Top headlines: Higher bond yields, WHO on Covid deaths in India, and more

Business Standard brings you the top headlines at this hour

RBI repo rate hike: Higher yields leave Centre and states concerned

On May 4, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das announced an out-of-cycle rate hike, the yield on the benchmark 10-year government of India bond (G-sec) rose 3.64 per cent, the highest single-day rise so far this calendar year, to reach their highest levels since May 2019. In fact, since January 1, benchmark bond yields have risen more than 14 per cent, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to a spike in global commodity prices and disrupted the flow of liquidity. Read more...

Tata Consumer Products plans re-entry into non-foods FMCG business

Tata Consumer Products will not restrict itself to the foods business but will transition to being a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firm. After exiting the non-foods FMCG space in the 1990s, the conglomerate is looking to re-enter the field. “Tata Consumer was created to be the FMCG flagship for Tata Group. Step number one was to bring together the salt and the tea businesses of Tata Chemicals and Tata Global to create Tata Consumer,” Sunil D’Souza, managing director and chief executive officer of Tata Consumer Products, told Business Standard in an interview. Read more...

Eye on target: Fears of high inflation prompted RBI's off-cycle meeting

Near 7 per cent retail inflation in March and expectations of similar prints in April – and probably the entire April-June quarter – necessitated the off-cycle meeting of the monetary policy committee (MPC) members as they realised the urgency to act fast or face the grim prospect of failing to fulfil their mandate. In a surprise move, the MPC increased the repo rate by 40 basis points (bps) to 4.4 per cent on Wednesday. The cash reserve ratio was hiked by the RBI by 50 bps to 4.5 per cent. Read more...

India Covid deaths highest in world, says WHO as govt snubs report

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has put the number of Covid-19 deaths in India at around 4.7 million, which the highest in the world. The deaths, according to the report released on Thursday, could be directly due to the disease or indirectly caused by the pandemic’s impact on health systems and society. India’s Covid toll is approximately a third of the global death number, the report said. The WHO estimate of Covid deaths in India is 10-times the official count, and the government has strongly rejected the figure and the methodology. Read more...

LIC IPO fully subscribed on day 2 of opening; offer closes on May 9

State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC’s) initial public offering (IPO), the largest ever in the domestic market, was fully subscribed on Thursday -- the second day of the issue. The IPO, which will remain open till Monday, has so far generated bids worth Rs 20,744 crore, including the Rs 5,628 crore raised from anchor investors. Small investors have poured in over Rs 12,000 crore in the IPO. Sources said the issue had seen participation from 3.6 million individual investors from across India and expectations were that the total applications figure would hit a record 10 million. Read more...

IMD warns of fresh heatwave in northwest, central India from May 7

A fresh spell of heatwave is likely to begin over northwest India from May 7 and over central India from May 8, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday. Heatwave conditions are predicted over Rajasthan on May 7 to May 9, and over south Haryana, Delhi, southwest Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha region of Maharashtra on May 8 and May 9, it said. With scanty rains owing to feeble western disturbances, northwest and central India experienced the hottest April in 122 years with average maximum temperature touching 35.9 degrees Celsius and 37.78 degrees Celsius, respectively. Read more...

45% growth in active internet users in rural India since 2019: Study

There has been a 45 per cent growth in ‘active internet users' in rural India since 2019, according a study by Nielsen, a global company for audience measurement, data and analytics. The Bharat 2.0 Internet report said that female active internet users grew by 61 per cent since 2019. The report said that India has 646 million active Internet users aged 2 years and above as of December 2021. Rural India has 352 million internet users--almost 20 per cent higher than urban. The study also revealed that almost 60 per cent of the rural population is still not actively using the internet, paving headroom for further growth. Read more...