Rain fury

The northern part of India is once again witnessing incessant rainfall, causing landslides and loss of lives and properties, mainly in Himachal Pradesh. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued warnings of heavy to very heavy rainfall for Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, among others, until Friday. While rainfall is nearly 7% lower than normal so far, these states have received excess rainfall, going up to 220% above normal for Uttar Pradesh from 8.30 am on 23 August and 8.30 am on 24 August.

Onion ordeal

Costly onions have forced the government to swing into action with measures to control the prices. However, this did not sit well with onion traders and farmers. They have protested the imposition of 40% export duty on onions, with auctions being called off in the Nashik market. This is not the first time the government has imposed export restrictions to control prices. Similar measures have been taken for rice, wheat, and sugar to control rising food inflation. However, this time, pitting consumers’ interest against the farmers’ has caused an uproar.

Fundraising effort

₹3,500 crore: That’s the amount pharmacy chain PharmEasy will raise through a rights issue next week to help repay a big chunk of its loans to Goldman Sachs, Mint reported. Temasek Holdings, TPG, Prosus, CDPQ, Eight Roads, LGT, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ, Amansa, OrbiMed and Sunil Kant Munjal’s family office have already committed to invest as much as ₹2,000 crore, while some other small investors are likely to join in. Manipal Health Enterprises founder Ranjan Pai’s family office may invest ₹1,200 crore.

Inequality debate

While India has made great strides towards eradicating poverty in the last two decades, massive inequality continues to persist. In terms of wealth inequality, as measured by the share of the top 1% in a country’s total wealth, India has been worse off than China. India’s top 1% have consistently held more share of the country’s wealth, with the figure being 41% as against 31% in China, a Credit Suisse-UBS report showed. However, this figure has not changed much at least since 2005, suggesting no widening gap between the top 1% and the rest of Indians.

Package disparity

Despite the fears of growth slowdown, the occupiers of corner offices in the country’s blue-chip companies have seen a massive jump in their pay. The median pay for Sensex companies’ leaders jumped 31.2% to at least a five-year high of ₹17 crore in 2022-23, showed a Mint analysis of data from annual reports. Workers’ pay rises were moderate. The average increase in the median employee remuneration in these companies (where data was available) was around 9.7%.

Rice restriction

20%: That’s the percentage of duty the government is mulling to impose on the export of non-basmati parboiled rice to tame the rising prices. The government may also impose a minimum export price of $1,250 per tonne on basmati rice, Mint reported. The government has imposed similar restrictions on other variants of rice, which has led to fears of global shortage. Along with the United Nations World Food Programme, countries such as Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines have also urged India to resume rice exports.

Modi magic

Coming close to the end of his second straight term, the charm of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is far from over, with 40% respondents in the latest round of YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey saying they would like to see him continue as next prime minister in 2024, a Mint analysis showed. Rahul Gandhi was a distant second with just 15% seeing him as the next prime minister. Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, stood third with 11% of respondents picking him.

Chart of the week: Chip challenge

Shortage of semiconductors across the world since the pandemic has made the Indian government incentivize the industry for domestic production. However, consultancy Gartner has projected a tepid market, with revenues of the industry projected to drop 11.2% in 2023 globally.

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