The anchor investors portion in the public issue of Zomato Ltd has been subscribed on Tuesday at Rs 76 per equity share.

The investors include New World Fund at 3.91 per cent, Tiger Global at 3.87 per cent, Fidelity Funds-India Focus Fund at 2.54 per cent, Baillie Gifford Pacific Fund at 2.99 per cent, Morgan Stanley Asia Opportunity Fund at 2.74 per cent, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board at 2.99 per cent, Government of Singapore at 2.30 per cent, Kotak Flexicap Fund at 2.17 per cent, Mirae Asset Large Cap Fund at 1.43 per cent, and Franklin India Flexi Cap Fund at 1.95 per cent.

A total of 186 investors participated in the anchor investors portion of the public issue.

(Courtesy: IANS)

Flipkart Group on Monday announced that it has raised $3.6 billion in funding as it continues to grow and advance the digital commerce ecosystem in India.

The investment values the group at $37.6 billion post-money.

The fundraise demonstrated significant interest from global investors, including sovereign funds, private equity and crossovers in addition to Walmart, said a company statement.

This round of funding was led by financial investors GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Walmart, along with investments from sovereign funds DisruptAD, Qatar Investment Authority, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, and marquee investors Tencent, Willoughby Capital, Antara Capital, Franklin Templeton and Tiger Global

Speaking on the development, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Chief Executive Officer, Flipkart Group, said: "At Flipkart, we are committed to transforming the consumer internet ecosystem in India and providing consumers access and value. This investment by leading global investors reflects the promise of digital commerce in India and their belief in Flipkart's capabilities to maximise this potential for all stakeholders."

"As we serve our consumers, we will focus on accelerating growth for millions of small and medium Indian businesses, including kiranas. We will continue to invest in new categories and leverage made-in-India technology to transform consumer experiences and develop a world-class supply chain."

The company statement said that this investment reflects global investor confidence in digital commerce in India, which has continued to accelerate over the last year when access to products safely and convenience took priority.

"With this development, Flipkart will continue to make deeper investments across people, technology, supply chain and infrastructure to address the requirements of a rapidly growing consumer base in India," it said.

A key focus area for the group is to help informal commerce segments leverage the power of technology. As one of the leaders in the fashion segment, this means working with the fashion industry and helping small businesses explore untapped opportunities that technology presents. Through its expanding grocery and last-mile delivery programs, the Group will also work with kiranas to help them digitize and grow.

"SoftBank's re-investment in Flipkart is driven by our experience with and conviction in the company's management team to continue addressing the needs of the Indian consumer in the decades to come," said Lydia Jett, Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers.

Judith McKenna, President and CEO - Walmart International said: "The quality of the investor group and valuation announced today is further confirmation of global confidence in Flipkart and its mission to transform commerce in India."

(Courtesy: IANS)

Global cues pushed fuel prices to increase again across the country on Monday adding more misery to the common man already grappling with rising food prices amid shrinking income.

However, unlike uniform price movement earlier, oil marketing companies on Monday continued with their practice adopted more than two months ago to increase the price of petrol but reduced the primp price of diesel for the first time in close to three months.

Accordingly, while the price of petrol increased by 28 paise to Rs 101.19 a litre in Delhi, it reduced by 16 paise per litre to Rs 89.72 a litre in Delhi.

Across the country as well, petrol prices increased in the range of 25-35 paise per litre, diesel prices reduced by 15-20 paise per litre.

Before Monday, the retail prices of petrol and diesel rose by a sharp 35 paise and 26 paise per litre on Saturday while it remained unchanged on Sunday.

In the city of Mumbai, where petrol prices crossed Rs 100-mark for the first time ever on May 29, the fuel price reached a new high of Rs 107.20 per litre on Monday. Diesel price in the city is also at Rs 97.29, the highest among metros.

Petrol prices in all metros have now crossed the Rs 100 per litre-mark and OMC officials said that if international oil prices continued to firm up, prices may rise further.

With Monday's price hike, fuel prices have now increased on 39 days and remained unchanged on 34 days since May 1. The 39 increases has taken up petrol prices by Rs 10.79 per litre in Delhi. Similarly, diesel has increased by Rs 9.15 per litre in the national capital till Sunday.

Consumers can now only expect that any further raise in fuel price is checked as OMCs start cutting the retail price of petrol and diesel over the next few days to provide relief. But with crude once again crossing the $75 a barrel mark in wake of the falling US inventories and rising demand, the next action of OMCs would be awaited.

(Courtesy: IANS)

The oil marketing companies (OMC) kept the petrol and diesel prices unchanged across the four metro cities on Sunday.

The pause comes after petrol prices were raised by 35 paise on Saturday.

In the national capital, petrol is selling at Rs 100.91 per litre, unchanged from its previous levels.

In Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, the fuel was priced at Rs 105.93, 101.67 and Rs 101.01 per litre, respectively.

Further, diesel prices also remained unchanged in tandem with petrol prices at Rs 89.88, Rs 97.46, Rs 94.39 and Rs 92.97 per litre, respectively.

With the rise, now diesel prices have reached very close to hitting the century mark all across the country. The fuel is already over Rs 100 per litre in some towns in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Although petrol prices in all metros have now crossed Rs 100 per litre mark, officials said that if international oil prices continue to firm up, fuel price may rise further.

Fuel prices have so far been increased on 38 days and remained unchanged on 34 days since May 1. The 38 increases have taken up petrol prices by Rs 10.51 per litre in Delhi. Similarly, diesel has increased by Rs 9.15 per litre in the national capital.

Days after prices of Amul milk (packed) increased by Rs 2 per litre, Delhi's leading milk supplier Mother Dairy too has announced an increase of Rs 2 per litre on Saturday.

Consumers have to pay an increased price for Mother Dairy's milk from sunday, while Amul Milk has already implemented its revised prices from July 1.

"Compelled to raise its liquid milk prices by Rs 2/litre in Delhi-NCR with effect from July 11, 2021," sources in Mother Dairy confirmed to IANS.

One has to pay Rs 57 for one litre of Mother Dairy milk from Sunday, instead of Rs 55 on Saturday.

Prices have been increased for all brands of its milk by Rs 2 per litre, which includes -- bulk vended milk - Rs 44, Full cream - Rs 57 per litre, Toned Milk - Rs 47 per litre, double toned milk -- Rs 41 per litre, Cow Milk - Rs 49 per litre, Super T-milk - Rs 26 per litre, Standardized milk - Rs 51 per litre.

Last time the Mother Dairy increased the prices of its products (milk) in December 2019.

A senior employee of Mother Dairy, who looks after packaging of milk products, said, "There has been a lot of buzz to increase prices of milk, but the decision was put on hold. When Amul already increased, it compelled Mother Dairy to increase prices to recover financial loss during the Covid-19 pandemic."

He said the company has been experiencing inflationary pressure on the overall input costs which has increased multifold in the last one year.

"It is pertinent to note that the farm prices of milk alone have firmed up by about 4 per cent in the last three-four weeks. Despite paying higher prices towards milk procurement in the last one year, the consumer prices were kept intact. With this revision, the milk prices are undergoing a revision of 4 per cent," Mother Dairy said.

Mother Dairy sells more than 30 lakh litres of milk per day in Delhi-NCR.

(Courtesy: IANS)

India's key equity markets opened in the red on Friday as negative global cues subdued investors' sentiments.

Accordingly, market watchers cited that weak global cues continued to trigger profit booking.

Consequently, the S&P BSE Sensex traded at 52,337.13 points around 9.55 a.m. lower by 231.81 points, or 0.44 per cent, from its previous close.

Similarly, the Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 15,669.85, lower by 58.05 points, or 0.37 per cent, from its previous close.

"After showing sharp weakness on Thursday, Nifty has slipped into follow-through weakness at the opening on Friday taking cues from its Asian counterparts. Metal stocks are seeing some buying in the morning while Bank stocks are facing some selling pressure," said Deepak Jasani- Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

"Nifty needs to stay above 15635, the intra day low so far, for the Nifty to try to recover; else a sharper fall could ensue."

According to Gaurav Garg, Head of Research at CapitalVia Global Research: "As expected the markets opened negative fueled by profit booking yesterday which was intensified in the second half of the session as well as weakness in the global market with Dow Jones closing 0.75 per cent down."

"Today, we expect the market to trade with a negative bias with Nifty50 having a major support at 15600 and BankNifty at 34900. If both these levels are respected, we might see some recovery coming in in the second half of the session."

(Courtesy: IANS)

San Francisco, July 5 (IANS) Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon exactly 24 years ago on July 5, 1994, has officially stepped down and former AWS executive Andy Jassy has taken over as the CEO of the commerce behemoth.

On Amazon investor relations' website, Jassy is now listed as President and CEO of Amazon.com and also serves on the Board of Directors.

Jassy founded and led Amazon Web Services (AWS) from its inception and served as its CEO from April 2016 until July 2021.

In May, Bezos had announced that Jassy will take over as the CEO of the e-commerce giant on July 5.

The outgoing CEO said that he chose the date because July 5 is a sentimental one for him. "It's the date that Amazon was incorporated in 1994, exactly 27 years ago," he had said.

Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and, prior to founding AWS, held various leadership roles across the company, including both business-to-business and business-to-consumer.

It is estimated that about half of the company's revenue comes from AWS.

AWS, which is the Cloud arm of Amazon, logged a $54 billion annualised run rate -- a 32 percent year-over-year growth -- in March quarter this year.

Bezos is also the founder of aerospace company Blue Origin, which is working to lower the cost and increase the safety of spaceflight, and he is owner of the Washington Post. He has launched two philanthropic organisations.

Bezos will fly to the edge of space along with his brother onboard his company Blue Origin's tourism rocket -- New Shepard -- on July 20.

In a video uploaded on his Instagram profile, Bezos is heard saying that he and his brother Mark will be launching into space on July 20 aboard a rocket built by his space company Blue Origin.

Bezos, who built an online bookstore into a $1.7 trillion technology empire reaching into space, announced in February he will be stepping down as CEO at the apex of his career to focus on innovations.

The key Indian equity indices traded on a positive note on Monday with the Sensex gaining around 300 points.

Index-heavyweights HDFC Bank and TCS helped lift the indices.

Around 9.35 a.m., Sensex was trading at 52,813.48, higher by 328.81 points or 0.63 per cent from its previous close of 52,484.67.

It opened at 52,682.89 and has so far touched an intra-day high of 52,814.28 and a low of 52,604.35 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 15,814.25, higher by 92.05 points or 0.59 per cent from its previous close.

All the sectoral indices on the Nifty traded in the green led by banking, auto and financial stocks.

The Asian markets, on the other hand traded on a mixed note on Monday.

(Courtesy: IANS)

New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) In a first of its kind exercise in India, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) on Sunday introduced a project named "Bamboo Oasis on Lands in Drought" (BOLD) to serve the combined national objectives of reducing desertification and providing livelihood.

The project, which is a unique scientific exercise, seeks to create bamboo-based green patches in arid and semi-arid land zones and is aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for reducing land degradation and preventing desertification in the country.

The project was launched on Sunday from the tribal village 'Nichla Mandwa' in Udaipur, Rajasthan, by KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena in presence of local MP Arjun Lal Meena and more than 2,000 local villagers.

A whopping 5,000 saplings of special bamboo species -- Bambusa Tulda and Bambusa Polymorpha specially brought from Assam -- have been planted over 25 bigha (nearly 16 acre) of vacant arid gram panchayat land.

The KVIC has thus created a world record of planting the highest number of bamboo saplings on a single day at one location. The initiative has been launched as part of KVIC's "Khadi Bamboo Festival" to celebrate 75 years of independence or "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav".

The KVIC is set to replicate the project at village Dholera in Ahmedabad district of Gujarat and Leh-Ladakh region by August this year. Overall 15,000 bamboo saplings will be planted before August 21 this year.

India is a signatory to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

In his keynote address at the UN High-Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought on June 14, Prime Minister Modi gave a clarion call of restoring 26 million hectare of degraded land by 2030.

This assumes great significance as nearly 30 percent of land in India is undergoing desertification at a rapid pace.

KVIC Chairman said the green patches of bamboo on these three places will help in reducing the land degradation percentage of the country, while on the other hand, they will be havens of sustainable development and food security. "Bamboo plantation drive on such a large scale will create additional income for the local tribal population while it will also support the local bamboo-based industries and thus boost the rural economy."

"In three years, these bamboo patches will be able to meet the bamboo requirement of Agarbatti manufacturers in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. This way, the bamboo patches will fulfil the larger UN sustainable development goals (SDGs)," Saxena added.

Member of Parliament Arjun Lal Meena said the bamboo plantation programme in Udaipur will boost self-employment in the region and that such projects will benefit a large number of women and unemployed youths in the region by connecting them to skill development programmes.

Meena said the project will contribute towards achieving Prime Minister's dream of "Aatmanirbhar Bharat".

KVIC has specially brought two species of bamboo -- Bambusa Tulda and Bambusa Plymorpha -- from Assam. While Bambusa Tulda is used for making 'Agarbatti (incense)' sticks; Bambusa Polymorpha is used for making furniture and handicraft items.

Further, to develop the plantation site into a hub of beekeeping activities, KVIC has planted 100 trees each of papaya, pomegranate and Moringa.

KVIC has judiciously chosen bamboo for developing green patches. Bamboos grow very fast and in about three years' time, they could be harvested, and income recorded.

In these three years, the 5,000 bamboo plants will produce at least 20,000 logs weighing about 500 metric ton (MT). At the current market rate of Rs 5,000 per ton, this bamboo produce will generate an income of nearly Rs 25 lakh after three years and later on every year, thus supporting the local economy.

Bamboo can be used for making agarbatti sticks, furniture, handicraft, musical instruments, and paper pulp while bamboo waste is widely used in making charcoal and fuel briquette.

Bamboos are also known for conserving water and reducing evaporation of water from the land surface, which is an important feature in arid and drought-prone regions.

Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty opened on a choppy note on Friday amid sustained foreign fund outflow and a mixed trend in Asian peers.

The 30-share BSE index started on a slightly positive note, but soon turned negative to trade 46.89 points or 0.09 per cent lower at 52,271.71 in early deals.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty inched 9.90 points or 0.06 per cent down to 15,670.10.

TCS was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding over 1 per cent, followed by Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Bank, HCL Tech, PowerGrid, Tata Steel and HDFC.

On the other hand, ICICI Bank, M&M, Reliance Industries and Titan were among the gainers.

In the previous session, the 30-share index Sensex ended 164.11 points or 0.31 per cent lower at 52,318.60, and Nifty inched 41.50 points or 0.26 per cent down to 15,680.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,245.29 crore on Thursday, as per provisional exchange data.

According to V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, sustained FII selling and high valuations are the major reasons for the weakness in the market now.

"It is normal and rational for FIIs to sell and book profits at the present elevated valuations. High-net-worth individuals (HNIs) also might be tempted to partially book profits," he noted.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai and Hong Kong were in the red in mid-session deals, while Seoul and Tokyo were trading with gains.

Equities on Wall Street largely ended on a positive note in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was quoting flat at USD 75.84 per barrel.

(Courtesy: PTI)

United Nations, July 2 (IANS) India has agreed to a pathbreaking international framework with 129 other countries for taxing multinationals that could impact its ability to tax them and have the potential to douse trade wars over taxing tech giants.

India and the other countries issued a joint statement on Thursday affirming support for the proposed framework which has at its core a global minimum corporate tax of 15 percent and makes way for countries to tax multinational enterprises (MNEs), especially tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon, on their earnings there.

"It would re-allocate some taxing rights over MNEs from their home countries to the markets where they have business activities and earn profits, regardless of whether firms have a physical presence there," said the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which coordinated the development of the plan.

It "will ensure a fairer distribution of profits and taxing rights among countries with respect to the largest MNEs, including digital companies", the OECD said.

India and the administration of President Joe Biden are embroiled in a dispute over New Delhi imposing a two percent tax on earnings in the country by foreign technology and e-commerce companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google.

Biden's administration retaliated with a threat to raise import duties on a range of imports, from prawns and Basmati rice to furniture and jewellery, but kept it in abeyance hoping the new global tax framework could resolve it.

The OECD, which said that it expected the framework to be finalised in October for implementation in 2023, estimated that it would generate additional annual global tax revenues of around $150 billion that will be shared by various countries.

"Additional benefits will also arise from the stabilisation of the international tax system and the increased tax certainty for taxpayers and tax administrations," the OECD said.

The framework got the approval of the G7 leaders last month and is expected to come up at the meeting of the finance ministers of the G20 group of major economies in Venice next week.

Biden and his Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen propelled the negotiations for the framework with the goal of preventing US companies fleeing to countries like Ireland, Hungary and Lichtenstein and those in the Caribbean region with lower corporate taxes. Notably, most of those countries did not sign the statement agreeing to the framework.

In hopes that at least the major low-tax countries would fall in line, Yellen said: "Today is a historic day for economic diplomacy. For decades, the United States has participated in self-defeating international tax competition, lowering our corporate tax rates only to watch other nations lower theirs in response. The result was a global race to the bottom.

"Today's agreement by 130 countries representing more than 90 percent of global GDP is a clear sign: the race to the bottom is one step closer to coming to an end."

The deal has two parts or "pillars", as the OECD calls it. The first ensures the rights of countries to tax the MNEs on their incomes there.

"Under Pillar One, taxing rights on more than $100 billion of profit are expected to be reallocated to market jurisdictions each year." The second pillar sets the global minimum for taxes at 15 percent without a ceiling on the maximum.

With a minimum rate of at least 15 percent, it "is estimated to generate around USD 150 billion in additional global tax revenues annually", the OECD said.

According to an analysis of the implications for India by the professional services company Dezan Shira & Associates in India Briefs, "India will be able to tax large MNCs (multinational corporations) doing business in the country, without a physical presence or permanent establishment, at 20 percent of their profits (exceeding a 10 percent margin)".

"Thus, the measure, if globally approved, will impact digital companies in whichever markets they earn revenues and make profits based on their online presence," it said, adding that "however, the G7 countries have also called for the elimination of the digital services tax or equalisation levy".

The equalisation levy is the two percent tax India imposed on the tech giants that have led to the dispute with the Biden administration.

Explaining the need for the framework, the OECD said: "Recent, rapid and expansive digital transformation has had deep economic and societal impacts resulting in significant changes. This has sparked global debates in many legal and regulatory realms and international tax is no different."

It seeks to find a solution to the issue of "whether international income tax rules, developed in a 'brick-and-mortar' economic environment more than a century ago, remain fit for purpose in the modern global economy".