Disappointing performance by ELSS

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Here are the top developments in personal finance

Around 68% Equity Linked Savings Schemes or ELSS have underperformed their respective benchmarks in the five-year horizon, according to ETMutualFunds. It compared the daily rolling returns of 34 schemes that have completed five years in the market with their benchmark returns. Around 23 schemes out of the total 34 schemes underperformed their respective benchmarks in the five-year horizon. The ELSS category has offered an average return of 10.45% in the five-year horizon.

Inflation likely to cool

India’s consumer inflation is likely to have cooled to an 18-month low in April as rises in food and fuel prices moderated, keeping it below the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance limit for the second consecutive month, a Reuters poll of economists found. Food inflation,was expected to have fallen again in April. The consumer price index was forecast to have fallen to 4.80% in April from 5.66% in March.

Forex card settlement in rupees

The Reserve Bank of India has said the charges on forex prepaid cards, store value cards, and travel cards payable in India must be denominated and cleared in rupees. Indians generally use international debit cards, store value cards, charge cards, and smart cards while visiting another country.

Kia launches compact Sonet

Kia India has launched the special edition of the sub-four-meter SUV Sonet in India – Sonet Aurochs edition.The SUV will be available in petrol and diesel versions and will feature 8 inch touchscreen, 4- speaker music system, cruise control, push button start, etc. The price of this special edition starts at 11.85 lakh rupees and goes up to 13.45 lakh rupees for the top-end variant.

Sugar prices rising again

The price of sugar is increasing. There has been a rise of up to 2 rupees in the retail price of sugar. As the demand increases, the prices may rise further. The government is concerned that as the demand increases, the prices may rise. Hoarding has also started because of this. That’s why the government has asked companies to report their stock holdings of sugar. After obtaining the stock holding information, the market supply will be monitored. If the situation does not improve, then either the stock holding limit or other major decisions may be taken.

ONDC caps delivery costs

Well ONDC has become the talk of the town ever since it started offering discounts and free deliveries. In fact it has become a cheaper alternative to swiggy and Zomato. But going forward the price difference between ONDC and the other two platforms are set to come down. ONDC has issued a communication to seller side apps that incentives for subsidising delivery costs for buyers will be capped. The new cap came in yesterday that is May 9. So far, ONDC has been offering an incentive of up to 75 rupees as discount on logistics on every eligible order. Now the minimum incentive would be 3,750 rupees per seller per day and the maximum incentive will be 2,25,000 rupees per seller side app per day.

Chipmakers’ price war

Now a price war is lurking right around the corner between two of the world’s largest chipset companies. Which are those companies? One of course is Taiwan’s MediaTek and the other is US’s Qualcomm. Now this is happening amid a weakening demand, but at the same time a huge benefit for India’s smartphone buyers. As per industry experts, prices of 5G devices are expected to come down under 10,000 rupees. A Semiconductor analyst quoted by The Economic Times expects both Qualcomm and MediaTek to launch new players with aggressive pricing.

Twitter to begin DM reply

Twitter owner Elon Musk announced on the microblogging platform that Twitter is finally allowing users to send a DM reply to any message in the thread and use any emoji to react. Apart from this, the Twitter CEO informed that soon the social networking platform will allow encrypted direct messages.

Rs 13,290 cr paid under PMJJBY

About 6.6 lakh families have been beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana receiving 13,290 crore rupees against their claims. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made this statement on the 8th anniversary of the Jan suraksha schemes. She further said that more than 1,15,000 families have received  claims worth 2,302 crore rupees. Adding to that she said that simplification of claim process has resulted in faster claim settlements. As per latest data, 162 million, 342 million and 52 million enrolments have been done under the PMJJBY, PMSBY, and APY respectively.