Brickwork downgrades Peninsula Lands debentures from 'A' to 'BBB-'

Brickwork has downgraded the rating for debentures of Peninsula Land, real estate unit of the Ashok Piramal Group, from “A” to “BBB-“. It also revised the outlook from “stable” to “negative”. This rating downgrade and change in outlook factor in high refinancing risk and sluggish demand in the realty sector.

The rating action also takes into account relatively slow bookings and funding risks associated with the company’s ongoing projects. Further, the sales velocity and collections are expected to remain low. This may put pressure on the cash flows, necessitating refinancing or mobilisation of additional funds to repay the debt obligations.

The rating downgrade factors in high refinancing risk given consolidated ongoing project debt repayments of Rs 663 crore from July 2019 to March 2020 and Rs 417 crore in FY21, as there is a slowdown in sales.

It has already paid Rs 176 crore during the first quarter of current financial year ended June 2019 (Q1FY20).

E-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon clock bumper sale on Day One

Dispelling the fear that a slowing economy may affect consumer behaviour, e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon India have said they witnessed record transactions on their platforms on the first day of their annual festive sale, which started early on Sunday.

While home-grown Flipkart, which is now owned by American retail major Walmart, said it registered two times more sales on Day One of its flagship sale event Big Billion Days (BBD) over last year, rival Amazon claimed it witnessed the biggest opening day sale ever with a huge surge in participation in smaller towns.

According to Amit Agarwal, senior vice-president and country head, Amazon India, the company also saw the single-largest day of Prime sign-ups, with 66 per cent of Prime members shopping in 24 hours coming from tier II and tier III towns. The company added that 91 per cent of new customers were from smaller cities.

“Whether it is the Diwali festival season or any other shopping event, the primary objective for us is to add as many new customers as we can and convert the existing customer into Prime members. We are relevant to customers, no matter the macroeconomic conditions,” said Agarwal.

According to Flipkart, it saw huge demand in almost all major categories, including beauty, women’s ethnic wear, kidswear, sports, fast-moving consumer goods, baby care, private labels, and furniture on the first day of the sale. The company saw 3x more transactions happening on its platform during early access (from Flipkart Plus customers), compared to last year. The number of transacting customers in tier II and smaller cities doubled over the same period.

“We started this festive season by setting audacious targets. By all indication, this is going to be the biggest festive season that India has witnessed,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, chief executive officer of Flipkart. “E-commerce has not only lifted consumer sentiment but also driven the industry to set new benchmarks,” said Krishnamurthy.

Wearing a black T-shirt with the slogan Bura Na Maano BBD Hai written on it, Krishnamurthy was seen giving a pep talk during the kick-off of the BBD sale at Flipkart’s Bengaluru campus. Apart from employees, many of its sellers also attended the event. “As part of fun activities, the firm had invited a mind reader to the event. He asked Kalyan (Krishnamurthy) to think about one of his friends and he correctly guessed that Kalyan was thinking about Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal,” said a person who was present at the event.

During the first day of the BBD, Flipkart said its affordability constructs saw a high uptake. Customers opting for affordability options spent 2.5X more than other customers. “Affordability and value-driven themes clearly are the pulsating chords for India and Bharat. We are at the centre of it all and are able to serve the ecosystem for their unique needs,” said Krishnamurthy. For Amazon, more than 400 million Indians had access to cashback and EMI (equated monthly instalment) offers on Amazon.in with 100 per cent more customers opting for EMI over last year and 75 per cent of these coming from tier-II and tier-III cities. The company said this “Great Indian Festival” also witnessed the biggest 36 hours’ opening sale ever for sellers as thousands of sellers got at least one order and Karigar sellers witness a 3X jump in sales.

According to Amazon, it witnessed a massive surge in sales of the top three premium brands OnePlus, Samsung, and Apple. Sales exceeded Rs 750 crore within 36 hours. High-end phones seem to be the big crowd-pullers for Amazon India this season.

“Amazon.in continued to see a great customer response in key categories — premium smartphone brands OnePlus, Samsung, and Apple made record sales worth about Rs 750 crore in 36 hours and large appliances and televisions showed growth of nearly 10X over an average business day,” said Agarwal. Customers across 720 cities corresponding to 10,000 plus pin-codes could trade-in and upgrade everything from their old phone, appliances, and TV.

The company said the largest number of new customers shopped for fashion, daily essentials, and consumables. “Almost 91 per cent of new customers came from tier II, tier III and rest of India geographies. Of these almost 43 per cent of all ordered placed so far will get delivered within two days,” the company said.

For Flipkart, travel was also the fastest-growing category which saw 12X growth over last year. Also, over 2.3 million consumers engaged with games on the platform. There were close to 10 million new app downloads in less than a month in the run-up to BBD 2019. Over 1.5 million users engaged with the Flipkart Ideas platform in just 24 hours. The sale for the mobiles and electronics category will open on Sunday night.

According to RedSeer Consulting, the category mix of e-tailers is expected to be more diversified this year than any of the previous years, with the non-mobiles segment expected to perform strongly. Mobile phones, though, with slightly subdued demand, however, will continue to rule the roost, it said.

Right click

Flipkart saw 2x sales growth on Day 1 of BBD 2019, compared to last year’s BBD opening day

For Flipkart, transacting customers from tier II and beyond has doubled

Flipkart said customers opting for affordability options spent 2.5x

Amazon witnessed biggest-ever single-day sale, backed by surge in transactions from tier II, III towns

Smartphone brands OnePlus, Samsung, and Apple made record sales on Amazon, worth Rs 750 crore in 36 hours

At Amazon, appliances and TVs showed growth of 10x over an average biz day

Plan to tap wind power, establish desalination plants in 3 ports: Gadkari

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said the central government has proposed to tap wind power from three ports in the country.

The proposal to tap wind power from Tuticorin, Kandla and Paradip ports has been discussed with the Power Minister R K Singh, the Minister for Road Transport and Highways Gadkari said after presenting the degrees at the 34th annual convocation of Vellore Institute of Technology.

The plan includes establishing desalination plants at the three ports to solve the drinking water problem, he said.

Recalling his tenure as a water resources minister, Gadkari said he had taken steps to resolve various inter-state water issues but it was unfortunate that the dispute over sharing of Cauvery water between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka was not resolved.

He termed it as a lack of "political will" between the leaders of both the states in solving the dispute.

On the realignment of New Delhi-Mumbai Express Highway, he said it would connect the rural and tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The project would be completed in two years ahead of schedule. And that is due to the political will of the government, he said.

Appealing to the new graduands to develop entrepreneurship skills, the Minister said they should not be thinking of taking up new jobs but create new opportunities.

Dismissing reports of an economic slowdown in the country, Gadkari who also holds the micro, small and medium enterprises portfolio said he planned to create five crore more jobs from the present 11 crore in the sector.

VIT chancellor G Viswanathan said, "Though VIT had been recognised as one of the 10 institutes of eminence among private universities, his dream was to make the university on part with international institutions.

Vapers, medical professionals protest nationwide against e-cigarette ban

Hundreds of vapers, advocates of electronic cigarettes and medical professionals held a nationwide protest demanding that the government roll back the ban on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS).

The Association of Vapers India (AVI), an organisation that represents e-cigarette users, held protests in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai.

The protesters termed the ban "wilful genocide by the government", saying "it will push current vapers back to deadly smoking and deprive the country's 11 crore smokers of safer options".

The government on September 18 banned production, import and sale of e-cigarettes and similar products, citing health risk to people, especially youth, and an ordinance will be brought in to make it an offence, entailing jail term up to three years as well as fine.

Smoking kills nearly a million people in India every year.

The consumer body organised awareness drives in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata where government authorities and the police denied permissions to hold the protest, the AVI said in a statement.

They alleged that the government is neglecting public health as well as human rights to shield cigarette commerce as vaping has led to historic declines in smoking rates in countries where it has been allowed, the statement read.

Samrat Chowdhery, the AVI director and an advocate, said, "It is astonishing that the government ignored the stay orders of High Court of Delhi as well as Mumbai, and even imposed bans on research. We will continue to voice our protest against the ban and organise more such protests in other cities of the country."

"If the government turns deaf ears to our demands, we will be forced to challenge it legally," he added.

National coordinator for the protests Jagannath Sarangapani, who is based in Hyderabad, said they were denied permission to hold protests in three of the six cities which "reveals the autocratic approach of the government".

"How can a ban be announced without an adequate research, discussions with all stakeholders and without a debate by our elected representatives? This is a knee-jerk reaction to a new tobacco harm reduction route, which needs regulation not a ban. This is not how one tackles public health policy," he said.

Kanav Rishi Kumar from Delhi, who quit smoking through vaping, said, "It is inhumane of the government to bring an ordinance which puts the public's health at risk."

The legal fraternity said the ban on e-cigarettes is ultra vires to the Constitution.

"The government has abdicated its duty as a parent and has decided to treat its citizens like a trader simply trading their lives and future away for higher revenues and the greater benefits of a select few," Pingal Khan, an advocate from Bengaluru, said.

The consumer body plans to hold more protests against the ban on e-cigarettes as well as the bar on research. It will also spread awareness about harm reduction through e-cigarettes.

Protesters signed a petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and wrote testimonials which will be sent to authorities.

'Lifeline of culture': Venkaiah Naidu bats for preserving native languages

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday pitched for preserving local languages, saying when a language dies, culture, traditions and customs associated with it are also lost.

He said that he is not opposed to learning English or any other language but a person can communicate effectively and articulate better in his or her mother tongue.

"Language is the lifeline of a culture ... When a language dies, there will be a loss of cultural identity, traditions and customs associated with that language," Naidu said addressing the 28th Saraswati Samman organised by the K K Birla Foundation here.

He was of the view that the best way to preserve or promote any language is to use it extensively in everyday life.

"More and more people should start using their native languages at home, in the community, in meetings and in administration," he said.

Naidu also commended the foundation for creating a framework to adjudge the creative output in literature of different languages.

K Siva Reddy has been awarded this year for his Telugu poetry collection 'Pakkaki Ottigilite'.

The vice president said language preservation and development cannot be task of the government alone and it has to take the form of people's movement. Community participation is essential for preserving and protecting languages.

"In my opinion, promotion of mother tongue should begin at the primary school level. I have been advising all state governments to make mother tongue mandatory up to primary school," he noted.

The power of technology, Naidu said, should be harnessed to preserve and promote languages and culture.

Online dictionaries, encyclopedias, glossaries, research articles and searchable databases should be prepared in all Indian languages. Old manuscripts should be electronically stored for easy retrieval, he suggested.

"There is an urgent need to accord a sense of dignity and a sense of pride to those who speak, write and communicate in their native languages," Naidu told the gathering.

Deadline to link PAN with Aadhaar extended till December 31: CBDT

The deadline to link permanent account number (PAN) with Aadhaar has been extended till December 31, a CBDT order said Saturday.

Earlier, the deadline was September 30.

This is the seventh time that the government has extended the deadline for individuals to link their PAN with Aadhaar.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the date for linking PAN and Aadhaar from September 30 to December 31 and a notification has been issued on Friday in this connection, the policy-making body for the Income-Tax Department said.

It is now mandatory to link the two unique IDs for income tax purposes.

The Supreme Court, in September last year, had declared the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid and held that the biometric ID would remain mandatory for the filing of I-T returns and allotment of PAN.

Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act says that every person having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and eligible to obtain Aadhaar, must intimate his Aadhaar number to tax authorities.

Aadhaar is issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to a resident of India and PAN is a 10-digit alphanumeric number allotted by the IT Department to a person, firm or entity.

Respect, enthusiasm for India has grown in 5 yrs: Modi on return from US

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the respect and enthusiasm for India has increased significantly on the world stage in the last five years, as he was given a rousing welcome by BJP workers in New Delhi on his return from nearly a week-long trip to the US.

Addressing the gathering outside the Palam Airport, Modi noted that the grand 'Howdy Modi' diaspora event in Houston saw the attendance of US President Donald Trump and both the Republicans and the Democrats. He said what stood out was the manner in which the Indian community in the US showcased their presence.

"After assuming office in 2014, I went to the United Nations. I went to the United Nations even now. In these five years, I have seen a big change. The respect for India, the enthusiasm towards India has increased significantly. This is due to the 130 crore Indians," the prime minister said.

Modi also recalled the surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, saying three years ago on this day he did not sleep all night waiting for his phone to ring.

"That day marked the victory of India's brave soldiers who did surgical strike and made the country proud," he said.

The prime minister returned here on Saturday night from his trip to the US where he addressed the UN General Assembly and several events, including the "Howdy Modi!" diaspora gathering.

The BJP organised a grand welcome for the prime minister outside the Palam Technical Area where thousands of party workers gathered.

Before leaving for Delhi, the prime minister thanked the American people for the "exceptional welcome, warmth and hospitality" and expressed confidence that the diverse range of programmes he attended during the stay will greatly benefit India and its development trajectory.