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| Good morning! |
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This year, many regions of north India skipped a season—Spring. The summer set in early and now, we have heatwave conditions. The met department has warned India may see above-normal temperatures in April. This sort of weather, however, is encouraging news for the makers of air-conditioners, refrigerators and fans. The demand for ACs this year could be 20-30% higher than in the summer of 2019.
Scroll down for our top reports. On Russian oil, GST meet, Citi’s deal, and SpiceJet. Also, don’t miss our reportage on the making of India’s toughest rail link. It involves 38 tunnels and 927 bridges!
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| Market Watch |
| What’s up? |
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BSE Sensex
 58,568.51 (-0.20%) |
NIFTY
17,464.75 (-0.19%) |
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Dollar/Rupee
₹75.78 (-0.16%) |
Gold
 ₹51,999 (+0.43%) |
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Crude oil
₹7,818 (-3.66%) |
Bitcoin
₹35,60,983.32 (-1.91%) |
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*As of 9 PM 31 March; MCX, CoinDCX
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| The main stuff |
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Russia offers India oil at steep discount
Russia is offering India steep discounts on the direct sale of oil as mounting international pressure lowers the appetite for its barrels elsewhere following the invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions-hit nation is offering its flagship Urals grade to India at discounts of as much as $35 a barrel on prices before the war to lure India to lift more shipments. Headline Brent prices have risen about $10 since then, implying an even larger reduction from current prices. Read more.
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Centre-state face-off likely at GST council meet
The goods and services tax (GST) council meeting likely to be held in the second half of April is expected to be a stormy one, with several states set to push for an extension of GST compensation beyond June, according to state finance ministers. States may press for an extension of GST compensation by two to five years, arguing that they may have to face substantial losses if not suitably compensated. However, the Centre remains reluctant to commit additional support for fear of upsetting its financial position, report Dilasha Seth, Ravi Dutta Mishra and Subhash Narayan. Read more.
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The making of India’s railway marvel (premium)
India is building one of the toughest rail links. The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway route passes through the young Himalayas, tectonic thrusts and faults. Construction companies are making herculean efforts to excavate deep foundations and cut through hills at 70-degree slopes. The tunnels are being built using the latest design approaches. Once the track is commissioned, Kashmiris expect travel time between the two main urban centres—Srinagar and Jammu—to reduce drastically compared to the five hours it takes now by road, writes Javaid Naikoo. Read more.
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What the Axis deal means for Citi customers
Axis Bank has agreed to buy Citibank’s consumer business in India for ₹12,325 crore. What does the deal means for Citibank’s existing customers? Axis Bank said Citi’s customers would have even better offers and access to wider set of services than what they get at present. Citi’s customers also had access to its prompt customer service and since the Citi phone banking services are also part of the deal, they can hope to get similar benefits at Axis, explains Shayan Ghosh. Read more.
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SC asks SpiceJet, Maran to settle share transfer dispute
The Supreme Court on Thursday granted more time to SpiceJet and its former promoter Kalanithi Maran to amicably settle a prolonged dispute over transfer of shares of the budget airline. While senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Spicejet, proposed a final settlement of ₹300 crore, Maran’s counsel senior advocate Dushyant Dave submitted that it was not possible for his client to consider the offer. Dave said as per the arbitral award, Spicejet has to pay ₹995 crore. Priyanka Gawande has the details. Read more.
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| Elsewhere… |
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Global business news
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Western officials are balking at Ukraine’s proposal for a NATO-style mutual-defense pledge that could draw their military forces into a war with Russia, even as they expressed some receptiveness to the idea of international security guarantees as part of a deal to end hostilities. President Biden has yet to comment on the proposal.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will cause their economies to contract this year by about 10% and 20%, respectively, the region’s leading development bank said Thursday in one of the most in-depth economic assessments to date of the war’s impact on the two countries. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said the slump in Russia would likely turn into a long period of stagnation.
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Shares of Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings rose over the past month as investors bet that the negative impact of the variant had finally begun to subside, potentially salvaging the tail end of wave season—the first three months of the year, when cruise lines typically see increased bookings. But analysts’ recent channel checks and surveys are resoundingly disappointing.
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As China struggles to boost consumer confidence and keep the economy humming, some major onshore stock indexes have endured their toughest quarter since the country’s 2015 market crash. The CSI 300 Index, which consists of the largest companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, lost nearly 15% in the three months to March 31.
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| MINT SNAPVIEW |
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Will we ever break free of SWIFT and dollar?
It is being speculated widely that India’s Unified Payments Interface or UPI—the mobile-based real-time payment system—can be an alternative to SWIFT, the internationally dominant messaging system for cross-border payments. But it may be too early. Linking Russia’s payment systems or of any other country, such as India’s UPI, will depend on interoperability. Read more.
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| News in numbers |
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15,500
The number of new branded hotel rooms that were added in India in 2021, including 12,000 rooms from 135 new hotels, according to a report by HVS Anarock.
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70,623
The number of housing units that were sold in the January-March period in India’s eight big cities, up 7% from the same period last year, according to PropTiger.
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574 million units
India’s monthly power shortage in March, the worst since October 2021, as the demand for power surged. In October, it was caused by a shortage of coal.
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₹672 crore
The global box office collection of SS Rajamouli’s period action drama RRR, higher than the lifetime earnings of his 2015 film Baahubali.
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| howindialives.com |
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| Chart of the day |
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Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. lost mobile subscribers for the second consecutive month in January, shows TRAI data. At the end of the month, Jio’s subscriber count was 406.4 million. The country’s largest mobile operator has seen its customer base shrink sharply after it peaked at 444 million in August last year. It has lost around 37.5 million subscribers since then. The decrease can be attributed to rising telecom tariffs implemented in November.
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| LOUNGE RECOMMENDS |
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Filming with fire
Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh were inside the plane, on the tarmac at Delhi airport. The makers of Writing With Fire knew the Academy would be announcing the shortlist of 15 for the Documentary Feature Oscar anytime. Their expectations were tempered—no Indian film had gotten this far. Thomas opened her phone and checked WhatsApp. She let out a shriek: “We made it!” Some six weeks later, Thomas and Ghosh were on solid ground—and on camera—when they became Oscar nominees: the fourth Indian feature ever, the first documentary. Keep reading.
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| WHAT THE FACT |
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Rambo apple
(IFC)
In 1972, David Morrell’s thriller novel First Blood, about a troubled homeless Vietnam War veteran, was published. He named the protagonist Rambo. The novelist’s wife apparently brought home a supply of Rambo apple as he was trying to come up with a name for the character. The novel gave rise to the Rambo film franchise.
Contributed by katanaThebizdom
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