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“You are listening to the Expresso Business Update. Here is the latest news from the world of Indian and International business brought to you by The Indian Express and The Financial Express.
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Let’s begin. Billionaire Gautam Adani, the world’s third richest person with a net worth of $121 billion, might be just weeks away from dethroning Elon Musk to become the world’s second richest, if both industrialists’ fortunes were to keep moving at the current pace. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has seen his wealth plummet to $137 billion now from $340 billion in November 2021. On the other hand, Gautam Adani, crowned ‘Asia’s busiest dealmaker’ by Bloomberg, is the only person in the top 10 in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to have actually added to his wealth in the last year. If Elon Musk‘s net worth were to continue to fall, and Gautam Adani were to keep adding billions to his fortune at the same pace as in the last 12 months, the Indian tycoon would surpass the Twitter boss in five weeks, or 35 days, to become the world’s second richest person. Calculation shows that while Musk lost an average of $0.36 billion every day, Adani added $0.12 billion to his fortune per day.
On to economy. A third of the global economy will be in recession this year, the IMF chief has said, and warned that 2023 will be “tougher” than last year as the US, EU and China will see their economies slow down. Kristalina Georgieva, the chief of the International Monetary Fund made these grim assertions on Sunday during a CBS news programme “Face the Nation.” It comes at a time when the ongoing conflict in Ukraine shows no signs of abating after more than 10 months, with spiralling inflation, higher interest rates and the surge in coronavirus infections in China fuelled by the Omicron variant. “We expect one-third of the world economy to be in recession,” Georgieva said on the news programme. The year 2023 will be tougher than last year because the economies of the US, the EU and China will slow down, she said. “Even in countries that are not in recession, it would feel like a recession for hundreds of millions of people,” she explained. In October last year, the IMF trimmed its growth forecast for 2023.
Meanwhile, India’s manufacturing sector activity rose to a 13-month high in December, supported by healthy inflows of new business and strong demand conditions, according to a monthly survey. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index stood at 57.8 in December, up from 55.7 in November, as business conditions improved to the greatest extent in over two years. The December PMI data pointed to an improvement in overall operating conditions for the 18th straight month. In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion while a score below 50 indicates contraction. “Following a promising start to 2022, the Indian manufacturing industry maintained a strong performance as time progressed, wrapping the year with the best expansion in production seen since November 2021,” Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said.
Moving on. The state-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has dropped three affordable broadband plans from its broadband portfolio. The company no longer offers the Rs 275 plans and Rs 775 plan. There were two plans priced at Rs 275 each. According to a TelecomTalk report, BSNL Bharat Fibre is no more showing these plans available for recharge. The changes went live from January 1,2023. It says that all the three plans offered the same validity period and offered affordable choices. Reportedly, these plans were launched around the Independence Day 2022 which could mean that they were promotional offers and were available only for a limited time period. However, BSNL did not give any prior notice before removing the plans.
On to the defence sector. Terming India’s G20 Presidency a “very big deal”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said the country has taken up the responsibility to host the meetings of the powerful grouping at a time when there is great economic stress on the global supply chains and strong political polarisation in the world. India formally assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1. The next G20 Leaders’ Summit at the level of Heads of State/Government is scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10 in New Delhi. Addressing the members of the Indian diaspora here in the Austrian capital on Sunday, Jaishankar said India intends to use its presidency for the benefit of the international community.
Lastly, the share market. Benchmark indices ended higher with Nifty around 18,200. On the sectoral front, metal index added 3% and realty index rose 1%. In broader markets, BSE midcap and smallcap indices rose 0.5% each. Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, ONGC, Tata Motors and ICICI Bank were among the biggest Nifty gainers, while Titan Company, Asian Paints, Divis Labs, Bajaj Auto, and Hero MotoCorp were the losers.
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