Mumbai is India's most expensive city: Mercer survey

Mumbai (82) is India’s most expensive city, followed by New Delhi (130) and Chennai (158), according to the 2016 Cost of Living Survey by Mercer, the New York-based human resource consultancy. Kolkata (194) and Bengaluru (180) are the least expensive Indian cities ranked.

Globally, Hong Kong topped the list of most expensive cities for expatriates, pushing Luanda, Angola, to second position. Zurich and Singapore remained in third and fourth positions, respectively, whereas Tokyo is in fifth, up six places from last year.

New Delhi and Bengaluru have become more expensive, over last year, and their rankings have gone up. The survey said the latter had the highest jump in ranking, on account of a surge in prices, especially on items pertaining to food and personal care. Inflation, among the highest in Indian cities, moved there from 3.27 per cent to 6.08 per cent during this period.

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Mumbai wealthiest city in India

India, the 7th richest country in the world in terms of total individual wealth ($5.6 trillion as of June 2016), is home to 264,000 millionaires and 95 billionaires. Mumbai has the largest portion of the country's high net worth individuals (HNWIs). Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore are the fastest growing cities for HNWIs. Here is how the wealthiest Indian cities stack up:

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ICICI Prudential Life Insurance lists below issue price

ICICI PRUDENTIAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LTD.

LIVE STOCK PRICE - CLICK HERE FOR MORE

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ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has listed at Rs 330, 1.2% below its issue price of Rs 334 per share, on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

At 10:01 am, the stock was trading at Rs 331.60, after hitting a high of Rs 333.80 post its listing.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has raised Rs 6,057-crore through initial public offer (IPO), become the first insurer to list.

The company's public issue was oversubscribed 10.5 times. The quota set aside for qualified institutional buyers was subscribed 11.83 times while for the non-institutional investor category, it was 28.55 times. The retail portion was oversubscribed 1.42 times, the exchange data shows.

The insurer is a venture between banking major ICICI Bank and UK's Prudential Corporation Holdings. Singapore's Temasek and Premji Invest are also the shareholders...Read Source

India expensive or cheap?

India is one of the most expensive major markets on a price-to-earnings (P/E) basis. It trades at 16.4 times its estimated 2017 earnings. In comparison, Asia (excluding Japan) is valued at 12.7 times, China 11.8 times, Europe 13.8 times and the US at 16.6 times.

India, however, offers one of the highest earnings per share (EPS) growth among global markets. India's EPS is expected to grow 18.4 per cent in 2017, against China's 14.4 per cent, Europe's 13.2 per cent and the US' 13.4 per cent. On P/E to EPS growth ratio, India is the second-most undervalued market after China. As the ratio factors in growth potential, many experts say that is better valuation metric than P/E.

According to the brokerage, India's EPS has been revised downwards by an average of 10 percentage points (pp) in the past four years. "Again, if we apply the last four-year average EPS revision for India of 10 pp to 2017, EPS growth is likely to be 8.4 per cent. Again, the PEG ratio doubles from 0.89 times to 1.94 times," the note says. Samie Modak takes a look at what the brokerages' say:

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Remembering Shankar Guha Niyogi, the legendary labour leader of Chhattisgarh

Shankar Guha Niyogi was assassinated on September 28, 1991, when he was just 48. But even at that young age he had become a legendary figure. While he was adored like a brother and son by the iron ore miners and other workers of Chhattisgarh to whom he devoted his entire life, he also became perhaps the most talked about example of someone who could link trade union struggles to wider issues like peasant struggles, social reform, environmental protection and broad-based mobilisation for democratic change.

Born in Jalpaiguri on February 14, 1943, Niyogi came to the steel town of Bhilai as a young man and soon became involved in the struggles of steel workers. He then began travelling to nearby villages in Chhattisgarh (then a part of Madhya Pradesh). 

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Health programmes....

Alliance with farmers....

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However, in some of the new places where Niyogi was invited to work, his opponents were much more ruthless than the public sector management of the steel plant he was more familiar with. He was threatened with violence multiple times. Several of his colleagues were attacked. He was assassinated on September 28, 1991.

While affection and respect for Niyogi have only increased with the passage of time, without his inspiring presence the unions and movements led by him were fragmented and lost their strength. However, on his 25th death anniversary, the need for unity is... Read Source

Jim Yong Kim re-appointed as World Bank President

Jim Yong Kim has been re-appointed for a second five-year term as World Bank president, beginning July 1, next year, the bank announced.

"Humbled to have the honour of serving a second term as the head of this great institution. I would focus on building a more inclusive world free of poverty," Kim said in a statement.

He said the starting point for his work when he joined the Bank in 2012 was the setting of two ambitious new goals for the institution: to end extreme poverty by 2030, and to promote shared prosperity by boosting the income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population in every developing country.

"In order to deliver these goals, the Bank had to accelerate, become bolder and more agile, and reposition itself. We did this so that we could increase support for countries and deliver better results more quickly.

"I believe we are well on the way to achieve these important aims," he said.

"The challenges going forward remain large, with climate change, forced displacement and pandemics threatening the gains we have made to improve the lives of billions.

"We will need to work even more closely with partners and continue to find new and innovative ways to leverage scarce development resources effectively," Kim said.

Earlier in a statement, the Executive Directors of the World Bank noted that in the first year of Kim's leadership, which began in July 2012, shareholders endorsed two ambitious new goals for the institution: to end extreme poverty by 2030, and to...Read full Story

Pakistan approaches World Bank to stop Indian projects on Neelum, Chenab

With speculations rife of India abrogating the Indus Water Treaty (1960) with Pakistan, Islamabad has taken its case to the World Bank, urging it to stop New Delhi from making illegal constructions on the Neelum and Chenab rivers.

According to the Dawn, an official statement issued by the Pakistan Embassy in Washington on Tuesday said, "In the meeting with the Pakistani delegation, the World Bank committed itself to timely fulfilling its obligations under the treaty while remaining neutral."

World Bank officials at its headquarters in Washington to discuss Pakistan's recent request for arbitration under Article IX of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), 1960.

The Article IX of the treaty deals with arbitration of disputes between the parties concerning the interpretation or application of the treaty or the existence of any fact which, if established, might constitute a breach of the treaty.

The World Bank was also reminded by Pakistan that the treaty gives the bank an important role in establishing a court of arbitration by facilitating the process of appointment of three judges, called Umpires, to the Court. Both the countries can appoint two... Read full Story

YouTube announces 'YouTube Go' for next generation users

World's most popular online video community YouTube has announced a brand new app, YouTube Go, designed and built from insights gathered from India.

The new mobile app is completely re-imagined from the ground up for the next generation of YouTube users to fully discover all that YouTube has to offer.

YouTube Go is result of extensive research done across 15 cities in India by teams of engineers, designers, and researchers collecting ideas and testing prototypes with hundreds of people. Over the next few months, YouTube will be rolling the app out gradually to more testers, getting their feedback and improving the product before launching it to the general public.

"We've always believed that connectivity should not be a barrier to watching YouTube. In 2014 we launched YouTube Offline so you could watch videos without suffering from buffering. A few months ago we rolled out Smart Offline, a feature that allows you to schedule videos to be saved offline later at off-peak times, when there's more bandwidth so data is faster and cheaper. But we realised that for the next generation of YouTube users to fully discover all that YouTube has to offer, we had to re-imagine the YouTube mobile app from the ground up," said YouTube Vice President for Product Management, Johanna Wright.

"With YouTube Go, we're bringing the power of video to mobile users in a way that is more conscious of their data and connectivity, while being relatable and... Read full Story

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Related Articles:

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Microsoft using AI to empower people, transform world: Satya Nadella

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India jumps 16 spots on Competitiveness Index

India jumped 16 places for the second year in a row to the 39th rank on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index 2016-17. It was ranked 55th in 2015-16. This is the largest gain made by any country on the list.

Switzerland was ranked the most competitive country for the eighth consecutive year, followed by Singapore, the United States, the Netherlands and Germany.

The rankings measure countries’ performance on three indicators — basic requirements, efficiency enhancers, and innovation and sophistication factor. Performance on these in turn is measured through sub-indicators.

“Thanks to improved monetary and fiscal policies, as well as lower oil prices, the Indian economy has stabilised and now boasts the highest growth among G20 countries. Recent reform efforts have concentrated on improving public institutions (up 16), opening the economy to foreign investors and international trade (up four), and increasing transparency in the financial system (up 15),” said the report.

While an improvement on the former is likely to be the result of government initiatives aimed at curbing corruption, the latter probably reflects measures taken on corporate governance and related party transactions by authorities such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Surprisingly, on reliability of police services, the country moved from 86th in 2015-16 to 53rd in...  Read full Story

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Walmart-Flipkart tie-up: Why the association is more likely than a stake sale

The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, which is in direct competition with Jeff Bezos-led e-commerce giant Amazon in the US, may be looking at India, the fastest-growing market, for the next round of business rivalry.

A news report on Tuesday said Walmart was in early talks to pick up a minority stake in Flipkart, which claims to be bigger than Amazon in India.

While neither Bentonville-headquartered Walmart nor Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal-founded Flipkart commented on the issue, a source said it may not make much sense for the American brick-and-mortar giant, with significant online ambition, to pick a minority stake in Flipkart at the valuation it commands

The Bengaluru-based company had past estimated its own value at over $15 billion last year, but many of its investors have marked down the worth since then. Even after the markdowns, which are theoretical, Flipkart is valued at $10-$11 billion.

“A minority stake in Flipkart will not give Walmart any substantial play in the online space, while paying a big price for it,” the source said, explaining why such a  Read Full Story

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ABOUT THE TWO

• It may not make much sense for the American brick-and-mortar giant, with significant online ambition, to pick a minority stake in Flipkart at the valuation it commands, a source said
   
• The talks between the two could be for other strategic tie-ups, rather than a stake deal, another source said
   
• Many analysts have pointed out that there’s a reason for Walmart to gain traction in the online market in India
   
• Walmart has been in negotiations with several e-com firms, including Shopclues and Snapdeal, for presence across online platforms
   
• The biggest trigger is Alibaba finalising its direct India foray

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India wins 500th Test, takes 1-0 lead against New Zealand

India marked their historic 500th Test with a resounding 197-run win over New Zealand in the opening match and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series at the Green Park Stadium here on Monday.

Chasing an improbable 434 for victory, New Zealand were bundled out for 236 in their second innings despite resolute half-centuries from Luke Ronchi (80) and Mitchell Santner (71) on the fifth day.

India's premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin once again hogged the limelight as he bagged six wickets to add to his first-innings haul of four wickets. This is the fifth time that he has taken a 10-wicket haul in the longest format of the game.

Ravindra Jadeja was adjudged as the Player of the Match for his five-wicket haul in the first innings and scoring an unbeaten 50 in the second innings. He also remained not out on 42 in India's first innings total of 318.

Resuming the day's play on 93 for four, New Zealand put up a staunch fightback as overnight batsmen Ronchi and Santner stitched a 102-run partnership to give the tourists a glimmer of hope of clinching a draw.

Brief Score:

India  1st innings: 318

New Zealand  1st innings: 262

India  2nd innings: 377-5 declared

New Zealand  2nd innings: 236 all out in 87.3 overs (L Ronchi 80, MJ Santner 71; R Ashwin 6/132, Mohammed Shami 2/18)

The second match of the series will start at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday.

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