BJP clueless on economy but ‘picks holes’ in UPA: Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said that the economy was facing a ‘structural crisis’ but the prime minister, finance minister and their team were ‘devoid of vision’ to deal with it and hence have become ‘panicky’. Curiously, he said the effectiveness of the economic reforms that the Congress government rolled out in 1991 had run its course by 2012. He didn’t elaborate on what the Manmohan Singh-P Chidambaram team could have done about it in the last two years of the UPA regime.“The problem is not cyclic, it is structural. The economic crisis that we faced in 1991 has resurfaced. The solutions that we brought in 1991 worked till 2012 and I believe that without a new approach we will not be able to come out of this crisis. We need a new approach. Our plan for the economy, which worked from 1991 to 2012, stopped working after that,” Gandhi said at a news conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.“We have to change our vision. Our strategy stopped working after 2012 and we wanted a new approach. PM Modi promised that he would bring a new approach for ‘New India’. Those were empty promises.”Gandhi said Congress had people who had the expertise to deal with the crisis and mockingly offered to loan them to the government as ‘PM Modi and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman don’t know how to address these structural’ issues’ and thus have become panicky. However, Gandhi’s cutoff date of 2012 made some Congress leaders to privately query whether he was blaming the UPA government for the economic crisis, instead of squarely attributing it to the Modi regime.Gandhi said the Modi regime was managing the economic crisis only through the ‘₹23 lakh crore earned by hiking prices of oil products’ despite lower global crude oil prices and by putting hardships on ordinary people. The demonetisation policy had hit the salaried class and MSMEs and now the monetisation policy was being done to help a select few, he alleged. “In the last 7 years, we have seen a new economic paradigm. Demonetisation on one side, and monetisation on the other side.”

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71 Indian varsities make it to the Times ranking

A record 71 Indian universities have qualified for the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022, up from 63 last year, but none of them made it to the top 300 list. The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore is India’s highest-ranked institution, maintaining its position in the 301-350 band for a third consecutive year.This year, 1,662 universities feature on the expanded rankings list, compared with 1,527 last year.Thirty-five Indian universities — the country’s second-highest total ever — have made it to the top 1,000.IIT-Ropar (351-400 band) continues to be in second place from India as last year, while JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research has made its debut to the list, being placed in the 351-400 band. IIT-Indore is at the fourth spot, ranked between 401 and 500.An additional nine Indian universities qualified for the top-1,000 ranking since last year. Alagappa University (501-600) debuted among the world’s top 600 universities and International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (601-800) among the top 800. Three universities — Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Veltech University and Symbiosis International University —entered in the 801-1,000 band for the first time.“India has made big gains in reputation, publications especially international co-authorship, and citations. International co-authorship saw the biggest relative improvements in computer science, clinical and health and business and economics. There’s been particularly good improvement in arts and humanities, and business and economics,” Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer, Times Higher Education wrote in an email to ET. “However, income has gone backwards compared to the rest of the world,” he added.The seven first-generation Indian Institutes of Technology including Delhi, Bombay, Kharagpur and Madras continue to stay out of the list as they took a decision last year not to participate in the global rankings, citing data discrepancy and lack of transparency.“Times Higher Education has contacted all of the non-participating IITs since they made their decision, to speak with them to discuss their concerns but they have decided once again to not participate in the rankings this year. We believe that the IITs’ absence is counterproductive to improving both the individual institutions, and India’s position and visibility on the world stage,” said Baty.Times Higher Education, along with Quacquerelli Symonds (QS), is counted among the two most reputed rankings globally for higher education institutes.The US (8) and the UK (2) dominated the overall top 10 for the second year in a row, with UK’s University of Oxford retaining the top spot for the sixth consecutive year.A record 1,662 universities from 99 countries and regions ranked in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022, 136 more than last year. The table is based on 13 performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

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Fast & Furious 9 Review: F9 Is the Most Comprehensive Fast & Furious, Yet Still Feels Incomplete

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Syed Ali Shah Geelani passes away

Srinagar, Pro-Pakistan separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani died here on Wednesday after a prolonged illness, officials said. Geelani, who was a member of banned Jamaat-e-Islami and chairman of hardline Hurriyat Conference, had been suffering from various ailments for nearly last two decades. He was a former MLA.

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Zerodha gets Sebi’s in-principle nod to launch MF business

Zerodha has received a licence from capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), to set up an Asset Management Company (AMC).The in-principle approval from Sebi will allow the Bengaluru-based startup to launch its own mutual funds (MFs), founder and chief executive Nithin Kamath tweeted on Wednesday.Zerodha is India’s largest retail broker by registered users.“So, we just got an in-principle approval for our AMC (MF) license. I guess now comes the hard part (sic),” Kamath tweeted.Zerodha had applied to the capital market regulator in February 2020, just months after Sebi allowed fintech firms to enter the MF business.A spokesperson for Zerodha did not offer comment.Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal’s fintech venture Navi has also received regulatory approval to launch its own AMC.In December 2019, Sebi eased regulations for fintech startups planning to enter the MF industry. It said entities with a net worth of ₹100 crore and five years of being profitable were eligible to sponsor MFs. AMCs should also maintain their minimum net worth continuously and not only towards the end of the year.“It’s a great move, no question. Zerodha had also applied for a licence, but Covid-19 slowed the market. We need more players to come to this market to foster innovation,” Kamath told ET in an interview in January, on Sebi’s relaxations.“The entry barrier has stopped many (from entering the MF industry). The problem with mutual funds today is that they are very complex for retail investors. With newer players coming in, I think the products will become simpler and innovative,” Kamath had said.The move comes at a time when Sebi has given approvals to firms such as Bajaj Finserv and discount broker Samco to launch MFs.Navi recently applied to Sebi to launch as many as 10 new MFs, all of which are set to be passively managed. These funds mirror the performance of an underlying index and typically do not need a fund manager.Zerodha has led the pack of new-age fintech brokers including Groww, Upstox and Paytm Money, which have seen strong traction on their platforms by retail investors as millions of Indians flocked to stock investments, attracted by the Nifty and the Sensex recording peaks repeatedly since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. 85847217

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Local equity MFs continue to buy big in Aug

The cumulative three-month rolling net investment by domestic mutual funds in the secondary equity market rose to ₹32,169 crore in August 2021, the highest since March 2020, data from Sebi showed. The figures include exposure to index funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and balanced funds. This offset the moderation in the inflow from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) who had a rolling cumulative investment of ₹7,489 crore during the period, according to the NSDL data. The benchmark index Nifty 50 gained 10% in the past three months. Local funds have been net buyers of equity in the secondary market in each of the past six months with a cumulative investment of around ₹42,944 crore. Inflow through systematic investment plans (SIPs) was ₹45,360 crore between March and July this year, reflecting no major lag between inflow and deployment.The gross purchase by domestic funds was at ₹85,555 crore in August. The ratio of gross purchase and sale was 115% compared with the long-term average of 106%. Net investment of local funds in the secondary market was ₹10,295 crore in August. There are 18 instances since 2008 on a monthly basis when the net investment crossed ₹10,000 crore. Total equity portfolio value of domestic funds rose by 52% year-on-year to ₹17.3 lakh crore in July following a sustained deployment and capital appreciation. Equity holding by local funds is 16.6% of the total institutional equity assets under management, the highest since June 2020, according to NSDL data. 85847211

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Oil dips; OPEC+ sticks to gradual output hikes

Oil prices edged lower on Wednesday after OPEC and its allies agreed to stick to their existing policy of gradual oil output increases. Brent crude fell 18 cents to $71.45 a barrel by 1:09 p.m. EDT (1709 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 6 cents to $68.44 a barrel. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+, agreed on Wednesday to stick to a policy from July of phasing out record output cuts by adding 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) a month to the market. Still, the group revised up its 2022 demand outlook and faces U.S. pressure to raise production more quickly. "While the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to cast some uncertainty, market fundamentals have strengthened and OECD stocks continue to fall as the recovery accelerates," OPEC+ said in a statement. OPEC+ has fulfilled a goal of removing excess oil from the global market and it is now important to keep the market balanced, Russia's top negotiator, Alexander Novak, said. In the United States, gasoline stocks rose by 1.3 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said. Analysts had expected a 1.6 million-barrel drop. Rising coronavirus infections could curtail demand in the United States in coming weeks, along with seasonal declines after summer driving season wanes. "The gasoline build came as Tropical Storm Henry shut traffic on the East Coast which was a big hit to summer driving season," said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. The jump in gasoline inventories came even as product supplied, a measure of demand, topped 22 million bpd for the first time ever, EIA said. U.S. crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels last week to 425.4 million barrels. Analysts had expected a 3.1 million-barrel drop. U.S. crude prices are expected to remain under pressure as offshore oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico gradually recovers. However, reviving Louisiana refineries shut by Hurricane Ida could take weeks, analysts said.

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