“Flows into equity funds remain strong through the year. Despite markets being volatile since the start of 2018, investors are taking a long term view in equities. SIPs continue to be strong contributor with the monthly SIP numbers currently standing at ~7300 crore. We expect this trend to continue going forward as investors are starting to acknowledge the long term wealth creation potential of equities.” – Kaustubh Belapurkar, Director Manager Research, Morningstar on AMFI’s June Data on Mutual Funds
“The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is considering a new policy for e-commerce in the country, which is supposed to include issues relating to FDI. We believe that the policy for regulating marketplaces issued via Press Note 3, by the then Commerce Minister and Secretary of DIPP Shri Amitabh Kant was well-drafted and only needed implementation to ensure level-playing field. Retail is about multi-channel and the laws that apply to one channel should be the same for the other channels. Business to Consumer (B2C) is retail, irrespective of the channel—online, offline, direct selling or TV—it is conducted on.The Press Note 3 was created on the basis of an RAI submission, however RAI was not invited to deliberate on the new e-commerce policy, the reasons for which are not available to us. Government needs to ensure adherence to existing regulations rather than keep tinkering with the policy, unless it intends to further divide retail by channels and compound the confusion in the FDI policy for retail in the country.” – Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India on new e-commerce policy
“Markets have hit an all time high after remaining rangebound and volatile for quite some time. The rally can be attributed to an expectation of a robust growth in earnings during the ongoing result season.”- Nitasha Shankar, Sr. Vice President and Head of Research at YES Securities (I) Ltd.
“Dock-less scooter sharing service for point to point connectivity is the way forward for this industry. ONN Bikes launched the hourly rental model which became an instant hit with the metro population where people started using the service as an alternate to cab transport for one way commute. This is the perfect precedence for the launch of one way rentals and dock-less rental service”- Namit Jain, Founder, ONN Bikes
“Traditionally a lean period, monsoons have become the most awaited travel time of year in India over the years. Travellers who wish to avoid peak summer holiday season and enjoy the lucrative off-season deals often prefer to travel during monsoons. At Travel Tours, we have observed rising interest in queries for destinations such Goa, Kerala, Andaman, Darjeeling, Mysore, Ooty, Kodaikanal and more. The locales offer refreshing mid-year breaks into the lap of nature and truly enhance the flavour of monsoon. This year we have seen a steady uptake of 28% in monsoon bookings over last year. Additionally, the rise in bookings can be appropriately attributed to various promotional deals offered by airlines.”- Rakshit Desai, Managing Director of FCM Travel Solutions – Indian Subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group, Australia
“Government of India’s initiative to push affordable housing under PMAY has now reached its desired potential with the recent announcement by MoUD to increase the prescribed carpet area for MIG under CLSS. The carpet area definition of MIG as a category is relatively broader than the earlier eligible CLSS criteria and buyers who were buying flats or constructing houses, with carpet areas over 120 sq m or 150 sq m were not being able to avail benefits under the scheme. In general, the overall market performance and buyers sentiments has just started to return to levels seen pre- demonitization and other policy level interventions in the past 2 years. MoUD’s initiative to increase the carpet area for MIG category coupled up with RBI’s recent move to increase the loan limit will generate positive momentum and surely work in favour of the industry players and in the best of interest of the home buyers.”- Rakesh Reddy, Director of Aparna Constructions
