IPL: Pacers, Rahul shape Punjab Kings' crucial win over Kolkata

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Passenger vehicles sale fall last month

Sales of passenger vehicles fell last month as a shortage of semiconductors disrupted production operations at several top manufacturers including market leader Maruti Suzuki.Even though customer demand remained strong on the back of increased preference for personal mobility amid the pandemic, vehicle makers faced challenges dispatching vehicles ahead of the key festivals of Navratri and Diwali with shortage of chips hurting production, said senior company executives.Industry executives said the drop would be in double digits from a year earlier, but they did not provide specific estimates. As many as 293,226 passenger vehicles were sold in September 2020 and 260,242 units in August 2021, show data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.Automakers in India report wholesale dispatches from factories and not retail sales made to customers. Also, not all manufacturers report monthly data on a regular basis.Industry volumes were dragged down by market leader Maruti Suzuki, which reported a 57% decline in wholesale volume at 63,111 units. “Sales volume of the company in September 2021 was adversely impacted due to shortage of electronic components,” Maruti Suzuki said in a statement, adding that the company took “all possible measures” to limit the adverse impact.Korean rival Hyundai Motor saw its volume drop by over a third to 33,087 units, as supply constraints “adversely affected the vehicle production”. Sales fell 23% to 14,441 units at Kia India and 12% to 12,863 vehicles at Mahindra & Mahindra.Hardeep Singh Brar, vice president and head of sales and marketing at Kia India, said: "The disruption in the supply chain has put a brake on the improving industry sentiment last month. As the festive period approaches, we are hopeful to see some improvement in semiconductor procurement.”Tata Motors, however, posted an increase in volume last month. Sales at the manufacturer of the Nexon and Harrier SUVs rose 21% to 25,730 units in September. “Looking ahead, the demand for cars and SUVs is expected to remain strong in the forthcoming festive season; however, the supply situation for electronic components may continue to witness challenging times,” said Shailesh Chandra, president of Tata Motors’ passenger vehicles business unit.Another automaker that reported growth was Toyota Kirloskar Motor, as sales rose 14% to 9,284 units. V Wiseline Sigamani, associate general manager (sales and strategic marketing), said: “Demand in the personal mobility segment continues as we step into the festive months. Customer orders have been on a constant rise and we are witnessing a steady growth, ever since the second wave.”In the commercial vehicle segment, sales continued to show gradual recovery post the second wave of Covid. The country’s largest commercial vehicle maker, Tata Motors, posted 30% growth in volume to 30,258 units last month. “Post the second Covid wave, markets are witnessing gradual demand recovery across most segments led by M&HCVs with improving fleet utilisation levels, higher number of road construction projects awarded and improving cement consumption,” executive director Girish Wagh said.However, the impact of supply shortage of chips due to Covid-related restrictions in East Asia continued in September, leading to moderation of production and sales, Tata Motors said.Two-wheeler sales continued to remain under pressure. At Bajaj Auto, sales declined 21% to 173,945 units, while TVS Motor posted a marginal increase of 1% at 244,084 units last month.Sales of tractors declined, albeit on a high base. Market leader Mahindra saw volumes fall 8% to 39,053 units.

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India coal crisis brews as power demand surges

Indian utilities are scrambling to secure coal supplies as inventories hit critical lows after a surge in power demand from industries and sluggish imports due to record global prices push power plants to the brink. Over half of India's 135 coal-fired power plants have fuel stocks of less than three days, government data shows, far short of federal guidelines recommending supplies of at least two weeks.Prices of power-generation fuels are surging globally as electricity demand rebounds with industrial growth, tightening supplies of coal and liquefied natural gas. India is competing against buyers such as China, the world's largest coal consumer, which is under pressure to ramp up imports amid a severe power crunch. Rising oil, gas, coal and power prices are feeding inflationary pressures worldwide and slowing the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. "The supply crunch is expected to persist, with the non-power sector facing the heat as imports remain the only option to meet demand but at rising costs," ratings agency S&P's unit CRISIL said in a report this week, adding it expected Asian coal prices to continue to increase. 86689503 "Coal inventory at (Indian) thermal plants will improve only gradually by next March." Indian power producers locked in long-term agreements with distribution utilities cannot pass on higher input costs unless a clause to pass on such expenses is written into the contract. Traders and officials at utilities said buying by power plants dependent of imported coal had been muted due to high prices. India's average weekly coal imports during August through late September - when global coal prices rallied over 40% to all-time highs - dropped by over 30% from the average for the first seven months of the year, according to data compiled by Kplr. The import total for the most recent week was under 1.5 million tonnes, the smallest in at least two years.Websites of major coal importing state utilities did not show any new tenders seeking new cargoes this month. Coal prices from major exporters have scaled all-time highs recently, with Australia's Newcastle prices rising roughly 50% and Indonesian export prices up 30% in the last three months. The September Indonesia coal price benchmark was as much as seven times higher than similar quality fuel sold by Coal India to Indian utilities, according to Reuters calculations. "Traders who bought coal from Coal India in the spot auctions are making a killing. They are selling at 50-100% premiums," said a senior official in charge of sourcing coal at a large Indian utility operator. State-run Coal India said this week higher global prices of coal and freight rates have pushed utilities dependent on imported coal to curtail power production, resulting in higher dependence on domestic coal-fired plants. India is the world's second largest importer of coal despite having the fourth largest reserves. Utilities make up about three-fourths of its overall consumption, with Coal India accounting for over 80% of the country's production. INDUSTRIAL POWER DEMAND SURGEIndia's power plants are also grappling with surging demand from industries as economic activity rebounds from the latest wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Power consumption in industrialised states including Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu grew between 13.9% and 21% in the three months ended September, a Reuters analysis of data from federal grid regulator POSOCO showed. The three states account for nearly a third of India's annual electricity consumption. Industries and offices account for half the country's annual electricity consumption. During the last two quarters of the fiscal year ending March 2021, the residential and agricultural sectors were key drivers of power consumption after the first wave of coronavirus. "This year we have seen a tremendous growth in industrial demand," said Shahmeena Husain, Managing Director of Gujarat's electricity regulator told Reuters. While there have not been any large scale power outages in India, deficits have increased nearly four-fold from the negligible levels recorded last year, POSOCO data showed. The shortages have so far been mostly restricted to northern states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Kashmir, the data showed. "Domestic consumption increased by about 10% in the last two years because of work from home and air conditioning," a senior Tamil Nadu government official told Reuters. "Following opening up of industries after the second wave, industries are king," the official said.

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WhatsApp banned over 2M Indian accounts in August

About two million Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp, while 420 grievance reports were received by the messaging platform in August, according to its compliance report. In its latest report released on Tuesday, WhatsApp said 20,70,000 Indian accounts were banned on WhatsApp during the said period.An Indian account is identified via a +91 phone number, it added.Previously, the Facebook-owned company had stated that more than 95% of bans are due to the unauthorised use of automated or bulk messaging (spam). The global average number of accounts that WhatsApp bans to prevent abuse on its platform is around 8 million accounts per month.WhatsApp, in its latest report, said it received 420 user reports spanning across account support (105), ban appeal (222), other support (34), product support (42) and safety (17) during August.During this period, 41 accounts were "actioned", as per the report.WhatsApp explained that "Accounts Actioned" denotes reports where it took remedial action based on the report. Taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result of the complaint.Also, reports may have been reviewed but not included as ''Actioned'' for many reasons, including the user needing assistance to access their account or to use some features, user-requested restoration of a banned account and the request is denied, or if the reported account does not violate the laws of India or WhatsApp''s Terms of Service.Over three million Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp, while 594 grievance reports were received by the messaging platform between June 16 and July 31.The new IT rules - which came into effect on May 26 - require large digital platforms (with over 5 million users) to publish compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken.Previously, WhatsApp had emphasised that being an end-to-end encrypted platform, it has no visibility into the content of any messages.Besides the behavioural signals from accounts, it relies on available unencrypted information, including user reports, profile photos, group photos and descriptions as well as advanced AI tools and resources to detect and prevent abuse on its platform, it had said.

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EMs 'cryptoization' threatens financial stability: IMF

LONDON: The advent of digital currencies in emerging markets could spark "cryptoization" of local economies, potentially undermining exchange and capital controls and upsetting financial stability, the International Monetary Fund said on Friday. Bitcoin and its kin have in the last year soared in price and popularity, with emerging and developing market economies such as Vietnam, India and Pakistan seeing rapid growth in some measures of adoption, according to U.S. blockchain researcher Chainalysis. Cryptocurrencies offer, in theory, a cheaper and quicker way of sending money across borders. Backers say digital tokens such as stablecoins could also help protect savings from high inflation or fluctuations in local currencies. In September, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, with backers tipping the experiment to lower costs for billions of dollars of remittances sent to the Central American nation. The IMF said that unsound macroeconomic policies and inefficient payment systems are among the drivers of cryptocurrency adoption in emerging economies, along with the lure of quick gains that has also excited investors across the world. But the IMF said the exact level of adoption of crypto in emerging economies was hard to gauge accurately. Factors such as low credibility of central banks and weak domestic banking systems that can fuel "dollarization" can also contribute to growing crypto use, the Fund added. Dollarization is where a foreign currency - typically the U.S. currency - is used in addition to, or instead of, a domestic currency. High inflation or the instability of a domestic currency are among the drivers of the process. Wide adoption of stablecoins - digital tokens designed to hold a steady value and seen as useful for savings and commerce - could also pose significant challenges by reinforcing existing dollarization forces, the IMF said. "Dollarization can impede central banks' effective implementation of monetary policy and lead to financial stability risks through currency mismatches on the balance sheets of banks, firms, and households," it said. "Cryptoization" could also become a threat to fiscal policy, with digital assets possibly facilitating tax evasion, the IMF added. The fund urged developing nations to strengthen macroeconomic policies and consider the possible benefits from issuing central bank digital currencies as a response to the rise of crypto.

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How pensioners can give Jeevan Pramaan from home

From October 1, many government pensioners will have to start submitting their annual life certificates. Until now, these pensioners had to visit the bank or post office to submit the life certificate, i.e., the Jeevan Pramaan Patra but now they can do so from home. A pensioner can avail the doorstep services provided by several public sector banks and the country's postal service to submit their Jeevan Pramaan Patra. As per a circular issued by the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare on September 20, 2021, pensioners can submit the life certificate by using the Doorstep Banking Alliance of 12 public sector banks or the Doorstep Service of the postal department for submission of Digital Life Certificate. Here is how to submit one's life certificate via these doorstep services. Doorstep banking Alliance: This is an alliance between 12 public sector banks for providing services at the doorstep of the customer. The banks in the alliance include State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Central Bank of India, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, UCO Bank and Union Bank of India. The alliance has introduced the service for collection of life certificates under the umbrella of doorstep banking services. How to avail: A pensioner will have to first book the service either via mobile app, website or by calling on toll-free number. The doorstep agent will visit the pensioner's home on the date and time as per the appointment. As per the alliance website, "In the current pandemic situation, it is difficult for customers, especially pensioners to visit branch for Submission of Life Certificate. PSB Alliance has brought the Submission of Digital Life Certificate facility through Door Step Banking, Pensioners may book the service through any of channel i.e. DSB App/Web Portal/Toll Free Numbers. DSB Agent will visit the doorstep of the customer and collect online Life Certificate using Jeevan Pramaan App."To book the service, download 'Doorstep Banking' app from Google Playstore or access the website doorstepbanks.com or https://ift.tt/2Y6HTA1 or call on toll-free number 18001213721 or 18001037188.Do keep in mind that a bank may levy a fee for availing this doorstep service. However, such charges are not mentioned on the alliance website. As per SBI's website, financial and non-financial services are charged at Rs 75 plus GST. Doorstep service for submission of Digital Life certificate through postman: In November 2020, the Department of Posts along with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology launched the Doorstep Service for submission of Digital Life Certificate through the postman. As per the pension department circular, "In order to make this facility available across the country, DoPPW roped in the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to utilize its huge network of Postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks in providing doorstep facility to pensioners for submission of life certificate digitally." To avail this service, pensioner will have to download 'Postinfo' App." How to avail: As per the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) website, this service is available for IPPB and non-IPPB customers. To avail the Digital Life Certificate (DLC) service, a customer can contact the nearest post office or place a request for a doorstep visit by the postman/Grameen Dak Sevak. The Department of Posts has also enabled scheduling of doorstep requests through the Post Info app or through the website https://ift.tt/2y4Ov5n . Further, the issuance of DLC is a completely paperless, seamless and hassle-free process, and the certificate is generated instantly. On successful completion, a Pramaan ID is generated that is shared with the pensioner by National Informatics Centre (NIC) directly. Once the Pramaan ID is generated, pensioners can download the DLC through the link https://ift.tt/2QeSZdH. For every successful generation of DLC, a nominal fee of Rs 70 (inclusive of GST/ CESS) will be charged. There will be no doorstep charges levied for IPPB or non-IPPB customers for issuance of DLC. A pensioner will have to keep the following documents handy for generating digital life certificate:Aadhaar numberExisting mobile numberType of pensionSanctioning AuthorityPPO numberAccount number (Pension)Do keep in mind that the pensioner's Aadhaar number must be registered with the pension disbursing agency (bank/post office etc.).

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