Business

India’s federal budget 2023: Deep dive into who gained and lost

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government delivered India’s annual budget on Wednesday that laid out a slew of measures to bolster infrastructure for creating more jobs and attract investment ahead of next year’s national election.

With a year to go for national polls, it’s crucial for Modi to tackle the issues of high unemployment and inflation as he seeks to win a third consecutive term. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman focused on farmers, so-called backward castes and women to deal with the inequities exacerbated by the pandemic.

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The government increased capital spending 33 percent to 10 trillion rupees ($122 billion) that will enable the country to expand its network of roads, ports and airports, and make it an attractive investment destination.

Winners

Agriculture

The government has increased spending on the farm sector, which accounts for about 19 percent of the economy. The budget proposes to spend 22 billion rupees ($269 million) on high-value horticulture and set up an agriculture accelerator fund to finance farm startups. This will benefit companies such as Kaveri Seed Co., Dhanuka Agritech Ltd., Bombay Super Hybrid Seeds, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd.

Tourism

To capture the surge in travel demand, India will select 50 destinations to promote domestic tourism. It will also develop an app to guide tourists on food streets, security, physical and virtual connectivity to lift their experience. Ticketing companies and hotels such as Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp., Thomas Cook India Ltd., Indian Hotels and EIH Ltd. will be the beneficiaries.

Infrastructure

Crucial to boosting last-mile connectivity, India has decided to build 50 additional airports, heliports and aerodromes, and identified 100 fresh projects. Railways will benefit from a record capital outlay of 2.4 trillion rupees. This is a win for airport operators such as Adani Airport Holdings Ltd., GMR Airports Infrastructure Ltd., GVK Airport Developers Ltd., and construction companies like Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.

Taxpayers

As expected, Modi’s administration gave some relief to taxpayers. Individuals with income up to 700,000 rupees won’t have to pay tax under the new income tax regime. The number of tax slabs were reduced, while the maximum tax rate was cut to 39 percent. This will leave more money with the middle class and boost consumption demand.

Metal/Cement

Higher capital expenditure and investments for housing, infrastructure, railways announced in the budget are positive for steel mills and cement makers. Key gainers include Tata Steel Ltd., JSW Steel Ltd., Jindal Steel & Power Ltd.

Electric Vehicles

India plans to provide impetus to green mobility by exempting import of capital goods required to manufacture lithium-ion cells used in electric vehicle batteries from customs duty. This will be a boost for battery makers such as Exide Industries Ltd. and Amara Raja Batteries Ltd. and automakers like Tata Motors Ltd. and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

Green Energy

The budget provided 350 billion rupees for investment in energy transition and carbon neutrality initiatives. The government will provide financial support to battery energy-storage systems with a capacity of 4,000 megawatt hours.

Losers

Defense

The budget lacked impetus for defense manufacturing, said Gaurav Mehndiratta, partner and head of aerospace and defense at KPMG. Military budget got a paltry increase of 7 percent, compared with a 33 percent increase in the nation’s overall capital expenditure, he said. That’s a surprise given the rising tensions between India and China. State-run firms Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd., which have benefited from India’s local manufacturing push, were key decliners, falling more than 6 percent each.

Cigarette Makers

Shares of Godfrey Phillips India plunged in Mumbai after India increased a tax, effective February 2, on specified cigarettes by about 16 percent.

Jewelers

Jewelry stocks dropped after the government left import taxes on gold unchanged despite demand from the bullion industry to reverse the hike announced in July. The government also increased the import tax on silver. A higher tax increases the cost for consumers as the country imports almost all the bullion it consumes. Benchmark gold futures in Mumbai rose as much as 1.3 percent to an all-time high of 57,950 rupees per 10 grams. Key losers would be Kalyan Jewelers India Ltd., Titan Co. and PC Jeweler Ltd.

Oil Refiners

Indian state-run refiners Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. are likely losers as the government didn’t announce any compensation toward losses on keeping a check on diesel and gasoline prices. There have been demands from the companies and the oil ministry to partly cover the losses via budgetary support.

Foreign Carmakers

Imported automobiles, including electric vehicles, will attract higher levies. The customs duty on cars and EVs priced above $40,000 and imported as completely-built units was increased to 70 percent from 60 percent. Foreign carmakers like BYD Co. and Mercedes Benz that rely on imported cars to serve Indian market will face challenges.

India budget to raise capex by 33 pct as jobs, infra take priority ahead of elections

Man who urinated on 71-year-old woman in Air India flight from New York out on bail

Business

Almarai signs multiple agreements to localize jobs through training and recruitment programs

Almarai signed a cooperation memorandum with the Food Industries Polytechnic, the
Transport General Authority, and the Saudi Logistics Academy to localize jobs in the
food and beverages sector through training and rehabilitation programs ending in
employment. This came within the first international conference on the labor market,
organized by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development on 13 – 14
December 2023 at the King Abdulaziz Convention Center in Riyadh.

‘These agreements are part of Almarai’s corporate program for the social responsibility
to achieve localization in the food industry sector, which is one of the top priorities of the
comprehensive strategic plans in Almarai, especially since the company is one of the
largest working environments in the kingdom, with more than 9,000 Saudi employees,
including more than 900 Saudi female employees.”Fahad Aldrees, Chief Human
Resources Officer of Almarai, said.

He added that the agreements signed to train and qualify young people are part of the
integrated initiatives and training and rehabilitation programs for national human
resources in Almarai. He pointed out that the company provided about half a million
employee training hours during 2022, raising its retention rate to 90% during 2022.

It is worth mentioning that Almarai is the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy
company, and the largest food and beverage producer and distributor in the Middle
East. Almarai was ranked among LinkedIn’s top 15 Saudi companies for professional
career development for 2022.

Business

SEBA Bank rebrands to AMINA Bank and continues to write its success story

a fully licensed Swiss crypto bank, announced today its new brand identity: AMINA Bank AG. The group operates
globally from its regulated hubs in Zug, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong, offering its clients traditional and crypto banking services.
SEBA Bank made history in 2019 by becoming one of the first FINMA-regulated institutions to provide crypto banking services. This rebrand marks a new chapter for the company, which has proudly been in operation for more than four years. AMINA Bank is inspired by the same trailblazing ambition to lead the way for its clients and to write its own future as a Swiss-
regulated crypto bank offering services to its traditional and crypto savvy clients around the globe. The name ‘AMINA’ stems from the term ‘transAMINAtion’, meaning transference of one compound to another. AMINA is a brand driven by perpetual change, bringing together the various ‘compounds’ of traditional, digital, and crypto banking to unlock new potential and
growth for our clients. This vision of change represents the transformation of our clients’ financial future. Franz Bergmueller, CEO of AMINA, said: “We are delighted to introduce the world to our new brand identity. While we say goodbye to the SEBA name, we remain forever proud of the achievements made by the group under the former brand. “Our brand signifies a new era in the company’s growth and strategy; we are a key player in crypto banking and are here to define the future of finance. With our client-focused approach, our years of traversing traditional and crypto finance, we offer a platform for investors to build
wealth safely and under the highest regulatory standards.” “We are grateful to be encouraged by our supportive and committed investors who have been very helpful, supporting the growth of the company. We thank our employees in all the regions
for their dedication and client focus. As we look forward to 2024, our ambition is to accelerate the growth of our strategic hubs in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi, and to continue our global expansion, building on all the successes we have laid down over the past years.” Current clients of AMINA Bank (formerly SEBA Bank) will be unaffected by the rebrand other than encountering the new name; all operations will be business as usual across the board. The branch office based in Abu Dhabi and the subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Singapore will subsequently apply for a name change to align with the head office in Zug.

Business

Uptime Appoints Mustapha Louni Chief Business Officer

Uptime Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Mustapha Louni to the position of Chief Business Officer, a role specifically created to drive strategic leadership and client success. In this new role, Mr. Louni will assume responsibility for the global Uptime sales and marketing organizations and drive overall business value for all Uptime clients. He will retain his existing responsibilities overseeing operations in the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. In this elevated capacity, Mr. Louni is poised to play a pivotal role in driving Uptime’s next phase of global expansion through strategic initiatives to enhance market awareness of the dramatically expanding global service lines and delivery capabilities of Uptime that uniquely support the global data center industry in its pursuit of ever higher performance through elevated availability, resiliency, sustainability, and cyber-security of digital infrastructure. Louni’s appointment renews and expands Uptime

Institute 39;s 30-year commitment to advancing excellence in the data center sector on a global scale. “Today we are experiencing the next phase of the one-time, planetary transformation from analog to digital. This unprecedented, once-in-a-generation growth in data center demand is primarily driven by continuing cloud adoption, the new promise of AI, and the demonstrable fact
that hybrid digital infrastructure is here to stay for the foreseeable future,” said Martin McCarthy, CEO, Uptime Institute. “These complex and nuanced market demands require a visionary talent like Mustapha Louni. He is someone who cannot only deftly manage specific aspects of the business but also remain ahead of accelerating changes and trends. He continues to earn client
trust and respect by timely delivery on demanding commitments while he also inspires and energizes colleagues and clients alike. I am delighted to announce Mr. Louni’s new position and know that he will continue to expand the impact that he has already brought to Uptime since his arrival.” In 2014, Mr. Louni joined the Uptime organization in the United Arab Emirates, leveraging his extensive experience from roles at Panduit and Schneider Electric in Paris and Dubai. As the company’s first commercial resource in the Middle East and Africa region, Mr. Louni played a pivotal role in expanding Uptime’s presence. Within a year, he successfully established what became and remains Uptime’s fastest growing regional office. Under his leadership, Uptime has
extended his impressive trajectory of growth in MEA to the Asia-Pacific regions, augmenting the Uptime workforce with dedicated team members spanning more than a dozen countries across these regions. A new Uptime office has been inaugurated in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) this year, further fortifying the company’s ability to meet its commitment to sustained
growth and excellence and serve clients in critical, accelerating markets for digital infrastructure.

Uptime Institute began development of its proprietary and now globally recognized Tier Standards and its Tier Certifications 30 years ago to ensure that the mission critical computing needs of all organizations could be met with confidence and understood by executive management. Since that time, Uptime Tier Certification as well as other Uptime offerings including assessments and awards in digital infrastructure for ensuring business performance in areas of management and operations, risk and resilience, sustainability, and more recently cyber- security have gained global adoption. Uptime’s expanding success is based on delivering a
unique business service that is based upon unparalleled engineering excellence and technical mastery, while remaining vendor independent and technology agnostic.