The ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict has caused commodity prices across the globe to soar to record-highs amid concerns of supply disruption. Crude surged to $105 a barrel, while palm oil & wheat prices hit record highs. This is likely to result in supply chain disruptions in India that will lead to further inflation, especially for the FMCG industry.

India has seen unprecedented inflation in the past year with prices of commodities rising to multi-year highs. From HUL to Britannia, ITC and Nestle, most FMCG majors have flagged inflation as a concern during their October-December (Q3) results.

With the current conflict, prices of edible oils, wheat, palm oil, barley, etc are expected to rise further. This is because Ukraine and Russia account for a large part of the world’s commodity trade.

Stock market regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) on February 24 issued an updated circular wherein it has extended the deadline to implement the new systems of compliance pertaining to segregation and monitoring of collateral at client level.

As per the original notice issued on July 20, 2021 the new compliance framework was supposed to come in force from December 01, 2021 but it had to be postponed due to the fiasco related to Karvy Stockbroking where clients’ shares had been pledged illegally as collateral against loan.

On November 23, 2021 SEBI had set the date of February 28, 2022 for implementation to happen but the regulator has decided to postpone it once again citing requests from various stakeholders for the postponement of the same. The new date for implementation has now been fixed as May 02, 2022.

Reliance Industries Ltd’s Chairman Mukesh Ambani sees 20 to 30 Indian companies in green energy and tech space to grow as big as Reliance Industries, if not bigger, in the next decade or two, he said on Wednesday at an event. Asia’s richest person Mukesh Ambani said it took RIL  38 years to become a $200 billion company, but he sees next generation Indians to reach the same level in half the time.

Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman Ambani said it took Reliance 38 years to become a $200 billion company, but he sees next generation Indians to reach the same level in half the time. (File Photo: Reuters)© Provided by The Financial Express Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman Ambani said it took Reliance 38 years to become a $200 billion company, but he sees next generation Indians to reach the same level in half the time. (File Photo: Reuters)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has spent over ₹3 crore on Facebook advertisements in Uttar Pradesh (UP) ahead of the state assembly elections, Facebook Ad Library data has revealed. This is nearly half of the total ₹7.5 crore spent on Facebook ads in the UP region between January 21 to February 19.

Just a back of the envelope calculation shows that the UP arm of BJP would have spent roughly ₹10 lakh on daily basis on these Facebook ads, which is significantly higher than the ₹21,000 spent by Indian National Congress (INC) in the region in the same time frame.

Other political parties — including the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal — are trailing behind when it comes to their Facebook ad spends in the last 30 days.

Banks may not wait for regulations to evolve but may launch products around decentralised finance to take advantage of costs. The high-paced development in decentralised finance, or DeFi, is increasing pressure to launch official digital currencies as those following the new world are sitting still, according to Capgemini’s chief technology and innovation officer for financial services, Sudhir Pai.

According to him, JP Morgan’s decision to launch a branch in the Metaverse and the decision to hold the Australian Open tennis in the Metaverse are indications of the interest in the next wave of decentralised finance. “Decentralised finance cannot be ignored by regulation as the next-generation decentralised infrastructure is getting very close to existing payment rails with transaction speed, security and very low level of costs. Major banks around the world are not sitting and waiting for regulations to come out as they feel the new networks can help them save money,” said Pai, who is based in Melbourne.