Tag: Business news

EPFO retains interest rate on deposits at 8.5% – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: The Employee’s Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Thursday decided to retain interest rate on provident fund deposits at 8.5 per cent for the financial year 2020-21.
The EPFO apex decision-making body Central Board of Trustees decided to fix 8.5 per cent rate of interest for 2020-21 at its meeting in Srinagar on Thursday.
The decision comes amidst speculations that the retirement fund body would lower interest rates for the current fiscal as economic downfall due to the coronavirus pandemic led to large number of withdrawals.

In March 2020, EPFO had reduced interest rate on provident fund deposits to a seven-year low of 8.5 per cent for 2019-20.
The EPF interest rate provided for 2019-20 was the lowest since 2012-13, when it was 8.5 per cent.
The EPFO had provided 8.65 per cent interest rate to its subscribers in 2016-17 and 8.55 per cent in 2017-18. The rate of interest was slightly higher at 8.8 per cent in 2015-16.
It had given 8.75 per cent rate of interest in 2013-14 as well as 2014-15, higher than 8.5 per cent for 2012-13. The EPFO had provided 8.25 per cent rate of interest on provident fund in 2011-12.
EPFO has more than five crore active subscribers at present.
(With inputs from PTI)

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Ease of living index 2020: Bengaluru tops list of cities in ease of living, Shimla best among small cities – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Bengaluru has emerged as the best city on ease of living parameters among 49 million-plus cities in 2020, pushing the earlier top ranker Pune to number two.
Among 62 cities having less than one million population, Shimla has topped the list followed by Bhubaneswar, according to the Union housing and urban development ministry.

Unlike the first ease of living index (EoLI) report of 2018, the latest ranking of cities in 2020 has put 111 cities in two categories, million-plus and cities having population less than a million.
The report was released by Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday. The assessment exercise was carried out last year just before the lockdown. No city has been included from West Bengal because of “data challenge”, the report said.

According to the report, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Indore and Greater Mumbai are the other eight cities that have found place in the top 10 among the million-plus cities in the EoLI.
While Delhi ranks at 13, its neighbouring Ghaziabad and Faridabad have found place at 30 and 40 respectively. The other NCR city of Meerut ranked at 36.

Similarly, in the less than million category, Silvassa, Kakinada, Salem, Vellore, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Davangere, and Tiruchirappalli have made it to the top 10 list.

The EoLI is an assessment tool that evaluates the quality of life and the impact of various initiatives for urban development. It provides a comprehensive understanding of participating cities based on quality of life, economic-ability of a city, and its sustainability and resilience.
The assessment also incorporates the residents’ view on the services provided by city administration through a citizen perception survey.

Bhubaneswar ranked top in the list on the people feeling satisfied with the local administration.
The ministry said the pillar-wise scores help cities assess their level of development and identify existing gaps that obstruct their growth. This also promotes healthy competition through rankings and incentivises them to improve further and even emulate the best practices from their peer cities.

The EoLI has been carried out on four parameters of quality of life, economic ability, sustainability and citizen survey. The ‘Quality of Life’ covers aspects such as affordable housing, access to clean water, basic education, healthcare facilities, safety and security, and recreation avenues.

According to the report, Indian cities have achieved an average score of 53.5 in the EoLI on a scale of 0 to 100. It has also flagged the low national average scores on economic ability at 13.2. This means there is huge untapped potential in urban centres to turn them into hubs of economic growth and prosperity.
The report shows among all the 49 million-plus cities, Chennai, Coimbatore and Navi Mumbai rank as the first, second and third so far as the quality of life is concerned. In the economic ability pillar, the top rankers are Bengaluru, Delhi and Pune.
Among the 62 cities which have less than a million population, Panaji, Tumkuru and Vellore topped the list on the quality of life parameters while the textile city of Tirupur, Gurugram and Kochi were ranked at the top three cities on the economic activity parameters.

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Indian startups: Startups tap new investors amid uncertainty on China FDI – Times of India

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BENGALURU: Amid scrutiny of Chinese capital, Indian startups which have raised funds from Chinese investors in the past are now tapping new investors that do not pose immediate geo-political risks.
These startups, according to over half-a-dozen founders and investors, are also ensuring no participation from the existing Chinese investors to avoid waiting for approvals, which they suspect may take unrealistically long for a startup.
There are at least half-a-dozen early stage startups, including Cashify, a reseller platform, that are raising fresh capital without participation from their existing Chinese investors.
In fact, some of them have also begun discussions with their existing Chinese investors to offer them secondary exits, industry sources said. In a secondary exit, existing investors sell their shares to new players.
Last April, the government had changed FDI rules to keep tabs on Chinese capital in Indian companies. Apart from the early-to-mid-stage startups, strategic investors such as Alibaba and Tencent own shares in large internet firms like Paytm, Bigbasket, Zomato, Policybazaar, Swiggy, Udaan and Byju’s, among others.

Cashify, where Chinese investors such as Shunwei Capital, CDH Investments, Morningside hold over 30-32% stake, has raised over $15 million from one single investor-Olympus Capital- with no participation from Chinese investors.
Sources aware of the matter said another growth-stage fin-tech firm is in the process of closing a new financing round where a prominent Chinese investor is expected to exit the investment.
Besides this, Koo, the Indian alternative to Twitter, is in the final stages of closing the exit of Shunwei from its parent firm while lending startup KreditBee recently closed a $75 million funding where Shunwei has sold parts of their stake.
“Founders are telling these investors they need to raise new capital to grow and Chinese investors have agreed to not participate in the rounds as they don’t know how long it will take for a series-A to series C funding to be cleared, leave alone large strategic ones like an Alibaba or Tencent. This is especially true for startups who deal with sensitive data of Indian users,” an investor aware of the discussions said.
While some startups can afford to give a secondary exit at their scale of operations, the ones which are raising capital for growth and expansion are in talks with new investors following mutual agreement between entrepreneurs and their existing Chinese investors to not take new money from them.
“Olympus was ready to put in the capital we needed. All we knew was we can’t raise money from Chinese investors. We told our existing investors the same and that there is an external investor willing to write the full cheque and everyone was okay with it,” said Mandeep Manocha, co-founder and CEO, Cashify.
Another founder of a New Delhi-based startup, with existing Chinese investors in his firm, said he has begun talks to raise for a new round from Indian and other investors.
“We waited for a while, but it will take longer (for China investment approvals), and startups can’t wait forever as capital is critical to scale up. We can’t give exit to them right now so we will have to raise without them,” this founder added.
Other investors and entrepreneurs echoed this sentiment as there is little clarity over Chinese investments in Indian startups. Last month, TOI reported that the government has started clearing select investments on a case-by-case basis.
“We don’t know what’s the threshold being considered to define strategic–whether its 10% or 25%. There is no clarity yet though it has been raised with the government over the past few months,” the investor mentioned above added.
Entrepreneurs and investors added these startups are also going to miss out on the operational expertise Chinese investors have to offer, besides the capital, from their experience of backing similar firms in China.

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Infosys, Accenture to cover Covid-19 vaccination costs for Indian workers – Times of India

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BENGALURU: Information Technology major Infosys Ltd and consulting and outsourcing services provider Accenture Plc said on Wednesday they would cover Covid-19 vaccination costs for their employees in India, as the country expands its massive vaccination drive.
India’s vaccination campaign ramped up on Monday, with people above the age of 60, and individuals 45 or older suffering from certain medical conditions, now eligible for shots.
Coronavirus: Live updates
Vaccines administered at government health facilities will still be free, while private facilities cannot charge more than Rs 250 ($3.43) per dose, the government has said.
“Infosys is looking at partnering with health care providers to vaccinate employees and their immediate families as eligible,” chief operating officer Pravin Rao said in an emailed statement.
For Accenture, costs for employees and dependents who are eligible and choose to receive the vaccination will be covered, the company said.
So far, the government has procured the two Covid-19 vaccines approved in India – AstraZeneca‘s shot being developed by the Serum Institute, and local player Bharat Biotech‘s Covaxin – at fixed prices and distributed them free of cost.
Several Indian companies, including autos-to-technology conglomerate Mahindra Group and consumer goods giant ITC Ltd, had already started considering buying Covid-19 vaccines for their employees as early as in January.

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