Business News: PM Modi Announces Rs 20,000 Cr for Farmers; Hyundai IPO, Sebi Revokes Registration, Zerodha Profits, Data Protection Rules, Vacant Flats

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Varanasi on June 18, his first since beginning of his third term, to release the 17th installment of the PM-KISAN scheme with a payout of over Rs 20,000 crore to 9.26 crore farmers. Modi will also certify 30,000 'Krishi Sakhis' from Self Help Groups that were trained as para-extension workers. PM-KISAN scheme, launched in 2019, assures Rs 6,000 annually for farmers. Further, the Krishi Sakhi aims to train 90,000 women belonging to self-help groups in support of agriculture. Over 34,000 have already been certified.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd has filed papers with SEBI for the sale of 142,194,700 equity shares through an OFS by Hyundai Motor Company through an IPO. India's largest, it is expected to mobilise around USD 3 billion - more than LIC's Rs 21,000 crore share sale. It would lead to the inflow of funds to Hyundai Motor Company and not HMIL. This is the first IPO by an auto firm in India in over two decades following the listing of Maruti Suzuki in 2003. HMIL, that started India operations in 1996, sells 13 models.

Sebi cancels registration of Grovalue Financial Services for non-compliance with regulatory norms. Grovalue failed to maintain proper records and non-compliance with the Research Analyst Regulations of Sebi. The inspection was conducted from April 2021 to August 2022 observed that Grovalue showed non-cooperation during the inspection. Invest complaints Further, it did not respond to the notices. Fails to resolve: The firm failed to resolve the investor complaints within 30 days as required in Sebi's circular dealing with handling complaints.

India's stock market has seen tremendous growth, and many new investors have come to the equity segment. Last month, India became the world's fourth-biggest stock market. Now, Nithin Kamath, the CEO of Zerodha, has just announced that the investors on their platform made a profit of approximately Rs 50,000 crores in the past four years with unrealized gains of Rs. 1 lac crores. The total AUM with Zerodha stands at Rs 4.5 lac crores. Also, May saw a massive investment of Rs 34,697 crore in equity mutual funds. A number of 3.7 crore new Demat accounts were opened in India in FY24.

The Centre is firming up the data protection rules as a prerequisite for the rollout of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that the drafting process, which was initiated in December last year, is at an advanced stage, and the rules will be put out soon for stakeholder consultation. While top priority is given for the formulation of these Rules, they would not be rushed through, said Vaishnaw. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act was passed by Parliament last year after many iterations spread over more than half a decade.

G HARI BABU, National President, NAREDCO, elaborates on the reason for high-end real estate launches seeing a surge while affordable housing remains stagnant and attributes the same to the influx of HNIs and institutional investors in that segment, brings out the alarming state of affairs over wealth distribution where the growth is only being witnessed by the top 10% of the population and measures should be taken to empower affordable housing in the wake of 'luxury' market taking over.