In the News
repo rate cut LOWER RATES Public and private sector banks say they will take up the issue for discussion at the next assetliability management committee meet.
MUMBAI: Heads of public and private sector banks on Thursday told Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das that it will be difficult to pass on the benefits of the repo rate cut to borrowers immediately, but were willing to take it up for discussion at the next asset-liability management committee meeting, two bankers aware of the matter said. “We gave our side of the story and said since we are heavily dependent on deposits to fund the loans we give out, a change in repo rate will not immediately affect the lending rate,” the first banker said, requesting anonymity. He added that the issue of external benchmark-linked lending rate was not discussed in detail and could be done at a later stage. The second banker, also requesting anonymity, said that the central bank had not set a deadline to reduce rates, and the meeting was more about understanding why the banks could not lower the rates within a specified period. All bank chiefs told the RBI governor that they will discuss this issue at their next meeting when the marginal cost of fundsbased lending rate (MCLR) will be determined. Speaking to reporters after finance minister Arun Jaitley addressed the board of the central bank on Monday, Das said that he would meet heads of public and private sector banks to discuss the issue, given that transmission of monetary policy decisions such as rate cuts to borrowers, was important. The RBI’s monetary policy committee had cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25% earlier this month, besides changing the policy stance to neutral, citing easing inflation and the need to sustain growth in the world’s fastest growing major economy. Only eight of the 38 economists surveyed by had expected RBI to cut rates, the first such move since August 2017. The central bank also trimmed its retail inflation forecast for the first half of the next fiscal year and marginally lowered its economic growth estimate to 7.4%. The monetary stimulus, announced in governor Das’s debut policy meeting, will help the government boost economic growth. Following the rate cut, bankers had said that the liquidity situation was still tight and any chance of passing on the rate cut to customers was slim, more so as credit was growing at a faster pace than deposits, and putting pressure on banks’ resources.
Oyo to enter food delivery space with Freshmenu stake DISCUSSIONS WITH FRESHMENU COME JUST MONTHS AFTER OYO RAISED CLOSE TO $1 BN, BOOSTING ITS VALUATION TO $5 BN
BENGALURU: Oyo Rooms, India’s third-most valuable startup, is in advanced talks to buy a significant stake in cloud-kitchen startup Freshmenu, according to two people directly familiar with the matter. If the negotiations are successful, Oyo will add the online food delivery business to its portfolio, complementing its budget hotels business. Discussions with Freshmenu come just months after Oyo raised close to $1 billion, boosting the hotel chain’s valuation to nearly $5 billion. “Oyo is building a food team, which will help Freshmenu expand to more cities under the brand name of Oyo,” said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity. “The idea could be more about adding the element of food to further build the hospitality business rather than getting into food delivery entirely.” could not immediately ascertain the value of the transaction. An Oyo spokesperson said: “We do not comment on industry speculation and, therefore, cannot comment on this. As the largest hotel chain in India, operating franchised and lease assets, we do have an active play in the F&B business with over 25% of our revenue coming through the kitchens we operate in our hotels and, hence, culinary design and good food experience are valuable to us.” Freshmenu did not respond to queries by till press time. Lightspeed Venture Partners, a common investor in Oyo and Freshmenu, played a key role in bringing the two to the discussion table, said the second person cited earlier.
The food-tech sector has become hypercompetitive as companies such as Swiggy, Zomato, Uber and Ola battle it out for leadership. This makes it difficult for smaller companies such as Freshmenu to compete with deeppocketed incumbents, which offer deep discounts to win market share. “At the end of the day, Freshmenu is just a brand selling on aggregators such as Swiggy and Zomato,” said one of the investors from the food-tech space, requesting anonymity. “They would just end up being one among the many brands on the platform—which makes it difficult to compete.”
IESA’s Vision Summit 2019 to focus on Intelligent Electronics as a key enabler to make India a Product Nation
India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), the premier industry body for the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) industry in the country, announced its flagship event -the Vision Summit 2019 - scheduled for February 19 & 20 at the Leela Palace, Bengaluru. The 14th edition of the Vision Summit features a powerful line-up of industry experts, government officials, strategists, policy makers and business leaders, offering their views and visions on the future of semiconductor and electronics by exploring mega trends, impact of Artificial Intelligence & automation, challenges, and opportunities Anil Kumar Muniswamy, Chairman, shaping the Indian IESA and Managing Director, SLN industry.
Technologies The theme of the Vision Summit 2019 is ‘Intelligent Electronics System and Automation- Unleashing the $400 billion opportunity.’ The two-day summit will focus on: Building a Futuristic Digital Infrastructure Game Changers - Mega trends that will rock the world Building Unicorns in Intelligent Electronics Global impact through Indian IP Risc V Shaping the Future of Electronics Manufacturing Changing Gears - Electric & Autonomous Vehicles Government incentives for investments in ESDM Making your Money matter - Embracing Ventures The speaker line-up included Indian and global industry
experts sharing their perspectives on how to improve the Indian ESDM ecosystem: Ajay Prakash Sawhney, IAS, Secretary, MeitY, Govt. of India Smt. Aruna Sundararajan, IAS, Secretary, DoT, GoI* S o n am Wangchuk, Rajesh Ram Mishra, PresiAdent, Indian Engineer, IESA Innovator and Education Reformist Wally Rhines, CEO Emeritus at Mentor- a Siemens Business Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India & VP - Data Center Group, Intel Corporation P Rajamanickam, CEO- Tessolve Semiconductor Josh Foulger, Country Head and MD Foxconn, India Avneesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Netradyne Dr. Dipesh Patel, Executive Vice President, President & GM - IoT Services Group, ARM Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, STPI Dhananjay Gore, VP Engineering, Qualcomm Manish Gangey, Head-R&D, Airtel Dr. Vivek Raghavan,Chief Product Manager and Biometric Architect at Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and many more. IES Aalso aims to recognize role models of innovation and excellence in the electronics and semiconductor ecosystem. The Technovation Awards honours India’s best individual contributors and organizations driving the ESDM industry forward and provide them with a platform to showcase theirachievements and product successes. The winners of the Technovation Awards will be announced on Day one of the Summit. Rajesh Ram Mishra, President, IESA said, “We at IESA are continuously working towards developing the ESDM ecosystem, bringing together all the relevant stakeholders to drive innovation led design in the country. The Vision Summit 2019 is a platform to deliberate on how the country can achieve a turnover of $400 billion through Intelligent Electronics & Automation riding on the mega trends of Industry 4.0, 5G, Health & Wellness, Smart City & Electric Vehicles. To achieve this goal, the it is necessary to support large scale entrepreneurship & creation of IP in India.