The Opportunity of the Century?

An investment that would earn a return of 18,000% in 4 years. Who on Earth would pass up such an opportunity?

To get roughly 70% of the planet’s population inoculated by April 2022, according to IMF, would cost just $50bn. However, the cumulative economic benefit in 4- years (2025), an increased global output, would be $9trn, and the many lives that would be saved. The cost amounts to just 0.13% of the G7’s GDP—a fifth of the amount its members have pledged to spend each year helping other countries.

During the G 7 meet, Mr Biden acknowledged that America’s reputation for solving global problems has taken a beating in the past few years, and that authoritarian states like China and Russia pose a grave challenge to Democracy and Free markets. Yet America and its allies have struggled to present a united front to the world’s autocrats in recent months.

India Hits New Daily Vaccination Record:

After a deadly second wave spurred changes in India’s vaccine policy, the country announced it had given 7.5 million coronavirus vaccine doses  – a new single day record for inoculations.

India has surpassed the United States in vaccination coverage against the coronavirus amid a drop in fresh positive cases in the country, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

According to the Union Health Ministry, India has administered 323,663,297 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, while the US has given 323,327,328 jabs. India will also share the development story of Co-WIN, the digital platform that helped it launch and implement a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme, with more than 20 countries that have shown interest in adopting the portal to run their own inoculation drives.

India posts second best FDI growth in Covid-era:

India received USD 64 billion in Foreign Direct Investment in 2020, an  increase of 27 per cent to USD from USD 51 billion in 2019, pushed up by acquisitions in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, making the country the fifth largest FDI recipient in the world. According to a UN report which said the COVID-19 second wave in the country weighs heavily on the country’s overall economic activities, but its strong fundamentals provide ”optimism” for the medium term.

The World Investment Report 2021 by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), released Monday, said global FDI flows have been severely hit by the pandemic and they plunged by 35 per cent in 2020 to USD 1 trillion from USD 1.5 trillion the previous year.

Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme – By Government of India:

It has been more than a year since Government of India introduced the “vocal for local” campaign, with a push for self-reliance. Since then, we have seen remarkable moves by foreign and local companies in indigenising their value chain and reducing reliance on imports.

Electronics is a major focus sector for indigenous production as India incurs huge trade deficit, second largest after crude oil, in this segment because of sizeable imports of electronic goods.

In this context, it is reassuring to know that more than 20 semiconductor manufacturing and designing companies have evinced interest to set up plant in India, under the government’s production linked incentive scheme (PLI) recently. These firms are said to be engaged in high-end, display and specialty fabrication.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that the world’s leading electronics firm Samsung has successfully shifted its display manufacturing facilities from China to India by setting up a new facility in Noida. According to media reports, this new facility will be the hub for display production in the country.

India’s massive consumer market and expanding middle class, which is estimated to reach 500 million people by 2025, remains a key pull for investors. Foreign investors betting on India’s future set their sights on the country’s consumer brands, e-commerce and infrastructure companies, primarily through M&As. As a result, cross-border M&As increased by 83 percent in India in 2020, rising to US$27 billion.

Latin American companies are among those that have made recent inroads to the Indian market. Following initial negotiations towards the end of 2020, the Mexican bread and bakery multinational, Bimbo Group, acquired India’s iconic Modern Foods, the first Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) privatised by the Government of India in 2000. Bimbo has effectively become the largest bread company in India, edging out its chief competitor, Britannia Industries.