Business News at 10:00 am on 16th February, 2024

Let’s begin – The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the validity of electoral bonds, terming it as unconstitutional. The court said it will examine the key issues, and whether this will have any bearing on BJP, which is believed to be the key beneficiary of the bonds, ahead of the general election. The bonds allow corporations and individuals to anonymously donate money to political parties by purchasing electoral bonds from the State Bank of India. Notably, the SBI has sole access to the details of those who purchased electoral bonds. The court has now ordered SBI to stop rolling out such bonds and submit details of bonds purchased since April 2019 to the Election Commission by March 6.
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Up next – The Tata Group’s Rs 25,000-crore semiconductor packaging plant in Assam, may soon get government’s approval, making it the first domestic firm to set up a chip plant in India following the government’s Rs 76,000-crore incentive scheme for the sector. Once approved, it will be the second big semiconductor project to get approval after the $2.75 billion Micron’s assembly, testing, marking, and packaging project. MoS for electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Thursday that the Group’s approval is in the final stages of evaluation after which it would be sent to the Cabinet for final clearance. The Group, under Tata Electronics, had in December applied to set up Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test facility in Assam.

Moving forward, With no signs of a thaw in the funding winter and startups focusing more on profitability rather than growth, layoffs in the space continues. However, the pace seems to have slowed if the first one-and-a-half month of the current year is taken as an indicator. So far, about seven companies have laid off about 1,800 employees, as per data from layoffs.fyi, which is a sharp drop from the 4,000 people that got laid off during a similar period last year by 29 companies. Analysts said that this maybe because several firms have rightsized themselves to an extent so the scope for big layoffs may have reduced to an extent.

Meanwhile, Zomato founder & CEO Deepinder Goyal, PhyicsWallah co-founders Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, and Groww CEO Lalit Keshre are among the 11 finalists for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year – India Awards 2023. Chosen from over 260 nominations, the finalists will be honored at a banquet on February 23. This year marks the silver jubilee of the awards in India. Other finalists include Arun Nathani, CEO, Cybage Software; Anand Deshpande, founder, chairman & MD, Persistent Systems; Prabh Das, MD & CEO, HPCL Mittal Energy; and Rafique A Malik, chairman, Metro Brand. The 11 finalists collectively boast of a revenue of Rs 14.7 trillion with combined market cap of over Rs 42 trillion and employ 12.5 trillion people worldwide.

In other news, The government agencies — farmers’ cooperative Nafed and National Cooperative Consumers Federation — will be soon entering into agreements with farmers to procure pulses at prevailing market prices or minimum support price for the three to five years. The move is likely to assure the farmers to grow pulses varieties — tur, urad and masoor. India imports these in significant quantities. “We are discussing the move to provide assured buyback arrangements for farmers who want to grow these varieties of pulses,” Ritesh Chauhan, MD, Nafed, told FE. He said the move would also signal to the market to offer better prices to farmers against those offered by the government.

Moving ahead – The challenge to global trade due to the disruption in key shipping routes in the Red Sea region failed to dent the merchandise exports performance. Exports registered a 3.12% year-on-year growth in January, lifting hopes for the coming months. Merchandise exports have grown for the fourth month in January in the first 10 months of FY24. Shipments in January stood at $36.92 billion while imports rose 3% on year to $54.41 billion. The trade deficit stood at $17.49 billion — the lowest since April last year. The data confirms that while ships might be taking longer routes and charging more, there has been no impact on trade volumes.
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Lastly, GIFT Nifty indicated that Indian equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 may see a positive opening on Friday. Stocks in Focus: GIFT Nifty traded higher as the index was up 50 points or 0.23% at 22,078.00 indicating a positive start for domestic indices NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex on Friday. Previously, on Thursday, the NSE Nifty 50 gained 70.70 points or 0.32% to settle at 21,910.75, while the BSE Sensex closed 227.55 points or 0.32% higher at 72,050.38. The key stocks to watch in trade are HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, Sterlite Technologies, Welspun Corp and Star Health and Allied Insurance Company.