Business

Mumbai, Sep 21 (IANS) The gross non-performing assets (NPA) of the banks is expected to improved 90 basis points on-year to 5 per cent this fiscal year and another 100 basis points to a decadal low of 4 per cent by next fiscal, ratings agency CRISIL said in a release.

This was on the back of benefits from the proposed sale of NPAs to the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL), recovery in economy post pandemic and higher credit growth.

The release said that not all segments will perform equally well. The biggest improvement will be in the corporate segment, where gross NPAs is seen falling below 2 per cent next fiscal from a peak of ~16 per cent as on March 31, 2018.

"The steady improvement in corporate asset quality is clearly reflected in leading indicators such as the credit quality of bank exposures. A CRISIL Ratings study of large exposures of banks, constituting more than half of corporate advances, shows the share of high-safety1 exposures has increased to 77 per cent as on March 2022 from 59 per cent in March 2017, while exposure to sub-investment grade companies more than halved to 7 per cent versus 17 per cent," said Krishnan Sitaraman, Senior Director and Deputy Chief Ratings Officer, CRISIL Ratings.

This asset quality improvement in the corporate segment follows a significant clean-up done of bank books in recent years, and strengthened risk management and underwriting. This has also led to increased preference for borrowers with better credit profiles.

Gross NPA in the MSME2 segment is, however, expected to rise to 10-11 per cent by March 2024, from 9.3 per cent as on March 31, 2022.

While relief measures did help contain asset quality deterioration last fiscal, the segment saw the most restructuring at 6 per cent compared with 2 per cent for the overall banking sector. About a fourth of these accounts could potentially slip into NPAs.

The retail segment remains resilient and gross NPAs are expected to remain rangebound at 1.8-2.0 per cent over the medium term. While the impact of increase in interest rates and inflationary pressure on individual borrowers' cash flows will need to be monitored, almost half of the retail loans are home loans, where borrowers have relatively better credit profiles.

While segments such as unsecured loans may see some pressure, overall retail asset quality is expected to stay within expected bounds.

Agriculture segment gross NPAs is seen flat at 9-10 per cent following another year of reasonably normal monsoon and harvest.

--IANS
msn/ksk/

Amman, Sep 20 (IANS) Jordan has resumed crude oil imports from Iraq after the Iraqi side fixed the logistical problems that suspended the supply for weeks, said Jordan's Energy Ministry.

Trucks have started loading the crude oil from the oil fields in Kirkuk governorate in northern Iraq, Jordan's Minister of Energy Saleh Kharabsheh said in a statement.

The ministry said that Jordan imported about 2.525 million barrels of oil from Iraq between September 2021 and July 2022, Xinhua news agency reported.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2021, Jordan imports around 10,000 barrels per day from Iraq, based on the monthly average price of Brent crude oil minus $16 per barrel to cover the difference in quality and transportation costs.

The 10,000 barrels cover around 7 per cent of Jordan's daily needs, according to the ministry.

--IANS
int/shs

New Delhi, Sep 19 (IANS) As the sale of its electric two-wheeler declines, ride-hailing major Ola is reportedly laying off nearly 500 employees in another round, this time from its various software verticals of ANI technologies which operates at Ola Cabs.

CNBC first reported on Monday that several of the employees being laid off as part of the "restructuring exercise" worked on the Ola app.

The Bhavish Aggarwal-run company had nearly 1,100 employees in its core ride-hailing business.

Although Ola did not comment on laying off 500 employees from its software verticals, it said in a statement that Ola Electric has been increasing its focus on non-software engineering domains with a clear focus on building engineering and R&D capabilities, across vehicle, cell, battery, manufacturing and automation, autonomous engineering streams.

"The company currently has around 2,000 engineers and aims to increase its engineering talent pool to 5,000 over the next 18 months. In light of these efforts, the company is centralising operations and is undertaking a restructuring exercise to minimise redundancy and build a strong lateral structure that strengthens relevant roles and functions," the company mentioned.

Earlier restructuring exercises impacted employees across product, marketing, sales, supply, tech, business, and operations verticals at the company, affecting more than 1,000 employees.

However, according to sources, those layoffs impacted less than 500 employees and not 1,000, and "were a result of restructuring in the Cars and Dash businesses".

The ride-hailing major recently shut down its used vehicle business Ola Cars, as well as its quick-commerce business, Ola Dash, as the company shifted focus on its electric two-wheeler and car verticals.

Recently, Ola Electric's head of advanced battery engineering, Ashok Saraswat, moved on.

Saraswat, who joined SoftBank-backed Ola last year, is reportedly joining a company that is entering the battery business.

More than half a dozen senior executives have quit Ola Electric in recent months while over 30 senior executives have left Ola in the past two years.

Ola Electric's sales are diminishing and it sold 3,421 EV two-wheelers in August, a drop from 3,862 units the company sold in July, indicating that it still needs to bring its overall strategy back on track.

A recent report revealed that only 1 per cent household consumers plan to buy an e-scooter in the next six months amid safety and performance concerns, as the government probes multiple fires in electric two-wheelers.

--IANS
na/ksk/

Seoul, Sep 19 (IANS) Samsung Electronics expanded its market share of the global semiconductor industry in the second quarter, maintaining its top spot, a research report showed on Monday.

Samsung's chip revenue for the April-June period came in at a record quarterly high of $20.3 billion on the back of solid server demand, taking up 12.8 percent of the global total of $158.1 billion, according to research firm Omdia.

Samsung's Q2 share was slightly up from the 12.5 per cent it logged the previous quarter, reports Yonhap news agency.

In the second quarter, Intel's market share decreased to 9.4 per cent from 11.1 per cent the previous quarter.

The chipmaker reported $14.8 billion in revenue, down 16.6 per cent on-quarter.

Samsung and Intel have been locked in a fierce rivalry for many years.

In 2017, Samsung surpassed Intel as the world's biggest chipmaker by revenue for the first time, and it maintained the spot for two years in a row.

Intel overtook Samsung in 2019 and remained at the top until 2020, before it was beaten by Samsung again last year.

Meanwhile, SK hynix ranked No. 3 with a 6.8 percent market share for the three months ending in June, followed by Qualcomm with 5.9 percent, Micron with 5.2 percent, Broadcom with 4.2 percent, Nvidia with 3.6 percent and MediaTek with 3.3 percent.

Seven out of the global top 10 semiconductor companies were American.

--IANS
na/

By IANSlife
New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANSlife) In a crowded hospitality sector with big chains offering luxury and aspiration, starting an independent boutique hotel is a brave step and a risky one. But, if done right it is a huge opportunity. In the current scenario, travellers look increasingly for 'experience' but choose on the basis of photos and videos online while choosing an accommodation. Instagram has become one of the major platforms for this splash.


Boutique properties are a way to create something so beautiful and define success in your own unique style. Keeping in line with the way travellers consume, the class and the exquisite experience that is exclusive needs to be communicated through Instagram more than other social media platforms. Here are things that boutique hotels can do to make their hotels shine on Instagram and gain an edge, says Roop Pratap Choudhary, Executive Director, Noor Mahal and Founder Colonel Saab, London (UK).

Establish your brand - A brand is beyond comfort, luxury, logo and colours. It is the personality and identity that differentiates the boutique hotel from competitors. It is important to not just attract potential guests but also strive to create aspirations. It is important to build a unique selling point. The whole packaging needs to be such that the boutique hotel becomes a fascinating option that guests feel they should not miss.

Know your guests - It is important to understand your guests and curate the most customised experience as per their preferences. Syncing the hotel's offering to best suit the taste and expectations of the guests guest a long way in making them feel welcomed. Understand what they prioritise, what they expect and what they desire. Translate the same things through your Instagram to stay connected with them.

Highlight themed spaces - capture beautifully the themed spaces that you have created and share them on Instagram. Highlight not just the space but also encourage guests to share their happy moments enjoying the novelty.
Inspire with food- Food should be delicious but the presentation should be inspiring. Build plates that not only invite appetite but also are photographic delights. Food images are a great share for Instagram, beautiful and interesting plates encourage guests and dinners to also post on Instagram and share their moments with their connections.

Lighting for effect - a very basic yet underrated idea to enhance Instaworthyness is to focus on lighting at the hotel. A professional photoshoot can amplify decor elements by adjusting light and even using extra lights. But, for the photos that guests take need the assistance of good lighting that would give good results. The lighting used to enhance the look of the hotel may not necessarily translate into good lighting for photographs. So make changes to support that requirement.

By following these simple steps, one can easily win the hearts of the new Millennial and Gen Z Guests who are seamlessly setting new rules for Indian Hospitality.

(N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe can be contacted at lothungbeni.h@ians.in)

--IANS
iansllife/ tb

New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) In order to meet the criteria for performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, 'Make in India' smartphone shipments grew 16 per cent year-on-year to reach 44 million units in the first quarter of this financial year, according to a new report.

The Indian government's push with multiple PLI schemes has been showing a positive impact and "we saw increased local manufacturing share in product segments like smartwatch, TWS, neckband and tablet", said Counterpoint Research.

OPPO led the 'Make in India' smartphone shipments with a 24 per cent share, followed by Samsung and Vivo.

Lava led the feature phone shipments with 21 per cent share.

"OPPO recently announced the Vihaan initiative under which it plans to invest $60 million in the next five years to empower the local supply chain. Samsung also increased its manufacturing with the premium segment smartphones, especially the Galaxy S series," said senior research analyst Prachir Singh.

In the smartphone segment, in-house manufacturing contributed to almost 66 per cent of the total 'Make in India' shipments in the June quarter, while the rest of the 34 per cent shipments came from third-party EMS (electronics manufacturing services) players.

Among the third-party EMS players, Bharat FIH, Dixon and DBG were the leading players during the quarter.

Padget Electronics (396 per cent YoY), Wistron (137 per cent YoY) and Lava (110 per cent YoY) were the fastest growing smartphone manufacturers during the quarter in terms of shipments.

"Also, we may see disbursement of PLI incentives during Q3 2022, which will further boost the local manufacturing sentiments," said the report.

Optiemus leads the Made in India shipments for smartwatches with more than 75 per cent share.

In the wearable segment, TWS led in terms of domestic manufacturing with a 16 per cent contribution, followed by neckbands and smartwatches.

In TWS, Optiemus, Bharat FIH and Padget are the top three manufacturers.

In the neckband category, VVDN and Mivi have a 90 per cent share in the 'Make in India' shipments.

In the tablet category, Wingtech, Samsung and Dixon are the top players while in the TV category, Dixon, Radiant, Samsung and LG have a 50 per cent share.

"The government aims to make India an electronics manufacturing hub in the next four to five years. To help drive more initiatives under the themes of 'Make in India' and 'Digital India', the government, in its last budget, pushed the total allocation to $936.2 million," said research analyst Priya Joseph.

--IANS
na/ksk/

Mumbai, Sep 17 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is ready to bring its card-on-file tokenisation norms into effect from October 1 after various complaints were filed regarding the misuse of debit or credit cards.

Several people were cheated in the last few years by cyber frauds because they have stored their card data on the merchants website for future payments.

Lets us understand what these new norms are and why you should tokenise your card.

Firstly, tokenisation means the details of your cards such as 16-digit number, names, expiry dates and codes which you used to save earlier for the future payments will now be replaced by a token. The token is used by the merchant's website for the transaction.

The RBI is implementing these norms of tokenisation in order to secure the card details of the customers. Currently, the bank card details are saved by a merchant during a transaction. If, the merchant's website is hacked, the details of the customers will be exposed.

Post implementation of these norms all the customers data will be with the bank and not with the merchant website.

Securing/Tokenisation also helps you save the hassle of inputting your complete card details each time.

Customers need not have to pay any charges for availing this service.

Post implementation of these norms, customers have to follow below mentioned steps to get their cards tokenised.

Step 1: Visit your favourite online application/website to purchase grocery, pay bills or order food and initiate a transaction.

Step 2: In the check-out page, select HDFC Bank Credit/Debit Card and provide CVV

Step 3: Tick mark the check box "Secure your Card" or "Save Card as per RBI guidelines"

Step 4: Enter the OTP received on your registered mobile number

Step 5: Congratulations!!! Your card details are now secured.

Once the customer tokenised their cards they will be able to recognise their details on the merchants website using the last 4 four digits of the cards, which is the only data the merchant will be able to save on their portal.

Further banks will provide a portal to their customers to view or manage their tokenised cards.

--IANS
msn/ksk/

By Nishant Arora
New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) As the Indian government pushes for electric vehicle (EV) adoption and installing the public charging infrastructure, German industrial manufacturing major Siemens has stressed that it has proven capabilities to help the government realise its passenger EV mobility dream too.



The company is currently working on the commercial EV mobility side in India, working with leading players like Ashok Leyland's EV arm Switch Mobility.

Sunil Mathur, Managing Director and CEO, Siemens Limited, told IANS that they are continuously in touch with the government as well as multiple stakeholders.

"The direction of the government is very clear, and the performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme is also very consequent to their strategy of driving e-mobility. Now is the time for the Indian industry to get its act together," Mathur said.

According to him, on the commercial EVs, there's definitely a lot of traction happening in India.

"On passenger vehicles, there are a couple of other companies who have entered the charging infrastructure space. We have not entered that space currently on the charging side. But we have the required capabilities for that market too," Mathur informed.

According to Dr Peter Koerte, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, Siemens AG, the company has charging infrastructure outside India.

"We are providing high-performance charging all the way to 250 KW roadside charging when you travel a longer distance. We provide solutions for destination charging, workplace charging and home charging, etc," Koerte told IANS.

In India, the company has laid its eyes first on the commercial EV business first, but "what I am trying to convey is that we have capabilities on the passenger side too," Koerte emphasised.

Siemens India has already signed an MoU with Switch Mobility to deliver cost-effective e-mobility solutions for commercial electric vehicle customers.

Last year, ride-hailing company Ola partnered with Siemens to rapidly build its electric vehicle manufacturing facility.

Ola had access to Siemens' integrated Digital Twin design and manufacturing solutions to digitalise and validate product and production ahead of actual operations.

According to Mathur, the bigger challenge in the passenger EV mobility is paying infrastructure for the entire drivetrain, propulsion systems and the rest.

"That is the government's vision and I think industry is jumping into that. We are talking to a couple of players who are actually going to be manufacturing all this, and there is a lot of pressure on them from the government to start delivering. So, I am hopeful that it will happen soon," said Mathur.

The company has a unique project called 'Digital Twin' which is a virtual representation of a physical product or process, used to understand and predict the physical counterpart's performance characteristics.

'Digital twins' are used throughout the product lifecycle to simulate, predict, and optimise the product and production system before investing in physical prototypes and assets.

According to Mathur, nearly 600 mid to small companies in India are already engaging with 'Digital Twin' product to eliminate the need for physical prototypes, reducing development time, and improving quality of the finalised product or process.

"A large automotive company cannot achieve the levels of productivity unless all the ancillary players downstream are also in the same loop, so to speak," said Mathur.

"We are talking to the players in tier 2, 3 and 4 towns and cities, helping them become much more productive with the 'Digital Twin' solution," he mentioned.

(Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)

--IANS
na/svn/

New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) In an endeavour to promote ease of doing business, the Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has notified new rules to simplify and streamline the Trade Certificate regime under the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989.

Due to certain anomalies in the existing rules, the applicability of the Trade Certificate was open to interpretation in many cases, leading to harassment of many business establishments.

Moreover, an application was required to be filed physically at the RTO which was a time-consuming process.

The key provisions of the new rules say that a Trade Certificate will be required only in case of vehicles which are neither registered nor temporarily registered.

Such vehicles can only be in the possession of a dealer/manufacturer/importer of motor vehicles, or a test agency specified in rule 126.

It also said that the application for Trade Certificate and Trade Registration Marks can be made electronically on the Vahan portal, without the need to visit the RTO.

Further, the applicant can apply for multiple types of vehicles in a single application.

The time period for grant or renewal of trade certificate has been fixed at 30 days, wherein applications not disposed within 30 days shall be deemed approved. The validity of the Trade Certificate has been increased from 12 months to 5 years as per the new rules.

Besides, a dealership authorisation certificate (Form 16A) has been introduced to bring about uniformity across dealership authorisations.

The Trade Certificate has been made co-terminus with the dealership authorisation. Display of dealership authorisation certificate in showrooms/godowns has also been mandated.

The date of implementation is proposed with effect from November 1. The existing trade certificates will continue to be valid till their renewal is due.

--IANS
kvm/ksk/

Islamabad, Sep 17 (IANS) Devaluation of the Pakistani rupee (PKR) against the US dollar continued as the greenback traded at 236.84 rupees in the interbank, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The US dollar closed at 235.88 PKR on Thursday, and on Friday opened higher, after the local currency devalued by 0.96 PKR, or about 0.41 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported citing official figures issued by the SBP.

The dollar, since its recent low of 213.90 PKR, has now gone up by 22.94 PKR.

According to money market analysts, the depreciation of the local currency is taking place due to rising import bill.

--IANS
ksk/