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Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal bags Asian Business Philanthropy Award 2021

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Indias leading industrialist and philanthropist, Anil Agarwal, Chairman of the Vedanta Group, one of the worlds biggest Oil & Gas and Metals companies, has been bestowed with the Philanthropy Award at the Asian Business Awards 2021 for his outstanding contribution towards humanitarianism initiatives centering on healthcare, education, sanitation, skill development and sustainable livelihood.

His philanthropic pursuits have been an inspiration across the globe for his charitable foundation, the Anil Agarwal Foundation, which has created an exemplary social impact in rural India with Vedanta’s multiple care initiatives. These initiatives, including Swatch Goan Abhiyaan, Nand Ghar, have touched upon over 4.23 crore lives helping them better their quality of life. To bring in sustainable and inclusive growth integrated with social-economic development, the group spent over Rs 331 crore in the year 2020-21.

The Asian Business Award, now in its 23rd year, is hosted every year by Eastern Eye, Britain’s biggest selling English language Asian newspaper. The award is known for celebrating Asian entrepreneurship and business success, wherein the winners are honoured at the annual gathering of the UK’s wealthiest and most successful businessmen and women. This year’s esteemed assemblage, held on November 19 in London, recognised Agarwal for his exceptional contribution towards empowering underprivileged communities. His universal mission of giving back to society has made him a living inspiration for many across the globe.

Sharing his thoughts concerning his recent accolade, Agarwal said: “I am extremely humbled to receive this award. It has further energised me to uphold my commitment towards sustainably strengthening the rural communities of the country. I take pride in living up to my ‘Giving Pledge’ as this year Vedanta, under its social initiatives, has spent Rs 331 crore and has vowed to spend Rs 5000 crore more. Philanthropy has given more meaning to my life, and I draw immense satisfaction in giving back to society.”

Anil Agarwal Foundation CEO, Bhaskar Chatterjee, expressed great joy over international acknowledgement of Agarwal’s efforts and the honourable distinction.

Chatterjee said: “We are extremely humbled and honoured to receive this award. We have always been committed to uplifting society and creating a more egalitarian social structure where basic necessities of life are accessible to all. The Anil Agarwal Foundation was set up to facilitate sustainable and inclusive growth to protect and provide for our communities. Such a prestigious award has boosted our spirit to continue our efforts towards serving society and motivates us to do more and better.”

It is not the first time his philanthropic vision gained traction, as he was also featured in the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020. The list ranked him among the top five philanthropists in the country. In the pandemic-marred year of 2020, Agarwal’s contribution towards humanitarian initiatives rose by 90 per cent compared to the previous year. In order to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 contagion, the foundation launched a Rs 5,000 crore social impact program called ‘Covid Mukt Villages’ to help the rural communities build a robust healthcare infrastructure. Last year alone, Vedanta contributed more than the government-mandated 2 per cent towards corporate social responsibility. The group outdoes itself every year with its transformation work at the grassroots level.

One of Vedanta’s flagship initiatives, ‘Swasth Gaon Abhiyaan’, provides end-to-end healthcare services across 1,000 villages in 12 states, improving the lives of over 2 million people. Besides, the foundation also continues to significantly scale up its state-of-art Anganwadi project called ‘Nand Ghar’. With the key focus on women empowerment and child development, the foundation is operating 2400-plus Nand Ghars across the nation. These aim to recreate anganwadis, powered with technology, especially to surpass the pandemic-induced challenges, by establishing e-learning for children along with providing nutritional meals and healthcare at their doorsteps. Vaccination being the most important shield against the virus, Vedanta rolled out a mega vaccination drive covering 1.2 lakh employees, their families and business partners. Under the guiding light of Agarwal, the foundation continues to work towards creating a better world by elevating the quality of life of various communities.

Agarwal, staying true to his philanthropic commitment, took the ‘Giving Plege’, in March this year and vowed to give 75 per cent of his wealth towards the socio-economic welfare of the rural communities. The Giving Pledge is a movement comprising global philanthropists wherein the world’s big-hearts commit to donating the majority of their wealth towards philanthropic programs and charitable causes.

Business

IndiGo offers travel vouchers worth Rs 10,000 to severely impacted customers

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New Delhi, Dec 11: Limping back to normalcy, IndiGo on Thursday offered travel vouchers worth Rs 10,000 to customers who were severely impacted during the flight disruption earlier this month.

The airline “regrettably acknowledged” that several people travelling between December 3 and 5 were stranded for many hours at major airports nationwide. The crisis caused thousands of cancellations and delays, keeping passengers in long queues.

“We will offer travel vouchers worth Rs 10,000 to such severely impacted customers. These travel vouchers can be used for any future IndiGo journey for the next 12 months,” an IndiGo spokesperson said in a statement.

The compensation is in addition to the commitment under the existing government guidelines, as per which, IndiGo will provide compensation of Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000, depending on the block time of the flight, to those customers whose flights were cancelled within 24 hours of departure time.

IndiGo also noted that “all necessary refunds for cancelled flights have been initiated”, including bookings through a travel partner platform.

The airline said that it is “committed” to restoring a “safe, smooth, and reliable” experience.

Earlier in the day, IndiGo Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta said that the airline’s Board will bring in external technical experts to work with the management and identify the root causes behind last week’s massive flight disruptions.

He said the experts will help ensure that such large-scale operational failures never happen again.

Meanwhile, the company stated that all destinations in the airline’s network have been fully connected since December 8, and operations have stabilised since December 9.

On December 8, it flew more than 1,750 flights with just one same-day cancellation, and on December 9, it had over 1,800 flights and zero cancellations. Over 1,900 flights took off on December 10, while just two were cancelled on the same day.

On Thursday, IndiGo said it expects “to operate more than 1,950 flights with approximately 300,000 customers”.

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Sensex, Nifty turn volatile at open amid US Fed rate cut

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Mumbai, Dec 11: Indian stock markets opened on a volatile note on Thursday, swinging between gains and losses even as the US Federal Reserve announced a 25-basis-point rate cut on Wednesday.

The Sensex, which began the day slightly higher, soon slipped into the red and was trading at 84,312 during early trade, down 79 points or 0.09 per cent. The Nifty also erased its early gains and inched down to 25,750, lower by 8 points or 0.03 per cent.

“From a technical standpoint, Nifty holds immediate support at 25,600–25,650, while the 25,850–25,900 zone continues to act as a strong resistance that has repeatedly halted upward momentum,” analysts said.

“A decisive breakout above this resistance band will be essential to re-establish bullish traction. Conversely, a sustained move below the identified support range may extend the ongoing consolidation phase,” they added.

Infosys, Eternal, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, Adani Ports, HCL Tech, SBI, TCS, L&T, and Tech Mahindra were among the early gainers on the Sensex, rising up to 1.1 per cent. However, Titan, Power Grid, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Asian Paints, ITC, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, and ICICI Bank dragged the market with mild losses.

In the broader market, the Nifty MidCap index slipped 0.17 per cent, while the Nifty SmallCap index dropped 0.32 per cent.

Among sectors, IT stocks led the gains, with the Nifty IT index rising 0.70 per cent. This was followed by the Nifty PSU Bank index, which was up 0.65 per cent, the Nifty Metal index up 0.4 per cent, and the Nifty Auto index up 0.12 per cent.

On the other hand, FMCG stocks came under pressure, pushing the Nifty FMCG index down by 0.26 per cent.

Analysts said that domestic markets tracked global cues cautiously as investors assessed the impact of the Fed’s latest rate cut on capital flows and economic growth.

Meanwhile, on the flows front, FIIs offloaded equities worth Rs 1,651 crore on December 10, while DIIs recorded net purchases of more than Rs 3,752 crore.

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Business

BSE launches 4 new BSE 100 large-cap TMC universe factor indices

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New Delhi, Dec 10: The Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) subsidiary BSE Index Service on Wednesday announced the launch of four new factor Indices from the universe of BSE large-cap total market capitalisation (TMC) index with 5 per cent stock level capping.

The newly introduced indices are BSE large-cap 100 momentum 30, BSE large-cap 100 low volatility 30, BSE large-cap 100 enhanced value 30, and BSE large-cap 100 quality 30.

“BSE Index Services Pvt. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of BSE, today announced the launch of 4 new BSE factor indices from the BSE 100 large cap TMC index as the universe with 5 per cent stock level capping,” the exchange said in a press release.

These Indices are Reconstituted Quarterly, have a base value of 1000, and the first value date is June 20, 2005, along with the additional screening for the liquidity profile, the release added.

BSE large-cap 100 Momentum 30 will track the performance of the 30 companies in the BSE 100 large-cap TMC that exhibit the most persistence in their relative performance, based on their momentum scores. Constituents are weighted based on their momentum score.

BSE large-cap 100 Low Volatility 30 will measure the performance of the 30 least volatile companies in the BSE 100 large-cap TMC. Constituents are weighted by their inverse volatility.

BSE large-cap 100 Enhanced Value 30 measures the performance of the 30 companies in the BSE 100 large-cap TMC with the most attractive valuations, based on their value scores. Constituents are weighted based on their value score.

BSE large-cap 100 Quality 30 measures the performance of the 30 companies in the BSE 100 large-cap TMC that exhibit the most persistence in their relative performance, based on their momentum scores. Constituents are weighted based on their momentum score.

“Building on the success of factor launches on the BSE 500 universe earlier in the year, we are pleased to expand our factor family with the launch of four new factor indices, this time on the large-cap universe,” BSE Index Services Pvt. Ltd MD & CEO Ashutosh Singh said.

“These indices, in the same vein as our BSE 500 universe factor family, will be reset on a quarterly basis with the introduction of an innovative score-based only weighting method,” he added.

The index said that these new indices can be used for running passive strategies such as ETFs and Index Funds.

It can also be used for benchmarking of PMS strategies, MF schemes and fund portfolios. Additionally, investors can now access a broader spectrum of market opportunities, further enriching their investment strategies with this latest addition to BSE’s suite of indices.

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