Category: Business News

Pension fund regulator PFRDA will soon allow subscribers of the National Pension System (NPS) scheme to change investment pattern as many as four times during a financial year as there has been a demand to increase the limit, its chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay said Tuesday.

Currently, NPS subscribers are allowed to change the investment pattern twice in a financial year. “One can change the investment choice twice in a year. Now, in a very short period of time, we are going to increase it to four times because there are requests that you allow more number of times (to change the investment pattern),” he said, addressing a webinar on NPS scheme organised by industry body Assocham.

The only cautionary note PFRDA wants is that it is a long-term investment (product) to build a pension corpus, and it should not be treated akin to a mutual fund scheme, he said.

“People sometimes mix it up with some mutual fund kind of thing that can give good returns. You have to give it some time and thereafter, only you can use it (changing option). Use it judiciously, we are going to increase it to four times in a year (financial year),” Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority’s chairman said.

Subscribers are allowed to allocate their investments in a mix of instruments such as government securities, debt instruments, asset-backed and trust-structured investments, short-term debt investments, and equities and related investments.

Currently, pension fund managers under NPS are – ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management Company, LIC Pension Fund, Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund, SBI Pension Fund, UTI Retirement Solutions, HDFC Pension Management Co, and Birla Sun Life Pension Management.

Bandyopadhyay also said the PFRDA wants to offer a variable annuity product to the subscribers after retirement, aimed at shielding them against inflation. “Once the annuity starts, that remains constant for your lifetime. Of course, there is one annuity (product) that gives a simple rise of three per cent per year but obviously, that will not take care of the risk of inflation.

“We have been talking to the insurance regulator (Irdai) …and we have been talking to the annuity service providers also if they can think of this kind of variable annuity which can give some cushion against the rise of inflation,” he said.

The PFRDA chairman said the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has made a working committee and a report has also been submitted by the committee.

“We are in discussion with Irdai to ensure that those kinds of products are released as quickly as possible,” he added.

Investments in Indian capital market through participatory notes (P-notes) dropped to Rs 94,826 crore till November-end after hitting 43-month high in the preceding month.

P-notes are issued by registered foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to overseas investors who wish to be a part of the Indian stock market without registering themselves directly. They, however, need to go through a due diligence process.

According to Securities and Exchange Board of India data, the value of P-note investments in Indian markets — equity, debt and hybrid securities — was at Rs 94,826 crore by November end as compared to Rs 1,02,553 crore by October end.

The month of October saw the highest level since March 2018, when P-notes had invested to the tune of Rs 1,06,403 crore. Abhay Agarwal, Founder and Fund Manager, Piper Serica, a Sebi-registered PMS, said there was a net sale of more than Rs 8,000 crore in November in the equity segment by P-note holders reversing the October inflow of more than Rs 5,000 crore.

This is consistent with the FPI sales that have been seen in the current quarter to lock-in their gains for the year. “We expect to see a negative number in the month of December also. There was a marginal net inflow in the debt segment, but the number is too small to read much into,” he added.

At the end of September this year, the investment level was at 97,751 crore, Rs 97,744 crore by August-end. The figure for July was revised to Rs 85,799 crore from Rs 1,01,798 crore posted earlier.

Prior to that, investment level was at Rs 92,261 crore by June-end, Rs 89,743 crore by May-end, Rs 88,447 crore at April-end and Rs 89,100 crore by March-end.

Of the total Rs 94,826 crore invested through the route till November, Rs 84,915 crore was invested in equities, Rs 9,605 crore in debt, Rs 306 crore in hybrid securities.

P-notes flows have been volatile over the last four months in line with the volatility of the global and Indian markets. Divam Sharma, Co-founder, Green Portfolio, a Sebi-registered PMS, said that November 2021 has witnessed slight change in course of FPI inflows and this negative trajectory has also continued in the month of December 2021.

The key reasons for FPI withdrawal from equity markets include expectations of monetary tightening by federal banks, high inflation levels, uncertainty around Omicron variant spread, and higher valuation levels in equity markets, he said.

“This is also considering that most FPI’s go on year-end holidays for 2-4 weeks and had lightened positions before their vacations. This is a global trend as emerging markets across the globe along with developed markets have witnessed selling in November and December,” he added.

The assets under the custody of FPIs declined to Rs 52.24 lakh crore in November-end from Rs 53.6 lakh crore in October-end. Piper Serica’s Agarwal expect the net flows to be anemic in the near future till FPIs start deploying their 2022 allocations.

There are no big IPOs slated in the near term so the primary market inflows from P-note holders will be weak. Piper Serica’s Agarwal expect the net flows to be anemic in the near future till FPIs start deploying their 2022 allocations.”At the same time, market valuations have become quite reasonable after the recent correction. If the Omicron cases do not lead to national level lock downs and CPI inflation does not cross 6 per cent we expect the flows to be positive in the next quarter,” he added.

India is in talks with Taiwan over the possibility of setting up a domestic semiconductor manufacturing hub, a report citing sources claimed on December 16. The two sides are also reportedly discussing agreements related to free trade and investments.

Taiwan is home to two of the world’s biggest semiconductor giants–Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC).

New Delhi and Taipei are exploring the possibility of bringing either of the two companies to set up a manufacturing plant in India learnt from two persons familiar to the development.

The Indian side has also proposed a number of sites where the production plant could be set up, the persons said. They, however, noted that the process is “complicated”.

“It is a very complicated process because a company like TSMC uses components from hundreds of other firms. Setting up a hub in India means convincing those firms to also set up a facility in India to ensure the supply of components,” the newspaper quoted one of the source as saying.

If the talks end up being successful, this will be only the second instance when a Taiwanese semiconductor maker will launch a manufacturing unit in another country. Earlier, TSMC, which has a market value above $550 billion, had unveiled a $12-billion fabrication plant in the United States.

Investment, free-trade pacts

According to the report, India and Taiwan had set up four groups earlier this year to discuss an investment agreement and a free-trade agreement, apart from creating a domestic semiconductor-manufacturing hub and the training required for the purpose.

The investment and free trade pacts, which Taiwan is discussing with a number of countries, are likely to be used by it to diplomatically counter China at a time when tensions between the two neighbours are on a rise.

One of the groups set up by India and Taiwan met virtually earlier this year to discuss the free-trade agreement, Hindustan Times learnt from the sources. However, the group that is discussing semiconductor manufacturing has met twice in the same period, the report said.

Semiconductor manufacturing key for India

For India, semiconductor manufacturing is of utmost importance as the country’s requirement of electronic chips–essential in the production of an array of items ranging from cars to smartphones–is expected to meteorically shoot up over the next couple of years.