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- Bit by Bit 22nd November || Rural focus helped ITC keep sales on track || Trump is back on Twitter & more
Bit by Bit 22nd November || Rural focus helped ITC keep sales on track || Trump is back on Twitter & more
So, here are:
"5 amazing stories in 5 minutes to make you future ready"
Happy reading!
MARKET UPDATE
NIFTY 50 : ₹18,159.95 (-0.81%)
BSE SENSEX : ₹61,144.84 (-0.84%)
NIFTY BANK : ₹42,346.55 (-0.21%)
USD/INR : ₹81.72 (+0.13%)
BRENTOIL : $87.25 (-0.41%)
MCXGOLD : ₹52,311 (-0.53%)
FII Net Cashflow : - ₹1594 crores
DII Net Cashflow : + ₹1263 crores
(Market data as of 11:00 PM on 21/11/2022)
ECONOMY
Key Facts
• No recession for India - RBI governor
• Some economists of Goldman Sachs, Cirsil, and Bank of Baroda also imply that India will have the least impact from global recession
The Story
Shaktikanta Das, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, has ruled out a recession for the country, but rating agencies like Crisil, a close rival, and some economists from Goldman Sachs and Bank of Baroda have predicted a slowdown in India's growth rate due to concerns about the global slowdown and base effects. Growth in the domestic service industry could save it, though. The rating agency Crisil revised its 7.3% earlier prediction for India's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 7.0% for the current fiscal year (2022-23) According to the rating agency, "this is large because the downturn in the global economy has started to damage India's exports and industrial output."
It is significant that Crisil's assessment was released two days after the governor of the Reserve Bank of India said that India would be protected from global headwinds. According to RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, "Globally synchronized tightening of monetary policy has gradually elevated the possibility of a hard landing, i.e., a recession to contain inflation." India, though, is in a different position. Das gave a speech on Saturday in Hyderabad at the annual research conference of the RBI's department of economic and policy research.
FMCG
The FMCG market is experiencing a “K-shaped recovery” with the top and bottom ends growing, a top ITC official said, adding that the company’s accelerated focus on rural markets has helped it buck a sales slowdown in these markets. The Kolkata-based conglomerate’s FMCG sales in smaller towns and villages are growing at twice the pace of urban markets due to its post-Covid strategy of increasing market coverage and number of stockists there, digitization of the entire rural distribution network, and roll-out of low unit priced packs in multiple new categories,
The inflation is largely commodity led except for crude oil, which depends on the geopolitical environment. Wheat prices are likely to come down next quarter when the harvest happens as the area under cultivation has been good. There has been some reduction in sugar prices. Edible oil prices have moderated. So, with some hope of moderation in inflation and enhanced farmer realization, consumption is likely to pick up in the second half.
ITC has expanded its stockist network by 2.6 times compared to the pre-Covid period and market coverage by 1.9 times to overcome the problem of wholesalers not operating at full scale due to liquidity issues.
According to NielsenIQ, rural markets recorded a higher sequential volume decline in July-September quarter at -3.6% against a -2.4% fall in the previous quarter. The market researcher said consumption decline in rural markets continues to be led by double-digit price increases and lower unit growth. It said urban markets grew 1.2% last quarter compared to 0.6% in April-June.
AUTOMOTIVE
Key Facts:
Domino’s shares are down 35% since the start of 2022, while the S&P 500 has fallen roughly 17%.
Domino’s has previously invested in delivery-vehicle experiments, including autonomous vehicle tests with Ford Motor Co. in 2017 and startup Nuro Inc. in 2019.
The Story:
For some of its U.S. locations, Domino's Pizza Inc. is investing in electric vehicles to entice drivers and address the staff shortage that has hampered pie deliveries across the board this year.
The largest pizza restaurant in the world by number of locations and sales announced that it would buy 800 Chevrolet Bolts with the Domino's logo for 37 of its own stores and dozens of others operated by its U.S. franchisees.
In an operational study, Domino's discovered that store owners cited automobiles as a barrier to hiring adequate delivery personnel. A shortage of second-hand vehicles during the pandemic, high gasoline prices, and other issues, according to some pizza delivery drivers, made them less interested in staying in the business. Usually, drivers pay for their cars.
This year, Domino's and rivals like Pizza Hut and Papa John's International Inc. have battled to find and keep enough delivery drivers, who are essential to their operations. Pizza firms claim that while other restaurants rushed to launch their own delivery services—typically through applications that use gig drivers—during the Covid-19 outbreak, demand for drivers also increased.
Domino's Chief Executive Russell Weiner said the company would keep looking for ways to make driving employment better, such as by introducing more flexible shifts. He claimed that he had left open the possibility of collaborating with third-party delivery apps in America.
TECH
The Story
On its journey to a record-breaking lunar orbit, NASA's Orion spacecraft arrived at the moon on Monday, whirling around the rear side and passing within 80 miles (128 km) of the surface. The crew capsule and its three test dummies were on the far side of the moon when the close approach took place. Flight controllers in Houston could not learn whether the crucial engine firing went smoothly until the spacecraft emerged from behind the moon, more than 232,000 miles (375,000 km) from Earth, as a result of the half-hour contact blackout.
Since NASA's Apollo program 50 years ago, no spacecraft has reached the moon. This marks a significant accomplishment for the $4.1 billion test flight that started last Wednesday. The first three lunar landings by humanity, Apollo 11, Apollo 12, and Apollo 14, were all passed by Orion on its flight path.
Dec. 11 is set for a splashdown in the Pacific. Orion lacks a lunar lander; a touchdown won't occur until NASA astronauts use SpaceX's Starship to try a lunar landing in 2025. But as early as 2024, astronauts will board the Orion spacecraft for a trip around the moon. Managers at NASA were thrilled with the mission's progress.
In its premiere, the Space Launch System rocket behaved remarkably well, officials told reporters late last week. However, the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center sustained more damage than anticipated from the 322-foot (98-meter) rocket. The 8.8 million pounds (4 million kg) of lift off thrust produced such a powerful force that it tore the elevator's blast doors off.
Want a BIT More?
Key facts:-
Twitter was the first platform to ban Trump after his supporters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021
Elon Musk has also that he opposes the idea of permanent bans on social media
Trump has already announced that he is running for president again in 2024
The Story
Elon Musk polled Twitter users on Friday and Saturday, asking them whether Trump should be reinstated, and a narrow majority voted for Trump. Hence Twitter has become the first to reinstate the former president's account on Twitter. Whether Trump will accept the invitation to return to Twitter is another matter. During a Saturday address to the Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump poured cold water on the idea of returning to Twitter, saying, "I don't see any reason for it." Elon Musk has vowed to "unlock" the company's potential by advancing free speech. Before his purchase, Musk had criticized the platform's rules against harassment, hate speech, and false claims about elections and public health, saying it should allow all legal addresses. Still, Musk has insisted that the site will deemphasize what he called "negative/hate tweets." He's already reversed bans on other controversial accounts, including author and podcaster Jordan Peterson and satire website The Babylon Bee.
