Let’s begin with some market news. Global investment firm Blackstone-sponsored Nexus Select Trust has filed the draft paper with market regulator Sebi to launch India’s first public issue of retail REIT to raise around USD 500 million, sources said. Nexus Select Trust has a portfolio of 17 operational shopping malls across 14 major cities, covering about 10 million square feet of area valued at around USD 3 billion. As per the sources, Nexus Select Trust has on Thursday filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India and is looking to hit the capital market with India’s first retail Real Estate Investment Trust public issue in the first half of the 2023 calendar year. The size of the initial public offer of Nexus Select Trust REIT will be around USD 500 million, they added. This will be the third REIT sponsored by Blackstone. It had earlier launched India’s first REIT — Embassy Office Parks REIT– and then Mindspace Business Parks REIT.
Meanwhile, The government has raised the penalty amount to up to Rs 500 crore for violating the provisions proposed under the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022 issued on Friday, according to a PTI report. The draft personal data protection bill in 2019 proposed a penalty of Rs 15 crore or 4 per cent of the global turnover of an entity. The draft proposes to set up a Data Protection Board of India, which will carry on functions as per the provisions of the bill. “If the Board determines at the conclusion of an inquiry that noncompliance by a person is significant, it may, after giving the person a reasonable opportunity of being heard, impose such a financial penalty as specified in Schedule 1, not exceeding rupees five hundred crore in each instance,” the draft said.
On to banking. Senior Citizens can now get up to a 9% interest rate on Fixed Deposits with Unity Small Finance Bank. Taking advantage of the high-interest rate regime and the success of its recently launched ‘Shagun’, special Fixed Deposit interest rates, Unity Small Finance Bank today has further increased its interest rates offered on Fixed Deposits. Unity Bank is now offering senior citizens an attractive rate of 9% per annum on Fixed Deposits invested for tenures of 181 and 501 days respectively. For other retail investors, Unity Bank is offering 8.50% interest for 181 and 501 days. This is the second time the Unity Bank has revised its FD interest rate in November, enabling customers to earn a higher rate of return. Unity Bank has also increased its interest rates on Callable and Non-Callable Bulk Deposits. Callable bulk deposits offer up to 8% interest per annum. whereas non-callable bulk deposits offer up to 8.10% interest per annum.
In some more banking news, The maximum tenure of CEO and MD of public sector banks has been increased to 10 years, a move that will help the government retain the best talent in the banking sector. As per a government notification dated November 17, 2022, the term for the appointment has been extended to 10 years, from the earlier 5 years, subject to superannuation age of 60 years. Earlier, the MD or executive director of a public sector undertaking bank was eligible for a maximum tenure of 5 years or 60 years whichever was earlier. This is also applicable for whole-time directors of all Central Public Sector Enterprises.
Jio’s 5G services are now available across the majority of Delhi-NCR. The oil and data company on Friday announced that its 5G services are now live across Delhi-NCR region including Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and other major NCR regions. The company claims to be the first to provide 5G service coverage across Delhi-NCR. Jio says that its “True-5G network” will power all important localities and areas including residential areas, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, government offices, high streets, malls and markets, high footfalls areas, tech parks, roads, highways and more. The company informs that lakhs of Jio users in Delhi-NCR are already subscribed to the Jio Welcome Offer that offers unlimited 5g data at up to 1Gbps+ speeds. The company has set a target of 2024 for pan-India coverage of Its 5G services recently announced to cover a major part of Kolkata by December this year and complete coverage by June 2023.
And lastly, the stock market. Indian benchmark indices ended lower amid mixed global cues and softened crude oil prices. NSE Nifty 50 lost over 30 points to end trade below 18,350 levels, whereas BSE Sensex ended 86 points down, at 61,663 levels. Broader markets indices also closed the trading session in red. India VIX, the volatility gauge, slipped over 1%.
