Holi Festival Cleaning in Mumbai

Holi, the festival of colors, is a vibrant and joyful celebration in India. Before the festival, it is customary for people to engage in thorough cleaning and preparations in their homes. This practice is known as “Holi cleaning” and is done to welcome the festival with a clean and festive environment.

If you are in Mumbai and looking to prepare for the Holi festival through cleaning, here are some general tips:

Holi Festival Cleaning in Mumbai House Cleaning:

Start by decluttering your home. Get rid of unnecessary items and organize your living spaces.
Clean and dust all surfaces, including furniture, shelves, and countertops.
Sweep and mop the floors, paying special attention to corners and hidden areas.
Clean windows and mirrors for a brighter atmosphere.
Decorations:

If you plan to decorate your home for Holi, make sure to clean the areas where you’ll be placing decorations.
Consider using eco-friendly and colorful decorations that align with the spirit of the festival.
Holi Festival Cleaning in Mumbai Clothing and Linens:

Wash and clean your curtains, bed linens, and other fabrics to give your home a fresh feel.
Check if you have traditional or colorful attire for Holi and ensure they are clean and ready to wear.
Outdoor Areas:

If you have an outdoor space, clean and arrange it for Holi celebrations. Remove any debris and make it welcoming for guests.
Consider decorating your outdoor area with vibrant colors and Holi-themed elements.
Kitchen:

Clean and organize your kitchen. Dispose of expired items and ensure that all surfaces, appliances, and utensils are clean and ready for use.
Safety Measures:

If you plan to play with colors during Holi, take necessary precautions. Cover furniture, use natural and skin-friendly colors, and ensure the safety of everyone involved.
Water Conservation:

Given the water scarcity in many areas, consider using water responsibly during Holi. Use water-efficient ways to play with colors and avoid unnecessary wastage.
Remember that the spirit of Holi is about joy, love, and togetherness. Enjoy the festival responsibly, and ensure that your cleaning efforts contribute to a positive and festive atmosphere for you and your loved ones.

Celebrating Holi in South Mumbai can be a delightful and vibrant experience. The festival is known for its lively atmosphere, colorful celebrations, and a sense of community. Here are some suggestions for Holi fun in South Mumbai:

Organized Events and Parties:

Look out for organized Holi events or parties happening in South Mumbai. Many clubs, hotels, and event spaces host special Holi celebrations with music, dance, and, of course, vibrant colors.
Community Celebrations:

Explore local neighborhoods and communities that might organize Holi events. Many residential areas, cultural organizations, and societies come together for community celebrations with music, traditional rituals, and colorful play.
Beach Celebrations:

South Mumbai is known for its beautiful coastline. Consider celebrating Holi on the beach with friends and family. Just be mindful of the environment and avoid littering.
Street Food and Festive Treats:

Indulge in the delicious street food that Mumbai is famous for. During Holi, you can find special festive treats like gujiyas, thandai, and other sweets. Visit local markets or popular street food spots.
Colored Powder and Water Balloon Fights:

Participate in or organize a safe and friendly colored powder or water balloon fight with friends. Ensure that the colors used are safe and eco-friendly, and always respect the comfort levels and consent of others.
Traditional Holi Music and Dance:

Immerse yourself in the traditional music and dance associated with Holi. Attend cultural events or join public gatherings where people celebrate with folk music and dance.
Visit Temples:

Consider visiting temples in South Mumbai that host special Holi celebrations. Many temples organize cultural programs, prayers, and other festivities during this time.
Capture the Moments:

Don’t forget to capture the colorful moments of Holi. Whether it’s a selfie with friends or candid shots of the celebrations, documenting the day can add to the memories.
Respect Local Customs:

If you are participating in community events or celebrations, be respectful of local customs and traditions. Follow any guidelines or rules set by the organizers

How to Register a proprietorship Firm in India

Registering a proprietorship firm in India involves several steps. As of my last knowledge update in January 2024, here are the general steps you can follow to register a proprietorship firm:

How to Register a proprietorship Firm in India Choose a Business Name:

Select a unique and appropriate name for your proprietorship. Ensure that the chosen name is not already registered by another business.
Business Registration:

Proprietorship firms do not have a separate registration process. The business is automatically recognized once you start operating. However, for various purposes like opening a bank account or obtaining licenses, you might need to declare your business existence.
PAN Card:

Obtain a PAN (Permanent Account Number) for the proprietorship in the name of the owner. This is crucial for tax-related activities.
How to Register a proprietorship Firm in India Bank Account:

Open a business bank account in the name of the proprietorship. Most banks require the PAN card, identity proof, and address proof of the proprietor.
How to Register a proprietorship Firm in India GST Registration (if applicable):

If your business turnover exceeds the specified threshold, you may need to register for Goods and Services Tax (GST). Check the current GST threshold and registration requirements.
Professional Tax Registration (if applicable):

Some states in India require the proprietor to register for professional tax. Be sure to check the local regulations regarding professional tax.
Other Licenses and Permits:

Depending on your business type, you may need specific licenses or permits. For example, you might need a Shops and Establishments Act license or a trade license.
Compliance with Local Regulations:

Ensure compliance with local and state regulations relevant to your business.
It’s important to note that while there isn’t a formal registration process for proprietorship firms, obtaining the necessary licenses and permits is crucial to ensure legal compliance. Additionally, the regulatory landscape may have changed since my last update, so it’s advisable to verify the current requirements with the relevant authorities or seek professional advice.

For more specific and up-to-date information, consider consulting with a professional, such as a chartered accountant or a business consultant, who can guide you through the registration process based on your business type and location.

Kotak Mahindra logs Rs 3,005 crore PAT for Q3

Chennai, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd on Saturday said it closed the third quarter of FY24 with an after tax profit of Rs 3,005 crore.

In a regulatory filing, the bank said the net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2023 stood at about Rs 3,005 crore up from about Rs 2,792 crore in Q3FY23.

According to the bank, the Q3FY24 results include Rs 143 crore provision (post tax) on applicable Alternate Investment Fund (AIF) investments pursuant to RBI’s circular dated December 19, 2023.

Net Interest Income (NII) for Q3FY24 increased to Rs 6,554 crore, from Rs 5,653 crore in Q3FY23, up 16 per cent YoY.

Net Interest Margin (NIM) was 5.22 per cent for Q3FY24.

During the period under review, the bank’s total interest income stood at Rs11,799.2 crore, up from Rs 8,998.61 crore earned during the corresponding period in the previous year.

As on December 31, 2023 the bank’s gross and net non-performing assets stood at Rs 6,301,67 crore (Rs 5,994.57 crore on December 31, 2022) and Rs 1,225.26 crore (Rs1,344.77 crore).https://amzn.to/48YznD7

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Stock market crash wipes out Rs 4.59 lakh cr from investors wealth in single day

New Delhi, Investors became poorer by Rs 4.59 lakh crore on Wednesday due to a sharp fall in the equity markets where the BSE Sensex plummeted 1,628 points, dragged by bank stocks and weak global trends. Extending its previous day’s decline, the 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 1,628.01 points or 2.23 per cent to settle at 71,500.76. During the day, it nosedived 1,699.47 points or 2.32 per cent to 71,429.30.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies eroded by Rs 4,59,327.64 crore to Rs 3,70,35,933.18 crore. In two days of market fall, investors’ wealth fell by Rs 5,73,576.83 crore.

“Hawkish comments by the US Fed triggered a spike in yields on the US 10-year bonds and the US dollar index, which spooked European and Asian markets, including India. India’s stock market valuations are also expensively valued compared to other global stock indices and investors would wait for more positive cues now to extend their equity exposure.

“There are challenges in the near-term such as persisting conflict in the Middle East and worries over delay in the US Fed rate cut, which could dampen investors’ sentiment going ahead,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

Among the Sensex firms, HDFC Bank fell by over 8 per cent after the company’s December quarter earnings failed to impress investors.

Tata Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finserv, State Bank of India and IndusInd Bank were among the other major laggards.

HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Titan, Nestle and PowerGrid were the gainers.

“Domestic equities plunged amid a weak environment globally and a selloff in HDFC Bank. Banking sector took the biggest hit as Q3 results of HDFC Bank showed stagnant growth for the company. Hawkish Fed commentary, escalating tension in the Middle East, and a spike in bond yield dented investor sentiment,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Mo Financial Services Ltd.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled lower.

European markets were also trading with sharp cuts. The US markets ended in negative territory on Tuesday.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge fell by 1.09 per cent and smallcap index declined 0.90 per cent.

Among the indices, bankex tumbled 4.02 per cent, financial services fell by 3.76 per cent, metal (2.86 per cent), commodities (2.31 per cent), telecommunication (1.94 per cent) and realty (1.47 per cent).

IT, consumer durables and teck were the gainers.

As many as 2,510 stocks declined, while 1,301 advanced and 89 remained unchanged.

TCS expects the BFSI needle to start moving this quarter

India’s largest IT company TCS says little has changed in terms of client sentiments on ground, as it delivered 1% sequential revenue growth in the third quarter. The company which saw its BFSI segment – which is banking, financial services and insurance – de-grow by 3% on a yearly basis, hopes that this segment must start picking from this quarter.

The BFSI segment is where most IT companies get a third of their revenues from. “Furlough impact in Europe and two large programmes coming to an end affected the BFSI segment this quarter. Their replacement programmes haven’t started,” TCS CEO K Krithivasan said at its earnings press conference on Thursday evening.

It bagged $8.1 billion in deals during the traditionally slow December quarter — but missed its guidance of $9-10 billion deal wins per quarter. While most brokerages call it a modest deal-win, the company management is upbeat.

“The situation has not deteriorated from the last quarter, which should be taken as a positive sign. We have won these deals without any mega-deal support which is fantastic,” said N Ganapathy Subramaniam, chief operating officer (COO) of TCS.

The company also indicated that the stress in the BFSI segment which existed all through the financial year, might have bottomed out. “You should see the needle moving from this quarter,” Subramaniam said. Its overall qualified deal pipeline has also increased.

The company sees European markets also doing better in the coming months. North America however is showing no indications of any change. “There was a sense of optimism when the interest rates were not raised, but it has not resulted in ground-level decision making,” Krithivasan.

He also added that too much should not read into client budgeting for the coming fiscal year either. “Clients are agile and make their decisions on a quarterly basis,” insisted the CEO of the company.

Rampdowns: Not for ‘new’ wins

The street has also been concerned about the slow conversion of deals into revenue for the last few quarters. IT sector clients stalled discretionary spending, pausing projects affecting revenue growth. While the stress continues to exist, this phenomenon hasn’t affected its ‘new’ deal wins.

“We have not seen any delays and suspensions in the deals we have won in FY24 and Q4 of FY23, except for maybe operational delays. The programmes that started 2-3 years back, long-running programmes that started during the pandemic are being paused,” said Krithivasan.

Along with TCS many IT companies are seeing a disconnect between total contract value (TCS) and revenues. Many clients who re-think programmes which do not provide the return on investment (RoI) as per their changed cost-dynamic – have been ramping them down.

Real estate hit its highs in 2023 but slipping PE investments a worry

A sharp rise in home sales as well rising office occupancies might be the talk of the town. Yet, private equity investments in the sector remained muted. In the first nine months of FY24, i.e. April to December 2023, PE investments in the sector registered a 26% decline, says a report by Anarock.

Investor activity remained tepid due to geopolitical uncertainties as well as a high interest rate environment. The size of domestic investments however declined to 14% of total capital flows to $360 million as compared to $717 million in the same period last year.

“Domestic alternate investment funds (AIFs) have seen lower activity levels as their favoured asset class — residential real estate debt – witnessed lower demand for high-cost funds. Strong residential pre-sales and an accommodative stance by state-owned banks have led to reduced demand for capital from the more expensive AIFs,” said Shobhit Agarwal, MD & CEO of Anarock Capital.

The average ticket size marginally increased to $95 million from $91 million in the same time last year. This is largely due to a mega $1.4 billion deal in which Brookfield India Real Estate Trust REIT and Singapore’s GIC together acquired two commercial assets in Mumbai and Gurugram.

The deal also aided the sharp rise in multi-city transactions. Otherwise, Mumbai Metropolitan Region led the transaction league tables in city-specific transactions. The region saw investments flows to the tune of $694 million.

Office spaces dominate

Most of the PE investment flows for the fiscal year flew into office spaces which dominated the big ticket deals. Data centers also became an emerging new asset class for investors. Domestic debt funds also showed interest in commercial projects. Varde Partners had invested $91 million in a Hyderabad based project by Phoenix Group.

“The sector’s reliance on IT/ITeS diminished, with manufacturing, BFSI, and co-working spaces contributing to resilient demand. Anticipated growth in the IT/ITES sector is expected as more employees shift to working from offices for 3-4 days weekly,” said Anarock.

Residential real estate was also one of the key sectors which saw large deals in 9M FY24. HDFC Capital as well as PAG invested over $60 million in CCI Projects and Kalpataru Group respectively.

In times when overall flows softened, large deals dominated the scene. Top ten deals accounted for 87% of the total value of PE investments. In the same period last year, they accounted for 76%. While debt capital also flowed in, equity investments are preferred route for PE investors, which is visibly healthy at 84% of total deals.

Fears grow that Ukraine could run out of US-supplied Patriot missiles

The White House and the Pentagon have warned that the supply of Patriot interceptor missiles may soon be unsustainable due to their substantial cost of around $2 million to $4 million each, The New York Times reported.

As Russia intensifies its winter bombardment with a diverse range of missiles and drone weapons, Ukrainian defenses are reliant on Patriot missiles, which have proven to be highly effective against Putin’s top weapons.

On Tuesday, Ukraine said it shot down all 10 of the new Kinzhals fired during a vicious air assault, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine praising the incident as “what heroism supplied with advanced systems looks like.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said the Kinzhal missile was an “undefeatable” system.

“Given that the Patriot is one of the few systems that can effectively shoot down ballistic missiles, and ballistic missiles cause the most casualties, I think the number of lives saved during the war is in the thousands,” Volodymyr, a Ukrainian major, told The New York Times.

All Ukraine’s Patriot interceptors have so far been strategically placed around Kyiv to protect the capital, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, per Politico, adding that he would like at least “a dozen” more to protect other key cities like Kherson and Odesa.

Russia has increased its missile attacks against its neighbor in the hopes of further depleting its dwindling Patriot stocks.

Jade McGlynn, a Russian politics researcher and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, previously told Business Insider that depleting Patriot stocks was “clearly part of” Russia’s strategy.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has endured over 3,800 drones and 7,400 missiles directed at its towns and cities, The NYT reported.

The range of attacks has meant Ukraine has turned into a trial area for different air-defense systems, ranging from truck-mounted Stingers to the advanced French-designed SAMP/T.

The Patriots, designed to counter ballistic missiles, stand out in their ability to intercept incoming attacks. Yet, the unpredictability of future missile supplies leaves Ukrainian commanders uncertain about their defensive capabilities.

The Biden administration’s request for a further $61 billion in aid for Ukraine has been stalled by Republicans in US Congress, who are demanding the military support comes with stricter US-Mexico border controls.

But while Congress threatens future Patriot supplies, it is hoped NATO can fill the gap if the US supply dries up.

Countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Spain could help provide up to 1,000 Patriot missiles to the wartorn country, The Associated Press reported.

The contract could be worth around $5.5 billion, per The AP.

Space photos show Japan’s 7.6-magnitude earthquake lifted land out of the sea, extending parts of its coastline by as much as 2 football fields

According to satellite imagery, Japan’s Noto Peninsula was rattled and slightly enlarged when a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck on January 1.

Preliminary satellite analysis and on-the-ground surveys have found that the earthquake raised land along the coast — a process called uplift — by as much as 4 meters, roughly 13 feet.

That means the sea floor along the coast has now risen above the water in many places on the Noto Peninsula, creating newly exposed beaches.

In some places, the earthquake extended the coastline by as much as 250 meters, or about 820 feet, according to a statement from the University of Tokyo. That’s about the length of 2.2 American football fields.

Locals fishing in a bay on the peninsula reported that “the entire coastline was uplifted at the time of the earthquake, that the uplift in the bay occurred at the same time as the earthquake, and that the tsunami in the bay did not run up to the raised port,” the university’s statement said, according to a Google translation from Japanese to English.

The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan published a preliminary satellite analysis of the Noto Peninsula. Comparing satellite images from June 2023 with images from the days after the earthquake, the agency identified multiple regions where new coastline has emerged.

The university said its investigation along the coast was ongoing.

FMCG majors all set for a comeback against locals this year 2024

For FMCG majors, the year of 2023 has been a mixed bag. While easing commodity prices reduced stress on their margins, it also brought back local competition that exited the market during the pandemic. This year, they’ll have to keep fighting off competition from nimble, new-aged and local competitors but most brokerages bet that the big boys will win the market share war.

“We expect local competition pressure to fade out gradually in CY24 in two more quarters while market leaders are well equipped to come back. Leaders would eventually regain market share and remain competitive by offering more value at mass end by cross subsidy from premium end,” said a report by Nuvama.

The sector which has been hit by heavy downtrading during the high-inflation phase last year, has also been gaining from urban consumers’ increasing love for premium products. In 2023, premium products grew 1.5 times faster than mass-market products.

FMCG majors all set for a comeback Direct to general trade

As newer and regional players stormed in, staples and others tea, soaps and detergents came under heavy competition. Most players had to lose market share in these segments, forcing them to take price cuts in order to hold on to their customers. Price cuts were also taken across hair oil and edible oils.

As per brokerages, this competition is not abnormal and not a lot of market share was ceded. Most of them believe the market share losses of large players were ‘moderate’.

“While we expect competitive intensity to remain moderate in 2024 with no major change in raw material prices, we believe organised players will continue to step up advertising spends to revive volume growth,” said Nomura.

Apart from losing ad purse strings, large players are also amping up their distribution game across rural as well as urban markets. They are setting up direct distribution to go where most consumers of ‘small packs’ are – the rural markets. Not only will expanding footprint fight off local competition but also enthuse the rural market where volume recovery has been elusive.

FMCG majors all set for a comeback Digitally ahead

At the same time, FMCG majors are expanding their presence across e-commerce, quick commerce and other digital marketplaces. The contribution of the e-commerce channel to overall sales has surged for staples companies to 9-10%, says Nuvama.

“The focus of FMCG companies has also shifted to reviving general trade, which accounts for 80% of the industry, and expanding their direct distribution reach,” it adds.

They’re not just marketing better, large players are also inching up innovation and new launch pipelines to fight off ‘niche’ players. A few analysts even expect companies to launch digitally exclusive products as well.

Apart from local players, D2C brands have also become another thorn in the side of the bush. This too is not very tough to fight off, insist analysts.

“We believe noise and competition from pure digital-first/D2C brands have moderated. Beyond a sales level, digital-first brands are unable to scale up and require acceptance and distribution support from general trade, which they are unable to get,” said Nomura.