that were really inspiring were ‘how 52% of Indian firms adopted digital ways of working practices in 2020, 138,000 new hires were brought into the IT industry in India during the FY22, and how India’s ICT spend is expected to be $111 billion by 2024’ – These numbers really amazed me!

It was also quite invigorating to hear Mr. Ohrie elaborate upon how Dell Technologies has been relentlessly innovating to empower its customers and partners across industries – even during the most challenging times in the history - with its end-to-end portfolio of technologies and solutions. And not just that. The technology giant also invests in collaborations and program to empower the youth of the country with tech skills. Together with NGOs and Government bodies, they have set up workshops, labs, programs and much more – everything aimed at helping the youth to become digitally empowered.

But…What truly grabbed my attention were the sessions by Amit Midha, President, Asia Pacific & Japan and Global Digital Cities, Dell Technologies and Jeff Boudreau, President and General Manager, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies – on the role of data in defining the digital future. The leaders elucidated the criticality for businesses to build a data-first mindset and a business model.

Few statistics that I would like to highlight from Jeff Boudreau’s session are how consumers across the globe had spent $900 billion on retail during 2020 and the prediction that 52% of global GDP will be driven by digitally transformed enterprises by 2023 – leaves high hopes for businesses. The insights also reflected how businesses need to adopt the right technology and solution to leverage the huge volumes of data that is being generated everywhere and drive value out of the same.

 

The economy now moves on a current of data & data is everywhere - It's on-prem, in the cloud & in the co-located datacenter”  -- Jeff Boudreau, President and General Manager, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies

 

 

Another interesting highlight that Amit Midha had mentioned is the present day data paradoxes that businesses are facing.

Reiterating the data paradoxes:

Paradox #1: Businesses believe they are data-driven yet many are not treating data as capital - they do not prioritize data uses across the business

Paradox #2: Businesses constantly need data more than their current capabilities can provide and yet they are gathering data faster than they can analyze and use

Paradox #3: Many businesses recognize and believe in the benefits of as-a-Service model, which gives them agility, scalability - yet only a few have made the transition to integrating it

The insights by Amit Midha also reflected how Dell Technologies is constantly innovating to enable businesses to overcome these data paradoxes with its comprehensive portfolio of solutions and derive real data value, regardless of where it resides.

With all these insights, I now look forward to the breakout sessions that will focus on the future of IT, Work and Data, and how businesses can leverage Dell Technologies’ solutions portfolio to catapult their digitalization goals.

I also can’t wait to be a part of the startup session and the session on women in technology. It will be interesting to know how Dell is enabling startups to stay resilient. And like every year, I am sure the celebrity chat session with a renowned sportsperson will also be invigorating this year. I am surely betting on some memorable moments to take back and eagerly awaiting the next.

If you want to know what’s next, do follow Dell Technologies on Twitter and Facebook and catch all the action. This is where you will get you know what lies ahead in the digital future! 

Wednesday 22 September 2021

Update on TheIndianCapitalist.com

The blog TheIndianCapitalist.com is being handled by Amisha Kulkarni from 15 September 2021. All queries should be posted on amishak88@icloud.com


Thanks.


Sunday 14 February 2021

FINO Paytech acquires Nokia Mobile Payment Services in India

India's leading fintech firm FINO which made mark in year 2018 with almost Rs 2000 crore valuation has recently acquired Nokia's payment services in India. FINO also has banking license in India and plans to an IPO in 2021.

With this acquisition, FINO having achieved significant scale in banking services, would be entering into the vast prepaid mobile payments space. In order to provide a smooth and quality service to its customers and maintain the dynamics of customer centric prepaid business, the new entity Alpha Payment Services India Private Limited (Alpha) (erstwhile Nokia Mobile Payment Services) would be operating as an independent company.


The new entity will wholly focus on prepaid payment services and will offer services such as money transfers, utility bill payments, mobile & DTH recharges etc under the brand Takatak Money. This service would be bank and telecom operator agnostic and would aim to cater to the requirement of both urban and rural customers.


It is estimated that more than 65% of all retail transactions in India are conducted in cash (ASSOCHAM-Deloitte August 2011 Report). This presents a huge opportunity for digital payment systems, the mobile channel being the most promising. There is huge faith being put on leveraging the large mobile penetration to tap this potential, currently estimated at 920 million subscribers in India. The rural market contributes to a considerable 35% of the total mobile subscribers in India.


Nokia Money customers to continue to enjoy mobile money by transferring to Takatak Money accounts in the near future. FINO currently services 50 mn customers across host of banking products and services and is very deep rooted in India covering over 50,000 villages. FINO has extensive experience of developing the right customer proposition and achieving scale in field and central operations, both critical for success in this market.


Studies suggest money transfer and airtime top-ups will account for most of the volume of prepaid mobile payments. Money transfers will account for the largest portion of the transaction value because of the demand for secure and efficient ways of storing and transferring money.


Source - Press Release.

Thursday 13 August 2020

Combat Volatility like a pro with Mahindra Manulife Arbitration Yojana mutual fund


















Who would have thought that a majority of Indian PSU banks would be trading below Rs 50? Who would have predicted that Pharma shares would be touching sky high within a few months? There were only a few market gurus who could predict the unprecedented move of RIL in just 50 days. Analysing our sensitive stock market in tough especially in the unprecedented & unseen times like these. But investing must not stop as Ups & Downs are a part of our lives as well as markets.

Market analysts rely on INDIAVIX index during such strange times. Basically its an index which charts the future trajectory of the market cycle. When the lockdown was announced, the INDIAVIX index jumped from 10 to 80 within a fortnight. As they say, only 5% of investors make the most of such occurrences and the rest 95% end up losing their hard earned money. The damage was such that most investors even today think twice before averaging their pre-covid investments. People who traded each minute, each day during the market hour were afraid to check their trading portals.

It’s funny when they say, “When the bulls climb they take the stairs & when the bears fall they jump through the window”. The general perception was so skewed that when the market media cried a No Buy on a certain stocks and funds there were investors who took a leap of faith & made it big!

Are you aware that there is a mutual fund which can make money on both rise and fall of the market cycle? Mahindra Manulife Arbitrage Yojana is an open ended scheme for investment in arbitrage opportunities available in equity, derivatives, debt and invIT markets. Arbitrage Mutual Funds are moderately low risk investment that can generate you an income through arbitrage opportunities in cash and derivative segment. Volatility gives an investor more opportunity in cash & futures/options market. Arbitrage Mutual Funds though they invest in equity are generally considered as safe investment pick and investors making loss in this kind of investment is yet unheard of.

Depending the upon the market conditions, Mahindra Manulife Arbitrage Yojana can hedge the risk by switching between Debt & Equity investment. At times a stock is available at different prices in two exchanges. For instance, stock A is trading at Rs 1000 on NSE & Rs 950 on BSE at the same time, then the spread of Rs 50 between both exchanges acts as your profit.

Another strategy that is often used by fund managers is cash & carry arbitrage. For example, buy stock B at Rs 1000 in spot market and sell the same contract of stock B in futures market at Rs 1020 with a lock-in profit of Rs 20. It is one of the least volatile hybrid schemes that is suitable for investment across market cycles.

What differentiates Mahindra Manulife Arbitration Yojana from other liquid funds is that when you exit the fund, the credit is reflected in your account the very next day. Being an equity based fund hybrid arbitrage mutual fund, the market position gets closed immediately giving investors an instant margin facility. The scheme offers better tax efficiency on returns compared to other short-term debt funds. Also, there’s no exit load after the period of 30 days.

It’s a win-win-win situation wherever the market heads. Mahindra Manulife Arbitration Yojana is best suited for investors who are looking out for Short Term investment parking pool with investment period varied from 1 month to 6 months.

The NFO opens for subscription on August 12 and closes on August 19. The scheme will reopen for continuous sale and repurchase from August 25.

Investors can invest online in the scheme from here.


Mahindra Manulife Arbitration Yojana MF scheme details

Fund House: Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund

Issue opens: 12 August 2020

Issue close: 19 August 2020

MF category: Hybrid

Type: Open ended

Minimum Investment: Rs 1,000

Exit Load: Nil, after 30 days.

Plans: Growth, Dividend

Benchmark: Nifty 50 Arbitrage Index TRI

Riskometer: Moderately Low

Fund Managers: Srinivasan Ramamurthy & Rahul Pal


Disclaimer: Investment subject to market risk. Please consult your financial advisor before investing.

Thursday 2 July 2020

Amid lockdown, Maharashtra reports fall in April GST revenue by just 1%.



Maharashtra, the worst affected state with 8,000 plus deaths may pose a gloomy picture but things ain't that bad when we see the data points of April 2020. While it may be true that retail shop owner and specialty businesses like wedding, sports have taken an 80% fall in business, the latest GST figures shared by FM Sitharaman on her official twitter handle has surprised me. Maharashtra, India's financial capital has reported a fall of just 1% in GST Revenue when compared with April 2019.

In April 2020, Maharashtra had collections of Rs 15,143 crore which came down to Rs 14,987 crore in April 2020 because of stringent national lockdown. A fall of just 1% may be the result of our robust financial system which pays GST state share in Maharashtra. State Bank of India in its filing at BSE said that 90% of clients are paying loan EMI is time. This feat wouldn't have been possible without our 'Honest Janata'.

Nationally, the gross GST revenue collected in the month of June 2020 is Rs. 90,917crore of which CGST is Rs. 18,980crore, SGST is Rs. 23,970crore, IGST is Rs. 40,302crore (including Rs. 15,709crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs.7,665 crore (including Rs. 607crore collected on import of goods).

The government has settled Rs. 13,325crore to CGST and Rs. 11,117crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of June 2020 is Rs. 32,305 crore for CGST and Rs. 35,087 crore for the SGST.

The revenues for the month are 91% of the GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, the revenues from import of goods were 71%and the revenues from the domestic transactions (including import of services) were 97% of the revenues from these sources during the same month last year. During the month of June, returns of February, March, and April 2020 have also been filed in addition to some returns of May 2020 since the Government has allowed a relaxed time schedule for the filing of GST returns. Some returns of May 2020, which would have otherwise got filed in June 2020, will get filed during first few days of July 2020.

The revenues during the financial year has been impacted due to COVID-19, firstly due to the economic impact of the pandemic and secondly due to the relaxations given by the Government in filing of returns and payment of taxes due to the pandemic. However, figures of past three months show recovery in GST revenues. The GST collections for the month of April was Rs. 32,294 crore which was 28% of the revenue collected during the same month last year and the GST collections for the month of May was Rs. 62,009 crore which was 62%of the revenue collected during the same month last year. The GST collections for the first quarter of the year is 59%of the revenue collected during the same quarter last year. However, a large number of taxpayers still have time to file their return for the month of May 2020.

As India unlock, lets hope that our GST collections rise back to Rs 1,00,000 crore.

Source - PIB.

Monday 10 February 2020

Nirma Group's Nuvoco Vistas acquires 100% stake of Emami Cement for Rs 5500 crores.

Nuvoco Vistas acquires Emami Cement for Rs 5500 crores


Nuvoco Vistas Corporation Limited, India’s leading building materials company and part of the Nirma Group, announced that it has entered into a share purchase agreement with Emami Group for the acquisition of 100% shareholding of Emami Cement Limited (ECL) for an enterprise value of INR 5500 crores. 

The proposed transaction is subject to approval by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and is expected to be consummated in next 3-4 months.

Emami Cement is one of the fastest-growing Companies in the cement sector and has established its presence with a strong network in a very short span of time. ECL operates one integrated cement plant in Risdah, Chhattisgarh; and 3 grinding units in Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha with a total installed capacity of 8.3 million tonnes per annum; and with mining leases in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
 
With the merger of the Nirmax business in Rajasthan and completion of this acquisition; Nuvoco will become one of the leading cement players in the country and specifically in the East. This will bring its total cement capacity in Eastern, Northern and Western India to 23.5 million tonnes (which includes the ongoing capacity expansion project in its Jojobera plant) and over 60 ready-mix plants. The Company has a substantial presence in slag cement in the East while reinforcing a strong portfolio of PPC and OPC products. The combined operations will span 3 facilities in Chhattisgarh, 2 each in Rajasthan and West Bengal, and 1 each in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Haryana. Nuvoco’s cement sales will spread across 12 states: Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, NCR region, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas acted as the legal advisor, Deloitte Touche Tohamatsu India
LLP acted as the financial diligence advisor and Arpwood Capital acted as the financial
advisor.

Source: Press Release

Note: The owner of TheIndianCapitalist.com is a shareholder of Emami at the time of publishing of the article.

Thursday 6 February 2020

France's Total buys 50% stake in Adani Green's 2GW solar portfolio for $500 million.



As part of its strategy to develop renewable energies, Total is expanding its partnership with Adani Group, India's largest privately-owned energy and infrastructure conglomerate, in order to contribute to the growth of solar power generation in the country.

The Indian government has a strong policy to support the renewable energy growth. India is a founding member for International Solar Alliance and is committed to increase its capacity from 81 gigawatts (GW) in 2019 to 225 GW by 2022.

Total and Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) will create a 50/50 joint venture into which AGEL will transfer its solar assets in operation. These projects are spread over 11 Indian states and have a cumulative capacity of over 2 GW. All the projects benefit from nearly 25-year power purchase agreements (PPA) with national and regional electricity distributors, with a fixed rate.

“Total is fully engaged in the energy transition and to supporting India, a key country in the fight against climate change, in diversifying its energy mix through partnerships in natural gas and now in solar energy," said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman & CEO of Total. “This interest in over 2 GW of solar projects represents another big step of our investment in India's energy sector. It will support our ambition to contribute to the deployment of 25 GW of renewable capacities by 2025. We are thrilled to extend the partnership with the Adani Group to renewable energies, which will allow us to benefit from its in-depth knowledge of the Indian electricity market.”

“We are delighted to extend our long term partnership with TOTAL to our renewable energy business in AGEL. The investment reinforces the immense potential in India’s renewable energy sector, as well as Adani group commitment towards sustainable development. This is a pivotal step in our journey towards building the world’s largest solar power company by 2025 and the world’s largest renewable power company by 2030.” - Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group.

This transaction has a value of approximately $500 million and is in line with the Group’s objective of double-digit returns on renewable projects. It remains subject to the approval of the relevant authorities.

Adani Green is one of the largest renewable companies in India, with a current project portfolio of 6 GW including under construction capacity. Additionally, AGEL participated, as successful bidder in SECI’s tender of manufacturing linked development project for a capacity of 8 GW and awaiting its award.

In October 2019, Total had announced that it was acquire 37.4% stake in Adani Gas for approx Rs 6000 crores.

Source - BSE.