At 4.7%, inflation stays under RBI limit for second successive month

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CPI inflation has fallen for third month in a row and has come at 4.70% in April, 2023. This is the second month in a row that retail inflation has remained within tolerance band of the Reserve Bank of India.  On the back of low inflation in vegetables, oil and fats and meat and fish, retail inflation has fallen for third month in a row. Both rural and urban inflation have fallen to lower than 5%. Infact, inflation has fallen by more than 1% in April as compared the preceding month.

PFRDA: NPS subscribers can buy multiple annuity plans

PFRDA has given some good news to NPS subscribers. The pension regulator has allowed NPS subscribers to buy more than one annuity plan from the same insurance company. But PFRDA has put two conditions. Investors are required to buy annuity plan with minimum 40% of accumulated corpus. If this 40% is more than 10 lakh rupees, then, that subscriber can buy more than one annuity plan of minimum 5 lakh rupees from same insurance company. Earlier, subscribers were allowed to buy only one annuity plan at time of exit.

Investors turn cautious on equities

Investors have become cautious in India. People reduced investment in equity mutual funds by two-thirds in April as compared to preceding month. Equity mutual funds saw inflow of only 6,480 crore rupees in April as compared to more than 20,000 crore rupees in March. According to experts, sharp rise in equities made investors cautious. They have preferred to wait and watch rather than blindly invest in the equity segment. Although, equity mutual funds have received continuous positive monthly inflow since March 2021. That is a long period of 22 months. Going forward, NS Venkatesh, Chief Executive of Amfi is highly bullish on equity inflows in India. He expects SIPs to increase manifold times in the equity segment by the end of current financial year.

Two Adani stocks hit lower circuit

Next news is for those who have invested in Adani Group stocks. Shareholders of two of Adani Group Companies had to absorb deep losses on Friday. Shares of Adani Total Gas and Adani Transmission were locked in lower circuit after falling 5% on the bourses. Reason being MSCI’s decision to drop these cos from its index from May 31, 2023. Apart from the Adani Group companies, Indus Towers will also move out of the index. MSCI will replace these stocks with Hindustan Aeronautics, Max Healthcare Institute and Sona BLW Precision in its index.

Immersive view feature coming up on Google Maps

Google Maps will soon introduce the ‘Immersive View’ feature: It will show a real-time view of global traffic and provide real-time weather updates. Sitting at the comfort of their home, users can get information on availability of parking space, real world view of bicycle lanes, one ways, roundabouts and other useful information regarding any part of world. Before stepping out of their house, users will able to get information on how is the real time weather of the place he is going to. Google will first roll out this feature in US and gradually it will extend to other countries as well.

VI lost 2x more subscribers than what Jio

Vodafone Idea lost 2 times more mobile subscribers than what Jio added in February, 2023. Vodafone lost 20 lakh wireless subscribers in February. On the other hand, Jio added 10 lakh subscribers in the same month. In terms of market share, Jio has highest number of mobile subscribers. Jio enjoys market share of 37% in number of mobile subscribers in the country. Airtel has second largest number of wireless subscribers with a market share of 32%. While, Vodafone’s market share has fallen to 20%. There are total of 114 crore mobile subscribers in the country. There are more wireless subscribers in urban areas than in rural areas. Almost 55% of mobile subscribers in India are in urban areas.

Bank of Baroda hikes FD rates

Bank of Baroda has increased interest rates on its fixed deposits of up to 2 crore rupees. The public lender will give as high as 7.25% on FDs of 399 days. On 5 year FDs, depositors will get 6.50% interest. On shortest tenure of 7 days, depositors will get 3% interest. Senior citizens will get 0.50% additional rates on these FDs. Bank of Baroda is giving special interest rates of 7.25% under Baroda Tiranga Plus Deposit Scheme to depositors. Senior citizens will get 7.75% on this special FD.

Investment doubled in SGB 2017-18 series I

Investment in series 1 of sovereign gold bond scheme of 2017-18 has doubled in the last six years. Investors had subscribed to this gold scheme at issue price of 2,901 rupees per gram of gold back in 2017. Friday, May 12, 2023, was the sixth year of this scheme. On Friday, the RBI fixed premature redemption rate of this particular gold bond scheme at 6,115 rupees. sovereign gold bond schemes have eight years maturity period. But investors are allowed to withdraw after just five years of subscribing to the gold bond. Investors booked profit of 3,214 rupees per gram of gold in this particular gold bond scheme. They had bought each unit at price of 2,901 rupees. Their investment more than doubled in just six years.

Insurers to deny claim if seat belt alarm stopper found in cars

Consumer protection regulator CCPA has said insurance companies can deny claim to those vehicle owners who were found to be using car seat belt alarm stopper clips during road accidents. CCPA has directed 5 e-commerce companies, including Amazon and Flipkart, to permanently delist such seat belt alarm stoppers from their websites. CCPA has also directed Snapdeal, Shopclues and Meesho to permanently stop selling seat belt alarm stoppers. Sale of such items compromise passengers’ safety and directly violate provisions of Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

PVs, 2Ws dispatches robust in April, 2023: SIAM

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said, Total PV dispatches stood at 3.31 lakh for the month of April, 2023. Two-wheeler dispatches too increased to 13.38 lakh in the same month. according to SIAM, dealers have once again made good demand for vehicles in the month of April. Maruti Suzuki constituted 41% of total passenger vehicle that were dispatched from companies to dealers. Sale of passenger vehicles in the country were the highest ever in April, 2023. Going forward, SIAM expects dispatches of PVs, and two wheelers to remain robust in the country.