Tuesday, 30th June ’20
Good Morning. It’s the last day of the month and we have, as always, crisp, to the point, business news, especially curated for you. Read further to know what S&P Global Ratings said about the Indian economy in its recent report, what measures India took against apps of Chinese origin, for what cause Google and Apple are joining forces, and the latest funding update from the startup world.
MARKETS
- Tata Steel FY20 profit down by 73.5% YOY to Rs. 2319 crores. For Q4 2020, the steel giant posted a consolidated net loss of Rs. 1095 crores. Despite the lockdown, steel production rose by 2.2% YOY, but deliveries were down by 13.6% YOY. In its report, the company said “Global steel demand is expected to be sharply lower in 2020 before a meaningful recovery in 2021.”
- Shares of Bajaj Finance and Axis Bank slump after rating downgrade. Shares of the financial majors went down by 5% after S&P downgraded their rating on the two companies to BB+, which is considered junk or non-investment grade. In the past one month, Bajaj Finance and Axis Bank’s stock had rallied 59% & 25% respectively, against 6% rise in the Nifty 50 index.
- Indian economy in deep trouble, says S&P Global Ratings. S&P in its report said, “Difficulties in containing the virus, an anemic policy response, and underlying vulnerabilities, especially across the financial sector, are leading us to expect growth to fall by 5 per cent this fiscal year before rebounding in 2021”. It also predicted that Asia-Pacific region’s economy is expected to shrink by 1.3% in 2020, but grow by 6.9% in 2021.
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
- Indian government bans 59 Chinese apps citing data diversion and privacy issues.
- Amazon India is replacing single-use plastics from its packaging. Amazon said it has also invested in technology to club separate orders bought by the same customer without reducing the shipping experience. It is replacing bubble wraps and the like with biodegradable paper and is working with brands and sellers to create robust packaging which doesn’t require a do over in the Amazon warehouses.
- Home grown short video app ‘Chingari’ claims to have crossed more than 2.5 million downloads. The app reached the milestone from 550,000 downloads in just ten days. The ‘boycott Chinese apps and products’ sentiment raging through the country has been favorable for local alternatives like chingari which aims to replace tik tok from Indian phones.
- Apple and Google had joined forces to create a contract tracing API (leveraged by a secondary app) which can help flatten the coronavirus curve. If a person updates his/her status as Covid-19 positive, the app shall update data on the cloud. The app regularly runs checks to notify people if they have accidently or unknowingly come in contact with Covid-19 positive person. The API uses only Bluetooth to sense and alert proximity but does not store and track the location of the user. This has not been made available in India.
PRODUCTS & STARTUPS
- Zuoyebang, a China-based online learning app has raised $750 million in Series E round. Asia’s booming ed-tech market has been gaining a lot of traction. Hong Kong based Fountain Vest partners led the financing round. Zuoyebang helps students understand complex concepts and solve problems. This further illustrates that investors are looking for opportunities in the online education sector.
- YourNest Venture Capital has generated 6.6 times from its investment in Uniphore Software Systems(a Voice AI startup) that raised a big cheque from March Capital Partners. The firm made this exit at an Internal Rate of Return equivalent to 43%. They had invested 8 crores in 2014 and exited at 55 crores.
WHAT ELSE IS COOKING
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- Europe pulls up confidence after a virus-hit economic dismay: Manufacturers, retailers and business clusters are back to operational state after a long duration of standstill. Germany’s Deutsche Lufthansa AG secured a government bail-out and more economic packages to frontline businesses are being promised by the commission and respective governments. The ECB is buying 1.35 trillion euros debt in support of the infrastructural and operational requirements for a post-COVID business environment. Bloomberg’s economists have projected Germany’s growth to be a V-shaped one.
- Brazil signs agreement with Astrazeneca to produce Oxford’s experimental vaccine: Brazil, one of the highest registered Corona cases in the world, has announced its signing a 127 million dollars agreement to ramp up local production of the experimental vaccine developed by Astrazeneca, a British drug-maker. It is already in the advanced stages of its trial. It has announced to initially produce 30 million doses of vaccine, 15 million by mid December and the rest by mid January next year.
- Disney + Hotstar launches Multiplex to directly release Bollywood films: The multiplex will start screening out 7 of the most awaited movies of 2020 from July 24, 2020. Amidst nepotism tirades, fans will get to watch their late star Sushant Singh Rajput’s last film Dil Bechara which will be available to all subscribers and non-subscribers. Other movies to be released by the OTT are Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi Bomb, Alia’s Sadak 2, Junior Bachchan’s Big Bull, Vidyut’s Khuda Haafiz, Kunal Khemu’s Lootcase and Ajay’s Bhuj.
- TRAI witnesses a swarm up of 4.15m wireless telecom subscribers in February while curiosity hovers over Vodafone Idea’s Q4 results: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India recorded a roaring addition of 4.15 million wireless telecom subscriptions in February, 2020 (short by 0.85 million from that recorded in January). While Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel win 6.2 million and 0.9 million new subscribers, the eyeballs now rest on Vodafone Idea’s Q4 results which is to be announced tomorrow, as in January,2020 3.62 million users bid goodbye to the operator.
Written by Kumar Sourav Mohanty, Akansh Bhatt, Piyush Vijayan and Shashank Dobhal.
